Blunder Days Past

A big thanks to Apple Jacks Studio and everyone who came out for the opening of The Blunder Years. If you forgot show up, had something better to do, or just didn't care, but for some reason read this blog anyway, here's what you missed. Shirts and decks are still available. For more information go to www.slapstikskateboards.bigcartel.com.

The Blunder Years

On August 5th, 2011 Apple Jacks Studio will be hosting a Slapstik Skateboards retrospective of the original series of decks released between 2001 to 2006. In addition to the skateboards, original artwork pulled from the sketch pads of that time period will be displayed, along with reissues of 3 decks and 2 shirts. Signed decks will be $50 and shirts are sold in pairs for $30. It should be a lively evening, so bring some friends, something to drink and cash money because art shows don't get put on for nothing. Hope to see you there.

Some Tails are Bigger Than Others

Exit Skateshop will be holding their 3rd Deckheads skateboard art show May 7th, 2010. If you're in, or near Philly....go. Maybe I'll see you there. Image research for the deck involved whales tails, and Moby Dick. If you don't know what a whale tail is, google it. It's kind of funny.

"She whipped them all soundly, and sent them to be."

"... and they kept going deeper and deeper into the forest. If help did not arrive soon, they were bound to perish of hunger and exhaustion."

"She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed. For they left their tails behind them."

"Little Betty Blue lost her holiday shoe... What can Little Betty do?"

If you can't make it to Bridgeport, CT by December, here's what you're missing. Of course, you're also missing out on Naughti Dolphin pizza and three newer drawings of mine. So, do what you gotta do.

Darkness MF, Darkness!

Shame on you for missing this one! Last night marked the opening of Bone Tail at Philadelphia's Little Berlin. Four artist, Salvador Cerceo, Dennis McNett, Shawn Beeks, and Damon Aners, came together under the curator Tyler Kline to present paintings, prints, video and sculpture which delve into the dark recesses of our minds. Focusing on myths and fables, the artist involved used new media and traditional visual arts practices to bring life to timeless psychological and social conflicts, presenting them in a contemporary context. But be warned... everyone involved brought their darkness to the table and bet the full house. The show runs through August 30th at Little Berlin, located at 119 West Montgomery, Philadelphia PA 19122. Gallery hours are Saturdays from 12 to 5pm. For additional images go to littleberlin.org.

People are Sheep

By 1998 I'd been living in Athens long enough to be thoroughly educated and disgusted with most of college life. The self destructive behavior, passed off as "finding oneself," manifested in binge drinking, drug use, casual sex, and weekend parties, moved me towards isolation amongst my peers. Skateboarding and art served as my escape from my surroundings, without which I could have gotten involved in something cultish like church. Luckily I didn't, and put all my thoughts and energy of the moment  on a skateboard for a few people to see. Everything I had to say was written directly on the board, which was a first for me. Previously, I'd felt that if someone didn't understand why I did something questionable, they could at least confront me about it, but in this case I didn't want there to be any confusion. People are sheep. I believe I had watched Taxi Driver an unhealthy amount of times before completing this drawing which is why it's so dark. It's been years since I've read this, but I still believe that most people will willingly screw themselves out of a future to avoid the present.

Barcode

1997 was the year  I had an opportunity to go to London for a week and test the European market for raped inc. At this time I had just released the barcode graphic which was the first full color design for raped inc. The drawing was inspired by conversations with others about consumerism, Orson Wells, and the Mike Leigh film Naked, which I highly recommend. I was happy with the simple design which visualized the of application of the creative arts practice to an economic brand. What I like most about this one is the concept of "revenge rape" that art enacts on business by turning a graphic soulless symbol into an artistic statement against capitalism. 

Somebody's Watching You

This board marked another series of first for raped inc. Although I continued with the war theme, I decided to use a black and white pallet again to enforce the cold feeling of being watched. The image was taken from a book at the UGA library on events leading up to WWII. I'm not sure exactly what the image is because I lost the notes, but the original covered only 66% of the deck. In order to make a functional layout I had to create the another 3 buildings and wall to cover the entire right side. I was enrolled in an American art history class focusing on Architecture making it easier to complete the buildings in a manner that matched the time period. At the time I also wanted to use ink on transparency instead of paper, forcing me to spend more time on the details of the board graphics. I was also living on my own, so I had plenty of time to draw.  All the time spent researching and drawing paid off to produce one of my favorite graphics of the raped inc. line. I had also stopped using the same graphic for every shape because sales had actually grown.  This was the last board to have raped inc. written out, to be replaced by the "r" logo. 

