Categorically Reluctant

I have over 400 posts on this blog now. I've tried to keep posting every weekday both for my sanity and to keep sharing with you, my art and my life.

This week I sold a Clapton to a woman as a surprise anniversary present to her guitar-playing husband. Very cool. But it was difficult to, over the phone, have her get to the examples of my paintings of blues guitarists. I only have that drop-down list over to your right.

But how do you categorize Clapton? Is he blues? Is he rock? Is he classic? Is he psychedelic?

I really don't like labels, but I know to expect you to be able to find who you want from one huge alphabetical list with a scroll bar is quite unfair. So I'm working on labels. Here they are so far, you can click on each to get all the posts which I've put in that category:

classic
popish
alt
metal
grunk
soul
jazz/blues
hip-pop
country

What do you think?

Peace.

I Can't See Clearly Enough To Paint

This, or she rather, is why (sheesh, even the camera forgot how to focus). Meet Nico, our 4th dog. Bailey, Cocoa, and Lucy, who can be seen in the first pictures here (taken by my wife by the way), are the other 3. Nico is a bluetick coonhound, named after Shannon Hoon's child (I'd love to paint Shannon on a Blind Melon album if anybody knows if any were ever pressed). So freakin' adorable. We're stopping at 4, figuring 2 big dogs per person is enough.

So we're on fragmented and less than optimal sleep. And we normally sleep a lot.

Another reason my vision's a little compromised is this deal with Shepard Fairey. If you know me, you know I'm not judgemental or pissed off very often. When I do get riled up, it's usually because I'm reacting to something about myself that the universe is reflecting back to me. In this case, it's my somewhat unresolved wonderings about the legality of what I do. Layered on top of my insecurity about cheating is the worry that I'm stealing. I don't like feeling like I'm doing something wrong. I go pale, get lightheaded and my feet feel like lead.

When I first started selling my Vinyl Art pieces, we consulted this book. It seemed reasonable that my work was transformative enough and didn't clash with the photographer's market, so the "fair use" claim would be valid. Fairey is pre-emptively suing the AP to get a judge to declare his use of the Obama photo to be "fair use". Suing.

Now I know, like I said in that first post about this issue, that I would be hard hard pressed to go an adversarial route in the courts, but it could come down to a third party's determination on a case-by-case basis whether my work constitutes "fair use". I decided to ask Tad Crawford, the author of that book and owner of the publishing company, what he thought, off the record. He responded, suggesting that I be as careful as I can and be prepared to pay permission fees.

So, I've taken this time while on puppy-watch to find the source of as many photos I've used as possible. In my online gallery, I've added appropriate credit to the ones I've dug up so far. I haven't found all, and some, like the John Lennon with the glasses, are so common that Warhol even used it for an album cover. I'm going to keep looking, and I'm going to hopefully go through my blog posts and add appropriate credits in the painting's description text. A lot of work, but I decided I'd feel better.

And that's the point. I want to feel good about what I do. I want to paint.

Peace.

Generation Of Change

With tears in my eyes watching the opening video of Oprah's show last night juxtaposing Obama and King, I realized why Shepard Fairey's campaign portrait should be in the National Portrait Gallery even before Obama took office. Hope is truly uplifting.

As those who were young back when MLK spoke his piece now take over policy, the generational impact of the civil rights movement can be sensed powerfully with all our senses. While we currently are most certainly a depressed country, both emotionally and economically, I hope we as individuals can generate more change as we recognize that without the individual there is no country. Yes, we can take responsibility for ourselves. Yes, we can create change based upon hope instead of fear. Yes we can.

Exciting day, huh?

Peace.

Don't Know Where To Put One?

Give one away!

Last week, I asked you to think about where you could put one of my paintings in your home. I know a lot of you who see my paintings probably think, "That's cool, but it wouldn't really go with my decor." So you don't know where you'd put one, even if you want one.

I've got the answer. Make that someone else's problem!

Really, the majority of the commissions I've sold have been as gifts. I love that because it means people think enough of the paintings that they want someone they love to own one. They make great unique gifts because they show you pay attention and know what the giftee's favorite music is and sometimes even their favorite album. I definitely try to use the album you know they'd like. Makes for an even better story.

So, I painted Ray Charles on his Christmas album as an example of what might just be the perfect holiday gift.

And you can keep the snazzy sticker.

Peace.

Every Picture Tells A Story

Part of the reason I don't want to reproduce my paintings is to preserve the unique story each piece will have and its original connection to me. It definitely is due to my ego as an artist, but each piece is a part of me, and I like knowing that that identity will remain intact.

This blog will hopefully serve some role in creating kind of an electronic provenance, a way to connect the pieces with their date of creation and something of my thoughts at the time.

So every picture will have a story to tell. If you own one of my pieces of Vinyl Art and would like to leave a comment here and/or on the post of the blog with your painting, I would be thrilled. You could talk about you, why you own the piece, and any stories or anything else associated with the portrait. Your comment will add record of the link in the chain of your piece's story.

Let it be known.

And if your piece doesn't make an appearance on this blog, let me know! Send me a picture of it as it hangs in your home and I'll make a point to mention it, keeping your anonymity intact if you want.

Peace.

Rod Stewart 10/27/08

King's Symbolism Stripped To Reveal His Humanity

In going through my albums to get organized this past week, I found this record of Martin Luther King Jr. speech excerpts. After digging up this beautiful photo, I decided to paint it. I can pay hommage and celebrate anybody who has a recording on vinyl, after all. "I Have a Dream" is on side 2, so it's still somewhat playable. However, a reason I paint some of these portraits the way I do is to show the person as a human being, trying to capture their soul and the spirit of their Life. As this article discusses, too often iconic figures in history become reduced to a single moment, like with King's famous speech. I hope my paintings generally counterract the flattening of culturally important people, both visually and substantively.

I'd like to know what you think! How do you think my paintings characterize their subject? There are a good number of examples here on my blog, and you can also:

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

and look through the online gallery. Do my paintings celebrate their lives and contributions to our culture?

Call Me

Or, at least:

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

Al Green 09/28/07

Give And Take

My goodness! Primitive Kool already sold all five I sent them!

http://primitivekoolart.com/pages/DANIEL.html

How... well, "kool"! I hope they want more! If you haven't seen what Vinyl Art's all about, you can also:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and give koolart@pacbell.net a hooray!