Another art trip to Los Angeles. Went to Bergamot Station which houses around 15 galleries, maybe more. There’s always something to be seen here, everything from “lowbrow” (I still hate that term) to the highly conceptual. I tend to gravitate towards the middle ground, work that is visually stimulating and at the same time gives you something to think about.

Bergamot has a wide variety of art, and an equally wide variety of staff attitude! It’s always nice to walk into a gallery and the receptionist says, “Hi, so and so is our artist for this show, if you have any questions, feel free to ask”. That is awesome and very powerful, it makes you feel welcome. I would spend my money there if I was buying art. But a couple galleries at Bergamot do the whole, ‘I’m not even going to acknowledge this person” when you walk in. They don’t even say hi, or look up from their computer. Is it because I don’t look like an art buyer? I’ve been to Bergamot for years now and know which galleries are the art snob ones, it kinda makes me laugh because I always think, okay, this time someone will say hi, and they always just look down when you come in. What's up with that??...

Robert Berman Gallery always has interesting work. And polite courteous staff. Here’s some of Erika Somogyi’s work. I’ve seen these somewhere, Fecalface maybe? Pretty vibrant in person and they gave me happy feelings...



I don’t recall the artist’s name but these were designs cut out of linoleum. Beautiful colors and shapes.



I don’t remember the artist or the gallery (I know, very informative), but the receptionist was cool. Art was pretty interesting too. I will find the names of these artists and post later; I took postcards from their shows but left them at home.



Track 16 Gallery has put on some good shows over the years, and their staff is always nice. This one is an exhibition of Polish circus posters. There was a lot to look at and I think they sorta frowned upon me taking pictures (I always ask and they said alright, just take them from a distance) so I only took a few shots...


Spotted a broken Space Invader above the bathrooms....


Bergamot is always fun but the real reason I braved the afternoon L.A. traffic was to attend the preshow for Mark Ryden’s Tree Show at Michael Kohn Gallery. After the 1 hour drive from Santa Monica to L.A. (not kidding, L.A. traffic around 5pm sucks!), I saw this in the window...


The show was wonderful, Ryden does not dissapoint. His work is so rich in person, the colors so vibrant. I didn’t get a lot of pictures because for one, it’s never the right time to whip out the camera, and two, I was planning on going back inside for more shots when the gallery closed it’s doors at 9. It was great seeing so many L.A. artists, and I got to finally meet Sam and Tury of Friends With You. The Clayton Brothers were there, Jamie O’Shea, P.Jay Fidler, Baseman, Brad Keech from Pressure Printing, Eric White, Camille Rose Garcia and husband Jeremy, Shag, The Pizz, of course KRK Ryden coming out to give support, Robert Jew, The Biskup, Attaboy and Annie, Mike Moon from Disney, Bob Kato, and tons I’m forgetting, it was crazy.

I don’t know if they wanted images circulated yet, but here’s some of my favorite pieces. They’re on wood rings, and I’ve seen alot of other painters use this idea (Ryan Jacob Smith comes to mind) , but Ryden’s are beautifully rendered and flow very well into the rich woods he used. Amazing as always. Go see the show. More coverage will be up on Jamie O'Shea's Supertouch... Opens Saturday...


Also, 3-9-07! Happy Birthday to my brother Jesse! Photo from 1979, Fullerton, CA. Two Soto boys on the right...

Took a trip with my friend Regino Gonzales to Los Angeles for some art gallery viewing. Regino (or RG to many) is an accomplished tattoo artist and painter from New York. I know him from when he used to live in the Inland Empire, we took art classes together at community college and then he transferred off to SVA in NY. He’s been making a name for himself there ever since. I think I already said all this in a previous post but ah well, too lazy to check. RG is badass. Here’s some of his work:



He was out here to visit friends and family, tattoo some clients and check out Corey Helford Gallery where he will be showing in May.

First we stopped at BLK/MRKT to find Ben Tour setting up for his opening.....



Kinsey’s office with a Mark Jenkins sculpture of Kinsey. Mark is one of my new favorite street artists.

He sat Kinsey down and made a “mold” of his body out of tape, then used Kinsey’s own clothing to finish the piece. It’s sorta creepy, the faceless ghost of Kinsey sitting across the desk from the real.

Here is a new work by Kinsey.


Gregory Euclid painting...

David Ellis painting (he also has this month’s Juxtapoz cover. Congrats!)....

