Frankenbench Lives!!!

Way back in 2011, when this blog still had stars in its eyes, before the weight of the world had crushed its bloggy spirit, I discussed a bench I was making. Go ahead and click the link if you do not know about the mythic bench. I likened it to Bigfoot because, while others had heard about the bench for a long time, no one had ever actually seen it. When I published that addition to my blog back in 2011, I was positive that the bench would be completed in the following weeks.

And I was right.

Ladies and gentlemen, just 161 short weeks later, I give you.... the bench.

To recap, the bench started its life as a discarded chair. The alley treasure did not have cushions, but the wood was sturdy and it showed potential. What I saw was a bench trapped in a chair's body. So, I replaceded all of the crossmembers with wider pieces of lumber. What is original is just the sides, including the legs and armrests.

The tops of the back legs had previously had some sort of wood ornamentation. I think they were simple spheres. Once the decision was made to give the bench the Tijuana color treatment, I figured carved skulls would be a better fit. The screws in the eyes, you will notice, are phillips-head in one, and slotted in the other. There is a reason for this, but I will take that secret to the grave. (Or, I will reveal it in my tell-all life story sometime down the road.)

I am very pleased with the way the bench turned out. I like the colors. My wife made a lovely set of cushions for it, despite my disappointing choice of fabric. My favorite touch, though, is the dice. The legs had the square shape there already. Somehow I hit upon the idea of changing them to look like dice. I could have simply painted the dots on with black paint, but a forstner bit and a drill were the real ticket to making a mediocre design element a stellar design element.

I realized that the back of the bench may not be seen much, depending upon where it finally finds a home, but I was not satisfied with simply painting it. This iconic Day of the Dead image was simple to reproduce and adds the jazz I felt was needed.

I hope to sell the bench for $500. I have not tested the market yet, as it was officially finished just a couple hours ago. Like most of my artistic endeavors, this bench will go great in a handful of homes, but will not look good in most. It will be up to the cosmos to see that one of the few people who want this monster are lucky enough to actually see it. I am not worried. I have a good feeling about this one.

Swingnaut, part deux

For those of you paying attention, I posted some art a ways back that I co-created with the brilliant Wes Smith. The subject was a mash-up of images I had absorbed from all manner of media- TV, magazines, movies, etc.- pertaining to the atomic era of the 1960s. Specifically, I saw the 60's defined as astronauts, adult beverages, cigarettes, and lounges.

However misguided my imagination was, that is what I saw in my head. The resulting art, which was painted on an amoebic piece of wood, was a delightful astronaut that made me smile when I saw it. I guess I could not leave well enough alone. I decided to give the old guy a little more life by creating him as a wall sculpture. (note to self... find out if 'wall sculpture' is actual terminology in use, and see if it describes what we are talking about.)

This hep cat is roughly 2.5 feet tall from top to bottom. I used mdf fiberboard for the majority of it, carving into it with scooped chisels I picked up in Japan. The bartop is a slab of oak. The stool was particularly trying because the legs broke a couple times, They were just too brittle for my heavy monkey hands. They survived the third fix, and I was able to hang it.

I am pleased with the way in which the hands were carved out to hold the martini (thin plastic) and the cigarette (wooden dowel.) I should have taken a close-up photo of the cigarette. I took an especially long time on it and am very pleased with the realism, which includes an ember that, if you squint, looks like it is really lit.

The ultimate compliment, for me, is that it sold. I hope the person who bought it has a softer touch, and was able to get it safely hung without upsetting the barstool. 

The ghost of Feldon J. Pinkle

The latest in a 'series' of rustic signage has the circus theme once again. The event this time is known far and wide as Barnyard Follies. It is a delightful show run by the legendary Feldon J. Pinkle. At 10-cents per ticket, the tents are going to fill up fast, so come early!

