My latest piece “Cordyceps” was created for Travis Louie’s ZOMBIE show in New York city. Press release:
NEW YORK, NY (May 25th, 2013) –When most of us hear the mention of the word “zombie”, it brings up images from George Romero’s “NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD” movies, the AMC television series, “THE WALKING DEAD”, and both Max Brooks’, “Zombie Survival Guide” and “World War Z”. Contemporary society has become obsessed with this dead, cannibalistic phenomenon. Yet the earliest appearances of zombies date back to African and Caribbean religious mythologies. Some argue even earlier manifestations can be found in the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and “New Testament Book of Daniel”. It wasn’t until the early 20th century, that zombies first made their debut in American popular culture. From then onward, the horror paradigm evolved from bewitched, voodooed creatures, to the decaying undead with a taste for human flesh.
In the past few years, the images of the walking dead have appeared in numerous ad campaigns, countless video games, and organized “zombie walks” across the USA. It seems everywhere we look, people have “zombie” on the brain. With this art show, we asked 50 artists to interpret the word “zombie”. What is it about living dead that intrigues us? Is it the idea that they were once like us? Are the masses really consumer “zombies” programmed to receive and carry out the demands of commerce, by going out and shopping for the latest things they’ve been convinced that they need? Or is the zombie sensation just another popular culture craze? Get your zombie on with us this summer.
Artists include: Stefano Alcantara, mia araujo, William Basso, Michael Canavan, John Cebollero, Peter Chan, Bobby Chiu, David Chung, Steven J Daily, Matt Dangler, Brendan Danielsson, Kato Destefan, Dave DeVries, Dienzo, Bob Dob, zoetica ebb,Bob Eggleton, Steve Ellis, Katelan Foisy, alex garant,Mark Garro, Eliza Gauger, Lisa Gloria, Gothic Hangman, Stan Grograou, Fred Harper, Kelley Hensing, Stephen Hickman, Joshua Hoffine, Martin Hsu, Sarah Joncas, J Anthony Kosar, Aimee Kuester, Edith Lebeau, Steven “Kid” Lew, Robert Mackenzie, Angie Mason, Vince Natale, Vincent Di Nguyen, Kathie Olivas, Brandt peters, Lou Pimentel, Stephen Price, Carlos Ramos, Brandi Read,
Chris Seaman, Allison Sommers, Tatiana Suarez, L’amour Supreme, Mark Texeira, eric wilkerson, David C Wong, Jasmine Worth, Jane Ann Wynn, Chet Zar, Zombienose
*Artists are subject to change
# # #
An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 25th from 7pm – 11pm. Last Rites Gallery is located at 511 West 33rd Street, 3rd floor, between 10th and 11th avenues, New York. For more information, please contact: Erica Berkowitz, (212) 560-0666, erica@lastritesgallery.com
ZOMBIES WELCOME…
If I can find one of those last-minute cheap tickets I’ll be attending, but I’d say the chances of that are minimal. It looks like an incredible lineup, and what little I’ve seen so far of the contributions are really excellent.
My collection of Unhallowed Metropolis illustrations are now available on a gorgeous 13 x 19” archival cotton rag giclee, singly or in a set, on my store. The printing looks absolutely stunning; like a gorgeous velvety inkwash or watercolor. I’m so glad I invested in this printer holy shit.
TRIGGER WARNING FOR SELF INJURY/CUTTING
Golden Hour
giclée with gold enamel on thick velvet art paper
13 x 19”
closed edition of 7
Available here, on my official store.
January 2nd’s drawing is called Golden Hour. This is a pencil drawing scanned, painted digitally, then printed as an archival giclée and painted a second time with enamel paints, producing an unreproduceable hybrid between print and original media.
The grease stain on the paper inspired me to go with a cloudy motif, which will likely repeat because the next few pages are also grease stained, although in an increasingly smaller area.
The Golden Hour girls are each named after one of the seven most popular names for girls born in 1998.
