Sunday, August 24, 2008

I am the Night

Over here at my real website is my newest painting, "I am the Night." It debuted in the real world last Friday at Crazy 4 Cult in Los Angeles. I suppose I should have blogged beforehand to tell people about the opening, but I was pretty crushingly exhausted from trying to get it done in time, and also I'd just be telling you, "Hey, go wait in a huge-ass line for two hours." Here's a good recap of the opening, and the show is up till September 12th, so you still have a chance to check it out if you're in the area.

The inspiration behind the painting was Halloween 1986 when I went as Metroplex. You could tell who I was because the costume had a picture of Metroplex on the chest and said, "Metroplex." My first impulse was to paint a child's Lennie Briscoe costume, but I've played the Lennie card perhaps too often. Who, I asked my soul, is the grossest and least appropriate subject for a mass-produced child's Ben Cooper costume? And Soul replied, "Philip Seymour Hoffman."

I started by looking through old family photos for shots like these to use as reference:






While sketching it out, I considered adding other kids too:



I decided against that because 1) I did not want to look at that crayon kid's face all the time, and 2) I decided I wanted more of a lonely/creepy vibe, and the extra kids cluttered it up and made it more of a "Which of these things is not like the other" piece.

I hope you enjoyed this peek behind the making of this important masterwork. I also hope you will take a look at my other updates, which include some wacky new shirts.

4 comments:

Thecranewife said...

It is a brave man who can ask such questions of his soul, and a strong soul that can give such answers.

Ming Doyle said...

So I know Wicket gets a lot of love, what with that movie date he had with Cindel and all, but really. Let's face facts. You're the best Ewok, paws down.

Nosebot said...

Yub nub, you bastard. My own brother has a frigging blog but doesn't tell me. (OK, OK I know I'm the one who is the actual bastard, but if I had a blog I'd tell you.)

Phil said...

I loved the costumes that had to explain to the person viewing the costume what it was.

I have little girls, so I wonder what the female equivalent of the Phillip Seymour Hoffman costume would be?