Taking Me Apart – Sun i Sea (2009)

The book is slowly, but surely coming along. I am still exploring this technique and want to make sure that I have taken it as far as I can before I make any solid decisions.

Add comment | June 29th, 2009

Deconstruction – The Legend of Zorn & Nola (2009)

This piece was created by combining two different photographs of two different locations haunted by two different ghosts.

Add comment | June 23rd, 2009

Taking Me Apart – Is My Love Sincere (2009)

From my upcoming book, Taking Me Apart. For more info, see the March, 20 2009 post.

Add comment | June 20th, 2009

Infiltrate – Dietert School (2005)

This was an old school that I found on my way back from Zorn, Texas one day. Someone had broke out most of the windows and there had been a few late night parties there, but most of the damage was done by mother nature.

Add comment | June 14th, 2009

Found Objects – 7654321 (2005)

This was a piece from a series that I created using scans from a found gum wrapper, an old photograph of a scientific experiment that I bought from a flea market in NYC, and scans from a half way destroyed library book on music theory.

My intention was to create my own personal experiment by taking three completely unrelated things and mending them together to create a final series of images with an underlining theme, but left room for viewer interpretation.

Add comment | June 7th, 2009

Mixed Media – Above & Beyond (1995)

As of May 31st, the V01D has been up and running for one year. I figured I would dig deep in my archives to honor this special occasion.

Jennifer and I just returned from a 4 day trip to New Orleans, so I thought this old piece would be appropriate to reflect my current state of mind.

It is a photograph that I shot at the Lafayette Cemetery Number One that was pasted onto one of my paintings. I did a whole series of pieces like this, but there are only two that exist in a digital format.

A big thanks to everyone that has stopped by in the last year to check out my work, especially those who pull a feed.

Add comment | June 3rd, 2009

Taking Me Apart – Alone in the City that Sleeps (2009)

From my upcoming book Taking Me Apart. For more info, see the March, 20 2009 post.

Add comment | May 24th, 2009

Self Portrait – #1 (2009)

Jennifer and I have been playing with Apple’s Photo Booth ever since I got the iMac 2 years ago. It has produced a lot of really good laughs. I figured it would be a good tool for creating some interesting self portraits for the blog.

Add comment | May 12th, 2009

Collage – Contact (2009)

I started this piece a few months back after Jennifer and I went to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and saw a piece by Andy Warhol called Gun. It was a two color misregistered screen print of a .22.

Traditionally, it is seen as a bad thing to misregister your prints, but Andy did it in such a way that it enhanced the piece and made it far more interesting than if it were properly registered.

The foundation of my piece is the illustration that is misregistered and its supporting cast is scanned images from old library books and a mug shot.

Add comment | May 9th, 2009

Cut-Ups – Life Forms (2009)

obscured objects
of vacant mass
living under a skin
of dynamic perfection
looking for
a suggestive reality
that tastes like structure
among planted visions
of prototypical elements
programmed to memorize
the last empty thought

Add comment | May 3rd, 2009

The Halo Effect vs Reflekt – Scaling the Empire (2000)

I have been wanting to put up some songs from my music project, the Halo Effect, on the V01D for some time now, but putting them up in MP3 format eats up my server space. So, I decided to put YouTube to some good use and let their servers deal with my space burden.

The first song going up was from an improv session that I did with Steven Brown. He was responsible for the fantastic guitar playing, while I was in charge of the drones and ambience with the MSR1000. I ended up taking a bunch of pieces from that session and mashing it up to create Scaling the Empire.

Just for the record there is no video, only the music and a visual of a painting that I did called The Kingdom of Fear.

Add comment | April 27th, 2009

Video – Time Warp (2005)

This was a video that I made the semester after I got back from my internship in New York. The photography was shot in Brooklyn and San Marcos. My original plan was to compose some music for the video, but after purchasing Brian Eno’s The Shutov Assembly, I felt his composition Markgraph was more fitting.

Time Warp is a collection of animated photographs showcasing different abandoned environments, all of which are connected and reached through time travel.

Add comment | April 22nd, 2009

Found Objects – There is no #7 (2005)

This was a piece from a series that I created using scans from a found gum wrapper, an old photograph of a scientific experiment that I bought from a flea market in NYC, and scans from a half way destroyed library book on music theory.

My intention was to create my own personal experiment by taking three completely unrelated things and mending them together to create a final series of images with an underlining theme, but left room for viewer interpretation.

Add comment | April 18th, 2009

Left of the Dial – Tim Skold Interview (2009)

Every blue moon, my good friend David Ensminger asks me to do an interview for his magazine Left of the Dial. This time around I was fortunate enough to do an email interview with Tim Skold (KMFDM, MDFMK, Ohgr, Marilyn Manson).

Head on over to the online version of the Left of the Dial magazine to read the Tim Skold Interview written by yours truly.

Add comment | April 13th, 2009

Taking Me Apart – When You Called Me Honey (2009)

I am keeping good with my promise and revealing the name of my upcoming book with this post. The new book will be called Taking Me Apart. All of the works in the book have been created from splicing photographs that have significant meaning to me. The splices are then used to create abstract digital paintings.

More info coming soon on the book’s release date.

1 comment | April 9th, 2009

The Halo Effect – The Kreation Ov (1999 & 2003)

The Halo Effect – The Kreation Ov from beau eaton on Vimeo.

I have been waiting to get this online for a long time, but up until now the internet could not handle this much movement in a video. Even with that being said it does not look as good as it does offline.

This is a music video that I created in 2003 for one of my songs from the Halo Effect project. The song is from around 1999 when I first started out with a Yamaha RM1x and a 4 track, which just recently have been united with one another.

This video was created right after I finished my Multimedia studies and right around the time I started getting serious about graphic design.

Add comment | April 1st, 2009

Taking Me Apart – It’s Yours If You Want It (2009)

I have been working out the details of my next book and I will share the name of the book with my next post. But for now, here is the second image that will go in my upcoming book.

