Gavin Worth's Blog

Guitar + sharpie

2012-01-26T03:16:00.000-08:00

I got a cheap guitar to play during my time here in Cairo. I thought I'd start decorating it with a Sharpie. Here's the progress so far:

New sketches -- Cairo moleskine

2012-01-21T01:57:00.000-08:00

Cairo moleskine

2011-12-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

Cairo Moleskine

2011-11-24T13:04:00.000-08:00

Some sketches using ballpoint pens and the occasional highlighter.

Images of Cairo

2011-11-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

Cairo is a huge, complicated city. 18 million people live here. Prayer calls blare from loudspeakers hung from Mosque towers.

A few images of life in Cairo:

I'm moving to Cairo

2011-08-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a frantic summer, a big whirlwind. I accepted a job teaching at the American International School in Cairo, Egypt. Expect photos and lots of new work. I'm going to be going in a completely different direction, which I've been thinking about for years.

I leave in 10 days.

Experiments with ink and brush

2011-03-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of experiments in style with ink and brush.

New animated promo for the Hollywood Fringe Festival

2011-03-27T21:55:00.001-07:00

I made a flash-animated promo for the Hollywood Fringe to help push registration. Check it out:

Handdrawn animation test

2011-02-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick animation test that I did today to feel out how handdrawn animation will work with flash. A longer, and much more finished promo, should be done soon:

Infused bourbon Label designs -- round 2

2010-12-30T16:00:00.001-08:00

Label designs

2010-12-22T11:47:00.001-08:00

Some mockup label designs I've been working on for a line of infused bourbons.

Wire sculpture in Rainn Wilson's "Soul Pancake" book!

2010-11-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

A photo of one of my wire sculptures, "Muerto Bonita," is featured in an art book by Rainn Wilson (Dwight from "The Office"!) called "Soul Pancake." It's a big honor to be in this. A big shout out goes to actor/writer Ken Peterson, who has the actual piece in his private collection.

Without further ado, some shameless photos of celebrities holding the book.

The cast of "The Office"

Sarah Silverman

Ellen Page

And possibly the biggest celebrity of all, Weird Al Yankovic. If you disagree with me, you haven't seen the movie "UHF."

New paintings for the Little Chihuahua in Noe Valley

2010-10-04T22:49:00.001-07:00

The owner of the Little Chihuahua Mexican restaurant recently opened up a new shop in Noe Valley in the what used to be an old carniceria, a meat market. To celebrate and evoke the old space, he asked me to make two Loteria style paintings on distressed metal. I found some square piece of steel to paint on, and then I salvaged some old pine and made a couple of frames from it. Here's what I ended up with, "La Carniceria," and "El Gancho de Carnicero," or "The Meat Hook":

Alamo Square Indie Mart and Flea Market

2010-08-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

I got a last minute spot at last weekend's Alamo Square Indie Mart and Flea Market and even though the morning started out cold, gray, and drizzly, it didn't seem like anyone was deterred, and it was so great meeting everyone who stopped by my table. One thing made me really happy -- I sold my stencil painting of the Painted Ladies to a couple that actually owns one of the Painted Ladies. I can't tell you how excited that makes me. I love that.

Sorry I haven't posted too much new work here -- I've been almost non-stop busy with commissioned paintings and design work. I'll get back to it soon though.

Herb planter

2010-08-15T17:47:00.001-07:00

There is one sunny spot in my house... directly underneath the bay window in my living room. I've always wanted to have fresh herbs, and figured if they're going to grow anywhere in my place, it'll be here. I originally was planning on making a single trough-style planter, but didn't want to deal with the hassle of having some sort of drainage tray, and also thought it would be cool to have it be a little more customizable even after I'd planted my herbs. So I had the idea to make removable planter boxes to put in it.

I was at the hardware store buying some supplies when I got a few planks of cheap knotty pine. After about a half hour in the workshop, I made this:

It looked way too clean to me, and it's really hard pairing raw pine with another wood, such as the table it'd eventually be going on. So I beat it up a little bit with a chain and a pipe, just to put some dings in it, and put some cracks in the edges. Then I gave it a light rub of stain, some finish, and got this:

I used my last plank of pine to make the planter boxes. After some spraypaint and some finish, I got these:

$18 worth of lumber later, the finished product:

Another way to arrange the boxes:

With the herbs:

I put in some old nails for detail:

Interview and updates

2010-08-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

I did a quick interview with Steve Julian, the host of NPR's Southern California Morning Edition, about the design work I did for Hollywood Fringe as well as a little bit about my more personal work. Check it out here:

http://stevejulian.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/gavin-worth-hollywood-fringe-graphic-artist/

I have been surprisingly busy since I got back from Hollywood and have been working pretty much non-stop on commissioned paintings. I just this last weekend received the artwork from my show in LA and hopefully, I can get some good pictures of them soon and post them up here.

Solo show at Fringe Central

2010-06-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

"Heart" -- spraypaint and acrylic on plywood

2010-06-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

This, along with a bunch of others, are going to be at the Fringe Central venue at 1625 N Las Palmas Ave, in Hollywood, beginning Thursday June 17 for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. There's going to be one other framing element... I think it'll be cool, but I have to wait till I'm down there to do it.

Come check it out!

2010-06-07T23:34:00.000-07:00

Yo! Look what I've been up to lately!

The Little Chihuahua 2 signs are all done and at the new spot... I got a chance to check it out and it is awesome. It's going to be a great restaurant. Here is the finished A-frame sign posing here in the lovely Bayview: plywood, rebar, concrete, aluminum, and spraypaint:

I've got a solo show in Hollywood in a week and half and am making new paintings like crazy. Here's a preliminary process photo of "Breath." This is spraypaint on plywood:

And here it is after a few hours while painting in my sweltering workshop. You've seen it here first... no one has seen this except me, my girlfriend, and the hobos wandering around the Bayview.

I should have three or four more large paintings done in the next few days, and I'm hoping for one, ideally two, large paper cut to show.

If you want to see all of it in person, come check it out at:

Fringe Central
1625 Las Palmas
Hollywood, CA

Side table/nightstand

2010-05-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

Here some photos of the side table/nightstand that I made out of maple, walnut, and black steel pipe.

2010-05-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here are the new Little Chihuahua signs cut.

They need a little more sanding, but they're pretty much there. I'm painting and assembling the concrete sign tomorrow.

I've updated my website with all the new images, print materials, promos, etc that I've made for the Hollywood Fringe Festival lately. All the artwork I made for the 2010 Festival Guide is up, as well as new print work, and videos. Go check it out! Here's the cover, as it is. 30,000 of these things are currently being distributed throughout Los Angeles. The festival is going to be awesome.

Photos of my new maple, walnut, and steel pipe side table coming soon!

New signs for Little Chihuahua 2

2010-05-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Work is well underway on the 4 signs I'm making for the new Little Chihuahua location: one big concrete A-frame one, and three smaller wooden ones. My plan A for preparing the concrete didn't work, so I ended up having to mix it with my BARE HANDS. Anyway, here are the two panels set to dry:

Here are the freshly painted signs, ready to be cut:

Finished photos soon.

Process shots of my new side table/nightstand

2010-05-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

Finishing up another piece of furniture... this one is a nightstand/side table that I'm making out of maple, walnut, and steel pipes. Here's the dry fit of the tabletop:

Here's the table top after three coats of Tung Oil:

And here is the dry fit for the legs, made out of black steel pipes and walnut. Since I used finer hardwoods for this piece, I didn't want it to be so overtly industrial with bright steel pipes, so that's why I went with the black pipes... which I coated with a satin clearcoat for protection:

Should be finished in the next day or two. I'll post pictures when it is.

