Preparing a new surface and Free Art at the Murmur

It's been a long month trying to get a job and keep myself afloat from all the bills that come after college but I'm making ends meet and still got tons of time for my work. Recently I have been sketching ideas for the childhood series and came out with a lot of good ideas but I also realized that most of the art magic happens spontaneously. Below is an angled me I'm sympathizing with.

Also this month I participated in yet another Free Art event at the murmur in Oakland. I only made two pieces this time of quick sketches of me. I think it's a good sketch and has a lot of character. Those who got this are lucky bastards. Why is everything I'm writing underlined?

Below is the current painting I'm working on. I'm trying to prep the surface with this foggy wet effect but it's taking a long time. I think I'll have to buy gloss medium to make it more dimensional. I already envisioned where the bodies will be and how much I'll show and I think it will be a pretty powerful piece. I took a close up shot of a part where I expose the layers which I find beautiful.

These days I've been thinking about my art practice and I think I need to be bigger. So I decided that I'll create some performance art and happenings which I'll be documenting and posting in the future. I'm thinking of creating clothes and making videos but I'm not sure exactly what kind of subject matter this will all entail. My decision to merge into other fields comes from wanting to live the life my paintings do.

Before you go I wanted to wish you happy holidays and thank you for following this blog for so long. I love the fact that my art has the power to bring people back and makes me feel like we are all part of something. So thanks again and I hope to see you again :D xoxoxoxoxoxoxo get over here! xoxoxoxoxox

New Childhood painting and Nupens Work + EXHIBITS IN 2009!!!

That's right I finished this new painting. It was a little harder than I thought but I still finished it fairly quickly. Was having problems getting the right kind of tone for his skin. It would either look too wet or too dry. I think I got it. I chose to left everything else empty to emphasize the natural aesthetics of the back of the whiteboard I'm using. There's two different tones like an amazing minimalist painting. Who knew minimalism can also be found in everyday objects :o

And this here is my Nupens work. I spent a lot of time melting the sharpies with water and layering this thing over and over again. It has acquired a nice painterly quality but it is still grounded in drawing since I chose to leave the finer lines. It came out better than I expected and the white space dictates endless worlds around this event that's happening on paper. It's just so right to leave that amount of space. I forget that it's paper. Also don't forget that I don't care what you think of the white space, your thoughts don't count.

Ha ha ha ha HALLOWEEN BEOTCHES! I helped Devin craft his Lady Gaga costume for halloween. I used foam to create the diamond shapes then I wrapped it in black masking tape and attached it to his jacket. He's wearing it backwards so it looks like a dress. It came out pretty amazing and with cheap materials :)

Free Art? Childhood?

To Open the month I participated in this Free Art event in Oakland Art Murmur. That's right I handed out free art. Okay it wasn't like anything super expensive but I printed out and editioned two of my paintings. It's copyrighted material so there's a little thrill to it ;) Below are some photos of the process and finished product of the free art. Free Art is good because it gets people to collect and value the power of collection of singular objects. It's kind of a romantic idea but I'm from Brazil and I'm the last romantic. Enjoy the pics I might do it again. Maybe I should print out big prints and sell them online what do you guys think? They'd be very cool and detail and big. Maybe bigger than the real thing lol.

I have been working on the childhood series lately but very slowly. That's because I can't find a job anywhere and it has been a little frustrating. Below are some pics of a sketch and a painting in its premature levels. I hope you like where this is going. I'm putting a lot emotion into this :)

Done With This Painting and Internship at a gallery!

Creative head.

I just finished the painting above and I actually started on another new painting from this series. It's coming together nicely and I can't wait to buy more wood and paint scenes with narrative. I want it all to feel elusive, dark, and hopeful. Maybe that's how I felt when I was growing up? Who knows! i'm still working on the pens and Sharpies too and I'll post some of those on the next post. I'm doing this thing where I draw with the marker and quickly drag gesso on top creating this painter smudge like feel on the drawing. It's interesting because it's done in markers and pens and not paint but it looks like paint.

In other news I started an internship at a gallery and it's a lot of fun. I like staying in the same place as other people's art and now it's clear why people purchase these. The longer you live with them the more you start to understand and appreciate the medium and intent of the artist. They make you think and analyze so much it's so interesting. I would type in here what gallery I'm in but I'll just say it's in SF. So if you see me you get a special reward for finding me.