Add comment | March 25th, 2009

Taking Me Apart – All That I Can Do (2009)

This is a sneak peak at some of my new work that I am exploring for an upcoming book. At the current time, there is no title for the book or release date. All I know is that it will be a 7″ x 7″ perfect bound hard back book.

I have been experimenting with this new process that is similar to the process that I used for the Retrospect stripes poster, but not exactly like it. The process involves me taking splices from photographs that have significant meaning to me and using them to create these abstracted digital paintings. Who knows, it could be a photograph of you.

I will continue to post other images from the book all the way up to the release of the book.

Add comment | March 20th, 2009

Poster – T-Model Ford (2009)

I never really had an ear for blues until Mark Todd introduced me to the work of T-Model Ford. T-Model Ford is an American blues musician that combines Chicago blues and Juke Joint blues with Delta blues, but has the attitude of a punk rocker.

He claims to have forgotten his exact date of birth, but he is somewhere around the age of 85. Don’t let his old age fool you, T-Model has spent most of his life in and out of jail and even spent a little bit of time on a chain gang for murder.

Not only does T-Model the person intrigue me, but the way he plays guitar is also a beautiful thing. The best way to describe his guitar playing is to compare it to the approach that the Velvet Underground took to their music, truly innovative and different. Come to think of it, his approach to singing is not too far off from Lou’s approach. They should get together and record a song.

Add comment | March 16th, 2009

Mixed Media – Still House Fuse (2009)

This is the result of a combination of some junkyard photography with one of the digital paintings from a new series that I have been working on.

Add comment | March 13th, 2009

Poster – Retrospect Stripes (2009)

This is the second poster that I created for the AIA Retrospect competition. I found out neither of my posters were selected as the winning poster, but I did find out that a poster that was a rip off of Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster was the winning selection.

Not only does the poster steal Shepard’s style, but it uses Obama’s logo in the poster as well. The sad part about it is that none of the judges had any idea that the poster was a rip off and they are going to award the winner with $400.

And who said cheaters never win….

Anyways, no hard feelings, I work with the guy that created the poster and he was trying to make a statement about Shepard Fairey. Shepard “borrows” from other people’s work and incorporates it into his own work to make money. My coworker “borrowed” from Shepard’s work and incorporated into his work to make money off of Shepard. I guess it is like stealing from Robin Hood.

As far as my poster goes, when I was in school I learned this interesting technique from one of my professors, Jeff Dell, on how to push pixels beyond what they are normally capable of doing. The brief for the AIA Retrospect poster competition said that the type had to be legible, so with this poster I challenged myself to create something that could be seen as legible by some people and illegible by others. People where on both sides of the fence for this one.

1 comment | March 7th, 2009

Postcard – Thank You (2006)

In the spring of 2006, I had just graduated college with a BFA in Communication Design from Texas State University. I was fortunate enough to go through one of the best design programs in the country, which created the foundation of the designer that I am today.

Each of my professors provided a unique perspective, and all of them provided crucial lessons in design. For me, saying thank you was not going to be enough for all that they had done for me. So I designed this postcard and hand wrote each of the people that influenced me a note saying thank you and explaining what I had learned from them.

The design was a collage of found illustrations, which incorporated the Boy Scout’s law. Even though I never was a Boy Scout, I used the Boy Scout’s law as a metaphor for my own design law that had been created from the education of all of these different mentors.

Thank you Claudia Roeschmann, Ivanete Blanco, Mark Todd, Holly & David Shields, Bill Meek, and Jeff Dell.

Add comment | March 3rd, 2009

Poster – Retrospect Eyes (2009)

Each year during architecture month, all of the architecture firms in Dallas get together and put together an exhibit for the public called Retrospect. Each firm creates their own exhibit on how they want to communicate architecture to the general public.

The American Institute of Architects hosts Retrospect at North Park mall for 12 days. Even though there is no competition, it is mostly about which architecture firm can out do the others and look the best in front of the general public.

I was fortunate enough to work on the HKS Retrospect team for the last two years doing the graphic design and helping with constructing the exhibits. However, since this blog is about my free time design experiments and not about the design I do at HKS, I will not be posting either Retrospect exhibits.

What I have posted is one of my poster entries for the 2009 Retrospect poster competition hosted by the AIA. I chose to post this because I did this poster during my free time and it is done in a different style than what I do for HKS.

The requirements for the poster are “a graphic, which shall be no larger than 24”x36”, should express an essence (however abstract or literal) of the built environment of twenty-first century Dallas.” With that being said there are a lot of unwritten rules like you can not show one building as a representation of Dallas, but you can show the Dallas skyline. Retrospect is suppose to be a look back at the architecture of 2008 as a whole, not just the architecture of one firm.

The concept I chose to go with was the idea of a person looking into this eye machine and seeing the past flash before their eyes in a quick moment. The poster captures the moment of the fast paced flash of the past in vibrant colors, while the rest of the image is in black and white creating the colors to pop and create interesting effect with your eyes. Even though there is no architecture in my poster, I think the idea captures the spirit of the public looking going to Retrospect to see what the architecture firms have done in 2008.

Add comment | February 28th, 2009

Worm Farm – Collapse (2004)

In 2003, I was in a Barnes & Noble with Jennifer & Steve in Austin killing some time until the God Speed You Black Emperor! show, when I came across this book on experimental graphic design. One of the first spreads I saw in the book was unlike any thing that I had seen a graphic designer do before. It so beautiful and amazing that I made it a point to see and write down who had created it. Mark Todd and David Shields were credited with the design, which was crazy considering they were two professors at the design program that I had just enrolled in.

When I finally met them I told them that I would love to see how their work would translate as an interactive piece. At the time, they were making these books of their work, which is what the book of experimental graphic design had pulled from.

Over the next year, I befriended both of them and started working for Mark in the Print Shop at school. Again I brought up the idea to Mark that I thought it would be cool to see their work as an interactive piece with sound and video. Mark told me that he had been thinking about shooting a video, but did not know too much about digital video and how to edit it. I suggested that I knew how to shoot and edit and said that I would love to help in any way I could.

