Marilyn Sotroe

New print dropping next week, don't sleep...

Miami 2009

Another year of Art Basel Miami craziness. Another year where I post this stuff three+ months late! I guess it's better late then never. I had over 600 pictures to go through, so it took a while to figure this one out.

Got to see the Salton Sea on the way out. Thing is massive.

When I got to Miami I found that my paint had emptied out in my suitcase, luckily I zip locked em', but man, three bags of paint exploded, put a damper on some of my painting plans.

First night met up and hung out with the Jonathan Levine Gallery staff, went to Primary Flight (the exhibit) in Miami Beach, got some dinner, and ended up at the Max Fish pop up bar. Eric White was there, Mr. Levine, Carlo McCormick, Tristan Eaton and a whole slew of other characters.

Next morning slept in a little, watched the manatees down below in the lagoon and picked up my friend from the airport. Went to a couple art fairs, found Dabs and Myla and some giant seed pods. Miami is kinda crazy, always weird shit to see..



Some art, Dave Cooper, Doze, Maya Hayuk, etc… a few of my watercolors I exhibited...


Next morning got started on my mural. Primary Flight hooked it up, got me a nice wall and supplied us with some paint. Even had access to scaffolding which was very appreciated. One of the highlights of my trip was getting to meet (and get photographed by) Martha Cooper. For those in Miami it is at 6th and 2nd. streets.Finished in one long day. Painted until it was dark. Probably could have done more, made it more intricate. I was planning on coming back the next day but so much of my paint was emptied and besides, I was happy with it when I saw it in the daylight. Tristan Eaton was painting on the other side, he put in a lot of hard work and several days! End of the evening burger was pretty good, even though I ate all the paint off my fingers too.


Third day we checked out my mural, looked finished to me, besides, it was raining. So we headed out to the Everglades. Didn't realize it was so close to Miami. It was nice to get away from all the visual overload and take in some nature. Such a different world from all the saturated graffiti and urban ugliness that is the Wynwood district. I got very close to a couple alligators, very dumb, I didn't know how fast they were. Luckily, they were sluggish or maybe just liked me. Saw some giant spiders, jumping gators, and got rained on and then ate some traditional Florida cuisine. Frog asses and alligator nuggets.


Part 2 coming soon...

Jeff Soto "Lifecycle" at Jonathan Levine Gallery, June 26, 2010

I'm currently working on my newest body of work for my NYC show in late June 2010. This work is a little more personal and emotional to me than some of the past subjects I have painted.

The show is about growing mentally and physically, becoming an adult, seeing your parents age and seeing your children start to sprout. It's about living and dieing, love, anger, joy, pain, things that bring us good times and bad times. All the fucked up and beautiful things that happen between taking your first breath and your last.

I will always love painting, and I'm having fun working on these pieces, but after this show I'll be taking a break. This will be my last exhibit for a long time.

After this show I will be keeping busy. I have some museum exhibits in the works, I'm planning some large scale murals, I am going to explore print making further, and I'm looking into taking some of my characters and worlds into the realm of entertainment (anyone know any Hollywood contacts? email me..). And of course I will still be painting the whole time, experimenting and pushing myself. Having fun..

Here is more info:

Lifecycle
Jeff Soto solo exhibit at Jonathan Levine Gallery
Opens June 26th- July 24th, 2010

Potential buyers should send an email to: sales@jonathanlevinegallery.com to get on the preview list.

I will have more info as we get closer...
Thanks!
-Jeff

New Soto mailing list!

I'm starting anew with my mailing list. Over the past 10 years I have amassed a clunky 10,000+ person email list and it's time to start fresh. Over a THIRD of the emails bounce back in some way and many are just outdated or duplicates. So it's time to start over and keep things more accurate.

If you're interested in receiving email updates from me and my official store, potatostamp.com, please send an email to: mailinglist@jeffsoto.com with "Mailing List" in the subject.

We will add you in and make sure you get news of print releases, upcoming shows, toys, book signings and other events. We only send a handful of updates per year, so we won't be clogging your inbox with too much junk. Our updates will come from either jeff@jeffsoto.com or jeffsoto@earthlink.net, please make sure to allow both to come through, as a few people have told me my emails are flagged as spam!

If you've ordered anything from www.potatostamp.com in the last couple of years you should already be on the new list, but we'd like it if you would email us anyways just to make sure things are accurate.

With a more focused list we'll be better able to give fans higher priority and first dibs when we release new prints, and we hope to do some fun things like contests for sold out prints or giveaways of things we have laying around the office. There's a lot of things coming up this year- toys, exhibits, prints, collaborations, and secret projects in the works. Get on the list!!


Thanks!
-Jeff

Old mock up gig posters

Found- some of my old gig poster artwork. These are from 1997 and 1998. The bands are made up, except for Furmanite. I was hoping to show them to someone and get some work. Didn't quite work that way! The art is kinda funny to me, I have no idea what they were supposed to mean, I wonder if the alien chick is from one of the flying saucers? And what's up with the toilet with tentacles?
-Jeff

Pearl Jam posters, The Ten Club Seattle event, and... more prints...

I've recently been given the opportunity to work on some gig posters for Pearl Jam. I always dreamed of making gig posters, I made mock-up posters complete with fake band names in the mid 90's but nothing ever came of them. So it's pretty fun and cool to be working on posters for Pearl Jam, a band I enjoy and respect and which could easily have been the soundtrack to my high school years. I'm psyched to be working on these!


Though I'm not an accomplished gig poster artist I am no stranger to fine art prints and have been invited by The Ten Club to take part in their art event. It's a poster/art/music convention in May at the Showbox in Seattle. I'll be there selling hard to find prints, original drawings and paintings, whatever merch I can bring and at least one of my Pearl Jam posters should be released by then (look for the other to be released in early July). Should be a fun event for a nice Spring Seattle Sunday, there will be some dope artists in attendance, including my friend Maxx. Come out and say hi, I have never been to Seattle and am looking forward to meeting other artists and fans from up north.
Takes place Sunday May 23, 2010 at 1pm-5pm at the Showbox at the Market in Seattle, WA. For more info: Ten club.


I've also just finished a top secret print project for the Alamo Drafthouse, as well as working on a couple of my own screenprints to be released in the next couple months. I think it's the new light table I found on Craigslist, it's inspiring me to work on intricate screenprints that I would have had a hard time pulling off before.

Man, I've been having a lot of fun working on all these print projects, I'm doing them the old fashioned way, layers and layers of drawings, huddled over the light table drawing and inking away (then scanning and layering in Photoshop)! My back hurts, my drawing hand is cramped and tired, but I think it's worth it. I would like to show the process pics on here, but with most of these they need to remain secret until the print is released.


Check OMG posters for more info, I try to keep Mitch updated on all my print related goodness.
-Jeff

Jonathan Levine Gallery's 5 Year Anniversary

To celebrate Jonathan Levine's first five years in NYC, they are having an anniversary exhibit next weekend. Feb 27, 7-9pm. www.jonathanlevinegallery.com for more info. Congrats Levine!!

Here's my piece for the show- "Riverside Lifer Totem 1"