Just a quick change to the 'Canvas Prints' section in the store....I decided to get rid of the unstretched canvas prints and just offer them stretched and ready to hang.  After seeing the prints stretched for the first time, I just have to offer that kind of quality.  It's amazing.  Take my word for it. Go order. Cheers!

I finally got a chance to filter through over 5000 photos of events that I've live painted at, and have uploaded them to the 'Live Art Photos' section.  Head on over and check out some of the history...more to come!!

So I sent out info on the brand new canvas prints that I am offering, and today I stopped by the printer (Spirit Graphics) to pick up the first batch of them...AND THEY F'KING ROCK!!!   So here's the first pick of 'Matchstick Girls' and 'The Gunner's Dream' as a 24" x 36" stretched canvas print.  Head on over to the store and pick yours up now--over 40 designs to choose from!

New 3 canvas series...available for sale in the STORE (will only sell as a set) for $350!  More new art to come!!

So I have been laboring for about 8 hours today to update the web store, and am please to announce the release of 9 BRAND NEW PRINTS, as well as the launch of over 42 prints available on high quality canvas.  These incredible prints are available in various sizes and come either stretched and ready to hang, or just printed on canvas so you can frame them as you see fit.  All prints come SIGNED. I've also gone through and re-released all my available poster prints in larger sizes, so head on over to the store and check out what is new!  And best of all....FREE SHIPPING!!! (except originals paintings)

Just uploaded a nice batch of new art...images below for your viewing enjoyment.  Prints are available in the store - new canvas stretched prints of all your favorite art are on the way!  Enjoy... 

