Vinyl Art

P(art)icipating

2012-01-21T12:42:00.001-07:00

On Feb.4 a music-inspired group art show called Pink Noise will open at Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park, New Jersey. These pieces of mine will be included! They contacted me late last year about participating so it's the first show for me of 2012. Woohoo! You can see work from other participating artists at http://www.parlor-gallery.com/?page_id=2426

Also coming up early this year, I'll hopefully be participating in First Fridays in Las Vegas! Close to the strip, a few blocks north of The Stratosphere they apparently have a growing monthly nighttime shindig. I'm planning on getting a booth in March. I'll certainly share details when everything's set.

Now I just need to paint more paintings!

Peace.

Yule (b)Log

2011-12-13T12:34:00.001-07:00

The weather in southern CA has been perfect for our 1st holiday season here. Just perfect.

We love the gloom.

We love feeling the need to be warm and cozy.

We love the warmth of family.

I was glad to be included in the 1st Holiday Sale at the Santa Monica Art Studios because my mother has her studio there.

And I sold the Louis Armstrong!

He went to a fellow who delighted in twice telling me how his father loves Louis, how he loves Louis, and how his 4 year old granddaughter now loves Louis. Beautiful.

I hope all the pieces that are being given as holiday gifts this year bring joy and delight. I know it's been a joy painting them.

Peace, and Happy Holidays!

On The Record Label

2011-11-16T10:48:00.002-07:00

Stark white. Lou Reed was the 1st piece I painted with white acrylic straight from the tube, no gray. It was on a demo record, which I thought was appropriate at the time. Demos usually have a white label.

I hadn't thought of sharing the importance of the label until I was commissioned to paint on this Matisyahu album which also has a white label. The art of the record label is wonderful. It has its size constraint like what I do does as well. And it seeks to both brand the album, connecting it to the record company, and unify the record with the album cover art.

Historically, usually, the record labels seem to simply be a connection to the record company like those shown at http://dj-spyder.blogspot.com/2008/11/text-less-record-label-artwork.html without any album text. I love these because they are often instantly recognizable and add that nostalgic element to my composition.

Ones like the Matisyahu though make for a unique composition and sometimes a more artistic piece. I just finished painting all five members of The Strokes, each on a different album, each with a unique label. The grouping, then, has a different feel than, say the Zeppelin grouping shown at the end of http://superhypeblog.com/?p=5758, all with the standard Atlantic label.

I try to work with the label when figuring out my composition. I like to draw attention to specific songs or the album artist with the placement and size of the portrait. In this Matisyahu, his name becomes part of his eyebrow. In this Zach de la Rocha, one of my favorite pieces, the label became the camera lens.

When the label is light, or white even, sometimes I need to use black paint instead of white. Usually it's for the eye, like in this piece and that Lou Reed. Mick Mars is another that ended up with a cool composition highlighting the album title and using black on the label.

A goal I have for my Vinyl Art is to celebrate the creativity that has gone into producing the artifact, the record. The design and content of the label is a big part of that. They are, after all, part of the record.

Peace.

Die By The Drop

2011-11-04T10:27:00.003-07:00

"the hardest decision you will ever have to make / lies underneath your fingers" - dead wax inscription

By L.Phelps

I've been thinking a lot lately about changes. About who I am. About what direction my life is going.

Fifteen years ago, I was a different person. I was young, idealistic, and thought that anything and everything was possible. I was half right. Anything and everything is possible. I was only half right about this because I made a gigantic miscalculation.

It's up to me to make it happen.

It's not that I am lazy. Far from it. I am a stubborn ass. If I set my mind on something, there is no stopping me.

The problem? I feel like my life is constantly being pulled in two directions. The life I am living. Safe, comfortable, predictable. And the life I could be living.

I am too scared to make the change.

Failing would be the death of me. The twist? Not trying will be the death of me too, just in a different way.

Showing Up

2011-10-11T20:53:00.001-07:00

This past month or so has been busy! I've had 30-some pieces in a solo show at a restaurant in Pacific Palisades (http://prlog.org/11636808) and now 21 of those pieces are up in Santa Monica near the airport for their upcoming Open Studios show.

