Spraygraphic's 2nd Annual B-Sides Vinyl Art Show

Coming up this Saturday from 7-9pm will be the second time around for a vinyl art show at Hoodlums. I've submitted this Miles Davis along with a Lou Reed and Michael Stipe. Chuck from Spraygraphic is a great guy and curates a good show, while Steve of Hoodlums does his part to help our local culture. Pieces come in from all over the world and the local participants will probably drift through at some point. The boutique record store has a stage in the back for live music as well.

My wife and I will hopefully be able to be there, at least until our bedtime.

Peace.

'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

How Twitter Can Help An Art Business

This video wouldn't have happened without Twitter. Plain and simple.

I've been participating on Twitter for some time now. It's been hit and miss as far as usefulness in the moment. But when it hits, it hits. And the hits are much more fulfilling than a straightforward sale. This post is about some examples of those hits I've had with my Vinyl Art.

For me, my art is largely about the connections I get to make. That's what Twitter is about. Yes, there is the noise in the room there, but if you get good at tuning your twitterstream, you can make some great connections.

I've had several. Some that have ended up with transactions financial, others with transactions social. I've developed a relationship with one of my favorite musicians, Bob Green (@thegrassyknoll), whose music I'd discovered years ago during my lazy college days spent listening to random used CDs. Brilliant stuff. I've communicated friendly-like with Prince Campbell III (@chartreuseb), whose blog blew me away, and he even entered my last Vinyl Art contest. Also, brilliant stuff. I respect these creative people enormously. To have produced the content they have and put it out there, and then to interact with people on a very real level is wonderful.

Then there are those connections that have resulted in both a friendship and a sale. First to mind is the one with Ryan Barton (@RyanBarton). He's the fellow who made this video for me. I won't tell you all the particulars about his generosity, but basically he bought 3 pieces from me after I'd jumped in on Twitter seeing he had bought a print from Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) and was thinking about buying my art next. That's the beauty of Twitter, the evesdropping on relevant conversations that persist as tweets but occur as real-time exchanges.

It is the strange hybrid structure of communication, both asynchronous and synchronous, that allows for more connections and more development and expansion of those connections. It happened with Brian Clark (@Copyblogger) as well. He and I conversed first about @chartreuseb and his blog and the crazy comments they'd gone back a forth with long ago. Then he took a liking to my art, eventually buying 4 pieces, sharing my work with his followers and even writing a blog post suggesting how I could improve my business. It is that building of relationships and the ripples which spread uniquely on Twitter that have added a marvelous dimension to my art business.

I was able to give back to a hero of mine too. After finding David Lynch on Twitter, I was then made aware of his foundation (@DLFTV). They enjoyed my work enough to have me paint Mr. Lynch and then have him autograph the piece for a future auction benefitting the foundation. I then painted Mike Love of the Beach Boys for the same purpose, Love signing the piece at one of the foundation's charity concert.

This connection to reality with Twitter relates to local action as well. I will be having a solo show locally at Bookmans (@bookmans) this winter. This is because of Twitter, as Scott Henderson (@espressojunky) found me there and offered me the idea of a show, and then bought a piece for himself. Further, I was able to learn about Nate Anderson and Ear Candy Charity (@earcandycharity) on Twitter. Nate and I have struck up a relationship and $50 from every piece sold or commissioned at the Bookmans show will go to the charity and their efforts to provide musical instruments to kids music programs.

So I get to give back in a very real way to people not even involved with Twitter due to relationships formed on Twitter. I'd say that's a hit.

Peace.

Head-On Profile

Something hopefully very cool is developing. The fellow who bought the 3 blue jazz pieces, including Miles Davis, is working with me to create a professional video profile! Using our new Flip videocam, my wife recorded me as though I were answering interview questions about my Vinyl Art. I then recorded myself painting this piece of Miles Davis. It'll all be editted together with music and stills and timelapse shots into a clip to share online.

I was really nervous filming myself. I'm not familiar enough with how I sound, let alone look, on camera to know how to do it. Fortunately my wife is honest! After half a beer I both sounded and looked much better, apparently. Yeah, I'm a light-weight. ;)

But having grown up an introverted listener, speaking about myself, especially in public, has always freaked me out. I'm bad enough writing about myself without questions to answer. And you should've heard me give my high school graduation valedictorian speech! I'd wished I hadn't done as well in school after that.

I do like talking about my art, answering questions. That's why I redid my 'About Me' page on my site as a Q&A. Along those lines, oh readers of mine, I'd love to know what other questions you have about me or my art. I am really open and, when prompted, can ramble until my wife tells me I should stop. ;)

So, what do you want to know?

Peace.

