shift

Maybe it’s an east-coast/west-coast thing, but when New York poet Carlos Andres Gomez gets on stage, all the Hollywood silliness leaks out of the room. Carlos is serious, passionate and righteous. He performs with his whole body as if he’s conducting an orchestra of explosions; his cadence is choreographed to the tense rhythms of schoolyard kung fu. His work is unabashedly political but he elevates the usual boring rant with sharp, well-cut metaphors.

All my vector works are painstakingly created using Adobe Illustrator. In my process, I create one minute facet at a time with over 2600 individual shapes unifying to create a single image.

Each piece requires over 50 hours of concentrated, meticulous work to complete, lending the look of photo-realism from a distance and intricate detail when viewed up close.

Convertible Rabbit, Feelin All Emo,
The Not So Pretty Princess.

Curtis R Canham text + image
www.comeseeart.com

1. It seems that people are most familiar with your work through the variously colored shapes that were once pasted to buildings in New York City and now adorn t-shirts amongst other things. How did those first come about?

Francesca Lia Block is the world renowned author of I Was A Teenage Fairy, Violet & Claire, Echo, Nymph and Girl Goddess #9 among others. She first gained fame with her novel, Weetzie Bat, a vibrant tale about a young Los Angeles teenager who makes three wishes which come true in unexpected ways and lead her to discover that love is the most beautiful and dangerous angel of all.

Metalstone Gallery in New York recently highlighted two and three dimensional works by emerging California artists Pamela Henderson, Mark Allen Miller, Brendan Monroe, and Souther Salazar.

Each with his or her own distinct style, the artists included in Unnatural History have more than geography and friendship in common. They share an interest in both two-and three-dimensional work, the tendency to work on a diminutive scale and a gift for manipulating everyday subjects and themes into unusual, compelling narratives.

Pamela Henderson translates the dreams and experiences of her lonely, rural Texas childhood into delicate, meticulously crafted work with mood that is at once optimistic, soulful and somber.

Having grown up on the West Coast most of my life and coming from a family of uber antique collectors and artists, my eclectic upbringing was filled with a wide range of ’Pop’ ephemera. Many of those inspirations now show up in my work and stem from the backdrop of my childhood.

The subject of my paintings is a world of side-show icons, deviant Animalia and ‘masked’ glorified cartoon alter egos. I utilize these icons and character cultures as antithetical counterparts to what we are lead to believe as being innocent and socially acceptable.

Jason Lee. He’s an actor, pro-skateboarder, artist, photographer, director, and producer. When GMC Trucks used the old adage “Do one thing. Do it well.” as their motto, they did not have this man in mind. It seems there is no limit the number of things that Jason Lee can do well.

A five-year project. A single piece consisting of one thousand pieces, each 3.5 x 4 inches, together forming a mosaic. It is a self-portrait over time, honestly dealing with philosophical, psychological, critical and personal observations of life.

Stephen Anderson text + image
www.mixedmediaexpressions.com

As a young child Dray enjoyed drawing and creating music. At age 7 Dray was encouraged to enroll in Barnsdall Park Art School in Hollywood, CA after his teacher took notice of his promising talents.

While in high school, Dray majored in drafting with aspirations of becoming an architect. But after high school he took on a serious interest in music. Which eventually lead to a career in the music industry as a recording engineer and musician.

In 1992 Dray found himself dabbling back into art more and more while continuing music. Until finally succumbing in 1998 to the one art form he feels doesn’t stipulate creativity or demand political criteria of his talents.

So first up, talk a little about yourself, the company you made, any secrets our audience might find interesting. I’ve always had this thing for t-shirts. I used to collect them voraciously, & printed my own since I was 12 or so. I lived in a very small town and was the only kid I knew who was into punk rock. There was nowhere to get cool punk shirts so I just used to make my own.