I briefly showed him how to use one of the DV cameras at school and the next time I saw him he told me he had shot a lot of video with his wife in this seedy hotel in Blanco. He said he had also shot some footage of this guy named Woody out at this bar called the Hilltop. He asked me if I was still interested in working with him and asked if I wanted to go have a beer with him at the Hilltop while he recorded this guy Woody reading some of his poetry. I agreed and I had the pleasure of spending a fantastic afternoon with Mark and Woody at the Hilltop drinking cheap beer and listening to Woody tell his stories.

Later that week, Mark and I sat down and edited the footage that he shot. He also had a bunch of photographs that he had taken of his wife and of Woody. We also created some video animations with some of his photographs and textures that he had scanned. The end result is the video above.

I was going through some old files last night and came across this video and thought that it should live online. I was really happy with the way it turned out and it was very inspiring for me to have had the opportunity to work with a artist like Mark. We talked about making another one, but the next summer I went to NYC and then he went on a sabbatical. We had a really good idea and found the perfect character. I think I am going to shoot him an email after I post this.

Last year, I had the opportunity to work with him on his website, I programmed it and did a little bit of audio work and animations for it. My contribution was nothing fancy, but then again I claim to be a designer, not a programmer.

Mark’s work can be seen and bought here.

Collapse credits:
Directed by Mark Todd
Filmed & Photographed by Mark & Krystal Todd
Edited by Beau Eaton & Mark Todd
Music by Richmond Fontaine

Add comment | February 22nd, 2009

Impression – Reign of Raven (2003)

I scanned this painting in about 6 months ago with the intent of posting it, but somewhere along the line it got pushed to the back burner. This piece portrays the moment in which the legacy of Raven comes to an end and all those he conquered are finally released in spirit form from his being.

Add comment | February 14th, 2009

DeadStones – Informant (2007)

In 2007, I had settled into my new job and decided that I wanted to spend a portion of my free time working on some experimental art and design for myself and not have to worry about showing it to clients.

I created this experiment that involved me sending original artwork and all kinds of crazy messages through mail and email to my friends. Each person was referred to as a number, drawn by me and asked to participate in this project that I named the DeadStones.

Of course everybody thought that I was a lunatic, since I left a lot of things open to the imagination by not dotting all my i’s and crossing all my t’s. The project lasted about 4 months and then I realized that I wanted to put more time towards my free time art & design experiments and less time maintaining the DeadStones story line.

So I created one more story that allowed for the DeadStones project to end. I sent everybody an email suggesting that one of the people involved in the project hacked into the project’s system and had information on me that he was using to blackmail me with. See the email below.

one of my people has defected and escaped with some crucial documents. he has hacked into the system, using my identity, to obtain these documents. i believe that his intent is to share what he stole with you.

437

Then I mailed everybody a postcard from the Informant. The image above was the front of the postcard and the copy below is what was written on the back.

i am the new voice
and i have much to say.

777

I moved to a new place on 07/20/07 and this allowed me to play off of the story line, because everybody received the postcard with my new address on it.

After ending the DeadStones project, I spent about ten months experimenting and thinking about what I wanted to do. I ended up coming up with the idea of the V01D.

Add comment | February 9th, 2009

iSpy – #2 (2009)

Someone did a search on how to sell their soul on Google images. Instead of a detailed set of instructions they found one of my pieces.

For more on the iSpy series see the December 16, 2008 post.

Add comment | February 5th, 2009

Wood Block – Bratsk (2009)

Woke up this morning with ice covering everything outside. After opening the blinds for the cats to obsess over the birds, I noticed a nice morning light source on a piece that I had recently finished.

This piece is comprised of a collection of found images that were collaged together and mounted to a wood block.

The name Bratsk comes from a town that is on a Russian map that is included in the collage.

You can see part of my Dr. Miles Nervine Galley Proof Press that I use for all of my letterpress work in the first photograph.

Add comment | January 28th, 2009

Postcard – Red House (2007)

On the way to the San Antonio Museum of Art, we passed through an area of abandoned warehouses and businesses. On the way back, I made sure we stopped to take some photographs. I also photographed a Gary Sweeney piece that was on a wall in the parking lot of the museum.

I chopped a few of the photographs up and reassembled them to make this postcard. This was one of the postcards from the 2007 postcard series.

Add comment | January 23rd, 2009

Dr. Nervine Experiment – Electro Jazz (2009)

This was one of the prints that was created for the Jazz series. The color squares were a mistake I made while working on a project at work. I put it aside in my happy mistakes pile and took it home to my studio for further studies.

For more information on the Jazz series see the January 6th 2009 post.

Add comment | January 17th, 2009

Poster – 092708 (2009)

The month of September 2008 was a roller coaster ride that still has me feeling its effects. At the beginning of the month, Jennifer and I took a much needed vacation to Seattle and Portland. The trip made me realize that I would love to live in Seattle at some point in my life.

While we were on that trip my grandfather was diagnosed, then misdiagnosed, then diagnosed again with terminal cancer. Shortly after returning from vacation I found out that I was going to have to have minor surgery to remove a cyst. It was not until they cut me open that they realized that the cyst was ruptured and there was some serious scar tissue that needed to be removed. I ended up with a silver dollar size hole that was roughly two inches deep and almost four months later still is not 100% healed.

The day after my surgery I got word that my grandfather had passed and that the funeral was going to be three days later. The funeral was an opportunity for me to see family and family friends that I had not seen in 15+ years. It forced a comparison of the person I am now to the person I was then.

Looking back on it now, I always wanted to do something to honor my grandfather and my memory of him. This piece is dedicated to him.

Add comment | January 11th, 2009

Dr. Nervine Experiment – Jazz (2009)

Time to get back into this madness. I took a 12 day holiday vacation from work and got to spend some much needed time with good friends and just do nothing, but hang out.

The first post of 2009 is something special and it looks like it could very well be an ongoing project. Two of my friends, Steve & Sarah, were in town and were interested in coming over and checking out the Dr. Miles Nervine galley proof press.

Instead of showing them the mechanics of the press, the three of us jumped right in and collaborated on a series of prints based off of the word jazz. We each took one of our prints to create a series of three prints that Steve is going to frame for his studio.

