Still reaking of Havoc

The Havoc campaign is coming along nicely. The owner/operator has been a good guy to work with and so far seems to like the designs I put in front of him. We are nearly finalized on one design and may be working towards producing gear shortly.

Here are a few new design ideas.

Graffiti Design in progress

I have been working on some design ideas lately. I'm working on techniques to get drawings from paper formatted to print ready designs. I like the idea of having something I drew up wandering around some stranger halfway across the country. One of my first graffiti alias names that I drew was Havok. I haven't written that name in years and recently I found an upstart designer running a clothing company called Havoc Concepts. It's been fun to get back to writing this name.

ALso introducing Mr. Funky Fresh.

Abstract Painting Study

I love painting abstract because the final product can be four totally different peices. This latest peice is an example. If you have a painting on your wall for months or years at a time, you can lose interest in it. Rotating it allows you to constantly have a sense of progress, or change to keep you interested.

Telecaster - the new pup

Say hello to the newest addition to the Toomey Family.

"Telecaster" (Tele) was born 6 days after the wedding and is primarily black lab with a little bit of husky in her.

Leo Fender developed the Telecaster in the 1940's and has since became a legendary guitar. Used to record the first Zeppelin album, below you can see a young Jimmy Page work his violin bow in "Dazed and Confused."

Another very famous Tele slinger is Mr. Keef Richards, below.

New Loops

Sitting in a very croweded bombs away cafe watching Curtis Monette shred the life from his acoustic in an hour loop set that consisted of three songs was pretty amazing. I'm no where near that, but I do enjoy the loops and this weekend got a chance to record two looped jamps. Each song is 6 or 7 minutes long and one take.




BLUE TOES (Click to download)
A day or two before the heat was turned on.




LET THERE BE HEAT (Click to download)
Shortly after our house temperature evened out after finally getting the gas turned on to the house.

Pistol River Creative

Wow, it's been 2 solid months so I wrote a thought down. I have been busy with the wedding, the honeymoon and then coming back to this crazy work life I have been dealing with. Corvallis on monday, tuesday and wednesday night then Portland the rest of the nights. Finally moved into the house enough to where the garage is nearly a fully functional studio for painting or workshop for the home renovation projects.

I have turned out two new paintings, one is going to be my first attempt at donating art for the tax write off. It's going to be auction style, so however much it sells for I can write off my taxes. Any guesses if it'll sell? Anyone reading...? :)

Also new on the art front: Hung new show at Get Bento. A few new peices are up, including my new favorite below. By the way, eat there. It's delicious. It's the spot if you like Bento.

So, the big development in the artistic travels of portland. In my desperate attempts to raise money for my season pass at meadows this year I got this deal that will adequately cover my pass, and some deposit for canvas. As well as an extra nice dinner out for the wifey at the beach. As a result of this gig I needed to set up a company. Pistol River Creative, LLC is now where I move forward. The wonderful wife that she is, Kim has got me set up. A present arrived yesterday, and she had custom made biz cards with the new Pistol River creative business name and contact. The cool part is that there are 6 different designs on the back and they are all different paintings and designs that are diversified to represent different aspects of my creative directions. Very cool.

As always stay tuned with new work at Simplistyk Studios page.

Bamboo Grove

So I just got word the bamboo grove is closing down. I guess the business world isn't kind. It takes more than being a bad ass salon with great art gallery to make money and stay in business.

Here are some pics from the show at the beginning of the month.

I painted a character on one panel. I started when it was nearly dark, and while I LOVE the face, I'm not too crazy about the letters here.

Here is the peice that was created by an Artist I only know as John. (wierd how the artists in the show were John Greater, Jon McKee, this other John.... and then me.) This guy's peices were flying off the rack, everyone loved his work.

Straight Vegetable Oil, what an idea. This guys comes up to us saying his Cruiser runs on Vegetable Oil and he gets all these dirty looks from the Portland Granola types about driving a guzzler. He wanted it to tell the world his rig runs on the vegetable oil...I'm not sure this was the best idea. However, let me and Jon McKee drink our fill of the Blue Ribbon then ask us to paint a car and we will NOT turn it down!!

Vegas in two days....

SICK art Party

Killer weekend filled with graffiti and a perpetual chaos. I will handle a few things at once as I have little time to post, but this post is dedicated to the great sunday afternoon I spent out on SE 63rd with the Caedmonster.

