Poetry Scores 8th Art Invitational

 

Friday, Nov. 9 from 7-10 p.m. at Mad Art Gallery, 2727 So. 12^th St. in Soulard.  Poetry Scores presents 50 artists visually interpreting Andreas Embirikos’ poem “Phantom of the Dreams’ Origin”.
 

 For the last few months the idea of doing some linoleum prints was appealing to me for some reason. Not sure why, but that’s what my mind was on. I came up with a plan to do a small series of four film directors, Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and David Lynch. After a quick powwow with my old high school pal Eric Woods of the world famous Firecracker Press, I was off and running with my first print. In the midst of all that I got the reminder that the next Poetry Scores event was coming up and I had committed myself to a portrait of the event’s feature poet, Andreas Embirikos. So instead of painting an individual painting of the poet, I decided to exploit my new self-driven obsession of doing linoleum prints and print his portrait. The result is fine. I did two different cuts, on the second cut I used a few different colors. There are a total of 38 prints and they’ll all be available at the event along with art from other artists listed below.

 

 

Hannah Bailey
Kevin Belford
James Blackwood
Jeff Brawn
Hunter Brumfield III
Dail Chambers
Bill Christman
Jen Collins
Jon Cournoyer
Heather Corley
Mikey Davidson
Deb Douglas
Dr. Andrew Dykeman
Jennifer Saenz Dykeman
Julie Evanoff
Thom Fletcher
Flowers to the People
Marth Rose Green
Paul Hartman
Sue Hartman
JoAnn Houle
Alexa Hoyer
Rick Jordan
Chris King
Leyla Fern King
Julie Malone
Tim McAvin
MSTR Gringo
Carmelita Nunez
Mike Pagano
Hap Phillips
Thomas Plunk
John Pruitt
Jeremy Rabus
Tony Renner
Kim Keek Richardson
Cindy Royal
Stefene Russell
Lorna Scobie
C. Scott
Janiece Senn
Derek Simmons
Dana Smith
Robin Street-Morris
Brian Styles
Mark Swain
Andrew Torch
Ipek Tuna
Wayne St. Wayne
Jess Witte

 

now playing - Rolling Stones

Tower Groove Records Singles Subscription

Tone Rodent/Kisser

During the summer of 2011, in the grueling heat, weekly meetings began happening in the backyard of Jason Hutto’s house. The meetings were eventually moved to various bars around town but the subject always remained the same, Tower Groove Records. The first order of business was how to get a double LP released and that eventually led to the Tower Groove Carnival which did indeed raise enough money to release the double album.

 Now the agenda is a 7 inch singles club subscription series which promises to be every bit as ambitious as the double album. They’re taking 12 bands and then adding 12 more bands and releasing a vinyl 7 inch record each month for the year of 2013. If you purchase a subscription to the whole series you can get a break on the price of each record. Your first chance to sign up for a subscription is coming on Saturday Oct 20. From 2pm-7pm right outside of Apop Records on Cherokee Street they’ll have bands playing, food cooking and beer drinking all for your enjoyment. While you’re there you can let your intentions be known that you plan on subscribing to the record series thus saving yourself some money at the Tower Groove Records booth.

 In addition to the 24 bands, there are 4 artists who have been slated to create artwork for 3 of the releases each. Jeff Robtoy gets first crack with Jan-Mar releases, next up will be me for Apr-Jun, then it’s handed off to Adam Watkins (artist for the double LP cover) for Jul-Sep and clean up will be Mark Stephens for Oct-Dec. All this makes the subscription series special and a one-time thing with a limited number of each record being printed. The painting above will grace the cover of the Tone Rodent/Kisser single.

 

Here’s what you get for the subscription

 

Jan: Old Lights/Demon Lover

Feb: Doom Town/Black for a Second

Mar: Bunnygrunt/Trauma Harness

Apr: Skekses/CaveofSwords

May: Tone Rodent/Kisser

Jun: Ransom Note/Nee

Jul: Maximum Effort/Shaved Women

Aug: Magic City/Jungle Fire

Sep: Peck of Dirt/Little Big Bangs

Oct: Bug Chaser/Troubador Dali

Nov: Accelerando/Humdrum

Dec: Sleepy Kitty/Middle Class Fashion

 

 

July: Maximum Effort/Shaved Women
August: Magic City/Jungle Fire
September: Peck of Dirt/Little Big Bangs
October: Bug Chaser/Troubador Dali
November: Accelerando/HumdrumThe event on Sat Oct 20 promises to be a memorable one with a great live line up. Stop by, have a beer, some food and get a subscription before they’re all sold out.

Tower Groove Records Fall Informal
Saturday October 20, 2 PM to 7 PM
Bands include: Accelerando, Bug Chaser, Jungle Fire, Kisser, Shaved Women, Skekses and Trauma Harness
Local Harvest will provide food.Tower Groove Records Fall Informal
Saturday October 20, 2 PM to 7 PM
Bands include: Accelerando, Bug Chaser, Jungle Fire, Kisser, Shaved Women, Skekses and Trauma Harness
Local Harvest will provide Tower Groove Records Fall Informal

Sat Oct 20, 2012
Apop Records (outside)
2pm-7pm
Live performances from: Accelerando, Bug Chaser, Jungle Fire, Kisser, Shaved Women, Skekses and Trauma Harness

Local Harvest will provide food and drink

 

now playing - Tone Rodent

Gringo Star Trio

In the back of their van painted 2005

at Radio Cherokee painted 2007

at CBGB painted 2012

 

I was dutifully working on large paintings of Eric Johnson and Shooter Jennings when I noticed Jaime Lees letting people know NPR was streaming the new Dinosaur Jr album so I clicked and gave a listen.  Prompted by that record, I completed a painting I had started a while back of Peter DeLorenzo playing guitar while in the band Gringo Star.  The photograph I was working from is back when the band had a gig at CBGB (STL) probably in 2005 or 06 or 07, who knows now.  After finishing it I thought back to the other paintings I had done of them and decided to post them up. 

