Myself and 30+ artists have created art inspired by the terrible Oil Spill in the Gulf for a Seattle event/exhibition called Oil Spilling on the Ridge. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to help restore our precious environment and the animals who are being impacted by this. This event will not only involve fine art, but several fine poets and musicians who have also been moved by this tragedy. This will be a powerful event.

At the new Art on the Ridge at 8005 Greenwood Ave. N., is where the first portion of the event is held. http://www.phinneywood.com/2010/07/07/monthly-artwalk-friday-night/

There will be live cello music, poetry readings, and a meditation for the animals of the gulf. It should be noted that there have been a few fund raisers for the people of the gulf who have been affected by this ecological disaster, but this benefit is for the animals and birds specifically. It promises to be heart-wrenching but positive.

Below is the painting I did specifically for this event. Originally I had envisioned a Gold Eagle dripping with oil in flight. After seeing so many terrible images of birds whose wings were sopped with the black ooze I decided that a more positive image would be more satisfying. Thus, no oil on this bird. Just the majesty of our countries symbolic feathered friend.

The second part of this event will be held downtown Seattle at the Columbia Club. Tickets to the event are $35 which go directly to the Nature Conservancy. Paintings from the Oil Spill show will be featured at this event and auctioned off for the cause. Local FOX TV helped to promote this powerful exhibition: http://www.q13fox.com/videobeta/30bf9f2f-6217-4c80-b0f4-9948e4414f22/News/GULF-COAST-FUNDRAISER

To purchase tickets and find more info on this portion: http://oilspillwildliferescue.eventbrite.com/

Here are some photos of the artists, their work, and the crowd at the Malice In Wonderland exhibit:

I had the pleasure of curating a show for UrbanLightStudios at the Greenwood Collective July 9th. For the show I was able to amass an extremely talented group of Seattle’s best street artists who are simply ‘killing it’ in the Pacific NW. Myself along with 14 other local artists are bringing the surreal this coming weekend.

Like a requiem of forgotten worlds, characters, and legends comes a collection of Seattle’s local street artists who bend the lightwaves of fixed reality. A mash up of styles and media that coalesce abrasive textures, demented beings, and unadulterated underground scenarios comes full throttled in a tricked out menage . This assortment of artists include some of the NW Pacific’s most prolific muralists, illustrators, cartoonists, tattooists, inkers, painters, and culture creatives who truly push through the looking glass and bring back pieces of layered dreams.

Where there is tentacles, beaks, bikers, and skulls there is an alien wonder and strange velvety familiarity. Regurgitating the links to childhood memories and make believe is merely the catalyst for propagating and producing worlds of mystery, urban mutations, and righteous nougat of the soul. Reaching into the inner depths of contemporary visual science while armed with paint cans, brushes, and warped genius this whimsical yet hard edged cartel has amassed the chimera of sub-pop underground culture. If you follow the white rabbit he will lead you right into the peculiar embrace of this eclectic exhibit.

+ Greenwood Collective

Artists Reception /Art Walk

July 9th 6-10pm

8537 Greenwood Ave Suite 1

Seattle,WA 98103

February 12 2010 from 6-9pm it all pops off over at Band Vibes space in the Greenwood Collective…that’s right my long awaited character series Hobo Eaters: Agents of Chaos. The show is a collection of my coveted hobo characters that maniacally made their way into Seattle’s streets and the hearts of our NW culture. The collection consists of original pieces that are hand inked and painted with wood stain on various wood panels in a variety of sizes. Besides the originals there will also be limited edition prints, jumbo posters, and a line of limited edition tees that all reflect these grungy agents of chaos. I will be giving away a free print and a free tee randomly to those who sign up at the Band Vibes space. Come join me for a night of bad-ass art and mayhem…It’s gonna be an epic event of diabolical debauchery full of twisted 50’s animated style hobos!

Artist statement (dirt on the show):

Hobo Eaters: Agents of Chaos

The term hobo-eater refers to an entity who, through ritual means, would take on by means garbage and liquor the sins of a deceased bum, thus absolving his or her soul and allowing that person of the street to rest in peace.

What was once a ritual performed by beggars and vagabonds in certain villages of bygone years is now performed in a reverse of roles by animated entities who take on the form of the hobo whose diabolical lifestyle is reflected upon the appearance of the hobo-eater. The hobo-eater would be brought to the dying vagrant’s curbside or stoop, where a neighborhood drifter would place a crust of dumpster pizza on the chest of the dying and pass a 40 oz. of malt liquor to him over the corpse. After reciting the ritual, he would then drink and remove the crust from the derelict tramp and eat it, the act of which would remove the sins and deadbeat-scars from the dying transient and take it into himself.

Often times hobo-eaters are not only filled with the sins and scars of the deceased but take on a ghostly appearance, ragged with the lines of deceit and chemical abuse of the former vessel. The result is a vaporous apparition whose tattered clothes and grungy attitude is forever portrayed among the urban environment. Thus the ethereal term Agents of Chaos has come as a contemporary descriptor for these aeon old hobo-eaters who are destined to drift the streets perpetually consuming fiendish souls.

