A minute for love.

It's been an ultra busy time since I got home from tour a few months ago. With all that's on my plate, I took a little time out to work on a wedding invitation for my good friend Mike Howard of Fight Amp and his wife's October wedding. I was more than happy to do it and was pleased that they both loved the design. Congratulations to you both!

I have some news on the sticker pack front and they will be printed at the end of the month. It would have been earlier but the printer just left for tour and will print them as soon as he gets back. Everything is going well even though it's been a slow process. Thanks for being patient, all.

Projects for the next few months: Lamb Of God shirt, Howl shirt and logo, Ladies' Choice logo, HHNF cover finish up, Noisear lp cover, Savakas shirt, Finder's Creeper's shirt, and and EVO printing shirt.

Black Wings Broken Bones…Santos Illustration

Meghan & Sean at Cvlt Nation just posted this little piece up. I've never heard anyone describe my art as they did. Thanks guys!

Black Wings Broken Bones…<br />Santos Illustration

ART SHOW!!!

ART SHOW! at The Goods in Vancouver, BC. was this weekend and it was a damned good time. It was a group show curated by Tyler Buckmire and Alison Lilly and included Neal Nolan, Andy Gagne, Jason Evans, Syx Langemann, Amanda Gertz, Brea Bourgeois, Mark Lankin, and yours truly. The show will run for the next month or so if you're in the Vancouver area stop in and check out the art. Plus, The Goods (thegoodsapparel.com) is run by Dave Dove and Heather O'Brien and is a fucking awesome place with some sick threads. Here are a few pics from the show.

Sticker pack teaser.

Just a small teaser concerning the sticker packs. The continuing series will be titled "THICK AS THIEVES, and will be out sometime in the next two months. I'll keep everyone posted and give out all of the details once they are ready. Cheers!

Vancouver group show on July 8th.

I'm pretty excited to announce that I'll be traveling to Vancouver, BC Canada to take part in "ART SHOW!" at The Goods Screening & Apparel. I was invited by the very talented Alison Lilly and just realized that it's going to be the first "international" showing of my art. It's only 3 hours away, but Canada IS a different country.

You can find more info here : ART SHOW!

I will be showing 2-3 pieces and will have a few art shirts available for sale. So, if you live in or around Vancouver or feel like driving from Seattle, please come out and have a good time looking at some art from some amazing artists.

I don't know the end of this.

I love it when a design comes together easily. I especially enjoy it when I'm in the middle of a block in creativity. This was the case with "La Fin", the new shirt design for Philadelphia's Rosetta (rosettaband.com).
When Dave contacted me about doing a shirt design for their upcoming European tour, he had given me the starting theme that included Gabriele The Arch Angel. The idea came from the song "Je N'en Connais Pas La Fin" from 2010's "A Determinism Of Morality" and painted a clear portrait of a man calling for the end:

For every pass
Of this moon
Embers wait
Commune
A dawn's harvest

Spores
Burrowing
Ash
Covering

My world
My home
My loves
My memories

So tell me how I've come so far

Repression of memories
Behind a door best kept shut
Suppression of daily deeds
A crushing venom weeping
Into these hands
A plague upon a frame
Growing on the inside
Withering a simple sullen home

I started by studying the paintings of Gabriele throughout history. The design of the old saint icons are gorgeous in their textures and flow and all seem to be of a similar style of the times. I wanted him to be subtly ambiguous as angels are supposed to be, so his hair and facial features are a combination of masculine bone structure with a feminine softness to it. I wanted his overall look to be dark and ominous as one would think the man who is supposed to blow a trumpet to signal judgment day and the apocalypse would look. The wings are drawn in a different style than I'm used to, though. I was influenced by the wing structure that many of the paintings included and felt that the heavy detail would combine the old idea with my style.

Let this go

Won't you play
Your trumpet well
Gabriele

And pray that I can rest

Spores
Burrowing
Ash
Covering

Towards his feet is the man who set this turn of events into action. As in the song, he seems to be looking upon his life and calling for the end. The "end" in this case, has already happened and the man's body is breaking down into mushrooms and other spore producing plants. From them come the streams of spores sending his body into the ethereal. The lunar cycle included in the design represents that of the days that the man has already spent tormented and how the cycle is just not in him, but a constant theme of man. It was a fun design to work on and any design that allows me the chance to add tons of detail is a design that will always have a place in my heart. So, thank you Rosetta for the design that tore through my creativity block.

It's right back to the art table and in the words of Mr. Brian Mercer, "NEXT!"

You can check out the video for "Je N'en Connais Pas La Fin" here: Music For Astronauts

Juxtapoz online.

YES!!! Thank you Juxtapoz for the addition to the Illustration section and thank you Chris for informing me that this was posted. Now, I just need to find out how to get them to let me be a part of their "Black-N-White" issues. (wink, wink)
You can find it here: juxtapoz.com/Illustration/santos-bleeds-ink