GHOST GIRL Custom Show

I got a mysterious phone call a couple weeks ago. A distorted bass heavy voice straight outta the movies said "You have been chosen to take part in the MATT SIREN Ghost Girl Custom Show at myplasticheart in NYC on Friday May 13th."

Ok cool, I was in. Got a succession of calls for the course of the next couple days with details about the event and I was off and running.

I got a big cube of compressed styro foam and magic sculpt, and started cutting and chipping away. Had a vision of snake body and kinda went from the there. Got the sculpture "bug" now big time and plan on doing a bunch of customs of my SHAPE characters this summer, 3D!

I deemed my piece "Salamander Girl"!

Before I dropped her off at the show, she took a quick pit stop in a local garden to freshen up.

The reception was really fun. Met a bunch of super cool and talented artists. There were so many great pieces from the likes of 64Colors, Royce Bannon, Steve Chanks, Chauskoskis, Darkcloud, Dril One, j*ryu & Brent Nolasco, Jester, Keely, Abe Lincoln Jr., Map Map, Marka27, Lou Pimentel, Reactor88, Marc Reusser, Todd Robertson, Robots Will Kill, Chris Ryniak, Matt Siren, Scott Tolleson, Julie West, Wheelbarrow & Wrona.

The show is up till June 12th, def stop on by if you are in the area. - 210 Forsyth St. in the LES. NY, NY. You have see them up close to truly appreciate them. Drooling is allowed.

Here are just a couple examples.

Matt Siren

Chauskoskis

Wrona

Oh, I also did a Ghost Girl gilcee print, riffing on Ms. Pac Man.
Limited edition of 50, signed and dated. Get me quick!

Bye-bye! Come visit me in person!

CRAZY MONSTERS Art Show Pics

Here's the collection I hung at the Toy Tokyo Underground Gallery last week. The Crazy Monster show will be up through this weekend so swing by right quick!


I created a SHAPES grid of 88 characters, including 20 updated ones from high school, the Magical Tales Gang of 28, The 34 New Brethren, plus 6 new ones from last month.




Then I started mapping out the Land in which the live. Locales include Castle Ramburger, The Puddles of Pain, Rizzakistan, The Bleeding Lake, Boca Ratoni's Radical Chamber, Mishroom City, Big Biscuit Canyon, Corriander's Puffs & Potions, Hallover Opera House, The Perfumed Meadows and many more. What fun! It took up over 2 GB of memory. Will post up some detail shots soon.

Psssst! I'm currently building a separate website for all my fantasy and creature based works. Check out www.castlemcquade.com for a sneak peak close ups of this imagery.

Then I framed some signed giclee prints of certain characters.

Top Row (l-r) Roja Serious the Clock Cleaner, Ramburger the Chancellor, Queen Nadya of Pollen Nation. Middle Row (l-r) Dr. Broccoli, Jerry Chops the Skip, Simyan Tong the Constable. Bottom Row (l-r) Figgy Fondue the Admiral, Boca Ratoni & Detective Snargent.

Oh, that's me, rockin a new beard! haha

I was really thrilled about how the collection went over. Most people really enjoyed it, but some were extra intrigued, just staring and pointing at the map and characters with bemused and interested faces, giggling with their friends for a long while, seemingly lost in the world before them. Their eyes slowly examining the various nooks and crannies of the landscape and characters. Was awesome to see. They get what I am doing and were really soaking it up.

It was a fantastic time, I met a lot of great new people and I saw a ton of inspiring artwork. See this previous post for details and the list of talented artists.

This summer I am going to be turning my attention towards the fantasy/childrens book genre. I have many tales of my own to illustrate and create comics of, but will also be doing interpretations of familiar fairy tales. Really excited towards returning to these roots.

SHAPES are BACK!

Detail of the SHAPES Map, just a little itsy bitsy taste.

Revisited High School SHAPES done in 2011

Pure 2011

WOW, what a great time at the Crazy Monsters Show tonight! Going to be posting a ton of artwork and photos from the show this weekend - Stay tuned...

Baby Portraits

"Francesca"

In other, more life-affirming, news...

BABIES!!! Babies, babies, babies! I'm doing custom baby portraits now if you are interested. This one is 10x13" inset on 11.75"x15.75". Done digitally, printed out on fine art photo rag with archival inks.

Osama Bin Laden is DEAD

I can't believe the news. Wow, we finally got him. Was so pumped I pulled an all nighter to get this done. "It's a feel good morning in America!" - John "Coach" Karbacz

I know!! You're right, America is not about stuff like this. I kinda shocked myself by doing it, at least this graphically. I started last night around midnight and by 9am this is what I had done. I posted it. What now? This is a very controversial image that I keep going back and forth on. Did I go too far? Yes, I'm a little ashamed of it, but then I think about 9-11 and the towers and the horror of that day, the feeling I had... the people that died. I currently live in Brooklyn, and lived in New York City on 9-11. I'm still kinda paralyzed by it, speechless. Sometimes I go by Ground Zero and just stare and remember... I am not a violent person but I did do this portrait. As an artist I must stand by it. It does go too far, but yes, burn in Hell bin Laden. In doing this I wanted to shatter the image of Osama Bin Laden as a untouchable force, an undefeatable monster, the boogie man - and replace that image with this. I wanted to show him beaten, broken, beheaded like the gorgon Medusa. As a catharsis for myself, for America and the world. For all to see. He is DEAD. Justice has been done.

