'Tis The Season

As we near my wife's due date, time is getting wacky. It's almost my birthday! Then all the holidays. Man.

Imagine throwing a wedding into the mix?

The fellow up in Canada who has commissioned these pieces is getting married early December. My wife and I got married late December, but we did it in Vegas, baby! He's apparently doing the whole deal as these four are for his groomsmen. How cool! What a neat idea. All get basically the same thing, but personal for them. It adds that edge of thoughtfulness.

I am finding that my Vinyl Art makes for a great gift, for any occasion. People seem to feel much better about splurging on art if it's for a loved one.

I certainly know I'm thinking pretty much only about things to give Abbey once she's born!

Peace.

SOLD - 11/05/09

Free Sticker FUN

Yesterday I realized I needed to have more fun. Not that I haven't been enjoying what I've been doing, I just haven't been having FUN. You know, the kind of fun that deserves all caps. So now in addition to taking my time, I'm going to have FUN.

Quite awhile ago, I'd started doing stickers. On the sly. Underground. Layered spray paint and then a small face with a VA logo. I gave them away free, occasionally in trade for other stickers.

My plan was to do more and surprise buyers of Vinyl Art with them, people who'd stuck by me (ah jeez, sorry for the pun) and not only kept up with my work, but shared it as well. Kind of a special thank you. Still on the sly. Still given for free.

I'm doin' it. For FUN.

Peace.

(Hehe, this is my 420th post and I painted Gilmour and Marley. 420. You know.)

Be

Everybody has a story. Is a story. Tells their story by living their life. All are unique, all are connected, all are Life.

My wife was born just about the moment Bob Marley died. Made Roger Steffens shiver.

Stories entwined. Are they in our heads? I think the stories are what is actually real. What we do. That's why the "Tao Te Ching" is all about action.

But what about attribution? Does it merely serve the ego of the individual? I don't think so. I think the fact of the actor, though he reveals himself by his actions, is important in the experience of Life. The author of many great texts is occasionally unclear or in dispute. To me, that allows the words to float, to escape their proper time and place. How do they fit into the story?

I find it odd that it is particularly those texts which have a questionable source that are sometimes the most revered. Readers are left with only the words and hence can assimilate them into their own story. The writings can take on religious significance as the author becomes shrouded in mystery. Dangerous, I think. The words are those of individuals telling their story. Their story. Certainly it is very worthwhile to look to widely-followed writings to find reflections of your own story, to find lessons. To stand on the shoulders of giants. It is the way of humanity to "progress", for "better" or "worse". But then those words become part of your story. Yours.

Be you.

Peace.

SOLD - Bob Marley 12/10/08

Redemption Sung

[EDIT: 1/05/09 - For some reason, even though my friend says they shouldn't've, YouTube forced me to choose between changing the music, muting the music, or deleting the video. I've muted it for now. This is the case with the Jimi Hendrix video as well. I'm not sure what to do, as reuploading the files won't change anything, and probably won't even succeed. Drat. Any suggestions?]

So I checked my email this morning to find that YouTube had blocked the public display of this video of my painting of Bob Marley due to a claim by "a copyright owner" and a "music rights issue". The music backing the timelapse video is "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley and The Wailers. The record label is Island Recordings. Island is owned by Universal Music Group.

Guess who knows the EVP of the digital media side of the business at UMG?

Me. We went to high school together. How cool is that?

So, I went to the dispute page at YouTube and claimed fair use as I didn't use the entire song, it doesn't infringe upon the market for the recording, and the video is educational in that it shows my process, not directly selling anything. Voila! It's back up!

I got an email back from my friend at UMG and he said that they expressly allow this type of usage and they certainly hadn't put in the claim. Apparently YouTube has an automatic filter to flag user generated content that also uses something copyrighted.

Phew! I was glad to find out I hadn't rubbed the label the wrong way. In my thinking big, I hope at some point to work with the label promotionally, so thank goodness I didn't piss anybody off.

I get all anxious when legal issues pop up. You know that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you've been accused of doing something wrong you know you didn't do, or you know isn't wrong? Man, that sucks. Fortunately I seem to have gotten rapid resolution, redemption if you will, to this deal and don't have to worry about getting personally sued. Also, I'm glad that my response automatically dropped the block on the video.

So now you can see it!

Peace.

Wishing Intentions

I realized last night that yesterday's post about music that I want was a wee bit selfish. I had a tough weekend in regards to the ups and downs of the grieving process. I felt like I needed to focus on me a bit. No judgement, just how I felt. I genuinely wish I had that music, but I also genuinely wish for things bigger than me, things like "make love, not war" and so forth.

As Bob Marley did with his whole being and all of his passion, I want to make the world a better place. But I wonder why or actually what that even means? Who am I too judge the state of the world. I don't know Life's plan. Jason's death sure shows that.

People championing causes and using their energy to "make the world a better place" sometimes have muddled intentions. It's always important to remember the storyteller along with the story. Life is individual and each person has theirs to live. That often means intentionally or haphazardly having an impact on other lives. How the others react to the impact is part of their experience, but it seems maybe more selfish to hope to affect others in the first place. It means you want to do something that means you were important, that means you have a legacy to leave, that you left your mark.

I'm like this, don't get me wrong. I want my art to mean something to people, for it to have a wide-reaching impact on humanity. Here's the trick though. Is it for me or humanity?

Heck, I dunno. I do know that 2 pieces (Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne) sold at a group show up in Canada, and a teacher at my mother-in-law's school commissioned the above Legend. So that's cool. Sometimes I think I think too much...

Peace.