Steve scanned the prints for me to post on the blog, but I took the liberty of cropping them how I envisioned them at their final size. It will be interesting to see how Steve crops them.

Since I had such a good time, I think this could be an ongoing series, where I invite different people over to the studio and do some different experiments with the press. For now I will call it the Dr. Nervine Experiment, but that my change.

Add comment | January 6th, 2009

Myth of the Machines – Queen’s Pet (2005)

The Queen’s pet can always be found by her side. It functions as a companion, but more importantly as extra added security. The pet was designed and built out of spare parts from the Queen’s triplets. She took the weakest parts from each of her children to create the pet. The combination of all the weak parts had a reverse effect by allowing the pet to be more powerful than the children combined.

This illustration is from the Myth of the Machines series.

For more information see the July 19th post.

1 comment | December 30th, 2008

Infiltrate – Laundry Mat (2005)

Across the street from one of my favorite hang outs in San Marcos Texas, the Showdown, is an old abandoned laundry mat. Many a nights after leaving the Showdown drunk I would tell myself that I needed to photograph the building before it was torn down.

Once I shot it, I ended up using a few of the photos for Charles Bukowski spoken word CD design.

If you ever find yourself in San Marcos Texas, do yourself a favor and go have some extremely cheap drinks at the Showdown. After you are nice and liquored up, I highly recommend that you walk over to the Tap Room for one of the best burgers that you will ever have in your life.

1 comment | December 20th, 2008

iSpy – #1 (2008)

A few months back I downloaded a plugin for my blog that allows me to keep stats on visitors to the site. It does not tell me names, but it tells me the location of the computer, what pages the person visited, what site the person came from, etc.

It is actually kind of creepy and I am sure I am not even scratching the surface on what kind of information is being collected on us just by visiting different websites like Google, MySpace, Facebook, etc.

What I found so fascinating is that I can see how people discovered my site. When I started this blog I assumed that majority of my visitors would be from the people that I told about it. I figured I might get a few people accidently come across it, but I had no idea what a big part Google and other search engines would play in how many visitors came across the site.

Majority of this site’s traffic is from people who have done image searches on Google. People search Google using a word or a phrase and from the results a person chooses one of my images from a list of thumbnails, which takes them to my site. The best part about it is that I can see what word or phrase they searched for and I can see the other results that came up.

What this means is that people are making a conscious decision to see the work, because it visually interests them in some way, shape, or form.

The original intention of the V01D was for family and friends to keep up with the work that I was doing in my free time. But search engines have changed that and allowed for my work to be viewed by a potential audience in any part of the world, as long as they have a computer and an internet connection.

This will be an ongoing series that I will post screen shots of the results from time to time.

1 comment | December 16th, 2008

Cut-Up Audio – Therapy Machine (2008)

THERAPY MACHINE

Earlier this year, my friend Markus asked me to write something for him so that he could use it in one of his paintings. A few weeks after creating this cut-up for him I gave the words a voice with my computer. The words can be found in the June 1, 2008 post.

This is a tribute to William S. Burroughs & Brion Gysin.

Add comment | December 13th, 2008

818 equals 224 – Nine (2008)

The ninth and final spread from the book 818 equals 224.

818 Equals 224 can be purchased here.

Add comment | December 9th, 2008

818 equals 224 – Eight (2008)

The eighth spread from the book 818 equals 224. The junkyard pastor saving one soul at a time.

818 Equals 224 can be purchased here.

Add comment | December 3rd, 2008

818 equals 224 – Seven (2008)

The seventh spread from the book 818 equals 224. I received the proof for the book right before Thanksgiving. There are a few uncontrollable things that I wish could change, but overall I am pretty happy for the price.

I will be putting in an order tomorrow for a limited series of first edition books that I will be giving away for free. Once those are gone, the book will only be available through the book company’s website for a reasonable cost. A few people have expressed interest if anyone else would like one, now is the time to let me know.

818 Equals 224 can be purchased here.

Add comment | November 30th, 2008

Postcard – Honey (2007)

This was one of the initial cars I shot that inspired me to do the Genesis photography book. The entire back half of the car was charred from whatever had set it on fire. I always thought this would be a good image for the cover of the book Crash by JG Ballard. (Not the Crash with Ludacris, the one with James Spader)

The Honey sign was shot at the Green Guy Recycling Services in San Marcos. This was part of the 2007 postcard series.

Add comment | November 25th, 2008

818 equals 224 – Six (2008)

Spread six from the book 818 equals 224. I am going to wait to post the cover until I get my proof. I will then have to decide how many books to order, so if you want one give me a shout. My email can be found a few posts back or all the way at the bottom of this page.

818 Equals 224 can be purchased here.

Add comment | November 22nd, 2008

818 equals 224 – Five (2008)

The book was sent off to the printer this last Sunday. I should be getting my proof copy in the next couple weeks and then the finished thing in time for Christmas. I final named the book, it is called 818 equals 224. I will post the cover in a few days, but for now this is the fifth spread.

818 Equals 224 can be purchased here.

Add comment | November 18th, 2008

818 equals 224 – Four (2008)

This weekend I am going to work on a cover, title page, and most importantly a title for the book. I am hoping to send it off to press no later than Sunday.

818 Equals 224 can be purchased here.

Add comment | November 14th, 2008

818 equals 224 – Three (2008)

I reached my goal tonight of 10 spreads. I tried to do everything possible to make myself uncomfortable by doing these spreads as quick as I could. If it felt wrong I went with it.

818 Equals 224 can be purchased here.

1 comment | November 11th, 2008

Mixed Media – Visual Vitriol limited print (2008)

This was one of three limited edition pieces that I did for the Visual Vitriol Punk Rock Flyer Show opening in Oregon put on by my good friend David Ensminger. He gave them away to three unsuspecting people at the show’s opening night.

The piece was created as a compliment to the poster & postcard that was used promoted the show. (See Oct 22nd post) The title of the show was letterpressed and the the other elements were transfered and stamped.