April update

2010-04-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

Is it my life or life in general that goes in big contrasting waves? Nothing to do, then everything in the world to do. I've been experiencing the latter for the past month or so. So here's what's been going on:

-- Designing the Hollywood Fringe Festival guide: this has been a huge project. The thing is going to be filled with original art, and I tried something new for the cover, something along the lines of my wire work -- playing with positive and negative space, and light and shadow. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, but I'm going to wait till it's all done and back from press to show it.

-- I'm going to have brand new work at the Fringe Central venue for the Hollywood Fringe Festival, June 17 - 27. It's going to be new conceptually -- there's going to be wire pieces, and there's going to be pieces involving spray paint, but this is going to be a departure. I haven't made the pieces yet, but I've got a good idea in my head of what they're going to look like, and it's going to be a thematically dark and colorfully bright series. And I'm going to use lots of nails. Should be cool. Fringe Central is at the Theatre of Arts, 1625 North Las Palmas, Hollywood, CA.

-- The Little Chihuahua, the awesome Mexican restaurant on Divisadero and Page that gave me my first commissions a few years ago, is opening up a new restaurant in Noe Valley. This news makes me so happy -- it's such a great restaurant and the owner's an awesome guy. So I'm going to be making another concrete A-frame sign for them. I was trying to wrap my head around all the steps I took in making one the first time, and just thinking about it made my head hurt. It was a complicated little piece there.

-- Some custom paintings, including a really cool commission for a wedding painting for a couple. Very excited about all of these.

-- A bunch of freelance design work.

-- Two new pieces of furniture, including a maple, walnut, and steel pipe side table, and a maple and walnut bookshelf that'll have custom carved legs.

Might as well put it out there, but after the series I'm going to make for the Hollywood Fringe, I'm going to take something of a hiatus from sculptures and paintings and the like to work on a personal project that I've wanted to do for about 10 years now. And yeah, I'm 28. It's looking to be really big in scope, and it's stuck in me like a burr. Feels like I can't do anything bigger till I finish it. Not sure if it's going to take a year or three years, but I'm making the thing. I think it'll be cool. Who knows? It's not like anything else I've ever seen anyway.

The Freaks in LA Weekly!

2010-03-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

The Freaks make a few appearances in this week's edition of LA Weekly. They have some really great articles about the LA theater scene and do some wonderful write-ups on the Fringe Festival.

"Why Theater Matters"

"At the Tip of the Spear"

New paper cut: "Anne"

2010-03-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a new cut paper piece... this is a portrait of my great-grandmother, Anne.

Detail:

Finalist for SFWeekly 2010 Mastermind Grant

2010-02-19T14:32:00.000-08:00

It was a big honor, but I was named one of the finalists for SFWeekly's 2010 Masterminds Grant. I was really shocked to see my name among some really unbelievable artists. It's a huge honor for me. There's a nice mention of my work in this week's paper, and I showed two wire sculptures at the Artopia event last Wednesday. This was hands down the most fun art opening I've ever been apart of. It was packed and everybody was really cool. So anyway, a big thanks to SFWeekly.

I've added a new section to my website to show my cut paper work. You can check it out here. I'm working on a fairly intricate piece right now that hopefully will be done by early next week, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Until then, here's a new one, "The Ibis:"

New papercut: "The Peacock"

2010-01-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

A new papercut, "The Peacock."

Detail:

New series of paper cuts available

2010-01-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

I was cutting out stencils one day when I realized that sometimes the stencil is as interesting as the painting you can make with it, so I decided to make some cut-paper pieces. I'll have several more of these done fairly soon, so keep your eyes peeled for those.

Website redesign

2010-01-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

New year, new website redesign. Check it out. Hopefully it's a little more streamlined and cleaner. LOTS of new work coming up. Just finished a ebony stained pine and steel pipe coffee table today, made a bunch of new work over the holidays and lots of Hollywood Fringe design work. It's going to be a busy year.

www.gavinworth.com

Divisadero Art Walk tonight! Paintings at Swankety Swank!

2009-12-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

I'm going to have some brand new stencil paintings up at Swankety Swank, an awesome boutique on Divisadero (at Page) for their holiday show. They're all San Francisco themed and all are priced with the recession holiday special. Some of the paintings I'm going to show:

The Brown Pelican Diptych:
9.75"x19.75" each -- Spraypaint on wood

San Francisco Skyscape in Sun:
16"x20" -- Spraypaint on wood

San Francisco Skyscape in Fog:
16"x20" -- Spraypaint on wood

Plus more. Swankety Swank is taking part in the Divisadero Art Walk tomorrow, Thursday, December 3, where most of the businesses along Divisadero will be having food and drink specials all night long. It's always packed and always a great time. I'll definitely be there. Hope to see you all!

2009-11-30T11:39:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a really nice Thanksgiving. A while ago, I finished designing and making a kitchen table for a client out of poplar planks and steel pipe. Here's the finished product, all dressed up and such:

I'm also going to have some brand new paintings up at Swankety Swank's Holiday show. It opens this Thursday as part of the hugely popular Divisadero Art Walk. I'll be showing my Painted Ladies stencil, along with some other San Francisco themed paintings. Should be fun.

Swankety Swank
289 Divisadero (at Haight)

Robert Johnson

2009-11-24T15:48:00.000-08:00

I've loved the music of Robert Johnson since I first started playing guitar... like 10 years ago. I decided to draw a portrait of him today with a mechanical pencil so I could start playing around with some digital coloring methods. This is the portrait that I drew:

Here's an attempt with digital color. I think it's pretty heavy handed. I'm going to keep trying:

2009-11-18T14:07:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a long time in the making, but the Hollywood Fringe website has officially launched. I started working with the Fringe guys around two years ago. It's been a lot of work, but it's also been the most creatively satisfying collaboration I've been apart of for a long time. To any performers out there, I highly recommend registering as a participant. It's going be a great festival, and I have my suspicions that it's going to get kinda big. And to anyone else near Hollywood, you should just go ahead and block off your calendar from June 17 - 27 of 2010. There's going to be way too many good shows to see.

Check out it:

www.hollywoodfringe.org

2009-11-10T18:34:00.001-08:00

I decided to do a little test today and check several things off my to do list at once:

-- Need a new handful of paintings for a show in December
-- Wanted to start experimenting with a new style for stencils that I want to use on some big figure pieces soon
-- Needed a painting for my bathroom that would fit into kind of a strangely shaped area.

So made some coffee and while the pot was brewing cut out the stencil. It went faster than I expected. Drank some coffee and then sprayed the layers over the next hour. This is what I painted:

It's one of the types of pelicans native to the Bay. I'm going to do a holiday series of some of the animals around SF. Should be fun. Let me know if you guys have any suggestions. Right now, I can name off the top of my head pigeon and the mouse that used to live in my old house. I need to do some research

2009-11-03T16:30:00.000-08:00

I was sitting at my desk today and couldn't concentrate so made a quick sketch. It's something I've been thinking about for a painting, but I have no idea when I'll actually be able to paint it. So here's the sketch:

As soon as all the new signage is installed in the Little Chihuahua, I'll take pictures and post them here.

2009-10-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

Carved pumpkins with my girlfriend the other night and made this:

Her genius hipster o'lantern with spooky mix-tape unfortunately fell to a premature mold so I wasn't able to get a picture. Just believe me when I tell you that it was awesome.

2009-10-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

I'm making some more custom signs for the Little Chihuahua Mexican restaurant. They're designed to match the concrete a-frame I made for them around a year ago, but this time spray paint on pine. I'm also doing some spray painting on the recycling unit and some on the wall. Should look pretty damn cool.

