1-900-FISH-BEER

New work and new podcast alert! A lot of my neon sign illustrations have been done primarily for my own personal projects so I was stoked when I was contacted by a client that wanted something very similar for the cover art for their new podcast.

The client and I are both boys of New York's southern tier so I swapped out the desert landscape that I usually use for these illustrations and went with that western NY landscape I know and love. Working on that sunset and landscape definitely made me feel a little homesick but, I know there are ticks galore in that tall grass so I didn't get too excited about running, arms wide open, through a field on my next visit home. 

The podcast is called 1-900-FISH-BEER and it premieres on Apple podcasts and Spotify this Thursday (5/18) "Weird fishing stories that are rarely about fishing and almost never about beer" Check er out!

 

Preliminary Sketches

Over the last year I've had a growing desire to get back into painting on my free time so I've been gathering photos, both digital and film, of possible subjects I want to work on through the cold winter months. This is a small selection of places I'm strongly considering and some preliminary sketches. 

The first two photos are from my day trip through Holbrook, AZ, a very interesting and surreal place, and the last 2 are from Rochester, NY and Durham, NC. The restaurant in Durham, NC was my cousin's place and they sadly had to close their doors due to a terminated lease back in the fall. Rumor on the street is the building will be demolished for...you guessed it, luxury apartments. I know, same old story everywhere right now. We figured we should immortalize the beloved restaurant and the building that housed it since they both will no longer exist in downtown Durham.

 

Influencing in Quarantine Times

"Just Trying to Justify My Existence to a Bunch of Strangers"

14.5 x 19.5"

I started making this piece right before shit hit the fan back in March. It was originally intended to be about the complete lack of class influencers have when it comes to selling themselves and others out on social media. Now, seeing how our government has decided to throw small businesses overboard, I feel like this just sums up how the majority of us are feeling while money for small business is being offered up to companies who surely don't need 20 million. As much as I criticize social media, I kinda wonder, would these companies have given that money back if they hadn't been publicly outed for digging so deep into a relief fund for companies with fewer than 500 employees. Hmmm. Anyways, the influencers are still out there being tacky as hell through all of this.

Dirty Dogs and Inflatable Tube Men

I'm posting these here together because I feel like these two, along with the alarm clock piece I posted earlier, are all companion pieces. Yes, I gave all the main characters in the pieces these goofy cartoon faces but I think the mix between Saturday morning cartoon innocence and real life absurdity is the driving point. Along with these, that's probably the best way to sum up most of my work currently hanging in "Character and Narrative" at the Foothills Art Center. The show runs for a few more weeks and then is OVER! FOREVER! Get it while you can. Process pics below.

Left Field NYC Denim Flasher

Had the opportunity to work with Christian McCann again at LEFT FIELD NYC on another project recently. This time we put together a denim flasher for his new line of men's workwear based off the heavy duty workwear that coal miner's wore. At first we shot for a sort of homage to the classic advertising illustration for menswear in the 50's/60's but then moved into a more serious tone for the illustration. Had a blast looking through all the old illustrations from the golden age of advertising illustration and creating my own version of that. The line is now available with my flasher attached. Check it out HERE. 

Godzilla versus Barkley: A Love Story

Godzilla vs. Barkley was such a big deal for me as a kid. I had the poster and a shirt of it. Never had the shoes though. I've been working on getting some time to do this piece and finally got that feeling to throw it down one day. Maybe it synched up when the newest Godzilla film last year came out but I was feeling nostalgic and I wanted to pay homage and to one of my favorite advertising campaigns/illustrations of all time, and add my two cents on how this whole thing would've really gone down. But, there's one thing that has bugged me about digging through this old stuff and that is I can't find any information, anywhere, on who the illustrator was that did this for Nike. I want to thank them. And credit them so I don't get in any trouble for this piece.

This is the original image. It's amazing. It has to be one of the early major factors in making want to be an illustrator.