“Express Yourself”

"N.W.A. (Nuthatches With Attitude)" (detail)

It’s possible that everyone who creates for a living gets asked the question “Where do you get your ideas from?” whether you’re making movies, writing songs, painting pictures or creatings gastronomical delights. What I think is actually the more interesting question is “How do you choose which idea to pursue?” Because there are lots of ideas floating around out there, and when you cast your net you’re likely to pull up some good stuff and some things that are just sad and need to be thrown back. Sometimes the thing that makes one idea stick out from a sea of possibilities is if it can make me laugh.

Which is how I ended up painting “N.W.A. (Nuthatches With Attitude)” for the big grand re-opening of Varnish Fine Art gallery this Saturday. There were other ideas, but in a “survival of the fittest” idea contest this one put the others down hard. (Though as usual, the entire time I’m painting it the little voice of doubt on my shoulder was going “Just ’cause you like it doesn’t mean anybody else will.” Which is why I listen to a lot of music and podcasts while I paint — to drown that evil little bastard out.)

The start of most any piece begins with the gathering of reference, so I was looking at things like this (notice how they burned all the sports logos off the hats):

And I have several branches in my studio, so I took a few snaps to get some ideas about what the birds might be sitting on…

This owl was kind enough to model my gold dookie rope, and I ended up with a sketch that looked like this:

The little green post-it notes were me figuring out who was who — Eazy-E was kinda, um, “not tall in stature”, and as it so happens there is actually a pygmy nuthatch (I love the universe), and MC Ren kinda needed to be an actual wren (props to Mark Matcho), the rest are proper nuthatches with Dr. Dre up top, DJ Yella in the middle, and Ice Cube in the lower left about to take flight (he split N.W.A., didn’t feel like he was getting his fair cut since he wrote most of the songs).

Lil' Eazy-E with his Compton hat. (detail)

Put it all together and it looks something like this:

Then it was off to deliver!

Jen Rogers and Kerri Stephens are like dual phoenixes, rising from the ashes of the original Varnish gallery (torn down when the SF Transit Authority made a land grab), and have created an absolutely gorgeous new space not far from their original location. Here are a few sneak peeks:

Kerri built these shelves which I absolutely covet.

The "Nutz" painting, chillin' in the lounge.

Taking a quick meeting with Kerri on the roof.

Gorgeous space, show up n' ready to go (including the Monster Photo Booth)

Pretty sweet, right? So if you’re in the Bay Area, you know where you want to be this Saturday between 4-8pm! Correct! Varnish Fine Art — you can read more about Varnish in this swell little write up on ScoutMob right here, and visit the gallery’s site right here.

Varnish Fine Art Relaunch
Opening Sept. 24th, 4-8pm
16 Jessie Street, SF CA

Hope to see you there!

Advertisement