Survey Select Artists : A — G

Jaguar/Man : oil on rag board (2007 – 2009) : 38" x 49"

Marshall Arisman : NY
Jaguar/Man is from a series of drawings and paintings under the title Ayahuasca Series. Ayahuasca is used by Shamen in the Amazon to locate lost objects and lost souls. William Burroughs took the hallucinogenic drug in the 50's and got deathly ill for 2 weeks. I have attempted to explore, in paint, that transformation of passing from the material world to the spiritual world with the help of an animal spirit guide. Burroughs, unfortunately, didn't like animals. When he asked the Shaman, who gave him the drug, what went wrong, the Shaman said "You were not prepared."

Tattooed Self Portrait at 39 : oil on canvas (2010) : 24” x 36”

Shawn Barber : CA
As a figurative painter with respect for traditions of the past, I have painted numerous self portraits over the past decade. 'Tattooed Self Portrait at 39', is dedicated to observing and affirming my commitment to the process of being tattooed. This self portrait is inspired by my first 'American' tattoo. I felt that, as an American artist whose primary body of work focuses on tattoo, the history of the medium and documenting the present industry- it just made sense to have this as my personal center piece. The tattooist who drew and tattooed the eagle, Seth Wood, is an amazing American artist who has become a friend and I really enjoy his artistic point of view. This eagle tattoo is the perfect blend of Seth's traditional yet illustrative work. The underlying focus of this painting is my attempt to show the viewer the flesh of a freshly tattooed outline and my own personal tribute to artists' self portraits of the past from a contemporary artists' perspective.

Miss Insect Princess : gouache on linen : 18" x 18"

Stephane Blanquet : France
Miss Princess insect fell like raw meat in her dream…The white ghosts squirm, she is happy…The melancholy songs of insects rocks the princess, Miss Princess insect is in her dream

The Last Angel : Oil on Panel (2009) : 20” x 27”

David Michael Bowers : PA
I have to say that this will probably be my last angel painting so it is appropriately titled. My wife, Kimberlie, pleaded with me for several months to do another angel painting because she loved angels. I told her that I had already painted too many angels and that I needed to move on to other subject matter. She insisted that I painted such beautiful angels and that they had been so popular in the past for me with regards to the sales of my prints, etc. that she really wanted me to do one more, so I decided to do one last angel with a new twist.

To her dismay, when she saw my initial sketches of a hardened angel wearing a pistol belt with a grenade, that was not exactly what she had in mind. I wanted this to be the last angel sent from God. The last angel will show no mercy because of God’s indignation with humanity. David is represented by 101/exhibit in Miami.

Give Up The Ghost : Mixed : 48x48 : 2009

Horse Meat (Blue) : Mixed : 36x36 : 2009

Kelsey Brookes : CA
A formally trained scientist who spent years tracking viruses for the U.S. government, he now lives and works in San Diego as a painter. His explosive and colorful art can be found broadly throughout the USA and Europe. Kelsey’s figurative paintings draw influence from a diverse subject matter including, but not limited to, English Romantic poets, exotic animals, sex, and rustic American quilts. His figures are frozen in intense and often tortured positions while the world surrounding them explode into a psychedelic blizzard of candy color. Ribbons and streamers, melting text and Mohawks all combined with large amounts of glitter glue to enhance and balance the dark subject.

Cheeking Pills—Rehab : Latex house paint on wood : 16" x 12" (2010) : Sold

William Buzzell : PA
"Cheeking Pills: Rehab" is an autobiographical piece about my time in a 30 day Palm Springs rehab center in November of 2009. After being arrested for assaulting a Providence police officer with a claw hammer in October of 2009, the court ordered me to go to rehab for alcohol and drug abuse. Every day consisted mostly of smoking cigarettes, going to 12 step meetings, and waiting for medication time. A big problem for the nursing staff was patients pretending to swallow their medication by hiding it in their cheeks or under their tongue. Mood altering medication was highly prized and could be traded to other patients for goods, services, and in some cases sexual favors. To combat this misuse of the medication, the nursing staff would make you open your mouth to prove you had swallowed your pills but clever patients were still able to evade detection. "Cheeking Pills: Rehab" is a documentation of the objects and rituals I associate with the rehabilitation process.

may : gouache on paper : 22"x32"

Kevin Christy : CA
This drawing is in reference to the reflective quality that shapes found in every day life have on our collective thought process. The shared mental experience felt by people coming across the same visual landmarks. Individuality is a constant but the uncontrolled reactions to stimulus as simple as a gaping hole is a connecting element that is immoveable.

