5th painting

“Climb every mountain.” The Sound of Music, 12” x 24” acrylic on canvas

4th painting

“Earn it.” Saving Private Ryan, 24” x 48” acrylic on canvas

3rd painting

“This is George. He was a good little monkey – but he was very curious.” Curious George Takes a Job, 14” x 12” acrylic on canvas

2nd painting

“All right then. I’ll go to hell.” The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 12” x 11” acrylic on canvas

thesis paintings

these are old news now but i had never posted them; so for the next couple of days i'll be revealing my thesis paintings on blogjamming. for those of you unfamiliar with the project i have attached my artist statement for the visual component of the project:

Due to an absence of positive male role models at home and in schools, American boys can turn to mass media and popular culture texts to learn character building lessons that have the power to transform them into responsible and well-rounded men. The alarming facts that the United States leads the world in fatherless households, only one in nine elementary school teachers are men and that our country’s priorities are being guided by rampant consumerism have all contributed to a crisis in the development of adolescent males. I propose that there are stories in popular culture that can serve as surrogate sources for the life lessons that these absentee men should be imparting to our boys. Through the study of the modes and means of expression in popular culture mediums, I have come up with a selection of books, movies and other popular culture texts that can help positively effect adolescent male development. Through the creation of original artworks inspired by some of these texts I seek to further reflect upon the transformative power of these stories.
I have decided to approach visualizing the ideas of my thesis paper by creating a series of self-portrait paintings. While I have worked in a variety of media, painting seemed like the best choice for communicating the ideas explored in my writing. By incorporating visual elements and quotations from my source material in self-portraits I was able to vividly illustrate the themes and ideas I was drawing upon and able to place myself within the worlds that these texts exist in. During my ongoing development as both an artist and an educator I find these dual roles inextricably linked: as an educator I try to draw upon the pedagogical power of art, and as an artist I search for inspiration from the interests and influences of my students.
In designing these paintings I have sought to bring a childlike sensibility and style to the works. Owing to ways that several of these texts influenced my personal development I strived to produce the types of images I would have liked to create as a child but was unable to do so because of a lack of specific skills or resources. As an adolescent I grew up with a loving and supportive mother and father, but in a single parent household. I constantly immersed myself in books, movies and comic books and owe many learned life lessons to these types of texts. While this work is very personal to me – I was thrilled to once again be able to lose myself in these stories’ worlds as I researched each painting – I strongly believe in the power of these texts to transform all boys’ lives in positive ways.
The paintings represent a selection of books and one comic book the vertical compositions; and movies the horizontal compositions; from kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school age appropriate texts. The quotes incorporated in the paintings come from the original sources. The imagery is often composited from book illustrations and movie stills as a way of further referencing the original artist’s vision and marrying it with my own style. The mass media has the power to transform lives in positive ways; I present my art and life experience as a testament to this idea.

i will show the works in the order that i completed them. this is the first painting:
“Maybe there is a beast… maybe there is only us.” Lord of the Flies, 48” x 24” acrylic on canvas

i'm back baby!

blog jamming is born again. after being off for far too long blog jamming is coming back. expect regular postings; there's a lot to get every one caught up on and new work in progress. enjoy.

bring da motherf*ckin' ruckus

finn came with what will undoubtedly go down as one of my favorite christmas presents ever - wu tang clan tickets. the video is the jump off, however the highpoint had to be the tribute to o.d.b. when the wu performed shimmy shimmy ya with his moms on stage. she seemed to be so proud - but then how could she not be.

merry christmas

i'm back again after a rather long hiatus. the end of the semester was pretty busy but it's finally over. the grades have started to come in and the early returns are positive. look out next year for furious blogjammin' action, and in the meantime enjoy these holiday images from everyone behind the scenes at blogjammin' headquarters:

shauna
jimmy

and papi

now that i'm looking at it as i type, this picture of papi might be a little too sexy for a christmas greeting. damn man, put some pants on for the family christmas card.

old school gobblin'

the hand turkey was once a staple of the elementary school art classroom. i'm doing whatever i can to bring it back. enjoy this one, and treat the ones you love to a little hand turkey love next thanksgiving.

sox win! sox win! can you believe it, sox win!

well. actually yes, i can believe it. the sox seemed unstoppable, and as it turned out they were. i gave a little too much credit to that upstart rockies team - i guess i just wanted to see the sox win it at home. that didn't slow down the party or stop the champagne from being sprayed.these are some pictures of papi celebrating at home last night.luckily for everyone here at the third street complex our papi didn't spray anyone with anything.

viva los redsox

manny, snickers and big papi would like to cordially invite you to their world series party. its been a long season of watching baseball, but four bosox wins from now all of the hard work and sacrifice i put in will be worthwhile.
my predictions: bosox in 6, papelbon is the mvp.

student teaching

this is a picture of a tiny chair that i made during my student teaching up at the allen-stevenson school. i can't get enough of that wood shop.

summer wrap up part 1: contemplation nation

as always, i've been a lazy blogjamminer so i'm going do a little end of summer wrap up. teaching at art camp was great this summer, but best of all was the free time to explore my own artistic pursuits and contemplate the many ideas that swirl through my head like a large family of squirrels after the same nut. i don't have any pictures of me in contemplative action but these pictures of papi should serve as a decent reflection of the kind activity that took place.

summer wrap up part 2: arrgh matey!

while i failed for the second summer in a row to finish my pirate ship chandelier i did manage to make some nifty pirate crafts. some are finished products, and as so often is the case some are works in progress.this would be my flag if i was a pirate captain
a wooden pistola and a clay skull medallion i made at camp
this is a prototype of a chinese pirate hat i'm making for shauna

summer wrap up part 3: south o' the border

with its rich diversity of culture and landscape, these pictures barely do it justice, however between sips of tequila and slugs of beer i did my best to document the many colors of old mexico.

summer wrap up part 4: coney island high

labor day in coney islandhave you ever ridden the cyclone? no. would you like to? if so, you might want to ask yourself these follow ups: do you enjoy severe back pain? do you have health insurance? if you answered no to those last two, stay away.

summer wrap up part 5: if i build it she will paint

toward the end of the summer i found some time to get my build on
we built a loft and a rack for storing paintings in shauna's new studioearlier in the summer at camp i made this toolbox to help make the craftiness easier

finished pills

50mg100mg
150mg
200mg

not my typical friday afternoon

people will do all sorts of things for money. if you had asked me a week ago if i would be solely responsible for the manufacture of four giant foam pill costumes for a pharmaceutical commercial it would have caused a double take. here i am however dressed up in the 50 mg prototype, the 100, 150 and 200 hundred will be rolling off of my personal assembly line tomorrow. check them out in a day or two.

nice beaver

at the breakneck pace that i'm painting at now, i just might make the one year anniversary of shauna's birthday. 4 of 6 down.