smiling.politely

the New Era YouTube has it up... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzfiPX1xpm8&

i skipped over most of the thread, since i've yet to see any of the current season, but my roommate and i spent alot of nights watching Breaking Bad instead of sleeping this summer. super awesome series. now, off to download and get caught up! (although, it was hard to watch the first few episodes, and not still see him as Hal from Malcolm in the Middle... with Jesse being Dewey, grown up and getting in trouble.)

took a bit of digging to find this thread... anywhoozles, this is a detail of an old beater bass an old acquaintance gave me, which i decided to refurbish. still doing body work currently. once that's all done, i need to shield all the electronics cavities, rewire it, install a new bridge, string it, and see how it plays (it was on the fritz when i got it, so no before/after on how it sounds). all hand carved, shaded with regular wood stain... really stoked to finish it, but it might be until next week before it gets done.

first one, from about four years ago. always took my dad's forearm tattoo to heart in school, and because skulls are rad... done by Dennis McPhail of Artist at Large in Wichita, KS.

I know this fellow from our mutual time studying cast iron sculpture. he and his torso got a lot of odd looks at hot springs when we'd all meet up for trips.

until seeing this post a few days back, i hadn't realized that X-Files was available to stream... i've slept very little since.

i can't decide if i want this to be real or fake...

Staying ina fairly ghetto Houston hotel while on a trip to cast large scale metal sculptures, one of our crew was interested in how they put tissues in the tissue dispenser in the bathroom. while feeling around to figure out the bracket holding the box in the counter, he found a fairly good sized pocket knife hidden on the box. the edge was a bit dulled, and it seemed to have been washed fairly intensely before being hidden. it promptly became his new pocket knife.

I've got a pair of straight edge praying hands on my leg, and usually get asked about them by little kids at the diving board in the summers. trying to figure out an answer the first time or two took a minute. As for awful slang terms, some dude tried hitting on a chick I work with by saying something to the effect of "Yo girl, you inky!" It didn't work out.

newest tattoo as of a week ago. all thanks and even the photo credit goes to Matt Headley at Red Sea Tattoo, Wichita, KS. https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/228909_10100176003135271_17026783_45851313_3463382_n.jpg (Get Rad was a skateboard art show he put on, which i was a part of)

apparently, my cousin's soon to be ex-husband, as well as another cousin of mine (brother to the first cousin), have been tattooing themselves and friends as of late. even worse, the guy who gave them their set up is a tattoo artist a few towns over. this is the worst in a jumble of phone pictures of Facebook... https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/294659_119442648153710_100002639259898_109849_4030483_n.jpg but this is the one that takes the cake... https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/269051_105377436226898_100002639259898_31194_7242264_n.jpg for those who are unaware, it's a pattern of facepaint for Twiztid, the number 2 act on ICP's record label.

horrible photo of a nurse shark i got in my left ditch in September '09... https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/8325_684531945501_17026783_39720068_2987769_n.jpg

to make things clear, i don't think i deserve to sell that painting, and i don't have a sense of entitlement from art school. i've made $30 off of my original art (aside from drawing on guitars for lunch, or the old pick ups out of them), and got hired by the small town where i went to high school to paint a mural in a library (a large portion of that money went to buying an engagement ring for my fiancee). all i see when i look at that painting are the things i need to improve on. it's how i feel about pretty much everything i do. i asked about pricing because a few of my friends had inquired how much i wanted for it. they're the kind that, when i told them to just have it, they refused and told me to give them a price they could pay me. they have actual jobs with their real degrees (engineers and such). if i were to have sold it, it wouldn't have been for extra money. when you have $4.65 in the bank, there isn't any extra money. there's bills/food money. and for Shannon's paintings, i actually prefer the graffitti-ish ones to the rooster, even though that one is still pretty out there.

