When the Saints Go Marching In II (2011)

The Last Testament (Bunk Johnson)
ink and pencil on found wood
14" x 18" (ish)

Emile Barnes (Honestly I cannot remember what I called this one)
pencil and ink on found wood
12" x 15" (ish)

Clarinet Marmalade (Big Eye Louis Nelson)
pencil and ink on found wood
14" x 18" (ish)

Big Eye Nelson is a continuation of all things simple in the world of rob jones line portraiture. The other two ere just plain fun with the wrinkles and the what have you. On a side note, Big Eye was an honest moniker given Louis Nelson because one eye was bigger than the other and helped differentiate him from the other Louis Nelson on the NOLA jazz scene.

The Future is Unwritten (Joe Strummer) 2011

The Future is Unwritten
pencil and ink on found wood
12" x 16" (ish)

An early piece continuing last year's fetish with drawing/painting hands and concentrating on line. Joe Strummer is one of my heroes. I was kinda in a funk the December he passed away. Long Live Joe!

The Transfiguration of Jeffrey Lee (Jeffrey Lee Pierce) 2011

The Transfiguration of Jeffrey Lee
Ink, acrylic, found objects, on found wood
36" x 48" (ish, its a biggin')

(Detail)

Without a doubt, Fire of Love by the Gun Club, is one of my all time favorite albums. Jeffrey Lee is one of my all time favorite musicians. It is a punky, swampy, bluesy, rockabilly trip through spiritualism and mythology via the darkside of voodoo. It is just plain bad-ass. I must have listened to it 20 time working on this painting. Some of those bottles have been a part of other paintings and now they finally have a home. This one falls in the Icon Alter realm with Gram Parsons, Dave Eugene Edwards, and undocumented Fela pieced owned by Ryan Mowry. Anyway, one of the biggest and baddest of '011!

Fat Possum Blues Review 2011

5 Fat Possum Greats for Chris at Bayport BBQ in MN..home of the Deep Blues. Fun little project, got me listenin' to the albums that got me into the blues in the first place. Thanks Chris!

Ol' Gitfiddle Jim's Old Blues (Kokomo Arnold) 2011

Ol' Gitfiddle Jim's Old Blues
52" x 14"
acrylic and house paint of found wooden ironing board

I gotta say I love this piece enough to make room for it to hang in my living room (kinda like the El Vez Piece.) I love the mood man, mellow with some intense wood color...I love it. Every once in awhile, the image, the subject, and objects just gel in a way I couldn't even dream of!
Anyway, one of the few recorded pre-war Hawaiian styled slide guitar players; Kokomo Arnold is amazing to say the least.

Hobo Blues\Always Behind the Eightball (Seasick Steve) 2011

Hobo Blues/ Always Behind the Eightball
49" x 51"
acrylic, house paint and found objects on found wood

Good Ol' Seasick Steve, one of America's greatest contemporary blues dudes, hobo'd for awhile, played geetar of Eric Clapton, was Modest Mouse's touring guitarist, and now an expat, livin' in England...where he is the toast of the blues scene. This painting here is freakin' huge and really freakin' heavy, but it does have a working diddley-bo on it...the first I ever made.

When the Saints Go Marching In

Johnny St. Cyr

Kid Punch Miller

Papa Celestin

George Lewis

Kid Sheik

Dede Pierce

Big Jim Robinson

So my first show in Alexandria was heavy on the NOLA Soul and R&B folks. This time, by chance of stumbling across a Papa Celestin CD, I have been focusing on the NOLA jazz dudes...instruments for hire. All pieces are roughly 12" x 16" (give or take a few inches) and are done with pencil and ink on found wood. The initial found pieces were colored with this awesome faded lemon yellow color and again by per chance, I had a gallon of oops paint the same color. Big Jim was first, and rarely do I just stop with the line, color is normally my thing...but there is something powerful and basic to just line...

Goin' in for the Master Stroke

Seriously, painting with this guy is one of my favorite all time things! Unlike his father, this dude is a conceptual artist. I love asking him about his creations. Every stroke, mark, and bit of found debris has a purpose. Huzzah for studio time!! Viva la Vida!

