Big As Night

I had my first real gallery show Saturday in Dallas' Historic Oak Cliff arts district. This is something I've been wanting to do for about 10 years, but didn't think my stuff would be worth the trouble. I'm a commercial artist at heart and the "fine" art scene doesn't appeal to me.

("Rockin'" photos by Penny. She told me to say "rockin'")

Well, out of the 4 pieces I put up at Steve Cruz's "Big As Night" art event, 3 sold. I'm pretty flabergasted, actually. The 3 that sold were, "Goodwill Ghoul" (which got a momentary buying fever started), "Man Discovers Fire", and the new one I did for the show, "Polaroid of X-Ray Spider". They were priced to move, and they sold. Having a one night show puts the heat on undecided buyers, apperantly.
Everybody told me the same thing about the work...it made them happy...or, out right laugh. I try to tell a story in the image, but it is usually humorous and fun. I paint things I want to see and how I want to see them and I guess people like that.
Penny and I met some nice people who also had work at the show..."The Brians" were a couple in the next room(s) to me.
Here's Brian....(check out the shirt)

..and here's the other Brian...

...they had a huge body of work...


Steve had an opening that night as well at his Mighty Fine Arts Gallery up the walk way from this showing, but still came and worked the rooms with us.


There was art everywhere...upstairs..

...downstairs..

...in the windows...

Penny and Eric came by and brought me a sandwich. I'd been drinking Pabst the entire time I was setting up and was getting goofy. Check the colors in the room. This was why I picked this particular room.


All kinds of buddies showed up...

Greg and Heather Gorham and Dave Clowers....Artists in their own right. I went to high school commercial art classes with Greg, Dave, and Eric. (I've just noticed that Greg and I look like we're related...so that's distrubing.)


My buddies Mike and Kim came by as well. Kim introduced me to Steve Cruz a while back and I appreciate it greatly. They brought Yvonne as well, who suprised me by actually being the first to buy something. I seem confused by the idea...y'see.

At some point, Kim, Yvonne, and Penny noticed they were wearing the exact same style of shoe.


My buddy Ralph came by with his gilrfriend Carol (who's also an artist). Ralph helped me with the disposal of the Pabst.


I had a great time...was proven that I was wrong about my art, people DO want it...and made some new friends..."the Brians" Dan, Patrick, Anna, and Ken Craft.

I'll let you know when I have my first one man show.

Waffle Whiffer Zone

Is this blog cool..or is it just me?

I thought so...
Way to go Brandon.


I remember this particular issue of Baron Von Redberry clearly for the poster offer. I remember actually getting these and coloring them.

Where the hell are they?

Turbine Project part III

You thought I forgot about this side project, didn't you? I've been real busy, but I did sneak in some time to get back on it.
If you remember from the first post..and the second post...we were about to start the interior detail.
As I said before, Jo-han's kits are incredibly detailed and the interior is no exception. Each front bucket seat is made up of 5 different pieces, to accommodate the folding mechanism and the chrome detail.

Since the chrome is added into the parts, I decided to prime all the individual pieces, paint the bronze leather, then assemble them.
Since I was priming things, I thought I'd piece together the floor, spare tire compartment, and the extra battery box.

I noticed that there was evidence of dog hunger, as I tried to get the back seats ready for primer.

The chewed section had to be replaced, as the section on the main engine had been. I took a sheet of styrene (of a proper thickness) and traced out the missing shape...

...traced along the broken edge...

...cut that piece out, filed and fitted as close as possible...

...then glued it to the edge and reinforced it with more sheet styrene...

...after that dried, I then filled the cracks (and helped reinforce the join) with Magic Sculp epoxy putty.


I primed it and painted it with the same "bronze leather" mixture I made up for the seats. I took an acrylic bronze craft paint, and mixed a dab of orange acrylic to warm up the tone and matte out the metallic effect. I didn't want the seats to look like they were made of metal.


The "carpet" in the floorboard was painted in a rust/bronzey color with just straight acrylics (and a spray of Testor's Dull Coat) and the seats were fitted in for a test look.

Nice.
Next time...more interior.


*added note*
It's been long stretches between posts, partially due to my work, but mostly because of Blogger's tinkering with their system. It's been hard to post pics, and I thought it was totally my doing...but after reading this post...I see that I'm not the only one having trouble. I read the different posts and have adopted Mozilla's Forefox as a browser and have been loading images twice as fast as before. So...more posts in the future with large pics and images.
Thanks PCL LinkDump!

British Bike Burnup-Labor Day Weekend

Ralph had his British Bike Burnup on this Labor Day weekend to close out the summer. I think there were more there this time than the last time. I took a few photos...Penny, who rode her '98 Triumph Thunderbird to the event, took some pics as well.






Ralph entrusted me with the video duites, and he edited the shots together for this happin' montage. Check it out.
(Music by Ralph's band, Sleazy Mancini)