Happy holidays!

OverHeard would like to wish you and your family a merry Christmas and very happy New Year.

Daily Dose of Dopamine

Every artist out there knows how much they need that creative time alone to just let go. Doing commissioned work can be fun, especially when its well paid for. But anybody who is really creating art probably has stacks upon stacks of paper, canvas, or whatever, that may never see the lights of a studio. Work that was created purely out of a whim. With no real message to convey, no guidelines to stick to for an assignment or a job, and no competition rules to abide by, one can really just pour their self into whatever picture plane they choose. Late at night is when I often find the time to do this. The family is asleep the day is over and there's nearly nothing to worry about. It's almost a meditative process that then takes place. I grab whatever medium I have at hand and begin to get my daily dose of dopamine. When I'm creating this work I'm not thinking about what a client would want, or what the masses might find appealing once hung in a gallery. I'm simply letting the ink flow however I feel. Their are some design elements that naturally come into play, but for the most part it's all just feelings on paper. I do have much more work that will probably never be seen by the public, but these two that are pictured, I created the other night and decided to share. I really like the way they came out so I'll probably get them framed. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.
(top left:18"x24" charcoal and pastel on paper; bottom right:18"x24" charcoal and pastel on paper)

Thanks for reading

-CalvinPressley
calvinjpressley@gmail.com
overheardtv.blogspot.com

Best Hotdog in America???

Yes it's been four weeks since my last post.. Yes im terribly sorry for making you guys wait so long... yes it'll probably happen again, but hopefully not in the near future. Now that finals week is over for me I can finally get back to writing, get back to creating, and get back to breathing, sleeping, eating, and all the other stuff I put aside due to studying.

So its late at night, your hungry for something good. Something satisfying. Something worth the money you'll spend. Something quick. If your here in San Antonio your probably thinking street vendor tacos. Probably... unless you had the opportunity to find and enjoy a gourmet hot dog from Rocker Dogz. If you've been to The Korova on a Thursday night, chances are you've seen the little hot dog stand right outside the front door. I can tell you right now, whether there's a line or not, your gonna need to get one of those dogs before you leave this city. This isn't some New York style hot dog stand. This is a one of a kind gourmet hot dog stand serving up the best hot dog I've ever tasted. Chef Kris Martinez is the owner and operator of this San Antonio jewel, skillfully crafting his hot dogs to a level you would have never though a wiener could go. Follow him on facebook to find out where his mobile truck with be serving up the dogz.
You will be glad when you do. (www.rockerdogz.com)

Just a quick little side note before you run out the door for a hotdog. Check out this awesome video of the Blue Moon competition I was in. I might not have won anything but I did get interviewed which is pretty awesome (even though my name was spelled wrong.. its Pressley like "PRESS play".. two S's)



Thanks for reading the blog!

UPDATE: The video that was posted and linked from youtube is no longer there. Sorry for the inconvenience. Hopefully I'll get more interviews in the future.

Richard Duardo at SAC

Last week, we at San Antonio College were lucky enough to have Richard Duardo come from L.A. to give us a very enlightening and inspiring lecture, as well as give us a print making demo right in the middle of our Visual Arts Gallery. Richard Duardo (pictured to the right) is the founder of Modern Multiples, a very established print studio based in L.A. Duardo has worked with many well known artists from Patrick Nagel, to Shepard Fairey, to the infamous Banksy. It seems like Duardo has his hands all over anything art, from getting his graphic design degree at UCLA he's gone on to produce recognized work of his own, earning many awards and still publishing over 300 artists' work. Check out Modern Multiples (www.modernmultiplesinc.com) for more information about Richard Duardo and his work. I know I'll be checking out his studio next time I'm in L.A.

Over the past few months I've been getting into some digital designs by learning photoshop. I see a lot of cool stuff in the art world that are digitally made. Although I personally like to get my hands on my work more than I like using a mouse to create it, I still like what I've learned and what I've produced. So here's a picture of what I've been able to come up with, let me know what you think. Thanks for reading and thanks for the feedback.

draw

School Project

Currently I'm working on this school project of a three panel piece. I got the idea to record myself working, for anybody that might be interested in seeing the creative process in action. Let me know what you think of this time lapsed video and maybe I'll start doing this more often. Shoot me an email with your comments (calvinjpressley@gmail.com), I really want some feedback so help me out. As always thanks for checking the blog.