Mr. Funny (PW Long) 2011

Mr. Funny (PW Long)
Acrylic and house paint on found wood
48" x 24"

So in my music pantheon, none are much higher than the sporadic, nomadic, elusive, and intense Preston W. Long of such awesomeness as Mule (the truest bluest hillbilly punk that there ever was) and PW Long's Reelfoot (same bombast, a little less piss, little more soul.) Mr. Long's solo stuff of late has been freakin' amazing as well...Remembered, awesome album, seriously, I cannot paint and have a few frosty ones with while playin' without a little choke up and a bit of tears...damn powerful. Anyway, I saw this guy play at the High Five, and it was liking watching a legend make a holy din miracle before a chosen few...damn amazing.
So this is it the young and less young...still intense perhaps even more focused now.
"You could put your wishin' in one hand and shit in the other and to see which one fills up first"...wisdom my friends

Viva La Revolucion (El Vez) 2011

"Viva La Revolucion" ( El Vez)
48" x 42"
acrylic and house paint on found wood

This is one of my favorite pieces so far this year. First large piece I have done in a while. El Vez is billed as the Mexican Elvis, which he is, but he also so much more...listening to one of his albums is like watching the Simpsons (kinda). Its a lot more enjoyable if you are musically learned...El Vez is like a pop culture, pop music rock'n'roll history crash course. Honestly none of this does him or his art justice, just check it out!! Viva la Viva!!

Dirty Doctor Galapagos (2011)

"Dirty Doctor Galapagos"
25" x 24.5"
acrylic and house paint on found wood

Roughly based on Philly band, Man Man. I love the sickly green the yellow turned on the old wood...sweet eats!

Message on a Bottle

Pierce (Jeffrey Lee Pierce) 2011
ink and house paint on rum bottle

Curless (Dick Curless) 2011
ink and house paint on bourbon bottle

Childish (Billy Childish) 2011
ink and house paint on rum bottle

It is seriously awesome having fun with art again; doing things I have always wanted to try, but for some reason haven't...its a good thing!

Mike and Ike (Mike Watt and Ike Turner) 2011

"Rocket 88" (Ike Turner)
acrylic and house paint on found wood
9" x 18"

Say what you want, the dude may have been a sonabitch, but he was one badd-ass musician. His version of Rocket 88 is credited as being one of thee first rock'n'roll songs ever recorded. Let's not forget to mention his funk and soul stuff from the late 60s and early 70s...schmokin', and of course the sheer wickedness of Tina Turner and her work with ol'Ike. I was really looking forward to his collaboration with the Black Keys, but sadly he passed before the project was completed.

"Hyphenated Man" Mike Watt
acrylic and house paint on found wood
22" x 24"

The Flannel -Clad Punk Rock Opera writin' hardest working man in the music biz...Mike Watt. I am looking forward to hearing his latest album, Hyphenated Man. It is all based on the artwork of Heironymous Bosch! Sounds art-nerdy- sweet!

Fun and Loose: Thee Billy Childish and "Skip" Spence (2011)

"Oar" (Alexander "Skip" Spence
acrylic and house paint on found wood
12" x 14.5"

"Thee Wild Billy Childish"
acrylic and house paint on found wood
16" x 16.5"

So I have really been diggin' the portraiture of Barry McGee lately. His use of line is gorgeous and jaw-dropping. Line is the fundamental element of all things art, so I tell my Kindergartners. I have even been doing mini-portraits on old liquor bottles. Of course they are totally gutbucket and raw, not as beautifully polished as Mr. McGee's. Oh well, I do however, love getting back to just line and a few colors. These pieces are fun and relaxing.
Thee Wild Billy Childish has been an idol of mine for quite some time. The dude makes killer punk-blues-folk-calypso sounds, paints and makes art in general, he's a writer, a producer, a publisher, and all around renaissance man with a penchant for anarchy...love'm.
Alexander "Skip" Spence was a casualty of drug culture in the 60's and never quite recovered after a stay in mental hospital...a wild story involving a fire axe and possible black magic and a lot of drugs, but in a moment of sheer genius and lucidity, he crafted one of thee greatest albums ever, by himself and a producer...Oar. Check it out, if you haven't.

Easy Rider Blues (Moise Robin) 2011

Easy Rider Blues (Moise Robin)
ink and acrylic on found wood
14.5" x 16"

Moise Robin was next in line, following the unfortunate death of Mayeus LaFleur, as Leo Soileau's accordionist. Moise and Leo recorded many classic Cajun sides together. Moise lived a long prosperous life.