Here's one of the stencils:

And one of the finished signs:

Group Show at Lower Deck Gallery

2009-10-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Cool news. I'm going to have my "Decay Diptych" up at the Familial Ghosts show at Lower Deck Gallery in the hip Dogpatch district of San Francisco. And yes, I'm aware that calling a neighborhood hip makes it sound less hip. But if I was going to describe Pac Heights, I'd call it upscale, if I was going to describe the Mission, I'd call it "lively," if I was going to describe the Marina, I'd call it the cultural gutter of San Francisco, and as for the Dogpatch, there really is no other way to describe it other than hip. Have you been there? It's freaking hip. All the brick buildings, the edgy yet relevant graffiti on construction tarps, all the live/work lofts... it's like a damn Josh Hartnett movie.

But anyway.

Lower Deck Gallery. Really cool place, brand new gallery, and from what I've seen so far, some really awesome work. Like people who's work I really admired in galleries last year are going to be in this show.

Opening is next Thursday, October 22 from 6-9pm. The show is up till November 19th. Lower Deck Gallery is at 2295 3rd St (at 20th), below Sundance Coffee. The entrance is on 20th Street.

In other news, I moved and am building a shelf to go under my drafting table. Didn't want to spend any money on it, so I'm making it out of scrap plywood and strips of walnut that I found around my shop. Here's a picture so far. I really want to add some metal elements into it, because there's almost nothing I love more than the look of wood and metal together. Well, maybe Rick Astley's opus, but it's a tough call.

2009-10-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

Not really in the art vein, but thought I'd share... I've officially made it. I have a listing on IMDB. I acted in my friend's short movie and he put it up there. It's called "Banat" and you can check out the IMDB listing here, and there's also a short trailer up that you can watch here.

It's actually a really cool movie. His newest movie, a short called "The New You" is one of the official selections at the Saturday Fantasy Film Festival on October 24th. It's at the Rec Center Studio, 1161 Logan Street, in Los Angeles. It's about a guy obsessed with self help tapes. If you're in LA, go check it out.

Anyway, artwise, I've been doing a bunch of design and video production for 3Prong Power, working on the website redesign for Hollywood Fringe, and am designing and fabricating a few more signs for the Little Chihuahua. Busy busy.

She Pushes a Mad Whip

2009-09-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Juana, the writer of "She Pushes a Mad Whip" for the awesome feature of my work.

Everyone check out her blog. She posts some beautiful stuff on there, and does it regularly and consistently.

http://shepushesamadwhip.blogspot.com/

2009-09-22T12:37:00.001-07:00

Just finished updating my site with the new sculptures I made for the 2009 Sausalito Art Festival. Check it all out here at www.gavinworth.com. Look forward to a "Video" section coming soon, as well as a redesign of the entire site. Feel kind of stupid that it took me so long to update it after the actual festival itself, but that's what happens when you have to redesign two entire websites in a week immediately after the festival. I really don't know how I did it. But I did it. You can check out one of them here, at www.3Prongpower.com, and the other, for the Hollywood Fringe, hasn't gone live yet. I'll let you know when it does.

Sausalito Art Festival 2009 -- recap

2009-09-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for everyone who stopped by my booth at the Sausalito Art Festival this past weekend. It was a wild time, I met a ton of great people, and I'm pretty sure I got three separate second degree sunburns over the course of the weekend. I was wowed by the positive reaction that I got -- really, thank you so much to everybody.

So my newest types of wire sculptures really have to be seen in person to get the full effect, so I made a video of one. Check it out:

Now, it's straight back to work. Finishing up the redesign of the entire Hollywood Fringe website, finishing commissions, and creating a new body of gallery-oriented work for the fall, both in wire sculpture and in stencils. It should be pretty cool. Plus, stay tuned for a redesign of my website, www.gavinworth.com.

Again, thanks so much to everyone who came by. It was great meeting you all.

Sausalito Art Festival this weekend

2009-09-02T18:31:00.001-07:00

2009-08-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates lately -- I've basically been working day and night trying to make sculptures for the Sausalito Art Festival. I'm getting a lot of work done, so I'll have a bunch of photos soon. I've so far had two nights working till 3:30am in the past week, mostly trying to make the new idea for wire sculptures that came to me while hiking in Chile. And trust me, I know how cliche that sounds.

I learned a couple of lessons from doing the festival last year:

-- Have good lights. Should've been obvious but what did I know? This was probably my biggest misstep last year. So this time, I took that all important step into becoming a man and bought my first set of track lighting. We'll see.

-- Fewer nipples. Seriously guys. I figured, art festival, northern california, they probably can handle the nipples. Nope. I had never seen first hand how freaked out people are by nipples. Even, apparently, wire representations of nipples. So to all you nipple fans out there, sorry guys, it's gonna be a dry year.

-- Striated pricing. The lady in the booth next to me last year gave me good advice: have lower priced starter pieces. Again, should've been obvious. So I tried to take it to heart this year and make lower-priced smaller pieces. And thoughts hands might be a good subject (for several reasons... see above post).

So in the meantime, here's a photo of one of said hand sculptures. Lots more to come.

And this is a photo of half the necessary wire for one of my new sculptures.

Paintings in "I Live Here" Benefit -- Santa Monica

2009-08-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

I was recently contacted by the people at "I Live Here," a non-profit that helps the displaced and ignored throughout the world, especially in Malawi, where there's a particularly horrible situation. They are having a benefit in Santa Monica on Saturday, August 22 from 7-11:30pm. I'm going to have four or five paintings on cardboard at the silent auction, so definitely go to the benefit, meet Mia Kirshner, buy my paintings, and help the Malawians!

It's happening at the Causecast HQ - 969 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA.
Tickets are $25 presale or $30 at the door. That includes free drinks, food, music, and lots more.

2009-08-14T08:59:00.001-07:00

Just found out the musical lineup for the Sausalito Art Festival this year, and if you didn't want to come before, you will now. On Monday, September 7 from 4-5pm, you can see the one, the only Jefferson Starship.

2009-08-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a week. First off, apparently, the 111 Minna show went really well. I sold nearly all my paintings and raised close to $800 for Leukemia research. I had been working on a brand new stencil that I debuted at this event and it sold. It goes along with the SF Arts Commission Street Artist program I've been working with lately. I wanted to do something "San Francisco-ey" but not too San Francisco-ey. Something an SF resident might want in their house. So I made a 4 layer stencil of the Painted Ladies. Check it out:

I also just spent nearly a week in New York celebrating the wedding of one of my best friends. It was an amazing time, got to meet some amazing people, and definitely one of the highlights was going to see Fuerza Bruta, a show near Union Square. I come from an acting background, specifically Shakespeare and the stage... I've seen plenty of shows in my day, and this is the best thing I've ever seen. At one point, one of the performers grabbed me by my collar, dragged me back 15 feet, cleared the crowd and squared off with me. Then, from out of nowhere, he hits me over the head with a piece of styrofoam that bursts into confetti. I broke into a wild cheer. It's a show that, despite how the modern world tries to numb it, makes you feel life. By spraying you with water, by blasting you with fans, even by grabbing you by the collar and hitting you over the head with styrofoam. Go, running man, go! Seriously, if you find yourself near it, GO SEE THIS SHOW.

Now, I'm in crazy sculpture mode. Have four ready to mount, should have probably about the same ready by next week. I got some good ideas while on the plane, so instead of dreading this process, I'm getting excited about it again.

