The Decay Diptych

Here's panel two of the "Decay Diptych." Spray paint on wood panel:



Here's the complete diptych:

The Surgeon's Chair

I was driving with my girlfriend through Potrero Hill one day when we saw this chair on the side of the road. I took it home and decided to sort of reconceive it. First, I wanted to paint a big heart on the back, with blood dripping down, but I thought it would look tacky. So instead, I did this:



I carved the heart out of basswood and then hand routered in veins on all the exposed wood. Then I stitched it back up with wide, sloppy stitches. It's also pretty damn comfortable. Some detail shots:

The Fakewood Table

The finished plywood table:



So last summer, I ended up with a LOT of plywood and not a lot of immediate use for it. Nice hardwood furniture is one of my favorite things in the world, and you can successfully imitate the look of that with plywood. But that approach always irritates me. Like houses that have a fake spanish villa look. It just bugs me. I think it's better to sort of embrace your weak spots and try to turn them into strong spots. So instead of emulating a solid hardwood look, I decided to go after an obviously fake hardwood look. I carefully mapped out a fake grain and painted it on, including knots, end rings, and anything else that you might see on an actual hardwood table. Including false dovetails. Here's a detail:

A week from today, I'll be in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A crazy thought considering how busy everything's going to be till then. I've accomplished pretty much everything on my list except for the learning the Spanish language part, but what are you going to do? I guess I have 3 months in South America to work on that one.

Thanks to everyone who came on Friday to see me and Denise off, and thanks especially to Katie who decided to take home some stencils. It was so great seeing everybody and I'm going to miss you all.

I finished the Surgeon's chair last night, finished up the re-imagined plywood table, the second panel of the diptych, and am rounding the last corner for the Hollywood Fringe art. As usual, I'm slow in getting the photos taken of all of them (should be able to fix that problem tomorrow), but here's a photo of the 2nd panel of the "Decay Diptych." I took this picture in the office part of my shop, so yes, that is a fax machine directly behind it:



Detail:



More photos soon. Back to work.

Monocle-sighted: Stencil on wood panel

Two hours of stencil cutting and and hour and a half of spraypainting later, my entry for the New Yorker's 2009 Eustace Tilley Contest is finished. I just submitted it, so here's to hoping. I call it "Monocle-Sighted: Spraypaint on wood panel." Check it out:

It was a busy weekend. I got most of my surgeon's chair done. Just a couple more coats of varnish on the arms and legs, and a couple other finishing touches and it'll be done. Expect to see it finished by the end of the week. Meantime, here's a photo of the heart installed into the back of the chair:



I also decided to throw my hat into the ring for New Yorker's 2009 Eustace Tilly contest. Basically, they have a contest every year to re-imagine their little mascot guy and I figured, hey, why not? It's due this Thursday and I came up with the idea Saturday night and sketched it out in like 10 minutes. Here's a sneak preview:



Looks like a pretty normal Eustace, right? When do I ever do anything normal? Trust me, from what I've seen on the submitted designs, this one will definitely stand out. I think it'll look cool. Besides, there's plenty of time to do that what when I have 2 weeks to design and paint two new stencils for the Little Chihuahua, design the logo, website, postcards, and brand the new Hollywood Fringe event, finish the second panel of my diptych, find a new roommate, put all my stuff in storage, and learn the Spanish language, right?

Totally. I've faced worse odds. Stay tuned.

There was a request for pictures of the entire car wrap that I designed for 3Prong Power. Here are a couple of pictures from an event at Jackie Speier's house:

My work in the Wall Street Journal!

Well, it's official. I've made it. My work appeared in the Wall Street Journal over the holidays. Check out the article here. Here's the picture:



See that? See the black swooshing line? That's part of the car wrap I designed for 3Prong Power. Now I know what you're all thinking -- Gavin, this is going to go to your head. But don't you worry. Even though my work has been shown, no no, FEATURED (yeah, I like that) in a national publication like the Wall Street Journal, I'm going to be the same old humble me that you've all known, loved, and envied deeply.

Ahem.

Hope everyone had a great New Year!

One big announcement: I'm going to be traveling through Argentina with my girlfriend for 3 months beginning in February. I'm stoked. And don't worry, blog readers... I know how much this blog means to both of you, so I'm planning on posting as often as I can while I"m there... I'm going to be sketching everything that I see and taking pictures of my sketchbook and posting them here as often as possible, so look forward to that.

I finished the first panel of the diptych. Badly lit and photographed, so keep that in mind until I can do that better, but hopefully you can get the idea:




I have lots of loose ends to tie up before I go, but I should have a bunch of new work posted before I go, including:

-- The finished sign for Little Chihuahua: it's already out there, I just have to take some pictures of it

-- The finished surgeon's chair: nearly done, just a few more touches to put on it

-- The first table from the table quartet I'm going to make

-- The second panel of the spray painted diptych