Hot Rod Cord

A junked, fenderless 1965 Monogram Cord 812 body and partial interior I bought on ebay and turned into a roadster-style drag racer.

The chassis and big block 454 are from the AMT '53 Ford pickup. The carbs and intake manifold were lost, so these were scratch built along with the roll cage and fuel tank. The seat belts and headers are from the AMT '56 Ford Victoria kit. 

The headlights and windshield were left over from the Revell '32 Ford Sedan and the grille is off an old Cadillac.

M&H slicks, wheels and Gofer vintage sponsor decals were bought from the ebay store, Model Car Mountain.

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.