posted: October 28, 2009

This is so cool!  I love this part of the process!!!


HOPE TO SEE YOU IN LAS VEGAS!

posted: October 17, 2009

Last week I had the cool opportunity to do a piece for the Book Review section at the LA Times for Michael Chabon’s new book Manhood for Amateurs. This is cool for several reasons: Chabon and I are from Pittsburgh, we attended Carnegie Mellon University, and we both live/ed in Berkeley. This is Chabon’s first work of autobiographical non-fiction. Michael is considered to be the greatest voice of his generation. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988) was published when Chabon was 25 and catapulted him to literary celebrity. That’s good material to work with. At the time, there was no manuscript just a book title and some random reviews but I know what it was like anyway, I grew up there too. I called my sketch “Journey to Manhood” and the title of the review ran “Manhood Bound”. Cool too. I can’t say no to the Times. Paul Gonzales AD.

posted: October 14, 2009

Just like late period Elvis! Earlier this year, painter Eric Joyner [you know him, he’s the “Robots and Doughnuts” guy] invited me to share a show with him in Las Vegas, Nevada. The result is TRANSITIONS and it opens with a November 5th preview and an artists’ reception on the 6th, which is also a “First Friday” gallery crawl type of deal. So if anybody will be in the Las Vegas area on November 5 & 6TH, stop by the Trifecta Gallery for a little cool art interaction. Trifecta Gallery has shown work by the likes of Eric Joyner, Thomas Lee Bakofsky and the late Jack Endelwelt [former illustrator and super painter] among others.

I have five new paintings on paper that have never been shown. Eric will be showing some new directions as well. I really have to thank Eric for initially inviting me to Drink & Draw in San Francisco, which inspired me to really lay into my sketchbooks [prior, I was more of a scrap-booker/doodler], which resulted in the paintings that you’ll see in the exhibit. It forced me back into the actual, mimetic drawing aspect of image making. A personal confession: for me, mimetic drawing is like the “slow blues” of art. To a guitar slinger the “slow blues” are the ultimate test of “skill”. It’s the fundamental element –everything else is icing the cake. OK, I’m thinking that if I keep this up, I’ll get “good”. At this time, this work represents the best that I can do.

I’ve never been to Las Vegas so naturally in the spirit of Bugsy Siegel, Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Kerouac I decided to turn the whole affair into a road trip. First stop is to drop off the paintings in Las Vegas, then on to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon for a few days then east to Lake Powell and the Grand Escalante National Park. After that, heading west to Zion National Park, Utah and then back to Las Vegas for the openings. I believe that the Hoover Dam is in there somewhere too. I expect that the weather in November will be pitch perfect for a trip like this. Hope to see you at the spinach dip [or the crap tables, whatever!]. Shake your moneymaker –we gonna pitch a ball!