Melissa Erwin’s The Mother Load

Digital mixed media brilliant colors and unexpected textures and ideas

Today I want to show you some of the crazy-awesome pieces from TACODoom artist Melissa Erwin‘s newest show, The Mother Load down at PG Gallery. As you can see below, these incredibly rich and detailed pieces are lavish with color, texture, and unexpected associations. They’re made even better by being gorgeously printed on canvas and mounted onto interesting and varied surfaces including leather and reeds. (Of some sort, I’m not a reed/tatami/bamboo sort of expert even though I adore it.) As usual, I took pictures of a few but not all of the wonderful pieces in the show. Feast your eyes on this!!

So where did all these crazy ideas and textures come from? I’ll let the artist herself explain in her own words. From Erwin’s facebook event page:

Sometimes after suffering some severe frustrations my brain will vomit out a large quantity of questionable imagery. Then I need to do something about it more constructive than a stabbing spree.

This would be that.
A series of digital illustrations based on scribblings in my trusty sketch pad.
Fair warning, I’m not responsible for any weird feelings or nightmares resulting from them.
After all, I don’t sleep at night, why should you?

I have to warn you, I saw a lot of “sold” stickers already, which did not surprise me in the least considering the amazing artwork and the unreal prices (I’m talking $35, $65…it’s nuts!!). The show’s up until the 17th~18th so be sure to check it out before then before everything sells.

digital mixed media pieces exploring a variety of bizarre themes and subject matter

Incidentally, keep your eyes peeled for more posts about Erwin’s art. I’m planning “A Look Back At…” series of posts featuring other amazing art shows I wasn’t able to document at the time, including Erwin’s Grenade Pin Girls series, her It Can’t Happen Here show and her Benign Acquiescence show. I’ll also be featuring Amy Wilke‘s awesome show Still Lives: Wunderkabinett, Space Madness II, some past shows of mine, and other shows and events that were too good to miss.

My Name is Shingo

A monstrous floating flower connecting with a huge monolithic machine

This is a recent 2013 work from my last solo show! I named it after Kazuo Umezu’s amazing comic because his story dealt with a machine becoming sentient. For some reason my monstrous floating daisy achieving a sympathetic connection with a huge machine reminded me of reading this comic.

Now available on Society6||Redbubble. Below is a slightly larger version for you.

A monstrous floating flower connecting with a huge monolithic machine

Ergo Sum

Bone and syringe butterflies merge into black polygons which in return become flying lizards. An homage to Escher's Metamorphoses.

“Ergo Sum,” centerpiece of my last show. It’s probably atrocious Latin, but I wanted to take the Thinking out of Being. The original incarnation of this baby is a seven foot wide painting and collage on wood! Here it is a bit bigger:

Bone and syringe butterflies merge into black polygons which in return become flying lizards. An homage to Escher's Metamorphoses.

Available on my Society6||Redbubble as a print. To inquire about purchasing the original piece, email me at sandpaperdaisy (at) gmail.com