Yay! Valentine’s day is almost here. Ya… I’m not a fan either. I hated it when I was single and even now when I’m happily married and things are good, I still think it’s a stupid ‘holiday’. And lucky for me, the Mrs feels the same way. (You noticed I said happily married right?) So we don’t really celebrate it. Maybe dinner but never gifts. Unless they’re hand made.

We can’t do dinner this year as she’s away for work. So I ended up making her a mixtape she could take with her on her trip. It’s full of old school soul and r&b. She loves that kinda stuff. So do I, but I’m more into the older stuff. (Ya ya. I know…)

Anyway I tried to keep the whole mix pre 1980. But one or two later tracks may have snuck in there. Everything else is pretty old school. A bunch of classics, some songs that have been sampled a lot, and few gems you may have never heard before. I’m really starting to love this era of music.

You can stream the songs below or download the whole mixtape. So whether you love or hate Valentine’s, at the least give your ears something sweet to listen to.

Building Castles in the Sky

And Yes. The painting/cover is totally inspired by Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. It’s one of my fav paintings ever and I’ve always wanted to do my own interpretation of it. More on that soon.

I saw this picture of Summer & Seth kissing and couldn’t get over it. Their body language was lovely and I especially loved their feet.

I wasn’t really sure what to do with the background and then Boy Meets Girl’s “Waiting for a Star to Fall” came on the radio. And well, the lyrics fit kinda perfectly for what I was feeling and going for, so they went up as the background.

I’m still learning and figuring out the best way to use a fountain pen for inking but I really love how the feet, shoes & jeans came out.

It’s been rainy lately and I wasn’t feeling too well so I wasn’t going out anywhere this weekend. Instead, I spent a lot of time listening to music and playing with water colors.

One of the artists I listened to a lot this weekend (and have been into a lot lately in general actually) is Terry Callier. His song “You’re Gonna Miss Your Candyman“ has always been one of my favorites but his album What Color is Love? was on almost all weekend for me. It’s nice soft folk jazzy goodness was a pretty nice soundtrack to the rainy grey days.

One of the things I especially love about the What Color is Love? album is the cover art. I had been wanting to play with painting water colors a little differently. Use less lines and details and let the paint do most of the work. Reinterpreting the album cover was a perfect way to test it out.

I did a simple line drawing of the woman in the chair and then just kinda went at it with the paints. I tried to paint fast and not think about it too much. I focused on color values, shadows and lighting.

I’m not too happy with how the yellow stands out but overall, I like the direction this is going.

A custom one off Heart Attack shirt I made for a friend a while back. Hand drew the bomber. Then cut out the hearts from felt and stitched them on to the shirt. I loved this shirt. But I gave it away almost as soon as it was done cause Yonaton gave my wife an amazing hair cut/style.

I’m a very lucky man. Not only does my wife love to cook, but she’s an amazing cook. So when she wanted to start her own food blog, I was more than excited to help her out. She wanted something that was easy to maintain but also had a simple, clean design.

I used WordPress as the content management system and designed a simple theme for the site design. Added in some Facebook & sharing plugins and it was ready to go. She does all the content and I help out with the photos occasionally. Now, I’m mostly just the taste tester. Which is more than fine with me.

Visit site: Fuditude : Putting U Back into Food
Role: Creative direction, identity, content management, WordPress theme development, Taste tester
Tools: WordPress, PHP, CSS, Photoshop, photography

TechAmerica : The nation’s leading high-tech trade association

Role: Front & back end design, database management, customer relations managment, content management, e-commerce workflow, event registration workflow, social media integration, personalization, accounting integration, SalesForce integration, marketing & branding, Intranet development, document management, graphic design, user interface design, reporting, web application development, web services development, Facebook integration, ad creation,
Tools: PHP, ColdFusion, jQuery, CSS, MSSQL, MySQL, SalesForce API, WordPress, PayPay API, Intacct API, Flickr API, Photoshop, Illustrator