Acrylic on wood

approx 18" x 24"

The panel itself was part of a dresser someone had tossed in the alley near my house. For those new to the blog, my neighborhood is a series of streets crossing one another at right angles, with alleys running between each pair of roads. The collective consciousness of most of the half-wits who populate this part of San Diego is that discarded furniture should be placed anywhere in the alley because, magically, it will eventually disappear. The majority of this refuse is unsuitable for repair, and tend to remain for quite awhile. Before the debris gets hauled away, I look for the wooden desks and such which have panels I can use.

The idea that came to me first was the Harmonica-playing goat. I had recently listened to a Stephen King audio-book, The Regulators. Somewhere midst the thousands of sentences was a brief mention of a goat named 'Dirty Face'. It was completely random and was not an important piece of the story, but it struck a chord with me. So that got the juices going.

Feldon J. Pinkle is not a real person. The name is something I remember from around 1990. At the time I worked in the graphics department of a small bi-weekly newspaper. The artists around me were brilliant. They were skilled artists and production grunts, as well as unsung heroes of the comedy stage. In particular, the brilliant staff artist, M.P. Opriska, was a constant source of wit. He first mentioned Feldon J. Pinkle in, I believe, an editorial cartoon. The name was clearly memorable to me, and was given new life in my art.

The idea for 'Barnyard Follies' came from that era as well. The production manager, Mike Reilly, had served in the navy before joining us at the paper. He had a never-ending cache of tales from the ships he served on. One story, told with clear disgust in his voice, involved him visiting a fellow sailors quarters only to find a group of sailors watching an adult film wherein the women actresses are loving some farm animals very much. Mike did not stick around to see who was cast in the film, but he did learn that the title was 'Barnyard Follies'. So, I pulled the thought from my filing cabinet brain and used it here.

The rest was stream-of-consciousness. I figured 10-cents was probably the going rate for such a show sometime in the past. And, since there was a lot of imitation in circus acts of yore, I thought it would be funny to mention Dirty Face was merely the 2nd best act of its kind. This allows us to imagine just how good the BEST harmonica-playing goat must have been.

Stymie Has a Posse

OTAY

20" x 36" Acrylic on wood

"Hey, wait a minute! Thats not Stymie! Thats Buckwheat!"

"No way, man! Thats Eddie Murphy AS Buckwheat."

...and Buckwheat is a close acquaintance of Stymie, and therefore a member of his 'posse'. If, finally, all this talk of posses seems rather out of place in relation a portrait of 'Buh-weet', you may be the lucky one. For the rest of us, the onslaught of Obey-brand everything came out of nowhere and everywhere concurrently, ensuring none who were aware of it could ever forget it. Obey and it's mascot, Andre, were ubiquitous before becoming ubiquitous, dig? Is any of this getting through to you?

Enough BS. Lets talk about the riff.

I conjured up this take on Shepherd Fairy's (sic?) cash cow years ago. It always seemed worthy of creating, I just never found the right surface. As I have stated before, the surface generally gives me some kind of idea for what should be put down on it. This panel from a cherry desk called on me to, at long last, paint Buckwheat.

For those of you who read my details, I will let you in on a secret idea which may forever go undone, but is no less nansensu than 'Otay': Picture a high-contrast image of a hasidic Jew... suns rays eminating from behind... you know where I am going with this... at the bottom: OiVey.

Yeah. I am pretty sure that one will go undone. 

Paranoia, the destroy-yuh!

Invited to submit art for a show with a paranoia/ mind control/ art of suggestion theme, I gave it my all. Drawing on 18 years (+/-) of listening to Art Bell's Coast to Coast radio show, I hit upon three ideas in no time at all. While I do not buy into conspiracies by and large, the discussions somehow fascinate and entertain me. So, lets take a look at what I produced...

