One piece SOLD at La Luz de Jesus Gallery

I forgot to post these images a while back. They are the three pieces I had in "Everything But the Kitsch 'n Sync" show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in March.

The top drawing here was SOLD.

"Night Messenger"

"Mountain Girl"

"Blithe Captor"

You Might Like This

Tom Hyde did a post about my work on his blog "You Might Like This." Thanks Tom!

http://www.youmightlikethis.com/2010/03/jon-macnair-the-devil-in-the-detail/

Sexy Freak Party (Collaborative Drawing with Donald Ely)

Just wanted to post this piece I worked on with my best friend and fellow artist Donald Ely. We both worked back and forth on the drawing via the internet, and Donald added a splash of color at the end. More to come. We're posting the process on our blog, Pangollaborations, which can be found in the link section on the right of this blog.

More of Donald's work can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donaldely/

And If It's Real

I have some work featured on the Copenhagen based art blog "And If It's Real."

Check it out: http://www.andifitsreal.com/2010/03/jon-macnair.html

Jon MacNair/Kenny Cole Collaborative Drawing

before (my original drawing)

after (with Kenny's addition)

In Kenny's words: Jon MacNair contacted me to join a kind of chain mail thing for artists...you add your name to a list, send it to six or so artist friends, send an artwork to the person on the top of the list and you would receive a bunch of art in return. Unfortunately I had just received the same request a few days earlier, so I declined but offered up the idea of simply collaborating together on a small drawing. My feeling was that I was a little out of my league...Jon's precise and elaborate renderings of fantastical scenes, creatures and mythic persona felt way beyond my blunt, brushy and chaotic ramblings! On the other hand, really the whole point of collaborating to me is to get yourself beyond your comfort zone. The drawing that I sent him was empty enough that I felt sure that he could populate it with his magic...I would just build the stage. I had been drawing flags on poles and was curious to see how he would react, if he would add some kind of banner and I patterned the ground as a nod to his sometimes baroque and decorative renderings. His treatment of the pole as a tree form was a brilliant transformation of the emblematic eagle topped form into a mysterious mythic structure. My creation on his half completed drawing was, as usual, a scene of cacophonous chaos: amidst the floating fire/octopus guy a prisoner/politico dude singing like Tom Jones gets splarged by a amphibious tank. This was a fun collaboration and I am greatful for the fact that Jon was willing to give it a whirl. I think it truly exercised both our gray matters to the max!

Kenny titled this "It's Not Unusual"

Photos from Portland Art Shows!

I was recently in Portland, OR for a few art shows (and to just see the city) and I took these pictures. They're not all that great (lighting varies greatly in each one) but here they are. The first bunch are of The Portland Prints show (opening reception) where I had one piece displayed among a lot of great artists. The second bunch of photos is from the closing reception of the LOVE show which was a Launch Pad gallery show, but was hosted by Olympic Mills Commerce Center. I probably took about 800+ photos during the entire 12 day visit, but I'm not sure when I'll get to sorting through those quite yet :)

(I stole this first picture from Mark Searcy. It's a good shot of the exterior of the gallery and vasty superior in quality to my photos. Thanks Mark! Also, I stole the second picture from the Society6 website. It's a nice group shot us of!)

Chloe Gallagher and myself in front of my poster.

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...and here's the photos from the LOVE show closing reception:

my piece pictured above in the blue frame (sold)

I just took these couple photos, but the LOVE show was enormous and had over 350 pieces in it!

Kenny Cole/Jon MacNair Collaborative Drawing

before (Kenny's original drawing)

after (my addition)

This is a collaborative effort between artist Kenny Cole and myself. Kenny is an artist (living in Maine) who contacted me, asking if I would be interested in doing a collaborative drawing. Kenny has a prolific body of work (wonderfully mysterious ink drawings) on his flickr page, which I had the pleasure of discovering a while back. He mailed me a half completed drawing (I did the same for him) and I filled in the rest of the picture. Our styles are really different, right down to the tools we use. He draws with a brush, while I use a pen. Although I had doubts about the result up until the end of the ink wash stage, I am happy with the final drawing. I wasn't sure about how the two styles would mesh, but I think my anxieties have been put to rest. I like that you can sort of tell it's two different people that worked on this. It adds interest and a little spontaneity. I do feel bad that it took me about 5 months to finally work on the drawing after I received it in the mail, but I guess everything has its time.

If I were to give this piece a title, I'd call it "Pilgrimage to the Sacred Circle"

check out more of Kenny's work here! http://www.flickr.com/photos/kennycole/

Under Skin (Now a PRINT!)

Just wanted to mention that this piece is now available as a lovely archival giclee print! I had a few requests for it and decided to release it as a print. Available here: http://www.society6.com/studio/jonmacnairportfolio/store

Sweet and Sound

Today my work appeared on the UK online arts and music magazine Sweet and Sound.

http://www.sweetandsound.co.uk/2010/03/contributions/jon-macnair/

Human Resources

Forgot to post this last month. I got a little blurb about my work on the website Human Resources, "an independent source of online creative visual and aural inspiration."

http://www.welcometohr.com/?s=MacNair

"No Bad Deed Goes Unpunished" - SOLD

Recently sold this piece to my friend Ellen. It's an earlier drawing of the current body of work I have, but still a piece I enjoy for various reasons.

Thanks Tatiana for the post!

http://tatkam.blogspot.com/2010/03/two-works-by-jon-macnair.html

And I Still Miss You - Issue #11

I'm in the issue #11 of this great little PDF magazine called "And I Still Miss You." Worth checking out :)

http://andistillmissyou.com/?p=219

Hurley.com

A while ago I was asked by artist Mike Hsiung if I wanted to be featured as an artist on Hurley.com. Hurely is a surf/beach apparel company who happen to profile artists on their website as well. Well, the write up is out now and Mike did a stellar job with it, infusing it with his notable sense of humor. Thanks Mike!

http://www.hurley.com/index.cfm/aid/39811/FEATURED-ARTIST--JON-MACNAIR

The Stranger

Hey everyone!

I was approached by The Stranger (Seattle's alternative weekly) a few months ago who wanted to know if they could use my artwork ("Under Skin") for the cover of their publication. I had actually submitted some artwork to them a few years prior, and was happy to oblige. It somewhat astounded me that they had held on to my work for two years, remembered me, and eventually contacted me. Crazy! I'm really excited to be featured since many amazing artists work have graced their covers. People like: Yuko Shimizu, Nate Williams, David LaChapelle, Christopher Silas Neil, Ester Pearl Watson, Autumn Whitehurst, Mike Perry, Adrian Tomine, Andy Kehoe, Carson Ellis, Eduardo Recife, Kevin Christy, Sam Weber, Mike Bertino, Meg Hunt, Dan May and Paul Blow.

Dirty Mouse

I'm on the Dirty Mouse website today!

"Dirty Mouse is an inspirational design blog, updated several times a day. Dirty Mouse aims to provide designers' mice with enough visual food from the worlds of graphic design, web design, illustration, photography, interior and product design in order to get their creative juices flowing."

http://www.dirtymouse.co.uk/sideblog/jon-macnair/