Also, a Laguna Beach gallery, AR4T, is showing 4 pieces as part of a group show called Heaven's On Fire. The timing was perfect for me to find and contact this great gallery in a great location.

I was able to do this all because I've been working on showing myself and my art a bit more professionally. Since I'm trying to support my family with my art, it's been important to get organized.

To that end I wrote an actual artist's statement and bio and compiled my resume. I also reworked my website (http://vinylart.info) and created a video (http://tinyurl.com/VApainting) that shows a good bit of my technique.

I'm showing up.

Peace.

The Day After The Day After 10 Years Passed

2011-09-12T10:14:00.003-07:00

I was still too stunned yesterday.

Today I'm still too wiped out.

Memory is a funny fickle thing for us humans, isn't it? Part of me loathes the reflection and part of me loathes the absence. I think the grove of trees around the pools at the WTC plaza is good for people like me. The right balance of prospect and refuge, architecturally and emotionally.

Ten years ago today I somehow managed to drive to the BAC where I was to help hang the annual art show. On autopilot I suppose. It was both trying and comforting to make eye contact with others there. Even the Airforce trained sniper looked exhausted.

We somehow managed to hang the show. I somehow managed to create this piece.

Somehow we managed to get to 10 years after the day after.

Peace.

a(u)ction

2011-09-07T09:06:00.003-07:00

Shortly after we moved to southern California I got to help VH1 Save The Music Foundation by displaying the work which had been at their NY corporate gallery at the Billabong Design For Humanity event at Paramount Studios.

At that event the lovely people from VH1 told me about the Songwriter Music Series presented by Starburst coming up in Los Angeles with an accompanying online auction. I was delighted to contribute a couple pieces. The auction is now live!

The Dylan above is one of my favorite pieces I've ever done. Its listing is here. As of this posting, it's a good deal at well below what I usually ask for pieces. Please help it doGOOD, as charitybuzz says, who is running the auction.

The Colbie Caillat below is special because she is going to be the performer at the live event and will be signing the piece! It's part of a package for people who'd like to attend the event, travel and accomodations included, listed for auction here. The bidding for this ends tomorrow! It's also currently at well below what they've valued it. Go to this cool performance and liveWELL, also as charitybuzz says.

Please check out the auction listings, bid if you're so inclined, and share them with those you think might be interested. As with the DLF Music pieces, I want these to do as much good as they can for the charity. I know that if someone who enjoys my work were to win a piece this way, the story of the art would just be that much better. Thanks so much!

Peace.

Sharing The Passion

2011-07-20T15:27:00.007-07:00

Another project I was working on along with the pieces for the David Lynch Foundation during our move was a secret one. Until now.

45s.

Yep. I'd avoided doing pieces on 45s because of the limited space. And because of the sizeable cost of ones that people would dig having painted.

Then along came Norm. Norm is one of those guys who would make me nervous in my earlier Vinyl Art days. A record collector's collector. A dealer.

Many dealers have snarled at me, incredulous that I ruin things of such collectible value. Most however, thankfully, end up really really REALLY getting what I do and loving my work. Norm came to me already loving my work.

And he wanted me to ruin $100-500 dollar 45s. My hands literally trembled when I started these. I'm a closet collector too, so I get what these meant.

And that's why this project worked. Shared passion. I didn't know about the Northern Soul movement before this beyond the fact that the Verve was from the area and had an aptly named album. But I love records, the physical manifestation of music. I love the feel, the history, the design, the creativity that goes into every part of a pressing.

Norm does too, and he had an idea. A series of 4 pieces based on the dance scene at the Wigan Casino in the '70s. The 4 singles would be the "3 before 8" and the final song played at the venue as described in the Wikipedia entry. Very collectible 45s. VERY. People who know and collect these might've involuntarily cringed just now.

But the idea was seriously cool. 4 scenes characteristic of the place: the exterior, the circle skirt the women wore, the backdrop dance move and the dancefloor. With color.

I'd never done anything like it, but Norm trusted my artistic vision. Introducing these pieces recently during an interview I said, and meant, that I was honored he'd go through with an idea like this with me. He said that I was a pleasure to work with, which is good.

Because it took a long time.

The coolest thing was though, that because it took so long, I was actually able to hand-deliver the pieces. See, while I was working on them, we moved. A mile away from Norm.