      The Bohemian Club Sign      

I based this sign on others I have seen online. It does not match any one sign exactly, aside from the content of the words. The logo is a replica of the logo used by the club. Some of you may not be familiar with the Bohemian club and will be unsure of the reason it was subject matter for this art show. Hopefully you can get the jist from this verbage I copied from Wikipedia:

The Bohemian Club is a private club; only active members of the Club (known as "Bohos" or "Grovers"^[12]) and their guests may visit the Grove. These guests have been known to include politicians and notable figures from countries outside the U.S.^[2] Particularly during the midsummer encampment, the number of guests is strictly limited due to the small size of the facilities. Nevertheless, up to 2,900 members and guests have been reported as attending some of the annual encampments.^{[citation needed]}

The membership list has included every Republican Party and some Democratic Party U.S. presidents since 1923, many cabinet officials, directors and CEOs of large corporations including major financial institutions. Major military contractors, oil companies, banks (including the Federal Reserve), utilities (including nuclear power) and national media (broadcast and print) have high-ranking officials as club members or guests.

Basically, there are some major players known to be members in this club of the elite. Anytime you have people of power meeting in secrecy, you have the makings of a good ol' conspiracy. 

      Mayan Prophecy      

The idea behind this was to create a block which could pass for a section of wall removed from a Mayan temple, or the like. The majority of the 14" x 12" piece is the styrofoam core, with only a 3/4" layer of cement over that. My thought was that it would be light enough to hang on a wall. In truth, the piece probably weighs 10 pounds. Not quite the lightweight wall-hanging I had in mind. Still, it will look good in our garden.

The alleged Mayan prophecies regarding 2012 were the source of this idea. I used my own design for the head gear, basing it off of actual images found in books. Yes, that is a Starbucks cup in his hand. Sure, they did not have Starbucks in their time but, remember, this depicts a prophetic look into makind's future. Are we doomed to the fate of this pie-eyed indian? Does his mouth hang agape because he is witnessing an atomic bomb? Or, has he suddenly realized that he has spent too much on his grande mocha?

The Illuminati Nightlight

My favorite piece of the three is the Illuminati Nightlight. I will even go as far to say that it is one of the greatest pieces I have ever made. It turned out as I had hoped it would, though I had some doubt as to whether I could make it happen. 

The subject matter, of course, is the symbol from the back of a 1-dollar bill. Many conspiracy theorists claim it is a Masonic symbol, pointing to various aspects of it's design. My take on it consists of mahogany sides topped with a crystal pyramid I ordered off of Amazon.

I must give due credit to Mr. Eric Williams at Future Antiques. It was with his help that I was able to cut the compound miters necessary for the angle of the 'bricks' to match those on the crystal pyramid. I can say with some certainty that I would have been hard-pressed to get the accuracy his knowledge provided me were I to be left to my own devices.

Finally, I want to discuss the light coming from beneath the pyramids base. As I was working on mounting the light fixture inside the piece, I noticed that raising the base slightly from the tabletop caused a really cool glowing 'halo' around the bottom. As a result, I ended up mounting tiny rubber feet to the inner walls. That was a really cool addition to an already exceptional piece. 

I almost didn't recognize you.

It has not been that long since I started making art for 'the masses'. I figure the real start was around 2006, when I moved into the place where I still reside. Tae, the lovely woman who would become my wife, was due to visit my house for the first time and the place was painfully sparse. I did not have any dining room furniture to speak of. My living room consisted of about 16 feet worth of workbench space and a tall, narrow shelving unit which housed a rinky-dink TV and a couple gaming consoles. I had no bed. I think I had a hand-me-down dresser... Most striking, I had nothing on any of the apartment walls.

What, I thought, could I do to make my apartment more presentable? Furniture, I knew, would cost money. Being impoverished, I decided homemade art was the solution. Some sort of painting was going to be the key in my drive to gussy up the pad as the date of my guest's arrival loomed. So, what to paint?

A samurai! Of course! Japanese girl... Japanese subject matter... It would be a cinch. I thought. Wrongly. Not having delved into Japanese art much further than some anime and 1 or 2 Kurosawa films, my memories from which to draw inspiration from were, surprisingly, more barren than my house. My solution was to do a painting based upon one I had seen in a book. While the original would certainly look far superior to what I ended up with, the final piece was indeed pleasing.

