I COULD TELL YOU....

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me is group of five pieces created for Endeavor Snowboard Design's High 5 Board for the 2011/2012 season. The project was based on material from Trevor Paglan's book of the same name. This wonderful book is an examination of the visual culture of the American Military's black/classified programs, presented through the patches worn by the units involved in these programs. For each of these mysterious patches obtained by Paglan, a rough history is given and the obscure symbolism is deciphered (or at least an attempt is made). It is a small but fascinating glimpse into a hidden world.

Max Jenke from Endeavor gave me the book, asked me to read it, and come up with a graphic based on, or inspired by the contents. I struggled with it at first. While I'm a bit of an aviation geek and know some of the history of this material, I had a hard time getting over the bravado and cheesiness of it all. But I had faith in the idea and there was enough interest in the symbolism involved so I sunk my teeth into that and learned to embrace the less desirable aspects of the material.

The central figure in each piece is an interpretation of the major design element of a particular patch. This central figure bleeds out into a dark area that contains elements from the symbolism and history of the program that the patch relates to. These elements are faint, incomplete and obscured, and this, along with the heavy use of black speaks to the idea that these projects are from a world hidden from view. As a large portion of the patches in Trevor Paglan's book deal with projects that involve aircraft, at the bottom of the frame is a mash up of aircraft, both real and theoretical, that were developed out of American black military projects. Again these elements are kept dark and obscured.

The work presented here are the pieces in their original form. They were lengthened for use as topsheet graphics on the snowboards, and base patch graphics were designed for each board. I'll post images of these in the future when I get some shots of the prototypes from Endeavor.

THE TURTLE

Here's one that I've been picking away at for awhile in between a few other projects. After working on a few EK pieces that were a little more conceptual in nature it was nice to get back to the free form, and work on something that was looser and a little more impromptu. This one started as a rough character sketch that I thought looked like a turtle, so everything grew out of that. There is some symbolism involved but it is secondary to the image and I won't go into that here.

Higher rez., and details at my Flickr.

Enjoy!

LUCX PROJECT

I recently did an interview for the LUCX Project, an ever growing collection of interviews with creative individuals compiled by the Blank Company. You can read the interview here.

Thanks to Otis from the Blank Company for inviting me to be a part of this.

DEFAULT MAGAZINE

I had a little spread in .default magazine this month. .default is an online art magazine that focuses on design, art, fashion, music, etc., and is compiled out of Istanbul, Turkey. It is full of cool stuff, and worth checking out.

The current issue, #8, can be seen here. The previous issues can also be viewed on their site.

Thanks to Editorial Director, Bugu Melis Caglayan for inviting me to be part of this issue.

SPECTRUM

I found out several months ago that a few of my pieces were going to be included in the latest edition of Spectrum, but since then I had been wondering how they going to be layed out, given my long vertical compositions. I was afraid that they would be crunched down to half a page and the detail would be lost. When I received my copy of Spectrum 17 in the mail last week I was happy to see that not only were the images printed full page size, but they were also bundled together in a little spread (along with a nice piece by Ching Cia Ee).

As usual the book is loaded with amazing work, with a nice mix of styles and mediums. There is also a nice balance of representation between Spectrum regulars and new comers. Throw in a great piece by Fearless and you have a really nice art book.

DYSTOPIC (ventilate)

Michael at Ventilate asked me to be part of their latest poster series. Ventilate had featured some of my work a few months back and their site is great (check it out), so I was more than happy to say yes and work with them. When I found out that the theme of the series was "dystopia" I couldn't help but be a little disappointed. I had worked on a number of dystopic projects over the last few years and I was kind of tied of the whole genre. But I soon got over that, really enjoyed creating the piece and was pretty happy with the end result.

The geometric forms in this work, that represent the ideas of intolerance, discrimination, and conformity, have taken on the form of a cityscape. This city, with its monotonous forms and dull, limited palette is meant to portray a dystopian society, perhaps one that has become violently egalitarian. The cosmonaut represents the non-conformist (the artist, the magician, the outsider), unable and unwilling to submit to the limited regime of the majority. His mind remains high above, "in the clouds", holding on to the fragments of a life now lost. But he nurtures and cradles a hope (here displayed as a sage plant), a hope for a better and more fulfilling future.

This poster is available for free download, at print resolution (24"x 36" @300 dpi), at the Ventilate website.

Thanks to Michael Brown, and everyone at Ventilate for inviting me to be a part of this project.

