GAME OVER; sour ending

Gleaner's Cafe', located in the Italian Market of South Philadelphia, will be hosting Game Over; Sour Endings by Shawn Beeks. This exhibit is a collection of oil paintings, drawings, sculptures, and skateboards spanning work from 2010 to 2012. Featured in the show are realistic interpretations of Carebears, My Little Pony, Pink Elephants, and the unseen moments on Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde. Also featured are a few selections from Slapstik Skateboards illustrating Animals doing the dumb things you and your friends think are normal. I'm not judging, but it looks really stupid when you see an animal do it. That's all I'm saying. Start the end of the world with a laugh. 

Snuggle Up

Join Slapstik Skateboards and Pusher Wheels on Sunday, September 16th at Exit Skateshop, for an artistic review of successes and failures in marketing and graphic design. BYOB, butts not beer.

Truism

For the past 2 years I've been watching the growth of fantasy's popularity in the US. While I don't have anything personal against vampires or werewolves, I do feel their rise is a sign of a public's desire to escape the difficulties of everyday life, even if just for a few hours a day. Of course, the issue is when those hours are the one thing you look forward to the most. The funny thing is, these vehicles of escape resemble the sources of conflict leading someone to want to run away. The biggest difference is fantasy provides you the false sense of mastery and coats it's characters with a fine layer of cuteness, or exaggerated evil, complete with talking trees and Mr. Burns fingers. So, without rambling any further, here is Truism. 

In times where acknowledging the truth is difficult to practice, many seek refuge in fantasy, or what is known as Falsism; an assertion, statement, or being where the falsity is plainly apparent. Falsism is a defensive reaction to reality in which the complexities of life, consisting of the blurred lines between right and wrong, and a general inability to understand why, result in cerebral and emotional overload, causing the subject to seek solace in a place where right and wrong are clearly defined, and characters engaging in these re-enactments are simplified exaggerations of human behavior.

Truism seeks to recapture the audience from Falsism by changing the context in which its figures, objects, and ideas are presented, placing them in the framework of reality, enforcing the established laws of science, psychology, and logic that apply. Each piece of work produced under Truism must be supported by factual evidence, historical, psychological, or scientific.

The argument could be made that the concept of right and wrong are relative, and subject to change in the eyes of each individual, making it impossible to establish a solid foundation for Truism to rest upon. However, it is not the goal of Truism to illustrate a concrete argument for artist to build their lives upon, but simply t dispose of the false sense of security created by Falsism.

Truism does not aim to destroy the products of imagination, but to rebel against the limitations of escapism by making the unreal real.

There can be no Truism without the evidence to back it up. 

Northward Exhibit @ Slingluff Gallery

The Northward exhibit at Slingluff Gallery showcased the work of Chris Milk Hulbert, El Kamino, Mickael Broth, and Ed Trask. Everyone's work shared a connection of either birds or subcultural visions which brought the four together nicely. I don't believe I had seen anyone combine the sensitive imagery of a tower burning upon impact with a rooftop miniramp until witnessing Mickael's Snowday in Lower Manhattan. Without knowing the inspiration behind it, I could only assume he saw his neighborhood skatepark get bulldozed and replaced with a strip-mall.

Ed Trask's paintings Clermont Lounge and Atlanta Rd. Study brought about the scene where a teenager is given to talk to by his dad about the dangers of drinking, drugs, and trying to fit in, only it's not at a kitchen table, but between songs at a hardcore show. But the kid isn't embarrassed at all because he knows they'll be heading to the Clermont Lounge after the show.













Paintings by El Kamino smell of old Thrasher magazines filled with drawings by metal artist Pushead and Vernon Courtlandt Johnson of Powell Peralta fame. Kamino has taken these influences and applied them to a more lively subject, but can not help but throw a Mike McGill graphic into the mix.

What can I saw about Chris Milk Hulburt. He likes shiny paint, and sometimes you can see yourself in it. Especially if you're wearing a rainbow suit.

Additional paintings from Northward can be viewed and purchased at http://www.slingluffgallery.com/

Don't Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth

Carebear Strikes Again!

The last one of these was painted on a skateboard for a show in Atlanta. That's the only nice thing I have to say about it. This one is on a wood panel, and will be going in my living room. Unless you have a few hundred you'd like to give me for it... but I doubt it.

Tipsy

tip·sy

adj \ˈtip-sē\

1

: unsteady, staggering, or foolish from the effects of liquor :fuddled

2

: unsteady, askew tipsy angle>

1.	Tipsy	1342 up, 113 down
	When you are slightly drunk.

for more on tipsy behavior, stumble to the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoysQe-2HS4