-=-=-=-
WHAT IS THE HYBRID VIGOR SERIES?
See my Hybrid Vigor tumblr tag here: http://toxoplasm.org/tagged/hybrid vigor
For the month of January and possibly for the rest of 2013, I will be producing one sketch or drawing per day, and then producing it as a hybrid giclée print on the following day. I’m a little behind.
What do I mean by a hybrid? A combination print and original. A very short giclée edition (3-10 pieces) will follow, which will combine the scanned drawing with digital painting and, finally, real media painting on the giclée.
NOTE ABOUT VARIATIONS & PHOTOGRAPHY:
Each member of the Hybrid Vigor series will be slightly different due to their hand-painted process. If there are more than minor differences, it will be noted in the description and the option to order individual prints will be made available.
The photography of these prints is never going to be absolutely true to the real color and detail. This is due to all monitors having slight variations in color calibration and display resolution, as well as by my not being a professional art photographer. Please allow for a little wiggle room in your expectations, and feel free to ask me any questions.
SHIPPING:
Each print will be shipped rolled protectively in a sturdy cardboard tube and mailed USPS First Class unless otherwise requested by the buyer.
GOAT TITS AHOY
Hybrid Vigor #1 is up for sale: https://www.etsy.com/listing/119560450/hybrid-vigor-the-gilded-goat
I SWORE TO THE GREAT SATAN that this would be listed for sale before the day ended and technically I have been honorable.
When I wake up these shitty product shots will be replaced with something better lit but since you guys should get a jump on the general Etsy public, here’s your heads-up.
My Etsy store accepts both Paypal and credit cards. I heard from some people that Big Cartel’s Paypal-only policy was locking them out of art buying, so I may move the entire operation back to Etsy as a result. I ship everywhere.
The Hybrid Vigor Series
For the month of January and possibly for the rest of 2013, I will be producing one sketch or drawing per day, and then producing it as a hybrid giclée print on the following day.
What do I mean by a hybrid? A combination print and original. A very short giclée edition (3-10 pieces) will follow, which will combine the scanned drawing with digital painting and, finally, real media painting on the giclée. Each member of the edition will be different, either from the colorways in which they are printed (variations in the colors I add in-machine), to the paintings done at the last stage.
This is an experiment, an excuse to use my giclée printer, a prod in the ass to get me producing something every single day, a way to address some issues I struggle with regarding the Draw a Pretty Girl aspect of the art industry, and especially a way for the people I see sighing over the more prohibitively expensive pieces to actually get something original for a much lower price. These will be priced extremely affordably; I don’t want to name any numbers right now because I’m not sure exactly how much work will be going into them. My estimate is that they’ll be between 40 and 70 United States Fiat Dollars.
Here’s a sneak peek at January 1st’s drawing, alongside its very first test edition, which will not be sold because like a moron I was trying to trim the edges and damaged it with the paper cutter. I’ll fob it off on some unsuspecting “friend”, no doubt. The colors in these photos actually aren’t too far off the mark; the color nuance this monster printer is capable of is just stunning. The gold is enamel. The grease stain on the paper inspired me to go with a cloudy motif, which will likely repeat because the next few pages are also grease stained, although in an increasingly smaller area.
I think this is going to be really cool.
2012ths: Started a new series called “Rent Boys”
1: Rosier
2: Asmodai
3: Aym
The Rent Boys are paintings of beautiful males who are priced at the cost of my monthly rent apiece. In the literal and figurative (and literally figurative) sense, I am turning them out and selling their bodies to support myself. Their ambivalent expressions and fashionable poses shoulder some burdens normally borne by human girls. I couldn’t say why exactly they are canonical demons, but each speaks or thinks his appropriate sigil.
The Rent Boys are ongoing into 2013.