With the economy in the crapper, I've been searching for some older work to post related to my thoughts about capitalism. I found a few that I produced onto skateboards in the 1990's under raped inc. Luckily, I also found my noted for this graphic as well. "Always keep the originals of your artwork. Always make a copy. Always send the copy to production in case something goes wrong. The climb of the cooperate ladder created many problems, most difficult being the loss of the original artwork that I foolishly sent to the printer where it was misplaced. In hindsight, it would have been worthwhile to redraw the bodies entirely, but as luck would have it I only mailed the background stock market numbers. If I had the chance to do this over again, I would have drawn the bodies directly onto the newspaper. At this point (2000), raped inc. was losing it's fire, and rather than make a meaningless graphic, I decided to end it after 12 boards and five years. I had grown tired of debating with people about how irresponsible I was for using the word raped for "commercial profit and other nonsense." Besides, I had said everything I wanted to with raped inc. and wanted to do something different. The inspiration for the composition of bodies came from Gericaut's The Raft of Medusa, 1819.

Slapstik of the Living Dead

After thirteen years of making skateboards, three of those years devoted to skateboards with zombies, I've decided to move on. I've haven't moved away from skateboards, but I am moving towards illustrating Mother Goose fairy tales, Greek Mythology, and the Brothers Grimm. See here are the remaining Slapstik of the Living Dead products left in stock. I've got a few Slit Throat shirts, about 4 Living Dead Television decks, and 1o Jesus Zombie decks. 5 of the Jesus decks are available signed. Everything else only gets touched by me. Sorry. Otherwise the Jesus decks wouldn't be special. If you like it, let me know. If you don't, wait until I do mythology. 

raped inc. skateboards

In  1996 I decided to ignore the better marketing judgement of my peers and started raped inc. skateboards.  For the next five years I rarely held back my opinions on politics, social issues, free market capitalism, and religion.  Above are the majority of the stickers made between 1996 and 2001.  The only one that's missing from my collection says "raped inc. not sold here" which were generally placed on the windows and doors of skateshops that declined to sell my products.  I'll post the board graphics soon to give you a better idea why the company wasn't received well.

      

Before getting accepted to grad school, I made a series of hand painted skateboards to build up my portfolio.  You may notice a running theme in the series, but if not it won't matter. If you knew me and what was going on in my life around 2005, the message is pretty clear. The paintings are oil on used skateboards.  I wanted used boards because painting on a smooth surface would not reflect the damaged surface of the images and issues they illustrate. From left to right the titles are Do not Touch, Jealous Again, Nothing Works Around Here, The Hand that Feed, and Untitled.

It's been a while since I've posted anything because of changes made in the medium. Specifically, changing from oils to casein. It's taken me a little while to get used to it, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Casein is a very versatile medium which can behave like acrylic, oils, water color, and egg tempera. The stuff is just weird and I'm still trying to figure it out. Here is the first painting I done using it. The image is taken from Gustave Caillebotte's The Floor-Scrapers in 1875. I've always enjoyed looking at art depicting the physical strains of manual labor because much of the work pictured in these paintings are no longer done by hand. Thanks to technological progress we can rent a sander from Home depot and refinish a floor in a fraction of the time it too to do the same job 130 years ago. So, I'm guessing in another 130 years there will be a machine to paint for me.

Lonely Lisa

This piece was part of a series of paintings concentrating on reinterpreting well known works of art in the context of the undead. I chose Di Vinci's Mona Lisa because I wanted to visualize a psychological zombie rather than the blood splattered, flesh eaters I typically do. The painting is a blend of images found with Google searches for Mona Lisa, and nose bleeds. The short version of the story behind the painting is this, Lisa's got a drug problem. I feel the same way about Atlanta, which is why I submitted it for an art show in Atlanta. I'm sure that some people thought she just got beat up, or had a migraine head ache, but could just be a viewer in denial. This isn't the first time I'd used visual references from the internet to create art. I think the web is a good source, so long as you can use what's already there to make something new.

Do It Yourself

I was asked by my friend Scott to draw up a board graphic for his company Boulevard. He said I could draw anything I wanted, so I asked if he was sure because apparently, I don't know where to draw the line. He said it was o.k. and I made him pay for it. While coming up with concepts for this project, I was already working on the seven deadly sins as told through the life of Christ. So I asked myself, How hard would it be to crucify yourself? I thought it was funny. He didn't. Nor did he think it would be a good image to sell in the Bible Belt. I actually came up with the idea a long time ago when I still lived in Atlanta. I showed the rough sketch to a few people and they thought it was great. Of course, anyone who liked it lived in poverty. So, nothing has changed. The board never got made because religion has ties to economics. Societies have convinced the poor to stay poor and not complain about injustices because class division maintains structure within that society. And the poor voice their complaints to their white jesus, instead of their white president in hopes of receiving treasures in heaven rather than useful things here on earth. Anyway, the person responsible for Jesus' crucifixion was himself, not the Jews.