hello

-This blog has been moved

2010-08-02T02:38:00.003-04:00

Finally switched over to the new blog at esaoandrews.blogspot.com and have streamed lined esao.net. I will not be updating this blog anymore.
Thanks.
esao.

-I'm almost back.

2010-06-12T02:38:00.005-04:00

I am part of two group shows opening tomorrow if you happen to be in Brooklyn..

One is for "A Love Craft: Art Inspired by Monsters, Madness, and Mythos" honoring writing genius H.P. Lovecraft. Its at the Observatory
543 Union Street Brooklyn, NY 11215

This painting is a bargain 5x7. Contact them if interested.

The other show is a print show at the brand new 99 Gallery at 99 North 10th street Brooklyn, NY 11211. Its a silent auction and fundraiser to inaugurate the space. Lots of artists involved, should be a fun time.

I have a framed "Remy's Ascension" #69/80. It was from a canceled order from long ago and now can be yours. Contact info@ninetyninegallery.com if you want this.

Had my parasitic 15 seconds of fame the other night..

See you soon.
esao.

-esaoandrews.blogspot.com

2010-06-11T13:06:00.003-04:00

I've transferred and updated this blog to www.esaoandrews.blogspot.com

this blog will be deleted soon.
esao.

-Jury Duty Today

2010-03-23T00:02:00.003-04:00

A few more shots of Soybean over at Thomas Prior's blog.
esao

-3.15.10

2010-03-15T20:53:00.001-04:00

-House Of Mystery 26

2010-03-08T11:36:00.004-05:00

House of Myster issue 26.
The upcoming story arc sounds really great. One thing that people might not think about is how far ahead the covers have to be done(in order to have an image for solicitations in catalogues etc..) So when an issue finally comes out, months have gone by. Often times I won't be sure what new characters will look like since the issue hasn't been drawn yet.

For instance, Fig, the main character whose sitting is wearing what she wore in issue 21.

Oil on board 12"x18".
A bit of burning and dodging in photoshop.
esao.

-Time Lapse

2010-03-01T10:34:00.002-05:00

Here's a time-laspe of me painting the Blue Sky Noise album cover. The audio kicks in instantly and at full volume so mind the speaker icon before playing.

I'll put a more longer version up on youtube at some point. Special thanks to Matthew Taillon for his youtube speed painting page.

esao

-Group Show

2010-02-22T13:52:00.002-05:00

This Coming Saturday is Jonathan Levine Gallery's Five Year Anniversary Group Exhibition
February 27 to March 27, 2010.
Opening Reception: Sat. 27th from 7-9pm.

Literally ton's of artists are showing(If everyone's weight averaged out at 150 lbs, it would be almost 3 tons!)
The list of artists are at the bottom of the post.
Here's my piece below.

"Meigh" 20"x24" oil on wood.

While this was being varnished, I took a shot of the frame on a plastic hook in my studio so i could Photoshop the painting in for the blog.

As I was cropping the background out I thought the tote and shadow looked cool when framed. Out of context with the surroundings.

See.

Dee Tale.

Adam Wallacavage
AJ Fosik
Andrew Brandou
Andy Kehoe
Blek le Rat
Chris Mars
Dan Witz
Date Farmers
Dave Cooper
Doze Green
Eric White
Erik Mark Sandberg
Esao Andrews
Gary Baseman
Gary Taxali
Invader
Isabel Samaras
James Jean
Jeff Soto
Jim Houser
Josh Agle (Shag)
Kathy Staico Schorr
Mark Dean Veca
MARS-1
Miss Van
Natalia Fabia
Nouar
Plankton
Ray Caesar
Ron English
Scott Musgrove
Shepard Fairey
Souther Salazar
Stephan Doitschinoff (Calma)
Tara McPherson
Titi Freak
WK
Xiaoqing Ding

I'll be catching up with whatever e-mails now, sorry.
esao.

-Blue Sky Noise

2010-02-17T03:00:00.000-05:00

Hello.
First, sorry I've been playing hookie the past few weeks, there's sort of an excuse at the bottom of this post...
But for the main meat, I'd like to say congrats and thanks to Circa Survive for having me do the artwork for their upcoming album Blue Sky Noise, being put out by Atlantic Records in April.

You can pre-order the album with a limited edition lithograph HERE. I'm NOT going to be putting any prints out myself so this is your only chance.

"Blue Sky Noise" oil on wood 36"x36"
and detail below

When I do a sketch I transfer the drawing onto wood. This is the Saral™ Transfer paper that I used for it, and a few other paintings. I like the way they look.

Now, there were so many consecutive "filler" posts that I became irritated by the quantity vs.(lack of)quality. I'm gonna continue the with Monday's from here on out though they may just be links to other artists, random experiments, or pictures of food etc.. A combination of streamlining my site and working on my neglected Youtube, and Flickr are still in the works.
esao.

-January 18

2010-01-18T21:23:00.004-05:00

Came across this weird piece of bark/dried poop thing in the desert.

Still busy with nothing new to show.
esao.

-Soybean 1:11

2010-01-11T13:11:00.000-05:00

Check out other cool photos by Tom Prior <---

2010

2010-01-04T18:48:00.002-05:00

So I have nothing new this week again. I keep a pocket sized sketchbook for those days when I don't feel like carrying my man-purse around.

Here are some pages from a year ago.

As for any resolutions, I really want to start working harder and doing more funny stuff. Also would like to say thanks to everyone who looks at my site. I appreciate you.
esao.

-...Bliss

2009-12-28T18:01:00.003-05:00

So this is my last post of the year and my resolution of posting every Monday of 2009 was successful, barring that one post in August where I posted on Tuesday at 3am.

In the next few days I'll pin point what new resolution's I'll make for 2010.
My thoughts have become too intense and frustrated that I am deleting all of my news/science tabs and am looking forward to putting a deaf ear to world/local affairs for a while. Thats one of my resolutions for '10. Be mellow.

I got back from Arizona today and was able to haul back a giant portfolio of my high school and Jr. high artwork. Below are some really funny self-portraits...

"Self-Portrait with Parasites"
14"x18" Tester's model enamel on paper. Age 17. I remember feeling nauseous while painting this because to this day, a Surinam Toad giving birth is the grossest thing I can think of. Scroll down on this LINK..

"Self-Portrait with Christy Turlington"
9"x14" Pencil on paper. Age 15.
I have a ton more paintings I'll scan later.

Also, I am in the Dark Pop 2.0 group show at Last Rites Gallery in Chelsea.
Here's that piece for it, framed. Contact
Andrew[at]LastRitesGallery.com
if interested.

Opening is January 9th 7-11pm.

Participating artists include:
AIKO (Aiko Nakagawa), Lisa Alisa, Esao Andrews, John Cebollero, Joshua Clay, Molly Crabapple, Amy Crehore, Yoko d'Holbachie, Leslie Ditto, Mickey Edtinger, Mark Elliott, Eric Fortune, GAIA, Stella Im Hultberg, Sarah Joncas, Aya Kakeda, Ben Kehoe, Dan-ah Kim, Daniel Hyun Lim (Fawn Fruits), Danni Shinya Luo, David MacDowell, Mike Maxwell, Simone Maynard, Dennis McNett, Tara McPherson, Michael Page, Nathan Lee Pickett, Leslie Reppeteaux, Mijn Schatje, Tin, Dan Witz and Jaeran Won.

esao.