Jon and I hit went to hit up an "art party" as they called it. They needed some graffiti artists, and little did we know they were lookin' to hit someone who had some lettering skills. Well, I had intentions of writing "sick" as... sick as possible, but wasn't expecting what we walked into.

SICK. is a big production dance party of sorts that takes place every 3rd saturday. I have yet to go to one of their events, but from what I can tell if you go, expect; Booze, Very Friendly People, Dancing, Mad crazy partying, some great Art, and some awesome Music. I can't imagine you'd want much more than. If you do need more, they probably have it.

SO, we arrive at this cool little green and purple house with extensive landscaping. We were instructed to walk into the backyard upon arrival. As we show up, we see portlands artsy finest working away. The back deck is filled with beer and people greeting us wondering who the new strangers are. Then we see it, right as we walk in. The sign. This panel was 4 or 5 feet tall by maybe 8-10 feet wide and said SICK in a very cool 3-D tag. Apparently they have used this for the last 6 months and it sits right in front of the DJ booth. With Beer, People, stencils and spray cans everywhere we were told "you can re-write that if you are confident in your capabilities that it will be on par or better."

"We'll make it happen." we responded.

Now you vote...which one is better? Truth be told, I really dig the old one and I'm uber critical of my own work. However, I still think we may have been better. I think the magic ticket for ours will be to see it in the dark with a bunch of light on it. I think then it'll really pop.

I also wanted to show a picture of one of the other spray artists' work. His claim to artistry was his characters.... and as all graff artists, the peice started out by worrying some of us, then all of a sudden the characters came to life.

August is Graffiti month

Starting today, Aug 1. Portland will be hit by a slew of graffiti artists in legal applications. Jon McKee starts his portland artistry introduction tonight. He has great work, and is a fun artist to watch paint. I saw a new painting he is showing tonight.... and it's spectacular, I want to steal it from him before the show.

BAMBOO GROVE SALON
134 SE Taylor, Portland Or
6-11 Music by Dr. DJ FuManchu
Artists include Jon Graeter, Jon McKee, Myself and I believe a few more artists. Should be a good time.

Stop by Bamboo grove salon between Aug. 1 and Sept. 5 to see works by many great artists

GET BENTO
505 NW 14th Ave, Portland Or
Graffiti installation for about a month, possible first thursday live paint... stay tuned.

PB Rack - More Graffiti!

PB Rack is a clothing company that was started by some professional paint ballers. They have been in the works for about 3 years, but sounds like they are finally getting some of their lines repped by some good companies. They do pretty cool vintage bright color schemes with a lot of new age type designs as well. They just released their summer line and are experiencing surprisingly good sales, and their winter line is on the heels of release. Just getting settled into a new house up in vancouver, the place is pretty empty so far. TV's on the ground, tables in disarray, art staged to go on the walls and I'm told the screen printing press comes in next week. I met Tom at the spot today for a graffiti session. Although he seemed very pleased with the work, the more I look at it the more I feel like I find problems with it.

On another note, the first weekend in August will be slammed with art shows. Friday night is going to be the show at the bamboo grove salon and then Sunday evening there is another graffiti party poppin' up to feature yours truly as a live act. The event is called SICK, and I can imagine that it will be just that. Sick.

Bitter Chocolate

The Main room of the 10th Street House. The accent wall is bitter chocolate and it's this amazing color that looks purple or brown depending on the light and time of day. The new place is coming along rather quickly. No painting or music has been made in the downstairs studio to be dubbed "Pistol River." It will be in a constant state of improvement for the next few months. I hope to have enough set up to record some live Jam sessions as they happen. Next week could be the first one... you never know.

Trying to stay up to date

Almost another 3 weeks since the last post, while it's hard to handle being this busy... I love it.

BIG things happening for me though. I'm moving up in the day job world down on our Oregon State Energy project. Almost up to speed to where I can breath and sleep at night.

Just moved into our new house in NE portland over the 4th of July weekend. We painted half of the house on the 4th of July and then moved a lot of stuff over on the 5th and 6th. The house is inhabitable and on the road to rehab. Kyle and I tore out a wall which opened up the basement. The basement needs a good overhaul with reloacting a bunch of equipment and building out the remainder of the bathroom. Cabinets were removed in the kitchen area which allowed for a massively oversized fridge to fit into the kitchen. On the agenda are electrical and plumbing updates soon with a MAJOR kitchen/master suite expansion on the horizon tentatively planned for next summer.

As far as my Art and music endevours go... I am taking 3 steps forward and 2 steps back with the move. I now have a full studio in the basement big enough to house my large canvases for painting and a garage for spray work. I have a wall that's going to be the Graff wall, it's about 6 feet tall and 20ish feet long. Once the garage gets cleaned out, expect to see quality of graffiti out of me that I have never been capable of doing. The otherside of the basement houses the drum kit and my guitar rig. I'll post pictures next week. As great as the studio is I get limited time there as I'm essentially living in corvallis an hour and a half away.

Also got a paying legal graffiti project lined up for this weekend for an upstart clothing company in vancouver. That was a lead that I gained from the plywood graffiti board posted on craigs list. Pretty cool I thought.

Monster Steez

I just saw that the last post I made was 3 weeks ago, seems fitting for how busy I have been in the last 3 weeks. Start up on a new construction project out of town has sapped a lot of my free time. The good news is work is going really well, I'm learning "trial by fire." as I have heard it put. That's the way I learn best.

I have managed to crank out some paintings in the last two weekends. Got the great idea with Jon last weekend to split a peice of plywood and go to town with some graff. (Jon tried to do bike trip america with CO's gang but a dodge pickup on hwy 26 ruined that plan. Jon came away from the accident with a smashed helmet and crunchy hip by didn't proceed with the bike trip.) Below you will see my peice "Monster" and Jon's peice "Evolve" I REALLY dig the colors in jon's peice.

This is some good practice for the Live August graffiti show at the bamboo grove. Sadly the show was supposed to be this friday but due to unforseen circumstances have changed and the show is in August. However now that Jon is back I think he'll get to do the show as well and it'll be good to have a friend in the show.

I've listed this practice board of plywood on craigslist with an invitation for an open offer. Monster is on one side, Steez is on the other. I don't know if I'm to the point of being able to sell a rattle can graffiti peice... but maybe.

P.S. I have a new song mostly written... just need to find a solid way to record my acoustic, and I'll post.

The Gladstone

The June showing at The Gladstone (39th and SE Gladstone) has been hung. Great Coffee shop with... everything you could want -Coffee Beer Wine. Bam. They also have snacks and comfy seating who wouldn't want to hang out and just kick it at a place like that.

This show took a little more prep work than some of the others I have done. However, I can tell that I am getting better organized and have more realistic expectations of what to expect. The Gladstone had freshly painted walls and I got clear hanging wire and I think this months exhibit turned out real clean. Besides the slightly frustrating plan B I had to go after discovering a mistake in my hanging design for the big "Strawberry Maniac" painting. As you can see

the big painting is hung off the loose center line the other paintings sort of adhere to... drives me crazy.

Also picked up some paintings that I hadn't seen for a while. They have been hanging out downtown at Kelly's. The lady Heidi that put the show together is a really cool local artist that has given me some sound advice. I have never seen her art, but hope to catch a show soon. Off hand I mentioned the Graffiti show at Bamboo Grove salon and she has both heard of the spot and knew of the show. Sounds like the show could have a good turnout and I've got a great couple peices prepared and I think I'm going to get to do a live peice. Drinks will be served (yer pay'n!) for those that show, June 21.... actually their website still has the old date June 6th, I have been told it was changed to june 21st.

Spur of the moment

Yesterday and today marked great days. When I came back from my week long beach adventure with Kim to Florida, I won't lie I was stressing for the fretboard. There were no guitars in florida that I could play, and it was brutal. I came home to very old strings, on both the Mistress and Redwood. A busy catch up from vacation/birthday celebrations/parents in town weekend did not allow for restringing. While I took the few spare minutes I could gather to break my fingers back in, my real urge had not been fulfilled. Until Yesterday and today. I love new strings.

I got a small off the cuff looped jam session, with myself. Don't have much to do? Listen to Wagon.

June Art show plans

So I believe I had two shows lined up for June.

Graffiti art and hip hop show at the Bamboo Grove Salon has been moved to June 20th. There will be graffiti artists, a DJ, calligraphy artists and more TBD. I plan on doing a live graffiti peice for the event as well. Some of the graffiti canvases I have will be on display for about a month or so. Give it up to Arianna Ninneman for hooking me up with the line on the show! It sounds like me and John Graeter will be the main artists. It's been a while since I have shown with John, but he is sure to steal the show... he is an amazing artist!!!

The Gladstone Coffee and Gallery is the other June show, and it's a short notice cancellation fill that seems like a pretty good opportunity. I don't know much about the space, I have a chance to check it out today. Sounds like they have big walls where big paintings look good. That's convenient because I love big paintings! There is a possibility of a first friday event on the 6th, but due to short notice of the show and the potential lack of interest generated it may not happen. We will see!

It's nice out, this is all for now.

New graff Peices!

Two in a row, Go me. May will be a good month.

New happenings don't stop just because I'm thousands of miles from home. What a great tool the internet is. The graffiti show at the Bamboo Grove seems like it's going to be a big hit. John Graeter is dialin' in for the show from what I hear and I can't wait to show with him again. There also will be a live performance aspect to the show, and I'm hoping to get in as a featured artist for a live installation segment. The show is on June 6, and regardless it'll be fun to go to so if you are reading this -> mark down June 6th as taken.

Also, I finished up a pencil drawing of a new graffiti peice. I have lately felt the need to get back to the roots that inspired and started my passion for art. "Mister" is new as of today, "Hustle" is one that I dug out of the sketchbook from a few months back. These aren't the best versions of sketches I have drawn, but what do you want from me I'm on vacation! Let me know your thoughts on the new works!

Vacation

As I sit under a fan in a small bedroom holed up just south of West Palm Beach, I can't help but be amused that I'm watching t.v. and writing in a blog. I'm not crazy, it's just that my skin is scorched, I'm exauhsted, and I have had so much fun this last week I need to chill for minute. For this past week I have been living in Del Boca Vista being amazed that Seinfeld nailed all the Floridian jokes as well as they did. I really can't complain becuase I have been hanging out at the beaches in boynton, del ray, lantana and west palm. I got to take the reigns of an airplane for the very first time as we flew in gramps private plane for a one of a kind lunch adventure. This has been quite the vacation, and when I get back to Oregon I will be sure to post a ton of pictures.

I'm told, by my highly professional internet council, that I'm supposed to write in the Blog a few times a week as opposed to once in a few weeks. I'm also finding that the reader base has grown from one or two people to apparently 5 or 6. That's a growth rate of like 600% depending on how you skew the data! I'm also told I'm supposed to keep this short - That's really the hard part.

For a quick update I want to share a couple things. I still have paintings up at the Kelly's Olympian downtown. I haven't had any sales, or any interest really however as the coordinator got extremly busy days before we were supposed to change out art, I wiggled my way into another month of showing. I also changed out some of the paintings hanging over at EastBurn. I have had a pretty good response from the EastBurn, and I must say I love the bar, the food and the people. If you haven't checked out EastBurn at 1800 E Burnside, do it. Lastly, there is a graff art show in the works at the Bamboo Grove Salon that I am really excited about. I believe it's in June but I will keep you posted!

Mellow Mood

Hello you. Yes you. You are the only one reading.... seriously. Don't leave. That's not the answer. Oh, I asked no question? You must think you are pretty clever. How's that working out for you... being clever?

Now let's start with a joke. Why'd the chicken cross the road? He heard they had black butte porter across the street. Who wouldn't cross the road for such a fine brew? I know I would.

SO, it's update time.

I have now been in portland for almost 7 complete months. So far I feel like I have accomplished... a little. I'm breaking in. There is so much for me to learn, experience, and strive towards. I have been in a handful of group shows, both month long and one night only. My paintings have seen the inside of many different portland locations. Some galleries, some restaurants, some coffee shops and I even made a sale! "Black Napkins" the Frank Zappa painting sold for a one of a kind valentines day to some dude who really has a killer wife. Also had some success with the axe as well. I got to play live with the local musicians of First Name Michael all way from a gay bar in Olympia Washington, to the killer 15th st. Pub in Vancouver. At one point we played out 3 nights out of 10... pretty fun time.

It's interesting... after 7 months, the biggest thing I have noticed is these artists in Portland who put their soul, their lives and every ounce of their energy out on the line to take a chance get taken advantage of left and right. Whether it's the story of a group of musicians who put nearly ass in a chair at a bar only to be handed 3 dollars (seriously.) Or if it's the rich hollywood elite who actually visits portland, gets hammered and rudely nabs an artists' off the easel painting and skips town without paying the tab. It's a weary life for most, to strive for the elusive creative force, but I'll be damned if it's not worth it the moment you step back from the perfect ending to your painting. It's worth it the silent beat after the last note of the take.

We are where we are, we can only move forward from here. I got a new project down in corvallis, it's the day job (which interestingly enough I absolutly love it) had to back out of First Name Michael. There are only so many days in the week. I won't stop playing my guitar; painting and Pistol River Music Project will become more active. I also got back to drawing, shout out to CO for the sketch competition link. This competition the word is "dives" I am going to submit the drawing at the top... I think the other people will blow me out of the water, but I whipped this thing up we'll see what people think of it I guess.

Song for Week 5... or 6. Just song of last week, I am not keeping count. This week I'm changing it up. "Found," the other song I'm working on is developing arrangements and pretty soon it will be time for another instrument paired with it to see where it really heads off. For now, check out this song that I believed developed as my odd short little explosions/hendrix/jack white type... vibe. This little jam came to me over the course of two nights; one writing, one recording. I like it, sometimes I listen to it twice. There is still a little feed back, and I know it's quiet.... problems of a home studio.

Back in front of the glow

Back From Vacation - New Art, New Song posting
**Damn, forgot to post this last monday. Well here it is.

I missed last last week in my so called weekly song progress post. What can I do, two weeks ago was a heavy work week. Boss was scheduled to be out of the country for 10 days, oh and there is a multi-million dollar project that is at it's, our, most critical stage. Then I bust town and hit Davis, Ca for some southern inspiration. I get down on California a lot, but damn it's nice waking up to those calm california mornings. Hung out with some real talented musicians down there, my bro has been jammin' with 'em for a few months now and I can see why he dug them so much. The three guys were very into their music and real chill. Over all I was around a good crowd of people to be huddled into a messy house and stumbling around a back yard drinking cheap keg beer.

So that's an update for the last two weeks. I have a couple things to post. These pictures are of a painting I finished up a while ago. It's called Lobster, it's roughly 4' wide by about 3' tall and 3" deep. This is one of Jeph's professional grade canvases with the beveled edge, and it's a near flawless canvas. I promised Kim that this painting would be hers, and would not be available for showings, or sale (unless someone crazy wants to give us tons of money for it.)

Also, I updated some new work onto the Portfolio. It has a few of the latest... none of which will be available for showing as they all have homes already.

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On to Music....

Found - Week 4.

This version comes after a two week hiatus. I squeezed in a great road trip between Ashland and Davis California. I think as the song stands now it has the foundation for a verse and chorus twice then a really cool instrumental breakdown/bridge finale type deal. Recorded on the gibson SG - "Rose City" direct into mixer, then computer. There is still a little fuzz on the recording, but it's sounding clearer.

Week 2 - Song Development

This post is a little late. I'm shooting for a sunday post every week, however the chances of that happening are slim. My main goal is just to track the development of songs, and if anyone ever starts reading this blog then maybe get some input with the changes of songs and see what people like and don't like. It's strange, this song makes so much sense in my head however when I listen to it... it's not the same. Odd.

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Week 2 - "Found" - Week 2

Mood: Relaxed and mostly sober

With this version I attempted to fix some of the background noise and improve song quality. I recorded this on my Gibson, direct in to the mixer. It was recorded monday afternoon, after a fairly easy day at work. I added a new part to last weeks song as well. I think it's almost to a point of having a defined verse and chorus section. Although, I think one part would be like an intro riff/solos and one would be a verse. I don't think the chorus has materialized quite yet. It's coming along though.

Downtown Art Opening Tonight!

Due to some mis communication on the booking of the Art Show on Alberta at the Spice Road Market, I am no longer going to be hosting a Last Thursday event over there. I will however be on hand at the opening at the Kelly's Olympian from about 6:30 or 7 until 9. They have live music every night, come on down and grab a drink and some food and let's talk music and Art!