After the show

Yesterday was the grand finale to the Blue Moon Art Project and it went very well, I was able to meet a lot of great people and a group of vastly different artists with so much talent. I really had a great time and loved all of the attention my work received from all who attended.
The piece I did on the spot is my vision of the modern American dream. It is titled "Window of Opportunity" and is a mixed media piece displaying elements of America and what we as Americans are all going after. I ripped pages out of a book that was full of historic American documents, used them as a base to the thin layer of red and blue paint that was spread over it. To really get the concept of the piece, one would have to be close enough to read certain excerpts visible through the paint, but then step back to see how the work as a whole ties together. There is a small window which has been placed off center inside the painting which is full of money to describe that small window we all get, to reach that place full of the money we all seek. I wanted to propose the question to the viewer if this is really what their window of opportunity looks like. Is is really that small? Is it really full of seemingly endless one hundred dollar bills? Is the money on the other side "dirty"? I want the viewer to possibly come up with some questions of their own, not for me and for another viewer, but for themselves. The work is currently not being displayed anywhere, but if you'd like to see it in person with the possibility of purchasing, please email me and we can set up a private viewing with any other of my art work you'd like to see.

I have to give a special thanks to those who made the show awesome yesterday. Pearl thank you so much for your support, without you and your family I don't know where I would be. Mom, thank you for coming it's always special to have my family come out to my events and I'm glad you made it. Dad, thank you for your help with the vehicle, I can't wait until you can make it to one of my shows My sister Angel, thank you as well, I really hope I can serve as inspiration to you as you start your artistic journey. My big sister Brenda thank you for coming down, it meant a lot to have you at the show and I hope you see how much you've inspired me to be who I am. I also have to thank the head of this whole operation, Laura Melzow. She's a great, hard working professional who has done so much for San Antonio artists and I hope she never feels under appreciated. Lastly I have to thank my son. Jude is a really big inspiration in my life and even though he's right here pulling on my arm and yelling in my ears he's half of the reason I push myself to get all of my work done. I know one day I will be his inspiration for whatever kind of work he is doing.
Thank you anybody else who has had anything to do with helping me grow over the past year. I've come so far from getting my first easel from Travis, Joseph and Fish. I hope you all know what you've started!

Just a quick blup about this Occupy shiz...

I really wish the right people were doing this occupy wall street thing. The only ones I've seen get interviewed or get any recognition through the web are all "spotlight seekers". The ones that are "only there for the cake". This unorganized peaceful protest has become more viral than photos of Scarlett Johansson. I can bet you that half the people holding signs and shouting nothings just wanted to go occupy, simply to be part of something. This basically eradicates any ideas that this occupy wall street movement might have been trying to put forth. The ones who really want change shouldn't be holding signs marching the streets. Keep your mouth shut and write a letter to your congress men and women. That will speak a lot louder than the ones that just want to shout in front of the Alamo where nobody is listening.

Love/Hate

I've come to the realization that I have a Love/Hate relationship with my Drawing 1 class. It is among the three art classes I'm taking this semester at SAC, along with the photoshop class, and has proven to be the one that I've found my self hating the most at times and loving the most at times.

In my Painting 2 class its always great because all I'm doing is building frames, or painting... except for the ominous week of critiques, which sometimes have proven to be enlightening. In my Design 1 class I have a good time because with every project we're assigned, I see it as an opportunity to outshine the rest of the class. I take it as a challenge to have the most interesting piece on the wall when we put them all up on the due date, and although we do sometimes get bogged down with the grim sight of power point slides projecting vocabulary words, I can honestly say this class has given me some great insight on the basic fundamentals of creating a piece of art work.

In my Drawing class though there have been some high highs and really low lows. I started this class positive and excited, and I soon found out that we wouldn't just be some hand book, Mickey Mouse drawing class. The first project was to go home, get in a corner of our bedroom, and draw it. As creative as I might have proven to be in my life, I never could draw so this was pretty challenging. Although my professor's opinion of the work, and my grade, was pleasing to me, the "art work" I created wasn't. Today however, I see that I've come so far since that horrid bedroom drawing and I can say I'm actually creating art that I can share with people. It's funny to me because just last night I hated my Drawing class, even contemplated not going to it this afternoon. I hadn't done the Positive/Negative drawing that was due today and I was just tired of not being at home. I did go to class however, and I'm glad at that. Seeing the work the other students produced made me jealous. All of the art work was great, which made me think- I can do something better than that! So when I got home today, I grabbed my charcoal and got straight to work. I liked what I was doing so much that I did two pieces. Just this morning I was dreading the class and now I can't wait for Thursday so I can go back.

This drawing class has developed into a roller coaster and it's only half way done. It's crazy to try to predict what the next turn will be. Higher or Lower, I know I've learned a lot and I'm pleased with my progress so far.

Here is the work I produced. I decided to do one representational and one non-objective. Thanks for checking the post.. be sure to click that follow button in the top left of your screen.