"Bring me the head of Osama Bin Laden" has been in back of people's minds for a while. This is the realism of that, not pretty. Modeled after Perseus holding up the head of Medusa. Careful, he might turn you into stone.

The Crazy Monster Art Show!

I created a poster for the upcoming Crazy Monsters Art Show at the Toy Tokyo Underground Gallery in the East Village this May. Really excited about it. If you live in the area, be sure to check it out! Come on by opening night and have a drink with me. The Gallery is on 2nd Ave and 6th St. www.tt-underground.com

I have a ton of material I am sifting through to see what I want to hang. Using that show as a pivot point, going back to more fantasy based work this summer. Relaunching SHAPES and Magical Tales, starting up new projects (comics and books) & updating older works with the new set of skills I've been sharpening over the past year. It's time to get FANTASTICAL. Here's a taste!

- Click images to enlarge -

The funky orange dude on the upper right was drawn by mad monster master Basil Wolverton
but all the creatures in the bottle are mine. Come by the show and meet all 88 of 'em!

Here's the official release below

Royal Flush Magazine / A Fistful of Rock / Toy Tokyo presents:
THE CRAZY MONSTER ART SHOW! Friday May 6 to Sunday May 15
Opening Night Reception Friday May 6th 7-11pm
TT-Underground Gallery, 91 Second Avenue , NYC , NY 10003
(212) 673-5424 http://www.tt-underground.com/

Featuring 18 of the greatest Crazy Monster artists! Jason Edmiston, Patrick McQuade, Justin Erickson, Josh Bernstein, Erik Rodriguez, Steve Chanks, Brian Ewing, Gary Pullin, Sean Pryor, Stephen Blickenstaff, Steve “Pheck” Ritsua, Christain Bracco, Darren Marinuk, Daniela Fullam, Paige Reynolds, Tim Lastfogel, Dennis Bauser & Jeff Lamm!

"In the spirit of Basil Wolverton, the self professed "Producer of Preposterous Pictures of Peculiar People who Prowl this Perplexing Planet", Sal Canzonieri, in association with Royal Flush magazine and Toy Tokyo, presents a series of modern day "Crazy Monster" artists! The Crazy Monster show features some of the greatest and most wild humorously grotesque artwork that elicits a wide range of reactions. Offbeat and daring, this show combines the best of both worlds, humor and horror!"

SUPER COOL Note: Stephen Blickenstaff did the album cover art for one of my favorite albums, The Cramps - Bad Music for Bad People!!!

Prints at Papél

I hung a bunch of prints at a really cool card shop called Papél New York in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn the other week. It's located at 225 Court Street. They have custom paper everything!

From Time Out New York

Papél

225 Court St (between Baltic and Warren Sts) Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

(718) 422-0255

Subway: F, G to Bergen St

Mon-Sat 11am-7pm; Sun noon-6pm

Skip the Evite and go old-school by picking up invitations at this stationary store, started by Cali transplant Raegan Hirvela. Its walls showcase paintings from local artists, and the ceiling is adorned with paper airplanes. Wrap a present with Seltzer Recycled’s funky skull-and-crossbones gift paper ($3 per sheet) or Art with Heart’s robot-patterned paper ($8); then personalize it by filling out one of Snow & Graham’s assorted watercolor alphabet note cards ($12 for a box of five cards with envelopes). Or just skip the stress of gift giving altogether, and buy yourself a silk-screen-covered journal to pour your heart out ($12).

The prints feature Brigitte Bardot, Patsy Cline, H.P. Lovecraft, 2 Japanese Snow Monkeys, John Lennon as a walrus, and two of my SHAPE characters, Queen Nadya of Pollen Nation and Stagg Willy & The Fronyon Man. They are all framed 11.75x15.75" and are available for purchase if interested. They are several 8.5x11" unframed prints as well.








I'm also going to get some custom cards in there soon. Below is a pic of the HOTH-Y Holidays Tauntaun card I did on the shelves.





It's a really cool store if you are into this sorta thing. My wife has converted me into a card nut. I was hopeless in that category before. Anyway, swing by if you are out and about in the area and tell the owner Raegen I said hi!

HOW Magazine Portraits

These stylized portraits of contributors were recently featured in the March 2011 issue of HOW Magazine. (Top L-R clockwise) Co-founder and Creative Director of Archrival Clint Runge, President and Creative Director of Osborne Design Michael Osborne, Founder and President of Firstborn Michael Ferdman, Senior Partner at Bond Art + Science Karen McGrane & Executive Creative Director of the Cincinnati Office of Landor Associates Richard Westendorf.

Looking forward to doing more!

http://www.howdesign.com