Below are a few of the Hobo Eaters character pieces that are included in the show:

Vapor Trails:

Below are some updated photos of some of the work included in the show. To avoid rambling on too much about all the pieces I am simply posting the pics including the detailed shots of the artwork. Enjoy!

GURU: Inspired by ancient sages of forgotten lore. The word bubble is Chinese for “Knowledge”.

VAPOR TRAILS: Inspired by all the shredding skateboard bad-asses…you know who you are.

BUMMIN & RUNNIN: Inspired by old 50’s animations, bums, and liquor.

Bummin & Runnin Ink & Wood Stain

Bummin & Runnin detail I

Bummin & Runnin detail II

RUBIX DUDE:  Inspired by particle theory and physicists worldwide.

Rubix Dude Ink & Wood Stain

Rubix Dude detail I

Rubix Dude detail II

THE SHAMBLER:  Inspired by Scrooge McDuck, Robert Crumb, and A X-Mas Carol.

The Shambler Ink on Wood

The Shambler detail I

The Shambler detail II

CODED: Inspired by zen buddhism and hidden meanings.

Coded Ink on WoodCoded detail I

Coded detail IICoded detail III

ROCKET ROCKER: Inspired by the Rocketeer and dark rockers everywhere.

Rocket Rocker Ink on Wood

Rocket Rocker detail I

Rocket Rocker detail II

AGENT OF CHAOS: Inspired by Hells Angels debauchery.

Agent of Chaos Ink on Wood

Agent of Chaos detail I

Agent of Chaos detail II

Agent of Chaos detail III

LET THE WHEELS BURN: Inspired by Mars Volta album Octahedron

Let The Wheels Burn Ink on Wood

Let The Wheels Burn detail I

Let The Wheels Burn detail II

Let The Wheels Burn detail III

THE MANNIKIN: Inspired by Robert Bloch’s short story The Mannikin from his collection Mysteries of the Worm

The Mannikin Ink on Wood

The Mannikin detail I

The Mannikin detail II

The Mannikin detail III

The Mannikin detail V

LUMBERING JACK: Inspired by chainsaws and the Pacific Northwest.

Lumbering Jack detail I

Lumbering Jack detail II

Lumbering Jack detail IV

BLOOD LIFE: Inspired by gangsta females everywhere.

Blood Life Vector Print Poster

Blood Life detail I

Blood Life detail II

Blood Life detail III

Blood Life detail IV

RUBIX DUDE: 3 versions of all characters. 1. Ink on wood 2. Vector digital design 3. Oil painting.

Rubix Dude Oils

Rubix Dude detail I

Rubix Dude detail II

Rubix Dude detail III

Rubix Dude detail IV

Rubix Dude detail V

Rubix Dude detail VI

MICKSTER MCGEE: Inspired by unicycle chimps, hipsters, scenesters, 80’s cartoons, and underground comics.

Mickster Mcgee Ink on Wood

Mickster McGee detail I

Mickster McGee detail II

Mickster McGee detail III

Mickster McGee detail IV

OL TIMER: Inspired by father time, ferrets, chicken suits, tar & feathers, and explicit street vagrants.

Ol Timer Ink on Wood

Ol Timer detail I

Ol Timer detail II

Ol Timer detail III

PHANTOM BEARD & DOOB: Inspired by Norwegians, black death metal, k-9’s, rebels, counterculture, loud loud loud music.

Phantom Beard & Doob Ink on Wood (unfinished)

Phantom Beard & Doob detail (unfinished)

Phantom Beard & Doob detail finished I

Phantom Beard & Doob detail finished II

Phantom Beard & Doob detail finished III

Phantom Beard & Doob detail finished IV

Phantom Beard & Doob detail finished V

Phantom Beard & Doob detail finished VI

Where's the bird?

Doob detail

Phantom Beard & Doob detail III

Phantom Beard & Doob detail IV

LYCOSA MASTER: Inspired by wizards, tattoos, medieval sorcerers, devils, demons, warlocks, giant spiders, and reckless gladiators.

Lycosa Master Ink on Wood

Lycosa Master detail I

Lycosa Master detail II

Lycosa Master detail III

Lycosa Master detail IV

Lycosa Master detail V

It was extremely fun putting together this show for Urban Light Studio. Kevin Law and his wife Julie were an amazing help and the space was the perfect compliment for the semi-grittiness that is inherent in my oil work. The gallery was filled through the night with a great mix of art enthusiasts and urban night-lifers who came out to partake in the social-art environment. The other spaces in the Greenwood Collective were also filled with an eclectic mix of works from various local Seattle artists. It was a “Bad-ass” event to say the least.

