Night Watchman Stout

City Star Brewing, in Berthoud, Colorado, is a small and relatively new brewery that is quickly racking up state and national brewing awards. It is an absolute honor to have been chosen to illustrate beer labels for their six mainstay brews. Winner of the 2013 Colorado State Fair - Silver and 2014 US Open Beer Championship Bronze Medal is Night Watchman Stout. John and Whitney Way, the owners of City Star Brewing, tell me that their brewery on Main Street used to be a car dealership in the 1930's...so naturally I honed in on my love for automobiles and illustrated a car from that era posed in front of their brewery...thus starting a like-minded, symbiotic relationship between artist and brewer. The stark black and tan color scheme reflects the coffee and caramel flavors of this rich American stout.

Cowboy's Golden

In continuing my illustration work for City Star Brewing in Berthoud, Colorado is another award winning brew. Winner of the Silver medal in the 2013 Denver International Beer Championship is Cowboy's Golden, featuring a friendly Golden Retriever in a sheriff's hat and neckerchief. Wooden barrels adorn the background as well as both warm and cool hues, giving great personality to this easy and approachable brew.

Bandit Brown

My third illustration for City Star Brewing, in Berthoud Colorado is for Bandit Brown English Brown Ale . This particular brew has won four major gold medals and I can only hope that the art can live up to this already prestigious brew. Whitney and John note that their building had been won in card games at least twice in it's illustrious history so the playing card in the shifty bandit's hat reflects this tidbit while the bowler hat is a nod to the brew's English origins. They also told me that trains are a major part of their town's history so, of course, I jumped at the chance to illustrate an old western locomotive.

Red Necktar

My next illustration for City Star Brewing allowed for a bit of humor and to once again employ my love for classic automobiles...no matter how rusty they may be. Our farmer, his truck, even the chicken in the background all seem simultaneously easy going, yet hard working. A crisp blue sky offers a cool visual contrast against the fiery warm hues of the truck and the border while a keen eye may spot the Colorado state flag. Red Necktar, an American red ale, won the 2013 Denver International Beer Championship Silver Medal.

Revolver IPA

There wasn't much artistic direction from John and Whitney when it came to my last two illustrations for City Star Brewing. They were Revolver and 6-Shooter...both named after firearms and thus in danger of perhaps becoming interchangeable. For this reason, I had drafted out two vastly different concepts, one light and one dark. An old illustration of mine called "Ghost Town Ale", featuring a skeleton cowboy, was the reason City Star Brewing sought me out in the first place, so I sensed they wanted something a bit dark and brooding. Boy, was I right! From initial concept, this moody piece was sure to be a winner for John and Whitney. Revolver just sounded scarier than 6-Shooter, so it got the dark and scary treatment.

6 Shooter

My final illustration for City Star Brewing in Berthoud, Colorado, by default, needed to go in a fun, light, and refreshing direction. We already had a dark and brooding skeleton cowboy so this time I went for a cute and sexy cowgirl. My first sketch featured a cowgirl standing beside a horse and while John and Whitney liked the idea, it seemed too sterile and lacked a certain...magic. They wanted something a little more edgy, a little more...badass, maybe. The second sketch featured the cowgirl atop a rearing horse while firing her 6-shooter into the air and that was the magic element needed to get the brewers and the artist excited. I finished the six illustration project with a bang, a fitting way to end anything, really! 6-Shooter American Pale Ale has won the 2014 US Open Beer Championship Bronze Medal. Care to see me, the brewery and these six paintings in person? I will be in Berthound, Colorado at City Star Brewing on Saturday, August 9th to reveal these illustrations live. True to City Star fashion, there will be food, festivities, live music...and of course beer! Hit up my inbox for details.

Captain America

 I love superheroes but I didn’t read comic books as a kid so my only exposure to what they were all about was, like most people, the recent influx of superhero movies. Before then I knew of Captain America but what was his superpower exactly? Exuberant patriotism? It was only after the movie came out that I understood that he was a pretty neat character and had quickly become a favorite. I had an idea that he should be superimposed over three separate vignettes in red, white and blue. The red, of course depicts Red Skull and a tank, the white a wintry scene with a zeppelin and the blue portrays an air battle. I wanted to redesign Cap a bit but kept in mind utilizing only 40’s era design and technology. The wings on his helmet, admittedly a bit silly, were rightfully dialed back for the movie, but in my composition they were more visually interesting by breaking the plane into the red vignette, so they remained in all their wing-flapping glory. This was the first of what I hope to be many superhero paintings.

