Unnatural Histories II show at Antler Gallery

Some pictures from the second annual Unnatural Histories show at Antler Gallery in PDX. I didn't participate last year, but this year I really wanted to. Each I was kind of pressed for time, but I was able to do a small drawing of an Ichthyocentaur for the show. The lineup in this show was amazing!

Participants: Josh Keyes, Heiko Muller, Amy Ruppel, Katherine Brannock, Aaron Jasinski, Brin Levinson, Lisa Ericson, Susannah Kelly, Jennifer Parks, Keith Carter, Jon MacNair, Neil M. Perry, Bijijoo, Wes Younie and Rachel Sabin

Each artist was asked to make a piece about an imaginary or mythical creature (of their own creation or a pre-exisitng made up creature). Each piece was also accompanied by a description of the creature.

Here is what I made:

"The ichthyocentaur is a sea-dwelling creature with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a fish (two horse legs protrude from this intersection). It may also display crustacean claw horns. The ichthyocentaur is related to centaurs, sea nymphs and merfolk; however the origin of these connections remains a mystery. It possesses the ability to breathe underwater, swim extremely fast and has great stamina. The ichthyocentaur is thought to be a generally peaceful creature, living amicably alongside other water-dwelling races. However, due to more aggressive nature of their wild centaur relations, some ichthyocentaurs still exhibit fierce behavior under duress."

Here are some pictures of the opening reception and the works:

more daily drawings

Two-person August show at Antler Gallery

So I spent 4 months working on a large body of work for my solo show Antler Gallery. I was thrilled to be asked to have a solo show with them again. And better yet, I was able to show alongside Ben Kehoe, whose work I have long admired. Ben's show was called "Shadows in the Field of Science" and mine was called "Traversing the Emotional Landscape" (Neil, one of the gallery owners aptly named mine). My whole idea behind the show was to merge metaphor, landscape, characters and emotion. I went through a rather rough year personally, and this show seemed like a good opportunity to put all those feelings to good use. I took a few months off from drawings to get myself back together, and this show was really my return to making art. I know two months doesn't seem like a huge break, but when you are used to drawing almost every day, it seems like an eternity. 

We were fortunate enough to have Hi-Fructose promote the show and it helped us get a lot of attention. We decided to have a preview opening the night before the show for people to come see the work without having to deal with the craziness of the Last Thursday Street Fair. Ben was able to attend the opening and getting to meet him was so wonderful. He couldn't have been nicer, more modest and a great guy to hang out with! 

We both sold some work even before the opening, which was an awesome surprise. The preview and opening both went really well. It was pretty packed both nights and lots of friends attended.

I was pretty happy with how the work turned out. And it was awesome seeing Ben's paintings in person. I had only seen them online before.

Check out some of photos below and follow the link at the bottom for lots more pics.

Thanks again to Antler Gallery for all their hard work!

 

 

Lots more pictures from the installation and receptions HERE.