SOLD - Bob Marley 08/26/08

The Execution

What happens when you're in the middle of a conversation with someone and they unintentionally mess up grammatically? The transfer of information falters, the communication breaks down. Focus transfers from message to medium when the tool of spoken language is misused.

The same thing happens when the tools of visual arts are misused. If you can see an errant artifact of the artist's chosen medium and tool employed, the illusion is broken and you see a painting instead of feeling the artist's intended expression.

In a pop cultural setting, think about when you see bad makeup.

So, it's all in the execution of the communication, in whatever form.

For me, internal consistency of brush strokes and paint density are key. If you look at my painting and think "that splotch looks out of place" or "he did something different with his brush there", and I didn't mean for you to think that, I've failed. Crap.

Peace.

SOLD - Bob Marley 07/29/08

Omigosh, Omigosh, Omigosh!

I was on TV! Woohoo! They did a great job of editing it too, I thought. Cut my rambling down, which is nice because I definitely did go on a bit. Hey, I was excited! It's what I do!

Here's the link to the video on Channel 3's website:

http://www.azfamily.com/video/gmaz-index.html?nvid=264260

Peace.

Bob Marley 07/16/08

Human Nature Tends To Good

I love the unexpected email. I received a message from a man in Lebanon. The opening line:

"Your talent,intelegent,knowledge makes you a once in a live time legend."

Wow.

Way to get my attention! The rest of the message was a gracious and humble request for a piece of me, something, anything, signed. How cool!

I sent a message back asking for confirmation of the mailing address and to find out where the impetus for this request was coming from. Turns out he's doing a project on culture and art. So, I'm sending him one of my new handpainted postal stickers, complete with autograph. Hope he likes it!

These are something I've been playing around with for a little while. Not to sell, but to give away.

Speaking of giving away things, last year I gave two pieces to Roger Steffens and his Bob Marley Ark-hives. He's included my work in the current issue of The Beat, Volume 27 No. 2 2008! I'm mentioned in the Forward and the article "Bob Marley: Art & Soul", which also has pictures of the pieces and of me! I'm published! I'm so honored to be included in this annual Bob Marley issue.

Unexpected generosity of spirit. Good deal.

Peace.

Roger, The Apostle, At Year's End

What 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.

Merry Holidays!

So 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

One Love

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

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

[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

Woohoo! Paypal Works!

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

Trying Out eBay Again

The Jerry is still available that I made the YouTube video of a couple weeks ago. So I decided during the holiday buying period to try out eBay again. I've put it up for auction. It's up through next weekend. I figured people might be checking things out during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We'll see.

Bob Marley and the Jerry Garcia that Primitive Kool had in their show sold along with the Hendrix at Wild About Music. Also, I've gotten some great response from other blogs:

http://hippiesounds.com/vinyl-art-video/
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/records-vinyl-art-by-daniel-edlen
http://www.curbly.com/DIY-Maven/posts/3061-Daniel-Edlen-s-LP-Canvases-

so I'm glad I made those videos! I'm excited to see what ripples spread from those posts. Maybe I'll get that swarm of wasps buzzing yet! To see other examples of my work, as always:

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

and scroll through the jukebox to find your memories! I'm off to do Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Dylan On YouTube

This is making me nervous. I haven't done one before and I don't know how well it worked. I made a time-lapse movie of my painting of Dylan. There are some 20 slides as the painting develops. I'm not sure if it's too dark. On one computer it might be, but on another it looks the way I want it to be seen. I've also done one of Johnny Cash that I need to tweak and add music.

We're still planning on being at the Newport Nights show on Saturday. Hopefully the San Diego fires will be contained enough to allow traffic through. We don't know how many people'll show up, but maybe it'll be a nice welcome home for some locals if they had evacuated. Four pieces have already sold, but they're keeping them for the show. Pretty exciting.

I also am in contact with Roger Steffens who is interested in possibly adding one of my paintings of Bob Marley to what will be the founding collection of the National Museum of Jamaican Music in Jamaica! Whoa! I've got a pic of what it'll look like in my gallery online, so:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and please let me know what you think about the YouTube video here, by email, or on YouTube.

Jammin' For Primitive Kool

Painting up a storm for the show. Don't have much to say today other than I'm curious why my blog ranking jumped so much yesterday. I wish readers would leave me comments. Let me know how you found me or start up a dialog. Something. Anything. Also, there are more examples in my online gallery if you want to:

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

For now back to painting! Woohoo!

Concerts, Concerts, Concerts!

Today starts a string of concerts my wife and I get to see. First is the Kings of Leon in Tempe, AZ. We saw them in New Orleans at the House of Blues and were excited they were going to come to the Phoenix area. Then the White Stripes in Albuquerque and in San Diego. Yes, we're seeing both concerts! They put on such great live performances we couldn't resist. "Anywhere within a 6 hour drive," my wife said. Then the Arctic Monkeys back in Tempe.

This won't be cutting down on my painting much, though. I've got commissions to work on and several I want to do because I know they'll make great pieces. I'll keep posting pics as I get them done too. Oh, that Dylan wasn't at Raw Style, it was at Wild About Music in Austin, TX. I had done 2 Dylans and didn't remember which was where. But now my brother-in-law has it!

I'm trying to decide who to show at Rockzone Records. So far I've got Jim Morrison, Ozzy Osbourne, Bob Marley and Lou Reed. I'm thinking for the DJ crowd to throw up Rick James "Street Songs" with Superfreak and Isaac Hayes "Shaft" dance mixes to make'em chuckle and think. Or Queen and Kiss. What do you think? I'll post the pics after I get them framed and hung, so who do you want to see? If you need examples:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and take a look at the gallery.