TechAmerica Classic

Role: Creative direction, event registration, content management,
Tools: PHP, jQuery, CSS, MySQL, WordPress, PayPal API, created custom CMS

Cloud Buyer’s Guide

Role: Creative direction, identity, book cover design, content layout, content management, WordPress theme development, WordPress widget development
Tools: PHP, jQuery, CSS, MySQL, WordPress, PayPal API, Photoshop

TechAmerica Foundation

Role: Front & back end design, database management, content management, WordPress theme development, WordPress widget development, WordPress plugin development, eCommerce, event registration development, accounting integration, SalesForce integration, document management, user registration, ad & image creation
Tools: PHP, jQuery, CSS, MySQL, WordPress, PayPal API, SalesForce API, Flickr API, Photoshop

Rotaplast : Providing free reconstructive surgery & treatment around the world

Role: Design
Tools: PHP, javascript, CSS

Illumination Medical, inc

Role: Brochure design

Pappas & Dancers

Role: Poster & flyer design

Rebuilding Together Oakland

Role: Poster & flyer design

Project on Student Debt

Role: Print & web ad design

Sugar Shack

Role: Rlyer design

East Bay Honky Tonk

Role: Flyer design

True Colors Fly

Role: Flyer design

TEAM doop : Everybody poops but not everyone doops

Role: Creative direction, design, identity

the Fewture

Role: Design, identity

inKahoots

Role: Creative direction, design, identity

Oakland Cares

Role: Header design

PunkAssBitch.com was the first domain I ever bought way back in 1996. And it’s gone through many different incarnations over the years. I finally settled on it being a concert video gallery.

Visit Site: PunkAssBitch : A collision of art, music & culture
Role: Creative direction, design, identity, content, widget development, WordPress theme development
Tools: PHP, jQuery, CSS, WordPress, Photoshop, photography, artwork

Doug Vanisky

Role: Design, identity

Butail Sourcing Solutions : Solutions for your textile sourcing & design needs

Role: Creative direction, design, identity, business card design
Tools: PHP, CSS, Photoshop

Rx Exam

Role: Creative direction, design, identity, brochure design

Galileo Summer Quest : 2008 summer tshirt design

Role: T-shirt design

DeeJayDog.tv

Role: Design, identity

Mendo Costa : A stunning rental property nestled in California’s Mendicino forest

Role: Creative direction, design, identity
Tools: PHP, jQuery, CSS, Photoshop, photography

Twitter App Tracker : All the tools you need to tweet better

Role: Creative direction, design, identity, content management, WordPress theme development, WordPress widget development
Tools: PHP, jQuery, CSS, WordPress, Photoshop

Positera

Role: Creative direction, design, identity

I cant help it. I get bored with a design pretty much as soon as I’m done coding one. But I think I finally got a design I like for this site. Trying to showcase more of my artwork and web work instead of the blog which I rarely update. I think this layout and design works pretty well for me.

So things are looking good (mostly). Now I just need to fix and update some content to go with the new design. The part I dread.

Slowly but surely.

DV liked his Burn painting so much that he ended up getting the design made into a lamp by ‘some metal dude in Sacramento’.

Not that kinda metal but it still came out pretty bad ass. Really dig how the back lighting makes it look like the moon is really behind the wolf.

This is the original sketch for Songs to Sing When I’m Lonely. I really wish the face came out as well in the final piece. It’s so simple and expressive in this line drawing.

Found the original drawing for the Sad Prince print. I drew it a long ass time ago. On the beach in Santa Barbara waiting for a Radiohead show. That was a pretty amazing weekend. Regardless of how I may have felt inside.

I pull a lot of data from different sites and databases for a lot of the apps I end up building. Some of that data has HTML that I don’t necessarily always want. This is a quick & easy way to strip all HTML in ColdFusion.

    <cfset noHTML= ReReplace(hasHTML, '<[^>]*>','','all')>

Driving through the American southwest was one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever done. So many stars at night. So many beautiful colors during the day.

