So i have decided to make the move to "full time" artist, which means no more office politics, corporate meetings or 2:30 coffee runs to make the day go faster! That being said, it was alittle scary to make the move... Nonetheless, this is my new life as a non-stop full time painter... Btw, my life is f'n awesome and here is latest painting.
Here are the latest photo's from a fundraising event I participated in for The Gratitude Training's very own ML-9 team! The event took place at Casa De Mara in Lake Worth on 10/10/12 and my contribution to the team was the painting live. The Painting was raffled off at the end of the night and 100% of the proceeds benefit ML-9's "Legacy" projects, which include 'Home Safe for the Children' as well as 'Adopt-A-Famiy" It is such a honor to be apart of this team and the fundraising events they hold... Transforming the world NOW! For more information on what ML-9 is up to, visit there website www.ml9thedivine.com
So since I started working at the Parklander magazine, I decided that the walls of my office were... well pretty damn boring. One of the first days there, got me thinking about how my buddy Evoca1 used to pass the time at my old job by doodling and basically tagging everything in his sight! It was not only amusing to me but inspiring as well. So I decided to start what has now officially become #SleepyAfternoonDoodles and my wall is quickly filling up at my desk and everyone else in my office has now come to me with request and has become amused by them as well... Here are a few of them...
Also, to follow more of my #SleepyAfternoonDoodles, Follow 'theKwak' on Instagram
So this past friday evening as I got home from work, I realized that I had several hours to spare before the wifey got home from doing her thing... I was looking thru Netflix to find something to waste time and I realized that the documentary on Jean-Michael Basquiat was available in the 'watch it now' section... No brainer.. plans had been found! Cut to later that evening, E & I went out on the town to meet up with a friend of ours from out of town. Needless to say that I was armed with stickers and my markers... Here are a few "Basquiat Inspired" ramblings... Enjoy!
It's that time again - I will be painting live at the Gratitude Festival! Or rather now it is called "Gratitude! The Show" May 26th or May 27th at the Lake Worth Playhouse for Gratitude! The Show 5: It will be an afternoon of love, laughter and fun that will leave you in a state of Gratitude & Joy. In a high energy and entertaining atmosphere we create the curve balls, love bombs and impactful experiences to "set you on fire."
I will be painting SUNDAY MAY 27th! Don't miss it - it's a good time!
Ok my peoples... The Delray Affair has finally come (and gone)... Woo-hoo! I am walking away from the experience with a positive attitude and with alot of lessons learned... I want to thank everyone that came out to support me... I have an awesome group of friends and of course, Emiliana was a super-trooper throughout the entire weekend! I would for sure do it again with the understanding of how I can improve on some of the little details that I didn't think about going into it this time... I had tons of great feedback and it's really cool to see that complete strangers really dig what i'm doing.. I sold about 60 paintings/prints which gives me even more motivation to continue to do what i'm doing! I am grateful everyday that I have the ability to create whatever it is that I want! Here are a few photos of the booth (that we moved around about 40 times throughout the weekend) and (just a few) paintings that were sold...
48"x48" Buddha - Acrylic on Canvas Will be on display & on sale at The Delray Affair April 13-15th - Downtown Delray Beach
Here is a new painting I did over the weekend. I wanted to add a few new bigger pieces to offer for sale at 'The Delray Affair'. I wanted to have it completed it all in 1 weekend. It was alot of work, but it turned out great! I documented the process and wanted to share the photo's... Hope you like it.
Photo 1: Stretching the Canvas (Friday Afternoon) Photo 2: Working the colors on the background (Saturday Morning)
Photo 3: Starting on the design work (Saturday Afternoon)
Photo 4: All the detail work is completed & drying (Saturday Night)
Photo 5: After working on it for the better part of Sunday,
The painting is completed!
Sunday (late) afternoon, drying outside on the patio.
I, (like hopefully)all of you reading this, am greatly disburbed by the events that took placeon Feb. 26th involving Trayvon Martin. I am not going torecount the events, instead, the link below is an excellent source of detailed information and I invite all of you to pleasetake time to click on and read it.
