Diver City

as always, click image for a nicer, larger view

the 7"

here's one that has a lot of reasons. i wanted to give my buddy Kyle Hussa Lietz a 45rpm 7" record that i had acquired by ill gotten means during a summer of my ill spent youth long ago, but i had no sleeve for it (abandoning the original was key to the coveted vinyl's attainment). Kyle is an amazing guy who makes fantastic art of all kinds HERE, as well as some of my favorite music HERE (and occasionally he even lets me ruin it a little).

He quietly and romantically proposed to his awesome girlfriend Alana while they were snorkeling one vacation. So when i figured Kyle should have a sleeve for his 7", i wanted to celebrate them both, because they were both huge helps, comforts, and support systems since we moved to NYC (and well before that).

with the 7" format, knowing it would be folded, i wanted something that would work as a mirror reflection (as the bottom would be flipped upside down if you turned it over to view the 'back' of the record), as well as unfolded and elongated, if they wanted to look at it that way.

i think jellyfish are amazing to look at. if you have ever seen how beautiful they are (behind glass), or even Tim Roth's 'room' in Werner Herzog's "Invincible", you will know what i hope an afterlife would look a little like

this piece also is a little reflective of our move to Harlem NYC, where there's excitement and wonder but certainly a degree of caution. Diver City.

it also got me over the hump of just DOING the first new piece of art in the new apartment/studio. we moved to New York on a saturday and 7 days later the drafting table and computer were up and the piece was done (and on the blog 2 weeks after, of course...)

thanks for reading! there's a LOT more new work on the way: political images, social themes, various portraits from the television ("note, i did not say TV. TV is a nickname, and nicknames are for friends, and television is NO friend of mine..."), and a new series of some of my favorite recording artists of yesteryear. next post though, is, dare i say, a 'gnarly' take on a popular and cherished toy icon from my childhood for the Autumn Society's show "80s Pop!" so put your OP and Skidz on and prepare to get radical and such!
take care,
peter