Misc Paintings
Miscellaneous murals, paintings, and installations. A hodge-podge page of stuff to draw some of your attention to, as the mood strikes and the stars may align.
From commissions to experimental collaborations, underpass passages to wheat-pasted walls, these are projects that may one day get their own page, but for now, have been relegated to the bargain bin.
Each of these works offer a deeper glimpse into tinkerings that has filled at least one day, and sometimes more.
CHRYSANTHEMUM
This was a commission to a paint a chrysanthemum flower, for no other reason than its intrinsic beauty and organic complexity. In many European countries, this flower is a symbol of life and rebirth, so fundamental to the human experience.
Creative liberties were taken as can be seen in this highly stylized and near-perfect symmetrical vision of the flower, pedals lifted high in praise to the divine order in nature.
Though they seemed very pleased at first, the clients — a lesbian couple — didn’t love the painting in the end. I was led to understand that it looked a little too … vaginal.
I adore the piece, notably for its highly textured finish. I start paintings like this on a wood panel covered in a thick coat of black paint mixed with sand. The sand is sustainably sourced from the local park playgrounds, with corn-of-cat lovingly sifted out. I ripped this technique off from Alan Ganev, as it perfectly imitates my preferred wall texture when painting murals.
“WHAT?”
A chaotically beautiful collaboration with a dear friend and very remarkable artist, Chris Dyer. By far, this man is one of the most uniquely interesting characters I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. He marches to the beat of his own heart’s drum like no other.
He and I had been collaborating for years via the EN MASSE project. This is the first and hopefully not last time we play in full colour. We didn’t share this act of creativity in person. Instead, we passed the wood panel back and forth like a game of hot potato.
UNDERPASS
Painted over the course of a full day, using heavy machinery, this piece is very visible from the Don Valley Parkway as one drives into Toronto. It was part of the first official mural festival in this sprawling Canadian city, called “Love Letters to the Great Lakes“.
NAKED LADY
Like a sexy William Shanter alien pinup girl, this was a Jeremy Shantz designed piece i lent a hand in painting over the course of a single day’s work in Montreal’s Old Port district. .
It was the feature project of another legendary Chromatic Block Party edition, which were always good times, even if the beer tasted vaguely of blue ribbon horse piss.
That wall rode unmolested for a long time, until the building changed hands and got a fat facelift.
PARIS peace
A very odd, impromptu collaboration between Jeremy Shantz, Olivier Bonnard and myself, somewhere in the heart of Paris on the side of some sort of school. Filling space and time in the best way possible, pushing paint around in cute French shopping carts.
As with the naked lady above, this work had a relationship to Chromatic, and in similar fashion covered not more than a day’s worth of hours. Remarkably that wall still rides, as I see evidence of popping up in social media feeds on occasion.
Highlight of the day was a pickled old lady and her miniature dog, shuffling slowly along the wall with smoke trailing from thin French cigarette dangling nonchalantly from beef jerked yellow fingers. A single utterance (in French, as all things sound better that way): “My god that’s ugly”.
She was probably right, and certainly standing in her right to pour forth this very forward flavoured soup of Parisian cultural opinion.
RED MASKS
Masks have long been part of my artistic expression. In this case, I’ve included two pieces that are related to each other by virtue of being made for Miami Art week, which at that time still kinda made sense. Both were painted in a daylight, keeping with the theme.
Sadly, that place has now been consumed by commercialization. I’d never thought of these as death masks before, but i know neither of these works exist any longer, underlining the bitter sweet realities of ephemerality.
OBERKAMPF WALL — PARIS
Painted a great big flower on the side of that incredible, ever shifting Parisian wall. I love the Oberkampf project in general…it’s worth checking out.
This spot is on the corner of Rue Saint-Maur and Rue Oberkampf, in small terrace surrounded square which draws hordes of spectators every time a new artist comes to repaint that wall. It has become an important landmark of Paris’ internationally celebrated street art scene.
A single gruelling day production with a small ladder and cheap paint. Still not sure how I pulled if off, especially at the tail end of what had already been a regional artistic marathon. It certainly helps to be surrounded by a vibrant group of people passionate about supporting living, breathing, thriving urban public art.
The pictures don’t do justice to the scale and detail of this piece. The beautiful young lady posing in the summer dress is my good friend Alla Goldshteyn, who put this project in place to my undying gratitude.
CHICKEN ON CHICKEN CAMOUFLAGE
Cooked up this piece many years ago, for a group show at Station16 gallery.
The event was guest curated by Omen514, aerosol gun for hire. It was a thematic exploration of “nature morte” — dead nature — or more specifically, the time tested artistic trope of the “still life”.
I sketched out the shape of a hen on a thin piece of plywood, cut it out with a jig saw, painted it black, went and bought dead chicken from china town, the kind with the head still on it. Back in the studio, with my finger (pictured) i pulled lid back to reveal the glassy-eyed stare of fowl play, peering straight into the viewer’s soul. Had to paint fast of course, over the course of a few hours, lest the bird go bad. I’m really happy with how it turned out. I definitely don’t spend enough time rendering the still life.
ALL KIN
These were more shaped silkscreened wood panels, featured in a LNDMRK / Station16 Gallery solo show called “All KIN”…a corny play on my last name. These were highly customized prints, each very different from the other by virtue of a Mr. Potato Head sorta process. Only god knows if any of these exist anymore, created over ten years ago.
LINO CUTZ
This is more of an instructional photo, cuz that’s how you cut lino, sitting cross legged on a dirty studio floor.
BLACK AND WHITE
I’ve painted a boat load of pieces like this in unsuspecting places. Not much to say about the work beyond what is self-explanatory.
I delight in the weird and wonderful. It’s the kind of work I’d love to discover down by the river one day; a richly detailed invitation to the absurd and slightly grotesque.
CHROMATIC PARIS — QUAI
This was a wicked party. I’ve got a piece of video from the event on this site somewhere. Painted in a day, as you may have guessed.
Photos do not serve this kind of installation any possible justice. I love painting on weird surfaces…could do so all day. More of the kinda work I’d love to discover in back alleys and darkened loading docks smell of urine and despair … colourful jewels of urban terraforming.
BLUE FACES
Wheatpastes and installations. They say what they needed to say at the time.
ARCHWAYS — CANCUN
A very cool installation at an elementary school in Cancun, painted over a sprawling courtyard over the course of a full Sunday and its night. Better photos exist of this piece, somewhere. If I can find them, it would be worth making a post of the work, part of a really smart project organized by the ever amazing Paty Linage.
NOODLE HEADS
My culinary specialty, and one of my first murals ever, painted as part of the premiere edition of Montreal’s Festival MURAL. One of my favorite pics of my work is the one with Jeremy Shantz’s car painted from head to toe. Those were fun days of optimistic creative potential.
ROOFTOP PARADISE
looking into the distantly setting sun along the coast, perched up on the roof of an abandoned building in Cancun where I dashed out a couple simple black and whites. En esa península dejé un gran pedazo de mi corazón.
That does it for the bargain bin…thank you for shopping.
Please come again…may keep dumping stuff into this odd collection of miscellaneous creative stuff.
