move your money November 5th

This November 5th marks a nationwide movement to get people to withdraw their money from a "Too Big To Fail" banking institution and deposit that money into a community bank or credit union . The official website is moveyourmoneyproject.org. Sometimes protest can seem a little vague, or maybe it's something you can't or won't do for whatever reason, but moving your money from a TBTF bank to a local bank or credit union that operates their business fairly, legally, and morally and doesn't engage in, for instance, mortgage securities fraud, then that would be an action that would make a real and tangible statement about what you think of corruption on Wall Street.

By the way, in case you're interested, I didn't choose to deposit my money into a credit union, instead I chose a local bank that serves and makes loans to the immediate community, wasn't involved in mortgage securities fraud, or is over leveraged. I believe it to be a right-sized small bank that operates safely and in the interest of their customers.

painting a little protest

I was at Occupy LA yesterday painting in the shadow of the Los Angeles Times building a shot of City Hall with the tents and protesters on the corner of Spring and 1st St. The protest is still in full effect and, thankfully, still peaceful! oil on canvas, 30 by 10

the board

A couple months ago an artist gave me a big canvas that had a stalled underpainting by them on it. It dried out in my garage for a while and today I started something new on it. I scraped it, sanded it, and threw paint all over it! It felt really good! It's called The Board, work in progress. oil on canvas, 48 by 60

"F*ck the Eighties!" video

This is a great video just finished by amazing filmmaker Eric Minh Swenson, the director of documentaries for "Tel-Art-Phone" and "Avant-LA". This project is part of his "Take 1: Art Series", a series of videos about Los Angeles artists and our art scene. I am honored to be a part of it! Here's a collage of recent photos from Occupy Wall Street: Los Angeles edition

The Alex Schaefer Hour

UPDATE: The Dan Rather Report episode 35 "the Un-Banked" came out, it's available to watch on i-tunes CLICK HERE: the UnBanked episode 35 my segment is the last 8 minutes of the show, it turned out great!
It was a full media blowout day today downtown. I met with Dan Rather Reports downtown at city hall in the morning, then I did the Alex Schaefer Hour at the Hive where it was a fun still life/art lesson, then I was back downtown filming a segment related to the art show on Friday. Here's a shot of the Dan Rather location crew and another from the art lesson on my show. Nice still life for a first try!! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW!

WILD SPECULATION!

This Friday at Sangria Fine Arts it's the opening reception for my show "Wild Speculation". It's a great selection of paintings and curator Charity Burnett is doing amazing promotion and documentation. I can't wait!! There are two Fuck the 80's paintings: canoeing and flying a kite, an imaginary riot scene, and Chase Freedom, Cabernet Beer Bongs anti-ad.
The reception is Friday Oct 21st from 8pm to 11
the location is 6545 Forbes Avenue, Lake Balboa, (Encino adjacent) CA 91406
The show runs from October 21 – November 19, 2011
open Saturdays, November 5, 12, 19 from 11-4pm or by appointment
Phone: 818.398.2992, Website: SangriaFineArts.Wordpress.com

bank of america

I can't believe it, but am I the first person on the whole internets to photoshop this logo? ahahahahah! I heard you can't be a customer and a protester at the same time. bank of evil

occupy LA, update #6, oct 16

Here's a short video and a shot of the painting in progress that I worked on today at Occupy LA! It is an amazing and ongoing movement sparking open dialogue of the ills in our nation and our world. There's some poor audio in some of the video but it's a grass roots effort so forgive me! Down with crony-capitalism. Down with corporatism. Down with "too big to fail". Down with rigged-market capitalism. Down with bailouts and corporate welfare. Force the Federal Reserve System under the authority of congress and the treasury and for the first time audit them. End the Federal Reserve cartel on what is "legal tender". End wars, not social programs and make the health care "industry" a not-for-profit system! I really feel these are all things that need to come to fruition if there is to be justice and empathy in the world.

the alex schaefer hour!

Today it was a blended version of Let's Paint TV and the Alex Schaefer Hour all broadcasting LIVE from the Let's Paint TV studios in a secret location in Los Angeles!! Trevor Young was the shared guest for both shows. Below is the video of Let's Paint TV from 11am to noon and then this is the link to the Alex Schaefer Hour from 1pm to 2pm warning there is no audio on this link from 12:00 to 24:40... sorry, technical difficulties! 12 minutes of cheesy computer music so ...fast forward...

Video chat by Stickam.com

back painting at the Fed

I spent Columbus Day lashing more paint on my work in progress protest painting of the LA Federal Reserve building in flames. I really hope that Occupy LA gets together and makes a march down Spring to rally around this place. To me this institution is the great great grandaddy of all bad banks in America and has evolved over the last 40 years into a global cancer. They have built an empire out of paper, exotic financial instruments, empty promises and debt. That's why it's so easy for me to paint it on fire

drawing the figure

Over two weeks ago I scheduled some time to draw a model, Nathalia Manikin. It was a delightful shift in subject matter from all the protest that has come up of late. I really enjoyed getting to draw this human being and love how the composition came out. It always surprises me!

occupy LA, October 6th

Here's a few minutes from today at the corner of Spring and Temple, the north lawn of City Hall for occupy LA. Instead of bringing my art supplies, I brought my sign and waved it around. It's essentially a painting on a stick (a stretcher bar), and like some of my paintings there's history and complexity to the physical surface from countless different changes of messages that have been painted, buffed out, repainted, buffed out, etc. I hope to see EVERYONE there on Saturday! No true Angelino would miss this

painting at occupy LA

here's what I managed to film and edit yesterday at the Occupy Los Angeles protest
I worked a little more on this painting on the Alex Schaefer Hour today. Mat Gleason called in towards the middle of the show so there's some hot talk this episode! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW

occupy LA!

more footage from the Los Angeles protest in sympathy with Occupy Wall Street

degenerate art 2

I'm going to be "detained" for a one day pop-up show in Culver City appropriately but hopefully not prophetically titled Degenerate Art Two. It's this Saturday from 8pm to 2am at 8921 National Blvd., Culver City, CA 90034. I made up this graphic with the show information and the artwork that will be "confiscated" for public ridicule.

occupy Los Angeles

yesterday was the start of Occupy Los Angeles, a protest in sympathy with Occupy Wall Street in New York. It was peaceful and I was blown away by the attendance which was well over 1500 people! I was by this morning dropping off supplies for a friend who was camping and there was a huge hard core group there still! wow. I plan to keep visiting, maybe even camp myself? It could be a Hive gallery excursion! I am still blown away. I have more videos and photos so I will keep updating this post. In the meantime here are some photos and a short video uploaded from my phone.