Borderline Disorder

I had the honor of creating this flier for the newly formed Imperial Valley Artist Collective's first show at Imperial Valley College this month. Needless to say: fun, fun, fun-- not to mention that the show looked amazing in the new gallery. Congratulations, guys!

Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles

Juxtaposition of celebration and sadness on Olympic Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles. This is one of two new pieces for the Roots and Wings Project "Ignite" show at SPARC gallery in Venice on April 2nd (flier below).

Somewhere Better Than This Place, 1

I recently began working on a new series for an upcoming show this month in San Diego. This is the first in the series- in particular, a collage of memories surrounding my hometown (Calexico) and home county (Imperial). Some things hold more personal significance than others, though I didn't want to exclude anything that had a potentially beautiful aesthetic quality. Also included: a portrait of my parents on Christmas Eve, circa mid-1970s.

Mas Alla de la Pared

This is a new flier that arrived in my inbox last night for the Mas Alla de la Pared show– a continuation of our Dentro y Fuera de la Pared show that was on display at Mexicali Rose in Mexicali, Mexico this past February. The opening will be this Friday, June 18th at 7pm at the Centro de Espectaculos Promocasa (FEX) in Mexicali, Mexico and is presented by the Sistema Educativo Estatal Instituto de Cultura de Baja California (roughly translated as the Baja California State Educative System and Institute of Culture). I won't be in attendance unfortunately, but if you are in the area please stop by!

99 Red Balloons / Atwater Village Street Festival

My Ecotone (How the Coyote Came to Los Angeles) piece is now up for sale at the Canteen Gallery website alongside some awesome work... a nice opportunity to buy great work at a great price! All pieces are either $66 or $99.

I am currently working on some new items that will be up for sale at the Atwater Village Street Festival on June 13th to celebrate Atwater's Centennial. Most of the items will also be available at my Etsy store, along with the restocking of the ol' Internet and Greyhound comics.

Parallel Universes Come Together

This is a piece inspired by the Parallel Universe I and II pieces created for the ¡¿Que Barrio?! show last month, and a result of the two coming together. I was hoping the image would portray the idea of these corporations attempting to overshadow each other (especially in Mexico) and having the potential for never-ending growth, as symbolized by the negative space.

Parallel Universe

Aside from working on the design for the ¡¿Que Barrio?! flier earlier this month, I've also been working on a couple of pieces for the show itself. I've been bouncing around between issues when it comes to my work lately, and I thought it'd be interesting to find a link between consumption in Mexico and the U.S.

OXXO is the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. based 7-Eleven corporation, and I thought it'd be interesting to portray each outside the boundary of their usual country by placing the OXXO piece on display in the United States and the 7-Eleven piece on display in Mexico. (I'm aware that 7-Eleven has some presence in Mexico though it is less common than that of OXXO convenience stores, not to mention that it is based in the United States to begin with.) I also wanted to give the piece that convenience store feel by working on brown kraft paper, otherwise known as the paper used to create paper bags. I should be in town for the opening in El Centro so if you're in the area come stop by!

¡¿Que Barrio?!

This is a flier for an upcoming show I'm participating in called ¡¿Que Barrio?!, a binational show taking place on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border this April/May. I've been hearing so many good things about the work going up for this show... can't wait to see it!

Ecotone (How the Coyote Came To Los Angeles)

I was recently invited to a group show at Canteen Art Shop + Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The theme of the show is "99 Red Balloons" (all pieces are 9" x 9" and $99 or $66 in price) and this piece is an imagined interpretation of how the coyote arrived in Los Angeles. I've seen quite a few coyotes roaming around the neighborhood in the past couple of years, and though it was initially very strange, I now consider them a normal part of our urban landscape.



Graphite and Stabilo Aquarelle watercolor pencil on Rives BFK printmaking paper.

Self portrait

New self-portrait created for the Brooklyn Art Library's Self Portrait Project.

Coney Island 3

I often find myself working in sets of threes, and this is no exception. I've created 2 other Coney Island pieces this year, and yet there is still something that pulls me back to the photos I took of the famous Cyclone roller coaster when I was there. I thought I'd finish off the set with one more piece, which will be up at the Land of Odd Gallery's 5" x 7" show this March.

I wanted to incorporate text (as I had with the 2nd piece in the series), and the idea of "Over and Over" came from both the idea of returning to the Cyclone as inspiration for several pieces, as well as the physical act of the roller coaster itself, remaining on the same track and repeating the same course day in and day out.

AIGA Nebraska Love/Hate contest

(Photo property of AIGA Nebraska)

I had sort of forgotten about the AIGA Love/Hate contest that I entered a few weeks ago... winners were chosen and cards were printed/sold (actually still being sold online)... and I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of 18 winners! Aside from being professionally printed, all of the designs were also exhibited at the Bancroft Gallery in Omaha.

There are some pictures from the opening night of the exhibition at the AIGA Nebraska Flickr gallery, and the entire set of winning cards can be seen here.

Wish I could have been there... looks like it was a really nice show!

Animal Collective

I rarely do full on digital coloring, but I figured if there were ever a time, this was it.

The love lives of bicycles

Heartbroken.




Lonely.



In love.

Dentro y Fuera de la Pared: 7 Artistas del Otro Lado.

(Translation: "Inside and Outside the Wall: 7 Artists From the Other Side.")

If you are in the area, do please stop by and check out some new work at Mexicali Rose. The opening will be on January 29th, starting at 7:30pm (and ending somewhat late, so I hear!) with musical guest Blue Jungle of Los Angeles. This'll be my first time showing outside the States, so I'm pretty excited. Everyone's work is also looking quite lovely, so I'm positive it'll be a show worth seeing. Hope to see you there!

Mexicali Rose

I'm currently working on some new drawings for a 7 person group show in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico at Mexicali Rose Media/Arts Center. They are a great grass roots organization in Mexicali that is "dedicated to providing free access to artistic media for the lower income community youth of Mexicali, Baja California." I am greatly looking forward to it.

Not necessarily going for a particular theme with my work this time around (who knows if a theme will pop up on its own)— but mostly just focused on creating and creating.

Coney Island, off-season

This is a piece based on my experience at Coney Island in the off-season. I mostly remember brightly colored signage, but it was completely deserted and everything was closed. After wandering around, my friend and I were walking out towards the Atlantic when it started to pour. With no umbrella to fight off the rain, we turned around and headed back to the subway station.



8" x 5.5" Ink and colored pencil on Rives BFK.

New York series cont.

New York series

I started work on a new series based on my trip to New York this year. This is the first piece, with many more to come. This particular series will be on display at Bamboo Lounge in San Diego next month.

Micheltorena Street

If you've read far back enough in this blog, you may know that I've always liked the juxtaposition of nature and urban areas (I explored it in some works that I created a few months ago). This is another piece that falls into that series, based on my own experience here in Los Angeles. I remember (on several occasions) leaving my friend's place on Micheltorena Street late at night and walking to my car while watching these coyotes run off across Sunset Blvd and back up the hills. I always thought it was so strange that something we associate with massive deserts and pure wildlife was right here, running across one of the most famous and busy streets in the world.