-House of Mystery 24.

2009-12-21T01:11:00.000-05:00

My friend Ryan Reeb and Gunnar are working on an animated short which you can see the progress HERE. If you'd like to support what they are doing and want to see more stuff in the future, read up about the pledge support system they got going at www.kickstarter.com

Happy Holidays.
Off to AZ.
-esao

-Dec 14

2009-12-14T16:37:00.003-05:00

Don't have anything new this week...

"Untitled" canvas, wood, lace, foam, shoes; 1998
esao

-Dec 7

2009-12-07T17:27:00.003-05:00

I'm about to ship out everyone's orders from last week, had to wait for some back ordered shipping supplies to come in.

oil on wood 8"x8"..no title yet.
esao.

-Go For The Gold III

2009-11-30T11:59:00.001-05:00

2 New Prints are here.

"Remy's Ascension"
Paper size 16"x16"
image 14.5"x14.5"
Edition of 80
$85

"Off to the Little Village"
Paper size 11"x13"
image 9.5"x11.5"
Edition of 60
$75

Also...
Meathaus's Go For The Gold 3 anthology is here, its 239 pages of preliminary ideas and sketches. Very inspiring to look through.

I have several pages in it along with this great list of people...
Al Columbia
Andy Ristaino
Arik Roper
Benjamin Marra
Bob Flynn
Brandon Graham
Chris McD
Dash Shaw
Dave Kiersh
Farel Dalrymple
Harvey James
Ines Estrada
James Jean
Jason Sacher
Jesse Moynihan
Josh Latta
Katie Rice
Kevin Fagan
Michaela Zacchilli
Mu Pan
Nathan Fox
Nicholas Gazin
Nick Bertozzi
Peter Chung(the guy who did Aeon Flux)
Rebecca Sugar
Robertryan Cory
Ron Wimberly
Sam Kim
Thomas Herpich
Tomer Hanuka
Victor Cayro
Vicent Giard
Vincent Stall
Zachary Baldus

have fun,
esao

-HOM #23

2009-11-23T20:58:00.003-05:00

A few new prints will be up next Monday at noon.

Here is House of Mystery #23 for Vertigo Comics, without text.

I burned and dodged, added blood, wall lines etc. in Photoshop. Below is the original painting.

12x18 oil on wood.
Here's a group of some sketches I did in the beginning.

Happy Thanksgiving.
esao.

-More Old Stuff.

2009-11-16T16:15:00.003-05:00

I have nothing this week. These are some studies from my SVA days. Scrawled on the back of this first piece reads 10-25-98.

I think that this is Farel Dalrymple's sister in a wig, but am not sure.

These two below are painted on chopping blocks found on the street.

All of them are roughly 12"x16"
esao.

-Sketchbook

2009-11-09T16:19:00.002-05:00

Haven't worked in my sketchbook in months. I treated myself to a Bloody Mary at Blackout Bar while sketching up some bottles against the mirror.

The tasty garnish had a pepperoni cube, jack cheese, olives and celery. Sounds weird until you see it.
esao.

House of Mystery #22

2009-11-02T22:23:00.005-05:00

For this issue Matt Sturges wanted a twisted children's storybook look.

The description of the cover was pretty tight, so that is why my sketches look similar.

Here's what the painting looks like sans text.

oil on wood 12"x18"

Added the text, sunburst and saturated the colors a bit in ye ol' Photoshop.
Since the "House of Mystery" title goes on top, I put #22 down near the bottom (note pencil sketch above)

Based the color scheme from this 1947 Raggedy Ann Cartoon I had as a kid.

I like how everyone says "Halloween!" instead of "Happy Halloween!" in the cartoon.
esao.

-Halloween

2009-10-26T13:58:00.003-04:00

So Halloween day I'll be over at Last Rite's Gallery hanging out and doing some live painting with the fine folks emboldened in the press release below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Last Rites Tattoo Theatre presents its first ever Creep-In Day on Halloween!

Saturday, October 31st, 12pm-12am at Last Rites Tattoo Theatre, 511 W. 33rd Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues (3 blocks from Penn Station), 3rd floor, New York, NY 10001.
Find more information at www.DarkImages.com.

(New York, NY) Last Rites Tattoo Theatre is celebrating the Halloween season by showing a return of support to all Last Rites friends, family and fans. With their first ever Creep-In Day, dedicated fans and collectors receive a rare opportunity to be tattooed spontaneously without an appointment at the infamous Last Rites Tattoo Theatre… and on Halloween to boot! Along with Paul Booth himself, the Last Rites family of masterful artists will take in the haunting energy of Halloween, Last Rites style, and produce stunning tattoo art on a first-come-first-serve basis! Paul will even be venturing out from his private lair and tattooing in the family crypt making the day an awesome “meet&greet” opportunity for Fans and Clients alike! In addition to this overdose of high energy freehand tattooing from 12 to 12, the day includes visual stimuli such as live painting sessions featuring Esao Andrews, Vincent Castiglia, Fred Harper, Dan Quintana, David Stoupakis, and Genevive Zacconi. ArtFusion Experiment collaborative painting performances by notable Tattoo Artists such as Paul Acker, Goethe, Juan Selgado, Jesse Smith, and more! An ArtFusion canvas will be open for the public to paint as well! The Film Chapel will be rolling Paul’s personal Horror movie picks continuously day and night. And of course, costumes are welcome and encouraged! And last but not least, the day will end at 11:59pm followed by a traditional Last Rites “Kool-Aid” Toast to bring in the Witching Hour.

Please read on for special details…
Paul Booth and Crew will be following normal protocol used for conventions and touring. This means one-sitting freehand style work with an approx. 3 hour time limit on a piece. If you are looking to start a multiple sitting project such as a sleeve or backpiece, then this is not a day for such. Our best advice to you is to give our accomplished artists your theme and trust them with the artistic freedom to run with it for you. 3 hours can get a good sized piece done so don’t let the time issue concern you. We do this to be fair to everyone that desires Last Rites Art. We also suggest getting here earlier than opening time if you are really serious about getting work. The doors will open at 12 noon and anyone behaving overly aggressive, intoxicated or under the influence of drugs will not be tolerated. This event will be filmed for an upcoming Last Rites DVD so costumes are encouraged but not mandatory!

* Meet and Greet the artists and fellow clients all day and night
* Crazy Performers will be unearthing themselves throughout the day for everyone’s twisted amusement.
* Food, Drink and visual stimuli all day long… No Cover! Costumes Welcome!

“We want to show our fans our true appreciation for their support, by allowing them the opportunity to avoid the waiting list… and get tattooed convention style. I have been spending quite a bit of time here at home focusing on my larger projects and I find myself occasionally missing the road. Now I can sort of go on tour without leaving home and get a good dose of that convention energy I have come to know so well. I have always liked the idea of bringing our fans together to meet each other as they have always shown a strong like-mindedness. This is why I want to make it a meet & greet day as well.”

