He-Man Show

Happy New Year! The first show I will be involved in this new year is the "Under the Influence: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" show at Gallery1988 Los Angeles, this Friday evening, January 8.

This show should be a lot of fun. I hear that the gallery is transforming into a mini Castle Grayskull, so along the same theme, I've created my own version and tribute to the castle itself, called "Gray Skies":


I had a good time with this piece, and kept it more towards the backgrounds. I tried to go a little looser with it, and while painting, thought back to some ideas of painting as a concept artist. 2010 seems like a good year to do some exploring with some technique and ideas so we'll see how it goes.

Gearing up for a February show at Gallery1988 San Fransisco and will be trying a couple of different things there as well. Now, it will be just small things here and there, so no worries. I'm not going to start painting pretty ladies, or skulls everywhere. Actually, the He-Man piece was partly fun in that this was my first skull ever! Probably my last.

FEATURE ON MONZUKI

I wanted to thank the friends at Monzuki for featuring my work and sharing their kind words on their Blog post "Swimming In The Sky".

They have a wonderful blog, which aims to share and publicize creative people from art and design. Please check out Monzuki for some coolness.

LAST VIVISECT PLAYSET

This Black Friday evening is the 6th and final Vivisect Playset, which has been curated by Luke Chueh and Gallery1988. The title of my piece is called "Last One", which depicts playful Narwhals and the imminent death of a balloon. Or, is the balloon making it's way to safety? The piece:



Thanks to Luke and 1988 for including me again. It's been fun!

Glad to be involved in this show with these talented artists: Adam Alaniz, Alex Pardee, Amy Sol, Angry Woebots, Anthony Ausgang, Brandi Milne, Brent Nolasco, Dan May, Daniel Elson, Daniel Valenzuela, Dave Pressler, Dia, DrilOne, Ewelina Ferruso, Ghost Patrol, Irma Rivera, Jimbot, Kamala Dolphin Kingsley, Leecifer, Luke Chueh, Mari Inukai, Mark Brown, Motorbot, Paul Barnes, Peek-A-Boo, Persue, Peter Gronquist, Rachel J. Wong, Scribe, Travis Louie, Walt Hall

PARTY TIME!!!

After months of remodeling, landscaping, and planning, the boys first birthday party finally came and went this past Sunday. What a crazy but fun day it was. I would like to thank all the family and great friends that came out to support the boys. I'd also like to thank everyone who helped with the preparation. The day couldn't have been as perfect as it was without the help. Here they were on their big day:



At one point I think we had around 150 people in our backyard. Crazy!!! We even had some great artist buds come to the party like El Maz, Ruel Pascual, Samir Patel, John Wu, Andy Lee, Wes Louie, Brian Yam, Tony Mora, and Kong Ly. I just put up links to most of these guys.

So now that the party is over, I've got a few paintings for some extremely patient folks I've been meaning to complete and will get to them now. Thanks for all of your patience through all of this. Hopefully I'll have more art posts in the very near future.

COME OUT TO PLAYEEAAAY

This is an image for a flier I created for our twins first birthday party that is coming up soon. The image is similar to an older painting I did that my wife loved. Since we don't own it, I wanted to do something along the same lines but this one is going to stay in the family:


Wow, I can't believe they have been in our lives for almost a whole year now. Time sure flies. I miss them how they are each day, because they seem to change from one day to the next. But I look forward to each day to see what changes they bring. But they have made a permanent change in our lives, one that cannot be replaced. There was a time when we thought we would not ever have you both. What a gift you truly are. Happy birthday boys. We love you so much.

SCIENTIFIC EVOLUTION SHOW

I'm excited to be showing a piece for the first time at Distinction Gallery in Escondido. There will be an opening reception Saturday, August 8. The gallery and artists will be donating commissions from this show to further stem cell research at USCD. Here is my piece called "Able":

LINKS AND STUFF

This month has been a little slow on the art side of things. I've been busy trying to get our backyard ready for the boys one year birthday party. I can't believe that these past 9 plus months have gone by quick and that they are growing so fast. So I thought I'd give myself a little head start in preparation for their big day.

So my very first Father's Day came and went a couple of weekends ago. Spent the day in San Diego at a wedding of great friends of ours, Marian and Derrick. Congrats guys! Here is a pic of the boys at the reception, quite a bit bigger now, with some spit up.


As we were leaving the reception, we saw a sight which I'd never thought I'd see. I guess I was showing my art along with some of the painting masters!


The Tamayo is most likely for Rufino Tamayo. When I was very young, we would go down to San Diego often and there were people selling Rufino Tamayo prints in frames by the beach we used to go to. My dad used to tell me it was his paintings and that one day I might get his talent for art, and I actually believed him. Well, I did get some kind of talent for art, but definitely not from him.

So I've been meaning to post some more links to some good friends of mine. First up is my bud Edwin Ushiro. I first met Ed in my final term at Art Center and had the opportunity to befriend him again when he went to work at the same game company I used to work at. After he left, he went on to pursue freelance work, and has made an impact in the gallery world with his amazing art. Here is an amazing piece of his that I was able to snap at a recent show:


Next up is my good friend Ruel Pascual. I was able to befriend him through a mutual friend a few years back. Hi Samir! At the time he was and still is working in the Animation biz, but he recently has been featured in a handful of group shows at Gallery1988. I see pretty amazing things for him. His talent for painting continues to grow every time a see a new piece. And I'm so happy for him that his paintings get bought up pretty quick. Here is a piece from a recent show at Gallery1988 called "Mr. T Party". I wish I could have bought this one. It's just awesome:


So the links are up so check these guys out!