Verses Opening Reception

People Arguing outside the Lounge.

Blurry Pic of people who came to show support and enjoy some drinks.

My sister Anna and Devin Posing for the blog readers.

People who first saw my work and it changed their lives.

Some of my paintings on the wall.

These paintings are suspended by metal wires. Aric did an awesome job!

Me and Anna.

I look so evil and sketchy in these pics. Not a good way to promote my image.

Meanwhile the argument continues.

So a couple of days ago was the opening of my show Verses Revisited at the Dirty Bird Lounge in Hayward. It was awesome one of my friends bought me 2 scooby snacks and we played some pool. Amazingly enough I didn't do as bad as thought I would. It's because I have math skills. Thanks for all who came and of course lots of pics from the opening in this post. I am working on a bunch of new work and have a studio visit scheduled. I'll post more on those two things on the next post. But for now enjoy the pics ;)

Dirty Bird Lounge VERSES -revisited-

As promised here's more info for the show I have up in the lounge.

It runs from the 8th of October to 31st of October (Hey that's exactly when I had this show in Mama Buzz last year, weird) and I'll be holding an opening reception on the 8th from 6pm-9pm. The Dirty Bird Lounge is located at 29308 Mission Blvd Hayward, CA 94544- (510) 537 2201 if you have any questions on how to get there. Below is a flyer of the show you can print it on your pillow sheet so you don't forget.

If you are a newspaper/ magazine and wants to run a story about this show the PR (Press Release) is available below. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Dirty Bird Lounge- 29308 Mission Blvd Hayward, CA 94544- 510 537 2201

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-dirty-bird-lounge-hayward

Victor Salazar- vix4here.blogspot.com

___________________________________________________________________________________

CONTACT: Aric Yeverino, Victor Salazar FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Yeverino-510 537 2201/Salazar- 714 883 2056 (Photo Opportunity)

Aricsean@yahoo.com/ vix4here@yahoo.com JPEG available

• P R E S S R E L E A S E-

Newly Reincarnated Bar Brings Art Culture to Hayward

October 1^st, 2009

Hoping to bring a new beat to the Hayward community the Dirty Bird Lounge brings local and emerging artists to expose their work. The lounge is located at 29308 Mission Blvd Hayward, CA and the show runs from the 8^th of October through the 31^st of October. An opening reception will be held on the 8^th of October from 6pm to 9pm in which the artist will be present. Works included are from Victor Salazar's, a CSU East Bay Alumni, Verses series.

The new bar/ lounge, formerly known as the Viper Lounge newly known as the Dirty Bird Lounge, has been serving cocktails for over 60 years and is proud to bring for the first time ever art exhibitions into the bar. “I want to bring more art into the community and maybe help Hayward become an art scene” says Aric Yeverino, owner of the lounge. “I live in Oakland and I've been surrounded by art constantly and I think there's a lot of artists that come from Hayward we need to see.” The bar also offers two freshly felted pool tables and an eclectic jukebox.

The current exhibiting artist, Victor Salazar, is showing his Verses series. The series is a set of paintings created to illustrate emotional instability through form. “The lounge is bringing something new to Hayward and it's nice to see an outlet for art other than just the Sun Gallery or the Arts Council Gallery” says Salazar. “It's also a great opportunity for artists in Hayward to get exposure in a place where everyday people go to.” Salazar has shown work in many places including Oakland and was part of the Oakland Art Murmur in October 2008.

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I'm becoming my own hero. And that's healthy!

Hello my boys and girls and frequent trolls who surf the web looking for inappropriate content. This month has been a little crazy I've been trying to look for a job and couldn't find any. It makes it a lot harder when someone tells you they are gonna hire then 2 weeks of non answered phone calls you finally go to the place he's not hiring you. But that's not what this blog is about! It's about my work and my ways of getting the work done!

I guess my bedroom is slowly becoming a studio. Everything is running up the walls to make space for gesso piles on top of furniture and lots of loosely rolled work I need to store. I actually just store them in front of me in open air.

I worked more on the personal sort of like Wizard of Oz ish paintings and this is one of them below. It's charcoal on duralar and it's one of the antagonists of the narrative. When I actually start making the big work it's going to look more visually interesting than narratively interesting. I'm more into aesthetics instead of morals you know? I don't want to tell you what to think. If you wanna know what's right or wrong you should ask your mom and if you don't have a mom ask your facebook friends.

