On Exhibit at Medusa Emporium & Art Gallery

Oil pastel and colored pencil)
18 x "24 inches (45.72 x 60.96 cm)
$444 in frame

The Medusa Emporium in collaboration with the Mystical Arts Collective is now hosting the Mystic Dream exhibit at 1219 Forest Avenue, Suite E, Pacific Grove, California 93950. I'm pleased to submit Shiva-Shakti-Ganga Maa as part of this event.

#art #artcall #artgallery #artwork #drawings #coloredpencils #oilpastels

Black Squirrel

Why? When I came up with the concept of doing the Thirsty Squirrel chalk painting, after a few preliminary sketches from some fuzzy reference photos I realized that I didn't know much about what squirrels really looked like up close. So I went on a squirrel research binge. Now that the Chalk In the Park event is over, I just had to finish this black squirrel nature illustration. It's the last squirrel thing I'm doing. I'm done with squirrels. Really -- I promise.


Oh, and here's a black squirrel forepaw from earlier last month. Kinda amazing. They're more like powerful little hands with grappling hooks.

Feeling Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

...as this lifelong introvert artist expands his online social media presence.

Already have this blog; and a Facebook page.

This past week, I've added a Bēhance account; revived my old Twitter account with new follows and following; signed up for my own domain name, new web host and WordPress website under construction; and tonight -- Instagram!

How will all of this promote my artistic vision? I've got positive and optimistic expectations, but I know there's an awkward learning curve up ahead.

New Behance Online Portfolio

My new digital portfolio of current artworks for sale is up-and-running at behance.net/emcanimator. Please be advised that quite a few of my compositions are NSFW, and if you aren't a behance subscriber you won't be able to see past the "mature" filters.

I discovered from Behance that their professional website builder ProSite does not have an e-commerce functionality for viewers to purchase my art online (e.g., through Paypal). So that's not the route I'll be taking.

I'll post a notice once I have new website that will accept an image feed from my Behance portfolio -- AND allow interested viewers to purchase my artwork as well. I anticipate that will be soon.

An Open Letter of Thanks to All Who Participated in the Seaside Artists Association Open Studios Tour

Saturday, May 9th, 2015 was a success for the Seaside Artists Association as a whole, and for me personally as an artist participating in the Open Studios tour for the first time. I’d like to express my gratitude for Sandra Gray and all responsible for organizing and coordinating this event, and for all of you who visited my home studio.

Three dozen individuals (including a few toddlers and a dog) visited me on Saturday. I was delighted to meet each one, especially when given the opportunity to not only display my artwork but to actually discuss the process by which I created it.

It's true that some of my artwork contain sexual themes, and some elements of implied or actual violence and abuse. I realize that some persons might not think that my art is for them. Of course, I’m sensitive to those whose view is that their hard-earned dollars were better spent elsewhere than in purchasing and hanging on their walls provocative and controversial artwork.

“Go with what you know,” is an often-repeated formula for writers. That same dictum can be applied to visual artists as well. These subjects of which we speak are unfortunately things of which I have some knowledge, as do too many of us in our society. One of the main threads that run through much of my work is that we as a society create our monsters. They are more real than the vampires and zombies of popular culture because we create them from individuals we destroy as persons through neglect, inequality and abuse.

However, I also have knowledge of resistance, persistence and personal victory – through education, art and writing. My mission is to awaken and tap into the creative aspect of people to overcome the creation of monsters and preserve the dignity of being human.

I've found my artistic voice in telling the story of the Hero’s Journey through my art.

The hero or heroine spends some time in pretty awful, dark places before he emerges into the light. A crucial aspect of the hero’s journey is that he not only overcomes – dragons, demons, physical adversity, fear, abuse – but having overcome, he returns to from where he started with the knowledge and abilities he’s acquired and the friends and allies he’s met along the way to help others on their journey.

I want my art to speak of this. Moreover, the Hero’s Journey is not taken only once for all time. It’s started anew. And it is celebrated in song, story -- and in art. I would say, take the exhilarating plunge with me, buy some provocative and controversial art, hang it on your walls – and provoke some interest and controversy.

There's more interesting art on the way. I have enough inspiration in my head to keep me going a long time. To help in this regard, in the coming weeks and months I’ll be creating a new Behance/Prosite website solely for the purpose of displaying my art for sale. You’ll even be able to purchase my art online directly off the website.

I’ll also still retain my current website at emcanimator.blogspot.com, linked to my new website, but functioning as a true blog for discussing the process of making art, as well as an archive of older compositions in private collections. So many visitors on Saturday expressed an interest in how my art is made, where I get my ideas and inspiration, etc. So, in the meantime, please visit it early and often as I make the improvements and changes.

Three of my compositions are currently on display at the Monterey Peace and Justice Center (1364 Fremont, Seaside) through the month of May. Another will be at the Medusa's Emporium and Gallery (1219 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove) beginning June 16th. 

