Shrinebuilder at The Viper Room.

The Shrinebuilder show was crushing! They played their first show in LA the other night and they did not disappoint. We flew out just to see the show and ended up having the greatest time in a short amount of time. I was able to see my good friend Leah, who used to play with me in Sistema Nervioso, and whom I haven't seen for over 10 years. She's still rocking it and working around the corner from my friend Jason. We walked Hollywood Blvd and were thoroughly disgusted with the smell, creepy costumed people, and all around attitude. We did get to go to the beach, so that was great.

 The show was at the Viper Room and it was packed. They played 2 sets and even played a cover of my favorite Joy Division song (Twenty Four Hours). It was heavy as hell and the intimate setting was a good choice for their 1st show. They sold out of ALL of the shirts that I had designed and I wasn't able to get one, but Scott said that he'd save me one.  I was also able to meet up with Tom Denney. He walked past me before the show and I immediately recognized him. I said hello. We were instantly thick as thieves and made plans to get an art show together and visit him again when we could have more time to stay. 

 LaLa land was an experience to say the least, but we had a great time and will be back soon. And, maybe get a bit more sleep than we did.

Shrinebuilder shirts and their upcoming mini tour

 

  

  

  

 

 

                                            

Evo Screen Printing just posted up the pics of the finished Shrinebuilder shirts. They came out sick! The guys over at Evo do great work and are able to print all of the detail in my designs. It looks like the shirts will be available in dark grey w/ black and silver ink, white w/ black and silver ink, black short and long sleeve w/ white and red ink. Scott said that they might even have some hoodies printed, too. They have previously printed the Scott Kelly designs and I'm even thinking about getting some of my other designs printed there. They have samples of other shirts, hats, bags, etc. that they have printed. My favorite is the Neurot Recordings Youth Soccer team shirts. You can reach them at : http://www.myspace.com/evoscreenprinting .

  

  The Shrinebuilder shirts will be available on the upcoming mini tour, starting at the Viper Room in Los Angeles on November 11th. and ending in Austin, Texas on November 16th. Go see them if they happen to be playing near you. I'll be attending the show in LA, so if you see me there say "hi". It'll be a great time of friends, sand, red eyes, doom, and crushing metal. 

Optimum Wound and the Masters Of Ink.

 This summer I was contacted by Jason Thibault from Optimum Wound Comics (optimumwound.com) about being a part of the Masters Of Ink series that he runs on his site. We emailed each other a few times and he sent me an interview to answer when I had the time. As things have been really busy, I answered the questions when I could and ended up taking 3 months to complete the questions. Of course, it hard for me to write about myself so that was one reason for the delay. If you'd like a look over the writ, you can find it here:

   www.optimumwound.com/category/masters-of-ink

    I can say that I am humbled to be a part of the Masters Of Ink series and to be in the company of so many artists that I respect, admire, and find influence in. And, here I am writing crazy answers to the questions that other artists had great answers to. Ha! Who thought punk and metal would help me further my art career? Piss off Mr. Holmes!!!!

Finished building the shrine.

 The Shrinebuilder shirt/hoodie design is complete. The idea was to keep with the serpent and shrine motif and tie the back into both the sleeve and main design. At first, the border was to contain the tour dates, but Scott and Al decided to replace them with a lyric from the album. I really like that way that the whole project came together. Now, I can hardly wait to see them.

 As usual, it's 1am and I have to get up for work in a few hours. You have to bleed in order to do what you love and I'm extremely light headed.

Kylesa, Shrinebuilder, and looking forward to having time for art.

  Kylesa came through town last night and played a hell of a show. The only thing missing was the banner that they made of the Killer Of Love design. The low ceiling and limited space on stage at Chop Suey was to blame. So, Phillip went outside and pulled the banner out of the trailer so that I could finally see it. It's an incredible thing to see it printed in such a grand scale. He said that they are stoked about the banner and have had it up at other shows. My friend Jaysin sent me a picture that he took at the Launchpad in Albuquerque, NM. I'm hoping that I'll get to see it up one day, but having seen it at all was great.

 The back of the Shrinebuilder shirts is getting inked and ready for their 5 date tour in November. Scott and Al really liked the sleeve designs and have asked me to replace the idea that they had of placing tour dates within a border with a few lyrics from one of their songs. I just heard another song off of the Shrinebuilder album and it is sick as all hell. 

 

 And, soon I will be putting in my two weeks notice at work. I simply can't maintain a full time job and work on art, so I am going to focus solely on my art and projects. I have some things in the works and am booked for a long while so I know that quitting is the right thing to do . Freedom is close.

Right and left hand paths.

  The Shrinebuilder designs are almost complete. Scott, Al, and I collaborated on the ideas for the sleeve designs and they will be printed on long sleeve and hoodies for their 5 date tour November 14th-18th. They came up with the idea of the left and right hand paths combining with a hermetic sun & moon. Al wanted to add the number 108 into the left design and Scott had the idea of fading hands and pronounced blood flowing from the stigmata wounds. Now, I can get to work on a design for the back of the shirts composed of a border and hand drawn tour dates. I'm also going to try to make it out to one of the shows. 

  Lamb of God designs are next to be sketched.

Something fun for my new niece.

  I recently became an uncle again and wanted to start my new niece out on a path of morbidity. My sister has a dark and fucked up sense of humor and my other two nieces have been raised in a family that all tends to lean toward the morbid side of humor.  I wanted to give her something that would be cute, useful, and personalized, so I drew out this design and had it printed onto an American Apparel Organics bib. On the bib printed for her, I added her initials. I liked the design so much that I'm thinking of printing more to sell in my friend Erins' store. Awwww, dead babies are cute (my living niece is cuter).