This is not my house — I live in California, and we don’t have the white stuff here, though I did have to kick a few leaves off the walkway this morning and chuck a pesky snail into the street, phew!  But this pretty much sums up the feeling I’m getting from my East Coast friends and family, most of whom are fairly sick n’ tired of digging out their cars, their doorways, etc.  My memory of growing up back East was that there was always something to deal with outside:  mow the grass, rake the leaves, shovel the snow.  Go ahead, ask me if I miss it — NOPE!

So why am I flying into the wintry white jaws of Snowmeggedon this week?  I’m heading to NYC for the 5th Anniversary show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery.  It promises to be a fantabulous show, packed to the rafters with amazing art.  Here’s some stuff I cribbed from Artlog:

“Since 2005, Jonathan LeVine Gallery has been an important venue for Street Art (ephemeral work placed in public urban environments) and Pop Surrealism (work influenced by illustration, comic book art, and pop culture imagery). As such, the pieces in this exhibition—comprised of paintings, drawings, and sculptures—will be primarily figurative with a strong sense of narration.

Artists

I don’t do too much illustration work anymore, partly because I’ve always had a sort of passive/aggressive relationship with it in the first place (I don’t much like being told what to do), and also because at this point it usually feels like a distraction from the rest of my art.  But sometimes a job comes along that’s just too fun to say no too, and these often pop up around Valentine’s Day.  I love that people think of me at this time of year — it seems utterly appropriate to me, since so much of my work swirls around issues of love and how we manifest those feelings (lust, adoration, jealousy, heartache, longing, fidelity and betrayal).

So naturally when the art director of the Santa Fe Reporter, the wonderfully cool Angela Moore, asked me if I’d like to do the cover for their Love & Sex issue I said heck yeah!  The finished art ended up like this:

Sometimes there’s pain that even a double dose of Extra Strength Tylenol can’t touch.  American performance artist/composer Ze Frank posted a phone number and asked that anyone experiencing emotional pain leave him a message.  And they did.  From that raw, sincere and often distraught material musicians and DJs crafted hundreds of musical samples, which became Pain Pack.  It’s an interesting glimpse into a collaboration, and you know — misery loves company.

You can hear the original messages as well as the musical results right here.

Back in 1997 I was asked to contribute a piece to Plazm magazine — they were going to make a little pull-out coloring book inside the magazine, which was a super cool idea, plus I’d already done a coloring book myself, so I figured I could just re-purpose some of that artwork.

The coloring book is now available online as a free PDF download — and it’s full of fun stuff from a wide range of artists including Raymond Pettibon, Frank Kozik and Bwana Spoons.  Anyone can color — go get one right here!

Another victim of the crap economy falls — fabulous and fun Eclectix Gallery is closing it’s doors.  Patricia Zemanek ran a great space and always hosted rollicking fun openings.  This is a sad, sad day.

They are selling everything at deep discount right now, including collectibles, vintage clothing, art books, funky do-dads, jewelry and more groovy stuff that you can shake a stick at, as well as the furniture and fixtures.  Only 344 days till Christmas people, get it in gear!