Mama, Where You At? (Mayeus LaFleur) 2011

"Mama, Where You At?" (Mayeus LaFleur)
ink and acrylic and found wood on found wood

LaFleur's story is a brief one and a sad one. He was abandoned by his mother while he was an infant, raised by his father til his was a toddler, and then given to an uncle when his father could no longer raise a child and make a living. His uncle taught him to play accordion, and he quickly became one of the finest musicians around Louisina. So good in fact, one of the greatest fiddlers of the time, Leo Soileau, made him his partner. Together in 1928, they recorded one of the first Cajun records. On the day Mayeus got paid, he said he was going to use the money to find his mother.
Coming home from a gig, Mayeus stopped at a friend's ( a liquor bootlegger)house for a drink, when a man came up and started a quarrel with the bootlegger over a truck and broken porch. The man started shooting and shot the bootlegger and Mayeus ran to his friend's side to get him to safety and took a bullet to the heart and died instantly. He never had the chance to hear his own record. Told you it was a sad one.

Iron Leg (Mickey and the Soul Generation) 2011

"Iron Leg" (Mickey Foster and the Soul Generation)
Ink, acrylic, pop can bottoms, and found wood on serving tray and cookie sheet

Mickey and Soul Generation were one of thee first albums that got me into old school funk and soul. I was a long time fan of the organ groove/soul jazz/ Dr. Smith/Jimmy Smith/and of course Booker T. thing, but this was something new and fresh. It had those bubblin' organ grooves, but was served with a side of grit and looseness...killer stuff!
I wanted to do this painting on a old muffin tin, but the thrift stores were fresh out, so I made my own out of an old cookie sheet and pop can bottoms. Mickey is painted on a very fancy mini-serving tray. This is one of those pieces done during paint night, where only non-project oriented pieces can be worked on...kinda like the old days at Kent, with "passion night" as we called it. This one's for you Doug and Jerry!

The Stuff in Between the Stuff That Don't Gets Seen

"Tea Time With El Diablo"
Acrylic, enamel with sawdust, tea bag, and cheerios, found rope on found wood

"Brother Gut-String"
Acrylic, enamel with sawdust and dirt, cheerios, found tin lid, and rope on found wood

"Old Goat"
Acrylic, enamel with sawdust, tea-bag, cheerios, and found rope on found wood

"The Flower of the Diamond Lounge"
acrylic, enamel with sawdust, cheerios, plastic flower, and found rope on found wood

New gutbucket art, painted quickly and quietly over the span of a couple days. I do not know if they will ever see gallery walls., but it was fun to paint this loose. My son was the one who added dirt to "Brother Gut-String", thanks son!

Hot Bat/ Phill-Ay-Oh-Soul (Honus Honus) 2011

Hot Bat/ Phill-Ay-Oh-Soul
26" x 31"
All kinds of materials on cardboard and found wood

One helluva nice guy from a helluva nice band...Honus Honus, one of many hairy dudes fronting the white clad junkyard art damaged Philly doo-wop band, Man Man. Catch these guys live if you can, you will not be disappointed!

High Water Everywhere (Charlie Patton) 2011

"High Water Everywhere"
ink and acrylic on found chunk of ceramic drain pipe
7.5" x 2" x 11.5"

The irony of it all, is twice this image got washed away from the surface: once via the clear-coat, the second time due to nature. Charlie Patton, king of the Delta Blues, wrote several songs about a huge flood he witnessed, back in the day. Thanks to Daniel Tiberius for helping me connect the dots.

Trouble Weighs A Ton ("Grocery Store" Dan Auerbach) 2011

"Trouble Weighs a Ton"
ink, acrylic, found paper, found objects on found wood
30" x 5.5" x 29"

This here goes out to Daniel Tiberius Schmidt and Ty"rone" Debvoise(?)...good ol' everyman Dan Auerbach of the infamous Black Keys. Now Mr. Auerbach probably doesn't know about his blues moniker, "Grocery Store", but there is a story behind those words, and it isn't really even a good story, but...Dan Schmidt was shopping for groceries in Akron and saw a guy who looked like Dan Auerbach also shopping for groceries. So Dan Schmidt casually asked Dan Auerbach if indeed he was Dan Auerbach and Dan Auerbach said indeed. Dan Schmidt being a very respectable and respectful person, left it at that and let the man shop for groceries in peace.
Anyway, it got me thinking that even wicked 6 string shredders, like Dan Auerbach, need to shop for groceries too...a kinda equalizer of sorts...anyway, everyman "Grocery Store" Dan Auerbach. (And the moniker is helpful when I am telling other people the story so they do not get the two Dans confused.)