i was in no way apologizing for art school, but any possible misconceptions over my intentions. i'm very proud of the fact that i went to college, graduated, and figured out what i want to do in life. and yes, i did go a bit overboard on the posting there. that long winded explanation was more for people who may be on the fence about how to feel about my question, and the painting. i do know that in some cases, trying to explain oneself to a detractor is like trying to kick water uphill: i won't win. i do appreciate any feedback, especially any negative feedback. it drives me to want to be better. as for the perception that i'm ripping off the older artists, i tend to disagree. however, i did do a painting in that style, so those influences will show. it's the first panther head i've ever attempted... i've had no time to make the ground breaking innovations to the design i'm apparently expected to make by some in order to earn the right to paint it.

also, to clear up any misconceptions about my going to art school... it wasn't some fancy school. i went to an in-state, Big 12 university. that way, the tuition would be lower. also, i didn't go there for art initially, as i believe i explained in the last post. also, the student loans i racked up are going to put myself and my parents in debt for years to come. loans were the only chance i had, since my dad is a carpenter by trade (with no deltoid in his right arm and a rod in his leg for pretty much his whole career, as well as almost constant herniated discs and an assortment of other rotating injuries), who effectively retired when his brother fired him for not putting storm doors in houses when it was sleeting. at the time, he had a stitched cleft lip from when a dog bit a section of his lip out while putting a door on a house, and was healing skin grafts on his middle and ring fingers on his left hand, where a wood jointer in his brother's cabinet shop took the very tips off of them. apparently, my uncle decided to remove the safety guards. my mother struggled and worked hard (and wore long sleeves) to get a job as an accountant so that she could help support the family when i was a child (especially after Dad retired). there isn't a silver spoon in my mouth.

this is going to be slightly long... i'm going to try my best to explain myself, because i don't want to be seen this way. please, hear me out. however, if you don't want to read it, feel free to skip to the end or ignore it. i'll understand no matter what you choose. to explain... i went to college after high school, but didn't know what i wanted to do in life. i started in art in high school, and after realizing i would hate my life in 15 years if i went into any of the professions my skills assessments and placement tests told me to pursue, i went into art, because it was a challenge to overcome. math and science were easy to me as a kid, but art was hard work. and i liked that aspect of it... i also found that hated the attitude, arrogance, and insincerity of 95% of people in the art scenes. i spent years trying to do "academic" or "fine" art, but i didn't connect to it. it didn't make me feel anything while i was making figurative bronzes, abstract paintings, or light gestural sketches... i was just doing it because i was told. i did that stuff for about 2.5 years because that's what i was told was art. however, i have been around tattoos my entire life. my father has a Charlie Cartwright chest piece (and other assorted work from him) from when he ran End of the Trail in Wichita (he's 75% covered now), which is older than i am. some of my earliest memories are from sitting in a tattoo shop lobby once Charlie was gone and my parents found a new tattooer, watching all the guys gather around while they fed mice to the snakes they had caged in said lobby. once i wanted to get tattooed, i started drawing myself rough ideas to take my artist. that led to me engrossing myself in studying the history of tattoing, as well as the art involved. i don't want to be like so many of my generation, covered in crap work because i didn't do any research. i apologize if it seems i'm trying to take money out of the pot for myself, and i can understand how it would appear that way. art is about who you are, right? they did teach me that at school. i never felt connection to figurative charcoal drawings. my paintings didn't get the inspiration of the post-Impressionists or Abstract Expressionists, because i hate their work. i never felt like exploring the juxtaposition of this and that with my bronze sculptures. i've spent my life living in the country, picked art because it was hard work due to my complete lack of natural talent, and majored in metal cast sculpture because it was the most honest and least pretentious group of students/instructors. as for art being about myself, i'm inspired by and love tattoos. i'm not trying to be a leech, or a parasite, and i decided not long after posting this to give this painting to a tattoo artist who is putting on an art show that this was drawn for. my eventual goal in life is to be a tattooer. that's not a fall back, "i can't make it in the real world" goal, it's what i want to do with my life. i'm in the beginning stages of being shop lackey where i get tattooed, with the goal to be part time counter guy as one of the folks who works counter now gets into her apprenticeship. i'm appreciative of the chance to mop the backroom and clean caked dust out of the vents in the bathroom, because not everyone gets that chance. i can't get a "real" job with my college degree, because it's art... not even graphic design. art. mass communication majors laugh at my degree. again, one last time, i apologize if i came off as anything but sincere in my respect for tattooing. feel free to criticize my goals, work, aspirations, or past if you'd like, but know that i'm not trying to be a parasite to tattooing. i'm not a tourist, as Tim Hendricks called what i seem to be seen as in another thread on this site. this is not for the money, because i know that there won't be any for a very, very long time, if ever.

