We Kill Everything We Love

Here's the final installment of pieces for the Obscured Eye exhibition next week in Calexico. These will hang next to two oversize printouts that each contain text from Kalle Lasn's Culture Jam, the book that was initially the inspiration for this series. I've included the printouts here for your enjoyment and/or enlightenment.

Searching For Elliott Smith

I have been very honored and privileged to work on a documentary for the past few years that is actually about one of my favorite musicians of all-time: Elliott Smith. During all of my three years at Art Center, I set aside extra time to (painstakingly) create hand drawn, frame-by-frame animation for several spots throughout the documentary. It took more than just a long time, but in the end I'd realized that the large amounts of caffeine and all-nighters were well worth the pain. I was given more than a ton of freedom from director/producer/editor Gil Reyes to create these spots, and now that the documentary has finally been completed, it awaits its moment in the spotlight. (It is set to have its world premiere at the CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival this October in NYC.)

Now that the film is complete, it's time to focus on marketing... I've been given the opportunity to create a poster or two for the film, so I thought I would post the first drafts of them. We are considering a guerrilla marketing campaign in addition to the usual marketing ideas as well, though it will mostly likely be based in and around Los Angeles. A website is also definitely in order, and will be arriving soon. (Yet another project I'm looking forward to!)

I am very, very excited about this film– it has been nothing but a five year long extraordinarily intense labor of love, especially (and mostly) on Gil and Tony Ayala (cinematographer and editor)'s behalf. I am so unbelievably honored to be a part of something that I hold near and dear to my heart, and hope that the world re-discovers Elliott Smith's genius... or discovers it for the first time.


First poster: this is a revision of Gil's original idea.



Second poster: This was my initial idea for the poster... the absense of Elliott from a familiar place that his fans associate him with. (Solutions! memorial wall/"Figure 8" album cover, c. 2006) I did not want a beautiful shot of this wall in keeping with the sort of lo-fi spirit that comprises a lot of Elliott's earlier recordings. I was asked to keep the type the same, but was free to change the imagery.



Third poster: still keeping the type– a hybrid that plays off of both Gil's original idea as well as mine. The Polaroids contain some of the participants in the film. (Clockwise, L-R from top left: Steve Hanft, Ross Harris, Mary Lou Lord, Larry Crane, Jennifer Chiba, Sean Croghan, Tony Lash, David McConnell, Gus Van Sant.)



I'm hoping to create an illustrative version of the poster as well sometime in the very near future (along with a few more others), but in the meantime, here goes nothing!

Obscured Eye exhibition

This is the show which will display the latest series of work that I've been posting for the past month or so. If you are in Imperial Valley, please stop by and check it out... I've seen some previews of the other artists' work and it looks like it's shaping up to be a pretty great show! Otherwise, stay tuned for more new work within the next couple of weeks...

Donovan & Toby

A tiny portrait of my friend Rosie's turtles Donovan & Toby, which I made for her birthday... now, to frame and mail off! I don't think she views my blog much, so I suppose it is safe to post! *fingers crossed*



Approx. 5" x 7" colored pencil and graphite on paper.

We Kill Everything We Love 4

This is the fourth piece in the series... for some strange reason, this truck was one of the most excruciating things I've had to draw in a long time. I'm not sure if it was a psychological (ha!) or technical issue, but either way, here it is.

We Kill Everything We Love 3

Third piece in the "Kalle Lasn" series (I suppose I should just call it "We Kill Everything We Love" from now on, right?), and companion piece to the first piece in the series. I know everyone is not keen on cats, but if nothing else, we love our dogs. Right?




P.S. Don't worry: lighthearted work returning soon.

Manufactured Landscapes

I just finished watching a documentary on Edward Burtynsky's work called 'Manufactured Landscapes.' I couldn't figure out why his work appeared so familiar when I initially read about the documentary on Netflix until I remembered seeing some of his photos at the Williamson Gallery back when I was Art Center. They were fairly large in scale, and very beautiful yet ugly at the same time.

The documentary is excellent, and I can't think of anything better to have come across while working on the new pieces for the SDSU show in October. (Read more about it here on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufactured_Landscapes.)

We Kill Everything We Love 2

Second piece in the "Kalle Lasn" series. I find it ironic and distasteful that people fantasize about owning such a fancy "toy" (not just the Fisher-Price version, but a real Hummer vehicle itself) that is manufactured to be used in wars. I also find it a little disturbing that something like this is sold off to parents who want to give their children something "cute" or "cool" to drive. I know that most kids this age might not fully understand the concepts of environmentalism or consumerism (other than "gimme, gimme"), but something like this is really enough to make me sick.

It is strange that children die horrible deaths every day in wars, and yet parents still find the idea of their child driving a mini Hummer to be cute.