2012ths: Deep Map Pilots
Deep Map Pilots was a five-part science fiction vignette series in collaboration with Warren Ellis. Ellis wrote; I illustrated. The Deep Map Pilots will continue in 2013 as Deep Map Pilots: eXtended Flight Log, the first installment of which is visible as the very last image above.
![cthulhucore:
3liza:
3liza:
Deep Map Pilots 2: Rehanidigital2012
REHANI saw space before she saw the sea. When she finally stood at the edge of an ocean, at night, all she could really see was something black and chilly and sparkling, with the sketched suggestion of islands out in its deeps. Rehani was disappointed. She flies for Big Island, a great floating city that surfs the cloud-tops of Venus at two hundred miles an hour. It’s wider than the Central African Republic, and moves across a misty vastness you could lose every ocean on Earth in. And it spins in something that is blacker and colder and more sparkling than anything, anything she’s ever seen. It’s never disappointed her. It’s the only sea she needs.
[larger image] [original size image]
DEEP MAP PILOTS: A Series Of Five Pictures From Words MARENKA – REHANI – CAMEO – JINJING – ASCENCION
[Process: Deep Map Pilots is a five-part science fiction vignette series in collaboration with Warren Ellis. Ellis writes; Gauger illustrates.]
I already did a more thorough breakdown of the steps I took to make the first in this series, MARENKA, but I thought I’d add some behind the scenes stuff for this one, too.
Rehani’s HUD, as it appears before being Spherized onto the surface of the visor, and mirrored so she can read it.
dumb cheesy mockup of Venus I did for the background, using this venerable “realistic planet” tutorial. There aren’t any really good photographs of Venus in true color. It’s mostly a ball of slightly yellow fog. In the final pieces I ended up overlaying it with some Earth photos of clouds because it was too misty looking and not interesting enough.
Sheet of concepts, including one in the middle (the pencil one), which was courtesy of michaelk42 helping me figure out a way to combine the “silhouette over a bright void” of A, with the cool closeup visor-and-hand-shadow of D.
Wait… the text overlay… Isn’t that a post by Ghost-bong?
Really, really good catch.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5oihsUs5f1row3ieo1_r1_500.jpg)
Deep Map Pilots 2: Rehani
digital
2012REHANI saw space before she saw the sea. When she finally stood at the edge of an ocean, at night, all she could really see was something black and chilly and sparkling, with the sketched suggestion of islands out in its deeps. Rehani was disappointed. She flies for Big Island, a great floating city that surfs the cloud-tops of Venus at two hundred miles an hour. It’s wider than the Central African Republic, and moves across a misty vastness you could lose every ocean on Earth in. And it spins in something that is blacker and colder and more sparkling than anything, anything she’s ever seen. It’s never disappointed her. It’s the only sea she needs.
[larger image] [original size image]
DEEP MAP PILOTS: A Series Of Five Pictures From Words
MARENKA – REHANI – CAMEO – JINJING – ASCENCION[Process: Deep Map Pilots is a five-part science fiction vignette series in collaboration with Warren Ellis. Ellis writes; Gauger illustrates.]
I already did a more thorough breakdown of the steps I took to make the first in this series, MARENKA, but I thought I’d add some behind the scenes stuff for this one, too.
Rehani’s HUD, as it appears before being Spherized onto the surface of the visor, and mirrored so she can read it.
dumb cheesy mockup of Venus I did for the background, using this venerable “realistic planet” tutorial. There aren’t any really good photographs of Venus in true color. It’s mostly a ball of slightly yellow fog. In the final pieces I ended up overlaying it with some Earth photos of clouds because it was too misty looking and not interesting enough.
Sheet of concepts, including one in the middle (the pencil one), which was courtesy of michaelk42 helping me figure out a way to combine the “silhouette over a bright void” of A, with the cool closeup visor-and-hand-shadow of D.
Wait… the text overlay… Isn’t that a post by Ghost-bong?
Really, really good catch.
24 x 36”
oil on canvas with tract pages
2012
First class shipping included.
