Gasoline Dreams...

Saturday morning I woke up, made a thermos of coffee and headed out to Gasoline Gallery for their 4th Annual California Screaming Art and Hot Rod show. The weather was simply perfect, and some of the coolest cars (and a few bikes) I've seen in a great while were on display for your drooling pleasure.
The art was incredible. Better than a LOT of stuff I have seen being shown in "Lowbrow 'Pop' Galleries" over in the more, uh, "prestigious" one's around my way. Now, before everyone gets their panties inna bunch about what I mean, lets get one thing straight--I'm bias to a fault. I admit it with no shame. And whereas it IS a character issue that I'm working on, there is only so far that it'll go...so I'll say right here and now that I personally feel a lot of the artist in the show hands down had a hellova stronger technique and skill than the average "pop" artist. There wasn't a whole lotta "flash" to the work, admittedly, but that's really what did it for me. The majority of it was kind of a "you-get-what-you-see" aesthetic. Which might be a little too forward for the average art viewer, but to me was refreshing. You can't get too deep painting a hood of a car...well, I take that back. You can, but 9 times outta 10, your artwork is lost on everyone that views it.
The other thing that really struck me was how CHEAP everything was--in price, not pieces. There were works that would have been going 3 times as much in LA hanging, easy. I asked The Pizz "WTF?!" and he (who had one of the two biggest pieces there) politely explained 'tis the curse of the "Lowbrow" market. Most of the people that actually appreciate this stuff rarely can actually afford to buy it. Which is a crying shame, because there some really talented artist that will probably starve to death because they decided not to paint cute "happy-star-faces". Hopefully that will not be me. Mantra of every "rising" artist...eh? *sigh*
Was extremely lucky to hang out with Masato from COOLS in Little Tokyo, Yukalin (drummer for the Villainz) , and also the guys from Pin Up Garage Magazine, Nash from Burnout magazine not to mention Highway Trash, and of course The Pizz and Willie Pinstripe. All in all it was a fantastic and truly inspiring day. How often do I say that??
(Yeah, Yeah, I know--mixtape. it's coming, it's coming... )