Toil and trouble fire burn and cauldron bubble

All Hallows upon us again, witches night. There may not be pyres of crowing hags, just the flickering candle light through the drooping hollow of carved pumpkins, but it pales against the incandescent burning of the midnight oil ahead of me, as I settle back into duties for Paradiso’s Fall, just five short months away.

I’m feeling like I’ll need eye of newt to accomplish everything I want to.

This is me working on a piece which looks like it could be ready and basted in time for Thanksgiving, but continues a  thread that I started on the Manson series regarding cults and the dangerous hive mind of group think. Salem, Jonestown, Heavens Gate, The Children of God, MAGAt’s.

Whatever  scary movie double bill you stream tonight, remember there is nothing so bone chilling as the horror of current world events.

Happy Samhain everyone.

Phenomena movie award

This is a project I started last year, but actually has its origins in a piece from over a decade ago. “Gods and Monsters“ from 2005, was I believe my first artistic fumbling’s into arcane territory. 

‘Gods and Monsters”-(2005) acrylic on canvas, 16″ x 20″

I think I sold it for buttons on Ebay, such were the times back then, but it was adopted a couple of years later for the cover of Peter J Carrol’s excellent, The Apophenion: A Chaos Magick Paradigm, from which I didn’t make a bean from, such were the….well, you know the rest.
But I guess you can’t keep a good painting down, because it’s been resurrected, readopted and repurposed as the official “Uncanny” trophy award for the Phenomena horror cine festival in São Paulo. The award will go to winning participants-80 nominees of the likes which include Blumhouse’s Mandy, and a documentary produced by Benicio Del Toro The Rise and Fall of Buffalo Brown by Philip Rodriguez.

I am beyond honored.

Design for award front

As I write, the festival is already under way, but it runs until the 4th of November in two cities, Paraty (Rio de Janeiro State) and São Paulo (State Capital), and the screenings will be free of charge in all five different venues, so perfect celebration for All Hallows then.
https://www.phenomenafest.com
I want to thank Cauê Castelo, Phenomena & La Matta tv for working with me to capture my vision in glittering three dimensional silver.

Official Phenomena poster, featuring my characters in Moebius style, by Diego Porto

The Divine and the Divined

18″x 18″
Oil on panel

My own contribution from the recent Tales from the Darkside show at LaBodega.

Rather drolly-or should I say troll-y, I got some push back on this when I posted it on social media from the usual self righteous quarters. How oddly ironic, that the dogmatic ever entreat that they be accepted in every faction of existence, yet never seem willing to extend the same courtesy themselves. 

Happy Holidays from Starbucks anyone?

Regardless, they are a ways off the mark in their usual bobble headed outrage for this one.
It was originally planned for the series I’m working on “Paradiso’s Fall”, which has become something of a vignette of ill omens, pointing towards what I perceive as man kinds inevitable demise. I’m hearing the term “personal apocalypse” coined a lot since I first used it some months back, but I believe it’s a predisposition inherent within us all.

This piece, portraying the mother-the holy vessel or paragon of virtue, literally transformed to the symbol of that final nail, is just merely another emblem of a paternally manifested future, inherently pushed to its own end. If you’d have said “Enola Gay” and “Little Man”you’d have been on the money.

Anyone who further missed the point, clearly didn’t see the whacking great atomic symbol, smack bang at the center of the piece. But then, I daresay nuclear proliferation in the hands of a madman who loves to push buttons, barely warrants a  semblance of grey matter either.
The worm coiling from the cuff, is just a further token of dehumanization, as we slither back toward the primal dirt from whence we came.

So perhaps its biblical after all.

Seeing the light

Tales from the Darkside at Labodega. October 13 2018.

Some said that the grim pall of clouds that had gathered over San Diego, seemed apropos to the theme of the show. But if the summoning of stormy skies was as an ill omen to dissuade hordes of eager visitors, it hadn’t worked on that particular night.

And if there was a breeze detected, it was likely a result of my audible sighs of relief. Why…? Because my first co curated showcase, featuring over fifty contemporary dark artists – Tales from the Darkside at  LaBodega gallery was finally here.

It’s long been a given, that any visible art scene on the west coast, pales by degrees south of the I5. Having lived in San Diego for over a decade, I’ve certainly found that to be the case. But this night was different, it felt like the chance to dissolve the barriers, level playing fields and overcome the inequality that exists in a gallery system so riven with wrong headed prejudice towards the genre, but also one where an exclusion zone exists for anyone who isn’t a darling of the LA art scene. On October 13, established painters shared walls alongside bright, fledgling artists, alongside artists who are veterans and never really ever get a fair crack at the whip. All a collective,all and unstoppable force toward a common cause-dark art, because in times such as these, culture can be both a black mirror and a catharsis.
And if I’m want to wax lyrical and pile on superlatives, it’s because I’m still heady from the experience, as utterly draining and exhausting as it was, because make no mistake, being on the other side of the easel for a change is all encompassing. Small change when one considers the stellar retinue of artists and the work they produced.

My Indebted gratitude then to them all, to the folks and friends who attended the event, and most of all to my brother and sister, Chris Zertuche and Soni Lopez Chavez, for giving me the opportunity to host an event at such a remarkable gallery.

For purchase details, please contact Chris at labodegagallerysd@gmail.com

You can see a preview and photos from the show from the following links:

Tales from the Darkside preview

LaBodega official photos

Poster Art by Martin Woodhead-“Harbinger”

Sandy Yagi
“Hatching Death #1”
Oil on panel | 12×16″

Paul Nebarra
“The Forsaken”
Oil on canvas| 9″ x 11″

Jeff Christensen-
“Away, the ghost”
Oil on panel |11″ x 14″

Brooke Weston
“Vermillion Temple”
Taxidermy Deer/mixed media

Nannette Cherry
“Anamnesis (After Jozeph Simmler)”
oil on board | 12” x 12”