I will,however, share this... Over the weekend, I was with a few of my friends, and ofcourse, the topic was brought up, along with the photo that Lebron James tweetedof the Miami Heat paying tribute to Trayvon. In his honor, weall took photo's of ourselves in hoodies and made them our profile photoson facebook.
Even though wetook that step, I felt like I wanted to do more. As an aspiring 'street artist'I obviously wanted to communicate publicly about such a socially relevant topic,and of course wanted to get it out there as soon as possible. This is thepiece I created and I hope you feel as strongly about it as I do. Pleaseshare this story and this image with everyone you know. This type of behaviorshould never be tolerated and It makes me sick to think that this child had todie, repeat DIE as the result of ignorance, and whats worse is the tackless slanderingof his name, being used as a cheap tactic to prove this childsomehow was 'bad', indicating that murdering him is somehowjustifiable.... It's pathetic! My heart, thoughts and prayers go out tohis family. RIP Trayvon Martin.Justice will be served.
Photo #1 Boynton Beach Arts District. ActivistArtistA
Photo# 2 Linton Blvd, Delray Beach
Phot o # 3 Closer look
Photo # 4 LeBron James tweeted this photo ofMiami Heat Honoringon Friday, March 23, 2012. (Twitter.com/KingJames)
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/23/2710098/lebron-james-miami-heat-players.html#storylink=cpy
'Day of the Dead' is the theme of my new print. You may ask, well...How did I get here? (obscure Talking Heads reference) Ok, anyway, this is a little glimpse into my thought process (this time around anyway) So first off, I saw that Joan Jett is playing Sunfest in West Palm Beach this year (Can I get a HELL YEAH) and she happens to be playing on Cinco de Mayo... Now again, for those who don't know, Cinco de Mayo is one of my favorite holidays and I make sure to celebrate it every year... The reason for this is, I used to work in a Mexican Restaurant (for a really long time) and of course, ever since that experience, I feel like I am Mexican at heart. Perfectly normal. Ok, moving on - so this got me thinking about other Mexican holidays, culture and traditions, which led to the 'Day of the Dead' holiday... After doing the research this is what I found out. Day of the Dead is celebrated around the world and in many cultures. The holiday focuses on family and friends gathering to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration takes place on November 1–2, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day & All Soul's Day. The bright colors used in the images all have unique meanings. I chose the colors based on what I found about those meanings. Orange represents the sun, while the reds represent the blood of life and green can mean creation on earth all around you. The more I searched, the more apparent it was to me that I had to create this artwork... Since deciding to participate in The Delray Affair and setting the goals of all these new paintings/prints each week, my creative mind has expanded expediently and I now realize that creativity only comes & goes in cycles if that's the kind of limiting mindset I am in... I realize that is a big statement, but fuck it! I'm up to big things....
My hope in writing about this is to share with you the beauty of celebration in this holiday and what it stands for. Below are a series of photo's of my screen printing process, I hope you dig it.
Photo #1 setting up the screen, vinyl cut on plotter,
taping off the rest of the screen so ink doesn't leak through
Photo #2 lining up screen and locking into position for multiple prints
Photo #3 & 4 Screen printed on canvas sheets,
hanging on the line drying.
Photo #5 final piece -
"Day of the Dead" 11"x14" Acrylic on Canvas
And don't forget to come up and support Joan at Sunfest.... http://lineup.sunfest.com/band/joan-jett-the-blackhearts
My newest print idea came to me after watching the show 'Inkmaster' on Spike TV... (ok ok, I know it's kinda random, but (A) Dave Navarro is the host of the show and c'mon people, he is just hot... and (B) a local tattooist and fellow artist, Lea Vendetta was on the show, so I wanted to check it out. I did and it got my creative wheels turning… So I wanted to use some sort of old school traditional tattoo images that, of course, has symbolism that would closely intertwine with my style of work. After some research I decided on using the Swallow. (I found a lot of different meanings, but these are what I liked the most). A swallow was traditionally tattooed on the chest of a sailor as a milestone for traveling 5000 nautical miles, a second swallow would represent crossing 10,000 miles or also, for sailing all 7 sea's.
