The day after……it’s all behind me but still so much a part of my consciousness. The 3D Illusion House street art installation is now complete and open to the public! To open the house we celebrated with full ceremonies yesterday, including everyone from Home Square, our PR agency, our booking agency, tons of media from all over HK, and various invited guests.

To add icing to the cake, I presented a ‘how to’ 3D workshop for 7 select talented young students from Hong Kong, which proved to be enjoyable and educational for them, and heart warming for me! Their eagerness to embrace the art form, especially learning 3D techniques, was inspiring – they all created fantastically imaginative and believable pieces. Congratulations ladies & keep making cool art!

I must thank everyone involved in the amazing success of this event – Calvin, Herme, Crystal, Carole, Michelle, Jamie, Tracy, Suyi, Annie, Jenny and of course, Charlene, Tobie, Jane and Justin. This was a total team effort organized by fun, warm, classy folks. Your hospitality was overwhelming; most importantly I have loads of new friends in Hong Kong now and look forward to returning in the future for more art adventures!

Entry to the 3d Illusion House at Home Square

3D Illusion House – Home Square, Hong Kong

'Living room'

Random shots of Hong Kong

Banksy?

Wrapping up a 10 day street painting event in glorious Hong Kong where I was commissioned to create 4 interactive chalk art images on a series of multiple surfaces – walls and floors in a variety of combinations. The uber cool thing was that I discovered a way to make the creations permanent, as in usable for 2+ months! Not giving away any secrets, I think this is the start of an entirely new way of working for me. More updates and photos coming soon!

I’ve recently had an opportunity to participate as a guest street painter in the Lincoln City Visitors Bureau sponsored Lincoln City Art Festival, held in the Taft area of town, near the beach. It was a small festival geared mostly for children, with loads of hands on free projects for them to partake of – tessellation projects, a magic castle made from recycled cardboard, street painting (of course), face painting and a variety of other art related activities. Local artisans came out in the questionable weather to ply their goods – jewelry, pottery and glass, which Lincoln City is most known for.

I arrived on a Wednesday from Portland – what a drive! The Oregon countryside in that area is simply breathtaking. Lots of antique shops and vineyards along the way which made the journey interesting. It’s all very lush, green and inviting – it gets even better as you approach the coast. I wasn’t prepared for the majesty and beauty of this part of the Oregon coast – it just bowled me over.

The LCVB had asked me to create an image that related to an Oregon coast theme.  I chose the Chinook Salmon, which is indigenous to the area, as my theme. I haven’t really created many natural themed images so I was looking forward to tackling a really big fish appearing to jump up out of the pavement.  Interestingly, many of the locals knew immediately what I was up to and proceeded to give me a more comprehensive education on the habits and qualities of Chinook salmon – thanks everyone!

While I was in Lincoln City, I had the pleasure of viewing many of the local inhabitants -  a few hundred seals frolicking in the inlet next to where I was drawing, a couple of bald eagles the size of a St. Bernard and many other exquisite birds.  I met many locals who were out crabbing and gathering mussels for their evening dinner – boy, did that make me hungry! Later that evening, everyone gathered on the beach and launched wish lanterns – bio-degradable and beautiful – hundreds of them, out over the inlet. A nice way to end the day.

I had a lovely stay in Lincoln City and my painting was a hit. I completed it in 3 days, despite rain the first day (!) and met lots of wonderful people who were happy to have a street painting in their midst. Of course, many asked if there was any way I could make it permanent so it would last longer. Alas, the dilemma of street painting, the ephemeral art that lives only as long as it is being created. Guess they’ll just have to plan for more street painting next year to solve that problem……

Special thanks to Nichole LeSage and her entire team at LCVB, as well as everyone at the Looking Glass Inn, for making my stay so memorable!

http://www.crookedbrains.net/2009/06/painting.html

Another year has come and gone and I find myself with a little case of post festival blues after completing my 12th year at the Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Painting Festival. The festival celebrated 23 years this past weekend and the public support could not have been better. In the wake of the terrible fires that have decimated much of the local community, Santa Barbara came out in force to support this unique event.

Blessed with incredible weather and working conditions, the artists put in stellar performances, creating amazing masterful works in chalk on the Mission parking plaza. Boasting live entertainment, great food (loved the friend calamari) and a chalking area for the kids, festival attendance was high on all 3 days.

My good friend Sharyn (who I actually met through a local motorcycling club) and I were invited to work together on a painting sponsored this year by Moto Paradiso / Vespa Santa Barbara. We created a 12′ x 12′ reproduction of Mexican artist Jesus Helguera‘s work ‘El Flechador del Sol‘ (The Sun Archer). Reminiscent of Maxfield Parrish’s work, Helguera is best known for the illustrated nationalistic calendar’s he created in Mexico in the mid 20th century, portraying an idealized image of the more prosaic reality of Mexican life. Every man was a hero, and every woman a beauty, sometimes depicted with Arian features. His romantic approach to the figure gave his paintings the heroic impact that eventually made him famous.

Sharyn and I had worked successfully together on other paintings in the past so I knew we would create a fairly authentic rendition of this work.  We began on the Friday before the festival with our drawing lay-out, then continued to the color application for the next 3 days. We finished by Sunday at 3:30pm and the result was very satisfying – lots of lavenders, blues, ochres and golds, filling out billowing clouds, rippling fabric and chiseled musculature. A very dramatic painting to say the least. The crowds really enjoyed it and the sponsor loved it.

Thanks again to Kathy Koury & her team at the Children’s Creative Project, who makes all this wonderment possible; and to all of the artists who participated this year. Bravo!