This Blog..

has gone to shit, and i feel more professional with my flickr page. I probably won't be using this blog much longer, so keep in tune with my flickr for more art!

è andato a puttane, e mi sento più professionale con la mia pagina flickr.com. Probabilmente non si utilizza questo blog molto più a lungo, in modo da tenere in sintonia con il mio flickr per più arte!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartistbeforeyou/

ONE YEAR

Turns out that yesterday has been officially A YEAR since i've been here on Blogger..awesome.. Happy Birthday website! Let's celebrate with better picture layouts//

my flickr account..check it..

THIS..

Mine, along with other students' works. Far left, Daniel and
i were in the same class when we were assigned this drawing project.

..is my baby. and they finally hung it up at the Wings Gallery at the College of DuPage. This drawing has been around..as part of the Original Post, the Juried Student Art Exhibit, then the Prairie Light Review, and finally this. This exhibit is for the incoming students, as a preface of what the art department(students) is capable of doing and how we can really fsu. I have already two offers to buy this piece from this gallery so we'll see how this goes..//

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.

..

.

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..

I Need a REAL Website..

blogger sucks at arranging multiple photos on one post..


seriously..try it.

July Heat//

quick sketch to pass the time working in the gallery

Oh..And this just in..

It's about time, right?! Got this little piece of paper delivered by Estella the postwoman this past week..
So..according to the government, good luck to me finding a job in the arts before i received this, i couldn't draw, paint, or express myself through art before i had this piece of paper that says i could do so, and everyone should have this to be successful in life. good luck to me in life without having one of these, right? Ok government..
Thanks for having me pay less for my whole time being a student at COD, than most kids pay for their first semester, COD. Really tho, thanks.

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

Throwback#2// A Timelapse of History/Fall 2009

Created with my older brother in mind, film producer Mike Krumlauf and myself collaborated on and off for a month(or two) back in the Fall of 2009, intertwining two different mediums for a remarkable end piece. I focused on my brothers' history(which mostly associating with school/extracurricular activities. at the time this was created, he was currently enrolled at NIU), so i incorporated icons of where he's been and certain highlights of such/ my ingrained first impression of NIU. It was a good piece to mess around with, considering i got the canvas for free.. Fun times on this project, definitely worth the back pain i got from this piece. If you have 11:38 minutes, please, it'll be worth your time.//




oh..and just realized i had posted this way earlier in the year..there's that bad memory again..woops..

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.

Too young, and too soon..R.I.P. Matt McMahon May17,1991 - May3,2012

Your Hearts and prayers, please//

http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/12328625-418/family-friends-mourn-young-man-killed-in-naper-car-crash.html

Break Science/ city guts and human Heart on mirror/ April 12 2012

So my friend finally sent me the shots i've been patiently waiting for//

But this is ONE of my favorites.. Refer to March Update for the preceding stages of this piece

We had the final critique for our class today; we had to chose one work to talk about, i chose this one. When it was our turn, our professor would ask just us a series of questions about the piece and the semester.
Mine went a little different. Before she could ask me anything, i asked those at the critique to get up and look at themselves in the mirror. Immerse themselves, see themselves surrounded by this graffiti and keep in mind what they feel. Many said things along the lines of, 'it made me a bit uncomfortable,' or 'it was really cool, i really got a sense of what graffiti is and the message.' Looking back, i find it easier to define the goal of this work, it's simple;

1. If it changed how you feel about graffiti in some way, if it made you feel something along the lines of uncomfortability, then i've proven my communication through graffiti.
2. With graffiti there is a message, you just have to look close enough.

I then explained my art, in the way that most people worry about which colors to use, or what the composition will be, what to paint. I focus on what feelings i want to get out. The majority of my work is done from pure emotion, and living 'in the moment'. I asked students to help me deface this mirror, write on it, anything. I wanted it to be a communal thing, directly reflecting graffiti, as well as the ^living in the moment^ aspect. I included personal things to the wheatpaste collage in the lower left; a love letter/goodbye letter, shreds of a past sunflowers, soil from Providence, RI, a representation of my crush from this past spring, and other artifacts i was enduring within the time period i created this piece. I named it Break Science because of this song i found/obsessing over it during my work on this piece. I explained how huge emotions are for me etc etc, and how my work greatly reflects that. I could've gone on and on, but the point was, I was successful in conveying the message through something which is passed by unnoticed(most of the time) everyday, and brought the viewer into the scene, into another 'dimension', into my life every day.

