So, like the probable future of Robert Pattinson's career, my Seattle trip has come and gone in a flash. And though I previously have thought this in the 2 other times I have been to Seattle, I continue to stand by the fact that Seattle is one of the only other places outside of the Bay Area that I could see myself living and working. Its gorgeous, and (most) of the people are awesome.
The original plan for my Seattle appearance was to move my Portland show, "Self Portraits" up to Seattle for a second round. However, because almost all of the paintings actually sold out at the Portland show, I was left with very little to show and absolutely no time to produce a good amount of new work that wouldn't bum everyone out. So I decided to team up with my dudes who run Zerofriends, the clothing/art company that I co-own, and set up an entire Zerofriends experience, showing off a bunch of our prints, comic books, t-shirts, & some original art that was used for the clothing. On top of that, we carted up a shitload of Zerofriends merch and the kind folk at Upper Playground Seattle let us basically take over the store. That means we got to do things like get the mannequins naked, burn pillows and throw away original paintings by Nate Van Dyke and Sam Flores cuz they were IN MY WAY! :)
So myself, Sean "Leopard", Darren & the whole UP SEA crew spent a good part of Friday resetting up the store and filling it with Zerofriends stuff. It was a really cool feeling to actually have our stuff on display like that in a proper setting and it's exciting to think that we are going to be doing more of that in the future (shhhhh, thats kinda secret tho). And then I got to spend the night, from like 6pm to midnight, just meeting fans and drawing for folks and chatting about art, demons, school, swords, Alaska, and narcolepsy. It was non-stop and awesome. And though i normally don't like doing this because of the pressure of the situation and the permanence of it, but a REALLY REALLY sweet girl named Kayla asked me to draw on her back and she was going to get it tattooed the next day, and her mom was there who insisted it was alright, so I did it. Can't wait to see the tattoo if she gets it. I think she said she had to hide it from her Dad, though, so good luck, Kayla, i drew it kinda big;)
Anyway, here is a visual run-down of the event. My camera died toward the end of the night, so I don't have any pics of the after-show shindig where I ate mac-n cheese, put make-up on Sean, got my signature psycho-analyzed by old friend and illustrator Kyle Kesterson, chilled with a beautiful narcoleptic, and ran into the homies Reyes & Steel (MSK), who happen to be up in Seattle opening a new
GOORIN BROS. retail store up there by Upper Playground. If youre up there you should check out that spot soon, i think they are painting the whole inside. So check the adventures below, next up is Dragon-Con in ATLANTA in about a week! See you there, dirty south!
Sean "Leopard" & Darren Scott, of Zerofriends, starting the setup.
Doing what i do best: Being confused and unprepared.
Meeting the store's security guard, who was actually USELESS! (see below)
Starting to overrun the store.
Sean "Leopard" doing his best E.T. impression.
Before the show started, we got a really quick chance to look around Seattle a little, where I stumbled upon these 2 things that made my insides happy:
A gigantic TROLL under the bridge that I am convinced SKINNER built in his formal life, as you can see the comparison.
And THIS THRIFT STORE, which was unfortunately closed, which meant that I came home UNICORN-VELVET-PAINTINGLESS.
Show about to start. The calm before the blood-storm.
First in line: A super young artist named Zinn who ruled the school, along with his father. He was rad. Well, they were BOTH rad.
To read about what is actually going on in the photo, go to my previous blog here: http://eyesuckink.blogspot.com/2009/08/to-clarify-incident-at-my-seattle.html
Sam Wallis being way too close the evidence as part of the clean-up crew.
Attention, clean-up in aisle EVERYWHERE.
Sean, Me, Darren and the worst security guard in history.
Afterparty dinner with the UP SEA Crew.
That night, Sean Leopard was tuckered out, and continued his day of imitating things by imitating my favorite ancient mummy photo.
Overall, awesome trip. Thank you Seattle. Even you, crazy-pants.
See you again soon. I need to learn more about narcalepsy.