Measures 20" x  20"

Lulu

When our dachshund was new to us she had to have an operation to remove a growth from her head. Lorraine made a hood out of a sock to cover the stitches and to keep her ears from flapping. The cone only served to add insult to injury as the poor girl looked like she was from outer space. I couldn’t resist snapping a photo and creating this piece from it later and given as a gift for Lorraine.

Measures 9" x  9"  - Not for sale

True Grit - Arctic Terror!

In researching pulp covers and men’s magazines, many of them took place in exotic tropical locations but very few featured the Arctic. My idea was what if I could do a snowy pulp cover with lots of white. Polar bears immediately came to mind but in researching them online I found far too many sleeping, nuzzling and cuddling their cubs and more or less being very cute. This went against all definition of what a pulp cover should be. Finally it had occurred to me that stuffed trophies were usually posed in some sort of menacing position, so the bear was from a photo of a trophy.

The two figures in the foreground are of my girlfriend Lorraine and me, the only changes being I gave myself a full beard and she was portrayed with auburn hair instead of her usual grey streaks. The guns were merely a potato chip clip clamped to a ruler in her hand and a yardstick in mine. Initially we had posed for photos separately but in putting together the images we had realized the guns were pointing at each other...no good. So we stuck a sticky note to the wall, high up were we figured his chest would be, then posed together while using the camera’s timer and aiming at the sticky note. This worked well.

In traditional pulp cover style, Lorraine is showing copious amounts of cleavage. Why would she be provocatively undressed in the Arctic? Other than to sell more men’s magazines, I have no idea. Luckily she was a good sport and willing to pose in such a way.

Measures 18" x 24"

True Grit - Peril in the Orient

 What may be more fascinating than this painting itself was the process in which it was done. I enjoy pulp illustrations of the 50’s and 60’s so for this one I wrote up a bunch of items you’d find on a pulp/ spy magazine cover onto little sheets of paper, for example, a snowmobile chase, a vial of poison, a scorpion, etc.  Then I loaded them all folded into a box and randomly drew five. The five ideas I had picked out were: Tiger, Ticking Bomb, Erupting Volcano, Chinese Villainess, and Motorcycle. Somehow I had to come up with a good composition using these five random items. Having drawn the tiger and Chinese villainess I knew there would be strong Asian influences so I knew plenty of rich yellows and reds would dominate the piece. The 60’s era villainess, obviously the mastermind behind all this strife, looms large over the composition while our square-jawed hero tangles with a fighting tiger. His love interest in distress is tied to a bamboo pole with the ticking bomb while a Chinese thug arrives on motorcycle. The erupting volcano, probably the silliest element of the piece, add just another element of over-the-top danger to the whole composition. By this point, I had learned that Photoshop can save valuable hours and makes it easier to experiment or change any wording or fonts in no time. Here you see two versions, with a text overlay and in its original form. I eagerly look forward to another chance to create a composition by randomly drawing pulp cover elements from a container. This was great fun!

Measures 22" x 28"

 

Outrun

This was started after about a three year hiatus from painting. The break was not as sad as you’d think as I was becoming a well known writer and LEGO builder at the time. So I remained creative, but shifted focus. I had a regular job and wasn’t finding commercial success, mainly because, as I was upset to find out, that I was not painting what was deemed commercially viable work...no garlic cloves, no business men shaking hands, no coffee mugs or whatever else the art buyers considered trendy. I wanted to come back into the art world but do it on my terms, even if my terms involved a 69’ Charger hightailing it away from certain alien doom.

Measures 22" x 28"

Lucky 13

Just a quick, simple experiment in opening only two tubes of paint; black and white. After completing bloated 65 hour paintings, sometimes its refreshing to do something small and quick.