So here they are, in the order of their final playing in 1981:

Peace.

Vinyl Art Goes Bicoastal for VH1, Sort Of

2011-07-07T10:24:00.008-07:00

Moving to CA has brought with it some really unexpected opportunities. Awhile back before the move I was contacted by a fellow at VH1 in NYNY. They have a corporate gallery that displays music-related art and photography. Pretty cool. 20some of my pieces were up for 3 months! Some friends were able to check out the exhibit and said it looked great. I wish we could've seen it, but we were moving!

Then we moved. I got the pieces back from VH1 at our new house and pretty much the next day, a lady from VH1's Save The Music Foundation there in NYNY contacted me asking for help. Every year Billabong puts on their Design for Humanity at Paramount Studios in Hollywood on the NYNY backlot that benefits a specific charity. This year it was benefitting them and they had been given a space to hold a silent auction for some autographed guitars. The space needed some dressing up to make it feel more music-related since it was basically an empty set made up like a New York diner, maybe. Anyway, it, they, needed help.

Since I had the pieces back it was pretty simple to take them to the event. That meant we got to go to the event! At Paramount Studios! Back to NYNY, sort of!

My wife went with me, while my in-laws, who were conveniently in town, watched the baby. She really helped coordinate and laid out all the pieces in the space they'd given us to hang them. The above shot shows the main wall at the back of the space. There were a few more pieces on the side walls as well. My pieces drew people in, past the autographed guitars. There were like 4,000 people there for this thing! It was incredible.

The best part was that at the end of the evening, 2 couples came in and did a deal to win all the remaining guitars! So all the pieces they brought had been bought. And the whole night brought in around $120,000 for the charity. It was funny because Billabong's people had given VH1's people cash. Cash! That much! They didn't quite know what to do with it all, and how they were going to take it back to New York.

For me, it was a great time. And next I'll get to give STMF a piece or two for an upcoming local songwriters' auction. Maybe even get the musicians to sign the pieces like with DLFM. Very cool, fitting in with my new mantra.

Push to give, Peace.

Pushing To Give

2011-07-01T10:48:00.006-07:00

My new mantra.

Usually people push to get. To get attention, to get money, to get love. But it can be a challenge to give too. To give attention, to give money, to give love. To get taken.

A lot of the metaphysical, philosophical, religious types from the East and West talk about our purpose in this Life here being tied to giving of ourselves, finding what we can contribute to humanity, loving as we would be loved. As I've pursued my Vinyl Art as a means to share my passion for music and art, it has developed into a means to give back as well as to gain financially.

During this past half-year, while my family was in the process of moving, a MAJOR opportunity to do so arose. I had quite awhile ago painted auteur David Lynch and was honored that he signed my piece as an eventual auction incentive for his foundation. He then set out to create a charity music label, DLFM, that would pull unique music tracks from various musicians whose online downloads would benefit the David Lynch Foundation.

I fortunately got in touch with that group and got to contribute pieces to the new venture. My goodness, indeed. Above you can see the photo of my paintings of Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, Moby and David Lynch signed and pledged for during the initial Pledgemusic drive by one fellow in France. Other pieces also were pledged for at that point and I have the rest ready to auction off on DLFM's website launching soon.

While there were challenges requiring that push, it has been an amazing chance to do good helping Mr. Lynch with his DOWNLOAD FOR GOOD campaign. My video on the link above about my pieces says it all for me.

I don't know where it will lead, as I've also gotten to give "thank you" pieces to Tom Waits, Iggy Pop and others whose pieces have benefitted the foundation, but pushing myself feels very gratifying. I only hope the Universe feels it too.

Peace.

Moving On

2011-05-24T08:23:00.004-07:00

Howdy! Been awhile hasn't it? Why?

Because WE MOVED!!! We actually did it. Moved to southern California. And LOTS happened during the time between my last post and today. Lots. I'll start to share it with you as I get posting again. Can't remember all of it right now, but it'll come back to me.

For now, though, interestingly, Hazel Dooney is ceasing her blog, Self vs. Self, of several years. Her reasoning is terrific. That blog which started out as a daily journal had become a prison for her, as her life had. With huge trauma in her art and personal lives, what she had written tied her too much to her past for her to start fresh. After a stint in hospital, bankruptcy, floods, and then her father passing quickly but painfully, she needs that fresh start. She needs the world and herself to be able to let go of her old self, to not fight it anymore. Moving on.

