My Artist Trading Card from ILLUSTRATION PAGES!

One of my favorite websites, Illustration Pages has been passing around digital trading cards sporting the artwork of artists who they have featured on their site.  Here's MINE featuring a swirling cup of pop surrealism circa 2009!

Click HERE for the very insightful article about my work on ILLUSTRATION PAGES! 

Click HERE to Purchase a Print of this featured work of art from my ONLINE STORE ($10 + FREE Shipping!)

CATCH of the DAY (NEW LIVE PAINTING)

Catch of the Day!

 This past weekend, I took to the outdoors with The Wolfman to sling some paint in the open air.  We ventured out to Cross Creeks, which is a National Wildlife Refuge here in TN.   Charles and I took to a trail with our painting supplies and set up shop to get some scenic video to finish this panel.  I say finish because I laid the background of this one out while we were on St. George Island in Florida last month using some palm leaves and local foliage as stencils.  Since I was a child, I've found a strange juxtaposition in the Stewart County end of Cross Creeks.  One finds themselves surrounded by a clean dose of mother nature- only with the TVA smokestacks in the distance from Cumberland City.  In many ways these stacks are a landmark for those local to the very rural area I grew up in.  I supposed they played a role with the end product of our subject matter including a three-eyed fish and a three-headed fisherman!

The entire process is recorded, cut and time lapsed here in this NEW Speed Painting Video!!!

Click HERE for the DREGstudios! YouTube Channel to see MORE Time Lapse ART!

Click HERE to see another painting from this past Sunday at Cross Creeks- "Mushroom Safari!"

This is what pollution does... seriously.

TVA

"Catch of the Day" Spray Paint and Acrylic on Wood

Lets Get Ready to RUMBLE!

MUSHROOM SAFARI at Cross Creeks

The Wolfman and I decided to get out of town and into some natural surroundings for this Sunday's collaborative painting session.  We ventured closer to the neck of the woods I grew up in at Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge nestled between Dover and Cumberland City, TN.  We knocked out a couple of paintings this afternoon in the midst of the beauty of it all.  Yesterday, Charles painted a similar cybernetic suit hunting Sushi (Click HERE for MORE.)  Today, we did something similar only with some fungi!

Spray Paint and Acrylic on Masonite / 2012 

Check back later this week for our larger painting from this session, called CATCH of the DAY, which we recorded on film.  I'll have another one of our crowd-pleasing time lapse videos in the works soon with the footage!  For now, here are a couple of more shots of "Mushroom Safari" along with a slew of nature pics from our voyage...

SUSHI SAFARI on the Autumn Equinox

"Sushi Safari" (acrylic and spray paint on masonite)

To celebrate this absolutely flawless first day of Fall here in Tennessee, I took to the outdoors after finishing up another week at my day job.  Over at Casa de Wolfman, we got down with some spray paints and acrylics to make good on what was left of the daylight this afternoon.  The days are getting shorter so we plan on getting started early painting for the camera tomorrow, which you'll see in time lapse form at some point this week.  We gotta keep slinging colors in the sun while the getting is good.  Today's painting was a real treat- again, coming straight out of our heads like we do harnessing the power of the Autumn Equinox. 

Here's some great process pictures from the painting we knocked out today...

[TOPSY-TURVY] KINGMAKER

What does it take to be King?

"While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them.  It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings."  -Henry David Thoreau

A GAGGLE of TONGUES

Detail from GAGGLE of TONGUES

The mucus has been flying this week as my body picked the nicest weather of the year here in Tennessee to break down and get sick.  I needed a change of pace on my day off from the office since I'd been either working or cooped up on the couch reading comic books and flinging snot from my head all week.  The Wolfman rounded up myself and The American Printmaker Jesse Shaw from our caves to go wild on a panel this afternoon and catch some of the sun.

Charles and I got started with a spray paint and acrylic background before the real visual fiesta began.  Often with art, the fun is in the journey. We had no idea what we were painting today until the brushes hit the board.  We sent Jesse home with this maniacal collaboration, which he'll be showing to his students at APSU.  He's been talking to them about the creative process and getting them relaxed to make art for the sake of making art.  Our Sunday backyard painting sessions are just that- brainstorms, anarchy and all out channeling of the creative spirit.  When one of us would ask, "What's the story here?"  There'd be some smirking and chuckling as if we're all three tuned to this inside joke.  I'd be interested to hear what the class has to say.  