Measures 16" x 12"

Dragon’s Desire Trade Company

 This is strongly influenced by 1930’s style Shanghai advertising art. Everything from soap to typewriters was advertised in this way and while the women and scenes depicted in these illustrations were genuinely Chinese, the sort of over-the-top exotic beautiful romanticism was depicted in order to entice Westerners. Dragon’s Desire Trade Company (whatever that is) would lead you to believe that you can get everything from opium to fine early dynasty art...or maybe even a beautiful forlorn Chinese bride.

Measures 16" x 20"

Dr. Z’s Traveling Carnival Of Wonders

At well over 65 hours (not including research) this piece has the distinction of taking the most amount of time to complete. With pirates and tikis within my repertoire it was a logical progression and only a matter of time before I researched the sideshow carnivals of yore. 

I learned that there were four kinds of freaks. By the way, “freaks” was the term they themselves preferred. Being odd was their bread and butter, and some lived the lives of revered celebrities. Anyway, four kinds...you got your biological freaks. These are your giants, your dwarves, your conjoined twins, your lizard men, your lobster men. These folks were born this way and couldn’t do anything about it...other than try to profit from it. Many of these type are represented here, the tall man, the half-man, the conjoined Chinese twins (cleverly named Won and Tu) and the tiny man...easy to miss, right next to the giant in the oval vignette. His name is Dr. Z and, like many sideshows of the time, he ran she show, thereby making it seem less exploitative.

The next kind is self-made freaks. These are your trapeze artists, sword swallowers, magicians, fire eaters, tattooists, and some would argue the strong man and the fat lady. There is nothing inherently odd about them at birth, these were folks fascinated by the lore of the sideshow and acquired certain skills in order to be a part of it.

The next kind...and a rather un-PC variety, the exotic freak. These folks sold tickets and attracted crowds simply because they were anything but white. Often their “exoticness” was over-emphasized with props and costumes. Chances are, Papa Doc there in the upper corner wasn’t really a voodoo priest, but rather a day laborer done up in exotic get up. This is extremely exploitative by today’s standards, but a Congolese man named Ota Benga lived as a “missing link” exhibit in the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo in 1906.

The final kind of freak, and one I chose not to portray here was the “circus geek”. This was the original meaning of the word “geek” and it was the most depraved of them all. Generally they were winos or drug addicts who would do anything for their next fix, so they were put in cages and made to bite the heads off chickens, fight each other, or act in any other such depraved manner. They were acquired when the carnival came to town and left there when they departed. They were dispensable, considered the lowest of the low, and the other freaks did not interact socially with the circus geek.

Instead I portrayed the phenomenon that went hand-in-hand with the traveling sideshow, the Curio Shop. Generally these were fabricated hoaxes made to dupe rubes, the most famous of which was the Fiji Mermaid, a mummified monkey corpse grafted with a fish.

I created this piece as a celebration of a phenomenon gone by rather than for exploitative reasons. The “KT” on the side of the train represented Katy, the girl I was dating at the time, the one I moved to Mercer Island with, I liked to hide her name in my creations, but, as circumstances had it, by the time the painting was completed, I was no longer with her.

Measures 24" x 36" - SOLD

Monster from the Forbidden Pond

When I moved to Mercer Island, through no fault of my own, I ended up living in a beautiful cabin on the waterfront. I was there for three and a half years. In case you don’t know, Mercer Island is one of the richest, most exclusive communities in the US, second only to perhaps Beverly Hills. I say through no fault of my own I lived in a waterfront cabin because I wasn’t rich. It wasn’t my money nor my influence that got me there. Long story short, I met a girl in Boston. Her parents wanted her to live closer to home so they made their rental cabin beside their own palatial waterfront home available to her for a reasonable price. As we were an item at the time, this entailed dragging me across country. On Mercer Island, if you get a group of friends together, all of them in their 20’s and 30’s, as I was at the time, it was an absolute guarantee that more than half of them are millionaires. This had nothing to do with their parent’s money, on Mercer Island, they just taught you how to network, how to succeed, how to lead...how to invest in the right stocks. It was a whole lifestyle that, even after more than three years, I couldn’t acclimate to (see my previous “Bread Winner” painting illustrating my fears of moving there and becoming a responsible adult. ) I had long hair, a leather jacket and a fu manchu style goatee. I just didn’t fit in. Living on the waterfront gets you thinking about water quite often. I wondered about the creatures that may have lived there. I imagined myself as the monster...sort of like Frankenstein’s monster...misunderstood, perhaps even lovable to some degree, but misunderstood nonetheless. The girl I followed cross country, her name is in the text as well as her dad’s and also all my friends from back home whom I missed.