Add comment | November 7th, 2008

System of Error – Politicks (2008)

I had this long entry written up about the two candidates and the current state of Washington, but instead I decided to let this piece speak for me.

1 comment | November 4th, 2008

818 equals 224 – Two (2008)

Spread two of the ongoing, no named book. If you are interested in acquiring one of these books when they are done (before Christmas), let me know.

Email me

818 Equals 224 can be purchased here.

Add comment | November 1st, 2008

818 equals 224 – One (2008)

I recently started working on an experimental design book that is a combination of photography that I have shot, mixed with found illustrations, scanned handwriting, and whatever else seems suitable.

I am hoping to have the book designed, printed, and bound before Christmas. The book is 5″ x 8″, black & white, soft cover perfect bound. Not sure how many I am going to do, but I shooting for this to be my Christmas present to friends and family.

This is going to be my first work in progress piece to be posted on the site. I’ll continue to post spreads until the book is done. It will be interesting to see what changes before it goes to press.

818 Equals 224 can be purchased here.

Add comment | October 27th, 2008

Mixed Media – Visual Vitriol (2008)

Visual Vitriol is a Punk Rock Poster Show that exhibits old school D.I.Y punk rock posters. Ten years ago, one of my mentors and close friends, David Ensminger (aka Mr. E ), decided that this part of pop culture was too important to die off.

So he decided to do something about it by digging into his ongoing personal collection, and adopted some other people’s collections, to create this traveling exhibit for those of us that can remember seeing these things covering light poles and everything else on the streets during our teenage years. Most importantly this show is for the youth of today, who were infants while all of this was going on, yet many emulate the art of gig poster-making, but are ignorant to its roots.

In my opinion many of the present poster artists, won’t name any names, have bastardized the true purpose and essence of what and why people were making posters. A large percentage of the contemporary posters are never seen on the street, where they belong, but instead places like Gig Posters or at Flatstock for sale. The posters of the past and present serve the same purpose, it is just the motives of the people making them today is where the difference lies. But that is just my two cents.

Anyways, Mr. E asked me to do a poster for his upcoming Visual Vitriol show in Oregon. I tried to combine a bunch of old school techniques with some new ones. There is a little bit of handwriting, cut-out letterforms from magazines/newspapers, lots of photocopying, image borrowing, and a touch of letterpressing.

I had a really good time with this and hopefully he will want me to do future posters. This reminds me of some of the projects that I did with Ivanete Blanco as Zero Gravity. Maybe it is time to get back into doing work like this again.

Add comment | October 22nd, 2008

Mistake – 11.18 (2005)

For almost two years, I made a mental note to go shoot the San Marcos Cemetery, as I came and went on a day to day basis from a parking lot located directly across the street . Finally, one day a friend and I were out shooting some photos and we decided it was time to pay a visit to the cemetery.

It was late afternoon, and somehow my camera accidentally got switched to the Night Shot mode. After taking the first shot, I realized that this was a happy mistake. It was just one of those times when the lighting worked really well with the Night Shot mode on.

Add comment | October 18th, 2008

Mixed Media – RocKandy (2008)

An experiment using photography of LED signs (Times Square), cement textures, and found handwritten measurements (parking garage).

Add comment | October 14th, 2008

Impression – Battle For Us All (2004)

A young child sits kneeled, bowing his head in prayer, praying over the recently deceased body of the one last hope left in the battle, as the entire world around him falls apart.

I am at the end of my ropes, change is on the horizon.

Add comment | October 11th, 2008

Myth of the Machines – the QUEEN (2005)

The Queen is considered by many to be a god, but her enemies say that she is no different than her people. She is best known for being the creator and the mother of her kind. Her head is made up of “giving hands” for giving her people the opportunity to live life, while others said that they would surely fail.

The Queen gave birth to triplets, which could not be born naturally, but only through a cesection. The three children born to the Queen were all boys that were raised to be soldiers and once they were old enough took charge of her army.

This illustration is from the Myth of the Machines series.

For more information see the July 19th post.

Add comment | October 7th, 2008

Postcard – esSex (2007-2008)

Been down and out for over a week due to surgery, but things should pick back up.

This is from the postcard series of 2007. The buildings were shot in Central Park in March 2005. The background texture is from a photograph that Mark Todd shot at the Hilltop Tavern before the owner’s wife burned it to the ground.

Add comment | October 4th, 2008

Mixed Media – “False Styles” (2008)

Number One in a series of letterpress/transfer experiments.

Add comment | September 22nd, 2008

Poster – Jane’s Addiction (1997)

In 1997, Jane’s Addiction decided to get back together for a tour called the Relapse Tour. Unfortunately, Eric Avery did not think it was a good idea and the group had Flea fill his role on bass. This poster was not created for a specific show, but as a promotion of the Relapse Tour as a whole.

I was fortunate enough to see two shows on that tour, once in Boston and once in Houston. Even though Eric was missing, Perry and the boys provided a couple eventful evenings of “kindness” that many, including myself, will never forget.

Add comment | September 19th, 2008

Mixed Media – proTEST (2008)

With the Democratic & Republican conventions all wrapped up, I thought this would be a good time to post this as a dedication to all the protestors that were tear gassed for protesting the candidates. Especially the ones that protested after having the pleasure of seeing Rage Against the Machine perform.

This piece was originally going to be a promotional handbill for the NIN album Year Zero. The image was transfered and Prisma colors were added. The N or sideways Z, was letterpressed.

Add comment | September 16th, 2008

Culture Jamming – 9/11 (2008)

Seven years later…damn it seems like so long ago. A lot has changed in seven years and a lot has not when it comes to 9/11. The government loves 9/11, because it used 9/11 as an excuse to take away more of our freedoms and as a final excuse to why we went into Iraq.

About ten months ago I keep coming across all these different articles, movies, and websites about how 9/11 was an inside job. At first I was a little bit weary of some of the claims, but some of them I knew I could not put past our government.

After doing a lot of research I came to the realization that someone’s ass should be in a sling for what happened that day. This was just one of many issues that inspired me to start the System of Error project.

