The Iggy Back Ride [Glam a la King]

The previously mentioned, Bowie and Iggy meet Nixon.

7/9/74 - David Bowie, on tour in America and Iggy Pop, on the loose from the recently disbanded Stooges, visit with President Nixon during his final weeks in the oval office. The photo op comes to an abrupt end after Mr. Pop leaps onto the President's back and the Secret Service leap into action. Pictures of the meeting were canned and all charges were dropped to avoid any further embarrassment to Nixon and the White House.

60 Years Too Late [Hey! You're Not Stuart Davis]

 Singer

'67 Coronet Interior

Two studies for Stuart Davis-style cubist paintings. The designs are from around 1997 and were finally computer colorized in 2012.

Aladinstein

Sketchbook pencil drawing 2011

Idea stolen from Kat Thompson.

The Beards and the Airplane did fly

The King down in Monterey
2011 pencil sketchbook drawing

An abandoned idea for a fictional history of rock, where in Elvis discovers psychedelia, Bowie and Iggy meet Nixon and REM are cloned for exploitation after an unreported 1989 plane crash kills the original band members.

Black Magic Woman, Kill! Kill!

In my day...

Scraps from the filing cabinet.

A rough looking comp for the Shrunken Head booklet cover.

Harley's idea for the cover was something like the Smokey Robinson cd below, a b/w band shot with a solid, bright color behind. I'd swear he showed me a hot pink Coasters cd as the example but I couldn't find it when I searched. The red background was cut out around the band photo on rubylith film and the lettering and small heads in the upper corners were put onto over-lays of acetate, this was now "camera-ready" art for the printer. I've spent a lot of time in a dark room with a photostat camera but that's another story.

All the song titles were written by hand using my own Deadbolt lettering based on the italic logo I had already created for the band. In the late 80's and early 90's lettering for graphic art was still supplied by a typesetter, if you wanted anything fancy there was always rub-down Letraset lettering or drawing it yourself.

 Tiki Man cover bamboo logo 

 Tiki Man disc lettering, 1994

Breakin' the law...

 The color version that was made into stickers and embroidered patches. No oval, as intended.

Just As Ugly Inside

A graphite drawing from December of 2011. A human-like head made of various animal parts and features. Renaissance artists used this same idea [sometimes with fruit and vegetables thrown in] to create their images of Satan and his demons. The facial expression on the finished head seemed to call out for epaulets, which led to the uniform and the title, The War Monger.

Rapa Nui Sketches

Ahu Ko Te Riku

Ahu Vai Uri

Ahu Tahai

June 6, 2004

Is That Exactly What I Thought I Read?

The Who in 1966

clockwise from top: John Entwistle, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and Keith Moon

The Who since 2002

l to r: Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey

They don't give a shit Keith Moon is dead

Is that exactly what I thought I read?

Pete Townshend - Jools and Jim

So, the organizers of the upcoming London Olympic games don't even know Moonie's dead. London, the city where Moon lived and died in 1978. Maybe they were under the impression a successful sobriety had kept him from the headlines for the past three decades? "He moved away to Malibu years ago." More than likely, we are dealing with people under 30 and the popular excuse, "how am I supposed to know what happened before I was born?"

The above Who caricatures were done in late 2003 while working at Lyle Tuttle's.

Preachin' the Blues

The Devil and Robert Johnson

24"x 48" acrylic on canvas

C. Earnhart 1997

Sather collection

Detail of the above painting, a more animated version of the drawing style carried over to the Leadbelly painting. Warner Brothers cubism with hot rod flames that make me cringe a little seeing them now.

A sketch for the never-started second painting, The Ascent of Blind Willie Johnson. A second version was also drawn with the Rev. Gary Davis in Johnson's place.

Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters led me to listening to a lot of folk blues all through out the 90's. I haven't really listened much in the last ten years or so but here are a few that are still favorites of mine...

I Got Mine - Frank Stokes
Love in Vain Blues - Robert Johnson

Death Letter - Son House
Paul and Silas in Jail - Washington Phillips

Lord, I Just Can't Keep From Cryin' - Blind Willie Johnson

New Orleans Streamline - Booker White

Stack O'Lee Blues - Mississippi John Hurt

Tupelo Blues - John Lee Hooker

Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues - Skip James

I Heard the Angels Singing - Rev Gary Davis

Where Did You Sleep Last Night? - Leadbelly

Huddie Ledbetter 1888-1949

Leadbelly

20"x 24" acrylic on canvas

C. Earnhart 1998

R.M. Wilson collection

...HERE TO DO A FEW TUNES BETWEEN HOMICIDES

"Lead Belly, born Huddie Ledbetter, of the Louisiana swamps, is a powerful, knife-toting Negro, who has killed one man and seriously wounded another, but whose husky tenor and feathery, string-plucking fingers ineluctably charm the ears of those who listen."

