Maxx242 and Xpres art show this Saturday

My homie Maxx242 is teaming up with Xpres for an art show and live painting. Come check it out at Nomad this Saturday evening!

Australia Part 2

The Urban Hotel had good room service food. Almost every day it was easier to order something in the morning and get started with some energy, than to look around St. Kilda for a quick breakfast. "Crispy Bacon" in Australia (as well as the UK) seems to be "soft floppy bacon" to me. I guess in the US we crisp the hell out of it. I like both varieties, bacon is just good.

This was the first day of the Semi Permanent conference. It's a seminar series with speakers from the design world, photography, motion graphics, film, special effect, and of course, illustration/art. I had such a good time hearing the different speakers, we're all connected through our visual culture but each of us comes from very different worlds.

This was the first year they held it in Melbourne. The convention center looked pretty cool. Slanted lines everywhere. Melbourne seems to have lots of crooked architecture, diagonal lines and futurism mixed with... something (remnants of British colonial style??).

This is Luke Lucas. The first speaker and one of my favorites. He is responsible for the magazine Lifelounge, if you have not seen it, get a copy now! Luke is a master at working with type, he does very inspiring and clever work. Great to meet him!

In between speakers I explored the convention center and found more futuristic rooms.


Burger Rings? I was tempted to try them, but decided against it. Also Cheetos Cheese & Bacon Balls. Different. I decided to pass. Snacks are expensive in Oz...

More diagonal architecture around the convention center...


Bathroom shot.

Tara McPherson gave her talk in the afternoon, very cool to see her story and her process. We are old Art Center buddies, so it was neat to see how far we have come.


More weird and cool architecture. Southern Cross Station...

Sometimes I kinda felt like I was in the city of Macross.

Then the next day came, I did my talk, threw out some stickers, cough drops, toys, and candy to the audience. Helped me loosen up, and I think it warmed up the crowd. The talk went good, I think.. yeah, I'm sure it went good. I felt a strange clarity up there on stage, like I was in control of my destiny and 100% not nervous for the first time talking in front of so many people. Maybe I am just getting used to public speaking over the years. Took a quick iPhone craptastic picture of the audience. This is just the middle row, there are rows to the side and a whole upper deck area. Thanks all you attendees for the warm response I received! I had a blast and met some great Australians.

Alex Jaeger from ILM was the last speaker. On his way over from LAX their 747 hit a bird which smashed the nosecone and took out their weather radar. They had to dump the fuel and return. Read about it here. Very interesting talk, I'm always fascinated by special effects and entertainment design. Alex had some great work to show the audience, and of course ILM has such a rich history and has been so inspirational to artists over the years. I really respect these guys. For a while it was my goal to work in that industry, and about ten years ago I made a decision to pursue painting and illustration rather than entertainment design. Still a lot of love for all that though..


After the conference I ate a weird meal. Some sort of cold chicken/ham/pistachio loaf. Pretty much the funkiest meal I had there. I should have asked what it was before ordering haha! Wasn't terribly bad, but I was cold the whole time and a cold meal was not what I had in mind!


Martin McIntosh is the best. Thanks again for all the rides!


Went to the Semi Permanent after party. The band was pretty dope- The Scare. Singer was doing some crazy shit. I don't see much live music being a family guy, I like shows but would rather be at home with the kidlets. So it was nice to feel the loud music and drink a few beers.


The party was down this seedy alley. Very Motley Crew...


A Luke Lucas poster. Hells yeah..


At first I was confused- is this Jack in the Box or Burger King? Definitely the BK logo.


Parrots are all over. Found this on the ground.


Tim Tams- very good!


The next day I had a signing with Tara at Outre Gallery. Didn't get any good pics. Anyone out there have any?

The day before Tara suggested the Eggs Benedict breakfast. I'm always a little freaked out by yolk. Everyone thinks I'm crazy- "Yolk is goood!" they say, but I dunno. It's weird man. So runny. Yolk. Even the name is weird. She was right though, this was very good! I think the rocket added some nice flavor to it.


Put up stickers all over. I am such a vandal haha...


Never heard of these... they were like Cheetos but a little different.