So in my many years of selling my art, and dealing with everything from total drunks to serious buyers, I've never really sat and written about my experiences with the art buying public. I am now at a point in my career where my art is selling for a good amount of money per piece, but not so much that I'm sitting on a really lumpy mattress. When a deal falls through it has quite an effect on my life. The lost promise of food on the table and bills to be paid carries the weight of another shell being loaded into the shotgun that I would love to use on the person who doesn't follow through with the buy. This week I had a deal fall through at the wrong time, just after my transmission blew up, and has sent me scrambling to put back together the financial puzzle pieces that make up my life, although if you have ever lived a day in the life of an artist, that is commonplace. My feelings towards people who don't follow through with the purchase are as varied as the lame excuses that are heaped upon me year after year in this business. Some people have legitimate reasons, most just lie. They are like AIDS infected aspiring porn stars with fake test results. Now most people feel art is incredibly overpriced, confusing smears of paint on a giant canvas with no obvious or legitimate reason for hanging on the wall of a gallery--the sales rep staring at you in delight as you have taken interest in a piece that he could not tell you what the fuck its back story is. He just knows that some drunken French guy that died a hundred years ago, painted it during a herpes outbreak on a piece of carpet from a whore house. Others feel that true art is buying a homeless man's cardboard stick figure drawing, made from the butts of cigarettes in order to justify that all the art that they collect is 'legit' because it's from the streets. After spraying down the art with Lysol to make sure that they don't contract an ancestor from the dead French guy's affliction, they hang it on the wall, and make use of its social class distance as conversation at a dinner party, wowing their upper class friends with tales of what it's like to walk amongst the downtrodden for the few short moments, outside of the shopping mall, where the homeless man sleeps. So what about the rest of us that fall into the middle category? Those artists that function in society without total life failure and homelessness, or being dead to help our art carry value. Those artists who work at Olive Garden or Starbucks, serving people in order to support the basics in life so they have a place to sleep, and a place to work on their artwork in those few precious hours between shifts. Many of the artists I work with actually take this shit seriously, and expect the buying public to do the same. Weather we agree with what they are creating, or can definitively call it 'art' is really no concern when you consider that these artists are cutting out a big slice of themselves, and serving it up to you raw. For those of us, such as myself, that make a complete living on our art, supporting our families, allowing our wives not to work, and trying to build a legitimate business out of our craft for example, the stakes are incredibly high. The rewards are even higher, which obviously makes it worth fighting for. As far as my clients go it's been a struggle to even get a thumb on the pulse of what makes people buy, and what makes them walk away other than price. I've had plenty of people actually put a deposit down on a painting and then never answer my phone calls or emails to complete the deal. They actually GIVE their money away for no reason. Others try to haggle me down to 75% off the price of the painting, thinking that it's a 'privilege' that they are buying it in the first place, and I should open my eyes anime wide and let the tears of joy flow. Fuck you. And of course there's the cell phone wielding cheap fucks that walk up and try to take a picture of my art without asking. The lack of courtesy and class that fills the urban swamp I paint in is immense, and the artists are just as much to blame. I think that one of the reasons art and artists are seen as a novelty, is because of their lack of enthusiasm and their lack of ability to price their art at a level worthy of what they are creating. I did a show recently where a guy was selling his originals for $10 - $20 each. It was decent enough stuff, but for some reason, making just enough money to maybe get through the day was ok with him. Now you can imagine the buying public getting excited about those prices, and then walking over to my art and seeing prices that were at $800 or more. The paintings were 10 times in size and detail, and as well, I have been doing this for a long time and have built up a fan base and reputation, yet these people were cringing at the prices, with a look on their face as if someone had just burned off their genitals. Hopefully it was because I was putting their current salaries into perspective, and sparking a job hunting revolution, but probably not. Most artists are pushovers, and I mean that in the most insulting way. You are. You who sits there and does the bare minimum and thinks that you have the right to sell your art. You who rehashes the same shit over and over and over because it was the only thing that you could come up with in that foggy brain of yours. Yeah, you who is too scared to raise your prices because you are too insecure that it might not sell, or that it's not worth it. And you who sits on Facebook and reposts other people's artwork, spiritual sayings, and 'pictures with a cause' in between your offerings, thinking it makes you look more educated about, and more apart of, the 'scene'. This does no justice in helping the buying public understand that, while art is a necessity in life, art buying is a luxury in a sense that it's not food, clothing or shelter. Price your art high, and make them realize that the money they spend on flat screen tvs, sports cars, getting chunks of metal shoved through their faces, and shitty tattoos is a waste. Art is an investment. Why? Because, unlike that depreciating liability you drive to work everyday, it goes up in value. And it does so in style. That is the great thing about art, if the artist dies it goes up, if he commits genocide it goes up, if he keeps working hard and people keep buying his art it goes up. It all depends on the artist to keep working hard to make sure the investment keeps going up in value. But for a buying public that has lost everything in the recession when their 401K's have been wiped clean, their house values have fallen lower than what they owe, and their faith in the banking system is gone, they are looking for alternative places to put their money. Make sure they try your pockets out. This industry is a total crapshoot to begin with, as factors such as hundreds of thousands of lost art school students desperately selling their art for rock bottom prices to pay off student loans, and the flood of crap that is the internet make it tough to stand out. I implore you though, to take a stand and make sure you are charging a price that is fair to YOU for your art. I beg you to make sure you charge a deposit when someone wants you to hold a piece of artwork for them, and set a date by which they have to pay for it or they lose it. I grab you by the neck and shake you until you are blue and peeing your pants, if that makes you take half up front and half upon completion for custom work. Treat yourself with respect and respect for your art will follow. So in writing this rant I had hoped to feel better about the individual who committed to buying a piece of art and then flaked, but I don't. In fact this is the beginning of something great. Something that will no doubt make me a few enemies, but at minimum I'll continue to get what the fuck I deserve for my art, and will be weeding out those people who deserve to have generic mall posters and landscape paintings on their walls, instead of something savage and intelligent. A more educated client will hopefully emerge from this social experiment that is also my livelihood. A client that realizes that when a commitment is made to purchase art, they are not only decorating their walls, but helping to push forward and nurture a talent. They are paying the artist's rent. They are feeding the artist. They are probably buying most artists drugs. Point being, realize the importance of what you are doing when you spend your cash on art, instead of pissing it away on something that just makes a useless groove in your life's record.