My buddy Dr. Gasp (artist/ musician extraordinaire Dan Blakeslee) invited me to open his Halloween-themed performance Thursday October 9th at Pierre Menard Gallery in Harvard Square. I'll be suiting up in one of my homemade monster costumes to play spooky guitar before Hot Ron Scorcher and Dr. Gasp play their sets. Show starts at 9pm, so git your spooky selves over there! Amazing flyer by Dr. Gasp, check out his music and art here



Photos of me with Dr. Gasp from the May 2008 "Springalloween show" by Nick DeMakes

I've got a squillion things to do but want to spend all my time on a new project I thought up, involving these 2 (yet unnamed) characters:


different outfit:

I've got more pencil sketches to clean up and add digital color to, just no time. This is a life-long curse, I think up cool stuff at the absolute worst moments when I'm supposed to be doing other things.
I wish a mad scientist could crank out a few clones of me so I could meet all my existing deadlines and still devote all my time to this! More sneak peeks, hopefully soon...

I recently finished this new poster, showing all my previous "Feast of Flesh" poster zombies raising J. Cannibal's zombie flag, Iwo Jima-style:

detail:

My friends Mary Widow and J. Cannibal are getting married this October. They asked me to paint a resurrection scene for the invitation, inspired by the poety lines, "We still live! We still love! We shall die dancing in eachother's arms"

Ice Cream Monster

my black raspberry reaper contribution to Brian Butler's awesome Ice Cream People project has got Reeses's Peanut Butter Cup eyes, and Reeses Pieces for teeth.

Brian says, "The intent of this project to get the Ice Cream Person recognized among the greatest of supernatural beings, (right up there with Bigfoot, Loch Ness, and UFOs).

Right now I'm collecting artist renditions as evidence. I'm mailing postcards with a cone template printed on it, for fellow advocates to complete and return. The postcards will be archived online at IceCreamPeople.org, and I'm planning the real-life exhibition now.

If you'd like to get involved, e-mail icecreamfriend@gmail.com with your mailing address.

Thanks!
Brian Butler
Ice Cream Person Research Coordinator"


Check out Brian's sweet artwork here

Liz, Forrest, and Spooky Frazier Commission

Congratulations to my Salem friends Liz and Forrest Frazier on their new baby, Lucille Violet Frazier! Months ago Liz's sisters and brother hired me to paint a portrait of Liz, Forrest, and their cat Spooky as a surprise gift. Liz and Forrest just got the painting a few days ago (along with Lucy!), so I can post it here. This was a fun commission! Thank you, Sara Jane, Chrissy, Amelia, and John.


early sketch of Liz, Forrest and Spooky on their bikes:

early Photoshop color study for the approved sketch:

Check out Forrest's photography site here
and Liz's motorcycle site here

Super-creepy Dr. Gasp (Dan Blakeslee, who also created the cool flyer above) just offered me the opening slot in next Saturday night's "SPRINGALLOWEEN" show at Gulu Gulu in Salem, with Dr. Gasp and Orange Nichole! I will play guitar as a monster in one of my huge homemade masks and plan on bringing some very limited edition posters I just whipped up as souvenirs for this show:



8pm-11pm
Saturday May 24
Gulu Gulu Cafe
247 Essex St.
Salem, MA

The food and drinks there are great, and cool owners Steve and Marie own 2 fun Boston Terriers named Max and Jack.


Come start your countdown to Halloween!

April 2nd, April 16th, and April 23rd I will once again put on my homemade monster masks and play guitar for life-drawing students at MassArt! Set lists will include lots of Man...Or Astroman?, classic surf, Misfits and Ramones, Sleep, classic Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer, some Iron Maiden, and more.

And the 2 last dates are geared towards potential incoming freshman who'll be revisiting the school then to decide if MassArt's the right fit for them. If the Frankenstein monster playing "Motorbreath" doesn't convince high school seniors that MassArt is a fun place, I don't think anything will. I love that my masking wire and tape monster heads will kind of be like MassArt recruiters.

(And like the recent Feast of Flesh poster, I doodled this self-portrait using my Wacom tablet in Photoshop instead of doing a traditional drawing. For me, this is very weird.)

Here's me outside my office at Massart after one of the last drawing sessions:

Photo by Linda Bourke, my former teacher and now my cool boss.

Just finished this new poster. And for the first time, the zombie head is 100% digital (Wacom tablet, brush tool, and paintbucket in Photoshop) rather than an acrylic painting dropped into the now-standard Feast of Flesh poster template. This show is going to be great.

I went to my hometown recently for my mom's and sister's birthdays, and found these Uniball pen drawings from middle school under my old bed.

"War is Hell"(1985)

Holy Moly! A heavy-metal-hair skeleton machine-gunner. Wow. This is from 6th grade in a Catholic school, when I started getting seriously into Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. This sucker's LAMINATED, even.
Detail:


This one's short and sweet.
"BURN"(1986):


The inside cover of my 1987 school notebook contained this gem:

The lightning BEHIND the moon is especially awesome. Look at all those bloody skeletons! Somehow, this made me remember Sister Barbara's music class, where we'd have to sing "Were You There When They Nailed Him to the Tree?" and other fun Catholic hits, alongside "The Rose" and "I'm On Top of the World". Once she let us bring in cassette tapes to play for the class, and I made everyone listen to Metallica's "Battery". Amazingly, she listened to the whole song instead of shutting it off once the accoustic guitar intro turned into the fast main riff. Her only comment was "It has a fast beat."

Cover for an 8th grade book report in 1987(I got an A+++, seriously!):


And finally, this insane 1987 heavy metal skeleton warlord guy on 12" x 18" sketch paper. I laughed my head off seeing this again 21 years later (crap, I'm old), but I was totally sincere when I drew this:


Black flag with Grim Reaper cut-out:


more details: