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

Starcophagus

“I’m an instant star. Just add water and stir.”

David Bowie

And so it was-an interstellar supernova, a blackstar imprinting itself on the cultural ether, forever usurping brands for sneakers and ratings.

I carved my little momento mori star from wood, in the same manner he carved himself, like a totem reaching for the heavens, a trees pinnacle piercing the moon. Perhaps if you put it on a turntable, you could hear Starman crackling through the rings grooves. Perhaps not.
I imagine at the apex of some distant nebula, its only just coming through on a wave of phase anyway.

It’s 1972 forever somewhere, right?

And that’s a reproduction I made of Freddie Burretti’s Ziggy fabric in the well, the green circuit board design that Bowie had quilted to neuter the Clockwork Orange ultraviolence.

I filled the void as he did with his words- re purposing cut up lyrics from his immense catalog, so you can create an entirely new Bowie composition of your own.

By the end, I was as drained as if I’d gone up the hill backwards.

It’ll be on display for the Saint Bowie tribute show at Stephen Romero gallery in Brooklyn, from March 2nd at any rate. Follow the link.

http://www.shishigami.com/srfa/saintbowie.html

Saint Bowie group show

Saint Bowie Group Show,Stephen Romano gallery.
March 2 2016, 5 – 9 pm

“Now my death is more than just a sad song”

David Bowie-Reality.

Arse end of a rough month, an endless parade of souls, friends and acquaintances passing on with alarming frequency and proximity it seems. Like the flood gate was suddenly swung open once the great man left for Mars, or the Blazing World, or Betelgeuse or wherever Demi Gods go.  At times, it’s felt like I’m resided just short of the runway for Necropolis airport. Been reorienting my compass through shows and commissions since, all whilst peering in the rear mirror a little more cautiously.

At the signpost up ahead however, before I make a trip home to watch my eldest lad walk his lovely bride down the aisle, is a welcome stop gap in the none too insubstantial form of the Saint Bowie group show at Stephen Romano gallery. If I told you how many shows I’d been invited to since January 10th, you’d think contemporary art and culture positively resonates with strange fascination. (For suspect bandwagoning  and how not to stage a tribute show to the greatest musician of the 20th century, please reference the Grammy’s)

Which is why it was such a relief to be invited to submit for a show at the Stephen Romano, a gallery in NY-former home and musical stomping ground of former David Robert Jones. Also fitting since it will give me the opportunity to produce something in a little different in spirit as the show promises to be “comprised of artist made devotional mementos, Ex Votos, Santos, Spirit Photos and other reliquaries which mourn the loss of the Starman, and also serve as a means by which to commune with Bowie on the other side. ”

The other and most notable reason for me at any rate, is it gives me the opportunity to pay tribute by giving back,  since proceeds from the exhibition will be donated to support shadhika.org, an American organization which works toward breaking the cycle of poverty, gender inequality and education, empowering and trying to give economic self-sufficiency to girls – help them avoid early marriage, being forced into prostitution, or being trafficked. Anyone who doubts Bowie’s own allegiance to similar causes should look up his lyrics for Shopping for Girls.

Anyway, I’m honored, it’ll be grand eloquent, and tasteful and the show opens March 2 2016, 5 – 9 pm and you can see the full press release here:

http://www.shishigami.com/srfa/saintbowie.html