More food. Vietnamese. I never did get to eat a proper Australian meal. Went to a place that had Kangaroo steaks but they were all out. Apparently, they don't raise them as food, they actually have to go out and shoot them in the wild. I asked somewhere if they had Koala meat and they laughed at me.


Angelique Houtkamp and her husband Peter were in town for the opening of her show at Outre Gallery. Very nice people, and Angelique is a talented watercolorist. It was nice spending time with them.


Along with them was Dutch photographer duo Fotofloor!


This was the next morning, a view out my window. My last day. I was supposed to paint at Hosier Lane, but the news said it'd be raining all day. It was cold, windy, and I needed to find spraypaint and acrylics, so I decided against it. I am from Southern California, I am a wuss when it gets colder than 50 degrees.


Ordered some breakfast and watched some TV.


Decided to get some artwork done. I brought a bunch of supplies but hadn't had free time to make art till the end. Inks, watercolors and acrylics. Nice diffused lighting from the overcast Melbourne sky. Worked in a lot of geometrics- triangles, diamonds, diagonals- I guess reacting to my surroundings.


After a few hours I needed to get out, rain or shine. No fun to stay cooped up in a hotel in a new city.

Took the tram into the city, explored a bit, and went to Rialto Towers. It is the second tallest building in Melbourne and has an observation deck. I'm a sucker for high up places like this. I have a feeling most Melbournians have not been up here, just like most NYers have not been up the Empire State Building. It was pretty neat, and cold and windy.


Walked around St. Kilda some more...


Finally it rained. I made it back in time and modeled the koala mask I got for Shannon.


Worked on these pieces a bit more...



Next morning, on my way back. Qantas was nice to fly with. They call you "Luv" and ask for your "rubbish". I watched Star Trek on the way home but fell asleep somewhere in the middle. I was away one week. I was really missing Jennifer and the girls. Always good to return home to hugs and smiles! That's what it's all about... and it's also all about bringing home weird foreign candy bars.

Australia Part 1

I was asked by Semi-Permanent to come out and give a talk in Melbourne. I'd never been to Australia before, and was super excited. The flight over the Pacific was long, but I read a book (Sidhartha), read a couple magazines, slept, listened to some podcasts, wrote a little and before I knew it I was in OZ. My pal Martin McIntosh picked me up from the airport- very much appreciated after such a long flight!By the way, that Hulk Hogan poster was in an alley, apparently those guys are coming to Oz too!

My room was nice. They put up the speakers at the Urban Hotel in St. Kilda. Good lighting, which I put to good use later when I had some painting to do. The staff was cool. Do you know that people don't tip very often in Australia? When I got room service they would never accept my tips.

This was my view out the window. It was raining when I got there. After that initial rain it was clear until the last day.

The day cleared up, so I went for an afternoon walk after I took a nap. My hotel was right near the beach, but it was cold, very cold! Got some good and warm soup at the end of the St. Kilda pier.

Martin knew of my candy obsession so he got me a gift bag of sweets. Mmmm Pollywaffle's are nice. Looked like a huge turd at first, I hesitantly bit into it and was rewarded with sweet wafflecone and marshmallow heaven.

Australian money is cool too. I commented to someone that it's interesting that all the bills are different sizes, and they asked how blind people in the US can tell if they're getting ripped off. Hmmm, I don't know.

Gemma at Outre Gallery. Martin in the back. I met a lot of nice people in Australia.

Martin took me to a place called Cookie for lunch. Good and spicy! Martin hooked it up!


There is a graffiti alley out there called Hosier Lane. I was supposed to paint something in there but never found the time.

The organizer of Hosier Lane, Andy Mac, has a gallery called Until Never. They had a really cool show of James Callahan's screen prints. I think this was a collab with several artists, one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Really made me wnt to do some prints and explore screenprinting..

This is the hub of Melbourne, Flinders Station. Kinda looks like Lego blocks to me.

Tara McPherson was also there to talk, throwing some gangsta signs with fans.

This was damn good. Chicken wrapped in bacon with a rice globe. Mmmm.


Stay tuned for part two...
Jeff

Grandaddy

One of my favorite bands of all time is (was) Grandaddy. I love this song, and rediscovered this awesome video for it today. I wonder who directed it? Pretty cool concept. Makes me sad...

JANM show- Giant Robot... my painting.

