I have two paintings from the "Marks" show in the Beyond Eden Art Fair next weekend (w/ Thinkspace). The event takes place in LA at the LA Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park, both Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. This marks the first of three shows I'll be a part of in the LA area over the next few months and I'll be going down for all of them... maybe I'll see you there?

So, to start...I have very reluctantly started a Twitter account. actually, my friend Steve Choi (here's his dumb twitter secret code name: @rxchoi,) set one up for me and called me every night to harass me until I activated it. he does have a point, it's obviously become a pretty important social networking tool and I know a lot of good people who are way into it. I still don't really get it though, and I consider myself pretty tech-savvy generally.

I just got my copy of "Designing Obama", a book chronicling the design of the Obama campaign, and how its use was innovative in American Politics. It covers everything from the logo design and type-treatment, to a collection of Obama art from a huge list of artists. The Obama portrait I did back in early 2008 is in there, and there are some really nice pieces from Adam Doyle, Marlene Dumas, Ron English, James Widener, and tons more. The book was compiled and designed by Scott Thomas, the design director of the Obama Campaign and was funded entirely through Kickstarter.

So I've been lagging a bit on the blog but I have a good excuse; I've been painting a lot. and going to a lot of shows (more on that very soon). It feels like I've been in the studio even more than usual actually, although that's probably due to a painting that gave me a particularly hard time. I'd like to report that said painting was conquered and that I worked through the problems and now it looks amazing...but nay -- it beat me, and I abandoned it after a week of work. (it's now un-stretched and rolled up in a corner where it can no longer taunt me.)

I'm pleased to report that the limited run of gicleé prints of my painting, "the Response", are now available via Paper Tiger.

I've been working on a new 36" x 48" piece for a few weeks now and am just finishing it up. Here's a sneak peek at some progress pictures*. I tried to take pictures from the same vantage point (hence the cropped layers). apologies for the glare.

Here's the new piece I had in the show last week at 941 Geary. It's called "senza pietá" and is an attempt at my version of the classic Pieta by Michelangelo... or rather my version of Bouguereau's version (which I like better). Although it does contain ladies, the composition was very much out of my comfort zone.

I'll be participating in a group show opening this Saturday, July 17th, at the brand new 941 Geary Gallery in SF. The show is titled "As They See It" and features an incredible lineup of artists focusing on realism and representation. I'll be contributing a new painting, the composition of which is very much outside of my usual comfort zone. I'll post it here after the opening this weekend, but for those in Bay Area, I definitely recommend seeing the entire show in person.

I've been working on a limited edition gicleé of "the Reponse"with excellent LA-based print house, Paper Tiger, for a few months now. I just got the final run, signed and numbered them, and will ship them back down to LA tomorrow -- so they will be available (via Paper Tiger) very soon!

I did a short interview a few weeks back with the website Curbs & Stoops. Word has it they will be starting a print edition as well with my piece "Lush" on the cover. Fun! here's the interview: http://www.curbsandstoops.com/blog/?page_id=700