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

12 Inch 3 Is Catalogued, 4's Date TBD!

Rodrigo has been putting a lot of work into this. I'm glad he sold a bunch of his pieces. He's going to keep mine until the next show, date TBD. I've made a connection with a guy in London who uses stencils to create portraits of musicians on vinyl. Though he doesn't use albums by the subject, the compositions are cool and the color layering pretty nice. We hopefully will be able to team up for exhibitions in London at some point. It is still where we'd eventually like to move.

I did get one done today, Dylan for the Florida Music Festival. I like the new photo I'm using. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Peace.

The More Exposure, The More Exposed

I'm so excited about the exposure my work is getting online! I don't know what the consensus is on creating a list of links to blog posts about oneself, but Neatorama and Makezine are two recent additions to the list! It's certainly good for my Technorati Authority in any event since these two have rankings up in the 4000s and I'm in the 10s. I honestly don't know what the impact will be on the success of my artwork of all these social networking efforts, but the number of visitors to my gallery site has increased dramatically. I've had one person use the PayPal Buy Now buttons and two people follow through with commissions.

That said, the galleries where I've consigned my work are the steady sources of sales I have now. So BB King and Led Zeppelin are heading off to Wild About Music, and I'm painting a few this week for Primitive Kool. I'm trying hard to find a gallery/shop in the London area as I've gotten good feedback online from people in the UK. If you're one of those people, please let me know if you are aware of any locations I should contact about showing my work on consignment!

One post out there, http://cdnav.com/, was critical of my gallery site's front page (the blurb is 5 paragraphs down in the Jan 28th section). I'm glad to get feedback on it finally. They thought the graphical navigation was confusing with the OPEN sign not linking anywhere. From my website logs, though, it seems people aren't having a problem getting to the page where you can buy the pieces. So I don't know. Please,

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

and let me know if you have any site design suggestions! Peace.

SOLD - B.B. King 01/28/08

The Verve - Blackpool - 6 Nov 2007

I'm sitting here looking out of my Phoenix window at a day that belongs in London.

I'm listening to a very good taping of the show 3 days before the show we saw in London.

I'm feeling very overwhelmed, overflowing with emotion, Life's an Ocean. Intense gratitude for life. Their music definitely is directly connected to what's real. Space and Time. I'm aware of how big little moments can be. Even though I've only got a handful of subscribers yet, and most people who've found my website are looking for vinyl art toys, I'm extremely thankful and want to shake the hands of everyone whose given me moments of their energy, their life. I know it can go unnoticed, unappreciated. I know.

But then you can connect, communicate with Life. Everything happens for a reason, a reason one might not know at the time, but a reason. To be open to that is a trick. Computers crash, garage door openers hesitate, websites show up unexpectedly. I get to paint portraits of musicians I and others love. Then I get to share them. Cool. I really do crave feedback. Not to validate my existence, just to know if I've impacted others' existence. I keep creating profiles at every social networking site I find to do just that, give others a chance to find me, to see what I do, maybe to share me with other others.

I know I'm rambling a bit, repeating myself from earlier today. But I just want to emphasize this content's connection to Life, to what's real. Human contact. Community. And with that, appreciation of individuality and uniqueness. Who are you? Tell, show the world. Open up. I'll listen, and respond.

SO, that's that. Gotta box up Willie! See him in my post from a coupla days ago, or:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and thanks for listen, no I mean, reading.

The Verve - Front Row In London!

Friday 9 November 2007 at The Roundhouse in London

Best concert we've been to by far! Guitarist Nick McCabe just said, too, that it is officially his favorite gig of all time. The trip was completely worth it for this show. Richard Ashcroft is incredible to watch sing and play acoustic. We were front row for the whole show! I'd never done that before. I boxed out my wife so she wouldn't get smashed against the rail. I got jostled a bit but not too badly. We were right in front of bassist Simon Jones who drives their music and he was extremely fun to watch. I feel silly trying to describe in words how good is was so here's what they played:

New Decade

This Is Music

Gravity Grave

Weeping Willow

Life's An Ocean

Sonnet

Sit & Wonder

A Man Called Sun

Already There

Stormy Clouds / Reprise

Let The Damage Begin

On Your Own

Rolling People

Drugs Don't Work

Bitter Sweet Symphony

Encores:

A Northern Soul

History

Lucky Man

Come On

I'll let that suffice. Fans'll know.

London was wonderful, cold and gloomy, but wonderful. We got to see many of the sights, including Abbey Road Studios and the famous crosswalk. So cool. The wall in front of the functioning studio is painted white and covered with scribes from people who've travelled to see it. The employee who nicely told us there were no public tours said that they have to repaint it weekly because of how many people sign it. Somebody who lives nearby could take pictures of the wall before they cover it each time and do a sweet video of it. There was a great stencil painting combining the iconic Che Guevara face with Lennon's, so basically Lennon wearing the revolutionary hat. Well done.

Nothin' new on it since last week, but if you haven't:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

Maybe a Verve piece'll show up!

Ripples From Vinyl Killers And Newport Nights

I'm trying to get to these orders before hopping the pond to London. The request for Jerry came through the Vinyl Killers show and Damian Marley came through Newport Nights at Primitive Kool. I'm working on a ZZ Top which came through Wild About Music. I also delivered the pieces to Red Dog Gallery downtown which might lead to more connections. Great place! If you're in the area you should check it out this Friday after 7pm. They're #70 on the PDF map.

We bought memory foam neck pillows and ear plugs for the flight. Next is organizing all our clothes and vital items. Getting a bit nervous about dealing with airports and public transportation in another country, but it'll be a fun adventure. Hopefully I'll have something profound to say when we get back. For now, though, (yes, I'll say it again) there're new ones in the gallery, so:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and we're off!

Top 9 Things To See In London?

Now live on YouTube! Click on the photo to see my new movie.

I've got some done with still much to do. Today, besides putting the video together, I did Damian Marley and Warren Zevon for commissions from Newport Nights. I've got a Jerry Garcia and Miles Davis to go, so far. I'm hoping for more interest after Primitive Kool puts those 16 up on their website. It looks like the Otis Redding sold too! We're going to London next week so I won't be posting here or able to paint, so I've got to get a lot done this week. I've got to get the ones done and framed for First Fridays, which'll be next week too. Feelin' the crunch!

Speaking of our trip to London, these are the things I'm most excited to see:

The Verve concert
Stonehenge
Westminster Abbey
Abbey Road
Tate Modern
St. Paul's Cathedral
London Bridge
Mary Poppins
Hyde Park

Please let me know what else we should hit! Otherwise:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and comment on my videos on YouTube too.

15 From Across The Pond

Since The Beatles have had the biggest impact on my musical taste, it's natural that I like any decent Brit pop, prog rock or metal. Getting to see the Verve in London is going to be extraordinary for my wife and I. It seems that most of the music I've listened to over and over, especially recently, is from the UK:

The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Queen
Led Zeppelin
Black Sabbath
Pink Floyd
Genesis
10cc
Nick Drake
Oasis
The Verve
Stereophonics
Gomez
Kasabian
Arctic Monkeys

A couple people have suggested I paint Nick Drake, so if anybody happens to have an LP of his on vinyl that they're looking to get rid of, please let me know, ;) Right. Sure. But here's hoping! If you want to see more of what I do with old LPs, scan through more of my blog and also:

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

I'm not adverse to shipping oversees either. UK galleries particularly seem very hip.

Freddie Mercury 09/27/07