Pt. 1 of this blog report was done yesterday, please scroll down one post below if you haven't read that one yet...
The Opening Night Reception for the two-man exhibit, MAKING BELIEVE, brought in lots of family, friends and people interested in artwork. GEEKS had their usual spread of refreshments available to all, and all evening folks would wander around looking at the art and mingling and sitting in the comfortable chairs and couches spread throughout the store.
My brother and sister were there, along with mom! My mother was certainly happy to see her little Javi and Christianito working together in an exhibit.
My older brother Albert was of course influential in me getting into comics and art. If it wasn't for his collection of comics he gave me in the early 70s, and his own cartooning skills I emulated, it's very likely I would never have gotten into comics or art. Which means I wouldn't be exhibiting artwork, which means I probably wouldn't even be blogging.... Who knows, right? Thing is, I am eternally grateful to Albert and make a point of mentioning him in interviews I do.
My younger sister Imelda, here with here two boys, Christian, my fellow artist, and David (on my right), who doubles as my Godson. Christian's girlfriend, Nicole, also came out to show support. I hope one day David comes up to me with some problem he needs help with and calls me "Godfather..."!
My jaw dropped when I saw my lovely niece Carolina (yeah, the little blind circus girl in EL MUERTO:DEAD & CONFUSED Pt. 1 is named after her!) sitting there reading a Dark Horse collection of THE MASK! Never seen her read a comic book before, including mine!
Several times that evening, groups of students from Cantwell High School would track me down and ask me to sign the promotional flier/postcard. Turns out that their Chicano Studies teacher let them get extra credit for attending the show. Not only was I glad that these young students were checking out our artwork, but I'm glad that the instructor encouraged them to attend the show. Here's Christian playing the role of rock star artist! At one point he turned to me and said "I'm going to have to get used to signing autographs!"
(These darn, photogenic artist types!)
My fellow Cartoonistas showed up of course!
(left to right, back row)Raul Aguirre, Jim Lujan, Will Caulfield and (left to right) Bernyce Talley and Grasiela Rodriguez. What an awesome group these people are. They really are my Super Friends!
Speaking of Super Friends, it wouldn't be a true night to remember without this guy, Rafael Navarro, creator of SONAMBULO, Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist, my movie/comic nerd partner, etc.:
I actually sat with Raf at his debut show, the Alternative Press Expo in San Jose back in 1997, one year before I went back to the same show and debuted EL MUERTO. We've been in the trenches of self-publishing for years, driving all over the state and collaborating on many shows and projects. He's got that same die-hard passion for DIY comics as I do, and there's very few people who can top him for being in complete synchronicity with me about our love for Jack Kirby, Silver Age Marvel, superhero movies, film quotes and other inane hobbies! I told Rafael that one day, by the gods themselves, one day we are going to produce a Treasury-sized SONAMBULO/EL MUERTO epic that features Heinrich Himmler, zombie Conquistadores, a Nazi Muerto and more thrills and chills you can shake a luchador mask at!!
Local artist Gerry Bonilla, who actually had the previous exhibit at GEEKS.
And just to show I'm not only about promotion and networking, sometimes ya gotta take time to dance a tango with a pretty lady during a show!
Speaking of pretty ladies and the Man-Swamp.... I swear, this wonderful gal, Sandy, brought her son to the show, and after we started chatting about my work and her tattoos, she told me straight out that she wants a Man-Swamp tattoo on her arm!! Right below this mass of roses she had inked. I figured Swampy would fit right in with her red and green rose artwork, so I'll be contacting her for the details. That is trippy for many reasons, primarily because she doesn't even know what the comic book is about! Needless to say, I'll keep this blog updated with developing details! (See writers, the cool part about comics are first and foremost the visuals!!!)
What a night, that's the best way to put it. What a fantastic, wonderful night! Thanks to everyone for visiting, my friends and family and fans of our artwork. Thanks to GEEKS for hosting me yet again at their fine establishment. And thanks to my newphew, Christian Silva, for inspiring me with his own amazing artistic skills. Love ya....
Some nice video courtesy of filmmaker, animator and bicycling Olympian, Jimmy Lujan:
Saturday night, May 23.....Whatta night! My nephew Christian and I had the Opening Reception for our two-man art show MAKING BELIEVE at GEEKS comics shop in Whittier, CA.
The event ran from 7 pm to about 10:30 or so. Least, that's when the last of the guests left. Having a two-person show with my nephew, his first official art exhibit actually, and having so many friends and family in attendance was wonderful. I can't stress enough how important it is for us artists to get out of the studio and actually share our art in person with the public. And I'm not just talking about standing there and discussing your artwork, I mean just the new people you meet and the discussions that follow give you a good, positive dose of humanity. Least it's always been that way for me.
I'm going to spread this post over two separate entries, as there is so much to share. Today I'll just share the actual artwork with you, and tomorrow you can see pics of me and Christian with our family, friends and fans!
Here's the statement/bio page, written about an hour or so before the show opened!
