{ Monthly Archives }
It’s been almost two years since last I checked in on Jose Mertz ( mentioned previously ), and shame on me, because a talent that was once great is now so mind-shatteringly awesome that I’m pretty sure I had a small stroke from looking at his work. I’m trying to remember how to play the piano, and that information is no longer available. So thank you, Jose Mertz, for the loss of parts of my memory. In this case I think it was totally worth it.
I don’t want to get away from you, I just want to get away.
Burt is just not a first name you hear much anymore. Everyone is naming their kids after cities and states or famous dogs and bears from movies: Madison, Dakota, Marley, Gentle Ben etc. Burt is the name of a regular guy, whose parents didn’t pull his name from an atlas. Wesley Burt’s first name clearly isn’t Burt, but it still has the effect of making me think that he’s just a guy who drinks some beers and maybe is a plumber. But Wesley Burt isn’t a plumber (that I know of), he’s an artist and a helluva good one. His drawings alone are worth my weight in gold, what with all the layering and dramatic groupings. So maybe it’s good that his first name isn’t Burt, because that could’ve resulted in his drawings being replaced by really well done pipe fittings. We all lucked out on this one.
It’s a fruitmeatflower orgy and you’re all invited to throw yourselves on the pile.
You see, the thing is…
Eric Nyquist - We Are The New Standard
Alma (limited time)
Recycling is great, and using recyclable or biodegradable materials in the first place is even better, but what about all the products out there that are neither recyclable nor biodegradable, and don’t look like they’re going to change anytime soon? Take for instance the humble styrofoam cup: light, insulates well, cheap to manufacture, and basically won’t break down until the sun goes white dwarf. People are going to keep using them because they’re lazy, so what can be done with them? Draw on them. Boey does just that, and does it well. Whether intricate or open, the line work is always on point (not a pun). And better yet, by turning them into art, the cups have been removed from the waste cycle. They can sit and be enjoyed by someone for centuries. Trash into treasure.
I don’t really know what came over me a couple of years ago, maybe my rational mind got a lot stronger, or maybe I started to think more simply, or maybe aliens put a microchip in my brain, but whatever happened I started to be more drawn to geometric works. Something about those simple shapes makes my brain feel like there are electric pop-rocks dancing in it. So, of course I was smitten with Matthew Lyons’ work from the get go. What’s not to love? He’s got geometric shapes, a vintage color palette, and retro-futuristic subject matter. If that ain’t a hat-trick to perfection, I don’t know what is.
Matthew Lyons found via Drawn!
I’ve been blogging for over 12 years now. Before Blogger was even a glimmer, my dumb ass was writing stupid 10th grade poetry on the internet and talking about my feelings. Once I realized how much of a giant, walking vagina this made me, and it took a while, I started to write about art instead. I picked up a spray can a long time ago and realized in a blinding flash of insight that I was total crap with it. But what I lacked in talent I made up for with a keen eye and the wit of a glue-huffing thirteen year-old, a sense of humor that I fight hard to maintain to this day. So I wrote about the things I thought were beautiful on the internet, and tried to swear as much as possible at the same time. It got me a cool job for a little while, but for the most part I’ve been doing it without help and without recognition for a long ass time. That’s what Secret Still is, a secret, something that not a lot of people know about, because I never wanted them to know about it. I never wanted help or a handshake, and yet here we are. Starting today I’d like help finding out about things.
If you’re an “emerging artist” (I know, I hate that term, too), or know of one that I should check out, just let me know. If you have a zine or something that you want people to know about, just send me one. I want to find out about so much beautiful shit that it gives me cancer of the balls (too soon?), and I need your help to do it. Can I guarantee that I’ll like whatever it is you send me? No, but those are the chances you take.
Notice, if you will the left side of this page, and you will see that there is now an archive dropdown, a category dropdown, and an About page. For the first time in my selfish life I want to make things a little easier on you, the reader.
Consider this Secret Still 2.0. And now, back to your regularly scheduled dick jokes.
New year, same old thing.
The things that I don’t know about Baltimore could and does fill many books. Today I learned one new thing about Baltimore, and that is that it’s the place where Jeremy Enecio lives and works. Not a huge fact, maybe, but significant in that Enecio’s work has a controlled madness that makes my mind salivate a little bit. Even better is his tendency to use several different painting mediums as well as digital, which is both impressive and envy-inspiring. So cross one more thing out of the books of shit I don’t know about Baltimore, also, Baltimore was founded in 1729. Thank you, Wikipedia.