The first image above was one of the words from the System of Error project. The image was created as a reflection of my feelings towards 9/11. In my eyes, there was/is an error in the terrorism that took place that day and has continued to exist seven years later.

I approached this image as if it were a poster being pasted on the street. I posted this image in my friends, bands, and artists comments section of their MySpace page. As you can see above, the postings interact differently on each person’s MySpace page, just as a poster would do when posted in different areas of a city.

By posting this in people’s comments, it allows the visitors of the page to be exposed to the posting as well as choose to interact with the posting by leaving their own comment or following the posting to a website.

The posting is linked to a website that I used to find out a lot of information. I am not saying everything on it is true, but I encourage everyone to check it out.

911Truth.org

Another good place to find out a lot of information is to go to YouTube and search for Failure to Defend the Skies, 9/11 Truth: Unusual Evacuations, or just type in 9/11 Inside Job and a whole mess of videos will come up that will keep you busy for hours.

In the end it has been seven years and most everyone you talk to can tell you their story about where they were during 9/11 and tell you about their friend who was in NYC when the planes hit.

“We will never forget” has always seemed to be the slogan for 9/11. After all my research, I realized that the 9/11 slogan takes on a different meaning than the original intention.

2,751 people lost their lives in NYC that day. I think it is time that we know who really is to blame for this tragedy. If Osama bin Laden is responsible, he is making the American government look like fools. Seven years later and he still has not been found. I guess he is hard to capture when the American government is funding him money and providing him protection.

Add comment | September 11th, 2008

Genesis – 1.4 & 2.4 (2006)

The fourth set of examples from the photography book Genesis: The First Book of the Machine. See June 16th post for more information.

Add comment | September 9th, 2008

Impression – Katrina (2006)

Three years ago, I had just returned from a summer internship in NY when Katrina made here presence known. We all watched her glide into New Orleans, holding our breath, wondering what her aftermath might be.

The days that followed were a sad time in American history as we watched what our President and other government organizations did not do to provide aid to the community of New Orleans.

I could go on and on about the situation, but instead I will suggest that you go out and rent/buy the Spike Lee documentary called When the Levees Broke. It is not an easy film to watch, but I highly recommend that everyone sees it at least once.

This painting is a look at Katrina from above as she hits one of our most beloved cities. She changed New Orleans forever and unfortunately New Orleans will never be the same.

I had the opportunity to visit New Orleans many times before Katrina and was deeply saddened to see what the effect Katrina had on the city when I returned last summer.

I know that New Orleans will never go back to what it was, but I am grateful that I got the opportunity to see the city before Katrina.

08/29/05 – Another day in history that our government failed us.

Add comment | August 29th, 2008

Postcard – Rock-a-Bye Motel (2007)

During college, when I would travel back to Houston, I always drove by this unusual abandoned motel with a great name. The Rock-a-Bye motel looked like a place that you would see in a David Lynch film. I always imagined that the people that worked there provided out of the ordinary services to help their customers get some rest.

Rolling an eyeball, up and down a baby’s spine would help the infant go to sleep. Of course what they did to adults was another story all together.

The type came from a photograph that I shot of the motel’s sign.

Add comment | August 27th, 2008

Poster – Download (1996)

In my opinion, Download has always been at least 5 years ahead of everyone else in the music industry. Even though the original lineup has not remained the same, they have continued to push the boundaries of electronic music.

This poster was created for the Eyes of Stanley Pain tour. It was the first time in my life I had seen anything like that and it took me a few years to fully be able to comprehend what I had witnessed.

4 comments | August 23rd, 2008

Impression – Wall is Red (1998)

Originally this began as a piece to test out some different types of textures for a much larger piece. After transitioning the different areas together, I felt that all the different textures complimented each other and there was no need for a larger piece.

Add comment | August 20th, 2008

Myth of the Machines – Time Traveling Suit (2005)

A time traveling suit used to protect the human body from all forms of disease associated with time traveling. Without the suit, the traveler is susceptible to dementia and/or the bends. This illustration is from the Myth of the Machines series.

For more information see the July 19th post.

Add comment | August 18th, 2008

Mixed Media – NIN Handbill #3 (2008)

Number 3 in a series of Mixed Media handbills, using a letterpress and transfer techniques to promote the current NIN tour.

Add comment | August 13th, 2008

Mixed Media – NIN Handbill #2 (2008)

Number 2 in a series of Mixed Media handbills, using a letterpress and transfer techniques to promote the current NIN tour.

Add comment | August 10th, 2008

Mixed Media – NIN Handbill #1 (2008)

Number 1 in a series of Mixed Media handbills, using a letterpress and transfer techniques to promote the current NIN tour.

Add comment | August 9th, 2008

Genesis – 1.3 & 2.3 (2006)

Another set of examples from the photography book Genesis: The First Book of the Machine. See June 16th post for more information.

Add comment | August 6th, 2008

Poster – Autechre (2005)

One of the few actual “masters” of the IDM genre. If you have never heard their music, do yourself a favor and go check out one of their videos on YouTube. Autechre’s Pir is a good video to start with.

If you dig what they are doing and want to expand your music library, go check out Warp Records.

The patterns were originally created by Ivanete Blanco and I slightly tweaked them for the poster.

Add comment | August 2nd, 2008

Impression – Noise Inside My Head (2007)

A glimpse of what goes on inside that little head of mine. I kind of have that multiple personality thing going on. No I don’t, yes I do….

2 comments | July 30th, 2008

Postcard – Windy 46 (2007)

Majority of these images were photographed on South Lamar in Dallas.The building that had the word Windy on it looked like an old gas station, but it had a sign on it that said Windy City Donuts. After talking with someone about it, I was told that the company was a fake. The old building had been made to look like a donut shop for the TV show Prison Break.

I have never watched the show, but would like to see how it looked on film. I was really disappointed, because it was a cool building that has since been leveled, but most importantly I wanted to know what Windy City Donuts tasted like.

*UPDATE – I was just informed that the building was not torn down, but now has become a BBQ joint called Off the Bone.

