city

Atomic Jazz and my most touching customer

a bright and glorious titanic jellyfish fills the sky, bringing either destruction or new life and vitality to the city below as two children placidly watch.
| sandpaperdaisy

This painting of a jellyfish/bomb was responsible for creating one of my favorite customers of all time, a little boy no more than ten and probably not so old as that. He and his sister admired the different digital paintings at my table at Evillecon 2011 and their mother told them that they could each buy a print if they wished. The little boy considered long and gravely and then asked me the meaning of Atomic Jazz. I explained pretty clumsily, how the city is meant to be dull and drab but suddenly, this impossible amazing thing has happened, and this great creature of color and vitality has descended upon it to shake up all the people in the city.

Wide-eyed, he said “So they jellyfish didn’t come to destroy the city…but to transform it??” I couldn’t believe my ears and I felt no end of amazement at this sweet child and his marvelous insight. He asked his mother if he could buy Atomic Jazz and receiving her assent, handed me the money with trembling hands and asked if it was really okay for him to have it and take it home. Aside from my own boys I can’t remember the last time a child touched me so deeply! Wherever you are, young man, you will always be one of my best memories!

Atomic Jazz is on Society6||Redbubble.

And now I am curious: have any of you been deeply touched by a customer, artistic or otherwise?

Haha! Looks like I forgot to set the image for City Eye the other day.

A graffiti spraypaint tagger boy in a dragon hoodie stares off into the rain while a fantastic graffiti moon hovers behind him.
| sandpaperdaisy

Yep, I’ve been seriously tired this week…very busy too! Thankfully it’s all been happy occasions, like family visiting. But I’ve definitely been slipping up more then usual.

I’ve selected the related piece “City Moon” as the featured art for today. This was commissioned to hang alongside City Eye as matched pair, so the boy shown here purposely shares the coloring of the young lady from City Eye. This painting was commissioned as an exclusive so there are no prints available of it! However, the client has kindly consented to let me share my wistful tagger boy with you all as he stands there in the rain, regarding the woman standing across from him on my client’s wall.

A vaguely gothic lolita looking woman lowers her umbrella in the rain as the spirit of the city descends behind her.

City Eye

A vaguely gothic lolita looking woman lowers her umbrella in the rain as the spirit of the city descends behind her.
| sandpaperdaisy

I did this piece to display at the 2011 Evillecon Artist Alley (ramping up for this year’s Evillecon right now)! I woke up from a daydream where I had this vision, but I suspect that it was partially inspired by Harlan Ellison’s short story “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs.” The spirit of a city plays a part in that story as well.

This is available as a print and other items from my Society6 shop.

Eclipse

Also known as Entropy, a depiction of a exploding world where the sun and moon ringed with a jumble of dissolving city forms hover in the middle of a cosmic storm.
| sandpaperdaisy

Also known as “Entropy,” (sometimes I just can’t decide on a name by the time I’ve made a piece!!) this is a recent work from my December 2013 solo show. Since this is a wide-format piece I’ll append a slightly larger version at the bottom so you can see more of the detail.

This is available as art prints and many other things from Society6||Redbubble.

Also known as Entropy, a depiction of a exploding world where the sun and moon ringed with a jumble of dissolving city forms hover in the middle of a cosmic storm.

A Message

A colorful blimp depicting a field of flowers hovers above a dirty, impersonal colorless city. Environmental statement.
| sandpaperdaisy

You may recognize this art from my Franklin Street Outdoor Art Sale post! This is the full piece here, entitled “A Message” and conceived by me as an environmental statement after I watched the old Charlton Heston classic “Soylent Green” for the first time.

After seeing that callous and weary depiction of a dystopian and colorless future, I envisioned a bleak city where the only suggestion of beauty and nature was found on the advertising blimp hovering above the smog. While I originally feared this blimp may be advertising a beauty that no longer exists, others have told me the blimp represents the hope we cling to by a green thread (environmentalism). I prefer their interpretation, don’t you?

A Message is available on Society6||Redbubble.