Clayton Brothers : Send Them Home Sweet and Happy, 2009
Mixed media on stretched canvas : 26 x 20 inches (66 x 50.8 cm)

Christian and Rob Clayton : The Clayton Brothers : CA

Rob and Christian began collaborating in 1996. During their process, they contribute to the mixed media pieces separately while continuously adapting, transforming, and re-working what the other has previously completed. Their unconventional process, in which they leave visual clues or messages for one another, strands of ideas for each to pick up on and elaborate upon, produces an organic flow of subverted content, that is finalized only when a fraternal consensus has been reached. Their process results in rich and dynamic work, filled with multiple marks, gestures and techniques, symbols and metaphors that delve into memory and subconscious, highly personal and idiosyncratic yet engaged with the culture that surrounds them.

Blown : 2010, 9” x 12" : drawing pencil on paper mounted on panel

Two Worms : Japonaise Drinker : Revival : 9" x 12" : drawings pencil on paper

Hugo Crosthwaite : Mexico
This drawing, “Blown” refers to the idea of gossip, as it is sometimes referred to in Spanish with the term "Soplon" as someone who whispers or blows advice or gossip to someone's ears.

The main character is a blown up balloon in the shape of a boy that resembles Pinocchio, stares at the viewer with a concerned look on its face. The character to its side is a young, tattooed man reminiscent of those carni-folk characters that work in small fairs or amusement parks. Their is a double narrative to the piece, the first one being that of a simple scene where a young man is inflating a boy shaped balloon perhaps in preparation for a parade, the other, that of a "shady" character whispering or "blowing" notions to the large innocent shape of a boy. The background for this drawing is that of a snow covered street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.

Hazzard II : 8" x 10" (13.5" x 15.5" framed) : Oil : SOLD

Brendan Danielsson : GA
This piece is a continuation of the series of small character studies.

Christ and Two Thieves : Oil on Wood : 12" x 16" : Custom Frame

Daniel Martin Diaz : AZ
One of my earliest memories as a child was the way death and religion played an important role in my family’s life. My parents were born in Mexico with traditional beliefs, and their beliefs made their way into my subconscious. The fact that many of those beliefs seemed to render no logical explanation has also influenced me. These unanswered questions find a home in my work, which evokes the mystery, fear and irony of those vivid memories of my past. I do not claim to understand these questions. I just paint and let them reveal themselves to me.

Beneath the Sea, 2010 : Acrylic on wood : 8 x 6"

Garden Plot, 2010 : Acrylic on wood : 8 x 6"

Underground : Acrylic on wood : 10¾ x 13 ¾"

Bayou, 2010 : Acrylic on wood : 11 x 14"

Vampires, 2010 : Acrylic on wood : 11 x 14"

Bat House, 2010 : Acrylic on wood : 8 x 6" : Sold

Scott Daniel Ellison : NY

Dark figures before bonfires in open fields. Vampires that may or may not be Halloween costumes. Animals with an extra-sentient malice in their toothy snarls. These small, folk-style paintings bring together imagery from Scandinavian folklore, heavy metal, and contemporary horror to create a landscape where satanic, or at least decidedly pagan wickedness seems to be the natural state. Viewing Ellison’s work one gets the feeling of being drawn into the logic of folktales and pulp supernatural, the familiar plot line of accidentally witnessing the occult and being caught in its’ machinations. This is a world where social rituals are transformed into dark magic and seemingly innocent encounters are full of dire implications.— Donal Mosher—Popmatters February 2010

A Metamorphosis of a First Love : 18" x 18" : Oil on Board

P-Jay Fidler : CA

Ones first love is like being possessed by something you can't control, something that will systematically take you to the borders of your being and drop you into some unknown place where everything is beautiful, shiny and new yet is something you can watch slowly paralyze and turn on you. Scratch and rust what was once everything.....This painting is based on a story of first love.

shitfan punks : 12” x 12” : ink and pencil of mat board : Sold

Matt Furie : CA

These shitfans are going to get busted. They are fans of music and they have attitude. There is a bitch with blood dripping from her mouth. Some are experiencing a heightened sense of cosmic awareness due to sound waves, others are becoming experienced by altering their brains with chemicals. Are you experienced?