I recently made another collaborative painting with these two cohorts in art crimes called CROP CIRCLES (click HERE for more!)

Painting by Charles Bennett, Brandt Hardin and Jesse Shaw

 Here are several more process pictures from this afternoon's painting...

Mitt Romney's TERRIBLE LAUGH

Memes are F-U-N for the whole family, especially when they involve Willard here and his classic All-American guffaw.  He's a real knee slapper and keeps the party in stitches... you can liven up the lives of your loved ones by downloading these and passing them around!

"I Live for Laughter"  -Mitt Romney

Click HERE to read about Mitt Romney's Magic Mormon Underwear!

The 32 Greatest COMING of AGE MOVIES (On my 32nd Birthday)

Inks on Bristol / 2010

"There is a fountain of youth:  it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love.  When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age."  -Sophia Loren

Today marks my 32nd year on Earth- down here on the ground with you guys.  Age is a state of mind; maturity is a state of mind.  We are all born artists with our third eye tuned to the channel of the world's creative circuit.  We make choices throughout our journey which weave the web of our existence.  I choose to create and don't think I'll ever stop helping to lift the curtain and show what's in my mind through color.  Many a mode and method of art expose us to definitions of change.  Movies are a powerful avenue of expressing stories of growth.  There are many aspects and definitions to "coming of age" which are defined in a broad spectrum by this list of films.  Here are 32 movies which have pried my own eyes open in some form or fashion (up to this point at least...)

Stuck on the Corner of 3RD PLACE and HONORABLE MENTION

Rode home with ribbons on the rearview like it was High School

The 25th Annual Riverfest is upon us here in Clarksville with a slew of outdoor activities this weekend if you can handle chewing down the thick Tennessee air.  Once again, I've put artwork in the Tour D'Art Juried Exhibit at the Smith-Trahern Mansion.  I've managed to place year after year but never taken home the coveted Best in Show.  Of course, I did get a little cheeky this year and displayed superheroes (recent works from the one-night-only My Hero | My Villain exhibit!)  Many of the older crowd really had no idea what they were but fortunately there was a kid at the drop-off this past Monday who enthusiastically explained to everyone just how awesome my art was!  The committee did choose to display both of my works and the Judge awarded an Honorable Mention in the Professional Painting Category to "The Transformation of the Incredible Hulk" and also a 3rd Place in the Professional Drawing Category to my "Topsy-Turvy: Fantasic Four!"  (I'm assuming she didn't notice the nipples and blunt... shiZah!)  I never mind my work sticking out like a sore thumb... it's a good thing.  The Tour D'Art Exhibit is open to the public Friday, September 7th and Saturday, September 8th!

Click HERE for my post on the 2011 Riverfest and see my LIVE Painting by the Cumberland River with Jeff Bertrand!

Click HERE for a special post on this painting including a special Super Hero Theme Music Track from TEADS which was included in a multi-media display earlier this year!

Click HERE to see Topsy-Turvy: Fanastic 4 in ALL DIRECTIONS!

Click HERE for PRINTS of The Transformation of the Incredible Hulk!

DIRTY SHOW 13.5 in Pontiac, MI

"Luscious Angel" inks on bristol / 2012

Today, I'm shipping off my new illustration which was accepted for the upcoming DIRTY SHOW 13.5!  Jerry Vile and company have been putting this Motor City Sexfest on for well over a decade now and I'm sinfully delighted to have my artwork included once again.  This year I created two new illustrations for the exhibit and will have the chosen one in route to the show this afternoon.  All the visual pleasures open September 21st at Clutch Cargo's in Pontiac!  Here are the two new drawings along with more info on the show itself...

The Wonderment of St George Island State Park

Last Saturday, Aurora and I spent our last day on St George Island at the State Park which occupies and preserves a good portion of the island settled just off of Florida's Forgotten Coast.  Crossing through the gates of the park, you immediately find one of the most beautiful and breathtaking places on Earth.  Being late August and just out of tourist season, we had a run of the place practically to ourselves where we took to the boardwalk trails and salt marshes, swam and collected shells and sponges among other treasures to serve as remembrance of our week in paradise.  The art and awe of Mother Nature are too delightful not to share!

Aurora and I at the Salt Marshes

Here are over twenty scenes from the park which my wife and I captured...