Guillermo Del Toro Art Show

I was recently a part of an exclusive Guillermo Del Toro Art Show, illustrating and celebrating the work of Guillermo Del Toro.  Each artist was to depict 3 of his films:  Pans Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone, and Cronos

My pieces are the 3D Paintings i've done in the past of scenes from each movie.  The background painted with about 1/4" space between glass with another layer of painted foreground.  As usual, they look better in person, you can't quite see the 3D effect in a photo

Pans Labyrinth

"Pale Man"

Background:

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Foreground painted on glass:

See the rest of my pieces after the jump:

dia de los burton

we hit france, and now we're heading to MEXICO!  the autumn society is having the amazing "the iconoclastic dead" show at galeria guru in mexico city! the show premieres october 1 and runs to the end of the month, october 31. i'm honored to be one of 40+ artists participating in this phenominal show.

the iconoclastic dead is a "Dia De Los Muertos" themed show where artists celebrate someone famous they admire that is either dead or alive in the "Muertos" fashion.
 

i chose to illustrate tim burton. although i initially grew as an artist admiring and looking up to salvador dali most of all, tim burton has slowly been advancing a step ahead in my heart. i'm beyond inspired by all that tim burton does. his vision and his ideas are unique and dark and confusing. everything i love. growing up, i was obsessed with his movies and when i became old enough to realize that there was much more to tim burton than movies, i was able to start appreciating his art and his mind.  it's like a weird distanced relationship that evolved from childhood to adulthood. this is just my weird, long, unnecessary way of saying he inspires me.

i designed my piece as a 3-dimensional piece. burton and the white border on one piece of glass, the floral pattern on another piece, are all raised about an inch above background with tge sandworm and skull. an additional bit of dimension is the swirly hill silhouette, which is placed about halfway between the top and bottom layers.  basically, there are a lot of layers going on and it looks pretty amazing in person. these photos absolutely do it no justice.

 initially, i wanted to include several characters from tim burton movies and his artwork, all designed in the day of the dead style. to keep a better flow to the pieces, i only featured the sandworm and some jack skellington heads.

trying to show the dimension in the piece, you can see below with the shadows..

Gurú Tienda Galería

Colima 143, LA ROMA
Mexico City, Mexico

facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143476422403056

1950's ax murderer

CHOGRIN PRESENTS: MONSTER CREEPS, an art show & tribute to the films by Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps / Monster Squad), featuring art from members of the Autumn Society & other special guests!

monster flicks from the 80's are pretty much the greatest of all time, so being invited to participate in the MONSTER CREEPS show is super exciting. i have no idea how this is even possible, but i didn't grow up on monster squad the way i should have. it should have been on my "love" list with all the other classics. i'm ashamed of myself (or should i blame my parents?) but they are both amazing movies and i chose to illustrate night of the creeps, which i only saw for the first time maybe about a year ago. i'm sure most of the tributes (maybe?) are for the more popular monster squad, so i gave some love to the awfully awesome 1986 zombie movie. chogrin suggested i do a cool 3D painting of the opening scene with the ax murderer in the classic 1950's black and white, and after rewatching the movie, i couldn't resist. i wish i could go out to california to see the one-night show, and meet the writer/director Fred Dekker. new jersey, always holding me back!

here are the layers to my painting, with glass layer raised 1/4 inch above the background: 

on glass: ax murderer about to strike the worried unsuspecting lady victim (whose boyfriend just wandered off to check out a loud noise... or something like that)

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background: the look-out-point (lover's lane? make-out point?) complete with alien comet coming to invade earth (by having brain parasites enter through human mouths, turning them into zombies)

sure this was just a minor part of the movie, but it made for a creeptastic awesome painting.

FEATURING: An appearance & signing by writer & director Fred Dekker

WHEN: Saturday, August 6th (8pm-10pm)

WHERE: Dark Delicacies ( http://www.darkdel.com/ / 3512 W. Magnolia, Burbank, CA 91505 )

SPECIAL SCREENING: A special screening of Monster Squad will be held at the Banshee theater (limited seating) featuring a special Q&A with /FILM's Germain Lussier & Fred Dekker ( http://www.theatrebanshee.org/ / 3435 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank 91505 )

ART: View the art featured in the show (updated weekly) http://monstercreeps.blogspot.com/p/art.html

MORE ABOUT: Read on how this show came to be http://monstercreeps.blogspot.com/p/about.html

SPONSORED BY: Stange Kids Club (http://www.strangekidsclub.com/) / Fright Rags (http://www.fright-rags.com/) / Dead of Night Radio (deadofnightradio.blogspot​.com) / The Autumn Society (http://www.theautumnsociety.com/)