18"x24" Charcoal on paper

18"x24" Charcoal on paper

Just a Question (or two)

Okay so if you pick up an issue of the current or you happen to be facebook friends with any local artist it's really easy to find a live art show. Seriously eveybody's a promoter on facebook. You go to the show, you meet some great people, see some cool stuff, maybe even buy a painting or two, but what I am wondering, and maybe you have the answer for, is where are San Antonio's gallery art shows? I'm not talking about First Friday or Second Saturday gallery shows, I'm talking about the real classic style shows with wines and cheeses and large scale works displayed to people who are actual art collectors. Maybe I'm missing the loop, maybe I'm in the wrong loop but I know of tons of places (mostly bars) that have live art shows and a lot of which produce some really good art from some really cool people. It's progressivly getting easier and easier to find live painters, even tonight Art Vibes is going on at Studio 13. Although these art shows are fun and provide us "artists" a great opportunity to display our talents infront of our peers, where and when are we going to display our large scale pieces to a different demographic (the demographic with money). If somebody, anybody could fill me in on that it'd be much appreciated.

New start

So I've decided to jump back into the blogging game with a totally revamped OverHeard spot. I am sticking with the original name because it still encompasses everything I plan to do. This will be a posting about local artists, film makers, musicians, and our everyday heroes that deserve a little spot light. With that I will also be giving myself random little spotlights, since well it is MY blog and all. Over all this should be an insightfull blog that you can check on to find out who's who in the San Antonio Area. This is not going to be a blog letting you "Show Seekers" and "Party Bombers" know where things are going down every day. Puro Pinche is already holding that down for the city. If that's what your looking for check it out puropinche.tumblr.com, that's going to be a site that will disprove anybody that whines the words: "there's never anything to do in San Antonio". If you encounter a friend or over hear anybody snob out that sentience slap 'em in the face with some Puro Pinche! They'll thank you later.

Now that Puro Pinche! has somehow gotten my first spotlight I suppose I can talk about myself for a little bit now. I am a "wanna be" artist in San Antonio, which doesn't really set me apart from a big crowd. I've noticed the influx of "artists" in town over the past year and it's almost.... almost made me question weather or not I'm pursuing my goals in the right city. It's almost like being a musician in Austin. There's just so many of them it's pretty hard for people to actually hear your music unless you're whoring it out on the corner. In our case to "whore" our art out on the corner we usually have to wait for that fabulous day of the month when artists and art seekers alike converge to one street in South Town to network, drink beer, hear music, ride bikes, eat, and.... oh look at some art work. It is somewhat disappointing that we have to wait a whole month just to do it all over again, but who is really there for the art anyways, besides the artists themselves of course. Anybody who's been to First Friday can testify that when your down there in the thick of all the people, drinking beers, listening to some reggae band, checking out the fancy bikes, and meeting people, it's pretty easy to forget that your surrounded by galleries displaying some art work. If only there were more art events throughout San Antonio for true artists to really display some talent amongst true art lovers who can turn into actual customers.

Oh wait!! There is one that pops into my head that's managed to gain a strong following here in town and help out a lot of local live artists get noticed. ArtSlam! has been putting on great shows for quite some time now, showcasing local artists who live paint within a given theme. With themes ranging from Martial Arts to Star Wars to classic video games ArtSlam! always brings out a great crowd for San Antonio artists to market to. This month the theme for ArtSlam! is Return of the Living Dead, and seeing as how everybody I know LOVES zombies so much I can only imagine the amount of clientele that will be at this show. I almost hopped out of my seat trying to get in and paint at this one. However once I read the flyer a little closer I found that this month's ArtSlam! is going to be held at....... THE ED... in Austin. Seriously?? Okay so the website for ArtSlam! is artslamsa.com so can somebody PLEASE tell me what the SA in artslamsa.com stands for because now I'm just confused. Maybe I'm being a little bitter, but doesn't Austin have enough events going on all the time. Can't we keep our artslam in Bexar county or has ArtSlamSA gotten too big for "lame" San Antonio? Well all bitterness aside, I hope our local artists have a safe road trip up I-35 on Oct. 22, and I hope those Austinites enjoy what San Antonio has produced.


Hey if you are an artist, or film maker, or screen writer, or musician, or anything else thats worth letting people know about, drop me line (calvinjpressley@gmail.com) and I'll do my best to give you a little spotlight. I know there are tons and tons of fascinating people in this town. If you know any of them, tell them to stop hiding under a rock and send me an email. This blog will feature interviews, trailers for your films, info about an event you might have coming up and will eventually be read my millions! ...Okay maybe only thousands, but it'll be a lot better then the handful of family members, co-workers, and classmates that know about your material right now. Thanks for reading, look for me around town and FOLLOW THIS BLOG so you can get the next post.

Every now and then I'll post up an image of some of my artwork... Here's one now:

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