The painting below is still in progress and it's also part of the "narrative" paintings. I have a great feeling about these. They remind me a lot of childhood and the feeling of magic. If you follow my work closely you will probably notice a lot of references to old works of mine.

I can't stand working on one type of work only and I already said I started new pens and sharpies and there's one of them below. It's actually more sculptural since it protrudes from the wood. I'm getting into new places with these and they are becoming a challenge to continue. Not a challenge like "oh no these are so hard and I'm so bored producing these" but it's becoming harder and harder to continue this long run and keep it interesting. Interesting to me. But when it does become interesting it feels very rewarding. I guess that's why I'm in it for :)

I almost forgot to mention. I'm having an opening reception at the Dirty Bird Lounge in Hayward. They liked my work (Verses) so I bust it out. More details to come. Come see me!

Many Directions

In this post I've decided to show all different works I have going on right now at my "studio".  I like all of them but time will come in which I'll have to decide which one I have to choose to work on first.  I decided to let you guys influence my decision :O



I started a new set of pens and sharpies.  They are different because the process that i used to make has changed a bit so I call them the NuPensAndSharpies. The main difference is that i use watered down white gesso and things are monochromatic.  So in a way I'm making the work look more complex by using more shades.

The paintings on the left( or wherever they are I can't see where they'll end up blogger is stupid)  are two different set of works.  The first one is part of my club series in which I paint club like experiences but viewed in a lighter perspective.  The paintings on the right are my newest paintings in which I use personal experiences and alter egos to create a a world lightly based on my personal life.  Both works are very different in feelings.

So which body of work are you interested in seeing grow first? :)

I must also mention that I have a duralar series as well but I need to take new photos of those and post them.

**I've added all my social networking sites on the right, friend me and subscribe to support the art :D!**

The Opening (Zeitgeist)

The opening was a lot of fun and it was cool to see the new series on a gallery's wall.  The big drawings when hung look  a little wrinkly but it kind of goes with the sketchbook spontaneous feeling I was going for.  If you were to buy you could always frame it though :P  We were required to make free art to give away and put outside the gallery.  I made a stencil of me and a pokemon and put it outside.  Thank goodness it got taken! You know how weird it would feel to have artwork rejected even if it's free?!  Anyway here are some pics of the show!

Free Art

I was "volunteering" today at a booth at summerfest and Kaila, the booth's owner's daughter found out that I draw and asked me to draw random things for her.  I actually drew because it'd be a fun experiment to see what kind of things she'd want.  Below is a pic she requested.

I also wanted to thank everyone that came out to see the show.  I'm glad there's people tat support art and events that celebrate expression and creativity :)

*AUTOBODY FINE ART*

    
I don't think I've announced this yet but I'll be showing some of my pens and sharpies in this upcoming group show at AUTOBODY Fine Art in Alameda.  It's a great chance for those who've only seen them online to go see them live!  I'll be there too so you can witness my artist aura.   Tony Hoang and Apryl Pascua will also be showing work and they are my buddies.  But yeah, come out on Friday night this week from 6pm to 10pm and enjoy the show!  If you come up to me with a secret code I'll give you a free introduction! (code is COPOLYMER)

In other news, I started another self portrait but this time it's a painting in acrylics.  I'm trying to go from brushstrokes to definition in parts of the painting I'll post it later so you can see.  I started painting again because most of my work so far has been drawings and I love drawing but painting is something I like to do as well.  And if I don't exercise it often I'll lose my edge.  So I'm probably going to paint things that don't mean much to me for a while.  If you want them you can have them but you have to find me first ;)

See you guys later and hope you come to the show.  If you haven't done so yet please subscribe, follow me on twitter, or add me as a facebook friend.  I think my root is /vix4here kk thx cya!

Out to Kill

Amazingly enough I have managed to continue making art during this dreadful heat.  I started on and finished 1 of 2 duralar pieces and for some reason started another pens and sharpies.  There was something I wanted to explore with the red sharpie mark because it wasn't completely dark enough to cover dark lines.  One of the duralar is a self portrait.  For this piece I decide to draw myself with no reference photos because that's how I would draw people when I first started drawing when I was a kid.  There are many egotistical words written all over the piece and I decided to write those down because normal self-portraits of artists are always weird or modest but seldom egotistical and revolting.  So I gracefully rose up to the challenge.