Fire Siren Drawing for "Dirtballs in Love" Art Show...

On May 7, 2010, I have a solo art show at Proximity Gallery called "Dirtballs in Love". All the drawings are romance pieces, each one in some way inspired by romance and my gal Joannie (to whom I was just engaged). Click HERE for more information and to see more art from the show.

The following piece, entitled "Fire Siren" is a remake of a painting my Dad did when I was a little boy. He sold it at a flea market many years back. But he had a passion for the Philadelphia Fire Department, where he served for 27 years before retiring.

I wanted to have something that connected all the drawings and made them hang well together as a show, so I used a lot of colored inks as the common thread. This following piece was done in three layers to start. First I drew a woman, made of fire, surrounded by smoke in colored ink and marker as the background:

Then I drew and cut out the firefighter in colored ink. I fastened him to a piece of acetate. The back of the acetate was misted with spray paint, gray mist for the smoke and red and yellow spatter to imply embers in the air.

I laid the top sheet of acetate over the bottom piece, fitting them together. I had to scratch off some of the excess spray paint so you could see the fire woman clearly.

The drawings together...

Then I took a lighter and burned the inside edges of the mat. After the fire was completely out, I coated the mat with water-based acrylic polyurethane:

The final piece in the frame...

Meathausin' in Philly

Last week, I had a shotgun get-together with fellow Meathausers Farel Dalrymple and Chris McD. Chris and I see each other fairly often as he and his family moved back to the area. Plus he also teaches at UARTS. But it's been a few years since I got together with Farel, who is not only a great friend but one of my favorite all-time comics artists.

For those who don't know, Meathaus is a collective of amazingly awesome comic artists and cartoonists that was started in NYC by a bunch of SVA grads, but branched out nationally and internationally in the past ten years. I was lucky to be invited in several years back. The collective has launched a lot of artists into the cartooning and comics industry, and brought me a lot of good freelance work over the years.

Chris McD does a great job of holding down the fort, so to speak, by keeping the website fresh with not only member art, but interesting prospective art from all over the web. Click here to check out the Meathaus main site. Click HERE to check out all of the amazing work that Chris McD does.

Farel does a whole bunch of comics work for companies big and small. To date, his first 5 issues of Pop Gun War has been my favorite. I like it so much that I bought the original art of my favorite page from his book (seen below). Click HERE to see some of Farel's work.

Farel was in town from Portland to do a signing at a new comics shop in West Philly, so me, him, and Chris were able to bro down and have some breakfast at Sulimay's Diner near my house. It was fun showing them what I'm working on now and looking through sketchbooks. I wish I got to see these dudes more often in person. I've learned an awful lot through the years from them about art and comics. They're great friends and great artists.

New T-Shirt Design for Shadfest - 4/24/2010

I mentioned here last year that I sometimes do t-shirt designs with my childhood friends Tommy and Eddie. Last year, we put out two shirts under Eddie's Trademark "Fishtown Social Club". This year, since I had a table at SHADFEST (4/24 at Penn Treaty Park in Fishtown...click here for more details) selling books, we decided to do another one. I always laughed at the Simpson's episode where some guy selling shirts at a concert says, "Buy a T-shirt. Show somebody where you been." So far, the shirt ideas we've come up with as a group are for places that never existed or teams that never were. Anyways, here is the new one we did...

Student Spotlight: "Gilly, the King of Philly"

This has been a really difficult year teaching at North Catholic. It was my old high school, and I've been teaching there for seven years now. I've often said that it was my "calling" to teach there. It has been more than just a job for me. Over the years, I've grown to love the students, teachers, and coworkers at North like family. It's going to be really tough walking away from it.

The fourth quarter just started. I have to admit that I am getting more sentimental than usual. So I wanted to start preserving something from this year for me, from my students, something that I can look back on to remember why I took this job in the first place. I've met a lot of interesting and talented kids while teaching here, all unique and gifted in their own way. One of those kids is Andrew Gilpin. His classmates call him "Gilly, the King of Philly".

Gilly has a really unique way of drawing. He's part of the North Catholic Cartoonist Society. Like most of the kids in the group, he loves Anime. The other day, he was going on and on about a teevee show I never heard of called "One Piece". When he was explaining it, I couldn't even begin to understand what the heck he was talking about. It was some kind of pirate type story with reindeer and skeletons. It sounded like he was speaking a crazy different language. I had to do some research on the web. I actually found it hilarious, so I asked him to bring in pictures to better illustrate. He said I could tape him explaining the show to me. I promised I'd put it on my blog.

Gilly is a great kid. He looks after his Mom. He's got an awesome sense of humor. When a kid jokes with him, he's pretty good at zinging them right back. He's really grown into himself since he walked through the doors as a Freshman. Now he gets along with just about every kid at North. Gilly is a treasure to the school. I hope that next year, whatever school he transfers to, the students treat him with the same respect. I'll sure miss Gilly when this school year ends. He's a great dude.

Sean Gallagher's Solo Art Show - April 16, 2010 at EXIT Skateshop

My cousin and sometimes co-conspirator, Sean Gallagher (click here to see his blog) will be having a rocking art show at EXIT Skateshop (825 N. 2nd Street in Northern Liberties) starting tomorrow, April 16, 2010. He's been chugging away at this show for the past two months like a freight train. This guy is a creating machine, very versatile, and still hungry for it. A great start to your weekend - go out and see this guy's work before it's off the wall. Some of the pieces:

Sean's studio: