Self Portrait of the Artist as a Memory of a Rock Star

This piece is actually a culmination of 20 years of work. I started with a couple a drawings from my high school sketch book. One was a psychedelic portrait of Jimmi Hendrix and the other a study for a self portrait. I scanned these two drawings and overlaid them together in Photoshop. Along with a third image for which some back story is appropriate.

In high school my intrigue and enthusiasm about various rock stars led to me playing music and attempting to be a rock star myself. A couple years or so after high school I joined an indie "conspiracy rock" group called The Penny Regime. My "audition" was an impromptu sitting in with them at a live gig at EJ Bugs in Fells Point. I sat in on drums and having no drum sticks, played with coat hangers and rolled up City Papers. I continued playing in this band for 7 years, switching to bass after the first couple. In 2010 we had a reunion show at The Ottobar and Mike "Cheech" Simmons took some photos of our set. I used one of those photos as an additional overlay to create the final composite image used as the basis for this drawing. The drawing itself is on a piece of paper from the same high school sketch book. The "penny regime" scrawled in the top corner was written there way back in the late 1990s when I first started playing in the group.

When viewed from a close perspective the original two older drawings are more prominent. But when viewed from a greater distance of about 10 feet (or as a thumbnail on screen) the newer reunion show photo image comes more into focus as the older fade into memory.

This piece was inspired by and created for the exhibition Self Portrait as a Rock Star at the Current Gallery on Jan 28, 2011.
More Info : www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=114089415311952

Current Gallery Website

Mike's original photo is here: www.flickr.com/photos/haileysimmons/4656294495/in/faves-8...

Below are the three separate source images side by side.

Ols School #4 - Shaman

Continuing this theme of old sketches pulled my sketchbook from high school, circa 1993.

sea witch

sea witch, originally uploaded by Mr & Mrs Speeed.

I worked this Cecaelia up over the weekend. We recently got a membership to the aquarium so perhaps that influenced this marine based monstrosity. As is typical with a lot of my drawings I did not start out with a plan, or rather I did and then quickly diverted from it as soon as I began. It reminds me of a blend of Mayan, Greek mosaic and modern pop styles.

insurrection

insurrection, originally uploaded by Mr & Mrs Speeed.

Doodle of the day no. 4. Per Erica's request.
"insurrection"
pen and marker on the back of a paper flyer

I should add this doodle was sparked by the fact that our cat Sydney went missing last September. I had put up the typical LOST CAT posters around the neighborhood and got lots of calls from people who had other cats that were black, had socks, or whiskers and made meowy noises. None of those calls were actually our cat. I had long ago decided we were never going to see the cat again. I was OK with that. Yesterday we got the call that actually was our cat. So now he's back just in time for the baby.

Great, more vet bills and cat poop.

Carousel of the Gods

The novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman is a favorite of mine. There is a part in where all of the old gods get together for a meeting to decide what to do about all the pesky new gods. They have this meeting at the House on the Rock in Wisconsin (not Missouri) which is a most bizarre and fascinating place. A and I had the chance to go there back when we were traveling the country and I shot many photos there. I took two photos of the worlds largest indoor carousel (which is also mentioned in the book) and overlaid them together. I then digitally painted over that composite to create this final piece. Careful, looking at it may cause dizziness and disorientation!

Bird Call

This is a painting my wife commissioned from me a while back. The theme of birds silhouetted on a monochromatic background is all the rage right now in home decor shops like Red Tree. (Which we love to kill time in!) Rather than buying one she asked me to whip one up for her to put in her office. I tend to focus on the one who is taking off on his own though the fat one alone on the right makes me smile with his slightly curmudgeon like posture. Maybe the rest are about to follow the one taking flight, maybe not. I'll leave that to you to decide.

Outside of the Box #1

This is number one in a current series of digital artworks. It represents man made compartmentalization being subdivided and stacked on itself. Symbolic of modern development, cubicle office life and the social tendency to place people and things into neat little boxes. However the more we try and place our organic and mysterious experience into stereotypical classifications, the more it becomes apparent that things do not fit so nicely and neatly into perfectly arranged compartments. In fact as we attempt to analyze things down to their core and classify them to the nth degree, nature has a tendency to break down under such scrutiny and present more interesting anomalies that challenge our previous deductions about the nature of reality. Tunnels and doorways open up into previously unfathomable dimensions and possibilities. Eventually our own structured belief systems must melt away to make room for these new and unexpected realizations.