It's been about a year and a half since my last blog post. My art has been ever-so-slowly been making progress, as I have majorly been working at my own leisure. What can I say? It tends to be the conditioned pace at which I find small windows of opportunity between work shifts, home maintenance, my relationship and other life aspects to dedicate to art. It seems my work is always in a perpetual, stagnant state of "in-progress" as it sits in my studio...

...that is until an opportunity presents itself that provides my work public exposure and me with a deadline. (Due dates and deadlines have always lit a fire under my ass; it was true at university, and it's true now.) I'm beyond excited that that opportunity comes in the form of one of my first public art shows since moving back to New Mexico. Not only that, but it worked out into a collaborative show with one of my very good friends from childhood, Eric Pullins. 

This Friday, August 3rd, is when we will both showing our latest works for all of Albuquerque to see. Held at the OT Circus gallery, this event will be a fraction of the goings-on around downtown as local businesses participate in First Friday's ABQArtwalk. I am so honored to be able to participate in this event, and I hope it to be the initial shove of the proverbial "ball" that desperately needs rolling.

Consider this an open invite to all! Not only is the event free and all ages, but it's a good reason to spend a summer evening among Albuquerque's creative talent as we transition into August! We hope to see you there!

​...that it has been an entire year since I've update my blog. It's even crazier to think that I've been back in my home state of New Mexico for just over that year. In all the time that's passed, there have been some pretty significant milestones, the biggest of which has been securing the mortgage of my very first home; and with it comes plenty of extra room to play around in!

I have turned one of the spare bedrooms into my own music and art studio. I plan on separating them into their own individual work spaces with some future additions to the property down the road, but for the meantime it's perfect.

I know I've posted photos of this painting before, but it excites me to get back to it after such a long hiatus, not to mention getting back into my oil paints period. I've now entered the intricate detail-oriented phase of this painting, and I'm stoked :)

Slow and steady progress...

I can't remember exactly how I came upon an absolutely fantastic contemporary art book dedicated solely to the octopus (I think it was a google search of some sort, entailed by leagues of research to find out who the publisher is and from where I might purchase a copy, blah, blah, blah...). Once I discovered the publisher, I discovered its website. After I discovered its website, I discovered that the art featured within the pages of its books is really a showcase of artists whose works (paintings, drawings, sculptures, tattoos) make the final cut following an themed open submission. 

Earlier this year, I responded to an open call for skull & skeleton artwork, entitled "Excavate: Unearthing Artistic Skeletal Remains", by submitting three of my oil paintings. Today, I'm happy to announce that two of my three made it into the final publishing. My "Portrait No. 3" and "Outer Orbit" paintings will be featured alongside hundreds of other talented artists' works from around the world. I am extremely humbled and grateful to have my art chosen for it.

Out Of Step Books is the publisher and the folks there are now taking pre-orders for this book through their website. The books are expected to ship the second week of October. I have been in correspondence with Jinxi Caddel, one half of the owner/husband-wife/luchador tag-team duo, and she is one of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know. They ensure quality, love and care with every single transaction. You shan't be disappointed.

You can order your copy by clicking here or on any of the links above: Out Of Step Books

I must once again apologize to the folks who have been anxiously awaiting tattoo designs, drawings and paintings from me. A pretty epic art show suddenly caught my attention and sounded too damn good to pass up. I have been putting in work on a skateboard deck over the last few weeks and today I finally finished the thing, right on time for the deadline.

Because of my late participation, this piece was challenging. For the first few weeks, I had no idea in which direction I was going to take it and I was seriously second-guessing the first few layers of paint, especially my sudden decision to jump mid-way from acrylics to oils. Luckily, oil paints play real well off of acrylics, (but not the other way around) so I just kept pushing it until the image slowly started to reveal itself. I'm really glad I kept going because it turned out better than I had hoped.

I've uploaded a sequence of photos, stages from start to finish, showing how the painting evolved. Haven't figured out a title, yet, but I've been bouncing between 'Iron Galaxy' (a nod to Cannibal Ox, a favorite hip hop duo of mine) or 'Galaxy Knuckles' (one of the many self-acclaimed aliases of the hilarious hip hop blogger, http://bigghostlimited.com/)

I've also uploaded the flyer for the show, which cusps the last day of May and the first of June. To date, there have been over 300 submissions from artists around the globe, so it's going to be pretty huge. In addition, one of my all time favorite LA graffiti artists, MEAR ONE, has not only submitted his own piece, but will be at the opening event painting live. This all happens at Refuge PDX.

If you need something to do on the last Saturday night of May, swing by and check it out!

Thanks to ArtDeckCo and Future Shock for the last-minute opportunity and for the board to paint on.

Thanks for reading!