End of Year Review

This year was already in full swing before it began. I had started 

a number of Uncle Tupelo paintings for a show that was happening

in April and they were completed in quick succession from 

Feb-Mar. But prior to that, the first official painting I finished for the

year 2015 was that of a hot dog. I had an idea of painting menu

items for a restaurant on small canvases that were bright and 

colorful, easy to see and hang. I approached the restaurant with 

my sample but they were not interested. After all the Uncle Tupelo 

paintings (some of which are hanging at the Music Record Shop) 

were completed I did a series of buildings for another show that 

was set for the summer at the East Central College Gallery. 8 mid-size 

canvases which are now hanging in Iowa at Karl Haglund’s 

photography studio. Next up was the large canvas of Jay Farrar 

for the Old Rock House. That painting had been started the year 

before but I didn’t finish it until July. Also in July was a great 

event at the City Museum featuring the band CaveofswordS 

and I snapped a few photos for a future painting. That piece 

was completed soon after. Then I started but never 

completed a painting of Adam Hesed playing Anne Tkach’s 

bass at her tribute show, that piece is currently hanging at 

the Tick Tock Tavern. Finally, another large painting was just 

completed of the new KDHX building and along with that one 

goes the Wilco A.M. cover painting which is the official last 

painting completed for the year 2015. Twenty-two 

paintings all together.

Iowa Bound

Back in April I painted 8 mid-size canvases of buildings and places

located in the city of St. Louis. The paintings were specifically

created for a show from Jun – Aug at East Central College

Gallery in Union, MO. After that show I wrapped them up

and promptly stored them on a canvas rack in my studio.

About a month or so later my friend from Iowa, Karl Haglund,

emailed asking about the paintings. Karl is a painter, well

known for his guitar paintings but he’s also a photographer

and has recently opened a new photography studio in his

home town of Charles City, IA. The studio will not only house

his printing/painting empire but also serve as a place for him

to focus on photography and as it so happens, it’s a great

place for art openings and that’s exactly what he’ll be having

on Friday Nov 6, featuring, yes, you guessed it, 8 mid-size

canvases of buildings and places located in the city of St. Louis,

painted by, me. The show is to help celebrate the grand opening

of his photography studio and I'm delighted to be a part of it.

In addition to the paintings there will also be a special musical guest

star, the phenomenal Chris Grabau (Magnolia Summer, Cave States)

will be on hand to perform live at the opening.

now playing - Cave States

August

I guess these are considered the dog days of summer, whatever the

season, I’m glad to be painting. The focus for now is on this piece

which is the new location of the radio station KDHX, known as the

Larry J. Weir Center for Independent Media located in Grand Center.

It’s a beautiful building that’s been rehabbed into a state of the art

media center and features a café plus music venue on the ground

floor. Needless to say KDHX plays a vital role in the city of St. Louis

for a variety of reasons and it’s a joy to be commissioned to paint this 

piece for a private individual. Yet this is just one of the many projects 

that I’m currently involved in and it’s great to be knee deep in work. 

There are two events coming up in August that I’d like to mention, 

both in the same week. First there will be a tiny show at the 

Tick Tock Tavern on Wed Aug 19 starting at 7pm. The Tick Tock will 

be celebrating all week their 1 year anniversary and have graciously 

invited me to share in that celebration by allowing me to show work 

on the wall that connects them with the tasty Steve’s Hot Dogs. Since 

the Tick Tock has been opened they have lined that wall with some 

simple illustrations I did of notable historic figures such as Albert 

Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt and General Douglas MacArthur. 

For the show, I’ll be painting one new piece that will be posted 

as the event gets closer. Also for this show I’ll have 

posters of paintings available for sale. Then on 

Friday Aug 21 will be the reception for the show “To Be 

Determined” at the East Central College Gallery located 

in Union, MO. This show features 8 new large pieces of 

buildings and places in the city of St. Louis, plus smaller 

older pieces. The reception will be from 5pm-7pm and I hope 

you can make it out to see this group of paintings. For now, back

to work.

 Now playing – The Jans Project

Good Busy

The first half of 2015 has been very busy. Two solo shows that took 

up most of the first 6 months preparing for and now the second half

of 2015 looks to be just as busy with commissions. On the verge of

completing a new piece for the Old Rock House, will then jump right

into a large canvas of the new KDHX building, in addition to the

piece pictured above, which will eventually be Off Broadway. 

At the end of this week the band CaveofswordS will be playing

at the City Museum and I’ll be there photographing for a future 

painting.

This is just the first grouping of work that will be keeping me busy,

there’s more on the way. This is great, I love staying busy, especially 

with painting but there is one little problem. The problem of Time. 

Sometimes there just isn’t enough Time to go around. Thankfully, 

those who I’m working with are very understanding and 

accommodating when it comes to time. Many of the pieces I’m 

working on are large and I can be amazingly stubborn if something

 doesn’t look the way I want it to look. I’ll spend countless hours, 

sometimes turning into days or even weeks of working and then 

re-working one small aspect of a painting. To do that requires 

Time and as we all know, Time is running out.

now playing - The Chamber Brothers

Jay Farrar at the Old Rock House

Last Fall Jay Farrar played an acoustic show at the Old Rock House 

and I was there, right up front and snapped some nice photos to 

work from for a painting that will eventually go in the Old Rock House. 

