I had an amazing birthday with all my peeps last week. For all who don’t know, I am the definitive Pisces who was born right on the cusp of Aquarius. These two astrological signs traits seemingly intertwine to form my inner fiber, creative make-up, eclectic visions, wandering sense of freedom, meticulous account for detail, attraction to the dark and evil, and my laid back nature of person. I totally personify these water signs and find that with each year that passes these traits are engrained even more deeply into not only my soul but all of my art.

I find that connecting with so many individuals all across the board in many industries who simply enjoy what I do is the most gratifying aspect of my work. Whether connecting with a young artist, musician, or skater I hope I can always inspire and nurture the original creative qualities in all who I link up to. When working as an independent artist and consultant it is the journey through creating exceptional imagery for clients who respectively come back to give praise and seek future collaborative opportunities that keep me engaged and inspired.

Thanks to D Port and SkinnyBuddha for representing my hard work and offering good wishes on my birthday! Skinny Buddha family always!

Beery Birthday

This is just a huge shout out and enormous thank you to all my fans, fellow artists, friends, and family who have supported my all my goals and work. I couldn’t do it without you all…you are the best and I got nothing but hot lava love for you all…MAD THANKS!

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Working with other creative cats is my pride and joy as an illustrator and designer. It has been a real pleasure putting together stellar album covers for some extraordinary hip-hop artists who are on the up and come up on the East Coast. If you don’t know who I speak of you simply have to check out The N.O.C from South Florida. It was an honor to put together their debut album layout for Dinosaur last spring and I recently had the satisfaction of putting together some fresh artwork for members K Sos and Rams 2010 mixtape release Murphy’s Killer.

No strangers to stirring the pot of political roughness and kicking raw flavor that amplifies the generation XYZ, it was a duo blast of urban rawness and shotgun imagery from both sides. K Sos and Rams are on the pinnacle of exploiting their freedom of expression and Murphy’s Killer is no exception. In an attempt to squash Murphy’s Law, the facetious proposition that if something can go wrong, it will, these two members of The N.O.C put the clutch down on excelling into a new era of keeping it genuine and representing the buzz of the American street aficionados.

To do justice and reflect the messages broadcast on MK the cover had to be montaged in a seamlessly compact way. Depicted on the cover are members K Sos and Rams who have drug Murphy to his last rights. Murphy is satirized as the obese, greedy, white-bred politician who has been captured and brutalized by the N.O.C crew. A shotgun to his head, stab wounds, and all his dirty money on the pavement, Murphy (Murphy’s Law) is over with.

Murphy's Killer 2010

To complete the full effect of the chaos to ensue I broke into my bank of imagery to montage a masterpiece of mayhem. Surrounded by police squads, cops with guns drawn, tattooed chicks, screaming fans, and flames bursting in the air the focus of the cover (the slaughtering of Murphy) is pushed into the foreground. Photos used in the background came from my trips across the continental USA. The graffiti building on the left originates in the Mission District of San Francisco, the city skyline of Chicago, a water tower from Alcatraz, parking lot in Seattle, deco building and club from Italy, and characters who have been digitally painted and enhanced all come together to form a surreal environment that is reminiscent of a frame from Grand Theft Auto.

Every detail from the ghetto birds (police helicopters) blasting spotlights all the way down to the cracks in the concrete all spin from the depths of my inner beast that roars “make this solid…down to the core”. The effect is an insane composition that keeps the viewer coming back and finding more pieces of gooey visual elements that rock the soul. Here’s to putting the kibosh on Murphy’s Law and the giants of the Southeast…N.O.C. 4 Life!

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Being the Art Director for Defiant is an absolute dream. Not only do I get to oversee all the aesthetics, artwork and design, I get to do rad action-sports shoots with our fantastic riders. These guys carve it up day and night, rain or shine. We recently did a shoot at the Greenlake skate park here in Seattle with one of our daredevils Charlie Philipp. Charlie excels on the verts and gets into an insane routine down in the bowls and out onto the rails. He maintains some heavy air time and is constantly on the thread of explosive defiance. Charlie, AKA Chuck D, is an amazing dude. This cat has the heart of a lion and a fierce yet positive attitude everywhere he skates. Here is a montage of some sick footage I had a blast putting together that day.

Charlie "Chuck D" Phillip

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