Someday We'll Move There, You'll See

2 paintings, clear-coating 4, wrapping and shipping all in one day! Whew. Well, I want to make the deadline!

See, I just found out about an invitation only, art on vinyl show in London next month. London! I was tagged recently on Facebook to do a list of concerts I've seen. Turned out most were British bands, Peter Gabriel, Arctic Monkeys, Verve, Oasis, Kasabian, Gomez, Stereophonics... Heck we even WENT to London to see the Verve. Best show my wife and I have seen, and she's seen over 50 bands!

I WISH I could've seen Pink Floyd. One of the few bands I've sought out live bootlegs on vinyl, to be engulfed by their show would've been incredible. Like Jeff, who entered my contest with his story about "Wish You Were Here", Floyd was the first prog rock band I got into.

So I've been waiting for a show in London. These are the pieces I sent today, having painted Page and Lennon this morning. Strummer I'd painted before, as well as Hendrix. It should be a cool show, with some artists I've met on Flickr. We'll see how it goes and I'll share any pictures I get of the event.

Peace.

David Gilmour 08/08/09

Live Painting

Well, that was frustrating. Yesterday afternoon, I painted this piece, trying again sending "live" cell phone photos to Twitpic. Either my phone or the cell network weren't cooperating because after 2 shots, the rest failed to send. I had to resend them. Oh well. They're there.

I'm trying this to let you in to my process more. I'd done those timelapse YouTube videos quite awhile ago which were cool, but a lot of work. This way you, ideally, get to see the painting develop just about as it happens, or at least get a sense of how it happens. I think it's neat, anyways.

My phone won't let me put a caption so that Twitpic will recognize it, so it comes out as a list of unidentified picture links on Twitter, but I think that's ok. The point is the pictures, being worth a thousand words, right?

Peace.

Musical Artifact

This record might be the coolest I've painted on, as far as the record itself. "Rock The Casbah" by The Clash is a 12" 33 1/3 single. Just one song on a side. The way they pressed it is what makes it so cool.

Instead of spacing the grooves like they would on a whole album, they're spread out so the one song takes up the space that 4 or so normally do. What this does is make the grooves really visible.

You can see the music.

Peace.

The Future Is Unwritten

Here's the last one for my solo show at Primitive Kool this Saturday night. This post's title is on the back of The Clash's "Combat Rock" album I used for this painting of Joe Strummer.

The show is part of Newport Nights that I participated in last year. This show will also showcase the kids from Paul Green's School of Rock franchise in San Diego, CA. Apparently they're getting well known with franchises across the nation!

I just found out today that I get to give the school $25 for each piece of mine I sell at the show! Sweet! So if you're in the area, check it out! Should be a good time and you can support rock music education.

Coincidentally, I also was just asked to take down my pieces from Rockzone Records, the local independent record store that had agreed to help me try to sell my work back last year at the same time as the Newport Nights show. Bummer. Stephen said nobody has ever even asked about the pieces he had on his wall.

So, I'm getting them tomorrow midday. On the off chance that anybody reading this blog is in the Phoenix area and wants to really surprise a guy, go take a look at the pieces and ask Stephen about them and, heck, if you like one, buy it! Support local art!

I certainly didn't know where I'd be today a year ago. I was just so excited people were even interested in seeing my work, let alone buying them as gifts for loved ones. In the in-between-time, Life has thrown our family a curve that painfully reminded us of how uncertain and unknown the future is.

"There's no absolutes in life, only in vodka." - a line from "Homicide: Life on the Streets", my favorite cop show EVER

Peace.

Joe Strummer 09/25/08