Celani Family Vineyards

I had the wonderful opportunity to paint a large 3'x4' painting of The Celani Family Vineyards in Napa California for a very good customer of mine as a present for a friend of his, the propritor of the said vineyard. I was to incorporate the vineyard itself and the wine varieties from the winery as well. The bottles are slightly larger than life size, and let me tell you that painting the writing on those labels was quite the challenge, I'm still uncrossing my eyes. If you click on the photos and look close enough, you can see that on the two bottles to the right I had to paint a miniature painting of the vineyards again as they appeared on the labels as well. All in all it was a great experience, and some day soon I hope to visit the Celani vineyard and get a better look the grounds myself and enjoy what I spent so long painting. Cheers!

McLast Supper homage

I was recently commisioned by a friend to paint a new version of the Ron English painting "McLast Supper", a fantastic take on the original Last Supper of course, but given a shot of late century sarcasm with a little huge bit of commercialism thrown in there too. This was one of the funniest paintings I've done recently due to the uber-cool characters in the painting. I have loved most all these characters for most of my life and enjoyed thinking of my favorite episodes while painting them. They were much work with much detail, but well worth it. Until next time....

Zuzatz painted legs

I was commisioned by the Zuzatz company who are launching their new line of sandals with interchangable straps. They are a local Detroit company who had their launch at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Detroit this past Friday. The show was a great sucess and a lot of fun too. I painted two pair of legs to match the sandals I was given. The theme of the first was a nautical theme, and the second was nightlife. Click on the images and check the detail. It was quite a challenge to paint on a 3-d object, especially a pair of legs, but the customer was very happy and I was too- Thanks again Zuzatz.

custom painted toys

I am beginning to delve into the 3-D world of painting toys. I picked up some blanks at San Diego Comic Con last year and just started to paint them. This first one is for my cousin Josh who lives out in LA and is doing much work behind the scenes in the TV world. This piece was to warn him of the dangers of going in the big blue Pacific on his days off. Good luck, Cuz.

Self Portrait?. . .

Yea, some might say how in the heck is this a self portrait, and I'd say hmmmmm...... and stare blankly at the floor. No, really, I'd say that this is an amalgamation of what I have to do as an illustrator to keep things moving onward and upward. I have to balance my computer illustration skills that get most of my design work done with my true love of painting brightly-colored strange things. I dunno, it just came out my brain and on to the canvas, but I'm glad its' there now.

Attack of the Sock Monkeys

Okay. so I had this weird dream about this hauntingly silent seige of the city by a disgruntled group of enormous sock monkeys roaming the streets in search of the little people and their little socks. How'd they get that big, well who really knows? I suppose I'd be mad too if I was made from stinky old worn out work socks, I'd imagine that smell might never go away. Anyway, time to some using Extra Strength Nyquil before bed time.

Barack Obama Mural in Detroit

I recently finished a large 8' x 21' mural of our next President Barack Obama in Detroit at the corner of Grand River and Greenfield. It was a great experience, we had people driving by beeping their horns and singing the support for their candidate of choice. It took us only 20 hours over four days to complete it. I was commisioned by the Michigan Campaign for Change and they may spread this image around town even more now that he has won - I'll keep you posted.