In much less dramatic fashion, my little family is doing sort of the same. I'm becoming the financial support with my art while my wife gets to spend daytime with our 15mo rapidly growing daughter. We've traded in land for cooler air. And I've gotten involved in a couple really cool projects.

Moving on.

Peace.

Get Back What You Lost!

2010-12-16T13:53:00.004-07:00

By L.Phelps

i log on to my computer, i start my iTunes, i search in the iTunes store for the latest release from my favorite band… and before i know it, i am listening to the new album.

Yet somehow i feel empty. i feel like i have somehow missed out on the part of music that now seems so… forgotten.

Gone are the days that i went to the record store at midnight, waiting in lines to get the latest release. Gone are the days that i anxiously listened to the radio in the hopes that i would hear the newest single. Gone are the days that i cracked open the plastic of a new CD and spent days and days listening to it… over and over and over again.

These days, i search, i download, i shuffle, i sync, i skip. i… i… i…

i somehow end up missing out on the magic of music. i miss having the experience. i miss having something tangible. i can’t be the only one.

Vinyl Art gives us back something that we’ve lost. It gives us back what we lost when music went digital.

The high gloss shine of the tiny grooves in the record make me giddy for the first time in years. I feel connected to the music again. I feel like I have something special. I feel satisfied I feel.

Thank God.

Direct

2010-11-17T14:53:00.005-07:00

Things are happening! Just now 2 people stopped in front of our house to get flyers at the same time. We're going to sell it. I know it. We've finally decided on the general area we're looking at in southern California as well.

So my art is doing well too, which is good for the transition to supporting my family with it. Yep. And it's happening the way I like it, unexpectedly.

Neil Young for a repeat customer in Italy as a Christmas gift.

Jimi Hendrix for an upcoming super-cool exhibition in a corporate gallery in NYC of 24 of my pieces, replacing the Hendrix that just sold as a birthday gift to the bass player in an extremely big important prog-metal band who's friends with a waiter at the restaurant in Pacific Palisades displaying 20 other of my pieces through the holidays.

Frank Zappa for a surprise gift to my parents neighbor, a guitarist in another seriously cool important band.

I need to be direct because Abbey is about to wake up. And I need to be direct with my art, selling to the customer, to the music people. A unique method for a unique offering.

Peace.

Hello iWorld!

2010-11-03T08:18:00.002-07:00

That's what I typed first publicly using my new toy, err tool. I got an iPhone!

So if you've been wondering where I've been, there's your answer. This thing, which I'm using to compose this post, is amazing. Life changing isn't an overstatement. From superfluously fun functions like a level and an Etch-a-Sketch to crazy helpful portability of functions like Twitter and email, the possible uses of this thing are endless and ever increasing. Apps like Y! Music have been updated even since I got mine to work better. Customizable radio anywhere. All your music on the iPod. Books in the Amazon Kindle app. High quality video easily shareable.

That's the most impressive aspect I think. How easy and interconnected the functions can be and then shared. I can take time-lapse photos of a painting and share them with a myriad of options and then converse with people watching and then send PayPay invoices and buy items on eBay. Switching between apps is so easy and they remember where you were last as well. I can read Twitter forwards now chronologically because it holds my position in the stream. It remembers what page you're on in a book and what song was playing on the iPod. Man, I could go on and on. And have in discovering what it can do.

Oh yeah. And it's a phone.

Peace.

Closet Collector

2010-10-01T08:01:00.003-07:00

No, that doesn't mean I collect closets. It means I collect in the dark. In the depths.

Anything. Everything.

It's been thanks to my wife that I live in an organized and navigable home, with a reprioritized life. Seriously. If I showed you a picture of my room as a teenager... archaelogical layers going back through school with a path only to the window and stereo.

What it means also, though, is that I value objects for their own sake, for their place in a group of similar things comprising a set, for their own intrinsic connection to everything and everybody that came together to produce them.

Records, I celebrate with my Vinyl Art.

