Work In Progress.

It's been a pretty busy fall and end of summer. Luckily though I have been able to manage between family and work really well thanks to the new studio space. I still have yet to do a full post about the recent installation over at Oakland Museum of CA because I need to get proper photos.

The good news is I have had to jump right into new projects. The first is a show I'm working on for December of this year at Cukui. The pieces will be what I call a visual playlist. Basically it's a series of portraits dedicated to international and local musicians. Public Meridian, a San Francisco based brand that makes custom bracelets will be creating pieces that coincide with each painting. It should be interesting to see how they translate the music and my art into bracelets. I am most inspired by music when it comes to art, and various types at that. Of course it's really challenging to distill so many great musicians into a small handful to be painted so we voted on some of our favorites based on their international, and local impact, while being conscious of Cukui brand and their following. Since this series can be expanded on, we will most likely continue afterwards. 

Meanwhile, I am also working on releasing more prints with 1xrun as our first release was a success. I am also going to be doing a Japanese pop series with Yamamoto Industries that will be produced as iphone cases and limited edition prints.  

Lastly, when this is all said and done, my goal is to begin a new series of pieces. They will still involve bits of  typography, hybrid identity, and topography but rather than painting the dissection as I have done in the past I would like to actually cut through the surface using power tools and other building materials. I think this will open up many more possibilities on how to think about the topic. 

Here are some in progress pics. 
Enjoy!

 

Oakland Museum Update - Part 2

This is 1 of 2 wall installations I painted for the Oakland Museum of California. The wall will be displayed in their Natural Sciences Gallery as a part of OMCA's annual Dia De Los Muertos exhibition. The curator, Eduardo Pineda was interested in creating a show that put Dia De Los Muertos in the context of natural sciences and California. This image is in honor of the California state Grizzly bear. The image was inspired by Nahuales which is the belief in some Mexican traditions that everyone is born with a spirit of an animal who is responsible for protecting and guiding us. In this case I was thinking of the Grizzly as a Nahual for our state. Unfortunately we've killed off all of them in the state of California. 

Oakland Museum Update

This is part 1 of 2 walls I am painting for the Oakland Museum of California. The walls are for their annual Dia De Los Muertos exhibit which opens this fall. I had to get an early start on it because they requested to use it to promote the show. The title of this piece is Tree of Life and Death. It's inspired by Life Cycles as defined in science and a modern interpretation of pre-conquest, Dia De Los Muertos and buddhist images. Life Cycles basically apply to all things living and are characterized by change, life itself, growth and death. The tree motif is a reference to the civic logo of Oakland. Together with the curator of the exhibit Eduardo Pineda, I wanted to connect natural sciences to Dia De Los Muertos, and I feel we accomplished that in this piece. I will post more updates as soon as the piece is installed at OMCA. Thanks for viewing!