There is also claim that a swallow would represent crossing the equator, as a second swallow would represent safety in crossing it again on his journey home. There is also a really cool legend that says if a sailor drowns at sea, the bird will fly down and lift his soul to heaven. (And just as a last little side note), Marianne Faithfull has a swallow tattoo on her hand and well, that's pretty rad... So after finding all of the meaning and symbolism of the swallow, I knew I definitely had to go with it. I saw a ton of tattoos during the research and came across one with the phrase “Embrace Whatever May Come”. I instantly fell in love with the saying and decided to incorporate it with a scripty letter style, as well as adding some traditional flowers and vines to keep the tattoo vibe going. I’m really stoked at the way it came out and was excited about putting it on the blog.
This is a limited edition print (only 10 available) and will be on display and for sale at The Delray Affair, April 13-15th on Atlantic Ave, Delray Beach.
Below is a photo of a few of them drying on the line at the paint factory…
and alittle bonus Mariann Faithfull for ya :)
Metallica Featuring Marianne Faithfull "The Memory Remains"
My good friend EVOCA1 was one of the artist on deck to paint live at the KeroWACKED show this past Sunday and to no one's surprised, hit it out of the park! If you don't know who he is, I strongly recommend finding out!
Here is a little bit about him... EVOCA1 is a artist/activist with the agenda to merge art and humanity together. He started the 'Sketches for Mankind' project to raise awareness of local and world wide issues through his art, all while raising funds to aid the needs of the homeless community in Miami. He is the founder of 3rd Sunday for Hunger, and as the name states, He and an ever-growing number of his friends feed & clothe over 100 homeless men, women & children in various neighborhoods throughout Miami the 3rd Sunday of every month without fail. Again, EVOCA1 is one of the most talented and compassionate people I know.. Check out his website and blog for info on how to donate to 3rd Sunday for Hunger - www.evoca1.com &http://www.facebook.com/Evoca1 - and check out the photo's from the KeroWACKED show below...
So yesterday (Sunday Feb 26) was the much anticipated event 'ActistArtistA's KeroWACKED: Homage to Jack'. A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about the event, along with the canvas painting I submitted to the show. There were over 40 Artists, Live Painters, DJ's, Bands and food trucks for the all day event, that was from 10 am - 10 pm. I think it's safe to say the event officially KICKED ASS! Rolando Chang Barrero from ActivistArtistA's held the event and couldn't have been more in his element! The non-stop smile on his face, and the energy emanating from him could not be missed... Big thanks to him for inviting me to have a vending booth in such a great show. I got to spend the day with some great friends, I sold a few screen prints and also sold the "Madly Uncommon" - Acrylic on Canvas 24"x 24" piece that was in the gallery show... So it was a great day &I can't wait for the next one!
Photo #1 setting up my vending space
Photo # 2 hanging out with friends
Photo #3 Emiliana 'helping' Evoca1
Photo # 4 Evoca1 doing work
Photo # 5 - Mickie Centrone from New Times bought my painting :) Thank you Mickie!
So I affectionately call our apartment 'The Paint Factory' on those days when I'm in the zone and am getting things done... Well, last Friday was one of those days that 'The Paint Factory' was in full swing! I had the day off of work (yay me) and I knew from my first sip of coffee, that serious creativity was about to go down... Now, I already put myself on a tight schedule for The Delray Affair (which again, is April 13-15th) where I am doing at least 2 new canvas paintings a week, which I have and am continuing to achieve, but I also decided to do some smaller pieces, at a lower price point, to cater to everyone that will be walking past my tent.
I have a series of Buddha Screen Prints that I did for Flow Fest a few months ago, that I really loved and wanted to expand on. The new addition to that screen print series is Ganesh or Ganesha. I'm told he has lots of meanings, but the one that stands out to the most to me is that he is 'The Remover of Obstacles'. I love that and find that I want to have one prominently displayed in our home.
