Let's get to business before I ramble: the show runs now through October 3rd. The catalog can be found online, and the gallery ships. Can't quite shell out all at once? Talk to them, they're nice people.
Now to the fun, bloggy part.
Hanging along with 30-some odd drawings and paintings are two special pieces from my closet. It was great timing moving back to CA this past June since it gave me access to art from when I was young, some of which I've saved. As the title of the show was, "Level Up," it meant that some of this art had to be included, as it went with the overall theme, including how I continually mine the same sources of my youthful inspiration, whether I mean to or not.
When I was a wee lad, I lost my mind over Star Wars. This was long before the intertrons, so I had to chase down Star Wars things in real life, and this included a vinyl LP audio version. We listened to that over and over and over, but it was years after the first time I saw it in the theater at almost 4 years of age until I saw it again on VHS. In-between those years there were comics and toys to keep us occupied. And two more great films.
In those days my older brother and I would make our own comics made from folded 8.5x11" sheets, stapled. We would hastily scribble these things out and then sell them to one another once a week or so for a dime or whatever. One of my series was a retelling of the Star Wars story. I don't think I got through the entire story before this phase of our lives ended, which was probably most of a year or so, which is a looong time when you're like 7 or so.
I decided to frame up this page as it features a Stormtrooper. At my exhibit, it hung matted and framed beneath the most recent work in the show, TK-60918. The oldest and the newest, side-by-side.
Pretty much any pop-cultural thing I was involved with that had art in it was an opportunity for me to draw, either inspired by or by simply copying the awesome art already present. In this way I taught myself how to draw, since I could measure my results by an objective standard--the thing I was copying. My brother and I both continued drawing, supporting and competing with one another (in a friendly way) through high school, after which my brother chose other paths and I continued with the art.
From around 11-12 years of age I was crazy into Transformers, after which I got crazy for the NES and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. I believe I've posted one of my Transformers drawings here before, but I included another in my show. What's interesting is the prior one at the link was earlier, so it's also a bit clumsier of a drawing. But, apparently I got into graphic design as those drawings went on. I was also into calligraphy so had these calligraphy pens I used to help me create that killer diagonal banner.