Oh, and there was a high school show at COD a couple weeks ago(where this article is from), conveniently it was the night i put this on display there..forgot to put my name out there with business cards -_- oh well..

The Inner City Getdown

My man Chris startin out with their
first handimal

Honestly, stepping into my painting class on the first day, i never thought we'd have an opportunity like this. Never in my three years of college so far have i participated in anything like this for a class, nor has a single professor promoted their line of study in a field situation like this; real life, as real as it gets, pure interaction with art through the community. Our class, among others under the guidance of Professor Hereth of the College of DuPage were fortunate enough to visit the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Elementary School/Junior High in Humboldt Park, Chicago, to paint the stairway walls of a 100 year old facility with its students. Our mission was to decorate the deteriorating walls of the schools' main stairwell, using the childrens hands to form the animals which we would trace, then paint(like shadow puppets on a wall). Just a glimpse of the action//

these kids were absolutely owning this wall!

View from the top floor

 'Lilly'(her nickname) was among one of my favorite kids to work with. She's in..3rd grade i believe. Her favorite color is purple(and red and black. awesome right?!), and favorite animal is a tiger. so we painted a purple striped, red tiger!(: She was pretty open about family(her older brother was a favorite topic), random fun facts, and school- her favorite subject is math- math seemed to be a favorite subject at BVM..interesting. It was amazing, being able to work outside the classroom and get more out of it than just working with enthusiastic kids. And honestly, the kids at this middle school completely set the bar, shall we take another field trip like such. They just give you this energy, studying art for so many years, then messing around painting hand animals in a run down stairway. It just gives you a lot of perspective,and makes you appreciate how far you've come, that whole 'taking a step back' thing. The whole experience was just too exhilarating to put it in type, it doesn't do it justice.

Lilly putting the finishing touches on our red tiger. She painted a green
tongue because she said the tiger tried eating the Lilly flower but got sick from it.

We ended up painting for almost 5 straight hours with the kids, i ended up painting with 5 kids, ranging from 2nd to 8th grade- Yesenia, Anthony, Lilly, then the George and 'Bleach' duo at the end of the school day. The last two were really cool too, especially. George wants to be an artist as well, and has had quite the history with pets in his family(the name of his dog escapes my mind). Forgot to give him a business card for this site -_- oh well. Really amazing kids however, and that's an understatement. The light for these kids truly shines in Humboldt Park. Some shot of the finished stairwells//

Lilly's flower accompanied by a gnarly flower

A panda my friend was workin on

George's dog chasing a squirrel

Keds// Pair 1 of the Mother/Daughter set

The request was shades of blue, and lots of geometric patterns(are we best friends?!). I thought i'd mess around with blue..not just shades, but get some character out of it(i only used two different blues, one bright, and the other iridescent) with layering and such of different shapes of color..yes, shapes of color. Delivered today by postwoman Estela, i'll be patiently waiting to hear back via her daughter, while my friend procrastinates on getting me my finished mirror portfolio shots -__-   //

COD Juried Student Art Exhibit//Reception

I'd say it's been a pretty successful week//

• Grabbed 2nd place at the COD Juried Student Gallery Exhibit, with a suit painted in time for the occasion.
• ^Rocked my personal shoes at this event^
• Finished painting/tweaking/cleaning my mirror(pics to come).
• Received an email confirming my Studio Art transfer credits accepted at MCAD.
• Received graduation information from COD
• One week closer to getting out of COD..but one more week of of pressure added to deciding on a school..
• Minimal depression this week :DS-<

with a few minor setbacks, i can't complain. Opening reception pics//

Your Own Private Idaho

Sport coat

Refuz

Reverse reverse

There were a lot of great overall pieces in the show, so placing at all was a blessing for me. I had a great time meeting other artists, talking about methods, techniques, critiquing each other, just having a great time. Some close friends also made it in the show, so  with events like this it's always nice to know where you stand among a certain program.  I feel like i needed this, plus YOPI has been hanging in my room for the past year or so, so it was nice to finally get recognition in light of some outside jurors. Just a great night, this hasn't happened for me in a while, usually i'm pretty humble with where i am with my work. Who said a fancy sport coat couldn't help with a little celebration?