Sunday, September 21, 2008

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Franta Skala Always On My Mind

Karel Gott Country Roads

Monday, September 08, 2008

Bay Bridge Construction

When I work at SFMOMA, as I have been doing in August & September, I take the F bus across the Bay Bridge. Ever since I helped build a bridge a couple years ago, I am fascinated by bridge building, and my seat on the F bus gives me a very good, if fleeting & partial, view down onto the construction of the Bay Bridge. Here are some photos I took of scenes that most of you probably wouldn't normally get to see.

more Bay Bridge construction

and a nice view of the Embarcadero as we pull in to the city:

Saturday, September 06, 2008

The Battle of Hollister, 1947

Just found out that my brand-new painting "The Battle of Hollister, 1947" got juried into the Oakland Art Gallery's upcoming "California History Walk" exhibition. I worked hard on this painting, an atypical one for me, and finished it two hours before the deadline. Though now I wish I had put yellow stripes down the troopers' legs.

Above is the most brilliant part; Meredith Hunter, shown here in his peacock green suit an instant before being stabbed by a Hell's Angel at Altamont, has morphed into Linc Hayes, running with his Mod Squad buddies Julie & Pete. I was going to give Pete a dickie but I forgot.

A little bit of everything: Lee Marvin & Brando from The Wild One, Geo. A. Custer, Rodney King, Dennis Hopper, Reno 911 & Electra Glide in Blue just in this area alone.

I like this guy's hairline. It's all done with Testor's & Humbrol model paints.

Originally I had only a few of the police interceptors burning, but my pal Dr. Susan Greene pointed out that the flames, the layout & the approach to perspective (cribbed from Sioux paintings of Battle of Little Bighorn) were reminiscent of Buddhist thangka paintings. She was absolutely right & so I painted flames on all the police cruisers. Her suggestion really helped the painting.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Election project

I've been doing some writing etc. for Jon Winet's Electoral College project. I'd been wanting to augment my collection of panhandler signs with some of my own design for a long time, and Jon's project finally gave me some motivation to get started.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Serious Publications

This book & four others written by me are offered for sale at very reasonable prices as print-on-demand books at my new Lulu.com storefront:

Serious Publications online storefront