I painted it on a 2' x 4' scrap of cabinet-grade birch plywood that I scored on a construction site. Armed with acrylics and a circular saw, I did a valiant job of creating a statement of my capabilities with this one project. Having this hanging opposite the door as you entered the apartment made my home far more welcoming. It hangs in our living room to this day.

Although the art was not created for public consumption, it was the spark that lit that flame. I was finally aware of painting and my ability to utilize it with effectiveness. There would still be a couple years before I would hang my art in a gallery for the first time, but it was not long afterwards that I created my first piece for someone who was not me. 

The shop shown above is located at 2843 University Avenue. Owned by Mr. Simon Wong, the space houses all manner of items from the far east. Statuettes, figurines, vases, swords, clothing, paintings... as I said, all manner of items. And, according to the rave reviews on Yelp, Kam Fung is the only place one need visit when making the move to create a feng shui living space. It was Simon who received the art I am eluding to.

Having enjoyed a casual, friendly relationship with one another for a couple years, I was happy to oblige when Simon asked me to paint something on a cabinet door he possessed. I took the wood home and, with Tae's help, stripped it of the existing paint and finish on the panel. Finally, with the prep work complete, it was time to be creative. Initially, I did not have any ideas about what I should paint.  Looking back, I believe that my habit of letting the 'canvas' dictate what shall be painted was likely born at this point. After staring at the door for a great deal of time, the image, in all its randomness, became clear in my mind. Although I did not know it, the creation given life on Simon's cabinet door had all the hallmarks of future artwork I would eventually produce.

Recently, I have been toying with the idea of using the term 'nansensu' (nonsense) as the name of my personal style. I think the sign shown here is a perfect example. The banner at the top advertises a shop that caters to soldiers (Bushi), offering discount clothing and supplies. Below the enormous setting sun, the wandering ronin gives testimony to some of the features that make this his one-stop trading post: They rent boats, they offer hot baths and, for customers who prefer it, this establishment accepts personal checks! It is an additional bonus to learn that such a market is open 7 days each week, 24 hours a day.

I ran into Simon out of the blue last weekend. Remembering the cabinet door, and wishing to see it after so many years, I inquired about it. I was delighted to learn it still hung in his house. I was further excited to hear he would bring it to his shop so that I could get the photo of it which, foolishly, I had failed to get back then. The icing on this already delicious cake is the fact that, today, he let me take it home for a few days. This will allow me to get a good photo, for sure. Also, the extended borrow-time will let me reconnect with a piece of my personal history. Nansensu jya nai..

Sweet Simplicity

'Bewarijuana'

(Click for trippy bigness)

I am not much of a pot smoker. I took a ride on the proud mary once upon a trip, but it makes me tired anymore. Worse yet, it makes me look very tired. In other words, I made a decision years ago that looking like I was 'high on something' was not the look I was going for and I put the peace pipe in mothballs. Despite my leap from the love train, I support anybody's decision to use responsibly.... unless it leads to sinister things....

In my 20's, I was turned on to the spoken word recordings of Jello Biafra. I was familiar with his wonderfully biting lyrics as long-time front man for the Bay Area punk band, the Dead Kennedys. His fifth speaking album, I Blow Minds For A Living, was released in 1991 and contained, among other things, an extensive history of marijuana and its road from useful vegetation to illegal narcotic. It was here that I first heard that, sometime in the 1930s, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, it was said that marijuana was known to cause people to 'listen to jazz'. True or not, it is hilarious. The idea has stuck with me and, 23 years later, I put the idea down as art.

The image shown is my computer rendition. Of note is the fact that this falls into the category of art which turned out exactly as I had envisioned it- the rarest of things, I am afraid. It will appear as an aged painting (acrylic on plywood, 2' x 2') in the very near future. At that time I will post a photo of the finished product. That is, unless I am too baked to remember.