After talking to the staff at Corey Helford, RG and I drove around the corner (cause “nobody walks in L.A.”) to see the Josh Keyes show at George Billis Gallery.


A Clare Rojas mural greeted us on the front.

I have been following Josh’s work for a while now and this was the first time seeing it in person. I feel that though our work is different stylistically, Josh and I are saying somewhat the same thing. The show was really nice and so was the gallery staff. There was one unsold piece and I almost went for it but didn’t. I’ll probably be regretting that decision. Heres some images....




Then we headed up to Pasadena to see the Irving Norman (1939-1989) exhibit. The show is at the Pasadena Museum of Art which has the garage (free parking!) painted up by old school graffitist Kenny Scharf. Every business should hire artists to beautify boring mundane parking garages....




The Norman show was mind boggling, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in painting, politics, or socialism. This guy’s paintings are amazingly detailed and dense, there is so much to look at and it really makes you ponder what was going on in his mind. It also made RG and feel like very lazy artists. Norman’s work is on such a grand scale, well, it has to be seen in person and then it’s still hard to take in. Unfortunately no photography was allowed. These paintings are giant and jpegs don’t do them justice at all, but here’s some images from the web...





Here is the book available at the gift shop.


Nice spring days here in California. Some amazing clouds the other day.

I have been anti-internet lately, not getting back to people via email, neglecting this blog and refusing to sign onto myspace for almost two months. I think I just needed a break, I get a lot of email and messages and keeping up with it drives me crazy (currently 300+ messages flagged to reply to going back to 2005). I know it's bad of me, I love the fact that people want to share their work or ask for advice, I appreciate it and think it's awesome but I just can't keep up these days. So I'm trying to at least update this beasty once in a while. My last post was over a month ago.

Here's what's been happening....


New artwork for a charity auction organized by the infamous Gary Baseman. We painted into vintage paint-by-numbers.


A new painting called "Magic in the Forest" for Limited Addiction gallery in Denver, CO. I've been working on a lot of new ideas based on these clouds. I think the style could make an interesting graff mural....


Working on my next show in september at Jonathan Levine gallery. Hitting a bit of artists' block but that's normal for me between shows and I know I'll pull through soon.


A design I did for my friend Jon Schiller's helmet. He's races rally cars.

Jon got ahold of my camera and took some studio shots...






Went to Shaunna Peterson's house to pick up some art...

A CD cover she was working on.



Awesome Marylyn Manson sock puppet Shaunna made in college. And the rear:



I can't for the life of me remember what these toys are called... bomblings? Grenadites? I'm too lazy to look it up. This is Shaunna's portrayal.

Aaron Mason came over to paint the other day, working on his piece for "Kicks"- a shoe show at Black Iris in Fontana. He was painting on his brother's military boots that he wore in Iraq.




Here's some photos from the show a few nights ago...

Aaron's finished piece.


Jason Gallo's shoes..


My homie and graf writer buddy Maxx checking out someone's shoe art.


Maxx's Vans.


Carved wooden shoes. Not sure of the artist...



Regino Gonzales (on right) is in town from New York City. He's also known as RG and we've known each other for a long time. He used to live here in the I.E. but moved to NY to attend SVA. He's an excellent and talented painter and I think you'll be hearing about him more in the next couple years as he starts to show in more galleries. Sorry other guy, can't remember your name...


Regino's Addidas.

Back on the home front...

Shannon loves books.


We went to Gymboree for the Valentine's day party..


One of my newest interests is checking out the birds in our yard. I could do a whole blog about the birdwatching but it would probably bore everyone to death. Except Chris Ryniak who has mentioned spotting different bird species in his own blog. Everyone else would die of boredom and stop reading. So I'll just post a couple things..

We have a woodpecker (a Nuttal's Woodpecker I believe) that lives in our tree. sometimes he chases the other birds away from the feeder I put up.

He's made holes like this one all over the tree.

Jennifer got two finch socks for her birthday. The birds were lining up to eat, they went through the whole sock of seeds in a day and a half! Pretty neat being able to see them up so close, and Shannon loves it.

We've also had the following in our backyard: California Towhee, Scrub Jay, Rufous Towhee, Audubon's Warbler, House Finch, California Thrasher, Bewick's Wren, Western Bluebirds, Starlings, and a Kestral lives nearby and uses the tall junipers as a lookout. I'm always trying to get good pictures but they are too fast and I'm not sneaky enough.

One more image to leave you with. Say hello to Timkaren...