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!