Gods of the City Painting

Time really flies when you're busy! Sorry for my lack of posts lately. Between freelance work that I can't share, travel, and school I've managed to let this blog grow a bit stale. I'll try to pick up the slack a bit.

Here's something that isn't particularly new, but I haven't posted it here or on my website yet. This painting was created earlier this year as a "reaction" project that we were asked to do after a week-long contact period with the Hartford MFA program in New York.

For me, already currently living in New York, I wanted to do something a little different than Times Square or Central Park (not that there's anything wrong with those places). So I chose an area that I've always enjoyed since moving here seven years ago. The arches under the train bridge in Astoria park also known as the Hell Gate Bridge have often felt otherworldly to me. So using them as a backdrop, I let my imagination run free a little bit and arrived at the image below. 

For a while I was really unsure how I felt about the painting because it's a little different for me. But over the past few months I've received a good amount of positive feedback on it. I suppose i'm always my own worst critic.  

Gods of the City - 12" x 18" Oil on illustration board. 

Spectrum 20

Back in 2001 I was a junior in high school. Art class was my favorite, and I tried to fill my schedule with as many as the school would allow. I had been drawing and painting since I was very young. But I didn't really think anything of it until later in high school when my teacher told me that I could actually make art as a living, and there were such things as "art schools." I was ecstatic, I knew what I was going to do. In high school however, you don't learn so much about different artists. Sure, we heard about the big guys that everyone knows about, but I was never told what illustration was and how it differed from fine art (it doesn't, but for the sake of categorization in the eyes of art history...). I knew I liked painting and I especially enjoyed painting things realistically, but at the same time I liked comics and video games and fantasy movies. 
One day while in Boston wandering around by myself as I waited for my girlfriend at the time to get out of photography class, I stopped into Virgin Records to look for some music. Shortly after not finding any music I came upon the floor with all of the books. I immediately saw this one: 

I picked it up and sat down with it to see what "Fantastic Art" was all about. It was filled with hundreds of amazing images. I couldn't believe how cool all of it was, and that people painted these things. I knew I had to have this book. 

I carried it with me every day to school after that,  and flipped through it any chance I had. I drew from it, I studied the artists names, I memorized every image in there. I hoped that one day I could be a part of this, but I knew that was silly....me? Nooo. 

Years later, as a junior in college, I entered my first pieces into the Spectrum competition. It became an annual event each year after. My friends and I would get our best pieces of the year together and send them off to the competition, knowing we had little to no chance. Most of the time I would even forget that I sent things in because of how much of a long shot it was. But it was still worth it to try.

Twelve years after I chanced across that Spectrum 8 I can finally say that I've achieved what I dreamed of when first setting eyes on it. I'm deeply honored and still completely awestruck to be included in this year's Spectrum 20. Thanks to all the judges, and the Fenners who have been publishing the series for all these years. Here's the piece that will we included:

Now I have to keep my butt in gear to hopefully continue to get in!

Also! In other Spectrum related news: I will be back at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! in Kansas City in just a few short weeks. I'll have all sorts of prints, drawings, and original art to check out so come say hi at booth # 802.