Add comment | July 26th, 2008

Sonogram – Face on Earth (2003)

In 2002, I received an email from my brother, containing a series of four dimensional sonograms of my unborn nephew. It reminded of the photograph that was taken by the Viking Orbiter 1 of the face on Mars.

Since I was born in 1976, and the sonogram of my nephew resembled the photograph that was taken in 1976, why not make my own version of the historic photograph. After we destroy ourselves and humans no longer exist, this is what aliens from other planets will see when they orbit around earth taking photographs.

A second picture of Cole, taken after he was born, was transposed on top of the sonogram to bring more human like qualities to it.

Add comment | July 22nd, 2008

Myth of the Machines – Man vs Machine (2005)

In the spring of 2005, I was taking a Digital Printmaking class, which turned out to be really cool, because we were taking digital prints from the computer and screen printing on top of them. The projects were really out of the box and completely different from what the other classes were offering.

One of the projects we were assigned was to read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. It is a fictional book about an emperor, Kublai Khan, who rules an empire that is too large for him to explore and he is getting too old to travel it. He sends out ambassadors to go explore his empire and come back and tell him what they experienced.

The book follows the travels and the stories of a young ambassador named Marco Polo. Each chapter is a new city that Marco Polo supposedly has visited. Our assignment was to pick a chapter/city and create a piece to represent it.

I had a terrible time trying to decide on a city, but one thing I thought was interesting was in one of the chapters, Marco would visit a modern city and the next chapter he would visit an ancient city. To me, the only way this seemed possible is if he was time traveling. So I ran with that idea and created my own version of the story.

Around the same time I was listening to the Deftones White Pony album pretty much every day. Songs like Rx Queen and Digital Bath really help create a mood for the story and the project.

After countless hours of searching for imagery in the school’s library, I finally came across two books that produced all the imagery for the project. One book was on farm equipment and the other book was a medical guide for geriatrics patients. I ended up combining the two to create my characters.

I altered Calvino’s story to develop my characters. My story was about a man who had been placed in a mental hospital by his family, because he believed that he was Marco Polo. He believed that he was time traveling to all these cities. Each time he would return from a different city, he would note it in his journal, describing each character in full and sketching illustrations. I called my story Myth of the Machines.

I ended up developing 7 characters and planned on making this character’s journal, but time was not on my side. I spent so much time developing my characters and their stories that I ended up talking my professor into letting me screen print t-shirts of all the characters so that I could have something to show for the final critic.

The first image I am showing is an illustration of the character that I created with his time machine and the suit he used for time travel.

2 comments | July 19th, 2008

Impression – The Hell You Bring (2007)

In 2007, I painted about 23 5″x7″ paintings for everyone that was a part of the Dead Stones project. The paintings were on a metal adhered to some other material that we had left over from one of our projects at work.

This one is pretty interesting, there are a few openings in the ground that are projecting white light on people who are standing in circles looking down into the openings.

Add comment | July 16th, 2008

Genesis – 1.2 & 2.2 (2006)

Another set of examples from the photography book Genesis: The First Book of the Machine. See June 16th post for more information.

Add comment | July 12th, 2008

Mixed Media – NP3 (2008)

Back in 2001, I started listening to a lot of Jazz music thanks to the help of a man named David Price. David and I worked together at Wherehouse Music and he turned me onto a lot of the Jazz greats. I was really fascinated by Jazz musicians and how majority of their work was based on improv. Not only do you have to know your instrument inside out, but you have to understand all the inner workings of music.

I was diving deep into all the different types of Jazz and the depths of the genre of music. Being a huge Industrial music fan, I longed for a hybrid of Industrial/Electronic music mixed with Jazz.

One day David brought in copy of a CD that his friend gave him. Just before he played it he said that I might want to take a listen to it. Within the first few minutes of the song I realized this is what I had been searching for.

This was my introduction to the Norwegian trumpet player Nils Petter Molvaer.

In my mind he is doing what Miles Davis did on Bitches Brew. Miles mixed Rock/Funk with Jazz. Nils is mixing Electronic/Ambient with Jazz. Basically pushing the boundaries of music. Sure a lot of people are doing it now, but not like he is.

These two pieces are a nod to Molvaer’s album called NP3. I think it is the closest to Industrial Jazz as I will get.

Both pieces incorporate letterpress typography and image transfer. The color one also uses Prisma.

Add comment | July 7th, 2008

Street Art – Freedumb (2008)

Happy 4th of July. Please don’t forget to celebrate your freedumb. From the System of Error project. Black & White print wheat pasted to a borrowed campaign sign.

Add comment | July 4th, 2008

Postcard – David(s) vs Goliath(s) (2004 & 2008)

This is a photomontage of found Civil War photography depicting a battle between small men with cannons and unarmed giants. Guess who won.

The field of dead giants is from a photograph of Gettysburg, July 1868. Negative by T.H. O’Sullivan. Postive by A. Gardner. The photo had a title on it, Incidents of the War: A Harvest of Death.

Unfortunately, I have no information on the guys with the cannon.

The photo frames where taken off four other Civil War photographs.

This piece was originally started in 2004, but it got pushed aside and was finally finished in 2008.

1 comment | July 1st, 2008

Impression – Let Me Free (2004)

This is one of the first high resolution scans of my paintings that I experimented with. There are a lot of faces in this one.

Add comment | June 28th, 2008

Mixed Media – $OUL (2008)

Inspired by the Puscifer song Rev 22:20. “I’ll sell my soul, to be back in your bosom” Transfered & Letterpressed with a touch of Prisma.

Add comment | June 24th, 2008

Letterpress – Campain (2008)

A test word for the System of Error project. Printed with a Dr. Miles Nervine Galley Proof Press (1870)

1 comment | June 20th, 2008

Poster – NIN (2005)

This was a poster that I designed for the Spring 2005 With Teeth Tour. It was screen printed with the assistance of Jeff Dell & Ivanete Blanco.

1 comment | June 18th, 2008

Genesis – 1.1 & 2.1 (2006)

During my Art Direction class, I visited a few junkyards in Austin shooting photographs of wrecked cars for a billboard campaign for the Texas Lung Association. After my visit, I decided that one of my final projects in school would be a photography book on this one particular junkyard.

