Big Fizz-Bang & Chernobyl Collective Show

Kevin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:07:33 +0000

Avoiding all ‘time-flying’ clichés I’d like to write about a few things that happened during the long days in the seemingly short months of summer.

The members of the Chernobyl Collective held another show and zine release here in Philadelphia. It opened in the PhilaMoca space and had also held a closing with live bands: Lands & Peoples, Secret Mountains, Norwegian Arms and Da Comrade! all accompanied with projections by Eye Gate II.

I did a piece titled The Big Fizz-Bang and made a small installation out of it. The theme was myths & legends. I feel that those topics manifest as a result of storytelling. With that as my focus of my intentions I chose to originally create my own take on creationism, a light-hearted spin that doesn’t really reflect my own views on the subject BUT since every faction of humanity and science have a version I thought I would make one too. Myth-rituals and historical narratives are both man-made and employ the use of symbolic representations.

With all that being said, it is a painting of Pop-rocks and Cola.

I’ll be sure to post some pics of the zine soon since I did the layout of it and happen to be quite pleased with it and the work published with it. Thanks to everyone that came out or bought a zine or both or take the time to read this blog!

Froze in Summer

Kevin — Sat, 21 May 2011 17:26:03 +0000

An experiment taken from a sketch book drawing back in August and fleshed out recently. I might revisit other older drawings since it was fun playing around with this one.

Ridin’ Dirty Benefit Art Show

Kevin — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:11:38 +0000

I donated a piece made for the Ridin’ Dirty Show held at Masthead Studios recently. Two young Philadelphians, Jakie Berry and Cerise Kacensky, are trying to raise money so they can participate in the Bike and Build program this summer where they’ll help build affordable housing in the U.S. This piece is a little something inspired by Springtime bikes rides. Rides that I seem to almost enjoy more when it’s raining. I don’t know, after cold, grizzly winters a nice rainy bike ride in Spring just feels good.

Bam-Pow!

Kevin — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:55:08 +0000

On April 2nd we (Chernobyl Collective Arts) held our release party for Bam-Pow at Dock Street. We took the place over, hung up work and had No One And The Somebodies, TJ Kong and The Atomic Bomb, Da Comrade! and Mose Giganticus play during the opening. I also painted a mural installation in the restaurant which is permanent. I’ll have photos of that soon, but feel free to check it out and enjoy one of their freshly brewed specialty beers.

Here are some shots of the zine itself. (I shamelessly took included two photos of my pieces in the zine) The work was an edited compilation of some friends and fellow artists. I executed the design layout, but teamwork does make the dream work. Any feedback is appreciate, brace yourselves for the next issue in a few months. . .

Re-Cover

Kevin — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:13:44 +0000

TrickGo is hosting a fairly large show this weekend here in Philly. They distributed about 50 LP’s and invited artists to basically re-cover the album art. Among the ranks are two talented friends of mine, Brad Haubrich and Steve Stresiguth. Here is photo of my contribution for the show. I never heard of Karla Bonoff before but I read the liner notes and song lyrics, pretty sad stuff. Betrayal, delusion and self-sabotage were the overall themes I had taken away from it.

That inspired the martyr-esque portrayal with the arrows and halo. The elephant skeleton has to do with my everlasting obsessions with factoids and flora+fauna. Elephants mate for life and Karla here is feeling like love is dead. Anyway, I finished this and am almost finished with the Chernobyl Collective Arts zine and the big show we’re having on April 2nd. Mark your calendars for that too. Be sure to stop by this show Saturday from 6-10 if you’re in the area.

TrickGo Boutique and Gallery is located at 1135 Pine St. in Philadelphia.

Jinxed HeArt Show 2011

Kevin — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:33:50 +0000

This is my piece for this years HeArt Show at Jinxed / Toothless Cat Gallery. I used the shape of the panel to create the form of the subject. The result being these two barn swallows in a nested embrace. Inspired by the weather of February and the intentions of Hallmark Holiday (you know, Valentine’s Day). A little symmetrical, a little sappy, but definitely something I enjoyed doing. More stuff on the way. If you get a chance come check out the show, cheers!

Ladies & Such

Kevin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:16:16 +0000

This design was a requested commission for the group Les Professionnels based in Philadelphia signed to Company Policy Records. You can listen to some of their stuff here. It’s a straight forward iconic logo; pretty girl with an Art Nouveau inspired composition using a record LP. I have been experimenting with some different approaches to digital media, so far I’m into the results. Practice makes perfect though, right?

Little Mouse

Kevin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 22:04:22 +0000

Did this little piece for a commission last month. Simple composition of a mouse, as per request. Mixed media on 8 inch wood panel. Fun to make, happy to send off into the world. Cheers!

Quiet Time

Kevin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:20:50 +0000

I’ve been a little absent from the blog lately. Now that the Holidays are over things can get back to normal around here. I have been actively pursuing gallery space for a group show I am co-curating for upcoming April. We’ve been planning this show for a little over a month now, finally things seem to be falling into place.

To Tell the Tale Show

Kevin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 19:50:21 +0000

Recently I did work for a show hosted by Company Policy Apparel at the Studio:Christensen Gallery. As you can see by the flier above I’m a bit late on the posting. I thought I lost the few pictures I had, but guess what–I didn’t! So here they are.

A quick glimpse of the crowd that came out. The reception was well attended, I got

to see some people I haven’t seen in a while which was nice.

Here are some shots I took of my paintings in the show. The overall theme for everyone’s work were different fairy-tales. I was inspired by two Brothers’ Grimm pieces, The Owl and The Golden Blackbird. The Owl brought to mind this guy, and how we treat the things we fear and do not understand. Part of this piece has some tarot influence. The moon represents The Unknown and just so happened to tie in well. Unfortunately, I had attached tree branches to this piece which broke off after it fell off of the wall it was hanging on. All that survived were a few leaves. Oh well.

mixed media on wood, 24″X24″

Close-up of the owl.

The Golden Blackbird story inspired this diptych. I honestly was really into the symbols I could pull from it and the classic Brothers Grimm gore factor. Also the composition created involved represents all of the things gained by the young prince becoming part of the fox’s tale. Once the fox is separated from his body he himself goes through a metamorphosis in which he becomes a man.

I really dug this piece by NOM N O W. There are more pictures of the event you can check out here. Thanks again to everyone that came out, I hope to see you at the next show (December 16th @ Paradigm Gallery. . .more details soon)