Jeff Soto's Blog

Yesterday was hot, and today is too. I think the IE is melting.



I hope that's wrong. My pal Jon from Riverside (and recently relocated to Carlsbad) came by yesterday, er, Thursday? My days are getting mixed up.He was bragging that the high in carlsbad was 77 last week. Lucky bastard. Riverside is usually pretty smoggy but to make matters worse there are a few huge wildfires north of here that are bringing in smoke.

People have asked to see a step-by-step of my painting process. I posted one for Artdorks a while back but I think it might have gotten lost. I'll see what I can do. I am working on a commission right now but I don't want to show the images yet.

I thought today, since I haven't posted in a while, I'd show something I collect. They're postcards from art shows and self promos from artists. I have been collecting them since around 1995. To the artists out there reading this, you might see one of your cards in there (might have to click to enlarge)..



It's mostly stuff from lowbrow or pop surrealist or street art (or whatever this art movement is called) shows. I have hundreds of cards, maybe a thousand. I dumped out the box and flipped many of them around so the front is visible...









These are some of my favorites:


Top Illin' was a graffiti art show in Los Angeles in 1995. This show is still one of my favorites. Mear, Twist, Toons, Zodak, man, the list went on and on. This show gave me a lot of hope and made me really start to crave doing gallery exhibits. After seeing all my graf heroes up on the wall it made me want to do the same.


Joe Sorren and Eric White at La Luz de Jesus, 2001. Rad paintings. And I remember just gazing for a long time at this piece in particular, trying to figure out how they did it.


This piece is like, my favorite piece of art ever. Well maybe not ever but it's close. Fred Stonehouse, 2003. As an added bonus I got a parking ticket while at the opening.


The design on this card is just okay. It's the memories that make it special. Hanging out in PDX with Ryan Smith and Daniel Chang, ah man, what a great time. 3 Person show at Compound in Portland, 2003.


This one just sorta freaks me out. It's a cool image and all but it's the photographer's prostitute mother (that is the story I was told anyway). I think it's rad that these got sent through the mail. Leigh Ledare at New Image Art 2001.


This one just makes me sad. This is the card for Rebecca Westcott's solo show that opened shortly before her death in 2004. I got to talk to her a couple months earlier in Philly and I had shown with her a few times, so while I didn't know her well, I was in shock when I heard. I felt terrible about what happened. She was too young to go.


How can you go wrong with Barry "Ray Fong" McGee? Giant Robot 2006. I remember when he was Twist and painted screws all over the place.


This was a hip hop show we put together back in 1997 in Riverside. Everything went well until my graf buddy Maxx got accidentally punched in the jaw and knocked unconcious during a fight. It was a crazy late night- we were at the county hospital with Maxx who was suffering from amnesia. It was a trip, he was remembering things from a month ago but had no memory of the show we did or preparing for it. And he was asking me the same questions over and over, "Why am I in here?" and "Did I get in a fight Trek?" "My jaw hurts." After a while he got back to his normal self but there's still that month that's completely gone from his memory. The brain is insane when you think bout it...

One more...

This was the card for my first solo show. It was at New Image Art in LA, opened September 1, 2001. Just a few days before our country was in for some big changes.

Damn, I like the long blogs. I think it'd be cool to do an entire museum show of these cards someday. No doubt someone has a better collection than I do. Maybe we could pool our resources.
Jeff signing off!