Books, I'm starting to present with my Liter(art)ure, my drawings in books. http://literarture.info

A simple start, with just a phone number and link to the posts on this blog about the pieces I've done. I'm very excited to gradually work through the practical "affordable and portable" matters that will allow me to sell them. We'll see. I know some pretty nutty book people.

I know collectors.

Peace.

Zen in the Art of

2010-09-23T13:45:00.004-07:00

I've been pondering the word 'art' of late. Its scope. It's not just cultural creativity or artifacts. It's way WAY more. It's what happens when you've found internal peace and balance.

Bradbury, one of my literary heroes, the author who signed a copy of a book of his for me that I treasure, and who I haven't done a piece of Liter(art)ure for partly because I hesistate to take a copy of one of his books I love out of circulation, wrote "Zen in the Art of Writing". Zen in the Art...

That's the ticket! I realized that just last week. When you find that moment, that repeated space and time that gives you peace, that puts you in harmony with the Universe, that's what you do, why you are here. You've found the Zen in the Art of it. You're creating art with Life.

Now this is in contrast to creating artifacts, which is more technically what my paintings are. They are pieces of art. Not works. I don't like the word works in this case.

-------
"If it's work, stop it and do something else."

An Evening with Ray Bradbury 2001
-------

They are pieces of art created as an artifact of my creation of art.

This probably sounds froo-froo or overly metaphysical, but I really do think we all can find our art, and with it, our moment of Zen.

Once you've found that. Well.

Peace.

Are You Phil Collins?

2010-08-16T12:00:00.006-07:00

Carl Morris compiles Sleeveface. This is the phenomenon of people photographing themselves or others with a record album cover positioned in front of them to line up somewhat accurately, replacing some body part, usually their head, with the album cover. I caught his attention intially by claiming I was, actually, Phil Collins, answering yes to that question at the bottom of the Sleeveface blog. In fact, philosophically, Sleeveface is exactly about answering that question. No matter what you think of his music.

------
Sleeveface, at once Magrittian in its corporal obscuration, is constantly subsuming and re-affirming layers - both of the visual and of Saussurean semiotics or, as it were, "meaning". In its active disruption of the visible yet non-visible "non-space" between perceptual lens and reappropriated artefact, participants (once viewers themselves) recontextuate in the role of recontextuatrix: recalling not only Brecht's fourth wall but the material objects which in their recapitulation/recontextualisation sublimate to the role of the wall (Gilmore and Waters, 1979). Thus we plunge into the causa sine qua non. Sleeveface, qua Sleeveface, merely places theaforementioned artefact among - in its most visceral forms - reverential contexts. There is however a high degree of possible further disruption to the Baudrillardian simulacrum in the temporal lag between the impression of the performer and signifying act. Notably, an incidental price sticker bearing the imperative "Save TheChildren" takes on overtones, undertones, new meanings, shades of meaning and non-meanings, irrespective of altruistic intention in relation to the elderly lady who - in the highly expectant yet undeniably quotidian context of the local charity shop - originally placed it. Collins can be said to signify this illusion/allusion, almost pre-emptively, in his works Face Value (1981), No Jacket Required (1984) and Both Sides (1993). In the digital form, Sleeveface images disperse these syncretisms and thereafter take root in the liminal-vernacular space only to be uprooted by the psychogeography teacher. As Husserl made clear in his Logische Untersuchungen (paraphrasing): "I am not Saussure. You don't know Jacques", in clear reference to Derrida, or more succinctly in other treatments absolutely Foucault.

------

Bottom line? Be the vinyl.

Peace.

Groovy Portraits: Alternate Track: Stevie Ray Vaughan

2010-08-11T08:57:00.003-07:00

"I discovered SRV the day of his death. Damn. Damn. Damn! He could play the guitar behind his back as well as Hendrix, fer cryin' out loud! Fortunately there're bootlegs to preserve his awesome live energy. Just wish I could've been there, just once."

YouTube - VEVO's channel

Amazon - The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

-------------------------------------------------
Stevie Ray Vaughan has a couple very personal connections for me, one past, one future. One of the last times I saw my brother-in-law Jason before his unexpected passing was when he gave me a huge hug for giving him a portrait like this one. And, we are finally really planning a move. To Austin, SRV's town!

