The Shop is Open!
August 8, 2019
Today I am soft-launching the online store for my prints. There is a limited number of prints available for sale right now, with more to come soon. Eventually I’ll be making original paintings available for sale as well, but feel free to contact me if you are interested in an original now.
Creature with Sea Monkeys
The Creature From The Black Lagoon has always been one of my favorite monster designs. I’ve had a translucent creature figure that I’ve saved for twenty years (from a 90’s Burger King promotion) hoping to do something with it one day besides display in our bathroom. I put it in the fish tank and shot about two hundred photos one day, but because of the translucency it was hard to read in the water so I never used it.
Last month I found an old Sea Monkey habitat in a cabinet (who doesn’t have one lying around?) and thought it would be fun to paint Sea Monkeys in some way. About a week later a Super7 started selling a smaller opaque creature figure online.
When the day came to start working out an idea for the next painting I realized what had to happen. In the background on the top right is a poster from this years Pintastic pinball expo, a mason jar with glow in the dark grow-in-water zombies on the left, another mason jar on the right with the original translucent creature figure inside, and an octopus on the lower left.
Gallery A3 – 6th Annual Juried Show – Sky Bowl
I’m thrilled to have had “Smashed Cars” selected for the 6th Annual Juried Show at Gallery A3, juried by Donnabell Casis The title of the show this year is Sky Bowl.
From the Gallery A3 Facebook post:
The inspiration for the title of our August show “Sky Bowl,” is a poem by Carl Sandburg.
Summer Stars
Bend low again, night of summer stars.
So near you are, sky of summer stars,
So near, a long arm man can pick off stars,
Pick off what he wants in the sky bowl,
So near you are, summer stars,
So near, strumming, strumming,
So lazy and hum-strumming.
From Smoke and Steel (Harcourt, 1920)”
King Kong
King Kong – 14”x18” – acrylic on canvas. I bought this 3” King Kong souvenir years ago, outside Penn Station for way too much money. There’s a perfect level of kitschiness to it that’s always resonated with me.
Irises
Two weeks ago, after having finished the painting Smashed Cars, I decided to loosen things up and paint a painting in a single day instead of the usual few weeks.
Smashed Cars – 12″x16″ acrylic on canvas
I went almost the whole month of April without painting, and it was tough. Sometime in March my youngest son and his friend thought it would be fun to smash up a bunch of Hot Wheels cars and create stories for what happened to each car. I did this exact thing with my own cars and other toys when I was a kid. I still regret the destruction of a good amount of Transformers that I’d love to have back.
When they were finished I dumped the car carcasses in the kitchen sink and arranged them until I found a layout I liked. This is how this painting came to be.
Here is the time lapse video of the painting process.
Zonta “Silent No More” Auction
On Monday May 6, I was at the Ludlow Country Club for the Silent No More Auction held by the Zonta Club of Quabog Valley. A framed giclee print of my painting, Truck with Insulation, sold at auction, along with a lot of other good stuff.
Belchertown Art Week
I had a great day displaying my work for Belchertow Art Week at the Belchertown United Church of Christ. It was wonderful to meet and talk to so many people about painting, art, the town, and life.
The Last Stand – Time Lapse Video
Last Stand -Time Lapse, acrylic on canvas 11”x14” – I only filmed the first couple of days. The details take so long and change things so gradually that even time lapse videos are too long to watch.
Time lapse video of Monsters
It took around 36 hours over about a month to complete. The first part of the video only covers the first week. At the end each frame of video is one still photo from the end of a session.
Chris Bordenca 