Submerge’s Fourth Annual Bicycle Mural Tour

Ride along with Submerge for its fourth-annual Bicycle Mural Tour. Yes, that’s right: the journey inspired by street art returns and features some of the city’s newest pieces—blasted in the alleyways of businesses like the Wilkerson Theatre on 25th Street, or covering a vacant building near busy railroad tracks. As this story gradually developed, via random bike rides and a few wrong turns throughout midtown and downtown, an underlining theme emerged from the select layers of paint: Change is ever-present. As more corrugated and concrete walls in Sacramento become skillfully decorated canvases, some veteran pieces fade behind new concepts and transition into mere memory. Submerge revisits and remembers one mural in particular, highlighted in 2012, by self-taught artist Skinner. His longtime homage to the monsters of heavy metal at the former Java Lounge coffee house on 16th Street was recently painted over with a new mural by artist Mynas. Much like the flux in businesses, the spot now hosts Good Hands Barbershop. In this year’s feature, explore the hidden designs of the outdoors, remember past works of art and pedal along with a magazine that will continue to document this ever-evolving art form.

Space Babe

The Wilkerson Theatre
1723 25th St. (In the alley)
Sacramento

A full-bodied space woman in an orange and red uniform stares down at passersby. Her white eyes encased by a clear astronaut helmet and colorless, outlined arms hint that this mural is yet to be finished by artist Cyber Punk. Sharp letters in many shades of brown and yellow are accented by several blue and purple orbs guiding viewers from one end of the alley to the next. Clue: If an older man framed in gold with deep brown eyes appears, smoking a cigar, X marks the spot.

The Land Before Crime

1905 S St. (Next to Jim’s Color Corner Inc.)
Sacramento

A red van parked near the S Street railroad tracks reads “Mystery Machine” on one side. Its owner, artist Anthony Padilla, stands on the highest step of his paint-speckled ladder, and accents a navy palm tree with bright, aqua blue in the background of his mural, The Land Before Crime. Padilla says the owner of the building wanted a simple way to ensure that random incidents of tagging stopped. With this piece, he asks the public one question, “When will fossil fuels go extinct?” The query directly relates to the triceratops and pterodactyls featured throughout the plush scenery Padilla has created. “Instead of watching Miley Cyrus shake her flat ass, you could spend time thinking about serious shit,” explains Padilla. “This is the land before manmade laws. There wasn’t a judicial system. Everything was down to the laws of nature.”

Untitled

a Hidden treasure

Channel the inquisitive attributes of a modern-day Sherlock Holmes and discover this mural not too far from Padilla’s The Land Before Crime. To find this bonus piece, bike toward the alleyway of new music venue Witch Room, then mosey past two blue dumpsters, and finally, peek around the corner near the railroad tracks to reveal a three-piece set of script and prehistoric creatures. One blue-gray dinosaur glares behind dark shades and clutches a can of spray paint. Although the ground is decorated by empty Ben and Jerry’s ice cream pints and cigarette butts, and a pair of shoes dangles from the power lines above, this hidden design is worth the extra investigative effort.

Style Vault

Good Hands Barbershop
2416 16th St.
Sacramento

A police officer walks across a checkered floor and into the “style vault,” where stacks of gold coins act as a bread crumb trail of sorts. The word “end” is painted in gigantic letters in the foreground of this mural, with intricate details and color painted in each letter by artist Mynas. The piece quietly ends with the officer fast asleep on a wooden stool next to a box of glazed donuts. Owner of Good Hands Barbershop, Joshua Green, recently opened his business in March and says he simply wanted to start something fresh for the city. So, the choice to paint over Skinner’s mural of monsters was made. “I feel I made the right call,” explains Green. “I made sure I found the right person. It’s not like I said, ‘Screw it. It’s got to go.’ The art that was done previously by Skinner was kind of demonic with blood and people’s heads getting cut off. I got families and kids coming through here.” Eventually, Green wants to keep the wall in question as a rotating art space filled with layers by future artists. “I left a section up there that I had Mynas leave alone. It’s not 100 percent forgotten.”

Our Time

7th and K streets
Sacramento

An ominous figure stands tall, his eyes shaded behind neon green words that blatantly ask, “Our time?” This is the latest mural by artist David Garibaldi (@garibaldiarts) on 7th and K streets. The piece presses the question of time, perhaps coincidentally or intentionally adjacent to what will be formerly the Downtown Plaza Mall. As the mural tour comes to a close, change again surfaces. This time, it’s found within the deep purple of this figure’s jacket, accented with vibrant green and warped and smeared in a brown and gray background.