I have a couple bootleg CDs of concerts of SRV. Holy smokes. I'd say better than Hendrix live. Amazing solos and just great songs. After you watch a couple music videos, like "Couldn't Stand The Weather" it's worth a look on YouTube for live stuff, especially "Texas Flood" and "Little Wing".

Please watch the YouTube videos and listen to at least the samples on Amazon. I also have more YouTube videos in my Groovy Portraits playlist, http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=58F5DD51FA122EFA

See more, watch more, and sample more of Groovy Portraits at http://vinylart.info/eBook.htm

Peace.

Groovy Portraits: Single: Lennon (alt.take) & Dylan

2010-08-05T13:58:00.003-07:00

A-side

"Perhaps the most simultaneously guarded and unguarded of musicians, Lennon defines beautiful. Popishly exquisite and soulfully bare, the human creativity he put forth astounds."

YouTube - Love

Amazon - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

-------------------------------------------------
B-side

"Great road trip music. Especially if you like deciphering scathing social commentary while driving."

YouTube - Tangled Up In Blue

Amazon - Bringing It All Back Home

-------------------------------------------------

I put Lennon and Dylan together in my head because they both spoke eloquently yet unintelligbly. Two halves to perhaps one coin. So I'm sharing an alternate take, an alternate portrait of Lennon from the one in Groovy Portraits Vol.1 to go with the Dylan that will be in Vol.2.

Both wrote such beautiful lyrics and sung such haunting melodies that perhaps could have only come from tortured spirits such as theirs. I also love how both played with their public image, played with the media that sought to pin them down. Not a Beatle and not a finger-pointing folk singer. No. Much more.

Please watch the YouTube videos and listen to at least the samples on Amazon. I also have more YouTube videos in my Groovy Portraits playlist, http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=58F5DD51FA122EFA

See more, watch more, and sample more of Groovy Portraits at http://vinylart.info/eBook.htm

Peace.

Groovy Portraits Singles and Alternate Tracks

2010-08-04T13:38:00.004-07:00

Vol.2 is in the works! The "flipside" second volume will include music important in my life since meeting my wife. I think the portraits reflect that fact too. They're some of my best, for sure. I'll be releasing it in early September. If you want to know about it first and get it free, you can subscribe using the form on http://vinylart.info/eBook.htm

In the meantime, I had an idea to share the content from my Groovy Portraits another way, with more info. Blog posts.

Some pieces kind of go together, like Lennon and Dylan. At least in my head. Because of the portrait. Because of the music. Singles with A and B sides.

With the number of pieces in each eBook volume limited, I have ones that I had to cut. Good pieces. Good music. Alternate tracks.

So be looking for these in the coming weeks!

Peace.

If I Could Turn Back Time

2010-07-21T15:21:00.004-07:00

Remember moments in life when you're doing something that makes you insanely happy? Those moments in which you'd feel kinda goofy if someone saw you, but you wouldn't care?

What music was playing?

Peace.

The Swagger of the Stones

2010-06-21T10:32:00.001-07:00

Jeff Skonieczny writes a blog called http://www.imagineechoes.com/. He digs music. Good music, with a tendency towards prog rock. His blogger avatar is a photo of John and Yoko holding their "War is Over" poster.

That says it.

Oh, and he's quite opinionated. Not shy about it either.

------
One thing I never mind doing is bashing the Rolling Stones. In my opinion, the Stones are one of, if not, the most overrated bands in rock. However, today, I'm feeling a change of heart. Instead of focusing on what the Stones lack, I think for once in my life I'm going to acknowledge what the Stones have.

One thing nobody can deny is the Stones' staying power. Somehow they remain in the same conversation as The Beatles, and their tours still to this day gross enough money to alter multiple third world nations.

The Stones are stellar performers. Much like Kiss, their live performances are the heart and soul of the group. Mick Jagger has a stage presence and swagger that none of The Beatles had. There are very few who put out the same kind of energy that Jagger delivers, even at the ripe age of 66. The Stones have enough great songs to get them through a pretty lengthy set. While I don't think their albums hold up all that well, they have some stellar singles, and it's those singles that get them rocking their shows.