Original Artist’s Statement:

AGENTS OF DAWN

This particular series deals with alternate pasts, unforeseen futures, depravity of humanity,
mechanical objects, foreign landscapes, and the sequestration of progressive human intentions.
We live in a world bound by connectivity which is almost always fortified through invention and
technology. Evolution and our process of sensing our surroundings is merely incubated in all
catalysts of technical development. Although our mind-shape is expanding through vibrations of
cause and effect, science, as well as the cosmic, macro and micro we are experiencing our
surroundings numbified by our constant installment of so called technological advancements.
Through time and space we transcend in our intuitive and delicate nature via the hub of
conciousness that is today. Planets, virtual epochs, archaic meditations, and dubious psuedomutations
all align to create tones of irreal but nonetheless naturalistic strands of reality. Our
pragmatic interventions on unrefined countenance brings our blindsighted shortcomings straight
into parallel with the toxic and perforated multi-verse that is expanding all around us at every
moment. Here today, gone tomorrow, but imprinted on the veiny pulp of existence.
There is an end to every beginning. Domiciles of lost tribes protrude through the terrain like
insentient megaliths constructed by a wavering society of unholy and illegitimate union. The sky
turns tepid and cracks to reveal the displacement of our sins. Ageless is the world we live in.
Passive is the response of immortality. Time to let the stained hovels of our currency become
one with post-apocalyptic aeons and return to the sand and dust from which our mineralized
bodies came. Fashion the tourniquet of falsehood and let our prophets vapor.
Octopoid locust sapping life of a quasi-autonomous golem. The android of industrial youth now
a cold, rusting fixture of placid galactic ambiance. We came to seek. They came to assist. The
long hard journey is behind us. The past is repeated. Rescuing our master was no easy task.
Beyond all hope is adrift. The orb like chitonous shell contains the fragments of a fossil that can
only have come from the ethereal borders of time. All is dry and grows dark in a sea of
cantankarous bile. The ship has landed and no one is on it. The odyssey ends.
A product of retro-contemporary passage through the enigmatic, capacious, piousness of man…
N. Beery

Photos of the arrangement and space prior to the opening:

Tapping into the nether worlds and parallel dimensions through the culmination of time, ageless
forms, and beguiled minstrals this show of work percolates the tingling sixth sense . Vividly
surreal landscapes, twisted characters, and dripping textures coalesce to create a wild
integration of soul and strange beauty which invites all viewers to consume and envelope a
host of visual suggestions that break through the ego-shell of humanity.
This particular series deals with alternate pasts, unforeseen futures, depravity of humanity,
mechanical objects, foreign landscapes, and the sequestration of progressive human intentions.

This show was a smattering of past and new works. The oil paintings and illustrations chosen worked beautifully together. We had a great time hanging these pieces. The illustration walls focus was enhanced through the 45 degree angle at which the pieces were hung and cast a nice drop shadow from the direct overhead lights. It really made the work “pop”!

Here is my statement regarding the process involved for the illustration works:

The Illustrious Illustration

A moment to reflect on the martyrs, the blind beings, the bastards, and the omnifarious intellect…
Portraits of passion and reverence come into light particularly when the passing of a trend, a
jet-setter, a conscientious objector, or a so-called role model is eliminated from the mainstream.
Documenting the indelible qualities of such idiosyncratic individuals is necessary to properly file
and tuck away cherished memories, mysteries, and legends. Time is the essential factor on all
sides of any one life. Whether the spark burns fast and hot or whether the flame resides eternal
is only a matter of the muted dust settling after the ash has blown over.
The illustrations you see before you are originals from the holy-banded library of Nick Beery. To
better serve the question of “how was that achieved?” here is a breakdown of the process and
media which is so required of the artist to produce an aged aesthetic and visual mystique :
It all begins with the board. A cold press illustration board is the “blank canvas” which becomes
the richly colorful image before you. Once a board is selected and the subject matter is identified
Nick moves on to picking up the cornerstone of all artist’s repertoir, a pencil.
Graphite takes it’s place and an under-drawing is rendered to the board. After a few coats of a
spray fixative to hold down the graphite a base color is selected. A typical base hue selection
Nick uses is a natural burnt sienna tone. A layer of oil paint with the said pigment is rubbed into
the precious graphite drawing and board leaving an even mid-tone coating which resides just
on top of the original rendering.
Upon rubbing in and wiping excess oil from the surface the next step is to define the highlights
that give form to an otherwise two-dimensional sketch. A strategic blending and lifting of the oils
then ensues with the use of a kneaded eraser. The face now begins to show volume and life.
After pulling out all the highlights and allowing the paint to dry the final measure is to redefine the
drawing and form by reinforcing the contrast and adding color. Shadows are burned with dark,
organic hues while crisp highlights are redeemed and softened through the touch of a pencil.
Full color palettes reinvigorate the image giving vitality to anatomy and focusing in on intricate
details. Finishing touches may include the use of acrylics , gouche, or watercolors to add smoky
effects or smooth finish. The end result is a grainy texture that gives a vintage look to the work.