Measures 18" x 24"

Pull up to Paradise

Most of us are quite multi-faceted. I like to think I am anyway. When not doing this kind of painterly art, I am also a well known LEGO artist. The thing I love to build most in LEGO is cars...classic American custom cars and hot rods mostly. I’m not quite sure where I picked up this affinity for custom car culture coming from Massachusetts. Probably the same place I acquired an affinity for tikis and mid-century modern architecture. It didn’t exist back east, so to me it was exotic and therefore I liked it. Anyway, often my LEGO building and painterly worlds combine. This one perfectly illustrates so many things that drive me...classic cars, nostalgia, skulls, tikis, retro ads, and exotic tropical places. If there is just one piece that would describe the quintessential “Lino” art feel, this would be it.

Measures 16" x 20"

Atomic 88

An experiment in designing a concept car...but concept in terms of a 50’s era design esthetic. With fun colors, and fun name, this piece illustrates a hip, Jetsons-like utopia in the form of an automobile ad.

Measures 20" x 16"

Kingdom of the Octopus

This was created after watching a documentary that suggested that octopus and squid could become the next intelligence if mankind were to die out. They are fiercely intelligent animals that learn by watching others. Experiments were conducted where a crab was placed within a complex series of plexiglass boxes. At first the octopus was flummoxed by the boxes, but once shown how to open them, they could complete the task to get to the delicious crab within time and time again. This painting depicts a clever octopus who has claimed sunken treasure for his own gain.

Measures 22" x 30"

Ghost Town Ale

Same idea as Calico Jack’s Darke Rum, illustrate a fake product you’d love to see manifest into real work. I can’t stress enough the importance of this advice for budding artist...create fake products you’d love, the real ones will come later. This time I went with a wild western feel, after all, I was newly transplanted to the Pacific Northwest...and while not exactly shootout at high-noon country, it still felt wilder than Massachusetts. I particularly like the hanged man in the background and this marks the only painting to date with an oval shape and an upside-down artist’s signature.

Measures 16" x 20"

Calico Jack’s Darke Rum

 When I moved to Mercer Island, they were still installing some new cabinetry in the kitchen and this painting holds the distinction of not being done on canvas, but rather a leftover piece of cabinet siding. 

Once again, I have created a fake product label, in hopes of reeling in actual jobs I’d love. This piece demonstrates so much of what I love about my style of illustration...research, story telling, and discovering really cool fonts. The map in the background illustrates antiquated names of the Caribbean Islands; for example, Haiti was once called “Tortuga”, meaning turtle, and Mexico was then called “Spanish Main”. It was also neat to paint in scriptures here and there stating “here be tygres” or “here be monstres”. The pirate in the lower left is sort of a pirate-ized version of me. The Calico Jack in real life had the skull and crossed sabers (not crossed pistols as depicted here) as his flag logo and my research has proved he was not as ruthless and brutal as some of his brethren...he was rather a dandy, a bit of a coward and allowed two female pirates within his employ, an act looked upon with suspicion and distain at that time. Still, this would be a cool rum label. Captain Morgan has nothing on this.

Measures 23" x 29"

Breadwinner

If these paintings are my children, this deeply personal piece may very well be my darkest child. It depicts an average family man named Roy, once again as many things I do, he exists in the 50‘s. He has a good, honest job as a bread delivery man, he has two beautiful children, a dog (once again a collie...I suppose I was thinking Lassie), a nice little home, and a lovely supportive wife. (supportive as evidenced by the fact that she is holding a toaster. Get it? Bread. Toaster.) 

Anyway, he is living the American dream...2.5 kids and a white picked fence. Still, in spite of all the good going on in his life, he was more than happy to “turn this wholesome world around” as written in the above passage and end it all by setting fire to his house and driving his bread truck off a cliff. 

