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...