~ Paul Booth ~

Now on Halloween night, I should be over at Dokebi, Here's a poster I did from last year, but *updated* it by shifting the color balance in Photoshop....oh computers.
esao.

-Old Stuff

2009-10-19T20:47:00.002-04:00

When I was sifting through my belongings during the move I dug up an overwhelming cache of old work and sketchbooks. Most of it is embarrassing, some are scary or sad or just plain nonsensical... I'll post things up whenever I'm in a bind with nothing for Monday.

Hunky self-portrait. 6"x8"oil on canvas.
Think I'm about 20 years old in this.
I was living in New Jersey at the time so that may be why I look so serious, shirtless, and orange.

12x19 acrylic and crayon on board.
esao.

-Farewell, Farewell Avery

2009-10-12T18:22:00.002-04:00

Late last night I arrived back to NY from my exceptional time in Los Angeles.

The opening went awesome, I met some really nice people in the company of my west coast friends. Couldn't have been better.

Unfortunately this is one of the few photos I took at the opening. [note: I don't recall baseball players being there] Hopefully other peoples photos will pop up on the internet. It was a great turnout.

"Don't Wake Up The Neighbors" 24"x 36" oil on wood.

HERE is a link to the line up of work I had in the show. There are a few still available.

Now I get to set up my new apartment/studio etc... Something I pointed out in my interview with Andrew Ford, is that all the work that people know me for has been made in the same apartment. Curious about how this may change my future output.

esao

-Off to Silverlake.

2009-10-05T11:12:00.003-04:00

This painting below has been posted in various stages and pieces on this blog for months now. Since my show is coming up in a few days I figured I'd expose it fully. There's a "back talk" feature at Juxtapoz.com where I was given a list of questions and now can't bare to reread my answers.

"Milkmaids Daughter" 20x30" oil on wood.
There are a few other interview questions coming up in the following days courtesy of Drew Ford of Last Rites Gallery and Andrew Hosner of Thinkspace Gallery.
See you in Los Angeles.
esao

-Thinkspace pt.3

2009-09-28T01:00:00.003-04:00

The work for the show is shipped off so you can contact Andrew Hosner over at Thinkspace Gallery (contact[at]sourharvest.com) to see work from my show with Tony Philippou. He's from NYC too, and it'll be cool to finally meet him in LA.

Here is another piece from the show

"Remy's Ascension"- 18"x18" oil on wood. Click image to see it a bit bigger.

Found a really nice place in Greenpoint Brooklyn which I will be moving tomorrow. Hopefully I can get more work done in a bigger space. I'm very excited.
esao

-Ion Birch

2009-09-21T02:16:00.004-04:00

This post isn't about me. The past week I have been looking for apartments and a broker that I was talking to said that he did artwork. Here is a drawing of his. I thought they were amazing and hilarious.

click image to got to his site. NSFW.
The moving, shipping/framing/archiving the show are taking priority over the blog this week.
esao

-Sept 14th

2009-09-14T22:25:00.002-04:00

Quick post because I'm in the process of moving...
Did a shirt design a while back for KCDC Skateshop here in Brooklyn.

There's a small pocket graphic on the front.
Its a small run of shirts and they came out great courtesy of
Seshwan Print Shop

Not sure why its not up on their website, but I picked one up yesterday.
esao

-Metal stuff.

2009-09-07T18:30:00.001-04:00

Did a painting for my friend's metal band called Wizardry. Here's the raw painting without the crop or text added for their upcoming album, humorously titled "Drink From Thy Chalice". ha!

Also did some skull portraits à la "Appetite for Destruction" for Deathwish Skateboards.
Here's Erik and Jim with some. Click images to see other stuff.

bye.
esao

-August 31st

2009-08-31T03:03:00.001-04:00

Without a place on my site to permanently place the ad for my upcoming show in October at Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles, some people may have overlooked it... Contact Andrew Hosner (contact[at]sourharvest.com) from the gallery's website for those of you who maybe interested in stuff.

"Conjoined Bell" oil on wood 30"x48"
Click to get a scaled up version of it.

A while back there was the Ripper show I was a part of and now there is the book.

via www.skateone.com
esao

-Resolution Spoiled

2009-08-25T00:44:00.002-04:00

Every Monday I'm supposed to post a new entry. Sunday night and Monday midday Blogger wasn't letting me log in(and has been really slow lately). Now that its After midnight here in Brooklyn, it's squandered my New Years Resolution. Whatever.. I'm only off by a few hours and besides its still Monday on the West Coast.

esao

-Soybean.

2009-08-17T01:07:00.002-04:00

My dog has been extra special this past week. Click on the photo to see a couple of cool shots Tom Prior took.

Also added this clip to my small Youtube account.
______

And my Thinkspace Show is still underway....

esao.

-Thinkspace pt. 2

2009-08-10T01:13:00.002-04:00

Here's the Juxtapoz ad coming up for my show in October. Tony Philippou, who also lives in New York will be showing in the Project Room of the gallery.

Pretty nervous on what the opening will be like since we are both out-of-towners.

Finally got that ding dang Flickr account I was talking about.
http://www.flickr.com/esao <-- got my name too, Hooray!

Also did a book jacket design for a collection of villain stories, click HERE to check it out.
esao

-New Prints Today

2009-08-02T01:00:00.000-04:00

Click to enter the store.

Here's the cover for House of Mystery #19..

12"x18" oil on birch.

When I started doing the painting I was going for a classic/saintly pose, even though she was being strangled. I guess it doesn't really read that way with the composition being upside down and no halo. It was fun painting either way.

And here is the pencil sketch on an 11"x14" sheet of paper.

Several sketch ideas reveal that somebody is really pissed and annoyed.

esao

-Mystery Statue

2009-07-27T09:46:00.003-04:00

Next Monday I'll be updating my store with these.

Here's a close up of one.

"Untitled" 12"x18" oil on wood.

Also did up a poster for my coffee shop friend Austin Mccutchen.

There's a junk store in my neighborhood which has a huge bin of personal photographs to rummage through. I bought this photo below in the hopes that someone would recognize the statue and share the information.

Thought it might have been Rudolf Siemering, but didn't find this piece. Note the little man in the lower right. This statue is massive.
esao

-Farewell Avery

2009-07-20T01:38:00.005-04:00

That is the title of my upcoming show at Thinkspace Gallery.
And here's another painting from it..

"The Intrepid Seed" 20"x 30" oil on wood.

detail.

And here is the original sketch of it.

11"x 14" pencil drawing.
esao

-July 13th

2009-07-13T01:11:00.000-04:00

esao

-Faerie Glass

2009-07-06T01:17:00.001-04:00

Even though I haven't really done any paintings of fairies, it seems like it was only a matter of time before it would happen. An upcoming book published by Llewellyn, titled: "Through the Faerie Glass" comes out in February.

Here was my first sketch.(This younger chipper version no longer exists, because I ended up erasing her face.

They wanted a more older-wiser and seductive fairy, so I aged her a tad.

oil on wood 9"x12"(cropped with nice font courtesy of Lisa at Llewellyn.)
esao

-June 29th

2009-06-29T01:15:00.000-04:00

Some colored sketch ideas for House of Mystery 18..

..and what happened in the end.

I keep thinking,"pickles."

My wall is starting to be covered with printouts and here is a sample of that.

Also, for those of you that don't really come to this site regularly I have a humble youtube page of 3 non-painting videos.
esao.

-Back from Spain.

2009-06-22T19:39:00.004-04:00

I just got back from Barcelona and clearly there was just way to much sightseeing to sit around drawing for hours... Maybe next time though.

View from my hotel window.

I have a bunch of catching up, errands, etc.. to do so I apologize for the short post.
esao.

-Traveling Masks

2009-06-15T01:11:00.001-04:00

This will be for Vertigo's House of Mystery's Halloween Annual

Bunch of thumbnail sketches.. Venetian-mask inspired.

And here is the original painting, it will be framed and part of my show in October over at Thinkspace Gallery.

Oil on wood. 12"x18"

I'm going to Barcelona Spain today and will hopefully have a couple of sketchbook pages to show when I get back.

This spooky "microchibus phasma" was sent to me from Skeletal Dropkick.
Thanks Cris.

Ciao and Adios
esao

-Skate stuff

2009-06-08T02:48:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Andrew Pommier, I did up a couple of wheels for Momentum.

No dogs were harmed in making them.

Also my friend Mu Pan has been doing some amazing paper sculptures and has a small, yet incredible sampling of them at the Green Onion toy store in Brooklyn.

Extra Also, I do skateboard designs too, here is a Cheech n Chong's Nice Dreams/Mario Cart spoof I did a year and a half ago. Even though some colors were lost in the final screening, it was fun making.

esao

House of Mystery #17

2009-06-01T02:00:00.001-04:00

Another upcoming cover for Vertigo

thy doodles...

This story involves the poet writing a tragic play

My deadline for this cover got lost in translation so I had to make this quick color mock up as a stand in for their catalog.

Here's the finish painting

12x18 oil on wood.
with a detail.

Also, remember this painting below? Its for volume 2 (issues #6-10) of the series and just came out, the post of when I actually did the painting last year can be seen HERE.

Link to the book is right HERE.

Thanks!
esao.

-Memorial Day

2009-05-25T01:11:00.001-04:00

At some point when the sidewalk was being set on a corner in Greenpoint, a poor city amphibian flipped over and ended its life.

[Note: it doesn't look like it has a head because the neck was arched back and created an over hang in between the arms.]

I will be casting a positive of this little guy shortly...
Its that dark spot on the sidewalk in the center of the screen for those of you that want to pay your respects.

View Larger Map

Also, my show for Thinkspace Gallery is coming along so here's another pic of the process. It's about time I seriously start thinking of getting a flickr account.

esao

-Toonz

2009-05-18T01:11:00.000-04:00

Looking through the archives, I guess I forgot to post this...

And for the hell of it, I'll post these exquisite corpse doodles my friends Matt, Clare and myself drew up.

I also added a couple of links.
BeinArt Collective
Justin Hollar
Luis Sanchis
esao

-Thinkspace pt. 1.5

2009-05-11T01:03:00.001-04:00

Quick shot of whats happening on Battlestar...

...with some paintings in various stages for Thinkspace.

These were drawn up for the Korean BBQ place, Dokebi in Brooklyn. Their lunch specials are pretty gnarly for only $8.

A "dokkaebi" is a mischievous-horned goblin of Korean folklore.
esao

-House of Mystery 16

2009-05-04T01:00:00.001-04:00

Starting off with some thumbnails...

Here is the tighter version of the approved sketch.

For the painting I zoomed in and tilted the drawing a bit to fill the cover space.

Looking at the drawing and the sketch side by side as I'm typing this, its really weird how much I changed the face of Ann(the only girl clenched in the hand) A completely different expression-from struggling to a distant worried stare.
-esao

-Thinkspace pt.1

2009-04-27T14:59:00.006-04:00

I have been currently working on my first solo show for Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles, scheduled this coming October.

Though I don't want to show too much stuff for it yet, here's a pencil sketch for a 30"x48" oil painting I'm working on titled "The Conjoined Bell".

I'm super excited/nervous about the show. It's still a ways away, so I'll remind you guys as it approaches.

esao

-Shirt

2009-04-20T13:27:00.003-04:00

This should be turning into a t-shirt for Boe Weaver, a small-psychedelic-instrumental-outfit from the UK.
Not sure how you'd be able to get one yet.
Not sure when I'll have any new prints up either, but I'll let everyone know beforehand.

esao

-House of Mystery #15

2009-04-13T01:36:00.002-04:00

12x18 oil on wood for Vertigo Comics.

esao

-Draw Show

2009-04-06T01:05:00.002-04:00

The nice people over at Fuse Gallery curate a traveling and ongoing drawing show titled "Draw". The website isn't really updated fully at this point, but you can browse most of it HERE

I have a drawing for their San Francisco event on April 11th. Heres the info....

Shooting Gallery
presents
"Draw"
curated by Curse Mackey & Eric Foss
over 300 artists from everywhere
opening reception:
Saturday April 11th
7-11pm
839 Larkin St.
SFCA
94109

And here's the drawing...

Ink on 8x10 paper. Please contact the Shooting Gallery if you feel like you would enjoy owning this crisp cartoony drawing of a conjoined demon head.
Thanks.
esao

-Just an update

2009-03-30T01:11:00.001-04:00

This is pretty much the highest resolution i have of this painting from 2003 which sucks because I liked this painting.

"Madaline" 12"x16" oil on wood.

Here's the close up of the original drawing.

I did end up doing an updated version based on it.

"Ivan" 15"x20" 2006

And here is a small commission I did a while back.

Untitled "Mother with Child" from 2007. I think it was 6"x9".
esao

-Sketchbook Filler

2009-03-23T01:00:00.001-04:00

Sketchy drawing of the cash register at Hotel Delmano. A clipping from The Onion that accurately explains my mindset upon booking my trip to Portland.
A horribly drawn cup and the correct sequence to win the wooden peg jump game every time.

Sketch of the band Child Abuse at Union Pool last summer.

On the opposite end of the music spectrum, here's Leah and Drew Victor playing at the Annex.

A view outside of a Parson's art school window and view inside a doctor's office waiting room.

Based on the little icons in the upper corner, I must be talking about, tapioca bubble tea, my friend Janicza, and something to do with wedding rings and shrimp bbq's.
esao

-Still working...

2009-03-16T00:44:00.004-04:00

House of Mystery 14

Straight forward. Werewolf. Machine gun.

Here's the pencil drawing, I should have made the wolf side look as if it was coming out from under her skin in the final painting. See the zigzag line between the eyes? That's where I was indicating some "tearing", I should have stressed the divide instead of blending them.
Below are the preliminary sketches.

That's all I got this week. Sorry.
esao.

-Fell In Love 10 Times Today

2009-03-09T01:07:00.001-04:00

The weather was absolutely incredible this weekend in NYC.
People were out in full bloom...

Ink sketch for one of the paintings I'm working on. Though I've been super busy this week, don't have anything to show just quite yet.

Here's Soybean high on static.

esao

-Vertigo 11

2009-03-02T00:05:00.004-05:00

Out of order, but this was for House of Mystery issue 11.

Oil on wood 12" x 18"..that little guy better watch out, there's stuff falling.

And here are the sketches scanned in with computer tones.

A close up.

The painting below is from 2005. My friend Autumn gave me a can of spar varnish(used for waterproofing ships and stuff) so I tested it out on this sort of abstracted image. I like the aged-yellow glaze it produced and it feels as if I should be placing drinks on it like a coaster.

This is basically what I look and feel like while getting out of bed some days.
esao

-Faces pt.1

2009-02-23T01:11:00.002-05:00

A pseudo-faced zombie drawing from my sketchbook.

For a while I've been taking photos of things that look like they are faces, so that's why this is 'part one.' Here is a face from the sidewalk between N.7th and N.8th Street on Berry, Brooklyn.

Somewhere on Peralta Trail, Superstition Mountains, Arizona.

There was an owl in my Sapporo the other day.

esao

-Dog Days

2009-02-16T01:10:00.000-05:00

Self Portrait, oil on paper. 1999.

I found an old tape with some stop motion animation i did while at SVA. I only took it for a semester and it was more focused on model making then animating. Here's one of the clumsy test shots I did.

More weird videos that I've done can be seen here.

Also found this logo/design which I did for a block party here in Brooklyn a few years ago. It was a music benefit for B.A.R.C and Rational Animal shelter.

I know I keep posting old stuff. Gotta stay true to the "every Monday" thing.
sorry,
esao

-Pieces Of My Neighborhood

2009-02-09T04:02:00.000-05:00

Some more sketchbook pages.

George Washington by the Williamsburg Bridge. The place where washed-up people like myself go to exercise on skateboards.

Doodle of a demon and my friend Monia Lippi mac'ing at Supercore Cafe when the weather was awesome.

Elongated Andrea also at Supercore. A pre-doodle of the Powell Peralta Ripper looking over a sleeping Soybean.

2nd US President debate at Troy's with an excerpt from the youtube video by Otto, The Brooklyn Feral Cat. It touched my heart.
esao.

-Not much to say

2009-02-02T04:00:00.000-05:00

House of Mystery #13

This issue has a group of short stories in it, bad luck stories i expect...

And here's the rough and one of the several alternate sketch's I did.

esao.

-Ripper

2009-01-26T03:30:00.000-05:00

Did a teeny tiny painting for a Powell Peralta Show. Lots of Artists were involved, all doing their own rendition of the Bones Ripper dude. The show goes up online for sale today at noon at www.skateone.com. They are coming out with a book for all the art too, I think.

Lately, ~~I feel like~~ my sketches have been more interesting than their final painting, so maybe I should start doing some bigger drawings.

Here's a close up of the pen sketch.

Here's the info and names of other folks in the show.

-esao

-Traveling

2009-01-19T03:09:00.000-05:00

I've been in Arizona with family all week, so here is a quick post via my friend Joseph Oursland's computer.

Tiny 5x7 drawing I did for my friend's birthday a few months ago.
esao.

-Photo Dump.

2009-01-12T03:12:00.000-05:00

Here's the cover for issue 12 of House Of Mystery.

And here's the rough and final drawing with some spots of computer shading for reference.

A few changes were made to get to the final drawing.

An alternative sketch that didn't make it.

Did another local flyer too.

Since I'm going to attempt to update regularly I guess posting some event photos every once in a while can't be bad.
A couple of snapshots from Saturday.

Frank Stockton and some Asians.

Paying homage to Soybean after James and Kenichi's show.

Sneakpeek at the new line of Prada hats.
esao.

-Mondays

2009-01-05T06:36:00.000-05:00

I didn't hear anyone talk about New Years Resolutions this year so I'm going to make mine here with you right now. Every Monday for 2009 I'm gonna post something new. And if theres no update on Tuesday I expect some shit talking from you fine folks.
Come to this show if you live in Brooklyn.

Also my friends James Jean and Kenichi Hoshine have a jawdropping show at Jonathan Levine Opening this Saturday.

Lets try and stay positive, the world hasn't ended quite yet.
-esao

Potato Doves

2008-12-11T16:41:00.000-05:00

There's a few prints up this week.

Had Thanksgiving over at Dokebi Bar. My friend Brian cut open this potato to reveal what appears to be two tater doves in air pocket form. I find this way cooler than any random Virgin Mary's out there and was happy to be a witness... Not to make God angry by worshiping (or auctioning) any false idols.
We ate them.
-esao

-Prints coming up.

2008-12-08T10:51:00.000-05:00

-This Thursday, December 11, I'll be putting my print store back up with new stuff.

-I will have a mailing list set up in the next day or two.

-Am currently responding to neglected emails....I know I know and I'm sorry.

-Flyer I did.

-esao

-Vertigo

2008-11-03T18:05:00.000-05:00

click image for a close up...will open in a new window.
This is my second cover for House of Mystery. No computer work this time, just a painting on wood.

My friend Ryan has a cute one minute video about fear that he's entered in a contest over at www.amctv.com. Click HERE to see it and vote.
-esao

-Halloween

2008-10-28T20:00:00.000-04:00

Dodging lions and waisting time...

"thirty" 24"x24" oil on wood

I'm headed over to Rome for a show this Friday at Dorothy Circus Gallery who I'll be showing along side with my good pal Tara Mcpherson and the super rad Travis Louie

click on the flyer for more info and some additional images.

In a world of Hipster Zombies and Sexy Vampire Maids I did a poster for my friends at Dokebi.

This was a nice change of pace to do some straight up illustration work using an ink drawing scanned and computer colored.

Ps. If you live in Rome, please come to the opening and say hi, i don't know anybody.
-esao

-Dear Science

2008-10-11T00:16:00.000-04:00

Soybeans 5th birthday

The Tv On The Radio guys are touring around and I did some simple 2 color shirts for them.

The title of their new Album is Dear Science so I drew up this fish.
I have no idea what color schemes they used, these's were what I gave them.
Here's another one.

I've officially realized I am not a blogger. For no reason spending 15 minutes resizing some photos and typing some text takes me ages.

My September was spent like this...

courtesy of Tom
esao.

-Stress Balls

2008-08-26T17:28:00.000-04:00

I got behind on posts...

In a group show at Last Rites Gallery. Opening Sept 6th, 7-11pm.
551 W. 33rd St. NYC.

Here is the icky piece that I have in it.

"Brood" 16"x16" oil on wood.

I'm going to be in Portland, Oregon for a while visiting my pals Farel Dalrymple and Zachary Baldus and also to take time to vegetate, do some sketchbooking, observe foliage, and do some apartment hunting. I'll be back in NYC for the opening.

Also my friend's opened a vintage clothing store in Brooklyn and I did a sign up for them.

Its a toony version of Ana Karina in that dance scene from Jean-Luc Godard's "Band of Outsiders"

Dolly G's Vintage
320 Graham Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
esao.

-Shop is back.

2008-07-28T19:16:00.000-04:00

5 new prints and whats left over from before.
esao.

-Scary Stuff

2008-07-16T17:52:00.000-04:00

DC Comics recently brought back the title House of Mystery which started back in the 1950's. Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges are the writers for it. I did a cover for issue 5 and here is the sketch.