I had to put the piece on hold for a number of months for a number of 

reasons but now I’m back at it and hope to complete it soon. The 

packed show was mostly a low key affair, with his brother opening 

while both performers shared current Son Volt guitar slinger, 

Gary Hunt, also known as a great multi-instrumentalist. We were

treated to a mix bag of Farrar/Son Volt tunes and even 

an Uncle Tupelo song or two.

Farrar has lost nothing on his voice, if anything it has aged to 

perfection and the stripped down sound really highlighted how

incredible it is. His songs are as solid as they come, cornerstones

of a foundation that started right here in this area, surrounding the

Mississippi River. While one may miss his ferocious electric guitar

playing, he’s still a force to be reckoned with and this community

should be damn proud to have produced such an important artist.

In my excitement of the prospect of painting someone of Farrar’s 

stature, I selected a rather big canvas, 40x60 inches. This will be

the largest canvas to date that I’ve done for the Old Rock House.

The size is another reason it’s taken so long to complete. I probably

didn’t need to go that big, but what the hell.

After looking at this piece from a distance and photographing it, I 

don't like it at all. Gonna start over on him, make him a bit smaller.

longer and trim it up a bit.

now playing - Jay Farrar

To Be Determined

A few months back I was invited by East Central College Gallery to show work from Jun through Aug. At the time I was knee deep in Uncle Tupelo paintings, not sure of what to show but still jumped at the great opportunity. I let them know I was interested but wasn't exactly sure of what I would have to show and asked the show be titled "To Be Determined". Amazingly, they were all for it. As soon as the UT pieces were completed, I began work on new mid-large sized paintings.

Recently two artists, independent of each other, mentioned to me the "rough urban" quality in my work. They meant it as a compliment and that's how I took it as well. This is what I've been thinking about the most while creating this new series of paintings. I'm slowly starting to realize the most important things in painting are lines, shapes and colors. Nothing else really matters and as long as those three qualities are an accurate reflection of who you are as an painter, then it will all work out.

 now playing - Grandpa's Ghost

Anne Tkach

In 1997 I fulfilled a childhood dream and finally moved to the 

city of St. Louis. At the time I was spending most of my time

painting and didn’t know anyone in the city except for a few

skateboarders. Around the block from where I lived was 

some rinky dink gallery and I got involved with them. Sure

enough in a few months the guy running the place had

disappeared along with money and all kinds of items that 

belonged to a number of people including myself. That’s 

when I decided to switch back to music and start a band. 

Not knowing one musician in St. Louis, I convinced two friends 

from my hometown of Jackson to move to St. Louis and play 

music with me. It was from this decision that I met so many 

of my current friends, including Anne Tkach.

The first time I saw her was at Frederick’s Music Lounge. I 

had just moved in down the street and both Frederick’s and 

Lemmons was in walking distance of the rented house. 

During this time the band she was in, Nadine, were very 

active and would play occasionally at Fred’s. Nadine was a

real band in every sense of the word, real recordings, real 

CDs, real shows, real manager, real tours, the whole real thing. 

I was very new to this scene and didn’t know a soul. I was

way too timid and shy to talk to any of the band members, 

but that didn’t stop Anne from talking to me. From there we’d

bump into each at Fred’s, Lemmons, Way Out Club and Chris

Deckard’s studio, Radio Penny. The first show I played with

her was at Lemmons when they were having bands play in

the basement, she was filling in with Deckard’s band, Incorporated

and my goofy band was playing also. I still remember walking

to Lemmons from my house thinking, “Wow, playing a show

with Anne”.

After a while I gave up being in a band and went back to painting. 

The first pieces I painted during this time was a series of musicians

who I had met while playing in bands. These musicians were not

only in bands I’d go see as a fan, but they were real people

who I had gotten to know, spend time with and love with all

my heart. The first batch of paintings included, Mark Stephens,

Fred Friction, Jason Hutto, Eric Hall, Chris Deckard and

of course Anne.

Our friendship blossomed when she started playing in a band

called Bad Folk. She played drums in this band, and Holy Shit

could she play the drums. I would talk to her about it and she’d

just kind of brush it off. The whole idea of Bad Folk was everyone

in the band was playing an instrument they didn’t normally play.

But Anne was so damn talented that you would think she was

drumming all her life. The band contacted me to do some

artwork for them and over the course of a couple years I hung

out and worked with them at every opportunity. Their last

album, which was never release, was to feature a painting I had

done specifically for them, but it was not to be. Despite the

album being so amazing, it was never released and the band

broke up. During that time I would hang out at Anne and Adam’s

apartment a lot just talking with them about it all, drinking beers

and generally enjoying their company. I never did understand

what the hell happened to that band, but out of that break, two

phenomenal bands developed, Union Electric and

the great Magic City.