So while my feeling towards the Stones isn't necessarily bright, I can't deny what they have earned. There's a reason why they are held in such high esteem, and in my opinion, it has more to do with the bands swagger rather than their songwriting capabilities. The Stones have the kind of energy and bombast that defy just music, they're an institution which all live acts should hope to aspire to.

------

Peace.

Happy Father's Day from Ryan Barton

2010-06-20T08:59:00.006-07:00

Ryan Barton is a stand-up guy. So generous with his time and his seemingly ceaseless energy. I'm so glad I get to share this story of his.

------
Nearly twenty years later, I can still see him.

If I close my eyes, I can see the man, standing in the middle of my childhood living room. His arms are raised above his head, shaking them to the left and right. His head -- tilted back; and his eyes -- closed shut. And now, he dances. And as he dances... almost prancing and jumping around the room... his three children giggle with glee.

What those children didn't know that day, was twenty years later, their father would continue to put any shame or embarrassment to the side and channel his inner Tevye to do the "If I Were a Rich Man" dance upon request. And this time, his grandchildren are in the audience.

My family isn't of Jewish descent. And my father? He looks and sounds nothing like Chaim Topol's Tevye. In fact, if you told the employees at his office that he was dancing and playing with his kids, they'd probably scoff at you in disbelief. It just wasn't like him. The confident, black-and-white business man wouldn't be caught doing such a thing.

Except he did anything for his family. Anything to make them smile. Anything to make them happy.

Every five years or so, Father's Day and my birthday fall on the same Sunday; 2010 is one of those years. And the older I get, the more I reflect and realize that my dad did things the way he did to prepare me for the future. His decisions may not have been the easiest or most fun, but they had a purpose.

He didn't talk down to me, but that made it easy to converse with adults. He taught me "average" wasn't good enough, and that instilled a sense of pride for all that I do. He taught me to check my work twice, as if I was turning it into Jesus, and I still check twice before I press "send" on my emails. He didn't buy me a car when I was 15 like my friends' dads did, and that kept me grounded. He taught me my mom was his best friend, and now I have one of my own.

My wife and I don't have any children yet, but I'm certain that when we do, I'll take thousands of cues from my dad as we grow our family. And I know I'll make decisions that my kids will hate. I can only hope they'll grow-up to realize I made those decisions because I care about them and their future.

Giving my dad Daniel's beautiful painting of the singular image of Topol, gazing upwards with the coy smile, is itself, more than a unique Father's Day gift. To me, it was a gesture of understanding and gratitude for what, why and how my father did what he did.

Happy Father's Day dads...
------

Peace.

Passion and Purpose

2010-06-15T07:45:00.003-07:00

Eddie Vedder and Dave Matthews hang on Nate Anderson's wall of music. Nate runs Ear Candy Charity. Passionate guy, his hair flames red as he does his work to provide access to music education for kids.

Tonight is the celebration of the opening of the Cafe at the Bookmans here in Mesa. Its purpose is to celebrate culture, with live music and my art. And commissions available for Vinyl Art with a special price of $175, $50 of which goes to Ear Candy.

You can give and get the same price by mentioning this blog post, as long as my pieces are on display at Bookmans. Find purpose in your passion.

Peace.

Phoenix Rising

2010-06-10T07:45:00.001-07:00

iri5 loves tearing things up.

Cassettes:

Books:

Also film reels, photographs and even baseballs.

Here's why.

------
I love finding new uses for old things - especially when you can resurrect the dead- like when you find something broken, something that's lain forgotten, covered in dust at the bottom of a junk drawer or in the corner of a damp basement - and make it a brand-new thing again. It's this process of renewal that I find most fascinating. That "ah-ha."

I never wanted to be an artist until I realized how powerfully art could affect people. I think its power lies in its ability to hijack your mood and enter your mind, at-a-glance, and make you think new things or at least feel something. And it's exciting when these breakthroughs happen, and they can happen anywhere, when you least expect it.

When an idea strikes you like lightning, you never forget the feeling. After that, creating the art becomes an act of autonomy. My proudest moments are when I can relate that "ah-ha" as clearly as possible.

And it's amazing to consider how something, broken into pieces, can somehow take on an additional meaning. I always strive to find unity in the division, hoping that the act of destruction is vindicated by the transcendent outcome.
------

Peace.