Plans For Vinyl Art

Above the couch next to a guitar, perfect! These are the blues trio that Ryan commissioned. I've posted a few other pieces as they hang. I love seeing them on other people's walls. From the beginning it's interested me to know how people decide where to put them. I even started a discussion on my Facebook fan page so people can chime in.

Ryan got excited about my work on Twitter and since he'd already gotten his print from Hugh MacLeod he decided to put more art in his new office. This makes sense, buying my art during a move or remodel, so the space can be planned or laid out with the art in mind.

I've just gotten a very exciting opportunity that hopefully will lead to a whole bunch more additions of my work to offices and media rooms. I'll be letting you know about it as soon as I get confirmation.

Peace.

Broke Artists

There are two aspects of the iconic tortured starving artist: torture and starvation. Lovely.

Starvation usually applies to artists' common difficulty in making money. While making money is important to survival in today's world, it is but a tool, a means. The goal of becoming both a millionaire and an artist seems built on ego, on comparison, on insecurity.

Torture is more interesting to me. Do artists have to be broken? Do they have to be broken to become an icon in pop culture? The examples in both music and art abound. Cobain, Morrison, Pollack, Warhol, Beethoven and Van Gogh. Why are they seemingly remembered more crisply, more dramatically?

I think the answer is that artists do have to be broken.

Really?

See, all people are broken. Some deny it, and we are broke to differing extents. We look to the artist to reveal their own inner torment. Maybe because it makes us feel better about ourselves, or maybe worse. But it makes us feel. That's what art it supposed to do.

Am I broken?

Yes.

I have deep-seated insecurities that refuse to let go their grip on my gut. I probably don't seem it. Maybe that's a problem. I strive to focus on my art rather than me. My portraits on vinyl and in books come through me, are a part of me, but I hope they connect more with you and your memory than with my stuff. I figure who needs someone else's stuff to worry about when you've got your own?

Does that make me less of an artist? Does that mean that I'm not even an artist by definition? Does my art make you feel? I guess that's for you and pop culture to decide.

Peace.

SOLD - Monk, Miles, Trane 08/09

P.S. Yes, you see correctly, these are blue. Painted on "Blue Monk", "Kind Of Blue", and "Blue Train", these are one commission, probably my coolest yet. And I will use color again, for a premium.

In a Silent Way

The Columbia Years of Miles Davis' recording career produced In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew among others that are amazing creations, some of my favorite jazz. Muted trumpet sends me, man.

For me, what's amazing about Miles is what he says by not saying. The space between. His concise powerful blasts and soft lulls have the impact they have largely because he's not always talking.

He's leading.

Peace.

SOLD - Miles Davis 04/02/09

Connections: Stories From Vinyl Art Owners

First seen in this post last April, here's how Michael has his painting displayed. Given to him by his girlfriend, Melanie, the piece looks cool in their music corner. Melanie says he likes looking at it while he plays his guitar. This is my first post of what I hope is many showing how owners of my work have their pieces displayed.

This one has three stories associated with it. I love how they interrelate.

1) Melanie, who lives in Florida, was referred to me by her friend Dee. My wife and I had met Dee and her husband, Tanner, on line at the House of Blues in New Orleans for the Kings of Leon. Obviously big music fans too, as they'd driven from Florida to New Orleans, Dee ended up buying one of my paintings of Miles Davis as a surprise birthday gift for Tanner. Dee's feedback is the 3rd one on my testimonial page.

2) Michael's feedback about the Flaming Lips is on that page too. Melanie gave it to him as an anniversary present. It was supposed to have been a surprise birthday gift, but I got it to her so fast, she couldn't stand it and gave it to him a month early. I say to give me a month to turnaround a commission, but I really try to get it done before that, especially for surprise gifts.

3) Melanie was named after Melanie Safka. She has several LPs of the folk singer that she hopes to have me paint on someday. It was around the same time I was painting the Flaming Lips that I also painted Melanie for a guy trying to get her inducted into the Hall of Fame. I love it when my art connects with people so passionate about their music that they take a public stand on something related.

That is really why I do this, the individual stories of love for music and humanity. I've received a couple other photos of my work in place either on shelves leaning against a wall or hung. I'll be posting about them soon, and I hope to get more responses from other owners!

Peace.

Get On thegoodfoot.com

I didn't do James Brown like last year, but I did do a bunch for this year's Vinyl Killers show up in Portland, OR. Half sold! Woohoo! Happy Halloween!

The John Lennon on the top row and the three with blue backgrounds on the second are still available at http://thegoodfoot.com/gallery/artist/daniel-edlen/. You can buy them online there.

Jason, the owner of the Goodfoot Pub and curator of this year's show did an amazing job. Below is a picture of just one wall. Mine are kinda in the middle with the blinding reflections.

You can see all the pieces in the show here. There's also a news story here about the show with a couple sentences about my work specifically. Looked like a pretty cool scene. Hopefully I'll be able to go next year!