while this is indeed for sale, i'm just out of college, and have little paid experience with my art. it's acrylic on canvas, 16"x20", and took around 12 hours (14 or so including the time it took to draw up the design, then transfer it to the canvas). my brain is saying something around $200, but i'd love for any pointers or considerations i may not have factored in. if anyone would be interested in a purchase, that'd be rad. if not, any help would be greatly appreciated. p.s.- also, this is only my second painting with tube acrylics and brushes on canvas (usually i use paint pens with a brush on lots of surfaces). i'm very happy with how it came out...

i waited to get my first until i was 20. my parents are both tattooed (my dad is about 75% covered, mom has a few smaller ones, a few big ones, and is finally getting her sleeves done starting in a few months). i knew i wanted some text my dad has on his forearm for about four years, and i added the skull underneath because i like skulls. also, the straight edge XXX underneath... at this point, i wasn't sure how tattooed i was going to be, so i had long sleeve shirts in mind, and also wanted to get the two most important things in my life represented (the parents and the straight edge bits). the arm that looks like you could pole vault an IV into it is my dad, with the original...

i'm currently scouring through photos to find new shots of my dad's oldest tattoos, but he got a boatload done over a 10 day span at End of the Trails when Goodtime Charlie was in Wichita in the early '80s. this would be within a few years of getting them...

i think i'm a bad influence on my roommate, who's fairly straight laced... i spend all my time drawing and painting (hoping to become a tattooer in the future), and i think he's contemplating whether he'd get a Queens of the Stone Age tattoo. i might ask him his favorite song or lyric, do a painting for him, then see id he'd consider it as a tattoo before he goes back to college at the end of the summer. as for myself, i've got a few music related ones. a third of my forearm and my hand are music related, and i've got a set of yellow straight edge praying hands on my calf that read STAY GOLD. more music plans are in the works, i just need to solidify them.

hello all... i found this forum in one of my late nights unable to sleep, and i spent a lot of time perusing some informative topics. a few nights later, it seemed like a good idea to set up an account. the post college job hunt is proving slow, so maybe i'll be able to post entirely too much... hopefully not, though. an average amount and a job would be better for all involved.

i had a job working at the front desk of a college dormitory, including signing in guests after hours. a girl always came in with her boyfriend, who had PERSAVERANCE down his forearm (yes, i misspelled it... so did he), obviously home made. he turned out to be a really cool, funny dude, but that always cracked me up. up there with that is a tattoo a friend of mine who works at a gas station saw one night... a well executed tattoo of the word FAMILY on someone's leg, but in Comic Sans. he said it was really difficult to not say that he loved it and ask for a picture. i really, really wish he would have.

sort of an odd angle, but this is both the newest and my favorite currently. i bled like crazy the whole time for some reason as well... maybe my fiance spiked my Arnold Palmer that morning.

I don't remember my actual first experience, as it was when I was at the tattoo shop my parents frequented in the '90s (when i was well under 10 years old). I have fleeting memories of the lay out of the shop, copying comic book drawings in the lobby, and folks gathering around the rattlesnake cage by the fromt door whenever they fed it mice. the first experience getting tattooed was when in 2007 when I was 20, getting some text (same text and placement as my father), with a skull and crossbones underneath. it was from Dennis McPhail of Artist at Large tattoo in Wichita... from the smell of the green soap reminding me of some of those memories of being with my parents years ago to the mention of the speakers being blown from all the sweet country music, it was a pretty good experience. on a side note tattoojeff, my father got his chest and alot of stuff on his arms from Good Time Charlie when he was in Wichita back in the day... it's a small world!