New York Herald Tribune 1/3/1935

The David Stone Martin influenced drawing for the above painting, which is a scan of the small photo I have of the finished work. Stuart Davis, Georges Braque and Picasso are also clearly present in my painting style.

My little shrunken headed boy is 18

The Deadbolt Shrunken Head logo I designed for the band in '92 or 3. The design adheres to the Oval Logo Law of the same year. I don't know if we have The Casbah to blame for that law or O?

The logo design sheet I showed the band from '92. The checked logo in the lower right corner was pretty much just an all caps version of the logo they already had, which I think was designed by Mrs. Valdez and why they chose it again. Harley chose the circled one, which we all thought looked a little too much like the Cramps logo. Soon after, I painted it on Les' bass drum head and used up until Tijuana Hit Squad, when they changed to the James Bond-inspired logo with the Luger T.

I think most all of these came from old horror movie posters and are hand drawn, pre-fonts.

Mr. Picky's Birthday Led Sled

Arthur's other present, Revell's chopped '49 Mercury Custom Coupe. The hood flames were left over from the '32 Ford.

Unfortunately, the custom grille we wanted to use was warped beyond repair right from the box, it looked like someone had held a lighter to it. The sealed kit was also missing the metal axle pins and exhaust tips, I chose not to call the Revell hotline.

The stock hood was chosen over the louvered one as well as the stock sombrero wheel covers and white walls instead of the custom mags and black walls. The kit also has stock or custom bumpers and the option of frenched tail lights, which looked like they might need a little filler to be done smoothly so I passed on that option.

Custom skirts, spotlights [we used one] and lake pipes.

The body was primed in light grey on the top and black along the sides. Then it was sprayed Flame Red which was not the "dark, dark red" Mr. Picky wanted so Electric Currant was used for the final coat followed by lots of flame decals.

A look at the three banger under the hood, a very tight squeeze in the engine bay which made this model no fun for about 10 minutes but that was my only building issue. Otherwise, a very cool Merc, the boy has good taste.

Halloween High Boy

One of the models my parents bought for my son's 5th birthday. Arthur called the shots and I built them.

Here we have Revell's '32 Ford Sedan 2'n1. He chose the high boy version, of course, with chrome mags and V-8 Mustang engine.

Arthur's color scheme led to a halloween theme.

The curtains in the back windows and "roof racks" are from an old funeral coach I had in the junkyard. Also added a small spider web decal to lower front windshield.

I liked the Little Deuce Spook better without the flames but I was vetoed.

I think 9 out of 10 five year olds will want the flame decals.

Three 50's Rockers

Brian Holden

1939-1991

The original Ziggy Stardust.

Jalacy Hawkins

1929-2000

What walks on two feet and looks like a goat? It's that crazy Screamin' Jay in a bright yellow coat. I got to see Jay twice around 1989-91 with Bo Diddley Jr. playing guitar.

Wanda was born in 1937.

I've seen her perform quite a few times from 1995 up until a couple of years ago and she still sounds incredible.

A few more scans of rock and blues caricatures from about 12 years ago.

Not Richie Valenz

Ricardo Esteban or Richard Stephen Valenzuela

1941-1959

I guess Bobbo didn't think leaving the 'z' at the end of Valens was cool, too exotic? The addition of the 't' in Richie is an odd choice too, but what do I know? The last good stage name I came up with was 'Molly Ringworm' and I haven't seen 'La Bamba' in a few years.

"Come on, Let's Go", "La Bamba", "Donna", "We Belong Together", "Ooh My Head", "Fast Freight", "Stay Beside Me", "In a Turkish Town" and many more, all packed into an eight- month-long career. A body of work that still sounds fresh over 50 years later, recorded by a 17 year old, killed in an accident three months short of his 18th birthday.

I think that's a lot sadder than Kurt Kobain.

Drawing for a Ritchie Valens painting done for a Dia de los Muertos art show at Flying Panther Tattoo. And of course, I didn't get a picture of the finished painting before I took it in.

2007

Unused Scooter

Watercolor comp for a skate deck series that didn't happen. I don't think Buddy ever saw this one, it may become a larger painting one day.

About 2007

Abandoned Sketchbook Pages

The original sketch of the 'Victor's Secret' idea, much creepier with B.B. King's head.

Unfinished Blind Lemon

About 2008?