Vacation's End : 55" x 72" : Acrylic on Muslin

Micah Ganske : HI

Like the way a photograph of a happy memory is somehow heart-breaking, I want the beauty in my painting to be somehow terrifying; a beauty so saturated that it has begun to burn itself out, disappearing. I want the world that my work exists in to be a streamlined synthesis of all visual stimulation I have ever taken in; nothing sacred, all sources brought down to the same level. If the personal, the sentimental, the profane and the spiritual aspects of an individual were fused to create one cumulative aesthetic, the resulting work would be undeniably unique—this is what I strive for most. In this day and age many would argue that it is pointless and arrogant to even entertain the possibility of making a painting that was truly original, but I say those with this outlook are simply too lazy and untalented to even make the attempt. It is a challenge that only seems insurmountable because we have relied too heavily on the history of painting to light our way. Our society and culture have gone through so many radical changes with the advent of new technologies and ways of sharing information that it is ridiculous painting has stayed so static. If something original is to be attained, one must synthesize not only aspects of the history of art, but all things recent culture has brought to us, no matter how useless or vapid they may seem.

Thrilled to Death, 2009 : Oil On Wood : 63 x 56" : comprised of hand painted squares

Cameron Gray : CA

I was inspired to make this painting after my neighbor passed away unexpectedly last year. He was a really beautiful person and a good friend. He’s survived by two beautiful daughters and a strong, wonderful wife. I hear his daughters playing, crying and laughing and just being normal kids when I'm taking a break outside of my studio. Life goes on. It's precious, delicate, and thrilling and can't be suppressed.

Capsize : Ketchup : Cactus : That Much Bigger : (top, clock) : Mixed on paper : 22” x 29” : each

Henry Gunderson : CA

I haven't quite figured out yet how to describe all my work correctly. A lot of my most recent work I would say has something to do with the connections us humans have with nature or the animalistic qualities in a persons' character. It changes, but that would be the basic theme for right now.—FecalFace—

The Contemporary Storyteller by Gilad Segal

Narrative art captures, communicates, and explores stories. This genre of art—most often embodied in paintings and drawings - can be grand, presenting the viewer with a monumental event, or minute, identifying the smallest parts of our existence. It can examine the past, propel the viewer into the future, or expose our current choices and cultural contributions. People love to tell stories, and we have attempted to preserve the themes, triumphs, and conflicts of our lives since the earliest paintings and etchings on rock.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

To see the stories of the past come to life in paint and pencil, one can simply browse through images on museum websites or visit their grand galleries. And yet, it would take much more work to survey today’s narrative art contributions. One would need to visit countless galleries or be fortunate enough to attend a rare museum retrospective of a contemporary narrative artist to see the stories of our time come to life. While some of the great narrative artists of today are just beginning to be recognized by cultural institutions and have their work added to important private collections, it is more common for museums to display historic works that explore the past. The problems of our time – that is the responsibility of future generations to present.

Justin Wood : the Water : What Would You Have Me Do

And yet, narrative art seems well suited for our times. Whether it is through blogging, posting to online forums, or engaging in social media, we are living in a time in which any person with a computer and an Internet connection can share their personal narratives and opinions. It often seems that while we live in a time of unprecedented access to the global community, we have become obsessed with presenting ourselves.

Daniel Martin Diaz : The Seven Sorrows : Aeternus Vita

Today’s crop of narrative artists understand this behavior and benefit from presenting work to an audience that is already obsessed with personal and psychological discovery. Many artists today have a website and a blog. They engage with their collectors and fans through emails and social media. If one cannot identify the story being referenced in a painting by Daniel Martin Diaz, one only has to go to his website and contact him.

Micah Ganske : The Full Picture : Vacation’s End (featured in exhibit)

Technology and our relationship with social media is a dominant theme in the work of Micah Ganske. As the artist states, “This subject is close to me because I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, yet spent most of my time indoors with my computer.” In his painting “The Full Picture,” we view a family on vacation posing for a portrait through the screen of a digital camera. The beautiful image reflects the family’s relationship with technology and our ability to immediately share our experiences with others through technology – this is a family portrait that will be shared on Facebook later the same day.

Kelsey Brookes : CA

In works by the Californian artist, Kelsey Brookes, we are often reminded that we are not the center of the universe. A trained scientist, Brookes’ canvases often depict a central figure surrounded by microorganisms that float and interact with each other. Often spiritual and always reflective in nature, Brookes reminds his viewer that she is but one creature in a world brimming with all forms of life.

Henry Gunderson : Cactus : Capsize

There are very few rules for narrative art and in this way too, it is appropriate for our time. Themes and imagery that were once considered taboo rarely affect us. Our culture is saturated with visual imagery, and as a result, narrative artists today face the challenge of being honest storytellers, while at the same time finding a way to hold our attention.

