Oooo...Beautiful Home...WTF?!

I just spent the better part of today prepping and then printing about a hundred prints for new plaques. Not the most exciting work but it needs to be done. I figured I could use a little break and hopped over to Apartment Therapy to look at the beautiful homes. I can dream, can't I?

First up, a gorgeous San Francisco condo...

Owned by Greg, Brian and their chihuahua-brussels griffon, Mr. Biggs...

They write about Greg's eccentric art collection, including a vintage Keene print, Eric Joyner, super-heroine figures (especially Wonder Woman)...

...and some weird little characters in the kitchen.

Wait a minute...that's my work! A quick scan down the resources list and sure enough I'm listed.

Such a wonderful surprise for an otherwise boring day. Nice to know that my work is out there making people smile everyday.

Thanks guys!

Mono No Aware

I finished my sakura painting and it's now up for auction on ebay. 100% of the proceeds from the auction will go to the American Red Cross to benefit Japan.

The title "Mono No Aware" is a Japanese term often associated with cherry blossoms and "used to describe the awareness of impermanance, or the transience of things, and a gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing."

The auction ends Thursday, March 31st at 8pm PST. Enjoy, good luck and thank you for bidding :)

 

Meth And Hot Dogs 2

I was so excited to be asked to participate in this show. Quite the diverse lineup of artists (click the image to see), too bad I can't make it out. It's being held at Lift Designer Toys and Gallery in Michigan on April 30th. I did want to show you what my contribution will be.

I've had these two swimming around in my brain for six months and thought the long presentation would work well for a gallery setting (since it's hard to get the full picture over the net)

Sketched out...

and then almost finished, they looked pretty in the morning light...

Enjoy :)

Tickled Green

Well would you look at that! I submitted "Smell You Later" to the Must Have Cute website and he's being featured on their homepage :D In case you haven't been over there, they really do feature the cutest things AND you can give each post a thumbs up or down (hint, hint). And no worries about the thumbs down I've gotten because it seems that every adorable posting gets some. To each his own, right? Right :)

Many thanks to the members of the Cheezburger Network that voted for me :D

Limited Editions

I've toyed with the idea of making all my prints limited editions since I started. I go back and forth whether it's better to keep making them year after year or keep things fresh in the shop by changing prints more often. The latter would also help spur me into painting more and that seems like a good thing for all of us.

Sooooo, with the release of "Smell You Later" today (at 3pm EST along with the original painting), I am going to be limiting my prints to a run of 100. Each new print will be presented in the same way, but I will number each one. And the best part -- they'll still cost $25 a piece!

With the success of my retirement sale on some older prints, I will also begin to retire my classic images. Keep an eye out for my next retirement sale (I've got some images that haven't been available for awhile that I figure deserve a proper exit).

I'm looking forward to this new way of working and hope that you are too. Thank again :D

A Smelly Little Friend

I started painting this guy 5 weeks ago - how time flies! We've been working at our real business and now that there's a little breathing room I thought I'd debut, "Smell You Later"

My dad graciously made the wood plaque for him and I think it came out great.

I agonized over how the shading looked. I tend to stare at the details of my work with my nose an inch away from the plaque. Inevitably, it never looks smooth enough for me, or one paint stroke will be out of place. Then I'll hear, "Step away from the painting, Kris". Right, step away and from a fresh perspective at a resonable distance, say, six inches or so, I guess it doesn't look too bad.

I'm thinking he'll go up for sale Wednesday, March 9th, the day after the retirement sale is over. I will return with a definite time :D

And as an aside, I just wanted to thank everyone out there whose supporting me, and making me feel a little less self-conscious about my work. I have a feeling that as an artist that's just part of the package though and we may never be truly satisfied with our own work. However, it makes the day a heck of a lot brighter knowing that there are so many other people out there who do like it :D

Hurry, Hurry

I'm so happy that the sale prints (set to retire on March 8th) are selling out left and right. So far, "Minty Melt", "A Cold Day", "Pink Eye", "Greetings", "Lightning in a Jar", "Bomb Boy", "Deep", "Dandelion" and "Grabby" have sold out!

I wanted to highlight the three prints that are still available (again, they will be retired on March 8th).

"Mulligan" only 2 prints left!

"Princess Persephone" I always loved the review Synergy Magazine gave her, ""Princess Persephone" (2009) is a more complex work. In Greek Mythology Persephone is both the embodiment of fertility and the Queen of the underworld. Here she is shown as an innocent dancing child in a ballerina dress. She has one eye closed (with an X) symbolic of her underworld status and one eye wide open. Her crown is dressed with skulls. She dances on two pomegranates, one of which is cut right through." Because Hades tricked Persephone into eating pomegrante seeds, she was sentenced to live 6 months every year in the underworld...in case you didn't know :)

And "Jail Break" which also has a little backstory to it. While talking about the economic changes we all went through a couple years ago, friends of ours said that they were 'digging their way out of the prison, one spoonfull at a time'. The image of a little prisoner, out in the yard, casually disposing of his evidence, seemed right on track with how we were (and still are) feeling.

Maybe one of these will catch your eye and at $10 a piece, you shouldn't wait!

Thanks everyone :D