Video of me spray painting

2009-07-28T10:18:00.001-07:00

I recently made a portrait out of spray paint and stencils for a young couple that had gotten married. I designed and cut a 7 layer stencil, and then went to my workshop in the Bayview, duct taped a video camera to the top of the trashcan, pressed record, and got to painting. Check it out... don't worry, it's only 2 minutes long (thanks, time lapse!)

Ghetto art

2009-07-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

So last night, I was scrambling to make it to the 7pm figure drawing session. Got there in the nick of time, opened up my bag, and realized that I had forgotten EVERYTHING. No sketchbook, no pencils, nothing. I considered leaving, but figured it would be a good challenge (translation - I had already paid). The only thing I had with me was a ballpoint pen, a highlighter, and an AT&T bill. Thank god those things are 30 pages long. And thusly, I present these:

10 minute pose

20 minute pose

20 minute pose

20 minute pose

The hardest part was that I didn't have anything to draw on. The only thing I had was a Haruki Mirakami book of short stories, which is the smallest book in the world. Thanks a lot Haruki.

2009-07-13T11:23:00.001-07:00

Had the Arterra opening on Thursday night and it went really well. Everyone who showed up was incredibly cool. It was a fun fun night. I'll have some photos of it up as soon as I can get them. But meantime, a couple of sketches from last week's figure drawing session. I totally forgot about it until last minute so just grabbed a ballpoint pen and some typing paper, and once I started, I was loving it. It forced me to be much more loose, just to sketch and not worry since erasing isn't an option. I'm definitely going to start trying out different pens in the future.

10 minute pose

20 minute pose

2009-07-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

So in the midst of summer craziness (I always forget how busy it gets every summer) with festivals to prepare for and personal work, projects, paid work, holidays, everything hitting the intersection at once, I managed to get a bunch of stencils cut out last night. Up till about midnight. But I have a little more variety on my Pandora lately so it's not too bad. Here's one stencil of a four layer stencil that you'll be seeing before too long. And on wood too. I'm tired of this paper crap.

2009-07-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

I've always loved expressionistic figure work, and so I'm going to do a handful of more expressionistic wire sculptures for Sausalito this summer. Themes more allegorical in nature. Here's a sketch I came up with yesterday. Not sure if I'm actually going to make it... I'm going to sit on it for a few more days, and see if I warm to it or not. But the style is close to what I'll be doing.

2009-06-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

Some more stencils for the Street Artist program.

Haight Ashbury - 18"x24"

Cable Car -- 8"x10" and postcard size (4"x6")

I'm going to be at the Sausalito Art Festival this year

2009-06-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. I'm going to be a sculpture exhibitor at the Sausalito Art Festival again this year. It was kind of a last minute thing, and so instead of having 5 months to prepare, I basically have 2 and a half months. That's okay. I can do it. I'm going to have a lot of the sculptures typical of the style I've been doing (including a series of lower priced ones -- probably $95 small sculptures), plus two other styles of wire sculpture that I'm excited about. I'm tentative, I'm nervous, but if I can pull it off, I think it'll be awesome. Here's to working in record time. Again.

Here's the first stenciled postcard I'm making for the Street Art Program. These are going to be $5, and I'll be selling them and a lot of other paintings at Fisherman's Wharf this Saturday.

Also, when to Robert Windle's drop in figure drawing session on Tuesday. Ahh, the pre-festival season which means I'll probably be there every Tuesday till the end of time. A couple of sketches from it... nothing that inspired. Just one of those days.

2009-06-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here's the first stencil I made for the Street Artist Program this summer. I tried two different color variations on this one, which turned out to be a 6 layer stencil. Another one I'm finishing painting right now, and I have a couple of postcards in the works. I'm going to be making a ton of them this summer, and I'll be selling them at various spots in the city (along with my loteria stencils -- probably mostly on paper). This weekend, I'm going to give Fisherman's Wharf a try and see what happens. If you want to stop by, check out my twitter on Saturday and I'll post where I'm going to be.

2009-06-19T00:48:00.000-07:00

Just finished cutting out two of the harder stencils for a seven layer stencil I'm making for this summer's Street Artist program. Long, tough work. I tried cutting the first one (probably the toughest, most detailed one) out of a thin sheet of plastic... I figured I'll be painting these so much, I wanted a material that I could wash off so the lines will stay crisp. It'll work, but it's is hard as hell to cut. Plus, there's not as much grace as with paper stencils.

Isn't all this stencil talk fascinating?

Anyway, here's a detail of one of the paper ones. I'm hoping to finish all the cutting for this one (and hopefully two) tomorrow, so I can start painting this weekend and get out on the streets next week.

Have four, ideally ten, to cut out tomorrow. Should be fun. Hopefully, pictures of the finished paintings soon.

Solo show at the Arterra

2009-06-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

I hung up 7 paintings and 2 sculptures in the gallery of the Arterra on Thursday. There's going to be an opening reception at some point -- not quite sure the date yet. Thing is, I'm not sure if it's open to the public. I made a new stencil painting for the show. "41. La Rosa"

Vote for me for Best Emerging Artist!

2009-06-12T11:08:00.001-07:00

The Guardian is holding their annual "Best of San Francisco" poll, and I want to see if I can sweep the "Best Emerging Artist" category. I need your help! Go vote for me before June 30, and if I win, I'll give you all huge bags of money. You don't need to fill in every category (Best Emerging Artist is on the second page).

http://www.sfbg.com/bobpoll2009/

Vote Gavin Worth!

Thanks!

2009-06-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Getting work together for a solo show at the Arterra Gallery (hanging it on Thursday), working on the Hollywood Fringe website redesign (the logo is being reworked too), finishing up a commission, a couple of flyers... just lots and lots of things to do.

Not only that, but I finally got my official laminated and everything San Francisco Street Artist license. So I guess I could legally go out and sell art today. Next step I guess is to actually make the paintings I'm planning to sell (been working on the design of those too, and I'm pretty happy with how I think they're going to turn out). And make a booth too. Not sure what I'm going to do for my booth yet.

All in the meantime, had car issues and lost my wallet. That, funnily enough, was found and returned to me by Nate Van Dyke, one of my favorite artists. Pretty awesome meeting him.

Also, I went to my cousin's wedding a couple of weeks ago, and I'm going to make a painting for them. Gave me an idea, so you'll probably see some wedding portraits around these parts before too long.

Alright, back to work. Images before too long.

Divisadero Art Walk TONIGHT!

2009-06-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

This one kind slipped under my radar, but there's going to be a Divisadero Art Walk tonight. I went to the last one and had a great time. People packed on Divis. Lots of great deals and lots of great art. I have I think 8 paintings now in the Little Chihuahua, plus I made the concrete sign out front, so make sure to go check it out. And if that's not enough, they're offering $3 burritos and $3 pints, including Fat Tire. Hmm, that sounds good. Maybe I'll go.

Article on the Hollywood Fringe in LA Theater Review

2009-06-02T16:12:00.001-07:00

There's a great feature on the Hollywood Fringe Festival (including a graphic I made for their collateral and promotional materials) on the LA Theater Review. It's starting to get really exciting.

San Francisco Street Artist Program

2009-05-29T09:06:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I met with the San Francisco Arts Commission committee. I'm taking part in the Street Artist program this summer... I'm going to be one of those guys behind a booth that you see at the wharf or downtown or at the plaza by the Ferry Building. The coolest part of the day was when I was showing my work to be approved by the committee, one of the committee members bought a painting. Ha!

Also, something I thought was pretty interesting -- they remarked that a lot of high quality artists had been coming through the street artist program this year, and thought that because of the bad economy, the arts festival circuit has been dismal. And believe me, especially this year, it is DISMAL. Consequently, a lot of the artists who count on festival sales as a big part of their income have been looking for other avenues, and I'm not surprised that the Street Artist program is one of them.

