Fire

As some of you may remember, the Harold Golen Gallery burned up in a fire this past December. Along with hundreds of works of art were twenty-one of my paintings. Ten of which were stored in the room the fire started and were consequently reduced to ash. Eleven new paintings from my Neo Psychedelic series were hanging in the main room on the far wall and were badly smoke damaged. A single piece, Black Water Harvest, was displayed in one of the smaller rooms. At first we were very optimistic about the possible restoration of the eleven psychedelic paintings, but sadly, none could be saved. Only Black Water Harvest was able to be cleaned. Apparently, it flung itself on the floor face down and only its back was scorched. The cause of the fire is believed to be the City of Miami's electric meter, but the city maintains that it was the electrical wiring leading from it. Harold Golen has since found a temporary gallery space in Miami while his gallery is being redesigned and rebuilt. I can tell by his excitement that the new place will rival the original and he has big plans for this year and next. Fortunately, the gallery was insured by Frenkel Insurance/Fireman's Fund and, while the artists have yet to receive compensation, we been assured that the artists will all be paid for lost work. 

I will miss what I lost, especially since six of the new paintings were never photographed -- that was scheduled to be just a few days after the fire. So, if you saw the show, consider yourself lucky because I thought it was one of the finest group exhibitions of Psychedelic art ever assembled. However, I am hard at work on a new series of nautical paintings to be shown at the The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco this coming December. The new work will combine elements of the psychedelic series with my nautical paintings. I'm very happy with what I have so far and can't wait to show it to you.

Frankenstein

Last year,  I was asked to produce a comic book version of Frankenstein for Graphic Classics.  The 47-page adaptation of Shelley's masterpiece is now available as the feature story in the latest issue of Fantasy Classics.  I am also responsible for the cover art. You can order it from Amazon or from your local purveyor of funny-books.  I had a lot of fun doing it and it's nice to finally see the book in print. 

In August, Bear and Bird Gallery  in Lauderhill, Florida, will be showing some of the original paintings created for the Frankenstein book. Amanda Magnetta-Ottati has included my work in many of her shows. It's a great gallery.  If you were ever interested in picking up a piece of mine, but found it wasn't in your budget, this might be the opportunity you have been waiting for. Each panel in the book was done as a separate little painting on canvas board, so there are around 200 little, loosely redered, sepia and white paintings to check out.

Weird Game

Over the past few years, I've done illustrations for both Weird N.J magazine and the series of Weird U.S. books available from Barnes and Noble.  While the magazine focuses on the strange goings-on in the the very weird state of New Jersey, the books cover the rest of the country.  It's all worth a read and I'm proud to have been a part of them.  Weird U.S. has done an amazing job producing a board game based on the book series.  My work is used extensively on the box and cards as well as two of the little game figures.  I've always wanted to be part of a board game and I  couldn't be happier.  Thanks to Mark and Mark at Weird N.J.!

*The game sold out almost immediately.