Peace.

The Power Of Suggestion

Impressionists played with light in their paintings. We see light, not the absense thereof.

So I paint highlights. It gives me kind of an advantage, using a black surface. I can just suggest the image. I'm not painting the entire thing. The vinyl does a great deal of the work for me.

This is the first of hopefully a series of pieces for a fellow who loves the Blue Note recordings done at Van Gelder Studio, some of the best funk jazz ever.

I get a little nervous painting fabric and instruments, as faces are more recognizable. I received a comment on an old post which I responded to, thinking I'd probably write a post about this idea. Humans recognize faces first. We're so good at it we see faces when there isn't one really there. Just a hint of the 2 eyes, nose, mouth configuration and we finish the face in our minds.

Suggestion. Just the suggestion of a face is enough.

Another issue is the recognizability of the image I use. When I use an image that "everybody knows", like the Lennon I did last week, our culture has done a great deal of the work for me. The iconic image makes it easier to get past the "who's that?" question and go straight to "that's cool!" Our minds don't even realize we do it. If I accurately suggest the image, you don't think about it at all.

This isn't to say that it's easier to paint a face, or to paint an image that everybody recognizes. I do have to do it accurately, and when everybody knows that face, it's easier to criticize. But it is only a suggestion, an editted version of reality. In fact, the more I edit, the more I leave to you to fill in with your imagination and memory, the more likely it'll look "right" to you.

Certainly makes for a dramatic impact when you see the light.

Peace.

SOLD - Miles Davis 10/13/08

Advancing The Ball

Jason, who's running Vinyl Killers 6, let me know that he'd most likely sold the Miles Davis and Tom Waits I'd sent him. The show doesn't start until the END of October! So he's letting me send more pieces by the Oct. 8th deadline.

I found this Miles Davis image on the cover of "Tutu" and I painted it on a greatest hits compilation. I've also found a reissue of a double album of Tom Waits, so I can do two pieces from that. Apparently, Waits is very popular in Portland, OR.

Hopefully, more will sell and more people will find out about what I do. I keep reaching out myself to let people I think would be interested know about it, but word of mouth is the best. You can explain to people what my work's about with the passion you have for your music.

I'd love to know stories about people's reactions to my pieces. If you have any, let me know! Post'em here as comments if you want!

Peace.

SOLD - Miles Davis 09/30/08

FMF2008 Rock Walk: Music-Inspired Passion

So, these are the 7 I'm sending off to Florida. You can click on the photo to see it bigger. They laid out pretty nicely for this photo, I thought. Took it out on the pool deck.

I've gotten a couple commissions that I get to work on: Peter Frampton and Melanie Safka. Both are for people passionate about music that touched them growing up. The people I want to reach the most. Whomever your favorite is, I want to know. I want to create something for you to show off what that music means to you. Make people stop and think, "I know that face... isn't that...?" and then get to talk about why you love them so much. Connect.

Peace.

It Seems Backwards To Me

For my second iRecording, I threw it a curve with "Return To Abbey Road" again by The Beatles. It's a fan club issue with shorter pauses between tracks and a pieced together medley on side 2. My little new friend still picked up the actual song breaks, leaving the medley intact as one long file. Before CDs came out, I never dropped a needle in the middle of a medley. I pretty much always listened to whole sides of albums, especially bands that did concept albums, like Pink Floyd. I'm actually going to prefer the way the iRecord does it. I'd rather the whole medley stay in one piece, never understanding why they broke them up on CDs.

So I'm really happy with the white box of magic. I might even give it a name...

You can probably tell I'm a bit distracted from painting at the moment. I'll get back to it tomorrow... maybe.

I'd better because the Florida Music Festival wants 7 by the end of April and I need to replenish Wild About Music's supply as well as Primitive Kool's. I did sell one online sort of indirectly through P.Kool. A payment transaction showed up on PayPal for a Miles Davis. I contacted the buyer who said she'd seen the one listed as "SOLD" on P.Kool's site. Based on the buyer's address, I think she had gone to the gallery, seen my other pieces, found their site, got my name, found my site, and, because I have the PayPal buttons, just paid that way. Even if that's not exactly how it went down, I'd told Paul at P.Kool that I would always ask where people found out about me and give him kind of a referral fee. This is the first time it's happened, so I'm going to send him just about what he would normally make selling my pieces himself. I'll feel better anyways.

Peace.

