UNCENSORED: Queer Art and the Church

Fred Phelps: Burning Gay / 2011 / inks on bristol

Last year, I took on the subject of one of the Lord's most insidious and demonic creations in Fred Phelps- a man who's life work is spreading his message of HATE (and the joys of bedding Capitalism with American Justice by suing people who challenge and abuse his flock.)  Poor old Fred has some misdirected anger issues and a mental disorder affirming to him that he's God's vessel for hatred.  With the help of some friends, we put him in his own little Queer Hell full of neon pink fire, unicorns, faeries and all that goes with an Apocalyptic time which allow for same sex love and equality.  Freddie boy came to mind again recently when my friend Myron passed along some information on UNCENSORED: Queer Art and the Church to me.  The exhibit in New York City this weekend is unique in it is uncensored by every definition of the word!

In response to the Catholic Church's recent call for censorship of the high-profile "Hide/Seek" exhibit (which recently appeared—uncensored—at the Brooklyn Museum), Leslie-Lohman is doing the opposite of censorship—it's exhibiting everything that's submitted for this show without editing, curation or interpretation (as long as the work doesn't run afoul of state or federal laws). 

-Time Out New York

I jumped at the opportunity of getting my portrait of Phelps on the wall at this exhibit.  I was delighted it was accepted and only wish I could have made it up to NYC this weekend for the show!

You can Click HERE for last year's article about Fred Phelps and the portrait I created!

Click HERE for my blog about the Nashville Pride Festival last year, where I exhibited Fred Phelps: Burning Gay to the public!

UNCENSORED: Queer Art in the Church opened this week at Leslie-Lohman Museum.  If you can't make it in person this weekend, here is a great video of the exhibit which was posted!  My art shows up under the 1 min mark...

Halfway Down the Zombie Walk of Fame

Well freaks and creeps, I'm only halfway down the Zombie Walk of Fame and I haven't grown weary of an appetite for the flesh yet.  The undead stars of my new illustration series are coming to life in my own pop surrealist style.  For shits and giggles, I laid out all 51 of the 101 zombified portraits which are finished...

Half-Way Done!

Click HERE for a stream of previews from my upcoming Zombie Walk of Fame series!

Spring Roll presented by Untitled Artists Group

Spring Roll was held last night at 5th and Main in East Nashville.  Charles, Aurora and I drove down from Clarksville for the show and to do some live painting at this quarterly arts event which always has a unique theme.  There was live music, dance and artwork from dozens of regional artists!  I've had a pretty long history with Untitled now and they decided to host live painting with some canvasses and paints donated by Jerry's Artarama for us to use as Jeff Bertrand, Ginny Edwards and Ash Sivils joined in as well to help sling some fresh colors for the live audience!  Here are some great pictures which Aurora got from the show last night...

Live Painting THIS Saturday at SPRING ROLL!

Untitled Nashville will present their SPRING ROLL show this Saturday at 5th and Main in Nashville.  Roll your peppy, sprung self downtown Saturday night around 6PM and you'll find me painting LIVE with Jeff Bertrand, Ash Sivils and Ginny Edwards!  Untitled will also refresh your mind with artistic creations from a variety of regional artists as well as Live Music by DJ Get Better!   The Winter that wasn't in TN is over and Spring is here... see you there!

Poster by Dustin Dirt!

Drop by the SPRING ROLL Facebook Event Page and let us know you're coming!  I'll have the camera rolling for yet another crowd-pleasing time lapse video of the painting Saturday night!

Zombie Winnie the Pooh

Coloring 101 zombie portraits for my Zombie Walk of Fame series is a daunting task and I've taken to social media these past few weeks to let the voice of the people be heard as they vote for which zombie incarnation I color next!  Yesterday, I posted a few more choices on the DREGstudios! Page on facebook for fans to choose from.  The people spoke and have ushered in the coming of what could possibly end up the fan-favorite of the entire series... Zombie Winnie the Pooh!  This guy was a ton of fun and I'm glad you get to enjoy him with me!  Here are process pictures of the initial sketch, line work, and colors I just completed...

Zombie Winnie the Pooh

Facebook patrons got to choose from Zombie Donald Duck, Zombie Christopher Reeve, Zombie Woody Woodpecker, and Zombie Winnie (who won by a landslide!)

I decided at the last minute to film this one... sure glad I did now!

SCIENCE FRICTION (Over Five Feet Long)

Wolfie and I just can't stop a good thing from keepin' on keepin' on with our weekly painting sessions on our day off.  The weather was on our side yet again this Sunday with perfect Tennessee weather as we busted out some monster and sci-fi inspired acrylics on a panel over five feet long.  Joe and Amy were in town visiting from Memphis and were nice enough to pass along some scrap wood they brought to be repurposed for art!  Of course, the fun part is recording the entire process and this week we got some luscious cloud coverage time-lapsing along with us; keep an eye out for Mother Nature's art of her own all over the background of the new video linked below...

Click HERE for my VIDEOS PAGE to see more LIVE ART!!!

GREEN Art for St. Patrick

Happy St. Patty's Day from DREGstudios!  

