Near the border in Switzerland

What a grand month it has been!!  This post will be packed with plenty of goodies to digest, so hold on tight as we cover what’s new on the art/travel front of yours truly.

First off, I wanted to showcase the commission pieces I completed last month, these were both for the Maricopa County Treasurer’s Office in downtown Phoenix, AZ.

The first commission was adding new pieces to an existing painting I had completed several years ago.  “Sacrament” was created during my heavy geometric phase, and was purchased by one of my co-workers.  The painting hung in her cubicle for some time and when the new training room needed some art to make the room more inviting, she volunteered to have the piece displayed in the room.  The county wanted to add more pieces for this room, and decided to offer the job to me to add more pieces to this painting to complement the piece.  The new pieces were fun and offered a little bit of a challenge, since I had to remember which colors and methods I had used in creating the older piece. The completed works meshed with the original piece and these now hang proudly in the County Admin building.

The next piece to be completed for this job involved creating a pair of jets that were inconspicuous, and yet painted directly on the wall.  The location for this painting is also in one of the conference rooms, and in this case, I had to deal with a couple factors.  First off the wall was heavily textured, which became interesting when I started doing line work for the fine detail. Next, while I have done technical art before, I hadn’t really done any reproductions of mechanical art, and this was a great opportunity to take what I had learned in graphic design school and drafting and apply it in a real world application.

Overall, I’m pleased with the results and was happy to do these new pieces.  The next exciting event that happened occurred during my trip to Germany (more on that later), where I was provided the opportunity to show a couple of my pieces on the big screen in Times Square.

The vehicle that set this showing up was See.Me, an creative support/sharing site that gives different artist the opportunities to show their work on a national scale.  The event occurred on July 24th, from 8pm to 9pm, and was attended by many artists as well as the creators of the site.  “Mea Culpa” received the bulk of the promotion as it was displayed across all the screens that were used for this event.  “Leather Wistfulness” was also displayed, but I haven’t been able to find a picture of that piece yet.  While I was not able to attend, the organizers were kind enough to photograph the whole event and the album is available on Facebook if your interested in viewing it.  A big thank you to See.Me and to my supporters who were able to vote and help make my art visible in New York for one night.

While this show was happening I was in Germany!  Thanks to my girlfriend, we had just flown into Frankfurt a couple days before, and were in Phorzheim when all this was happening.  The 10 day trip was well too short, but we packed in a lot of museums, castles, cuisine, churches, and walking while we were there.

One of the highlights of the trip came during the first few days of the trip in the form of Pretzel bread.  The Pretzel bread from Pforzheim is well known, and I could see why.  During our trip, we never came across another variety that came close to the dough texture, taste, and experience that came with each bun.  A truly worthwhile experience I will have to repeat some day, but for now it will remain a favorite memory of my tastebuds.  We ate many breads during the trip, but this roll was hands down, the winner of all of them.

We also made our way down to the Giger Museum in Switzerland, and it was a mind blowing experience.  The size of some of his works, the layers, and the immaculate attention to detail made each painting a joy to behold.  Unfortunately, photography wasn’t allowed inside the museum, and I only have a few photos from the retail side, as well as a few pictures of the bullet baby and staircase outside.  The man was truly gifted and his museum pays homage to not only his talent, but also to his intense creativity and ability to present his vicious imagination onto canvas.  The trip was well worth it, although if you do go, stay away from the food in Switzerland, it’s way too overpriced and if you want to get get good cuisine, you have to pay a lot of money for it.

I stayed busy while on the road, and completed 3 new paintings, and started a new painting as well.  The first piece I completed was “The New Paradigm“, a new digital painting that I will have available as a digital print.  I really took the time to add a more highlights and shadows to this painting, while breaking up the monotone backgrounds with light splashes of color to accentuate certain features of the painting.  The quote in the painting comes from Richard Henry Pratt, an officer in the U.S. Army who also helped to develop the ideology and structure for Carlisle Indian School.  The model he used for Carlisle, was later adapted by other schools for cultural immersion and assimilation of native kids.

The next piece I completed on the road was “Arachne Rising“. A spray paint, acrylic, pen, pencil, commission piece for a new friend in Mannheim, Germany.  We actually had to find several stores in Heidelberg to complete this project.  We had to find a store that sold spray paints, check, we had to find a store that sold skate board decks, check, and last of all a store that sold art supplies, check!  The concept is based on a previous painting of Spider Woman I had done, and this version is referenced as the Greek goddess version, hence the name Arachne.  I chose to have my vicious smileys coming from her basket along with the swirlys and Spider Woman crosses.  This project was fun and it also showed me that I could paint anywhere, just give me the supplies that are present and I can make you a painting!

The next painting I completed was in Gross-Gerau, Germany.  The surface I painted on a was an heirloom wood table for another friend.  She wanted a piece that was positive, and yet showed my existing art themes.  The project was completed in one day, and despite some problems with the humidity and running paint, I was able to complete “A Shared Thought“, using spray paint, acrylic and pen.  The final piece was then varnished to protect it and came out beautifully!

All in all the trip was way too short, and having coffee at small cafes, checking out all the killer graffiti in every city, to hiking up tons of stairs to see all the cool architecture, to walking actual castles, and soaking up the culture, land, and cuisine.  The Germany trip was awesome!!!  And now onto Santa Fe in a few weeks, I hope to see you there, and if your an artist, ask me about the collaborative show in March!!

Here are a few more panoramic pics, one of Heidelberg Palace, and the other Gruyere, Switzerland at the Giger Museum, enjoy and thank you to my girlfriend Katja, her parents, all her generous friends, Brotzinger Art Gallery, and my supporters for the event in New York!