I'd rather be lizard fishing.

It is lizard season here and the little guys are sunning themselves all over. I love the blue bellies. Our cat Nacho came walking in from the garage carrying a lizard by it’s front leg. The detachable tail thing must not have worked, but luckily I was there to rescue the lil’ fella. He had a small flesh wound and lost his tail, but when I put him down in the backyard he took off.


I remembered a trick my dad taught me a long time ago- you can use fishing line and tie a slip knot onto the end of a fishing pole and catch lizards with it. I tried it out the other day. It’s pretty much just like a little noose, and it’s very easy to get it around their necks. They must think the fishing rod is a tree branch or something because you can touch them with it and they don’t even move. When they’re caught, they wiggle alot, kinda like a real fish. You have to be quick to loosen up the noose around their neck, and be careful you don’t grab them by the tail (they will detach it if scared). They're really beautiful when seen up close. I took a few pictures and showed Shannon and let them go back to their lizard homes. Nature is awesome.


Messed with the macro function on my camera. Kinda fun...


I grew up near Disneyland but we didn’t get to go that often. I think that made it pretty magical to the Soto boys, and we loved it and dreamed about going. After I worked as a cook at an amusement park (and saw behind the scenes), some of the magic had worn off, the place wasn’t as fun. But it’s pretty neat seeing it again through my daughter’s eyes. She thinks things are real which is awesome. I asked her what Ariel told her because they were talking for a while, and Shannon told me, “I don’t know”.


Giant pizza is always good. Thanks Ribaudo's!


That talk at my old community college was cool. I told them everyone should try graffiti at least once in their life. This is the RCC Art Club...


I’m in a group show called The Sublime Landscape at Project4 Gallery in Washington D.C. Some great artists, including some of my favorites- Gregory Euclide and Randall Sellers. Here’s some new work I sent.



And last, Skullphone is coming to Riverside.... more pictures soon...

Skater cuts and rainbows...

I am doing a talk in a few days at my old junior college- Riverside Community College. It’s going to be nice to be able to go back and tell my story and hopefully give a little back to a school that’s really helped me out. It’s Thursday May 8th at noon in case you Riverside residents and students wanna come by. I don’t think they’re charging admission, but then again, don’t know if they’re making it only available to students either. So if you go, try to blend in. I hope I don't get in trouble..

So I’m working on my slideshow and since it's primarily for art students, I wanted to show some of my past student work and old pictures. Found some great shots from when I was a teenager and in my early 20’s, I'll post a few...


In 8th grade at an art competition at RAM. This was the trendy skater haircut in the late 80's. One side short, the other side very long. The lady at Fantastic Sam's called it the "Surfer Cut" and I remember her saying, "you must be a surfer!" I was all shy, I quietly muttered, "no not really... I skate". I think she thought I meant rollerskates. Those Fantastic Sam's ladies would always try to talk to you and be all hip, ask about girls and sports, all the while pushing their big boobs into your face while washing your hair (okay maybe the 12 year old Jeff was pretty down with that part). Just shut up and cut my hair already!

Working on a mural in high school 1993. Rocking the ponytail + thriftstore gear. Neo hippies and shit...

Almost the same shot of me airbrushing a shirt in 1994 in our backyard.....

...for Jennifer! Yep, I used to do stencil airbrushing on shirts.. pretty corny.. but I could make a good $20 a shirt.

I also used to do holiday window scenes in November and December.

Painting in Long Beach, maybe 1995? Used to be soo fun.

Me in 1997 with a freshly shaved head. I think I blinked. Ganstard..

Old photos are fun but here's some new things I've been working on. These are all pretty large.






I'm thinking of painting again on walls but in a different way than all the "hip hop" style graf I did... I still love graf, just need to do it my own way on my own terms... a quick tag in my studio the other day for old times sake...

Ah yes... that felt very good...

Watercolors...

Just some experiments with watercolors from the past few months... trying to loosen up, keep my mind clear and stay open to happy accidents. I try to do these with no ideas in my head, fast, just straight stream of thought painting. Have about a hundred of these. It's never really about if they turn out good or bad, consequently most are very bad. Here's a few that I think turned out interesting. They're mostly on cheap printer paper with cheap crayola watercolors...

War Clouds released...

Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered the War Clouds giclee. Some who reserved the print never ended up paying so I just put the rest online on www.potatostamp.com
Thanks,
Jeff

Just painting...

Been painting much more lately, feeling much freedom. Working on wood, paper, canvas, cheap scrap paper, exploring, using ink, watercolors, trying new stuff. It's been very liberating. Working on some new stuff for a few group shows and something big at the end of the year. Check at the end of this blog for more info.



Here’s some stuff from the last couple months when I was in blog hibernation...

The Riverside Art Museum (RAM) is doing some great and fun projects lately. Their staff is really bringing in some cool exhibitions. Got to see Raymond Pettibon and Mike Watt at the RAM. They did a collaborative performance with Mike playing bass as Raymond created spontaneous drawings. It was a new idea and turned out pretty well. Brought a lot of Riverside's arty kids out, which is a good thing.



Got these pictures of Dan Nguyen (Demonslayer) painting a mural at UCR Sweeney Art Gallery..


He is showing at RAM the same time as this awesome show...



Yeah I’m telling ya, the RAM is coming up, it’s a nice change from the past 15 years that I’ve been checking it out. Nothing against traditional landscapes (in fact I love them) but it’s nice to see some contemporary stuff happening.

Random images from the last two months- ducks at Fairmont Park, sunglasses fun, hiking Sugarloaf Mountain with my dad then again with Jennifer:




Finally got over to West Hollywood to see the Swoon show at New Image Art, where I ran into the wonderful Kelsey Brooks. What a nice fella. I meant to ask him about what looked like a hand-stitched fabric design on his shirt, I really liked the design. Kelsey had just drove up from his place in San Diego, stopping to surf along the coast. We were both tripping out on all the Swoon work.


I love Swoon’s woodcuts (or are they lino?). She’s to me a modern day Käthe Kollwitz. I also admire how the whole installation is the piece, rather than simple individual pieces hanging on the wall. You’re immersed into her world this way.


Marsea Goldberg, Kelsey and the New Image Art staff.

Here’s some of the shows I have coming up that I've been making new paintings for:

*"Fairfax + Haight" curated by New Image Art at RVCA San Francisco. March 20-May 28th 2008.


*New Image Art at Scope New York, March 26-30.

*“Robots- Evolution of a Cultural Icon” at the San Jose Art Museum. One of my older pieces, “Battle For Twin Palms” will be on display. April 12- October 19, 2008.


*Kinsey/DesForges Gallery at Art Chicago fair- April 25- 28, 2008.

And for those of you who didn't see it on Fecal Face a few weeks ago, I give you "Uncle Dirty"...