A Month And A Day

Tada! No glare streaks! Just a little bit at the edge. For $100, it works pretty dang well. I can mess with the positioning of the lights too, maybe to minimize even that fuzzy spot. For this one I only used one light on the left side. There's a second light too, both are slick with built in tripods. The backdrop in the box is a nice blue too, so the color balance didn't require any adjusting. I do still need to kick up the brightness and contrast a touch, as it came out a little dark, but the above picture has no adjustments other than sizing and cropping. I can also get the album basically vertical because the backdrop fabric continues underneath and becomes the bottom of the box too, and the little tripod positions the camera so I don't have to fix the proportions either. I used to have to widen the top and increase the height to get it square. It's really neat though, kind of bounces the light all around inside to diffuse it. Anyway, I'm excited.

So, a month and a day after the end of my contest, I'm ready to ship it to the winner! Pretty cool day too: sold three at a local gallery, got a commission on a referral, got offered free records including apparently a Beatles, and got an email from a 9th grader saying I had inspired part of her art project and that she was going to write an essay about me! Me! I've also been accepted to contribute work to the Florida Music Festival Rock Walk. The best thing is my brain is allowing me to focus today. My wife's too, which makes me feel the most positive of anything. I hope it lasts.

Peace. Be well.

GIFTED - Jerry Garcia 04/02/08

Happy New Year! Welcome To Vinyl Art By Daniel Edlen!

Self-promotion is hard. Very hard. But it really helps when people connect, share, and then spread the love. Two completely separate connections have greatly increased the number of people who at least know about my artwork.

The first came after I commented at Robert Benson's blog about collecting vinyl. I was looking to grow my audience and I cautiously introduced myself. Cautiously because I never know how collectors will react. But he flipped! The YouTube videos gave him chills, he said. Pretty cool. So it turns out he is connected to Jerry Osborne and also writes articles that he posts for a very wide audience. He interviewed me on the phone, my first one! Then he actually let me check over the draft of his article and make sure the quotes were accurate! He's posted it in several places now.

The second came through, I believe, the post at NOTCOT.org. I was scanning through my website log yesterday morning and saw a hit from an administrative account at getTRIO.com, a cable network owned by NBC. Figuring they would contact me first, I didn't do anything. Then, about 30 minutes later I got an E-mail from PayPal saying that the Hendrix had sold! Looking at my logs to see where the person might've come from I found tons of traffic from getTRIO. They had put up a post about me! Me! Great little blurb with an excellently cropped pic of my Miles Davis. Holy mackerel. So we'll see what happens with that!

Today, after finishing organizing my records, or at least trying to, I'm going to paint, paint, paint. I made a change on my website, putting PayPal Buy Now buttons for all the paintings I've done that I think are my best and people might want again. Some of them are still available immediately, but all are available by commission. Also, my wife was concerned that people might get the idea that those listed are the only ones I'll do. And some online contacts have asked that. So, to clarify, I'll do anybody for whom I can find both a picture and an album released on vinyl. Anybody.

I'm hoping with this new exposure, people will read through this blog, even going back to the beginning. I really like how it's turned out, and enjoy reading through the posts in sequence. I started it with the intention of using it like a journal of my art doings, as well as to provide more information about my past background and how it impacts my present work. It's meant as a companion to my main website, answering questions and expanding upon the content found there. I've also since added my YouTube channel with several time-lapse videos of the creation of my artwork. So, hopefully these different ways of finding me will bring in more people and give them, well, you, enough of a sense of who I am and what my art is about. If not, please, please don't hesitate to leave comments, E-mail me, or even call me. I'm very open and appreciate any feedback, positive or critical.

At the start of a new year that I hope has found you well, if you are interested in reading, seeing or watching more about me, first:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and then come on back here to scan through my ramblings or head over to YouTube to view my videos. Peace.

SOLD - Miles Davis 01/10/08

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.

Miles, And Miles, And Miles!

Newport Nights rocked! It was a great gig, lots of people. I got to watch quite a few checking out my work. Ocean Beach is a cool place and getting to see the ocean was wonderful. A couple pieces sold, with more commissions as well. The Miles Davis they had sold online and another of him was requested by one of the employees of Primitive Kool. We'll definitely be heading back there for a future show!

Red Dog Gallery in downtown Phoenix is going to be displaying 8-10 of my pieces during the upcoming First Fridays! I've been hoping to find a place that participates in that monthly event as well, as the turnout of people interested in local culture is supposed to be huge. Woohoo!

I also found an inordinate number of records today at 2 local used stores. Bob Marley, Hendrix, the Dead, Pink Floyd, SRV... man, that was sweet! So now I'm stocked up and ready to paint. Besides the Miles Davis movie, I've also got the shots taken for a Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix so I'll be posting those this week. In the meantime, I've still got my gallery so:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and, please, leave comments here, on YouTube, or email me!

EDIT: I wanted to note that the image I use for the Miles Davis piece is the 1985 photo by Anton Corbijn. He's well known in the music world for his photography and music video work and I wanted to make sure to give him credit for the initial beautiful vision of the legend on muted trumpet.