This leads into something I've thought about for a while, that as scary and inpenetrable as this whole situation seems, I can see a momentum picking up for great community to come together. This summer's bleak prospects are going to flood the streets of San Francisco with extremely high quality art, all without a middleman of any kind, which can only make pricing more reasonable. Great art, great value, and the face to face connection of artist with art lover -- seriously, there's a hint of paradise in that scenario.

Just a small sliver of silver lining. But pretty cool nonetheless.

2009-05-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

You know what I found out? When you're traveling across the most beautiful country in the world having the greatest steak in existence for three months, it's kind of tough to get back into the swing of things once you get home. It has been really hard, but seriously I've had so much to do, I didn't really have a choice. Some updates:

I managed to get my application into the SF Arts Commission to get a Street Artist License for this summer. I was the last one accepted for this month, which is great news, because it would've really sucked to miss out on the entire month of June. Next step, wander around City Hall today and get various paperwork in order, and tomorrow, meet up with the acceptance board with a bunch of paintings and prove that I actually make the work that I plan to sell. Oh yeah, the plan is to sell stenciled landscapes of the San Francisco area.

Since I'll probably be moving around a lot (you get your selling location based on a lottery each morning), I decided to set up a twitter account so I can announce where I'll be. Plus I'm all technomalogical like that. Follow me here.

Hollywood Fringe is going to have a huge website redesign. Basically make it go from a blog to a full blown festival website. This is gonna take some serious work.

Commissions commissions commissions.

Oh yeah, the new wire idea. I got a sketch down, and hopefully will get to figure drawing soon to get some good ideas. You will be seeing these this summer. Different bases, maybe with an injection of color, maybe even pedestal bases.

Threw a poster together for my buddy in LA who is part of a comedy group. They are the funniest people in California. If you live anywhere in the vicinity of LA, you should definitely see this show. Drew and cut out the triceratops stencil, sprayed it on cardboard, and then layed out the text.

2009-05-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I first started spray painting on windows. I thought it would be an easier process than pouring the concrete panels, so I could charge less and I'd have a less expensive alternative to sell. While I was searching through the salvage yard, I came across some big glass doors. Huge. My imagination instantly lit up with millions of great ideas of what I could paint on them. That was a year ago. They're still sitting in my shop. In a general mood of getting the bulky things out of my life, I decided to finally do something with the windows in my free time and so this week, took sort of a preliminary step.

I bought a window for a commissioned painting a little while ago and I had gotten it back to my shop before I realized that there was a piece broken from the corner. I couldn't use it, so it's been sitting around for a while. Last week, I had a night off and decided to just get some paint down, try to get a feel about what would and wouldn't work on glass. I knew that I'd have to paint backwards, meaning outline and dark crosshatch first, highlight second, shadows next, midtones.... it all got very confusing. I knew that I wanted to go for a crosshatched look. I took out an old book that I have about the blues and sketched a portrait of Ma Rainey. Painted the outlines and highlights and got this:

A couple of nights later, I added some color.

I kept working after that and decided to stop here.

This is definitely far from perfect, and far even from what I had in mind. But I think I know where I went wrong and I think I know how to do it right the next time. The background is better with a simpler color scheme. The text gets all lost. The body needs to be delineated from the background, and I think the body needs as continual a crosshatch as the face. Next up, when I get a free second, I'm going to paint on the big ones. Keep you guys posted.

Four sculptures in the Carport Gallery in Russian River

2009-05-16T17:09:00.001-07:00

Four of my wire sculptures are going up at the Carport Gallery in Guerneville. It's already started, but they're a part of the Russian River Women's Weekend, so if anyone is going to some of those events, make sure to check out the Carport Gallery. It's at 15098 Old River Road in Guerneville.

I was finishing up a bunch of commissions this week, but I have a ton of new work coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

Not really related, but I just saw a picture of this for the first time... a friend was traveling through China and sent me this: the Jade Cabbage at the Taipei National Palace Museum. This is stunning. My god.

2009-05-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Well, faithful blog readers... I'm back. Back in San Francisco, officially back in my house, and already have a full plate of work in front of me.

I apologize about never really posting while I was in Argentina, but take it as a sign that I had an awesome trip. Truly just spectacular. The single most beautiful place I've ever been in my life... probably because the whole country is so huge and varied. I'm not going to go into too too much detail here, but I'll go over some of the highlights. Also, I didn't get to sketch nearly as much as I wanted to. Seriously, we just had too much to do.

We left early February and arrived in Buenos Aires. We went to a hostel in the Palermo district and explored the place for about two weeks.

A typical Palermo scene

What a city.... just amazing. We saw all the big sites, San Telmo, Recoleta Cemetery, La Boca, not to mention had some awesome food. Argentinians are serious about beef. Whereas here in California, we make a big deal about grass-fed beef, Nieman Ranch, that's pretty much the norm over there. The difference in taste is huge, and when they grill it, they do it seriously. It's an all day affair. All cooked over wood-coals, and never rare, but always juicy. Just awesome.

Recoleta Cemetery

A typical lunch - Asado

The street art is amazing. Some highlights that I saw:

In Microcentro

In San Telmo

And some sketches:

From the balcony of our Hostel

Las Viejas near the Casa Rosada

From there, we spent a weekend in Uruguay on the beach at Colonia, where we basically relaxed, had awesome food, and rode horses. We then headed down south to Pinamar, where we stayed with my girlfriend's family, the nicest people on the planet. Some sketches:

El Faro near Pinamar

Man drinking Mate on the beach

Afterwards, we took a 26 hour busride south to El Calafate to see Perito Moreno Glacier.

Spectacular. Standing on the viewing platforms, you can can hear these gunshot cracks of the shifting ice. We decided to take a trek over the glacier... the joke I came up with was, "Tomorrow we're going hiking on Perito Moreno glacier and our guide told us we will have to wear crampons. After an embarrassing trip to the drug store, I learned that these are ice shoes." I'm a mature guy. Anyway, it was spectacular. You see huge caverns dropping into the ice, out of sight. There were electric blue rivers and lakes within the glacier.

A glacial lake

Scotch on the rocks with glacier ice

Next, we crossed the border into Chile and went backpacking for 5 days in Torres Del Paine. This is the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life. The whole thing is stunning. Every time you turn your head, you see some new thing that is just spectacular. By the end, I was nonplussed by just very beautiful things. Sort of like when you go to Europe and in front of a massive thousand year old cathedral, you think, "Huh, a solid gold cathedral. Where's the cafe?"

Me in front of Glacier Gray

5 days and 50 miles of hiking later, we wound our way up to El Bolson and stayed on a farm called Chacra Millalen for a week. We did some work there, dug beds, picked almonds, and did a lot of relaxing. We hired a gaucho to lead us up to a mountain lake on horseback. It was fantastic. And at the end of every day, we would sit down and eat a huge meal cooked with vegetables that were pulled from the ground that morning. Some of the best food of my life.

Chacra Millalen

Next, up to Bariloche where we rented a car and the 7 Lakes tour. Just beautiful. We went right after a big rain though, so half of the road was thick mud. It was pretty much at this point that I became thankful for growing up in New Mexico and learning how to drive on terrible roads.

Mannequin in a mall in Bariloche

We then took a bus up to Mendoza, did the wine/bike tour, went rafting on the River Mendoza (which since it was the end of the season was only a class 2... nothing like when I went rafting on the Zambezi in Zimbabwe. See how I slipped that brag in there?), stopped by Cordoba, and then headed over to Iguazu Falls. Everything was amazing, but Iguazu might've been my collective favorite place. I loved it all: the red earth, the vibrant green of the jungle, the animals... not to mention the massive waterfalls everywhere.

We decided to come back to the falls later that night to look at it under the full moon. This was one of the creepiest things I've ever seen. Like four things that are terrifying to man all together. The next day, we saw the rest of the falls and went on a hike through the jungle, where we saw countless spiders the size of your hand in 10 foot webs, a capybarra (the largest rodent in the world), and a dozen or so monkeys.

A monkey chewing on a bamboo stalk. Look at that face. It shook a branch at me after this trying to scare me off.

A small note here... even though Lonely Planet glosses over the market in Puerto Iguazu, when I went there, it had some of the best craftsmanship I had seen in Argentina. Seriously. We had seen carved mate gourds everywhere, in every feria artesenal all over the country, top to bottom, but there's one guy in Puerto Iguazu that takes it to another level. They were just beautiful pieces. I bought three... I'll try to post some pictures soon.

We stopped for a quick visit to Misiones, the ruins of an old Jesuit mission. Fascinating history.

Then back to Buenos Aires. We stayed in San Telmo this time, and liked it a lot more. The Sunday feria is awesome... I'm not a huge fan of the antiques part, but the artist booths around it are great. We ate at some great restaurants... Petanque in San Telmo is great. French food, the rabbit stew in particular is great... and in Palermo, you have to go to Lele de Troya. We went here once at the beginning of the trip and also our last night in Buenos Aires. It's a beautiful restaurant visually, and the food is great, specifically the clams and the fish of the day (especially if it's white fish).

Then, we flew home... our backpacks full of dulce de leche. Nice to be back, nice to be back at work, but damn I miss it. What a place. What an amazing place.

Alright, back to work. I had quite a few commission requests while I was away so I'm hurrying to get them done... several painting commissions and a wire sculpture.

Oh yeah, while I was walking through the woods in Chile, I got an idea for a new way to do wire sculptures. How cliche is that? But if I can pull this off, and I'm not sure I can yet, it's going to be phenomenal.

My work on SFGate!

2009-04-25T17:01:00.001-07:00

There's a great write up of the Little Chihuahua on SFGate here. You can see one of my stencil paintings of "La Calavera" in one of the photos. Check it out:

I currently have six paintings hanging there. I'm really happy that the Little Chihuahua is getting such great press. The food is fantastic. Seriously, if you haven't been there, GO.

2009-04-07T17:51:00.000-07:00

In a town called Puerto Iguazu near Iguaza Falls, right by the border of Brazil and Paraguay. Spectacular. Just a quick note to say that there´s a small write-up about me on the Hollywood Fringe blog. Thanks guys! Can´t wait to get back to collaborating!

My work in the LA Times!

2009-03-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry, it´s been a while... I´m currently in a small town called El Calafate in Southern Patagonia. Just had a minute, but got this news. There´s a picture of the mammoth I helped build in the LA Times. Check out the article here.

Lots of stories and lots of sketches to share.. just need to find a little free time to do it. Hopefully soon. I´m heading to Chile in a couple of days to trek through Torres Del Paine for about a week and then I´m headed to work on a farm in El Bolson. Hopefully, I should have a good update after that though!

The Decay Diptych

2009-01-29T13:42:00.000-08:00

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

Here's the complete diptych:

The Surgeon's Chair

2009-01-29T13:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-29T13:24:00.000-08:00

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:

2009-01-27T09:24:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

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:

2009-01-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-08T14:10:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-01-05T12:03:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-01-03T15:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-26T14:39:00.001-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I'm back at the shop today and I have two new stencil paintings to show, not including a big one that I'll hopefully post tomorrow.

Here's a painting that I made for my girlfriend for Christmas:

Here's a painting that I thought would look cool, did it, and think I was right:

And here's the first step of panel 1 of the diptych:

Here's the second step:

2008-12-23T11:06:00.000-08:00

Last night, I finished up a bunch of woodcut paintings that I made for the holidays. It involves two layers of carved wood panels and a lot of sawdust in my room that had me sneezing upon waking this morning. I made them in black and red:

Also feel free to send these, put words on them, put your message on it and send it as an ecard to someone. If you want. If you did, I'd be absolutely thrilled. I don't know... something like this:

I'm currently working on a new stencil painting that I'll have pictures of on Friday, and also part one of the stencil diptych that I never got to finish in LA. Have a happy holidays everyone.

2008-12-18T15:22:00.001-08:00

I dropped the Little Chihuahua sign off last night, so if anyone wants to see it in all of its heavy concrete/aluminum glory, it should be out on the sidewalk every day at the corner of Divisadero and Page. I think it looks pretty cool. Everyone go check it out, get an awesome burrito and a $2 pint of Fat Tire (don't know how this is doable but apparently it is), and if you like the sign, thank my aching lower back.

Okay, it's time to regroup. I took a look at my stencils last night and a few definitely got trashed. Some tough ones too. But surprisingly, I was able to salvage (I think) quite a few of them. A writer friend of mine in LA told me about a screenplay that he wrote... draft after draft, just perfected it, and then it was gone. GONE. No trace of it on his computer. We've all been there, but this is a screenplay, months of work, that he had drained his heart into. Then, he told me a story he heard that old mask makers on the coast of the Pacific, after they had made their first mask, would send it out to sea. An offering to the craft and the universe. And that's how he felt about his screenplay. I like that. And while I can't pretend that this is anywhere near as important as his writing or a carved mask, thinking that every now and again you have to sacrifice some of your labor to the gods of humility and experience makes me feel better.

So I'm going to remake them. Remake them all and remake them better. You'll see those two stencils before Christmas if it's the last thing I do. Here's a small piece from the design I made:

Things to look for in the upcoming weeks:

-- The surgeons chair. This will be finished soon. I SWEAR.
-- The re-imagined plywood table. This has been sitting in my room 90% finished for months so just have to pull the trigger
-- An oh so sweet wood-cut print christmas card (which by the way, if you know me, this is going to be your gift this year)

And more, I'm sure. Just can't think of it right now.

2008-12-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a week. 6 days straight of 18 hour days. I slept deeper than I ever slept before last night and I'm still exhausted. But anyways -- Artbash was fun. I arrived Thursday night and was up till 5:30 painting everything, EVERYTHING, as decoration: blinds, corrugated metal windows, cardboard... it worked out. You'll be seeing the blinds again, especially. The next day, I was busy making a big Artbash sign, making custom stencils for the sponsors, a new Hollywood Fringe stencil.

Day of the party we get to the space and there is killer wind. The only time I'd ever felt wind like that was at Lands End in England... there, it's maybe appropriate. Not Los Angeles though, right? So it was fickle seeing if we could do the painting outside where I was stationed -- I couldn't paint inside because of the fumes. Once we decided to do the painting later on in the night, maybe around 10, I think the chaos of the day had scattered a lot of my materials. I couldn't find all my stencils. Then I couldn't find all my paint. I ended up not being able to finish the paintings (which I am majorly bummed out about), but hey... it was fun and I met a lot of cool people.

It started raining the next day and somehow my suitcase, which had all my stencils in it (Loteria and the new ones) and all my clothes was left outside and it all got soaked. I'm not sure if I can find out a way to dry them, but I think they might be toast. All of them. I will definitely be making the birth/decay ones again just because I want to see the thing finished.

Anyway, that's for later. I'm putting the finishing touches on the sign for the Little Chihuahua. I'm going to make the top a little more secure, attach the frame, hinge it together, and it'll be done tomorrow. Some pictures of it now:

2008-12-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

Artbash LA is coming up fast. Next week actually, and I'm stoked. It should be a great time... lots of great performers, great sponsors... it's going to be awesome. I highly encourage anyone who can to go to this party:

"ARTBash 29/08 is a celebration of the Los Angeles performing arts community. We invite all Angelinos to realize their inner tycoon amidst the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Our fatcat partygoers will be treated to two arenas of modern vice mixed with classic opulence.

In the ballroom our guests will dance and celebrate in luxury while sipping fine beverages and reveling in decadence and excess, while outside on the plaza, partygoers slum it with burlesque beauties and Hooverville tramps.

LA’s most innovative performing arts companies will immerse our guests in the excess of the elite and the grit of those below. With their ticket, patrons receive “tips” to dole out to their favorite performers. The evening culminates in a dynamic ballroom finale where past and present collide in a mash-up not to be missed.

NeedTheater in association with the Hollywood Fringe Festival, will bring together nearly 25 of LA’s most innovative performance companies to immerse the audience in a dynamic performance environment right in the heart of Mid-Wilshire."

I'm going to painting live during the event a new piece: a triptych in spray paint called "Allegory of the Underclass." I'm frantically working on it right now and it's in the stage where every paranoid brain in my cell is saying, "This isn't going to work. This is going to suck. You're going to suck, and make a public performance of it." But if I can make it work, I think it'll look pretty cool. It's taken a dark turn, but I thought that was appropriate given the theme of the party. A teaser:

Anyway, just finished pouring the concrete for the Little Chihuahua sign. Hopefully, it'll be dry enough by Sunday to spray paint it. Here it is at this point.

Fingers crossed.

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2008-11-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

You ever get into a section of life where there are a million things that you have to do, but at any given time you feel directionless and motorless and pretty much unable to get to work on any of it? I've been feeling that way for a month or two now and I hate it. I'm way too scattered right now... working on this large scale stencil for Artbash, working on a concrete sign for Little Chihuahua, design work for 3Prong Power, design work for the Hollywood Fringe... whatever. It goes on and on. I need to focus.

I got some work in on my Surgeon's Chair.... it originally had casters that I didn't want, so I made some leg caps out of walnut to elevate it a little bit. I sawed those and attached them, and got the heart varnished. I think it's looking pretty good... it's got a great glossy slimy blotchy sick kind of look which is exactly what I was going for.

All I need to do is router out the veins on the arms and legs, install the heart, add some blood spatter, and sew the thing up. I'm loving the work, but I know it's a low priority, so it may be a while.

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Finished wine labels

2008-11-20T11:22:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the red and white wine labels. Not sure when I'll have a completed bottle in my hand, but once I do, you'll be the first to know, blog readers. Check em out:

I also started doing sketches yesterday for the stencil I'll be painting live at the Artbash Party on December 13. It's going to be a large painting, probably 6'x6' and filled with figures. Tentative title is "Allegory of the Underclass." It's going to take probably 20 or so stencils and if it turns out the way I hope it will, it'll look pretty cool. Here's one of the preliminary sketches:

2008-11-17T15:14:00.001-08:00

I finally finished the artwork for the front of the "Artbash" postcard. We went through a lot of different styles and ended up going down a more contemporary road.

It should be a fun party. If everything goes according to plan, I'll be painting live at the event. I'm planning on having a bunch of stencils painted on small pieces of cardboard, drywall, sheet metal... any common low cost material that I can find and will look cool, and I'll also be painting a large, maybe 6'x6', painting from a bunch of handcut stencils. I'll document that process as I get to it. But you should definitely come if you get a chance. It sounds like a great time with some great artists.

I'm also getting close to finalizing the design for the concrete sign for "The Little Chihuahua." It's been too long since I've done anything with concrete so that'll be fun. I'm also going to pour a panel for "El Corazon" so I can have it on concrete.

2008-11-16T20:05:00.000-08:00

Here's the nearly complete image for the white wine label. Still toying around with a few ideas but hopefully, I'll have these done by the end of the week.

2008-11-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty busy working on a few different things, including some concept art, logo design, and postcard design for Artbash 29/08, a party that's going to happen really soon actually -- on December 13 in Hollywood. It sounds like it's going to be a great time... I'll be there in some capacity, hopefully doing artwork as one of the participating artists so you all should stop by if you can. More details to come.

Until then, here's the close to finished wine label design. White wine label should be done (hopefully) in the next couple of days.

I'm officially an award winning artist

2008-11-03T20:48:00.001-08:00

Yup, it's true. After all these years, I am officially an award winning artist. I found out today that I won third place in the seriouseats.com pumpkin carving contest with my Anton-Chigur-O'Lantern. Yes, I took home the bronze. It's actually a great site if you enjoy making and eating good food, which I do. And while I couldn't help but think that my first award would've been for something like, you know, sculpture or painting or something, this is even better. Especially since I love cooking and the prize that I won is a professional paring knife. So thanks to all you guys down at Serious Eats.

And I'd appreciate it if all of you would refer to me as an award winning artist now.

2008-10-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

Some friends and I carved pumpkins last night. This is what I came up with, using an exacto knife and a steak knife.

And the group shot:

Don't know if you can tell but it's supposed to be Anton Chigurh from "No Country For Old Men," the best movie in years and years and years.

I think Cormac McCarthy is the best writer alive. Don't know if it's because I grew up in Southern New Mexico and his books take place in the country I know so well, but I'd say it's because he's the only guy right now who can write poetry and make it relevant. In his world, there's bursts of violence and constant intimidation, a ceaseless quiet undercurrent of our stone old reptile brains, and ghostlike encounters with other people, and brief camaraderie and mostly just being alone. That's pretty apt, I think. But in "No Country For Old Men," gone are the old fears. Ghosts, to a world that can examine to the molecule, don't hold the same terror. So what's scary now? Among them, a man ingenious with tools, a man of weapons, who holds absolutely no remorse. A flood-like force of brutality you'd have to "put your soul at hazard" to even face. That's the artsy reason I made it I guess.

But actually, I just wanted to carve a badass character into a pumpkin for Halloween.

2008-10-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well, there's no going back now. I glued a bunch of maple onto the bookshelf I've been working on for way too long. If I can pull this off, I think it'll look really cool. If not, well, then I just ruined a bookshelf. That's still better to me than having some mediocre piece in my room. Here it is now:

I figure I have at least 10-15 hours with just me, a gouge, and a mallet ahead of me. If I can add some Stevie Ray Vaughn and Otis Redding to that, well, that doesn't sound too bad.

I'm working on a million things right now and am more scattered than I'd like to be. But expect pictures soon of:

-- The concrete sign for "The Little Chihuahua" restaurant
-- The plywood end table
-- The chair with a heart... the surgeon's chair
-- Wine Labels
-- Portrait wire work

Lots to do. Lots to do.

2008-10-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

Good times last week. Went on "The Painting Gourmet," had a great time... got to talk about myself for a half hour, which is always fun. The Divisadero Art Walk was Thursday and I couldn't have asked for a nicer night. It was warm and the whole neighborhood was out. The Sidewalk Sale on Sunday, despite being bitterly cold out, went well and I ended up selling a painting.

Right now, I have an exciting opportunity to design two wine labels... one for a Cabernet and the other for a Sauvignon Blanc. I've been toying around with different ideas, but right now I'm focusing mostly on a simple red/white theme. I did these sketches the other night:

Here's them with a quick run-through on Photoshop:

Don't think it's quite right. More to come soon. I'm also going to make an A-frame sign for the Little Chihuahua mexican restaurant. It's going to be made out of two concrete panels and stenciled. I think it'll look awesome. Images as soon as I make them.