ABOUT CHOGRIN: Chogrin (www.chogrin.com) is an illustrator, gallery curator, and a co-founder of the Autumn Society. Chogrin's art is a fusion of retro american & Japanese cartoons with a sucker punch! Chogrin has produced and curated art shows like The 3G Show, The 3B Show, and most recently Shell Shock (a Ninja Turtles Tribute). He currently works on the hit animated TV show, Adventure Time, on the Cartoon Network. If you dare, you can contact / follow Chogrin @ chogrin@gmail.com / twitter.com/chogrin

facebook event

Poster & "Monster Creeps" banner by Justin Gray (burntobuild.blogspot.com)

her celestial body

this is my piece for the much anticipated "rockets, robots, and ray guns" show (see show info below).

i normally like to show the layers of my 3D paintings, but the layers in this one are especially hard to show.  there are 4 total layers (kind of..) but the most important (and my favorite) are the layers of the starry sky.  i used the layers and depth to create space. outer space. i know it's not uncommon or unique to say i've always been drawn to and have a life-long infatuation with the night sky, but i have and do. my first tattoo at age 17 was of little twinkling stars, when my consuming night sky obsession was at its highest. when i decided to make my cyborg 1EG (i think we can all guess why i chose a cyborg), it didn't take long to set my focus on a starry, spacey, galaxy-like atmosphere. it creates an effect you can only get in person, so come out to northern liberties in philly to see it while you can! we have an amazing artist participation list on this one, so come out to see for yourself.

 

"Rockets, Robots, and Ray-Guns" (a retro sci-fi gallery art show) by The Autumn Society will visually explore the sudden invasion of these machines into Earth culture. The Toothless Cat/ Jinxed in Philadelphia will be host the explosion event"

The walls of The Toothless Cat/Jinxed Gallery will explode with imagery as The Autumn Society presents another out of this world event: “Rockets, Robots, and Ray-Guns” (a retro sci-fi gallery art show). The show will feature over 30 pieces of art by local and national artists. All present their perspective and vision of the retro-sci fi imagery of Rockets, Robots, and Ray-Guns

The art show will be curated by local Philadelphia artist/illustrator, Paul Palcko (http://www.paulpalcko.com/), known best for his clown paintings and Clowntastrophe! events. (A joint effort between Palcko and Psydde Delicious of Delicious Boutique)

“Rockets, Robots, and Ray-Guns” will be an amazing show of talent and retro sci-fi imagery-it’ll be a blast!” comments Autumn Society co-founder, Chogrin (who is also producing this event.)

Opening reception:

Friday July 1st, 2011. 6-10pm.

The Toothless Cat/Jinxed Gallery

Piazza at Schmidt’s

2nd and Germantown Ave.

Philadelphia 19123

(Northern Liberties section)

facebook event

of elegant beauty

this is the piece i made for this year's art all night. it's the first 1EG painting i've done in the 3-D style, and i kind of see this as the start of something big and great for my 1EG's. i made her with the victorian era in mind, and i did a lot of research on victorian fashion and women while designing her.... and by "a lot" of "research", i mean i did a google image search.

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these are the layers to the piece:  the fancy pattern border painted on glass raised about 1/4" inch above the pretty one-eyed girl painted on canvas board background.

i was thrilled when my elegant beauty quickly sold at art all night on saturday, but i'll elaborate on the details of how the night went with some photos later on!

a biting chance

The Autumn Society (http://www.theautumnsociety.com/) & Lunar Boy Gallery (http://www.lunarboygallery.com/) join forces to bring you "THIS IS OUR TIME NOW" (A GOONIES ART SHOW), an exclusive Goonies art show in Astoria, Oregon (where the movie was filmed!)

 fantastic! another goonies themed show, who doesn't love that? just like everything else lately, i didn't have much time to make a piece for this, but. i had to participate in this seeing as it's in astoria (how cool!) i decided to do a simple little 3-D painting of data falling thanks to one of the many booby traps. love those little chatter teeth. i must say every time i do a new piece in 3-D, i love the look of it even more.  here are the layers for this one: 

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data falling with his teeth and the spikes on glass raised 1/4 inch above the "cave" background with more spikes. i did my best getting a photo, but it's tough with these layered pieces. you'll just have to go to astoria and check it out for yourself.

i wish i could've head out to astoria for the show, but the whole "real life" thing gets in the way of cool things like that. but here is the info for the show, which opened this saturday:

 June 4 @ 5-8PM

Lunar Boy Gallery

240 11th Street

Astoria, Oregon 97103

 

The show will be featured in 2 events, the first on June 4th (5pm-8pm) as the main premiere, and the second will be featured as part of the ASTORIA ART WALK, which will be on June 11th (5-9 pm). The entire show will run through June 24th.

