recently! 2021
my books will be opening for early 2022 in mid-December. I’ll be looking to do: woodcut, woodcut with wash/color blocking, and more thick outline work.
here’s a few recent pieces finished!
horror reviews day 2: slither? no.
- In true stories,
only one movie tonight: growth
1: I’ve seen that before. Slither? It’s a nice effect, parasites in the skin.
2: diabetes
3: I love a good news-montage intro. There’s something about it that makes me start to believe the movie could be real, this is how things first get scary in real life most of the time (unless you’re right on the scene)
4: ok, you’re going to use leeches to make people into super-people. I’m sure nothing will go wrong. this part of the intro is not as good, but then again, if we’re getting into scientific hubris I suppose an info dump is how it’s done. it just feels like this is half of the movie I wanted to watch, crammed into 30 seconds. this isn’t a sequel, there’s no excuse.
5: slither. it’s slither, but with “man playing god” instead of “aliens”
6: no service on the phones. will they have cell service with no explanation later? maybe.
7: by all means go back to an island that had some wild outbreak, and where people still apparently live? who are these people living there? how can they sell a house there? IT WAS ON THE NEWS
8: second outbreak, who’d a thunk it. and yes leave her alone in there? the hell. why are there “townspeople” on a damn plague island? the idea that it can’t be sold makes more sense and I believe it.
9: we’ve already seen a corpse and a violent murder, you can say “shit”.
10: these creatures are flappy. I like it. if they start sexing, they’re dead.
11: told ya. dude’s doomed.
12: oh please equalize these movies. the sonic blast of sound after people whispering for fifteen minutes! I use subtitles but it still got through.
13: so all this outbreak was NOT on the news? also: “parasites feed on adrenaline” is a great quote. also also: get in the damn car to the doctor, don’t look for cell service.
14: these leeches are cool. accordions are cool but are not a substitute for backstory.
15: why are you kidding a man that was just vomiting all over himself.
16: I would murder that alarm clock.
17: they don’t put him in a car to go the doctor, and now this infected island is his getting… threads of leeches from his leg. and he’s not getting laid twice. it doesn’t work that way. or wait- in slither, dude got a lady on the side. guess he will get laid twice.
18: I love the intuition. all right, it’s better than it was a minute ago. matrix fight scene included.
19: yep, slither. will she end up full of parasites, hidden in a barn, the size of a whale? hongry? looks like it.
20: using practical effects in a movie like this looks AMAZING after too much CGI
21: what in the entire wicker man remake is this shit
22: WORM MAN IN A LITTLE COAT
23: he’s walking. she’s running. for fuck sake. that’s some early horror we-don’t-know-better shit. there’s no reason a recent movie should do this, ever.
24: that’s two penetrative acts of violence so far.
25: again: why is anyone living on this island.
26: n95 masks, and they’re going to… beat him up. solid plan?
27: WORM MAN
28: I’m not going to show you worm man, but here’s an arm being turn off to be used as a weapon.
29: town sheriff just looks tired as hell. just has to keep shooting everyone, it’s the only thing he’s done in this movie.
30: shades of reanimator going on here. that’s pretty good. mad doctors and leeches. we already know the antidote’s in that stupid doll. just saunter out while he gives a monologue for the ages, excellent.
31: suddenly it’s a zombie movie, somehow it’s still not on the news.
32: diabetes to the rescue.
33: the CGI is really bad. it’s been, the whole time. I wish horror would go back to relying more on practical effects, with CGI used for anything BUT the monster/gore. my little website badly reviewing this one movie probably doesn’t mean much, but it’s how I feel.
34: oh here come the monologues.
35: what the hell kinda creature WANTS you to eat it
36: WHY ISN’T THIS BABY FULL OF LEECHES
37: oh of course it’s about a baby. thing should be full of leeches, but it’s now the central motivation. how about getting your brother the antidote? how about that? no. just a random baby.
38: shades of children of men. usually that would be a compliment but not now.
39: never make a sequel. this hint at it is bad.
6/10. I’m being generous because I loved slither. bad CGI, used way too much. bad ending notes. poorly built characters. half the movie is missing or contained in info dumps. good idea though.
horror movie reviews: day one- FUCK THIS SHITTY APARTMENT
a series of reviews, two each day, of horror movies.
day one, movie one: # alive.