It runs like a river runs to the sea
It runs like a river to the sea

I don’t believe in painted roses
Or bleeding hearts
While bullets rape the night of the merciful
I’ll see you again
When the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red
Over One Tree Hill

We run like a river
Runs to the sea
We run like a river to the sea
And when it’s raining
Raining hard
That’s when the rain will
Break the heart

Raining…raining in your heart
…Raining your heart into the sea

Sometimes I think an all out full scale alien invasion would be better than sitting through yet another meeting.

I am a sticker & flier fiend. I grab all I see. I come home with pocketfuls of them. Combine that with my natural pack rat tendencies and we have a disaster waiting to happen. Until I started collaging them together.

This is one of my most favorite pieces. It’s pretty simple but everyone of these fliers is from a great night out out. It just makes me so happy to see it and remind me of those sweet nights in San Francisco.

Now if I could only do something with the piles of other fliers I have lying around…

I was part of Space Gallery’s stencils & sticker show in San Francisco a few years ago. It was a pretty cool show. Artists from all over the city were invited to stencil all around the top floor.

I met a lot of cool artists and saw some really cool & different stencil styles. I seem to have lost all my pix from the show though. This is the only decent one I could find. My stuff is in the pink (of course) up across the top.

I am myself, like you somehow
I’ll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me
I’ll open up…Release me…
Release me

This painting of Public Enemy was going to be used for a cover of a Public Enemy biography. I was beyond ecstatic. My painting as the cover for one of my most favorite and influential bands!?!?!

That was until Terminator X killed it because he didn’t want to be on the cover.

You’re killin me Terminator. Killin me!

It’s really kinda sad how long it took me to get into jazz.

Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.

Hotel des Arts is quite possibly my fav gallery in SF. Hallways and rooms upon rooms of amazing art. So I was more than honored to have some of my work displayed at their Emerging Artists 2009 show.

Part of our old fence broke. Wasn’t about to let that wood go to waste.

Cinderella wore glass slippers when she found her prince. Screw that silliness. There are the shoes I wore when I married my princess.

TEAM doop forever!

“Out of side, out of mind.” vs. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Stickers for Punk Ass Bitch back in my emo days.

Ok. I wasn’t emo. That’s just sad.

“This is what it sounds like, When doves cry.”

DV found this busted up guitar. I prettied it up with some doves.

Working at Reggae on the River every summer was a pretty sweet gig. I had to work a couple hours at a friend’s mom’s booth. Where I got to sell some of my own shirts! I got to meet lots of cool people. All while watching some of the best reggae acts in the world.

Life is good.

(All photos of happy customers by: Crow)

I wanted to do something fun with the border of this painting. So tired to singe the edges with a lighter. It almost went up in flames.

I really dug this hoodie I made a while back. I hand stitched a birdie on some wires on the front. The wires wrapped all the way around the back and up the hood with some telephone poles. Ya, it was pretty sweet (Don’t mind me patting myself on the back. Carry on).

I almost wasn’t going to sell it. But Bryan (from Sissors for Lefty), had seen it earlier at my house and talked me into giving it up. Bye bye birdie. I didn’t even get any decent pix of it. ;(

Please God, make me a bird. So I can fly. fly away. Fly so very far away.

Birds have the best view of everything.

I loved loved loved the biker scout scene in Return of the Jedi. But can you imagine how cool it woulda been with a skate board?

If you like this painting, you should see the one I did at his mom’s.

Some lil punks broke into our garage a while back. They took some things but I was upset about losing this board. I had finally gotten a Sector 9 long board and customized it. And they just took it.

Every time I see a kid ride by in my neighborhood, I double check to see if it’s mine. I’m gonna unleash the power of the Darkside on that punk.

“Echo station 3-T-8, I repeat, we have spotted Imperial walkers…”

“Echo station 3-T-8, we have spotted Imperial walkers…”

Two. Two wars. Still.