Here's a clip I put together of my painting process. This piece took about a week. I am usually a fast painter but the last couple of years I have slowed down. I haven't been completely planning out my pieces, I prefer to work in a free form style. I usually work from a very, very rough sketch or idea and then dive in and see what happens. Sometimes there is no sketch at all and I just feel my way through the piece.

Much of my time is spent sitting in my pappazan chair looking and deciding what to paint (or paint over) next. It's a very reactive process, and sometimes things go well and other times I've had to start over completely. It's stressful when things aren't happening, but amazingly fun and mind opening when I hit something that feels right...


This piece will be at the Giant Robot JANM show.

Jeff

Two prints- "Nature's Splendor" and "The Three Friends"

Hi friends,
We will be releasing two new giclee prints next Monday (October 26th).

The first is actually a set of three prints- "The Three Friends". They are reproductions of the watercolor pieces I have been having so much fun with. I was going to release one of these and felt they worked very nice as a set. I'm very happy with them, the proofs look like the original watercolors.

The second is "Nature's Splendor" which is a companion piece to a 2009 sold out print, "Nature's Wrath". This print has already been offered to NW buyers in order to give them first dibs on completing the two print set. Owners of the first print have until Monday to make their purchase via email to jeffsoto@earthlink.net, after that we will be selling remaining prints on October 26th. Over half the prints are already paid for, so apologies in advance- there is a slight chance these will not be available.

Further info:

"The Three Friends" giclee set by Jeff Soto
Comes with three individual prints. Edition of 100
Paper size: Each print 10" X 10"
Signed and numbered with signed Certificate of Authenticity.
Ships flat for extra protection.

Available from www.potatostamp.com on Monday, October 26th, 2009 around noon (PST).
$125 + shipping



"Nature's Splendor" giclee on archival paper
Edition of 50
Paper size: 14" X 14" , Image size: 12" x 12"
Signed, numbered and titled with signed Certificate of Authenticity.

Ships rolled up in cardboard tube and inside a triangular cardboard box for extra protection.
This painting was shown at Soto's "Inland Empire" show at Stolenspace Gallery in London, alongside it's companion piece, "Nature's Wrath". This giclee will recreate the piece at it's actual size (12" x 12").

Available from www.potatostamp.com on Monday, October 26th, 2009 around noon (PST).
$125 + shipping


Thanks, please direct any questions to jeffsoto@earthlink.net
Jeff

No Roids!!

Found this on the Artchival message board which I lurk on. Is that Carrotop?? (click on the image to see larger) Random ads are funny. I wonder if the ads are supposed to pertain to Artchival stuff, or generated by pages that I visit? Hope it doesn't have anything to do with my own browsing! Gross either way...

Babytattooville 2009

Had fun but my pictures kinda sucked this year. I'm a mad documenter, always taking photos, my method is quantity over quality. In the end, I hope to get something nice out of the tons of shitty pictures I take. But this time I went more as an observer, a welcomer, and a fan, and didn't feel like sticking the camera in everyone's faces. So I didn't get too many decent shots. Except I think these turned out cool as a set.


That was James Gurney, Audrey Kawasaki, Travis Louie, Buff Monster, KMNDZ, Miss Mindy, Liz McGrath, Greg Simkins, KRK Ryden and Yoskay Yamamoto. Cool lineup, wish I had more time to hang out this time. I was to leave directly after to Melbourne and was juggling family time with Babytattooville and packing, so it was a little crazy.

Didn't get a good shot of: Molly Crabapple, Michael Hussar, Phillip Warner... but you can find them on other sites. Also there was some past artists- Gris Grimley, Brandi Milne, Tara McPherson, Lola, Bob Dobb, Tim Biskup, Gary Baseman, Jeffrey Scott... some others I'm forgetting...

Highlight of the trip for me was a Mission Inn scavenger hunt, I was grouped up with some badasses like Dov Kelemer, Audrey Kawasaki, Buff Monster, and Mystery's former wingman Tan! I think our group had some brains and experience (having frequently stayed here I knew how to get around the Mission Inn quite well). Fun stuff..


Coming soon my trip to Melbourne for Semi-Permanent Conference.... just got back yesterday. Oz is awesome...