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Monday, December 31, 2007

Roger, The Apostle, At Year's End

Roger and meWhat a way to end this year. It's taken me this past week to wrap my head around our experience in California. I feel humbled and honored at the same time, everything and nothing. Great fodder for my internal philosopher.

Roger Steffens is remarkable. Incredibly giving, generous with his time and energy, sharing his stories about Life. As a kid, captivated by sci-fi comic strips, he wrote a letter to his favorite and ended up becoming lifelong friends with the creator and having his name used in the strip. As a teen, looking up to Alan Freed, he saw some of the first group shows of the birth of rock-n-roll, later to be called himself 'Alan Freed' by Little Richard. As a young adult in the time of the Vietnam War, he found reggae, so impressed with a Gonzo-writer's article in Rolling Stone. Since then he has become THE chronicler of Bob Marley and his contributions to the world. Collecting every scrap of audio, video, and printed material about Tuff Gong or even remotely related to Bob, Roger has created an archive that not only would reduce any superfan to drooling, but would make that fan want to add his collection to Roger's. There is a genuine sense of driven purpose to preserve the essence of Bob's life. Befriending Bob's family, The Wailers, and any photographer, musician, roadie connected to Bob, Roger continues to seek connections worldwide, spreading One Love. That's why I would characterize him as Marley's apostle. It is that deep of a love.

After throwing in stories about his friends Timothy Leary, Carlos Santana, and others, Roger connected me and my family to his collection. Looking back, it was very interesting, deliberate. Listening to Bob's solo jamming in the background, Roger asked us all about pieces of our stories, taking pictures with me and the paintings, learning that my wife's birthday was the day Bob died, hearing about my father-in-law's Vietnam enlistment rejection, and sharing his personal photos of Bob with me to see if I'd be interested in having any copies. Oh my! What beautiful shots he had, some he took, some Peter Simon took. I'll definitely paint more of them. Connecting me further. Such an honor. It was truly a moment of mutual respect, something very unique. Life reconnecting with Life. One Love.

I don't know if I'm portraying the experience well enough, but I think at least I've given a sense of it. Overwhelming would be the one word for sure. Also, more practically, overwhelming is the fact that I basically broke even financially this year, even with paying for my health insurance! Pretty cool for my first full year. I've also got several irons in the fire, as they say. Primitive Kool sold Hendrix and SRV, Wild About Music sold SRV, and I've got a few potential commissions. Also, http://www.notcot.org/, a very cool site, posted about me, leading to a couple other blogs asking for info to do their own posts. I've got many more contacts on Flickr as well. So, it's spreading! I'd better get painting, huh?

If you're coming to this blog unaware of my Vinyl Art, please, take a bit to read through more of my posts. They really do give a good sense of my background and what I'm doing with it. Then, you can also see other examples if you:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and please have a safe and happy New Year's. Peace.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Merry Holidays!

Bob Marley - (i) inspired by photo by Roger SteffensSo here it is! Roger Steffens' own photo from the cover of "Soul Almighty", a collection on JAD Records. The gold of "Exodus" makes such a cool background. I hope it'll be good enough to go in the museum! I bought a piece of glass to use in the frame instead of the plex that comes with it, looks more professional that way. Doesn't scratch as easily as well.

Paul at Primitive Kool just sold the Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jim Morrison, but had to swap out one piece of plex. Shipping glass just scares me though. But, hey 2 more sold! I think he's doing a 20% off deal for the holidays. He has a few more of mine, listed at http://primitivekoolart.com/pages/DANIEL.html, and of course they are all available by commission! So read through my blog and then see more examples when you:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

and have a safe and wonderful holiday! Peace.

GIFTED - Bob Marley 12/20/07

Friday, December 14, 2007

One Love

Bob Marley - (i) inspired by photo by Adrian Boot

Watched "Scrooged" this week. Great Christmas movie. Love Bill Murray. Good message too.

Also saw "No Country For Old Men" in the theater. Wow. Probably won't watch it over and over like "The Big Lebowski", but it is a top-notch Coen Brothers film. Everything about it was brilliant, necessary, certainly fulfilling their roles as auteurs.

I made a video of the new Bob Marley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05psVut4Ep4. I was nervous painting it, since it's for Roger Steffens, and, again I'm not sure if the clip turned out too dark. If you take a gander at it, let me know what you think! I also added the painting to my gallery that you can see if you:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

Peace.

GIFTED - Bob Marley 12/14/07

Friday, December 7, 2007

1 For The Money, 2 For The Show, 3 To Get Ready

Free Art Seattle[EDIT - 5/15/08: To all who arrive at this post looking for information about the song, it's "Blue Suede Shoes", written by Carl Perkins. It was also performed by John Lennon (GREAT video!), so it ties in nicely to the rest of this post as well.]

I am so lucky to get to do what I'm passionate about and to share it with others. Getting to give back is amazing, a great feeling. A whole bunch of things are coming together to make me feel really good about what I'm doing. Just one of those confluence of events that seem to mean Life, the universe, karma, is on your side. John Lennon, George Clinton, and Joao Gilberto are for Free Art Seattle Exhibition, which, after a month on display, will be given away. "An opportunity to make someone's day." Indeed. I love it.

I saw Brad Pitt on Larry King, and along with MadeByGirl, I'm very impressed with his genuine caring for New Orleans and strong desire to give. And speaking of John Lennon, it's the anniversary of his death on 8 Dec and Yoko sent out an e-mail inviting people to Imagine Peace and remember we are all together... now. Then the planning of perhaps the coolest thing for my wife and I related to my artwork yet. As I mentioned a while back, Roger Steffens has invited me to paint Bob Marley for his archives as he prepares them to become the founding collection of the Bob Marley wing of the National Museum of Jamaican Music in Jamaica. Hoo boy. To have my art included as a contribution to the history of such a source of pure love and unity as Bob Marley will be amazing. SO wonderful. Just a good feeling.

Anyway, I do have a Bob Marley painting in my online gallery, so if you haven't:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

and do remember John with love.

GIFTED - George Clinton, Joao Gilberto, John Lennon 12/07/07

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Woohoo! Paypal Works!

Louis Armstrong
I used PayPal both to sell the already-painted Jerry that someone saw on YouTube and to accept payment upfront for a commission for Louis Armstrong! Worked beautifully. So, if you're interested in a commission, E-mail me and I can make a PayPal button all quick-like, post it for you only and then you can pay with your credit card. Pretty slick.

I'm going to paint 3 for the Free Art Seattle Exhibition after some unexpected finds today at the store. Also, I've got 2 of Bob Marley in the works, one that'll be part of that Bob Marley wing of the new music museum in Jamaica. Sweet. I still have time and frames for holiday orders too, so it's not too late if you've just found out about me. For more background and examples,

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

and see who you might want hanging on your wall!

SOLD - Louis Armstrong 12/05/07