It's Been a While Blogger! August Update!

First post in over a month..awesome. It's been a great, but lazy end to the summer, regarding art at least. Lot to catch up on tho..

• My best friends' tattoo which i drew up was laid in ink on July 17th

• Started two full length mirrors(see first one at bottom, second one my girlfriend and i are workin on)
• Emotions..everywhere(ya'll are lucky to be seeing this deep into me, and this ain't even a fraction of what i've felt this past summer)//

• A weekend in Boston, MA

A sick ass alley on the walk to Harveard

I had to..

A look into Harvard

It's me!!

 ..and, well..a shitload of other things i can't even begin to describe, and too many photos to pin up here. But i'm coming out of the summer knowing that all of it was absolutely perfect and whatever happened, good or bad, had its reasons.

..

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Workin on another mirror right now which will hopefully be sold to a tattoo gallery(that'd be sick..), and just started today at Melting Pot Naperville touching up scratches and nics on the walls..painted a little over 120 of them today(because they're white) and i'm not even 3/4 into the restaurant yet..sweet. Hopefully will be good money though. So far throughout the summer i've painted/been painting 3 pieces..yea..only 3. and i have a shitload of mirrors from garbage picking. 8 at least.- Anyone wishing to look at themselves through the eyes of a graffiti artist?

Can you see my work? GOOD, me neither! success..

July Heat//

quick sketch to pass the time working in the gallery

It's been a while..so here's my June update!

Here's a tattoo i've been working on (more recently) for my best friend. Still workin out a few issues as this is only a preliminary sketch, just to see how he feels about it. He had me read this Native American legend, and then told me to draw whatever came to mind. God, i love doing that. It's nice to get a break from people being really particular with what they want, especially with tattoos not really dealing with my style..but i'll have to adapt to them at some point.. Anyways, yea..this is what i've come up with so far, i'm thinking of taking out some linework on the turtles back and replacing it with something else..other symbolism from the legend perhaps. yea, that'd be sick. be on the lookout!

Oh..and keep that Heart movin//

'Can't let her dance up on the top floor
been there done that
what do you think it's locked for?'

yep..

and this piece here, i've been working on and off for some time now..since February, i've always had that perfect image in my head but have never been able to execute it..so here's that process of 'fuck up and try again' //

1(acrylic wash)

2(the fuck up)

3(the redemption process)

4(redemption continued..more to come)

oh..and i should probably get back to looking for more colleges..sigh

We're not really s'posed to talk about this..but//

So i carry this thing around with me EVERYWHERE..and i don't let anyone look at it. i never have..it's just something to write stuff down in, mostly stress related stuff. but I felt i had to share this one//

I have THE worst memory ever, and usually i can't remember the time nor place where i wrote whatever it was in this book just from the text, so i mark up the pages like you see here(stains of french vanilla tea, from when i was studying for a final with friends the other week)- from seeing that, i can instantly remember everything about that point in eternity when i wrote that, what i was going through at the time, the feelings i was enduring, etc. it's amazing what marking up the pages can do for you. Thank God for a visual mind. Keep your Hearts open.

Raw Esoteric// Merry Christmas, Brother

Stage 1. Past Relationship: Framed in white, shards of our work remain as we have always executed them; true works of art and nothing less. We gave everything to this place; hot cans in the summer, cold sweat in the winter, cuts and bruises, dirt and grime, and whole albums of memories, music, and lungs of dusted color. The top and bottom frames contain paint chips from individual pieces we’ve painted together, and meeting in the middle frame are chips from works which have brought us closer together in a multitude of ways; the first wall we killed together, meeting Nice1, those nights.., buffing… We worked from the outside in, Casa made us stronger.

Stage 2. Newness: The under light illuminates through transparent panes, engulfing the paint chips into an overpowering silhouette: this light immerses the color of each chip into the shadows, removing their identity from the walls and eliminating any memory for future generations. Rebirth and cleanliness will be the new face of Count Casa, and will never be the same to us again. It will never hold the same glory, the walls will never be as challenging, and she will never be seen in the same light.

Stage 3. Memory: The ‘memory’ of the old Casa retaliates, and with one last dying breath crawls through and beneath the paint chips. Having this glow of our Hearts imbedded within her walls, it eventually dies out with time. It shines not as bright as previously, but is more mysterious, making the viewer want to strip away at the paint chips to reveal the true wall once again. We will always have the memory of Count Casa in our Hearts, and never let that memory go until the day we die. In the summer we thrived there, and in the winter we froze there; painting, having Heart to Heart talks, bringing girls there, throwing rocks at fucking trains. It was our second home and nothing will take that from us.

Raw Esoteric(R.I.P. Count Casa)

March 5, 2012

Framed paint chips
(Thanks to A. Marpo for the photos!)