After that time, our relationship was cemented and I just

assumed we’d always be friends until we were both old and

meeting up at the corner tavern. Dare I even say I took for

granted all the times I would see her? Each time we’d always

talk and catch up, have drinks, be goofy, be serious and end

with a big hug. The idea of actually seeing or bumping into

her somewhere was reason enough to get out of bed, she

always made everything better. She truly cared and was

authentic about it, and that’s not just with me, that was with

everyone. That’s how she treated everyone. One time at the

Heavy Anchor she off handily mentioned how she’d like to

jam sometime with me on drums, her on bass and Adam on

keys. After that I always threatened that I was going to show

up on her doorstep one day and take her up on her offer. It

was something I actually dreamed about, thought about all

the time. But of course life gets in the way of stuff like that. 

She never flinched and said, “We’ll be waiting for you”.

The last time I saw her was in January. It was a Sunday night

and kind of late. I got a message from Jaime Lees saying

Hutto was in town and at Ryder’s. I wanted to see him so

I headed down there. Sure enough there was Hutto surrounded

by all these people, it’s always like that. So I grabbed a seat

at the end of the bar to wait for a break to say “hello”. Jaime

was there and we started talking and drinking. Then out of

the corner of my eye, I see someone waving at the other end

of the bar, it was Anne. She got up, walked down and sat

down next to me. We just picked right up from where we left

off the last time we saw each other. We ended up spending the

whole evening together and thankfully Jaime took some photos. 

Photos I’ll cherish forever. I still can’t believe we’ll never see her again.

Now playing – Rough Shop

University City Library April 2 - 29 "Graveyard Shift"

Once a month I try to write an update to let everyone know what's been going on but it's been so damn crazy lately that there's been no time to write anything. So I'll use this post to promote the show "Graveyard Shift" which opens April 10 at the University City Public Library. New paintings of the band Uncle Tupelo. The last 6 months have been spent working on this idea which originated about 2 years ago. It's nice to finally see it all come together. Once these paintings are completed though, I have more work to do for another show that will be this summer, but more on that later. For now, I hope I did justice to this great band whose music will live on forever.

now playing - Uncle Tupelo

the Music Record Shop

The Music Record Shop is a cool record/tape/CD shop located right between the Ready Room and The Demo on Manchester in the Grove area. After talking with Mark and Daniel there, I was allowed to hang a number of paintings and make them available for sale. This is really a great way to get the pieces in front of a lot of people who normally wouldn't see them and it's worked out really well. The shop is very supportive of St. Louis bands and artists, and they're always looking for opportunities to do more. For now, primarily older paintings like the one pictured above are available there, but I did just drop off a brand new piece of the band Demon Lover. However, as time goes on, new paintings as they're completed will be added and available for sale. This will be a good reason to get back out and start photographing shows again, something I haven't really been doing for a while now. Be sure to stop in and check out their record selection and see some artwork.

now playing - records from the Music Record Shop

Graveyard Shift

In the last three months I’ve started on what will be the bulk of a
series of paintings on the band Uncle Tupelo for a show at the
University City Library in April titled “Graveyard Shift”. The
paintings and show have been a long time coming in what’s
been an evolving set of circumstances that started over a
year ago in 2013. Way back then, Iowa artist Karl Haglund
and myself daydreamed about having a joint show at some
point in the future and brainstormed on what that show could
consist of. After many emails back and forth, we settled on
Uncle Tupelo. We both had our own reasons for that subject and
it seemed like nice common ground for us to meet on. Unfortunately,
for many more reasons, that show never happened. Karl did,
however, show a series of great paintings based on St. Louis guitar
players this past Oct at KDHX titled “Fifteen Keys”, but the
titled was the only reference to Uncle Tupelo.

I was stalled for a long time because of lack of images to paint. Sure
I could have gone online and googled a bunch of UT pictures but
that really didn’t interest me. I wanted images that weren’t well
known or even published. Photos from people who were actually
there and experienced what was happening. But that was proving
hard to find, at least for me. Eventually, though, slowly but surely,
I started to acquire beautiful photographs from various people
who were either there or actually took the photo themselves.
This includes two incredible black and white photographs,
one of the original trio playing what appears to be a cramped
show at the infamous Cicero’s basement venue circa 1990
and another of the band, along with Brian Henneman (from
The Bottle Rockets) sitting in the well-worn upstairs apartment
the band rented in Belleville, IL.

Another trio of photos came from the last show UT played which
was at Mississippi Nights on May 1, 1994. The photographer
snapped 3 photos before being ordered by security to cut it out
or the film would be confiscated. No more photos were taken,
but these 3 are really incredible and have never been seen by the
public at large. These images along with three other paintings I
had already started of the cover art of the first three UT albums
will make up all the pieces for the show.

In addition to these paintings, Steve Pick will write an essay
(for lack of a better word) to go along with the exhibit. The essay
won’t exactly be about Uncle Tupelo, though that will be main
premise, but more about what it was like to be around during that
time. To watch a band form, develop, play live shows, gain a following,
tour, recording, etc. Try and help put things in context for those, like
myself, who were not around to experience it. In short, he’ll offer much
needed perspective on what a rare and exciting thing this was.

As you can see there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done on
these pieces. I only have 3 months left to complete them.

now playing - Uncle Tupelo