Friday, November 12, 2010

Frenchtown School Auction


I recently painted an album cover for my good friend Joe Stuby for his latest release. . So what better but to donate it the Frenchtown school to raise money for the kids. Here is your chance to get a one of a kind painting at a great price. The painting is called "Star Stuff" in reference to Carl Sagan's famous quote " We are all made of star stuff". I had a lot of fun painting this one. And I hope that someone will enjoy it hanging in their home.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

New Work

Here are some photos of some recent tattoos I've been doing. Been working on a lot of larger pieces, so when those are all done, I'll be sure to throw some more images up.







Warped Tour

Josh and I went to Warped Tour at Montage Mountain on July 15 to support our buddy Brian from the Bouncing Souls. Here are some pictures from the day.






Sunday, July 25, 2010

Knuckle Dragger



So I've been working on a new side project- a zine that I came with called Knuckle Dragger. The first issue came out about a month ago and there's going to be a new one out this month, too. We're working on a website with free downloads of the zine as a PDF. The first edition is only of 100-so grab em while you can at local spots. The zine has work by myself, Josh Kohn, Emily Tareila, Marisa Prefer, Leah Cahill, Mike Quinn, Aidan Cahill, Dutch Cooke, Aaron Buskirk, & John Moscaritolo. Send me an email if you're interested in contributing anything.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Photos from The End Is Near Opening


The End Is Near

Me and Craig

Me and Leah

Me and Anna

Me, Brom & Trixie

The space

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Review: The Countdown Begins, by E. Tareila

The Countdown Begins is the inaugural exhibition at The End Is Near in Park Slope. The group show features Rich Cahill, Norbert Kox and Anna Sea; as the title suggests, each artist's work contains both transparent and oblique themes that one might put into the 'apocalyptic art,' 'visionary art' or just plain dark category, while simultaneously employing illustrative and craft techiniques to bring viewers to an intimate place with the work (both physically and emotionally). While each painter's aesthetic and perspective is distinctly his/her own, the work flows together as a cohesive whole, with shocking spontaneous moments and direct points of dialogue as one moves about the small one-room gallery space.

The space itself speaks well to the tone and aesthetic of the work. The End Is Near is a gallery, tattoo shop, and piercing studio, the new sister shop to the famed Hand of Glory tattoo. At the opening, the work stood alone in the front room of the space, while normally it also serves as the waiting room and storefront of The End Is Near. The walls are filled with over thirty different paintings of varying sizes, with as many mounted game animal heads as possible crammed in.

Anna Sea has the most work in the show, with some of her paintings the size of a 3x5 photograph, while others ranging to about 11x17. The paintings contain both text and the pictorial, all in a both haunting and endearing illustrative style. Her work is thematically based in craft and contains a female hand, particularly in her immaculate embroidery adornments (think a more painterly/dark Maira Kalman). Conceptually, the work presents narratives and struggles of motherhood, history, family and how these factor/relate to our current world. One of the most compelling paintings, Family Portrait, shows Sea and husband, Craig Rodriguez, with their son in a tangle of symbols, metaphors and cryptic imagery that is both luscious and unsettling. Sea's repetitive use of line and imagery in her work shows an obsessiveness and contemplativeness, alluding to her constant working through of these ideas, see This Is One. Her use of careful, small lines bring the viewer close to the work, with the viewer even sometimes wishing for a magnifying glass. Sea's markmaking collage aesthetic and text speak directly to Kox's paintings while her intricate line work speaks to Cahill's three larger paintings.

Although Rich Cahill has only three paintings in the show, they stand out in relation to Sea's and Kox's, which are connected more in subject mater and aesthetic. A tattoo artist and painter, Cahill's style is obviously more influenced by Asian art than folk art, as Kox and Sea are while still very much in the same conceptual conversation as the other artists. The images are some of the most confident looking in the show, perhaps because the work is on raw wood and there is small margin for error. The style definitely speaks to Cahill's tattoo work while not relying on tattoo imagery to carry the pieces. The most compelling painting is Dragon House, an acrylic painting on raw wood of a McMansion caught in a developmental disaster. The landscape looks alive and pulsing as information is being pumped through telephone wires to a black hole of mindlessness. The birds are the smartest in the piece-fleeing the scene as the house is enveloped in mainstream monotony.