Oil on wood 20"x30". The painting came out pretty dark and needed to make it a bit more readable.
I had to convince myself that using the computer to make additions/corrections were perfectly ok. What is published is the final piece, not the actual painting...
So here it is with some color/contrast voodoo.

Its my first cover in the comic cover world and its really intimidating following up issues done by Sam Weber and with the writers who do Fables, featuring James Jean's covers.

Big-Ass shoes to fill.

A cat-bat thing.

Other scary news.
I noticed I have a crease in my earlobe. Went to the doctor but he didn't really care too much about it as my other vitals seemed ok.
If you click HERE or HERE or do any other research on earlobe creases. You'll see why I'm suddenly working on being a health freak.
esao.

-July Show

2008-07-08T13:13:00.000-04:00

I have a spread in the upcoming issue #8 of Hi-Fructose Magazine.

(this issue here with Camille Rose Garcia on the cover)

To celebrate the 3rd anniversary of this wonderful magazine, they are putting on a group show at Copro Nason Gallery in Santa Monica, CA to premiere the issue. Saturday, July 12. I have a new little piece in it.
esao.

-Voyeurism Please

2008-07-01T13:44:00.000-04:00

Saw this strange tree on the West Side Highway, I think its natural because even up to the tips of the branches had eye scars.

All I've been doing is working in my new sketchbook the past few weeks and not dealing with anything so I thought I'd share a few pages. Its also like a diary(thats why the scan's aren't huge and too readable)

A doodle of a cast I bought at Evolution years ago with an eye mask.

The speech bubbles say it all. Drawn while in Seattle.

Emo ramblings and a sticker Fuco gave me.

Birthday sketch of a painting I'm just about done with.

Finger painting with some pen work.

Coffee shop patio by my house and friend Rebek drawn from memory.

Sleeping Soybean, Dokebi bar, and plans for my future.
I'm back to doing work and will be catching up on e-mails.
-esao.

-Moderation

2008-06-23T18:33:00.000-04:00

Remember that Lie I said in my first blog post about posting things every week? The past several weeks I've been wanting to redesign my site, post new work, new projects, put the store back up, and reinvent my web presence all over again in one big post. Obviously not happening as planned.

Did a back drop for Circa Survive's current tour. Here it is in action via someone's Flickr.

Its a previous painting I did which you can see in the painting section. I screwed around in Photoshop and built the whole left side by cutting and pasting bits of the house for a more centered composition.
Like so.

Here's a desktop version so you can point out my weak Photoshop skills.

Realizing that consistency is the best approach to a ding dang blog, I will be posting more yet not so lengthy entries.
RIP George Carlin.
esao.

-I'm Back.

2008-05-02T18:19:00.000-04:00

Opening May 9th at Roq la Rue Gallery in Seattle, WA.
Two person show with myself and the beautiful works of Fuco Ueda.
Lots of previously unseen new stuff, I'll share these two.

"Virile Influenza" 18"x24" oil on wood.

Detail.

And here's another one from the show.

"Seaqueen" 20"x24" oil on wood.

Sorry, no detail on the fire crotch.

The Paypal thing finally got resolved last week. Got a credit card and bought my first couch to sit and reflect upon. I feel all grown up now. Thanks. I'll have my store back up with some new stuff after I get back from Seattle.

Moving on.....
This is so great. When I was living in Arizona I met Andrew Gosselin who shot this video. I'm 16-17 years old in it. The other guy actually skating at the end of the clip is Mike Kearny. For that small group of teenagers that ever bought a "Handboard"(its an upscale version of a fingerboard) Its origins began in my livingroom.

1995

Here's the history of it.
I used to toss tv remotes in my hand to mimic skateboard tricks while sitting around. Guess I was 15. Then I took a Craypa box, put aluminum wire to bend up the sides and placed griptape on it. A few days later I made the first prototype with cardboard scaled down in centimeters as opposed to inches with cloths hanger wire slid into the corrugation to keep its form. I used a Bic pen, rubber bands, truck bushings and skate bearings taped together as the trucks and wheels.
From this me and my friend Erik Ellington started making them together and gradually modified them until they evolved into a really durable and fun toy to waste time on rainy days.

A silly photo of us as teens. (sorry Erik)

So years later I had the opportunity to make a plastic one in a 3d design class at SVA with the generous help from my teacher Jimmy DiResta. Erik being prominent in the skateboard industry had the right connections to eventually get it on the shelves of toy stores, though I think they are hard to find nowadays.
I miss playing with them.

Here's the show info. If interested contact Kirsten at
kirsten(at)roqlarue(dot)com
Roq la Rue Gallery
2312 2nd Ave.
Seattle, WA 98121
206-374-8977

Esao Andrews and Fuco Ueda
Show opens Friday May 9th 6-9pm
runs through June 7th.

See you there.

Oh yeah, one of my favorite artists Tom Herpich has a regularly updated blog. Awesome!
-esao

-Being American

2008-04-13T20:04:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I haven't been updating. Bigger things to deal with as of late. If you use PayPal and are of the bohemian type that doesn't own credit cards, but just uses a bank account with debit. Heed my tale.

I've been using PayPal for years. Two months ago I received a message from PayPal that my account was chosen for safety measures that I verify my Social Security Number. Easy enough, I was born here and pay taxes every year.

Several weeks of faxing and phone calling and nobody being able to tell me why my SSN couldn't not be verified, eventually it became understandable...

The catch is, they exclusively use the credit bureau Experian to verify SSN's and not the Social Security Administration. Being a short-sighted Luddite, I've never owned a credit card and just like to pay for things I can afford so I don't get pressured into debt. Because I have no credit history, I can not verify my SSN and the only way to talk to someone from Experian is if I order a credit report, which I can not because I don't have a credit history. A conundrum.

The animation below show's the progress I've been making the past two months.

Fig.1 My right leg which stands for PayPal's Resolution Center.
Fig.2 My left leg represents Experian, TransUnion, Equafax, SS Admin etc..
Fig.3 Symbolizes the typical bureaucratic fashion I've been going through to prove that my Social Security Number is indeed real even though I don't use a credit card.

At this point, my account has been frozen, and is pending permanent deletion with five figures in it.
It seems to be out of PayPal's control and according to complaints on www.consumeraffairs.com, Experian pretty much doesn't handle problems well either. I'm still waiting for a response for them to verify my information they requested....Its troublesome because I have no control over this.

A sympathetic operator at Equifax(another credit bureau) told me that I should go to some bank and get a 'secured' credit card. With no way around it, I walked into Washington Mutual, and arranged for my first credit card. So when it arrives next week, I'm going to purchase some groceries to christen my credit record into existence (I mean when I pay the balance at the end of the month.) Then I will have the opportunity to patriotically join the ranks of the millions of proud Americans that cherish the one thing we all hold dearly: Credit debt. At least that is what I'm hoping will happen.

I know, I know: Its about time I started building credit anyways. But I don't think its right for PayPal to bully someone into it the credit system when they themselves do not offer loans etc..their business is just charging service fee's for making safe internet transactions. Doesn't seem legal or fair to me.