1: half the people are crazed and trying to kill the other half of the people, panic and mass casualties, violent infection, etc – yes, it’s 2020-2021 thank you, continue
2: infected people trying to get in and infect people who are quarantined, aggressive mental illness -yes, yes
3: your neighbors are all worse than you ever knew
-yes. yes
4: cops eating each other
-please do go on
5: oh no several days how will you ever survive with only ramen
6: so you’re warned to have plenty of food and water, yet you don’t immediately fill up the bathtub at least, or the sinks. and you don’t go into the zombie neighbor’s abandoned apartment to see if there’s food
7: too much tech, not enough walkie talkies. I doubt.
8: I get it, people expect the end of the world to be like, a switch flipped, but no. this shit draaaags forever
9: the golf club is reminiscent of funny games. maybe an intentional nod to his change in mental state
10: slapstick!
11: finally, foraging.
12: the Mormons are at the door
13: we have skipped two weeks, without water or food?
14: and finally the lights out- wouldn’t that go before the running water?
15: oh the melodrama. don’t be a moron, but this magical dude has been alive a month without water
16: Kim Yu-bin is keeping track of her shit. I bet he gets her killed. nice waterworld callback with watering the plant.
17: of course he’s that stupid, he’s the protagonist and you’re a competent woman in a movie. how else would it justify you endangering yourself for him?
18: oh, wait. he HAS water? from where?
19: finally the tech is worth a damn. and she’s feeding him, which is ok because yes helping each other matters but
20: ok yes the tech is nice, good point, this is a scene from hackers vs zombies. slapstick is fine. zombie big mad. give me back my hand you bastards
21: Jun-u. I had been ignoring his name the entire movie. This is a bad habit of mine with zombie stuff.
22: finally some decent fuckin plot movement. there’s kids, in a good movie he’d have to kill one. instead, a treasure trove of all the survival gear. it’s handy when someone else did the preparation FOR you. I mean damn
23: oooh she’s only alive to help HIM. what a fucking surprise
24: reminds me of the pandemic “share a window” website crossed with a gentle, normal mukbang (not a weird fetish feeder one)
25: the zombies are going hooome. the zombies are going hooooooome
26: ok yes sounds scary, looked scary but it seems like there’s only five of them at her door
27: she’s skilled. of course. melee fighter. I like that this isn’t the dumb-ass slow zombies, nor the superhuman ones. just regular people.
28: another pile up!
29: don’t drink koolaid from strangers, but spam? NO NOT THAT EITHER. of course there will be cannibals in this that aren’t sick, that’s another nice callback (the road) (dead alive). I’m still holding out hope a kid zombie gets killed, although it’s unlikely at this point.
30: holy fuckin generational-divide-monologue for the ages
31: oh damn a gunshot in South Korea.
32: look, Kim, I wasn’t given any backstory for you, but I really want you to outlive “regular dumb guy”. the suicide subplot is going nowhere and we both know it
33: it’s never a good look to be fighting zombie hordes on the stairs. I don’t know why, it just isn’t good. just stay in the damn apartment. please.
34: regular Joe, you are doing the right thing by staying behind, keep that up.
35: FUCK THIS SHITTY APARTMENT
36: finally, machine guns. sorry, I’m American. I’ve been waiting for an hour and a half for logic to set in
37: where are they even going? she’s cooler than him, why isn’t she getting messages? so I guess his Instagram saved her? is that a subversiveon of what I’ve been complaining about? I think it is.
7/10 excellent slapstick, callbacks, just enough humor without ruining the narrative. subversive ending in that he’s only in the movie for the sake of saving her life, and neither died. points deducted for lack of depth to the woman in the film, too much depth for the guy, and for showing us a lack of water then changing that enough to keep someone alive for 20 days. (also, he didn’t even fill up the sink, the hell)
number two, day one: condemned
this movie is about squatting, a lifestyle I’m too familiar with. let’s see how close to the mark it gets. oh, and zombie infection stuff. that too.
1: the supe is always the strangest thing in any building in NYC. always. this isn’t a narrator. this is realism.
2: when will rich kids learn that poverty isn’t an aesthetic? when will something that poor people authentically live through, be safe from commodification and the thievery of the privileged? where does class/cultural appropriation end? why are people using their yacht money on a tiny fuckin house? find out on the next episode of generation x, when we discuss the occup-
wait no- this is just a zombie flick. sorry about that
3: I know she’s saying other shit on the phone but all I hear is “the rain was such a blessing”
4: montage is always good with good music over it. going anywhere in the city is basically a montage in reality
5: cigarettes cost 14 bucks in New York holy fuckin shit I’m old
6: ominous: “what could be worse than where you are now”, teens having sex, neon lighting, drainpipe footage, “what difference is a day gonna make”, “I won’t make the same mistake like I did in Vladivostok”
7: this bondage shit on the third floor is giving me a real, serious flashback to a job I did briefly which paid incredibly well. every time these characters show up I have a flashback, every time I watch this.
