HEY THERE SPORTS FANS, Al HERE WITH THE
LATEST:
So what's new with the box (Visual
Arts)?
That's a good question since I haven't been posting as regularly as I would like to because there's been a lot of things that
have been taking place both in my personal life and professional life.
Since I have shifted to doing
commissions and secular individual pieces of art for group and solo
shows, the question that might be asked "what's next?"
Easy answer, self promotion.
And that is not a shameless thing
either mind you.
So that means here in the 21 Century
that you got to use the technology and tools set before you and
swallow YOUR fear of putting work out there and put your foot down
and make the statement that best reflects you. In my case it's
selling the work everywhere I can.
Taking a page (nearly literally) out
of Adam Watson's play book for selling his comics
(
www.darkslinger.com) I
have been adapting what he does and with the insistence of my
beautiful girlfriend Beth (also a great artist in her own right at
www.urbanretrospectives.com), to get
the work out there because at least it's out there for people to see.
SO in that regard I have three on line
store fronts show casing and selling the work. It takes a lot of
time out of the day to interlink these sites. Of course this kind of work does take away from the
actual creation of new and interesting work but it a balancing act
always has been always will be.
So check out these three sites for art prints and gilcees.
And of course I still have my comics
that I have worked on. At comixpress and
Indyplanet.
As of this writing I have found that comixpress is a thing of the past! The Citadel - the very first comic I every printed up is no longer around. Who knew? I sure the hell didn't. But that's okay, older work always gets overlooked. You will find that Black Box will also have a imprint from Dan Barton and his BIG ASS SWORD comic. Dan and I had been working on Pandora's Garage 1 through 5 for a few years and he he has focused on working his comics while I have began working and focusing on the prints and secular pieces. He had asked me if I would have any problem with this? No I said because it doesn't directly effect the work I'm doing currently.
ON THAT NOTE OF CHANGE, NEW THINGS-
THE BIG 500!
As with the last couple years past I
have been part of this cool group show I have tried to put in 10 New pieces every year. Now have I sold
every single one of them, no, but that's the goal.
But the work I put in last year
I wasn't really putting forth my best effort for the work. I just tried to put in 10 pieces.
I know that there are times when you are under a deadline and you have to crank crap just to meet it.
Well what I came away from that show
"Well what did you learn about rushing stuff?"
You can't fool the Observer. If you are not into your work people will see it. The opposite is also true. "Down with the Weirdness" was like that and that one sold!
You can
take a look at these few BIG shows and see the difference in the art
as it progressed over the years.
Now true sometimes there is the
unexplainable of why a piece of art connects with a customer and that you can't
fathom why even though you still know it's a good piece.
Alchemy is the only thing I can think
of that explains this.
Anyway, I have been working my ass off
to make these new pieces the best images possible. I think that this effort shows a
real confidence and mastery of the medium of scratchboard. Check it
out some of these images and you'll see what I am talking about.
Pretty cool I think.
So how do you sell work and not sell
your soul for the fast buck?
The answer (in my opinion) is you can't
.
I know a lot of my friends who will not
agree with me on this but I bet there isn't a moment when you collect money on a
piece of work that you think to yourself “Dude,that was such a
good piece of work and ya sold it like a baby on the black market!
What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
There will always be a bit of your
integrity that gets lost in the process. It feels to me like that when I am selling a new piece of work especially like the commission
work that I finished on for N.W.I.P.A. It is one of the hardest things
to come to grips with. I think that a lot of really good people just
never want to throw themselves into that arena. And I get it, I
really, really do. It's not fun looking outside of your comfort zone
and sipping on a flavorful latte at a local coffee shop and working
on a great illustration and realize that when you look up that's your
work on a poster of something that been up for over a
month!
There is a difference in the way I am
producing these works however and it goes to a conversation that I had with
another artist at the bar as I
was picking up a special batch of beer that was being released by
Firestone Brewing.
I had asked simply if he had sold
anymore images or paintings in his time since he had a show just
before mine when it up earlier this year at N.W.I.P.A. here in Portland.
He had said
no because that wasn't what he was at for selling work for. And then he
went on further to say (to paraphrase) that he has been in that arena before hiking
up his metaphorical jean skirt down on the street to just to make a buck.
But now he was just doing his paintings
for himself.
And I understood where he was coming
from on that. I had said that I had been switching gears from doing
my illustrative comic work to doing the secular pieces in both group and solo shows around PDX. He had said that he wasn't actively
looking for places to show case his work even though he could do it. But he did add that he
could see how I could branch the gap by doing the illustation
commission work and still manage to turn out good work for solo shows.
He complemented me on my work (which
was cool to hear from another artist). He was being sincere in his response to me and
had no other vested interest in what I was doing. There wasn't a
sense of someone blowing smoke up my ass.
So again, there is a balancing act
going on here and I will do my best not to fall off that trapeze as
it get hosted higher and higher as time goes on under the Big Top!
And that is about it for the kid here but onto the physical artwork to complete for the BIG 500.
ALSO please check out the
website
and the facebook page 
Currently on Corpse Cop Inhuman Torch is being edited by Paula Akin. Paula had been asked to come on board for a second outing for CC. There are about three more information bundles that she has to get through but by then CC will be ready for press.
That
means Richard Parker has moved back into the Limelight for his
Adventure book, "The Watery Adventure of Richard Parker".
This is a major HIGH POINT
for the kid! I love doing these shows because the work gets the
chance to really shine on like it needs to. The first was THE HOP
THUR THE HEART show at N.W.I.P.A. February 15th just a couple days
after Valentine's Day. Such a fun show lots of people and dark stout
beer for Opposite Day. Two pieces sold during the shows run and I
knew one of them was gonna be good “Down with the Weirdness”. I
had finally gotten the genuine response to work from a complete
stranger like I had always wanted to hear. And the fact that it was
going back east to Brooklyn New York at a brewery was even better
than I had hoped.
ICON show. Now this was a
fun one because I took a fictional character that has always had a
influence on me and really turn out a wonderful single piece of work
Captain James T. Kirk! Loved working on this one and it was hard to
do but it still rocked!
Not so many this year as there has been
in the past but N.W.I.P.A. Always seems to have something for me
coming up so well see what is next.
AND PROBABLY THE BIGGEST THING TO TAKE
PLACE the WEBSITE!
HEY THERE SPORTS FANS, AL HERE WITH THE LATEST:
In my opinion it is a strong story visually compared to "Arctic Wolf" story line. We'll will see how things evolve as time goes on. I would personally love to see Corpse Cop do a few more stories before I'm done with him but we'll see how that goes down.