Growing up, St. Patrick's Day is a big deal being from Erin, TN. The tradition of an elaborate celebration of the holiday roots back to the Irish railroad workers who named the town when it's scenic landscape brought to them memories of Ireland.  I'm taking Aurora to her first Irish Day Celebration later today to enjoy the festivities in my hometown and then we'll be back home with plans which probably consist or but are not limited to a few glasses of Jameson.

For now, check out the green art I dug up for your fresh eyes today... celebrate safe and Go Bragh!

"Eight Ate"  Inks on Paper / 2007

"Topsy-Turvy: Smell the Flowers" inks on paper / 2006

Click HERE for MORE of my Topsy-Turvy Series!

"Mystical Eye" inks on paper / 2007

"Lizurd" inks on paper / 2007

Center panel from "Three Guys Laughing" inks on paper triptych / 2007

"Hunker" inks on paper / 2005

Click HERE for Prints of "Hunker" in my Store!

Dirty Words Come Undone

I spent this past Sunday morning painting with The Wolfman over at his house and recording what went down (in case we managed to make anything good.)  We busted out another couple of panels which we had prepped months ago with colorful words and abandoned.  Of course the plan was always to cover them and time was up for these foul utterances.  Wolfie and I originally planned to swap up and each paint on both panels but somehow a story began to form when we went in to start our first painted characters.  We let the sick twisted power of the Universal Spirit of Art take hold of us and tell it's tale.

It took a couple of days for me to decide what music to use on this video.  Usually I just play around listening to stuff until something sticks and I didn't even know where to start here with the dirty words.  Seeing old friends recently probably had something to do with my friends FSN and their cover track of "Come Undone" recorded eons ago in 2004 getting stuck in my head.  The members of the band have all moved on to other pastures and projects but you can still jam out to their solid twist on metal by clicking right HERE!  Here's the video in all it's Nu Metal Lowbrow glory...

Click HERE for my VIDEOS PAGE to see more Art in Action!

A Taste of Spring LIVE Painting

As promised, here is the time lapse of the LIVE Painting I did last Friday at Meet 'n 3 in The Nashville Farmers Market sponsored by Metro Arts!  In the energy of an early Spring, I recorded ANOTHER painting with the Wolfman yesterday so stay tuned for more live debauchery coming later this week!

Click HERE for my VIDEO PAGE to see MANY MORE LIVE Paintings!

LIVE Painting at Meet 'n 3

Tonight I joined a slew of local crafters (and a few more visual artists) for Meet 'n 3 at The Nashville Farmer's Market.  Metro Arts has put together this unique event where a dozen local food trucks fill up one end of the Marketplace while live music and craft vendors set up for the crowd inside the food court area.  I brought along some paintings I did back in January for My Hero / My Villain along with a variety of books and prints.  The gorgeous spring day put some pep in my step so I decided to go all out tonight and take my easel along for a live painting!

Click Here for Nashville Food Trucks' Website and read more about what sort of cuisine you can grab on the go when you come down next month for the Meet 'n 3!

I met a very cool lowbrow artist who I swapped a couple of prints with this evening!  Her name is Emma Klingbeil and you can Click HERE for her Etsy Store to see much more of her work!  She also needs some traffic worthy of her delightfully creepy creations and if you're visiting me here, she'd probably find you as a satisfied audience by visiting her Facebook Page!

Aurora chose "Paper Cut-Outs" and I picked out "My Shadow" from Emma's wide collection of prints she had available!  She also had some very interesting shadowbox work with clay figures and painting!

I recorded my painting to time-lapse in the usual fashion over the weekend.  Of course, this requires a dozen or so hours of editing and encoding so check back by Monday and I'll have it live!

My tiny Kodak Play Sport camera is the most convenient toy ever- I can't say enough good things about it considering it shoots HD and is practically indestructible and can even go underwater!  No, I haven't tried to paint underwater... yet.

Here's a couple of screen shots from the video

Click HERE for my VIDEOS PAGE to see more LIVE Paintings! 

I'll have this one up after the weekend!

Zombie Richard Pryor ON FIRE!!!

Zombie Richard Pryor!

I've still been staggering down the Zombie Walk of Fame and getting a full helping of the undead this week as I've pounded through and colored another dozen of my 101 creepy celebrity zombie portraits for my upcoming series.  Having the outlines done on all of these, I posted some pics on my Facebook Page this week of groupings of the illustrations in progress to let fans choose who I would fill in the colors on that night.  From yesterday's post, the people spoke and chose Mr. Richard Pryor!  In the process of coloring, I had a moment of inspiration to create a new video of the process which I've also posted below!

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaains: Spinning Round an Early Spring

Whoopi Goldberg Zombie

Sorry Constant Viewer if I've been a bit quiet these past couple of weeks.  I've been harnessing the powers of Mother Creativity for several different projects which this year has lined up for me and kids- I've got my work cut out for me!  I've been pounding color to my Zombie Walk of Fame series the past 10 days or so.  I've colored 32 total now out of all 101 celebrity zombie portraits I sketched and outlined over a three month period a year and a half ago.  Being a third of the way there now, I'm seeing the pinhole of light in the enveloping blackness at the end of this particular artistic tunnel.

King Sh*ts of Turd Mountain

There are many times where art should just speak for itself and the commentary it creates; this notion certainly applies to the new time lapse painting video I shot with The Wolfman...

Click HERE for my Videos page to see MORE of the Absurdity and Insanity!