Best regards,

Ed

Media Coverage

Jeannie Evers wrote a very favorable article in the Go! section of the May 7th, 2015 Monterey Herald.  

Ed Will Participate In the Seaside Open Studios Tour

Bees On Almond Blossoms

5.76" diameter (14.6 cm)
watercolor
SOLD

This is a small departure from my usual subjects. Although I initially began a label design for a bee-keeper friend's honey jars, I got a little carried away. (Please view a honey jar with label in the Digital Media section.) Anyway, not enough can be said about honeybees suffering colony collapse. Their plight is ours -- so much of our food production depends on them, yet they -- and our food supply -- may be endangered by some agricultural pesticides.

Where It Hurts Now

18" x 23.5"
hard/soft charcoal, blue pastel accents
$300.00 USD (framed)

"The truth about our childhood is stored up in our body, and although we can repress it, we can never alter it. Our intellect can be deceived, our feelings manipulated, our perceptions confused, and our body tricked with medication. But someday the body will present its bill, for it is incorruptible as a child who, still whole in spirit, will accept no compromises or excuses, and it will not stop tormenting us until we stop evading the truth."

Alice Miller
Thou Shalt Not Be Aware (Du sollst nicht merken) 1981

The Quiet Man (2)

16" x 20"
pastels, compressed charcoal, acrylic paint and gesso
(In the private collection of the Peters family)

This mostly pastel mixed media painting is a companion piece to The Quiet Man (1) drawing. Both are portraits of Bruno "Pete" Peters. In Quiet Man (1), he is shown as a fighter pilot during World War II, when he was considered the "old man" of his squadron at the age of 28. The second one is contemporary, at the age of 98. The two are portrayals of the same man separated by 70 years. As in Quiet Man (1), I would caption this "He let his warplanes and his saxophones make the noise." Original is in the collection of Bruno Peters.

Pericardium

9" x 12"
soft, hard and compressed charcoal
$150.00 USD (framed)

Bad Dreams Are Made of This

8.25" x 11.25"
hard and soft charcoal
$150.00 USD (framed)

This drawing, and the previously posted All Clear are among those of my personal art pieces that will illustrate my autobiography. The initial draft is at about 60% completion currently.

A Mothers' Day Remembrance

All Clear
7.5" x 9.5" colored pencil drawing and digital painting (Adobe Photoshop CS5.5)

We lived in a one-room tenement flat on the lower East Side of New York. I was naked, as very naked as three-year-olds can often be. There was a knock at the door -- a couple of Ma's lady friends from work were paying an unexpected visit! Quickly, she had me scramble under the sofa bed. When they had gone, she gave me the all clear. It would not be the last time in my life that Ma kept my butt covered.

10/13/2014 update: As this digital painting “All Clear” is one of my autobiographical series, on reflection I wanted to add an afterthought about it:

I initially dedicated this painting on Mothers’ Day of 2014. It's based on a happy memory of my toddler years. It's also meant to be iconic of the caring of motherhood. For me personally there were actually as many bad childhood memories as good ones, if not more. In a way, as an adult I sense a bitter-sweetness to this one that was more subliminal than conscious at the time I composed it.

While acknowledging the fact that the culture, social values, environment and sense of propriety in 1956 were different from today’s, it was also a fact that the element of shame was a common thread in our family. The “shadow” side to this incident was implicit shame of public nakedness of the human body – my body – that had to be hidden from the outside world. This feeling was what can be termed a “carried feeling” – a feeling not originating with me, but my mother’s feeling transmitted to me. She was 37-years-old, I was 3. Both of us needed me to hide under the bed until it was “all clear”.

Suffice it to say for the moment that carried feelings transmitted to us as children may often impact us well into adulthood.

The Shaman
20" x 30" pastel pencil on black Canson paper

In loving memory of Forrest Dean Freeland, Jr. Born June 25, 1923, he passed from this physical temporal realm on Valentine's Day, 2013. Original is in the collection of Dean's devoted wife Debra Leigh.

Element -- Two P-51D Mustangs in a cumulous cloud-filled sky
20" x 20" Adobe Photoshop 5.5 digital painting

Ghost in the Machine
5.5" x 8.5" black watercolor pencil

Big Daddy and Jim ("graphic novel" version)
(View the two other versions in the Digital Media page.)
Sci-fi portrait of a friend and former graphic design classmate on his birthday.
Ink and Adobe Photoshop 5.5 digital painting. 8" x 12"

Mother and Child In the Redwood Forest, which I dedicated to all mothers for Mothers Day, May 13, 2012. Digital painting in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Original 20" x 30".

To the digital artists and photographers among us, if you can volunteer photo restoration time for individuals and families affected by Hurricane Sandy, I would urge you to please check this out:

CARE for Sandy (Cherished Albums Restoration Effort)