This was given to my best friend, David..probably THE most sentimental piece i've created yet.. This was his Christmas gift(i told you i'd finish it!), and if you don't recall i've made a couple previous posts about this guy//

February9th

January25th

December21st

..anyways, i've been holding onto that frame since August 2010, so it's been a while. and i've always had ideas with what to do with it but this just hit me one day..i HAD to make this, and i did! i just wish it didn't click earlier with what kind of lights to use(i tend to over think).. gorgeous nonetheless, something that captures the grime and beauty of our second home, and the transition of such history. i'd rather no one else have this piece than David, we hit bumps, shit goes down, but we still love each other and keep each other movin through life. Merry Christmas David.

Finished..?

1 Just laid the stencil out on this the other day but i'm not really feelin it//

it was a bit hard getting that Heart to follow perspective along the wall, had to go back to paint in the n00b 'overspray' to help emphasize that aspect. i mean, this was only intended as a test work for colors and application methods. (mind the poor lighting of the overall piece). i think i'll call this one finished before i cause any other damage. R.I.P. Count Casa  - 2011. 2.22.12

2 Just peeled the rest of the mask off this one..think i'll call it finished as well. not STOKED about the turnout but i'm content with my first time serious watercolor use. I don't think i'll put the Heart in this one..just because..idk, i think it looks better in the above one only. To me it gives off a mysterious or lonely feeling, having something covered up with the white buff(the past), but having nothing over it(perhaps representing a feeling no one else can relate to) we'll see if i grow into it. R.I.P. Count Casa  - 2011. 2.22.12//

                  

original photo worked from for both drawings, taken August, 2011

Blessing

I want to take your Love with me when i leave this world.

Shall anyone experience the meaning of my Love,

i choose no one but you.

Because i still find myself holding onto your skin,

walking forever aimlessly on that line which defines day & night.

That temptation consumes me.

To chase after a mislead dream than to wake up and loathe reality. 

I have you trapped outside of my Heart, yet suffocating underneath my skin.

And only you can resurface the memory, that feeling,

us.

I spent the latter part of last week writing this in my tiny notebook(literally, it's roughly 3"x5"), focusing the days' emotional peak to write down tiny parts, sentences, phrases which i came up with at any time of day. I carry this thing everywhere for purposes like this. I initially started writing this about a girl, we've gone through a lot and this isn't the first thing i've written about her. A lot of them are more abstract like this one(especially the highlighted part where it may not make much sense..there's a novel behind it i guarantee you). Anyways, i was encountered at university today by a new friend, Bob. He asked if i had a minute for God, explaining his parish for a bit, a current mission trip, followed by small Jesus goodies and thorough logic/connections of people to God. Honestly made my day, this is what I've been lacking for almost a year now..Jesus time. I took this as a sign, because i was wandering through campus looking for food(rarely happens, but it was a nice day to skate and do such), when he sat down with me. JUST now i thought to look back at what i wrote from last week, as i was having trouble looking for an ending or anything else to add in the midst of the weekend stress. It hit me, i wasn't writing about this girl, God had me writing about my own life, and how he's given me rope and how i've fallen with that slack. Drifted away and have found for myself the literal Hell i've put myself through.. i wanted this slack..just to get a better taste of 'life' as other people live it. I've lost my roots, who i am, and even more friends.. it HITS you.

Thanks Bob!


Oh..and congrats to the 500th viewer on my blog, you've earned..another 'tick' on the Total Pageviews.

Newest sketch..what a wonderful way to end 2011..ok. 9"x12" Ballpoint Pen 12.21 - 12.24.11

As with most of my recent sketches..this one representing change, but more reminiscent of the past. This bridge is again pictured(i'm obsessed, tell me. i'll miss this place), with its West wall being transparent, as you can't really get this view from standing inside that spot, or anywhere else in reality. Anyways, this girl and i are drawn both younger than we are, the same age, how we always have been and will be in our Hearts. I was wanting her to finish the drawing by adding something in the middle..guess that won't happen- in a positive sense it opens up the drawing for interpretation, a sense of mystery for what is going on between the two figures, the rock that appears to be illuminated, and why i look so weird..? then again when don't i..?  Fortune added to enhance mystery ooooOOOOoo, jk. - i thought it reflected the piece/my current state perfectly.//

truth is, i was going to tell you..
that every night i dream of being in your arms again,
and every day is the reality of not having that warmth in my Heart.
because an angel knows love, sees love, feels love, it is not needing to be heard.
you are not an angel.
you are human.
you are here on earth, here with me.
i can feel you, feel you inching the knife into my chest.
and for you, i rehearse this feeling,
my illusion full circle..

First Love. f.s.u. December 5, 2011. Ballpoint pen.

Thinkin of putting something in the upper right hand corner..?

Like Father Like Son. November 2011. First pair with airbrush.

Kentucky Spotted!! June 2011

Sketchbook 1 - 9.27.11