Happy Mother's Day Weekend (with bats, comics, Einstein's wedding and recycled art!)

My mother and I at Sacred Texts

Coming off a mother of a weekend, I thought I'd share some of our shenanigans with you here from DREGstudios!  I just had a fantastic sushi dinner with my own mother just an hour or so ago.  The least I can do is buy the gal some flowers and dinner once a year for spitting my huge melon of a head into existence to paint the universe as I see it.  I'm not sure she's come completely full circle with all my subject matter, but she has supported me with my decisions to follow my lifelong dream of simply being an artist.  Thanks for all you do Mom!

Our pet bat for a day...

Of course, the day before before Mother's Day, Saturday held one of the most important holidays across the nation for it's legions of worshipers- Free Comic Book Day.  Ironically, on my way out the door of our apartment in the morning, I noticed a visitor in the breezeway, of which my wife got some pics.  My favorite comic hero is Batman and I took this as an omen.  Aurora and I stopped on our way in to Nashville at The Great Escape to make good on the industry's promise.  We made out like bandit's with our grab bags.  My wife score a run of Spider-Man comics through Marvel's Civil War line.  I got a bag of random Superman issues with some dating back to the 70's.

Here are some cool pics Aurora got of some of the fans who showed to collect their bounty and celebrate the most glorious day of the year!

A whole legion of Ghostbusters!

These guys are getting married in a few months!

Miranda with "Hide" (cereal box type recyclables

)

Our main purpose for going to Nashville Saturday was actually for the Art Walk and to see the last exhibit to ever be held at MIR Gallery.  For it's finale, owner and curator Miranda Herrick displayed collected works of her own- REDUCED, REUSED, RECYCLED.  I gave Miranda some of my free Superman comics since she's one of the biggest fans I know. I was lucky enough to exhibit my own work at MIR Gallery with my Cult of Personality series in 2009 as well as other group opportunities.

"Rocket Science" (sewn Starburst wrappers)

Design from Cherry Dr. Pepper Cans

A lot of Miranda's work including her illustration, involve and evoke strong and intricate patterns and designs.  With these works, she used recycled post-consumer materials to make art.  She displayed one of her rugs crocheted out of plastic shopping and newspaper bags.  Other works included panels with cut-up aluminum cans arranged in beautiful kaleidoscope looking patterns.

"I must first gather the dozens, or hundreds, of shapes and remove them from their original designs before crafting my artwork.  The ease of this accumulation serves as a more evident reminder of the vastness of our culture's consumption than the consumer's flippant toss of a can into the recycling bin or -egad!- the garbage can."

-From the Artist

At the show, I delivered a commission piece for Miranda to give to her own mother, Barbara, for Mother's Day.  These zany gals were having a funny conversation about who Miranda wanted to be her daddy.  Among the top contenders was none other than Mr. Albert Einstein.  Miranda employed me to make this a reality for her mother with this wedding portrait!  Barb is also an artist herself and I even traded her for one of her mixed media works as a gift for my mother a few years back. 

The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men - from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes