Sunday, February 22, 2009

Case of the Mondays OUT NOW!



it's here! it's finally here! and it sounds AMAZING!

These guys put a million% into this album and it shows. I got to go to their CD release party at Clark's Tavern and hear it blasting through the PA. i felt like i was at my first ska-punk show in high school, it was that exciting and good. Thanks to everyone i met last night, and all the old friends i got to see again. i'm so proud to have gotten to do the artwork here, thank you Case of the Mondays, friends, & family!

check out the band
HERE
&
HERE



Monday, February 16, 2009

Love - Valentine's 2009 - part 1

the following is the first of what i hope will be an evolving larger collection of paintings on the topic of love, these having been done especially for an art show on Valentine's Day in New York.

[if the art seems small you should be able to click on them for larger views]

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there are a myriad of definitions and applications for the concept of "love". loving a person, a friend, family, a dog, a plate of hot wings, the people in my life, life itself, even you. love can be selfless or selfish, it can be naught more than good timing, a firing of synapses and chemicals in the brain, or a miracle confirming that notion that we are the soul that has a body, not the other way around. it is of course a person and case specific thing, defined by past experience and future yearnings or avoidances, with the outcome of "justification vs. fulfillment's" concordance and compromise. it is an amorphous, ever changing, ever breathing entity, and it is as unique as the person who is motivated one direction or the other by its engine.

above all, i recognize that anything i would have to say on the topic of love are equal parts right and wrong, negating each other; that i could never say everything on the subject to every person. not merely a "many splendored thing", perhaps it is an unsolved mystery with intangible plot holes but attainable outcomes, or a threatening ransom note with no author but with victims and rewards. it's impossible and somehow everywhere. i'd like this to be a love letter to love itself, but i see now that these paintings are only footnotes and postscripts to a far larger more accurate textbook. i also see now, that this small fraction is more of a study than it is the celebration i hope it to be someday. regardless, i'll wait for correspondence; you can circle yes or no. these pieces are a futile equivalent of trying to bottle a cloud, but if i'm lucky, maybe a string could resonate within your own ribcage.

thank you, and happy valentine's day
love,
peter wonsowski
2/14/2009

“Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you.”
--Hafiz of Persia

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Anchorless vs. Rudderless



The one who loves the least, controls the relationship.
--Robert Newton Anthony

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Do You See Me When I'm Not Around?



True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
François de La Rochefoucauld

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Transfusion -
(the greatest cures are derived by scaling backwards from the greatest poisons)



She's gone. I am abused, and my relief must be to loathe her.
William Shakespeare

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The Rational Mind is Having a Terribly Hard Time Telling the Heart That It's Wrong



How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?
-Albert Einstein

Love is a serious mental disease.
-Plato

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Love Part 2

Hold On Tightly, Let Go Lightly



The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can never end.
--Benjamin Disraeli

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
--Samuel Johnson

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It's Unfair To You



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Complacency



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She Is The Altar





I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.
-Henry Ward Beecher

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Zuzu's (part 3)

I will try to post more/better photos from Chris Whetzel's nice camera later, but this was just a quick look at the day of hanging. honestly, this was my favorite part of the weekend....except for our private tour of the retro-arcade-museum! i'll try to say more on that later as well...

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everybody wanted this one!!! not for sale just yet though...be sure to see more at Doug's website (click on his name!). Doug had incredible artwork, including hand made screenprints that were of such high quality we all thought they were digital print outs



Danielle is a great person and a great artist who has been doing cool things at a lot of galleries all over these united states. her oil paintings show not only a dedication to the craft, but also very fun plays of imagery that is surreal in a most likable way. her pieces for this show included 2 oil-on-magnet paintings, with magnet paintings that she encouraged you to remove and move about and see what was behind it. pretty cool



good ol' Chris Whetzel, what a guy! here he is starting to hang his pieces, which you should check out (and so much more) HERE. Chris had such thoughtful graphite drawings with occasional subtle coloring. incredibly strong stuff, and every one tugs at the heart strings (except for the chicken, which made me laugh quite hard). Chris is one of the hardest working people i know, and his gutsy leap into the world of freelance illustration (as well as these gallery shows he takes part in, or in this case, sets up completely) has been one of the largest sources of encouragement and inspiration to me in the last year. both he and Aliyah were so incredibly hospitable letting me stay with them this weekend, not to mention the ridiculous amount of fun i always have seeing them and talking to them. speaking of which, you will al absolutely love seeing Aliyah's jewelry HERE. honestly, the word "jewelry" won't give a good enough impression to the incredible skill, detail and artistry that every single one of her creations have. frankly they are all museum pieces to me!




my little corner of the world.

thanks to Chris, Aliyah, and Zuzu's cafe for making this happen and getting all of us together, to Doug and Danielle for sharing a wall and some good times, and everyone else i met and saw again (happy birthday Michelle!) this incredible weekend

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

"Inna Final Analysis" (who watches the watchmen?)

Hi!
recently the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society via the generous Joseph Game & The Autumn Society, allowed me to submit a piece or two for the upcoming, expanded "Children of the Watchmen" show. The pieces will hang at a Regal Cinemas Imax theatre and we will all get to see an early screening of the film!!! very exciting.

the first piece is one of my favorite moments from the book, a shining example of humanity at it's greatest potential. the second is of a lesser character from the 'golden age'; the Silhouette. i wanted every aspect of the portrait/drawing to reference something about the unbelievable story that is barely hinted at and mentioned to readers willing to read every line, as well as deep between the lines.




I have seen the original show that was at Brave New World Comics and there was a lot of good stuff. i have also been fortunate enough to see some of the newer pieces by folks like Justin Gray and Kyle Hussa-Lietz, and they are the types of pieces that you will stop for a long long time to stare at