CARNE MAGAZINE

I was invited to contribute a few pieces to the current issue of Carne Magazine. Carne is an online visual arts magazine based out of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Every issue is packed with a great selection of photography, design, illustration, street art, etc. by artists from all over the world. It is definitely worth checking out. Download Issue #6 here.

I had to crop a number of pieces as the template of the magazine didn't really work well with the aspect ratios of my work, but I think in the end it turned out well, and gave the images a new perspective.

Thanks to Ignacio Sauri Torres for inviting me to be part of this issue.

AVANTGARDE/STROKE.03

Here are a few pictures from the Avantgarde Digital Exibition at the Stroke .03 Urban Art Fair in Berlin that I contributed a few pieces to. I wasn't able to attend but apparently the show was a great success with a host of amazing artists, over 8000 visitors over the 4 days (Oct 7th-10th), and a lot of media attention.

Thanks to Marco Schawlbe for offering me a spot in the exhibit and to everybody that helped put the show together!

ARARITA

This is one that I've had in my head for awhile. Using the orbs in a planetary formation, with a large orb representing the sun surrounded by smaller orbs representing the planets, is something that I've wanted to do since the beginning of this project. I've focused on the seven "traditional" planets as these correspond to the seven points (six exterior points and one in the center), of the Hexagram, although I've also placed Uranus and Neptune in the distance. The character is the Earth (with the Moon orbiting his helmet), and more specifically mankind as a whole, the qabalistic Adam Qadmon. He represents our unique position in, and our relationship to the rest of the solar system/universe. That he is solitary refers to the fact in some ways we are all alone....and that we are all human, all related, that we are all one.

The title ARARITA is a qabalistic name of god formed by a notariqon of the Hebrew phrase "achad resh achdotho resh yechodo temurahzo achad" or "One is His beginning, One is His individuality, His permutation is One", and speaks to the unitary nature of the divine. In the tradition of the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn the name ARARITA is used in the Rituals of the Hexagram, with each of it's seven letters assigned to one of the planets.

Higher res. and detail here.

AIRHOLE

Here are a few images I created for Airhole's 2010 facemask line. These pieces were for the "Aviator Series", and I guess they figured that I would be good for the job given my apparent love for helmets, cables, wires, hoses etc. Anyways, these were a lot of fun and they should be hitting the shelves in the fall (if they aren't already!).

STROKE.03

I've been invited to take part in the next installment of the Stroke Urban Art Fair. Stroke.03 will take place in Berlin from October 7th to the 10th in Hall 5 Station-Berlin. From looking at the previous installments of Stroke, it looks like it will a great show, with wide range of art, including street art, poster art, paintings, videos etc. Some of my work will be included in a new aspect of the show that features digital art. For more info check out the Stroke.03 website here.

ENTANGLED

Here is one I squeezed in between a couple of side projects. The title is reference to my own feelings, and position towards this project as of late. I would love to spend more time on it, emmerse myself in it, make it better, but a busy life prevents me from doing so.

All the orbs represent different aspects of my life (which I won't go into here), which entangle me, and compete for precious time. Some of these aspects are good, some bad, and a few are much more important than my digital scribblings, but they pull me away regardless.

I don't know why the figure is female...maybe my anima is surfacing...

Details and higher res. images here.

FLICKR

I've created a Flickr page to post higher quality images, along with more details. This will help address Blogger's short comings and hopefully give me more control over how my work is viewed (and spread around the Internet).

Moving forward all the details of the pieces posted on this blog will be posted on this Flickr page.

Check it out here.

HIGH 5 VIDS

Here are a couple of videos featuring the Endeavor High 5 board that features the Hexagram images from my Entartete Kunst series. The first is a product knowledge video produced for Endeavor by Randy Ross. The product shots look amazing and I don't look like a total fool (I hate being on camera)......You can find it here or on the Endeavor website.

The second vid is from Snowboard Review.com at their 2010 Snowboard Test. From the print review:

"This was the last board which I tested at the 2010 UK board test and it was so nice to finish off with a traditional cambered twin which had, in our opinion, the best graphics of any board at the test. The topsheet was basically made up of Endeavor's 'Cosmonaut" graphic which was beautifully printed and the base shared the same burnt orange colour with very detailed Space-odyssey style sci-fi space 'things' painted on it. The cost of such elaborate artwork cannot have been cheap and this board looked so good I was desperate for it to work for me on the hill. Fortunately, I was not to be disappointed."

Check the video here.