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

Dreamscapes at Bash Fine Art

“Hell is empty, and all the Devils are here”

The Tempest-William Shakespeare

Way back in September 2014, I unleashed a 24 piece series that I had been working on every day for the better part of two years. Purgatorium was my epic judgement day opus-raging at the sky and shaking a fist, framing the kind of question that asks ‘is anybody fucking listening?’.  Judging from the single but favorable review I got at the time, the answer came back resoundingly that nobody really was-certainly all the usual suspects couldn’t give a flying fuck.

In the echo chamber since the work vacated the walls, the pieces have sat unseen by anyone,  smouldering in some crate like the Lost Ark in Raiders one imagines.

That is until now, because Purgatorium is getting a second outing, and alongside the work of the extraordinary Jeff Christensen, can be seen under the new banner of Dreamscapes at Bash Fine Arts new location in Las Vegas. Beneath the black pyramid of Luxor I can think of no better Babylon for the Phoenix to be reborn.

Dreamscapes runs through May 21st-June 25th. Opening Reception Saturday, May 28th 6-10pm

1009 S. Main
Las Vegas NV 89101

San Diego City Beat

“Nobody wants to come home, and be confronted with evisceration’s and mortal truths…”

Here’s quite a nice little recent mention, to accompany an article about Psychedelic Art, which appeared in a recent issue of SD City Beat. Cheers Seth and CB, even though you forgot to park the Van.

Article Round up

“It involves equal parts frustration, melancholy,rage, tenacity, and a desire to be heard.”

I am returned from Old Blighty, so whilst I am still reorienting myself to the time difference and readying myself to mix up fresh palettes, here’s some very nice articles from BrutForce regarding my contribution to the Saint Bowie showcase, and a feature all the way from Italy, for MassonCreativita-the transcript of each is republished below.

http://brutforce.com/more-than-a-mortal-man-the-bowie-that-inspired-art/

“Take David Van Gough’s “Starcophagus” for instance. This wooden pentagram-shaped box offers insight into Bowie’s creative process. Romano explains its function through demonstration. Carefully removing the lid, Romano’s hands reveal a pile of cut-up pieces of paper containing Bowie’s lyrics. “This was how he’d write his song,” says Romano, referring to the ancient occult practice of emptying the mind, allowing invisible forces to guide your hand.”

http://massoneriacreativa.com/david-van-gough/

(What is creativity?) DvG: “Its a manifestation of something intangible, a kind of alchemy that goes on where you take base materials, and refashion them as gold, except sometimes you make a Frankenstein monster of all your demons. It’s a little bit like playing at God, in that regard.
It involves equal parts frustration, melancholy,rage, tenacity, and a desire to be heard. Just stir and add a pinch of garlic and hey presto. Afterwards there is either an enormous sense of triumph or defeat. Also possible indigestion.
The method and technicalities evolve certainly, but the aspect of needing to do it, is very much coded in my DNA and the bus route I travel.”

80's Hit

“All it comes down to is this: I feel like shit but look great.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho

8O’s hit
12″ x 12″
Oil on panel

La Bodega Gallery
March 19th.

So the 80’s : era of day glo, Yuppies and mulletts, Iran-Contra and Chernobyl, a veritable bonfire of vanities for the decade that taste forgot.

Catapulting into my teens as I was, It didn’t feel like that at the time- I was randy for it all -everything that had been denied me in pre-adolescence was suddenly for the taking, accompanied by low rent video, an incredible soundtrack and an Ad execs wardrobe.

All absolute bollocks of course because in retrospect it was soulless, by the end of it I was utterly miserable, jobless and broke with a first child on the way.

So here you have a collage of  that eras excess, a marketers swirling coke addled dream; Gordon Gekko in the penthouse, full metal jacket, Keith Haring tie with Patrick Nagel sideline, an American Psychometric of the ages, with Freddie Krugers chrome talons extending from it’s slick dimension.

Except there’s grotty Liverpool on the periphary, post Toxteth maelstrom, dockers strikes and another three terms of Maggie’s despotic reign to look forward to.

Real life seldom works on MTV.
Relax, don’t do it.

If my piece Aztec Ghost Groove was a picture disk, this would be the album cover.

The piece will be on display during the I Love the 80’s group show at La Bodega gallery, Saturday 19th March. Contact labodegagallerysd@gmail.com for pricing and purchase details