Lastly is Norbert Kox, the self-named apocalyptic painter who describes his intentions as, " (a) cause (for) people to think, to research and investigate, rather than accept the blind traditions of men. The ultimate goal is to entice people to search the Scriptures on their own. The usual focus of my work is to target specific errors and idolatries of Humanity, revealing their fallacies through Scriptural references." Whereas Sea uses the super personal imagery and Cahill the less personal, Kox employs imagery that is super inconic-most specifically, Christ. He subverts the familiar ways in which we pedastool and simultaneously ignore religion by using hand-written text, painting over found images and cutting messages about sin, mass media, consumption and more.

Overall, the show flows with a specific trajectory: first, is Anna Sea's paintings. Her work is a representation of an inner dialogue she has with questions of self, identity and truth which directly flows into Kox's work- a different type of inner struggle and call for action, accountability and dialogue. Lastly, Cahill rounds out the exhibit with a warning of what is to come...or perhaps, what is already happening if we do not seek the truth as Sea and Kox suggest. Be sure to catch this show before the end of July. The End Is Near is located at 465A 7th Ave (bet 16th and Windsor), Tuesday - Sunday 12pm-8pm. An excellent first show from this new spot.

3 Nights, 3 Happenings



Last weekend was huge for me. On Thursday, I had my opening at The End Is Near in Brooklyn. My three paintings looked great next to Norbert and Anna's work. All of the paintings are displayed in the front room of the gallery/shop while a summer bbq occurred on the back patio. There was a great crowd and a lot of good friends there. Thanks to everyone who came out! The show will continue to be up for about a month, so if you're in Park Slope, definitely check it out.

Friday night was another art event but for a very different cause. Organized by the Gasket Goons, the Charity Art Show was a huge success. The show had work by over 20 artists, showcased salon-style in the Phillipsburg garage space. The work was sold off silent-auction style and raised over 6,000 dollars for the family of the late Army Sgt. Sean M. Durkin. Accompanying the auction was a killer party with music, drinks, a hot dog truck and tons of cars-not to mention tons of people.

Saturday Top Soil had a show at The National Hotel's first annual National Palooza. It was super hot out but people still came out and danced. We've been playing a bunch of new songs that are going to be on the new album we've been recording. Check out some images from the weekend's activities!




Monday, June 28, 2010

Gasket Goons + Immortal Ink Charity Show & Auction

Not only am I part of the group show at The End Is Near on July 1, but I'm also going in a charity group show hosted by the Gasket Goons and Immortal Ink on Friday, July 2. The show is in honor Army Sgt. Sean M. Durkin, to benefit his family. To read Sgt. Durkin's full story and to RSVP to the opening on facebook, click here

The art show/auction will be held on July 2nd 2010 at Star 77 Kustoms, 224 Stockton St. Phillipsburg, NJ. There will be drinks available and "DJ Kate Keen" of Sugar Shack Vinyl will be DJing!

Artists include: Josh Kohn, Jamie Schwartz, Brian Woolverton, John Moscaritolo, Dutch Cooke, Brian Keinlen, Ox, Vinny Scully, Smivee Valencia, Krooked Ken, Erik Pinchek, Alex Oscavich, Justin Weiss, Jerry Chiccarine, Michael DePrizio, Nicole Esposito, Jennifer Skidmore, Kimmie Doriety , James M Patrick, Ian Kenworthy, Kieth Ruthe, Harry Ferrante, Mellissa Graves, George Varkoly, Andrew Bannon and more

Really hope to see you all there for a great cause

Thursday, June 24, 2010

End is Near Group Show

I have a show coming up at The End Is Near in Brooklyn on July 1. The sister shop of Hand of Glory Tattoo, this new space is having their first gallery show. The exhibition is with Norbert Kox and Anna Sea. I've been working with Hand of Glory for a while now (I'm there monthly tattooing as a Guest Artist) and am excited to show some of my other work. My paintings have really been taking off lately. I'm working on wood with acrylics and gauche, really honing in on a precise visual and conceptual aesthetic. It would be great to see as many people as possible for the opening. 7-11:30 PM on Thursday July 1 at 465a 7th ave, park slope

Here's a small preview of some of my new work. Proper images and documentation of the show to follow!



Friday, June 18, 2010

Overdue Update

So the new place has been open for about six months now and everything is going great. I've been doing a ton of tattooing as well as painting and illustration. I recently designed the album cover for the band Just Surrender. My band Top Soil has been playing a bunch, too. We started recording our second album on Monday at Trax East and I'm really excited about the project. Check out a video of us playing live here. Another new development is the opening of my brothers Jim and Dave's new computer repair and internet cafe, River Net. They set up shop in the same building as my studio, so check it out! We're in the brick building next to the Bridge Cafe in Frenchtown.