It was done right around the time I turned 30, just before making a major move cross country from Boston to Mercer Island, WA. As best as I can interpret it, this illustrated my fears of the move and finally growing up to become a responsible adult...allegedly. I was also coming to terms with the fact that I’d likely have to give up my dreams of becoming an artist and instead hold down a more boring, socially acceptable corporate job with set office hours and a 401K. Roy seems to be rebelling against religion, (as evidenced by “Our Daily Bread) conformity, and social structure...these are themes repeatedly reflected in my own persona. 

Now,a dozen years later, whether or not I have become a responsible adult is still debatable. This painting has the distinction of being bi-coastal...started on one coast, finished on another. When others are asked which piece of mine is their favorite, most cite this one as their answer.

Measures 24" x 30"

Fat Johnny’s Giant Atomic Vegetables

We are destroying our planet, and particularly in the 40’s and 50’s,  had a great time doing it. This image, influenced by vegetable crate illustrations of yore, was created on the notion that...what if destroying the world can be like a strange theme park you can visit? Here a smiling couple arrives in a ’51 Chevy and are met by Fat Johnny, a smiling, grinning Colonel Sanders type farmer. He has problems of his own, as evidenced by his alligator tail. He has a two-headed rooster and a three-headed collie (reminiscent of Cerberus, who guards the Gates of Hell). In one hand Fat Johnny holds a pitch fork, while the other is depicted in a Christ-Like gesture...illustrating the good and evil duality of the work he does. Fat Johnny’s own rusted farm truck hides among incredible giant vegetables and the cooling towers in the background hints at how his bizarre theme park came to be.

Measures 30" x 24" - SOLD

Takona Hai

Sometimes in the art world, creating a fake product, label, CD cover, or in this case menu in a style that you’d like to see in real life may bring you exactly the kind of jobs you’d want. This tactic has served me well on several occasions. This fun menu cover depicts a fictitious restaurant grog list and has so many of the elements...tikis, palm trees, etc. that are synonymous with my work. I believe my fascination with tikis started in college and may have been a conscious effort to be different and a little more edgy and hip than my colleagues. 

Measures 14" x 18"

Planet Tiki

When James Cook “discovered” Hawaii in 1778, he returned again a year later and arrived during a particularly important ceremony for the Polynesian God Lono. Thinking Cook’s ship was the incarnation of Lono, the Hawaiian natives embraced him at first, but relations waned and within a month Cook and the Hawaiian natives were at war. With the influx of the white man and Christianity in the preceding years Hawaii, and indeed the rest of Polynesia succumbed to the influences of western culture and Christianity and have thereby abolished their ‘heathen” ways. The Hawaii you see today, while still seemingly exotic, is a bit of a tourist trap and not quite as traditional as you’d think. But what if Hawaii could be discovered all over again and instead of changing who they are, embrace and preserve their culture. This was the thought behind Planet Tiki. Here is an exotic place where men in rockets raise their Tiki glasses and are greeted by lovely green skinned wahines dancing seductively around a fire. OK, so the idea is still hokey and touristy but its a lovely fantasy nonetheless!

Measures 24" x 36"

My Juvenile Fantasies

 With so many paintings taking place in the tropics and depicting tikis, palm trees and other exotic lore, it was a refreshing change to be able to finally illustrate ladybugs, dandelions, weeds and other less exotic material found in our own backyards. This was supposed to be representative of my own childhood and overactive imagination. The green army man, wooden block and bottle cap are all common childhood staples, but the space retro cowgirls riding on snails was a fun way to go quite silly and imaginative with it.  The flying saucers in the background are in childishly primary colors and, while I wasn’t born in the 50’s, I equate that era with nostalgia and childlike innocence, so the overly cute space cowgirls are in a Gil Elvgren retro pinup style. Its my juvenile fantasy after all.

Measures 11.5" x 19"

 

Fallen Empire

This was a quick, serene and moody piece purposefully using very few colors and depicting the fallen Khmer Empire in Cambodia. The idea, a theme that reoccurs several times throughout my work, is that no matter how great an empire, Mother Nature always eventually takes back what is hers.

Measures 36" x 24"