Unfortunately I underestimated how strangely un-resolvable this would be. With the majority of my entire money earnings being held ransom for months for no good reason, nor being able to make any further online income, my savings is now depleted enough so I can't pay my taxes in full, along with anything else. No new income + holding hostage my current money + mounting penalties, late fee's, maybe I could lose my apt and everything else if this keeps up. By the time Experian decides to resolve my case, I'll probably have acquired enough debt to HAVE to use a credit card till I can catch up again.

Thanks PayPal.

I'll put some art stuff up soon. I'm too irritated right now.
esao.

-Transitions.

2008-03-23T02:02:00.000-04:00

Last week I lost my DSL service and haven't had internet until now. You get what you pay for I suppose. Now that its back in the form of broadband with what appears to be around a billion TV channels. I guess its going to be a lot harder to find time to continue this blog with the time-consuming demands of watching cable television.

I had this idea of a well with shoes hanging from where the bucket would be and doodled it, then lost it. Just found it under a pile of papers just a moment ago. There's something nice about its dramatic guillotine-like stature.

Losing the initial doodle left a lot more room for re-interpretation when I revisited the idea. I added the owner of the shoes and the well just became a well and nothing more. Though the two sketches are similar in content and composition. I might come back later to do a portrait of a well based closely on the first sketch. No shoes though. Maybe a blade, maybe my old DSL modem, maybe a bucket full of all the diapers and discarded cigar tobacco that accumulates in my building's stairwell every day. I dunno.

Also, with no internet I was listening to Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials audio books again and can say that listening to them had an effect on the mood of the final piece.

"Untitled" 20"x24" oil on wood.
Ok, enough with this time wasting. I gotta go. "Big Momma's House 2" is on.
-esao.

-Inspired Procrastination pt.2

2008-03-01T01:29:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows what pipe cleaners are. I went to two hardware store and all I was shown was sandpaper, coiled pipe snakes, and something that looked like a bbq grill brush. When I told them its the thin braided wires covered in fuzz that kids have adopted to make craft projects, they had no idea. Same with the Pharmacy and 99¢ store. No luck at the pipe/bong shop either, they weren't open on a Tuesday at noon, natch.

Necessity is the mother of invention as they say. I wanted to make a birthday gift while I was spending my day waiting for USPS and with no pipe cleaners I came up with this...

The postman didn't even show up that day. The next day they came so the prints are shipped and those that bought them should be receiving them any day now. As for foreign orders, they are also shipped.

I apologize for any brown spots on envelopes sent out this week. I didn't realize what happened till it was too late.

Paper: friend and foe.

Also, friends Tom Prior, John Peters, and Ian Baguskas have a really top notch exhibition of photographs at Crane Arts in Philadelphia. If you live there, go see it. They are wonderful to see blown up.

I'm not really sure how many people actually read the stuff that doesn't have to do with my paintings, but having a blog to post other stuff is becoming fun for me. Tomer once mentioned the computer as 'The Great Indoors'.
Its true.
-esao.

-Going Postal.

2008-02-23T04:55:00.000-05:00

I am genuinely thankful for the response to the new prints I put up a week and a half ago. Thanks to everyone for there support, I'm doing my best, and am eager to get them out of my studio area.

Mission accomplished...sort of.

It's many days after New Years. There was a resolution I had for 2008. It was to get back in touch with people from my past and keep up with those in the present, I've had a real hard time writing or calling back people in recent years. All it takes is a moment to put the effort in. It might be living in NYC so long where there's so many people around, everything is convenient, expensive and fast paced. Friends come and go. It makes it easy to become self-involved and easy to put off the commitments towards others to the point of routine. Maybe I've always been like this or I've have recently grown this irrational shell towards people. I've had a few friends respond negatively to my lack of communication and rightly feel like shitballs. 2008 is the time to make amends and contact old friends and family.

Cheers to nostalgia.

I found some old comic strips in a photo album I did when I was 14 years old.
Remember those Safari Cards that your parents had when you were a kid? I still have a thousand of them. Looking at the first panel I know I used one of those cards for reference for this one below.

Here's another one done the same week thats just as light hearted.
The date says 12/17/92.
Notice the generic "comic hero hand" pose in the last panel.
-esao

-Post Show Post

2008-02-13T23:45:00.000-05:00

6 new prints are up in the store. yay!
7 new paintings from my recent show are in the painting section, though a few have been shown earlier on this blog.

The Show at Jonathan Levine Gallery went great. Thanks for everyone that came.
Its February 14th day of Love and other obligated hoopla.

I did a quick sketch while working on the computer.

After I started painting it, it seemed unfinished so I added the kids you see below. note: I used red Saral Transfer paper to trace the drawing to the painting above.

A few shrubs in the foreground and some tightening up...

"Sweet Wilderness" 16"x19" oil on wood.
-Esao

-Blanket of Coins

2008-02-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

I was hoping to have my newest work all photographed and planned to do sketch to finish breakdowns for a few. Since that hasn't happened yet, here is the best I can do with my point and shoot camera. This is a painting I did last summer. Starting off with a close up....

I've never been to Spain, but I named this painting after a river there.

"Guadiana" 30" x 30" oil on wood.
I was born in Altus, Oklahoma and moved to Arizona when I was 6 months old. There's that song "Never Been to Spain", a famous one that Elvis sang. Here's an excerpt:

Well I never been to Heaven
But I been to Oklahoma
Well they tell me I was born there
But I really don't remember
In Oklahoma, not Arizona
What does it matter
What does it matter

Thanks Patrick for pointing that out to me.

Detail sketch.

Detail of original sketch of girl.

________________________________

There's been a lot of talk about 'CHANGE' in the news...

A friend and I got to talking about how unfathomably massive a trillion is, so I decided to work it out and share.

Estimated U.S. $9 trillion(or British billion) deficit in currency coverage.

Summary of findings:
1) The US $9 trillion deficit broken down into quarters would blanket an area the size of New Jersey.
2) Broken down into pennies, it would blanket an area the size of Arizona, New Jersey, two Rhode Islands, and four Washington DC's combined and still have 14 square miles of pennies left over.
3) The deficit arranged into a solid-flat brick of stacked pennies would cover an area the size of Manhattan around 26 feet thick.
4) A tower of $9 trillion in pennies would make a stack all of the way to Saturn, or zig zag from the Sun and Earth almost 9 times.
5) Averaged out, America has added more than $106 million dollars each day to its deficit since 1776.
6) A calculation I found on the internet stated: A million dollars stack 500 feet (tall as the big pyramid in Egypt); a billion dollars stack 10 times higher than Mt. Everest; a 1 trillion dollars stack 1/4 of the way to the Moon 60,000 miles (97,200 Km)....
With that said, I guess 9 trillion, one dollar bills would stack (and no, not being placed end to end) would go up, arch around the moon and come back down to earth.

After doing all this math stuff, i came across a site called The MegaPenny Project, which is way more extensive and informative than my afternoon of time wasting. Cool images and other statistics to help visualize massive amounts of pennies.