2008-10-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I'm going to be a guest on "The Painting Gourmet," a TV show out of San Jose that features local artists. She wanted me to do some kind of demo with my cardboard paintings, so I painted this last night so I could show how I cut away the layers:

It's a prospect that sounds like a lot of fun, but I was actually on a talk show once before. When I was 16, I was visiting Bulawayo, the city where I was born, in Zimbabwe, Africa, and I went to see the TV Station where my dad used to work. I talked to the General Manager for a while, and out of nowhere, he asked me if I wanted to be on a talk show the next day, "Teen Scene" or something. A talk show for teens living in Zimbabwe. I figured it couldn't hurt, so I decided to do it. One of the strangest events in my life. I met with the two hosts the next day and we went over a few things, and next thing I know I was in a TV studio with the cameras rolling. I think the idea was that I was a "typical American teenager." The interview went roughly like this:

Host: So we're talking to Gavin Worth today, a teenager from America! Thanks for coming Gavin. So, just how many guns do you see in school every day?

(pause)

Me: Guns?

Host: Yeah. How many guns would you say you see on an average day?

Me: Uh... well, I don't think I've ever seen a gun at school.

(pause)

Host: Oh.

(Host shuffles through about three or four cards)

Host: So. .... How's the weather in America?

Gavin: It's good. Good weather there.

Host: Nice.

(pause)

Host: Well thank you for coming, Gavin! We'll be right back after this.

Worst. Interview. Ever. I wasn't around to see how the audience at large in Zimbabwe reacted to my star-breaking turn, but I'm pretty sure I'm huge there now.

Anyway, there's the Divisadero Art Walk tomorrow, and Sunday, I'll be at the Trunk Sale at Swankety Swank at McAllister and Baker. Here's the info they sent me:

Join us on the "porch" for a sidewalk trunk sale in our sunny corner of
San Francisco. We'll have refreshments and artists vending their hand made
and indie produced wares.
5 Reasons to Check us out!
1.. See live art in action.
2.. Enjoy Neighborhood Camaraderie.
3.. Christmas Budget Solution: Think EARLY this year- small and special
gifts bought over time.
4.. Think Globally, Act Locally.
5.. Recycle, Reduce, Reuse.
Check out our website for more about the artists involved.
http://www.SwanketySwank.com
Regards,
Yabette

"Honoring Beauty, Earth, and Age"
SWANKETY SWANK
1808 Mcallister St. (at Baker St.)
San Francisco, CA 94115
415 440 6996

OPEN Hours: Tuesday 10am-3pm, Wednesday to Sunday: 11am to 6pm

MFinity Wine Sign

2008-10-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been working on a sign for MFinity Wines, a wine company featuring winemaker Ron Mura, the recipient of the 2006 Best of Show in the San Francisco Bay Wine Competition. They do lots of events and wanted a really versatile and eye-catching sign similar to my wire sculptures. I thought it would be great if we could have it back-lit and give off a glowing look, so I doubled the width of the base, installed a panel of frosted acrylic in the middle, and attached a light behind it. Here's pictures of it in normal light, and with the sculpture light on:

Mr. Mura's going to be pouring at the Playboy Mansion later this fall, so if you happen to be there (looking at the art of course), maybe you'll see my sign.

I'm meeting with the owner of the Little Chihuahua Mexican Restaurant tomorrow to discuss making a sign for him too. What we've talked about so far sounds awesome and I really hope I get a chance to make it. More on that later.

Divisadero Art Walk this Thursday

2008-10-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

NOPNA (the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association) is putting on an art walk this Thursday to showcase all of the great businesses along Divisadero Street that show the work of local artists. There's going to be lots of great food and drink specials all night, including the Little Chihuahua Mexican restaurant, which is currently showing four of my paintings.

I've lived in this neighborhood for about 5 years now, and it makes me really happy to see all these new small businesses opening, doing well, and having enthusiasm for showing the work of local artists.

I hope you can come. And if I know this neighborhood at all, it should be a blast.

Wire sculptures in the Stone Griffin Gallery

2008-10-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hey, just a quick note to say that I have several wire sculptures on display at the Stone Griffin Gallery in Campbell, CA... near San Jose. It's a really cool space with some really cool work. Campbell has an art walk the third Friday of every month with live music and lots of art. You should go check it out.

Besides that, I've been working on a wire sign for MFinity Wines. I think it'll turn out good and it's sparked me on to a few new ideas. For this sign I'm attaching a frosted acrylic panel as a backing and illuminating it from the back. Pictures soon.

2008-09-23T12:32:00.001-07:00

So here's a photo of the chair. I'm going to start cutting into it today.

And here's a photo of the heart I carved and painted. Going to varnish it once it's fully dry to try to give it a glossy wet mucous covered look.

More later.

2008-09-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

I really don't know what's wrong with me -- I think I've had one day off the past three weeks and so today, my first potential day off in a while and I get up early and decide to come to my shop. Been here 7 hours so far and I'm having a day where everything I touch comes out wrong. But, good side I guess is that I've learned about probably 15 new mistakes that I'll know never to make again.

I got some work in on the plywood table. It's coming out alright, but I'm definitely realizing my inexperience. I'm not sure this one's salable but I think I'm on to something. I can easily make this table out of one 4'x8' sheet of plywood and I think I might be able to get it out of half of that. Which would cost me a total of $15 in lumber. For a whole table. So here was the sketch:

And here's what it looks like so far:

Having a few issues that I need to fix right now, one of which being the drawer. Before my glue-up, it was working fine. Now... not. I'll fix it. I also got close to finishing the heart I carved out of basswood:

This is just a weird idea I had and wanted to see if I could do. Basically, I was driving through Potrero Hill one day and saw a pretty nice swivel chair on the street. I had my girlfriend pull over and got it in the trunk. It needs to be redone for several reasons. One, it had casters on it, and I can't really have those on my floors. Second, I thought I could make something cooler out of it. I had been toying with the idea of carving veins on all the exposed wood parts, and that led to the idea of painting a heart or a sacred heart or something on the back of the chair, but I couldn't think of a way to paint it that wouldn't look cheesy. So a couple of weeks ago, it hit me that I should just carve a heart for the chair out of wood, cut a gash in the seat and then mount it in there. So that's the idea. I'll keep you posted how it comes out.

2008-09-16T13:57:00.001-07:00

As of yesterday, four of my stencil paintings on concrete are hanging at Little Chihuahua mexican restaurant at 292 Divisadero at Haight Street. It's a really great Mexican restaurant that is becoming super popular. I'm doubly excited because they won KRON 4's best of the Bay and, who knows with how they edit it, but my work might be on TV beginning in October. But no matter what, this place is seriously great. Awesome burritos, fresh ingredients, and, you know what? Just go there for breakfast some Sunday, get the Mexican French Toast with fried plantains and bacon in a lightly fried tortilla with maple syrup and see if you don't want to thank me.

I finished making a sculpture of "Morning Pose" with a solid walnut base for one of the board members of the Sausalito Art Festival. It all reminded me how much I love walnut. I love maple, I love the classic look of it and its velvety undulations; I love oak, I love its strength and graininess and old solid deliberate look; I love ash and hickory and oh my god do I love manzanita wood. Someday, I'm going to find a good place to get manzanita wood and a good piece to use it for. But to me, there's nothing like walnut. It's color, the movement in the wood, the depth, the wildness, the weight, its solid weight in your hands... the smell of it when you cut it, how it chisels like cream, and the way it sings when you put oil on it... it's just all beautiful in everything. So here's a picture of it that doesn't do the wood justice. It's a really beautiful piece of wood that oiled up really really well.

I have some exciting projects coming up but more on those as they happen.