The book came to be known as Genesis: The First Book of the Machine. It was a two part book that juxtaposed junkyard photography with line art from a Pento’s electrical system. The first part of the book showed photographs of car engines, while the second part of the book showed broken windshields.

1 comment | June 16th, 2008

Mixed Media – “Mick” (2008)

This is a limited edition, one of a kind print that I created for my dad for Father’s Day. Without his early introduction to rock & roll, a lot of things about my life would be completely different. Thank you dad.

Created with a letterpress, transfer techniques, and Prisma colors.

Add comment | June 13th, 2008

Postcard – Gastropod (2007)

A quick study in collaging low end stock photography. Was intended to be the February edition of the postcard series.

To learn more about the postcard series see the May 31st, 2008 post entitled Postcard – “Lewis”

Add comment | June 11th, 2008

Cut-Ups – Games We Play (2008)

the seams of paradise
surface through
the desert of revolution
sinking all attempts
at losing the connection

the terror of tomorrow
endangers the numbers
preserving the devices
that haunts the dawn’s mist

Add comment | June 10th, 2008

Interactive – Matmos (2004)

If you made it through the video and are reading this, I applaud you. This was a group project that I worked on in school. Somehow I convinced 3 other people that we should do an interactive piece for a limited edition cd for a band called Matmos.

The song I chose for the video was called Lipostudio. The two members of Matmos sampled actual liposuctions and turned them into a song. The concept of the video came from the name of the album, A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure. Showing a facelift in reverse was my soft protest to all the plastic surgery that goes on.

For the interface, we chopped up audio samples of the song and used them for rollovers for the different buttons. This allowed the user to get creative and make their own song by rolling over the buttons in whatever sequence they desired.

Group Members
Beau Eaton – Creative Director, Interactive Development, Video & Audio Editor
Holly Aubin – Assistant Editor, Interface Design, Package Design
Marc San Marco – Assistant Editor, Interface Design
Garrett Pittman – Interface Design

***UPDATE*** I guess the video offended someone and they complained to YouTube about it. When I logged into my account and looked at my videos, it was no longer there. That means that someone from YouTube deleted it. No one contacted me about it, one day it was there, the next it was gone.

*****NEW UPDATE***** I finally found out why the video is no longer there. It seems that some people complained about the video, so YouTube took it down and tagged it with Rejected (content inappropriate). Maybe I should complain to YouTube about all the fake boobs and tucked faces that I have seen on their site. I’ll ask them to remove all the video of anyone who has had plastic surgery, because it is inappropriate content. Yeah right.

For now, here are some screen shots. I will have to repost it.

1 comment | June 6th, 2008

Impression – Be Aware…the Water (2004)

This piece has always been a little bit creepy to me. When I look at it I see a dead girl partially submerged in water, most likely a stream. There is a hand coming up out of the water from beneath her trying to grab ahold of her and pull her out of the frame of the painting.

The only problem is that the girl is only a memory, because when the hand comes out of the water it is left with a puddle of liquid in its palm. A piece of the girl resides in the reflection of the puddle.

In 2006, the Deftones put out a song called Beware. The first time I heard the lyrics it gave me the chills, because the lyrics seemed to relate to the story of this piece. In the chorus Chino sings Beware the Water, but it has always sounded like Be Aware, the Water.

Beware Lyrics

Add comment | June 4th, 2008

Letterpress – $5 Red, KO!, Love 445 (2008)

Printed with a Dr. Miles Nervine Galley Proof Press (1870)

Add comment | June 2nd, 2008

Cut-Up – Therapy Machine (2008)

the therapy machine
has detected
a social virus

please do not be alarmed

all sleepwalkers
will be exterminated
at the sound of the bell

the xray sensors
will clean with silence
and leave a faint
trace of venom

your commitment
will provide an unbuilt trust
between the choking highway
and the ashy centipedes

thank you for your memories
and the shadows that you cast

- for Markus

Add comment | June 1st, 2008

Postcard – “Lewis” (2006)

Towards the end of 2006, I decided that for each month of 2007 I was going to design, print, and mail out limited edition postcards to my close friends.

My inspiration came from the “dead art” of writing someone a letter. Friendships and relationships are now conducted through interfaces such as MySpace and Facebook.

The fascination with artificial interfacing led me down a much different path. This path became know as the DeadStones project.

As far as the postcards go, I did end up designing 11 postcards (front sides), but never put a single one in the mail. I guess I was too busy posting bulletins on MySpace.

Add comment | May 31st, 2008

Impression – And So They Came (2004)

About eight years ago, a roommate of mine suggested that I scan one of my paintings and play with it in Photoshop. The only prior experience I had with Photoshop was when I was 18 and I tried to scan my drivers license and change my birth date in Photoshop.

I have never really taken the time to play with my paintings in Photoshop, but I have scanned a lot of them. Over the years, I found that by scanning small areas at high resolutions produces very interesting results. It allows the viewer to see all the faces and people that get trapped in the wet paint.

Add comment | May 31st, 2008

The Halo Effect – Circle Roam Pod (2001)

About seven years ago I was taking a Digital Video class and one of our projects was to create a music video. I was really excited about the project, because I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to add visuals to my music.

Around that time, the music I was recording had shifted from Industrial songs to Ambient/Noise sessions. I spent a few weeks of my time between the hours of 2-4 am shooting everything I could find in my apartment, while my roommates were sound asleep.

I had an old little camera that had a busted auto focus, which ended up creating some beautiful shots. It is just a reminder that you don’t need fancy equipment to get the job done. Most of the time the damaged stuff has the most beauty in it.

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. My professor told me that he thought my video would fit perfect in a David Lynch film, which is probably the best compliment anyone could have ever given me.

In 2003, the video was featured in the Austin Museum of Art Digital Showcase 22. Back then the video was named the Kreation Ov, but later became known as the Circle Roam Pod.

AMODA Digital Showcase description

Add comment | May 31st, 2008

Welcome to the V01D

Add comment | May 31st, 2008