Here's my math breakdown notes:
1 quarter = 1inch sq.(quarters seem to be 15/16th of an inch. whatev's.)
144 quarters = 1 ft sq.
if 43,560 ft sq = 1 acre.
then 43,560 x 144= 6,272,640 quarters per acre.
if 640 acres= 1 mile sq.
then 6,272,640 x 640 = 4,014,489,600 quarters per 1 mile sq.
if $9,000,000,000,000 x 4= 36,000,000,000,000 quarters
then 4,014,489,600 divided into 36 trillion= 8967 square miles of quarters butted next to each other.
New Jersey is 8,722 square miles.(according to what I found on the internet)

Using the same math in pennies.
1 penny= .75 inch sq.
256 pennies = 1 ft sq....
900 trillion pennies = 126,105 square miles.
Arizona = 114,006 square miles.
Rhode Island= 1545 square miles.
Washington D.C. = 68.25 square miles.
You could cover the area of Arizona in pennies, then cover all of New Jersey, then put a double stack covering RI, then a 4 stack on D.C. and still have 14 square miles of pennies left over.

17.5 pennies stacked = 1inch.
210 pennies =1ft.
126,105 divided by 22.96 ( square miles of Manhattan)= 5492.37 quarters per stack.
210 divided into 5492.37 = would cover the entire area of Manhattan with a brick of stacked pennies 26 feet thick.

5280 feet in a mile.
$11,088 of stacked pennies = 1 mile high.
divide 9 trillion by 11,088
$9 trillion = 811,688,311.68 miles of stacked pennies.
Though a planet's distance from each other vary, 800 million miles is about how far Saturn is from Earth, or the stack could go back and forth from the Sun to Earth, almost 9 times.

U.S. Declaration of Independence 1776.
1776 to 2007= 231 years.
365 days x 231 + 57 leap year days = 84372 days
$9 trillion divided by 84372 days = $106,670,459.39 per day of spending money we don't have since 1776.

-2008

2008-01-03T02:31:00.000-05:00

As you can see from the text above, I am in a two person exhibit over at the giant Jonathan Levine Gallery here in NYC with the wonderful Xiaoqing Ding.
Also Mr. Jonathan Weiner will be showing his solo show in the main room so it's really a three person show. I'm in very good company and am a true fan of both of their artwork. Lots of previously unseen eye candy.

Part II
Some discarded mock-ups of my new site had a prairie/Dust Bowl feel to them. To plug some friend's sites, a combination of inspiration led to the piece below. After seeing my site design from early 2007,(sorry I didn't archive it), my friend Tom Prior said I should really look at the movie 'Days in Heaven' by Terrence Malick which has an Andrew Wyeth feel to it. A few months ago cartoonist,Leah Hayes, and musician,Michael leviton, introduced me to Brooklyn singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten her myspace music description says "sad prairie folk music." It was really nice to listen to while working on sketches.

After a bunch of unsatisfactory drawings I ended up drawing it in flash as my current menu since I was stuck on what to do for the new version.
I did this drawing based on my flash menu.(by the way I added a new roll over animation last week on her. Check it out.)

After transferring the drawing onto a piece of birch primed with a wash of brown, I blocked in the background and some of the water texture.

"Thought" 19"x 32" oil on wood.
I ended up leaving the cattails out of the picture cause I thought they might be too distracting and wanted to keep the image a bit more iconic. I'm still debating that since I do like them in the drawing.

-Inspired Procrastination pt.1

2007-12-16T14:51:00.000-05:00

I took on a freelance Flash job the past 2 weeks and with my show coming up I didn't get a chance to set up a post for last week. I did find some time to sit down and make this video.

A few months ago I saw this kid playing a version of Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and was in awe. I tracked down German based musician, David Qualey who wrote the arrangement and purchased the music from him.

I made the mask a few Halloween's ago, there's a string attached to the ears, then to a nail on the wall, then hooked back over the capo and wrapped around my hand to move the ears as my hand slides up the neck. I don't really play guitar, but after practicing everyday for a month straight its the best that I could do with a mask on.

Ok, back to work.

-Preview of Sorts

2007-12-03T00:29:00.000-05:00

There's a show coming up for me at Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC. Here's a piece from the show.

"Separate Lives" 24"32" oil on wood.

I painted this 7 months ago. Its been sitting in my studio collecting dust. After it was finished I took a cellphone picture of it and an acquaintance pointed out that there were two chimney's. He said it was like two people living separate lives in the same house.

Detail, there's a cat in one of the windows.

On Thanksgiving there was a wadded up napkin in my stairwell. I took a photo of it untouched. It was on the sill for ten days so I wonder if the super got spooked by it, because all the other trash had been regularly disposed. Looks to me like a fairy-sized mummy in a fetal position. Note the size from the match stick.

Sleep tight everybody.

-What's in a Name?

2007-11-26T22:35:00.000-05:00

As of yesterday, this website can be reached at WWW. ESAO.COM! I've been waiting for 7 years to get that url and now I don't think it was really worth it.
Story at the bottom of this post....

Before "The Last Hour" had a name, the idea started as a doodle of a mother and mummified child portrait.

At the time I had been listening to the audio book of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and my sketch quickly became inspired by the atmosphere I imagined from this chilling father & son drama in the ash of post-apocalypse.

10"x14" pencil on rag paper.

No reference was needed to complete the painting. I like to leave it up to the viewer to interpret what they want from my images, but I guess I'll say for this one I imagined it's a sick girl being gently lead to the unknown(possibly death) in the comforting arms of her giant doll/reaper guardian. I decided to not have it carrying a sickle, but a bindle as if the girl's belongings may be in there for her journey.

"Last Hour" oil on wood 16"x24"

a bit closer.

In 2001 esao.com was taken so I ended up taking ".net" which was great. The Educational Safety Association of Ontario had owned it but never used it. It was April 2007 when they finally set it free, and the day it expired I went to purchase it.

The domain name went straight to an 'expired domain' auction site called Snapnames. I registered and waited for the three day auction to start later that week. No big deal. Minimum bid $60 so I bid $101 to see what would happen. There were dozens of bidders and I thought "Who are all of these people?" so I googled most of the screen names and found them to be domain reseller companies.

This is were legality becomes suspicious. Before the auction was over I started getting e-mails from domain resellers to buy the name from them(if they won it) for $2500. So my conspiracy theory is that Snapnames gives your e-mail to some domain resellers and if there's a particular interest in a domain name, then they can work together to bump up the bidding.

I won the auction with the oddly high amount of $925. Telegraphers from ages past would be rolling in their graves that a person would spend $132.14 per letter. Trying not to feel regretful that I could have bought a wii, or an xbox, or a life, I'd like to thank my new domain extension esao.com for keeping esao.net company.

-Post Number 1

2007-11-20T17:27:00.000-05:00

So I decided to redesign my site again with a weekly updated section that will include works in progress, news, upcoming shows, and other associated happenings.

Ok, first things first. I added a few new paintings and more coming shortly. The people at Equal Vision Records are letting me do a print run of these paintings I did for the band Circa Survive a while back. These prints can be purchased in my store section.

This painting has been lying around my house for months and since its going to be in the Aqua Art Fair with Roq la Rue for Art Basel Miami(along with a few other paintings) Dec. 4th, I thought I'd post it up.

Here is a thumbnail and sketch done on typing paper

A tighter drawing scanned into Photoshop with a photo of wood grain and one of a plate, mocked-up with gradients for reference.

Oil on wood 12"x18"

Happy Thanksgiving.