Envirosax and art

Have you seen the video of a dolphin playing with a plastic bag as it floats in the ocean, subsequently getting trapped by it (don't worry, he eventually escapes)? Whales, seals, dolphins, and turtles ingest these bags and less than one percent of the one million plastic bags used per minute are recycled. If you haven't already done so, it's time to make a conscious change. Get reusable cloth bags and stop using plastic. Even better, get an Envirosax bag and you can have one of my paintings on it.

That's right. While this is not my usual thing, when Envirosax contacted me by way of the Surfrider Foundation, interested in using one of my paintings on their bags, I checked out their back story and mission and couldn't refuse. Theirs is a great company with a conscience: We believe in environmental sustainability. Plastic bags clog drains and cause flooding. They pollute rivers and streams, killing animals and destroying plantlife. They take years to photodegrade and have a very short life span. Envirosax provide a compelling alternative to the plastic bags which are doing so much damage to our planet.

(Mine is the one on the far left! The original painting is called Cambay.)

yukes

on saturday night, my girlfriend and i took fred for a southern sojourn and trekked down to laguna beach to check out the myriad ukeleles adorned for this event. will and charles of the surf gallery down in laguna beach work tirelessly to make these happenings exist. incredibly inventive, super nice guys, they're so easy to work with and they're so supportive of the surfrider relationship, it's great to know them and be a part of their vision. for this event, part of the billabong cosmic creek event, surfers/artists were asked to paint ukeleles in whatever form, fashion, or manner we deemed fit. the uke arrived and you hit the ground running.
here's mine:
some of the others were so ingenious and beautiful:

fred and surf stories

the surf story project, 444 pages of tales and images from 88 "of the most influential and creative surfers" from around the globe and described as "the motherload of a collective surf memory" is finally ready to roll. check out the site here or have a look at the facebook fan page to read the stories and get a sense of the scope of the project. by the way, book sales benefit surfrider, so there's further inspiration for you to support the project, if your curiosity and generosity weren't sufficiently piqued. a labor of love for artist/surfer robb havassy, i think it turned out awesome.

in other decidedly less literary news, as chance would have it, we've taken on a rescue pup within the last month, making the human-to-animal ratio at the studio space two to five. but with another rescue dog in our midst, a gentlemanly elder jack russell, and a couple of black cats (property of the girlfriend), the four-month-old rescue pup, now named fred, seemed to complete the furry brood. as evinced by these photos, fred is a popular scamp around these parts, and was equally popular at eric johnson's opening last night at will turner's.

william turner + epic wave renderings

It’s been an incredibly prolific and busy summer in the studio – new paintings, new dogs, new sources of inspiration. And it all happens right here in the ivy-covered sanctuary:












For the last year and a half, I’ve been assembling my solo show for the William Turner Gallery at Bergamot Station, where I've been represented since 2004. The work hits the walls on November 7th, but for sneak peeks, stay tuned. For now, check out Rita (36" x 30"):


















Also, Surfrider is celebrating their 25th anniversary on October 9th at the California Science Center. Surfrider asked 25 artists to create their own rendering of one of 25 infamous waves from around the globe. I was fortunate enough to be among the chosen ones (Alex Weinstein, David Lloyd, etc.); the paintings are slotted to be auctioned off at the October 9th event. Not only is this going to be an awesome party with live tunes from Camp Freddy, among others, all proceeds go to the foundation to help fund all of the amazing things that they do. Buy your ticket here. And here's a preview of my version of Queensland, Australia's notorious Superbank: