Art Show - Animals Are The Only Other People We Know Of

I had an art show of 22 paintings called "Animals Are The Only Other People We Know Of" at a little cafe space called Spritzers, in Alameda, California.  We had a reception as well.  Here are some sketches that were the inspiration for the characters in the show.  The characters are based on the murals and graffiti I used to do in the Southwest.  I would draw and paint these characters everyday.

Usually I would draw cats but sometimes other creatures like bunnies and even self imagined creatures that don't exist in the natural world.  I had jobs at a couple of local theaters, as a scene painter and painting advertisement signs for plays, and sometimes my characters worked their way into those scenes as well.  

I have very few photos of my murals/graffiti, but I guess that's part of what it means to me to paint in that style- temporal paintings that I like to think of as similar to Buddhist sand art.  

Note:  I have never painted on private walls unless I asked for and received permission, and when painting trains always worked around the numbers and codes, as preferred by train conductors.  Leave the codes alone and only paint on boxcars.  Another thing, I think it's really awful when people paint on trees & nature.  I think it's cool to be respectful with graffiti, as with all in life, you have a lesser chance of getting buffed when you're respectful and polite in creating public art.

Example of some of the characters I used to paint regularly, left side of wall.

Close up view of some of my animal characters, some inspiration for this art show.

I continue to love the simplicity of portraying emotion and personality through uncomplicated two-dimensional cartoon style characters.  Also, through the repetition of drawing my characters over the years I have established a narrative signature for myself.  Even so, I never thought that I would transfer my graffiti characters onto canvas but it was really fun and I am very happy with how the exhibition turned out.

Owl Tree, acrylic on canvas

 

Deary, acrylic on canvas

 

Birdy and Shocked Rabbit, acrylic on canvas

Mr. Fox, acrylic on canvas

Sadie, acrylic on canvas

Mr. Happy, acrylic on canvas

Cat Friend I, acrylic on canvas

Another aspect of the show was to playfully highlight the importance of animals in our human lives. 

In this show, I have anthropomorphized several animals and hope to subtly promote non-cruelty to our fellow creatures, who sometimes act very human-like and express feelings and emotions as we do.

Bunny, acrylic on canvas

Through the observation that animals can oftentimes exhibit human-like traits I have concluded that they are the only other people we know of and deserve our respect and compassion.

The exhibition booklet for this art show, cover page.