Esther Pear Watson : The Transportation of the Future : Listen

In the work of Esther Pearl Watson, the titles of her pieces are often painted next to the artist’s signature on the canvas. Watson’s work is deeply personal, often reflecting on her childhood in Texas and her father’s obsession with building spacecrafts. In her painting, “The Transportation of the Future,” a silver space ship hovers over rural Texas. If the image of a futuristic craft is not enough to grab the viewer’s attention, then the words on the canvas command it.

Erik Mark Sandberg : Girls with Hot Summer Fashion

Erik Mark Sandberg’s labor-intensive paintings demand attention through their execution and underlying message. In his work, Sandberg often covers beautiful silk-screened images with painted hair and layers of resin that force the viewer to look beyond the surface to see the beauty of the person beneath. Conveying a message much deeper than the adage that true beauty lies within, he successfully engages the viewer by presenting an uncomfortable and sometimes shocking rendition of beauty.

Kevin Paulsen (NY) : Kent Williams (CA)

In many ways, the messages and stories of artists today explore the same themes as those of generations past. Beauty, family, and personal identity recur in narrative art throughout the millennia, and yet each generation of artists examines them through a unique, contextualized perspective. Through their work, these artists hope to preserve our values and culture whether they agreed with them or not. Stories are, after all, monuments to our lives.

David Jien : CA (R/featured in exhibit) : Edwin Ushiro : HI (R)

Including works by the above artists and many more, “Survey Select —A Narrative Art Exhibition” seeks to present – as its title tells us – a survey of art by the storytellers of our time. Curated by Mark Murphy, the exhibition will display paintings, drawings, mixed media, and digital pieces from over 65 fine artists who range in age from 18-75.

Irene Hardwicke Olivieri : Hiro Kurata

Presenting this exhibition as a modern day salon, Murphy has cleverly chosen a context that at once honors the past while reflecting the social interactions of today. Murphy understands that the audience is as important as the messages and stories being presented, and so asks them to take part in the discussion—to interact with the artists and to become involved by sharing their own narratives during the exhibition.

The exhibition also creates a stamp in time of narrative art today. In time, the world is going to change and as it does, a new crop of artists and storytellers will emerge to capture it. These new artists will be able to look back at collections like “Survey Select —A Narrative Exhibition” and reference, critique, and ultimately expand upon the legacy left by the great narrative artists of our time.

Marco Wagner : (Both paintings featured in Survey Select Exhibition)

Gilad Segal is a creative writer who lives and works in Los Angeles. He recently moved to California from New York City, where he supplemented his creative work by writing copy and creative briefs for packaging, print ads, and commercials. He is also an experienced creative writing instructor. While Gilad writes primarily scripts and fiction, his passion for collecting art and supporting emerging artists has led to some unique writing opportunities. He is currently in discussions to curate an exhibition and is developing an art blog to go live later this year.

Kelsey Brookes Book in Progress

Traveling is always a great excuse for me to get caught up on reading or the need to hyper focus in on a project. In fact, some of my best work comes with a laptop on my lap sitting in a car, train or airplane. My most recent trip was inspired, as I read Henry Adam’s book, “Tom and Jack—The intertwined lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock” and designed most of the new Kelsey Brookes book, “Bigger, Brighter, Bolder.”

“Bigger, Brighter, Bolder” commemorates Kelsey’s Quint Contemporary exhibition, (exhibit and book title), held earlier this year and celebrates a new voice in modern painting. The 7 ½” x 9 ¼” full-color catalog published by Murphy Design features work from Quint Contemporary, New Image Art Gallery and photography by Tim Mantoani, Josh White and Mark Murphy.

Kelsey’s work is an intuitive assemblage of mini paint strokes that reveal organic shapes, animals and poetic prose. Each painting invites the viewer to inspect the canvas closely and experience micro details that reveal whimsical creatures inhabiting finite spaces within the composition.

“Bigger, Brighter, Bolder” is an experimentation of micro-symbology, small painted details that work their way rhythmically throughout every sector of the canvas. Kelsey’s sprawling compositions might have been influenced by his prior career as a scientist, analyzing micro-organisms through his trusty microscope.

“Bigger, Brighter, Bolder” featuring Kelsey Brookes will be a high-quality publication reproduced with archival printing techniques and released this July in 2010. Mark Murphy is the kid designing and Murphy Fine Art Books/Murphy Design is the company publishing. More information soon.

Kelsey Brookes is Brighter and Bolder

American psychobiologist, Roger W. Sperry developed the theory of right brain and left brain thinking in the 1960s. Sperry’s research concluded, the right brain is visual and processes information intuitively and simultaneously, while the left brain is verbal and processes information analytically and sequentially.

