Trout Salad: July 2006

An Interesting Week

I had to take a few days off from the Art Farm to drive up to the ever-beautiful north-Oregon coast to settle some of my dad's affairs-and meet with his good friends Peggy, Neil, and Mary Lou (thanks again for everything)-while Lisa still recovers from her neck surgery-and then a big dinner in Pleasanton with aunts and uncles and my mom and brothers. When I finally got back here-lots of packages containing lots of art!

the Game Board tonight-with some images just taped in place.

Lisa and Bell workin' it. (Coming soon: some great close-ups from some of the amazing artists who have recently contributed...also-for more pictures of the progress of the piece, see Lisa's blog, "Studio View"

the "Boy" panel-so far. (Soon, the "Girl" panel...)

Hot Nights at the Art Farm

Wow, it's 2:00 in the morning and it's still warm out. Makes it easy to work late into the evening...
Been getting some great responces from the Jack Rabbit post (thanks everyone-keep 'em coming!) but biggest props go out to Mike Terry-by far the week's greatest contributor. Mike-you probably need help-but before you get it-feel free to make 25 more drawings for the project. Also huge thanks to Gary Amaro and Thomas Yeats (both at the Comic-Con this weekend) for the drawings and design contributions. Here's a few fotos from earlier tonite-

Lisa tightens the painting

and I paint in Thomas's snake head

the game board wall so far

finally one of the other walls begins to take shape

Art Farm Drawing party!

Last weekend was a great one here at the Art Farm-almost 20 friends and artists came on over to add their "hopes & fears" to "This Game Of Life". Thanks everyone for some really great art and fun times! I'm thinking we can maybe have two more such events-one on Sunday Aug 6th and then the last one on Sat Aug 12-both starting at 4:00. More info later...

Paul and Tara add their magic...

And Thomas Yeats adds his...including this portrait of "Swamp Thing"...

after the party

a bit more...

Lisa starts to block in the center wheel-and a few more drawings show up...

Back to The Drawing Board...

The thing is, my dad was really excited about this project, and so it's time to get back to it. Here's some progress shots...

Here's a few detail shots with some great vintage Chris Hataway drawings and two from the amazing tattoo artist Kevin Harden of Aurora, Illinois. (his website is www.ronintattoo.com -- Chris's is www.hataway.net)

In Memorium

(I'm just going to lift this straight from Lisa's blog. I think she did a pretty good job of it. -T)

Robert Gavin Speirs
1931-2006

Tony got the message yesterday that his father had died in Tillamook, Oregon. He had been quite ill for a couple of years, and Tony had been able to visit him a couple times a year, most recently about a month ago. I never got to know him well, but from all accounts he lived a very colorful, full life with many chapters and many stories to tell. And he brought us Tony!

The early years: with Tony, in Washington state

in Costa Rica (center), circa 1990 (yeh, I'm as hammered as I look)

His last boat, the Scoresby, which was also his nickname in Tillamook (and up and down the Oregon coast)

A few drawings appear...

all of these were drawn separately on copier paper, or in the case of Erik's fine piece, on light-weight drawing paper. As always, click to enlarge.

Art Farm project

Ok-finally getting seriously to work on the big project for this year's Burning Man. (For project details and info on how YOU can join in the fun-check out the Art Farm Motel blog link)

here"s the plan for the central set of panels of the room sized project-called "This Game Of Life". It's a giant (8'x15') game board. After priming the panels and screwing them in place to the studio wall-I begin to transfer the design-using alittle improvisation..