Can you believe we are still in two wars? Still. Or did you forget? I feel like most people have.

And the only thing we have to show for it is a lot of dead soldiers & civilians. and a HUGE deficit. But stay calm & keep shopping.

Want this painting?

This is the last stop for my mini bus stencil. I tore just one too many times. You know how those MUNI drivers are. I ended up just pasted the stencil onto the piece.

Good-bye my lil mini bus. We had a nice run together.

Making shirts in the back yard. Sometimes it’s so sunny, I need to block the sun with another stencil to see what I’m doing.

The only thing I really miss about the east coast is the fall when all the leaves change color. It’s pretty magical. But then all the leaves fall and you have to clean them up. And it’s dark & stormy for ages. And it’s cold. Soo cold.

I <3 sunny CA

I just noticed there’s no laces on these shoes. They ain’t gettin tossed nowheres.

“I would like to thank you for getting me interested in art. I purchased 2 pieces from you many years ago. And it gave me a hobby and interest which i still hold today.” — Cooper

I think that’s one of the nicest things anyone has said about my work. This was Cooper’s gateway painting.

My wife’s college roommate & best friend Debbie recently settled down in New York City. As much as she loves NYC she still misses San Francisco. Who can blame her. Hell I moved 20 mins away from the city and I miss it. She asked me to do a big painting for her NYC loft, to remind her of that magical time in the Bay Area.

I finished this tryptich recently for her. It’s the view of the city from a bridge by my house. The one that pulls at my heart every time I see it.

It’s now hanging in Debbie & Arthur’s guest room. I can’t wait to visit NYC and crash there.

Songs to Sing When I’m Lonely was the first watercolor piece I worked on in a while. I did a quick pencil sketch of the man, bench and birds. And then sat down to paint. It took me a while to adjust to the chaos that painting with watercolor is. It can be so hard to control. As you can see from the first couple layers of color here, things kinda got away from me for a while there.

Once I relaxed and just let the paint do it’s thing, everything just started to flow better. I was really pretty happy with the birds. I kept them as simple as possible. Just some light colors hinting at their shapes. I then went back and inked everything with some India ink. I’m really loving the new fountain pen I got recently. It’s much much easier to ink with than a regular pen or marker. The fountain pens give you way more control over the ink flow. Def need more practice with it.

Over all I’m pretty happy with how this painting turned out. And def happy and interested in playing with watercolors and fountain pens some more.

The Empire strikes back at Periscope Cellars Annual Sci-Fi Art show.

I was honored to be a participate and show off two of my favorite things. Boarding & Star Wars.

My immediate family has moved to California in the last few years. So I rarely ever make it back to Pennsylvania anymore. I still have some family there. My two favorite cousins live there actually. But I just don’t get to see them as often as I’d like anymore.

So I sent them their own customized hats this past Christmas to make sure they know how much they rock.

Went to the Takara Sake Factory and picked up this sweet sake set for a friend. Then I went home and stenciled some koi all over the box.

Seymore used to make all kinds of bad ass dresses and clothes. Then she quit doing all that and went to law school. But became the good kind of lawyer. Anyway, one of the awesomest things she made was this hot pink mini-skirt a while back. She asked if I could Possibly Maybe customize it with her favorite lil Icelandic Elf. How could I resist?

It’s no swan dress, but I think it’s got some Big Time Sensuality.

My wife recently went away on a lil road trip across the US southwest. She was gone longer than I thought she would be. I painted this as the cover for a mixtape I made for her.

I had seen a old man sitting alone in the park earlier that week. I couldn’t help wondering what he was thinking about as he sat there in a trance feeding the birds. Did he miss his wife? His children? Was he regretting his mistakes or reliving his glory days?

I’m not sure what was on his mind. But me? I just missed my wife.

A while back I was stenciling just about everything I could get my hands on. And then I’d go post them all over the East Bay.

Gotta spread that love somehow. How else is someone gonna get a heart attack?