American fine artist, Kelsey Brookes is a former scientist who pays homage to his analytical background by painting thousands of small interpretive brush strokes. Kelsey celebrates Dr. Sperry’s left/right brain theory by manifesting masterful works of art through his visually articulate style, bright colored compositions, mystical deities and nature’s creatures.

Kelsey Brookes further defines these notions in his latest exhibition, “Bigger, Brighter, Bolder” at the Quint Contemporary Art gallery in La Jolla, CA. Now in its final week, Kelsey has created a fresh and innovative body of work that interplays brightly colored organic elements with abstract figures, animals and text. This exhibition is comprised of, what I would call, micro-symbology, where each canvas features thousands upon thousands of painted pieces.

Each painting features an array of brightly painted animals, smiling deities, fruit pieces, neon colors, densely painted glitter areas, (with the shimmer of metallic rock) and brush strokes dance around the central character(s) on each canvas. One of the most inspiring attributes of Kelsey's work is that it invites you in, requesting your participation and closer analysis of the composition.

"Bigger, Brighter, Bolder" represents personal meditations, as a result of life’s experiences. Kelsey’s work is personal and draws upon influences from Hindu and Buddhist deities, exotic animals, sexuality, nature and spirituality. Also, he incorporates the poetic verse of William Blake and the active brush movement of Francis Bacon. In “Tyger, Tyger,” a double canvas and largest work in the exhibit, (seen above), Kelsey celebrates William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” while adding his own story line. The piece incorporates dense applications of glitter paint, representing his fascination with how people adorn themselves with jewels and precious metals on their person.

Each painting also celebrates Kelsey’s keen interest in rustic American quilts. The brush strokes form a kind of interwoven tapestry, intertwining color and design in controlled and non-controlled ways. Outward color rays look as if they were created through delicate masking, while outward and moving splats and sprays are moved around the canvas begging your eye to travel from pink pool to dense metallic pilings on the canvas’ surface.

Who says you can’t use your left and right brain equally? Kelsey Brookes’ focus and painting dedication over the past year on many of the featured pieces really paid off in “Bigger, Brighter, Bolder.” I felt this exhibition was one of the year’s best alongside of Jeff Soto’s Riverside Museum installation, “Turning in Circles,” the Clayton Brother’s Patrick Painter Gallery exhibition, “Jumbo Fruit,” and the incredible transformation of James Jean’s canvases in the Giant Robot Biennial at the Japanese American National Museum. Congratulations to all of you left/right brain artisans.

+++And there’s More+++
To commemorate Kelsey Brookes and the “Bigger, Brighter, Bolder” exhibition, Murphy Design was on hand this past Thursday at the Quint Contemporary with a full production team looking to capture the spirit of the exhibit before the paintings came down and the show had ended.

Tim Mantoani, a great sports and personality photographer based in San Diego, captured details of all of Kelsey’s paintings and a few really great portraits of Kelsey through a make shift camera made of cardboard, duct tape, an old view camera rigged to his fancy digital camera. The results are rocking, check out the photo. Also on hand, Geoff and Kelly from Ten Stories, complete with hi-def camera gear, captured all of the paintings and a few interviews with Kelsey. It was a great day, with great talent archiving an important exhibition for future generations to enjoy.

Kelsey Brookes : Sink or Swim

Kelsey Brookes draws inspiration from Hindu and Buddhist deities, exotic animals, sex and the rustic nature of old American quilts. Kelsey’s paintings reveal other worldly figures adorned by his personal, often phenetic* visual style and the raw energy of nature.

Kelsey is a former biochemist who discovered art after a soulful search yearning for something more potent—a life changing alteration that lead to his current artistic adventure. Successful exhibitions in Los Angeles, London and his surf residence in San Diego have delivered a unique collection of paintings that represents a clash between ancient and ultra-modern ideals. Often sexually charged, Kelsey’s paintings feature a potent mix up of women, beasts, sacred deities, folk art traditions and his intuitive voice.

Check out more of Kelsey’s work at www.kelseybrookes.com where you will find 2 amazing nine color screen-prints limited to an edition of 100, signed and numbered, measuring 20” x 20.” They are offered individually ($100) or as a set ($180) plus shipping. They rock, and Kelsey Brookes is working hard on a new body of work, including a new painting for the Scribble08 exhibition in San Diego during Comic-Con, July 23--curation by yours truly.

Wikipedia Notes :
In biology, phenetics, also known as numerical taxonomy or taximetrics, is an attempt to classify organisms based on overall similarity, usually in morphology or other observable traits, regardless of their phylogeny or evolutionary relation.