Cagliastro’s Feast:

Bad table manners at Djinner time

11″ x 14″ | Oil on canvas

For the uninitiated, Alessandro Cagliastro (also known as Joseph Balsamo) was a self styled occultist from the 1800’s who developed the disreputable distinction of being a charlatan or as Thomas Carlyle put it- ‘the Prince of Quacks’. His reputation wasn’t helped by his legacy as a forger par excellence, or by his connection to the Marie Antoinette Diamond Necklace affair. There’s something of case for him being a forebearer of Crowley’s however, a kind of 0.1 version and in fact, the great beast himself claimed Cagliastro to be one of his early manifestations.

He is also the author of the esoteric manuscript, The Most Holy Trinosophia, and was the founder of the lodge for the rite of Egyptian Freemasonry, which would prove to be curtains for the old magus when the inquisition put him on a charge of being one of its paternal members.

Here, I have him seated at an altar for the knights of Malta,surrounded by his props and uncorking a djinn- no doubt spinning tales of treasures in the distant Mount Pellegrino, to the duped cracked skull of Marano. Yet there’s an overshadowing menace bearing down on the com media dell’arte. Something which is always peering from beneath the surface, a primal fear of dark foreboding and ancient rite as represented by the seven headed dragon of Babylon.

It’s the notion of something ancient being played out over time, a return to the themes I touched on in the Man/son series, and it’s given me something of a flavor of what my next body of work will look like.

Cagliastro’s Feast will be on show during the Dark Matters show,at Bash Fine Art from this coming weekend through the 26th November.

What doesn’t kill you

0″ x 12″-Oil on panel

Given that this is my umpteenth work this year to feature some sort of death motif, ought to give you an indication of how I’m feeling about everything.

This one particularly is about the relentless (bastard) disease of cancer which I’ve tackled twice in my work before- the first time in ‘Mothers Milk’ and secondly as a homage to a friend in ‘Legacy-an artist general truth’

This one may seem a lot less po-faced, even pop surreal I suppose, but no less vitriolic, particularly when I recall the two family members, the friend, and the idol lost in its ruthless wake this past year.

The Big ‘C’ is like a plague one dare not say fully, for fear of  invoking a death sentence, it’s there a lurking, malevolent, silent, conspiracy of the bodies betrayal, a festering paranoia in every breath you inhale.

I wanted to evoke some of that in this piece which will be part of a special group show called simply ‘Cancer’ at Hyaena Gallery from October 1st through October 30th.

The Eternal Battle progress 1

What to say about my latest outing? I could tell you that this one has been five years in the making.The huge canvas is at least that old, and the piece itself was meant to be the focal piece of the Purgatorium series, except time put paid to that. I never thought I’d gotten the idea right you see, so it was reworked as a dozen sketches over the years, before being shelved until very recently.
That was when I realized it should have been vertical instead of horizontal all along.
If nothing else, this tumultuous year has offered perspective.

The Eternal Battle is just a working title for now, but that’s Hitler and Van Gogh scrapping it out by the way, which is part of an ongoing theory I have about creative destruction and artistic failure in the 20th century. That would make a great title of a modern thesis actually-perhaps Mathew Collings should option it.  Perhaps not.

Lots of shows between now and the year end, but I’ll keep battling away on it and posting progressions in the interim.

Fridom Kahlo-Infinito

“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?”

Frida Kahlo

11″ x 14″ | Oil on panel

Working in the Chicano quarter as I do, its hard not to feel the incandescence cast by Frida’s influence. Her striking visage is ubiquitous, even staring out nobly from a mural to the entrance of La Bodega gallery.

My piece for the forthcoming Tribute group show has our Art heroine reborn as the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, whose resume boasts of being the Aztec god of wind, Venus, the dawn and Arts and Crafts.

In such days when the world seems intent on bloodshed and cavernous divide, a celebration of Frida’s legacy remains one which is thankfully universal to all.

Show opens July 9th | 4pm-10pm. Free admission and open to all ages. Children’s and adult look-alike contest. Art, food, music, merchandise, culture!

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at Bash

Following on from the recent opening, the Dreamscapes showcase was the spectral arena in which local dignitaries of Las Vegas-Mayor Caroline Goodman, Councilman Bob Beers and representatives from Councilman Bob Coffin’s office,assembled to inaugurate the opening of the good ship Bash Fine Art. Damn right too.

Sadly, I was unable to attend so I couldn’t tell you one iota, how utterly bemused and mortified the gathered throng might have been, by the aberrant darkness of mine and Jeff Christensens work, but there are some photos to attest that this bizarre incongruity actually happened.

Dreamscapes Opening Reception

Bash Fine Art
1009 S. Main
Las Vegas NV 89101
Saturday May 28th-June 25th

Memorial day weekend traffic on the long haul to Vegas, enough fear and loathing in bat country right there, 111 degrees not withstanding-hot peppers marinated with Jolokia sauce in Hades kind of hot.

Just a little off the mainline through Main street, Past the microcosm of faux New York spires and Greek Pantheon, Bash Fine Art ran the second outing of a vestigial Purgatorium. Sin city may have been host in the past to broken dreams and Elvis tributes but they never saw a show like this, particularly as the walls where shared with Jeff Christensen’s sublime horrors. The whole thing must have seemed like a dark mirror reflecting some grotesque progeny of America’s Babylon.

The locals where rapt nevertheless, despite Joan Jett putting another dime in the jukebox  a few blocks away.

Big thanks to attendees for braving the heat and listening to my waffle,  Bash for the enduring belief and Jeff for being cut from the same cloth.

David Copperfield will be playing for another two centuries, but Dreamscapes only runs until June 25th. Don’t miss it.

Artist interview with Coma Music Magazine

 ” I keep on regardless, because the notion is as inherently terrifying and nihilistic as the alternative…”

There’s a really nice interview I did with Coma music magazine recently, in which I talk about Art, Bowie, Ghost haunting’s, my top five current musical picks and what I would do in the event of a Zombie apocalypse, and you can read it from the link below.

Many thanks both to Coma and Anitra DeLorenzo.

Coma Interview