 

now playing - Dinosaur Jr.

Eric Johnson at the Old Rock House

7/28/12

8/03/12

8/18/12

Here's a nice little progression that gives an idea of the painting process.  Started back in July with spray paint.  Just need a rough idea of where certain things are to get a strong foundation.
Then worked through the week to get a good form going with acrylic paint.  Although for the lights, gouache was used to give them a brighter look and feel.  Even in this early, undeveloped state you can still get a notion of who is being depicted.  Clear definition begins to creep in during the next two weeks and things begin to get set in stone.  Took a week off to work on something for Tower Groove Records but back at it now and making good time.

now playing - Band of Gypsys

Trio

Here's a trio of paintings from my daughter. I know, everyone thinks their kid is some kind of artist and maybe they are. Perhaps all kids are artists in the way they think. They're curious, they unknowingly take risks, they're innocent and genuinely interested in learning something. Give them art supplies and they're bound to express themselves honestly in one way or another. Another thing I like about these pieces is they were produced naturally, unprompted. She sat down, picked out the colors, got her brushes and went at it on her own.

Recently on a drive home from dinner it was requested by my daughter that this song be played over and over.

now playing - run run run

Art of PAWS

For the second year I've been invited to participate in the "Art of PAWS" event that helps raise money for Saint Louis Effort for AIDS.  PAWS provides education and services to people living with HIV/AIDS so they can keep pet companions as long as possible. 

They have a number of artists donate artwork to be auctioned off.  The painting above is my contribution.  This year's event will be on Aug 11 at The Rialto Ballroom (within the Centene Center for the Arts at 3547 Olive).  It's a great event and organization and if you can't attend and bid on a piece of work, I still strongly encourage you to donate to this cause.

Art on Beer

Back in March I mentioned I was working on a painting of Mike Doughty from an Old Rock House gig back in October. It seems I’ve hit a brick wall with this painting as I’ve started over on it three times now. Not sure what is causing the block but I sense it’s the fact that I don’t care much for his music. I read his book and quite enjoyed it but can’t listen to the his tunes. So while speculating on a new plan of attack on how to complete the piece over a beer at the Tap Room, I run into Chris King. He tells me he’s worked out a deal with El Lenador to have first Thursday art openings that will include drink specials and asks if I want to help him put some shows together. I say, “sure thing” and then he says, “OK, great, first show is Thursday, get some bands and we’ll put up some paintings”. Rolling with the punches (and the beer consumed) I agree and go my merry way.

The next day I had a vague recollection of having to book two bands for a show in 4 days. I email Chris to confirm and sure enough I had agreed to such a thing. After some discussion, we agree it’s probably best to push this project off for a month so we can properly prepare. Chris tells me I can hang whatever I want but I don’t really have anything to hang. I look over at my canvas rack and it’s filled with completed canvases that were just shown in a January show.

I noticed a number of long blank canvases sitting on the rack. These canvases measure 12 inches by 36 or 18 by 36 or 12 by 18, nice long canvases I’ve never used. I figured I could fill them up with beer El Lenador sells so when someone asks what kind of beer they have, they can just point at the walls. I could do a painting of a Corona, a PBR, a Stag, a Negra Modelo, a Modelo Especial, a Becks, a Dos Equis and finally a Schlafly Pale Ale (pictured above).

Then I decided to do all the paintings in oil. My usual medium preference is acrylic but I was still grappling with the whole Mike Doughty thing and trying to figure out a way to loosen things up a bit. I thought if I worked in an unfamiliar medium then that might keep me on my toes. I also wanted to keep these fresh and not over think them, so I started and completed each piece in one session.  Yeah there might be some mistakes here and there but too bad. Kind of like a live performance from a musician. Go with the flow and see what happens.

Over all I’m very happy with the results. I didn’t spend too much time or overwhelm myself and I got eight new canvases completed in less than a month. I started with spray paint and then filled in the blanks with oil. Oil is much different than acrylic, it’s less forgiving and requires more attention. Again, it’s like music, like playing music on an acoustic guitar vs. electric. Acoustic is very easy to control, like acrylic paint, but once you step into oil, like an electric guitar, everything gets amplified and you better be ready to make every stroke and movement count.

It was decided that the first show will be on Thu July 5 and Chris added Jay Babcock to the line-up of artists. I talked with Tim Rakel (Union Electric, May Day Orchestra) and Sherman S. Sherman (Peck of Dirt) about playing some solo tunes and now we’re set.

Art on Beer

El Lenador
3124 Cherokee St.
St. Louis, MO 63118

New work by
Dana Smith
Chris King
Jay Babcock

Solo sets by
Tim Rakel
Sherman S. Sherman

Thu July 5
9 pm - midnight
Art up until Aug. 2
This also kicks off Negro Modelo Night at El Lenador
$1 off Negro Model drafts at all Thursday night art openings.
Next openings: Tim McAvin (Aug. 2), Kim Keek Richardson (Sept. 6)

now playing - Fred Friction and Bob Camp