Christian Silva, standing tall and proud! This is my favorite piece of the whole show, his "Nicole's diary":
This one's called "The Strangers", which Christian tells me is inspired by the novel THE STRANGER by Albert Camus:
I actually never read that book, but I looked it up on Wikipedia and made an interesting discovery. Apparently, the late comic book writer Steve Gerber was partially inspired by Camus's book when he created his signature comic book character, Howard the Duck! Howard the Duck is one of my all time favorite comic series, and I first read the comics back in the late 70s. Here's what Gerber said about Camus's influence: "It relates directly to that sense of alienation I mentioned. Howard is Mersault with a sense of humor, an existentialist who screams and quacks as a hedge against sinking into utter despair. The very first line that ever came out of his beak, back in Fear #19, had to do with the absurdity of existence." (This is taken from the actual online interview linked at Wikipedia). It's funny to me that at age 12 or so I was reading Howard the Duck getting a comic book version of existentialism in the form of a cranky, cigar smoking talking duck, and Christian is getting it from a classi French novel at age 18!
Two more pieces from 'the kid':
We also worked on a jam piece. I gave Christian a canvas and told him we would both work on it. I didn't have any pre-planned method for how we would do it, only that I would retrieve the canvas from him at a later date. Well, when I saw the piece, I figured I wanted to use his painting as a background for a drawing I would create. So I pulled an idea from my sketchbooks (yet another character I have floating around the 'back burners'!) and placed him in the environment Christian created. I thought it was a great mash-up of our styles. My graphic, bold comic imagery mixed with his free-form style of design and color. In the interest of not publicizing the character's name just yet, we called this 'untitled'!:
Here are the pieces I had on display. First one is yet another idea I have for a comic, this one created to be an ARCHIE comics-type story, based in a future Super-Mexico, revolving around this trio of friends!:
Two more, including a character that I will forever be linked to (at least, I'm trying my damnedest to!):
The other painting I debuted that evening was 'Man Swamp', which is the image I'm using for the cover of my upcoming comic book. Not one to let a promotional opportunity pass me by, I also had this little flier on display at the front counter:
Some folks told me they would be returning to GEEKS to get their copies of the comic, and let me say, to my complete surprise and gratitude, a lady at the exhibit wants to commission me for a Man-Swamp tattoo on her arm!! Tune in tomorrow for more on that little bombshell!!
Additional opening night reception pix and commentary on Monday's entry, please come back and check them out. Thanks to Jim Lujan for providing most of the above photos!
This evening I put up the two-man art show me and my nephew Christian will be exhibiting at GEEKS comics in Whittier.
When I proposed the show to my nephew he was extremely excited (which turned into nervousness once he realized the show was set in stone!). He's shown his work at student art shows in high school and has displayed, and sold, some pieces at his local art walk. But this is his first proper exhibit, and in conjunction with me, his good ol 'Uncle J'.
For the last several weeks we've both been working on our paintings. Some of mine were based on ideas I've has in my sketchbooks featuring the many characters that I come up with. Sometimes I think the ideas may work as a comic, maybe even a cartoon. But for now they'll have their debut in the form of paintings. Here's one (which regular readers of JAVZILLA will remember from this previous post):
The lurid colors for this piece came to me from discussing with some friends the funky color choices from old 1970s cartoons, in particular the wonderfully wild palette for the PLANET OF THE APES cartoon:
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled blog post!
Here's the piece, by Christian Silva, my nephew, that I think is the star attraction of the show (and the pic doesn't capture the detail and nuances of the piece)...
I really love this piece. It's packed with emotion, and I'm sure, insights that only the artist who created it has. Strong clash of color and a free-form style of expression that really inspires me. I was comparing his style from the way I usually paint. I often go for one bold image with a strong choice of bright colors, and some sort of symmetry in the design. Christian's approach is to layer a painting with several images at a time, often with an underdrawing showing through. He'll add text throughout the piece, and all the while using different mediums: acrylic, marker, even ballpoint pen. I started thinking that since I do comics, I use that medium to tell a story with pages and panels and word balloons. His pieces remind me of one-panel compilations: text and images are all overlapped together on the canvas, giving the viewer fragments of the whole story known only to the creator of the piece. I'll have to ask him on Saturday what he thinks of my 'theory'.
If you're in the Whittier area, please come visit us at GEEKS, Saturday night, May 23 from 7-10pm for our show!
My older brother Albert was of course influential in me getting into comics and art. If it wasn't for his collection of comics he gave me in the early 70s, and his own cartooning skills I emulated, it's very likely I would never have gotten into comics or art. Which means I wouldn't be exhibiting artwork, which means I probably wouldn't even be blogging.... Who knows, right? Thing is, I am eternally grateful to Albert and make a point of mentioning him in interviews I do. 
(left to right, back row)Raul Aguirre, Jim Lujan, Will Caulfield and (left to right) Bernyce Talley and Grasiela Rodriguez. What an awesome group these people are. They really are my Super Friends!