Every year the first week of June is Goonies Week in Astoria, Oregon. This year Chogrin of the Autumn Society artist collective has curated our annual tribute show to this cult classic filmed in our quirky little burg 26 years ago.

This show will be up for Wine and Art Walk, Saturday June 11th 5- 9 PM ..... downtown Astoria.

check out all the pieces from the show HERE!  what the nice people at lunar boy gallery said about my data painting:  "This piece also ROCKS!! It might be difficult to grasp the layers of glass and paint ... but take it from us ... the effect is outstanding!" 

....i told you it looks better in person!

gnarly gnight

i've been checking out everyone's pieces for the autumn society's shell shock ninja turtle tribute show and they have been pretty amazing. this show is going to be huge. i FINALLY got the chance to make mine. unfortunately i had basically no time for it, so it's a little more "painterly" and a little less detailed than i would have liked, but i'm still very pleased with the result only because it is another 3-D painting.  here are the separate laters of my gnarly gnight painting (pronounced NIGHT, not g'night!)

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michelangelo is on glass raised about 1/4 inch above the city background. i had to do michelangelo because he's my favorite. i assume donatello was my favorite growing up because i was (and am) obsessed with the color purple, but mikey has always been the best character. i hope as many people check out the show as expected considering this of course looks infinitely better in person. these layered pieces are hard enough to get photos of, but i just couldn't get a good photo of this one (maybe because it was 2 am and i desparately wanted/needed sleep before a long, sleepy day of work. i was horribly crashing.)

Poster Collaboration by Glen Brogan / Bobby O'herlihy / Edwin Vazquez / Chogrin

super excited for the show friday and especially the TURTLES VAN! check out more info the show below

number fifty-four million six hundred one

"if i knew then what i know now, i wouldn't have had my little accident."

number fifty-four million six hundred one: my beetlejuice piece for the autumn society's 3B show at gallery 1988 venice !  my third and last 3-dimensional piece for the show. with the waiting room background, and in 3D: the gal in half, table, and desk window. since photos do don't the layered paintings any justice, here are images of the different layers, to get a better idea of how the piece looks in person:

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(below, you may notice the 3D effect of the window on the glass raised 1/4" over miss argentina on the background)

this has my absolute FAVORITE pop-art piece to paint, seeing as beetlejuice is one of my favorite movies of all time. it has just always been such a special movie, close to my heart, so much nostalgia, bringing me back to my childhood every time i see it. i desperately wanted to do 3 different scenes for this piece (the singing possession scene, the bring back to life scene, and the afterlife waiting room.) it pained me to choose one, but i had such a distinct vision for the afterlife waiting room in my head, that i just knew i had to do it.

i also had a really hard time with this scene because there was just too much i wanted to include. so many unique and amazing characters that deserve to be highlighted. due to size restrictions, i had to limit the characters illustrated, so unfortunately i was sad to cut out some of the greatest characters ever (the smoker, the employee who got ran over, the camper in the sleeping back with the rattlesnake.) i considered adding them all resulting in cluttered, chaotic scene, but i feel like the afterlife waiting room atmosphere is so calm, quiet, and awkward, that i tried to keep that same vibe in my piece.  so! here we have miss argentina (the wrist slitter), shrunken head dude, chicken bone choker, shark attack victim, and girl in half.

i made up for the exclusion of the other waiting room characters, by adding little subtle details here and there.  mr. chicken bone man above is holding the handbook for the recently deceased! i would have loved to do a piece based on that handbook, but i was excited to have it as a minor detail in my piece. also, i would have loved to do a 3D piece of the sandworm in its environment, so instead i did a mini tribute to the sandworm as a random magazine cover on the table in the waiting room.

i had one more little tribute in my piece. instead of painting the actual paintings that were on the waiting room's walls in the movie, i decided to turn the sculptures made by lydia's stepmother into little paintings (below.) i used some extra texture to make them "pop." i've always loved her sculptures, despite how little i'm normally attracted to abstract art. it may be because they came to life in the end, who knows, but i love them and thought it would be a fun extra touch. i also wanted to note that i gave the walls a ton of texture to give it that same look as in the movie. i was (am) pretty proud of that...

so i hope beetlejuice fans out there love it and appreciate the little things as much as i do! it was one of my favorite pieces ever to make.