8: every character in this movie is someone I’ve met. every fuckin one. even cookie. I hate that and love it at the same time. I don’t know if you’ve ever lived in bad beat city but this is accuracy.
9: the glitch hallucination is wonderful. don’t show me people’s bad dreams, though. it’s a waste of film. especially someone’s dream who doesn’t know that squats don’t get the garbage picked up. at least he was gentle about her tourist status. (yes, that was fucking gentle. she’s visiting, but they LIVE there. he’ll show you the life of the mind)
10: the colors in this movie reminds me of Mermaid in a Manhole, an amazing movie itself- this is a compliment
11: yes punk means you puke and say “did you SEE that” yes it does
12: the way sickness spreads in close, unmaintained quarters is accurate too. these old buildings were originally tenements and were notorious for being built in a way that contributed to outbreaks of diseases. ny poverty history
13: the glitch used as stand-in for visual mirage is again amazing and continues to be throughout
14: that walk up all the stairs after a day at work to complain about the horror of everyday life, with a back crack and sore feet.
15: the cops are also accurate
16: the plot takes a nice strong left turn here, and it’s perfection. since the development of the plot cookie was leading us to doesn’t matter to the people in this building, it’s better to truncate it. and then we can get to business.
17: yes. if you die in a squat, you’re getting rolled in a carpet and left blocks away. you’ve got to. nobody’s gonna kill you but nobody’s going to be on the street over your ass either.
18: guitar axe skyline lightning. that may be a summary of the whole movie.
19: absolutely pitch perfect “you ruined new york city” rant for the ages
20: if the building wasn’t shit, this would be a nice Shining callback
21: FAWKKING
22: this movie just will not let you have any expected outcome. it’s brilliant.
23: I’ve lived in a brownstone that had a cellar which connected to every building on the block and beyond. that was in Philly, but the construction of this landscape is perfect.
24: FUCK THIS SHITTY APARTMENT
full disclosure- I own this DVD and have watched it a lot. it’s one of my favorite movies, structurally and visually, and I think it’s one of the best horror movies made this decade. 9/10
a few recent works! 2021
getting back to work!
a subdued color floral sleeve added to, and a tree- we’ll be doing some green green leaves next session.
I’m glad to be back at it.
Time to make the donuts!
My books are now open for appointments through the end of July! FINALLY. Go to THIS link to get in. I’ll be reopening books again near the end of July to fill up August and September. If you’ve been waiting, it’s time! Let’s go. Portfolio HERE.
paintings from quarantine: prints
prints are available here.
remaining originals available here.
They’ll all be loaded for sale by tomorrow.
12×16″ to 24×36″. They’re good quality, thick toothed, acid free paper.
Order by Dec 6 to get them in time for holidays.
no. 10 – Tokyo
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Ken Shimura
(20 February 1950 – 29 March 2020)
“I never feared getting an infection myself,” he said, because he knows “how infection control should be done.” But aboard the Diamond Princess, “I was so scared of getting COVID-19.”
“The cruise ship was completely inadequate in terms of the infection control.”
-Kentaro Iwata, who has dealt with infectious outbreaks, including Ebola, cholera and SARS, for more than 20 years.
“I’m choosing not to do it.” -donald trump, on masks
virtual gallery tour, section one
paintings 1-6, a virtual gallery visit. second installment of videos soon.
all originals are for sale at this link. all prints are here.
(more…)
Originals: Paintings from Quarantine
The entire series is now for sale HERE.
Prices go up after the 18th. Thanks you for all the support this year so far, I hope to add a few massive paintings to this list before the year ends. Large-scale prints will be available at some time in December. If there’s a book, it will have to be next year.
xox
Originals will be for sale, Nov 15
Two are spoken for.
All the local galleries are full of artists that they were showing last year, my kickstarter to get full scale prints made did not get funded (really bad timing). I’ll eventually be releasing a small art book containing all of these, I hope. I had wanted to show them as a group but I do not think I’ll be able to do that. so,
here are the originals I’ll be selling. There will be a second post with purchase links on the day, and you’ll be able to message me to purchase as well. Full sized prints will eventually be available but I don’t have a date for that.
Paintings from Quarantine, a series, 2020
all are watercolor paintings. charging by size and scope…