Skinner is easily one of our favorite artists to have ever called Sacramento home (he currently lives in Oakland). We’ve been fans for years, and his work even graced the covers of one of our earliest issues. Looking at his extremely detailed, creepy, almost nightmare-inducing art might lead one to believe that the man behind the work is a raging lunatic. While that’s not completely untrue (seriously just look at some of his work!), he is, in reality, one of the nicest dudes we’ve ever met. Years ago, Submerge was visiting Skinner’s studio in the Del Paso Heights area and after learning that a couple of us here at the mag like to go snowboarding a lot, he tossed us a couple free pairs of goggles that he collaborated on with the eyewear company Spy. He was just like, “Here’s a couple hundred dollars’ worth of product for free because what the fuck am I gonna do, go snowboarding?!? That shit is cold!” See? Nicest guy ever. What’s the point of all this? Well, we are way fucking stoked for Skinner right now because he recently announced that he did the insanely awesome album artwork for metal giants Mastodon’s new album, Once More ‘Round the Sun. “This album is incredible, and I’m really honored to have been asked to do this with the Mastodon boys,” Skinner wrote on his Facebook page (Facebook.com/theartofskinner). “They are incredible artists and explorative spirits. Always moving. Always changing and I love them!” You can pre-order the limited edition, two-LP vinyl exclusively at Mastodonrocks.com/preorder. This is one you’ll want to get your hands on! It’s a huge four panel pullout that “sort of tells the universal story of life and death,” according to the artist. You can also hear a ripping new track off the album called “High Road” on the band’s website. Skinner’s art and Mastodon’s sounds? Yeah, we’re into it!

Guide yourself through Sacramento’s many murals–with our help, of course

May is Bike Month occurs once a year, encouraging all Sacramentans to forgo gas-guzzlers and hit the streets on two-wheeled transportation. Learn to tune up your ride by attending the free bike clinics at any Mike’s Bikes location or participate in the Capitol Park Neighborhood Bike Ride pedaling over bridges and through trails with friends. But if it’s eye candy you’re after during a leisurely ride with fellow cyclists, Submerge has once again created a list of murals around the Midtown area you can appreciate while on your fixie, cruiser or single-speed. Artists featured this year include Shaun Burner, Alex “Cabron” Forster, Skinner and plenty more. Since last year’s map, a growing number of new murals have added a colorful touch to coffee shops, convenience stores and even a wildlife nonprofit building. Let this guide be your real-life Choose Your Own Adventure, except better, with bicycles and artistic expressions. Just plug these addresses into Google Maps and have at it!

Ishi
Valley Vision building – 2320 Broadway

Cabron
(Start of the tour)

Alex Forster, known as Cabron, won the Valley Vision’s mural contest in 2010, choosing to represent the Sacramento Valley’s past by painting the Native American Ishi of the Yahi tribe on the side of the non-profit building.

“I just wanted to show one iconic figure from that era and how demographics have changed,” says Cabron of the mural. “Ishi’s story was told in all the schools. He was supposedly the last of his tribe and he epitomizes that shift from the old world and the modern world clashing.”

Ishi’s intense eyes watch busy traffic whizzing by the intersection; stare back at Broadway and 24th Street.

A mural of monsters
Javalounge – 2416 16th Street

Skinner

Off the beaten path in the alleyway of the Javalounge coffee shop are a gang of monsters painted by local artist Skinner. His mural of ghouls survived a truck smashing into the art piece a couple years back according to the artist, who plans on touching up the piece before summer.

“I create because it is a function of who I am,” he says. “It’s in everyone. Everyone has an instinct to explore; it just depends on how much you pay attention to that aspect of yourself [and] how much you nurture your path of discovery.”

Skinner is currently at large in Florida doing what he does best.

Time to Wake Up
Royal Market – 1701 T Street

Shaun Burner

Living so close to a blank canvas was too tempting for artist Shaun Burner. Often frequenting Royal Market, Burner bugged owner Haripal Singh for permission to paint the building until he finally gave in.

“The open hand with the light coming out [signifies] letting go and the clenched fist with the dark oozing out is holding on,” explains Burner. “The diamond from the third eye for the crown Chakra and also in western culture, the diamond is revered as such a precious gem when the real gem is the mind.”

Artist and friend Mike Rodriguez also helped with Time to Wake Up, which is still a work in progress according to Burner.

El Tigre
Born Free USA non-profit building – 1122 S Street

Cabron

First Ishi, now El Tigre. Cabron once again brightens up the side of a non-profit building, this time, for Born Free USA near 12th and S streets.

“When I paint, I like to tell stories. When I hear a story, when I read a book, I visualize it,” he says of his art.

Catch the 85-foot-wide, monochromatic tiger during May is Bike Month and be sure to attend the soft opening in celebration of the mural on June 9. This Second Saturday event features DJ Dom Som, indie craft vendors and you can even meet Cabron himself.

Labor of Love
Limon’s Barber Salon – 1423 21st Street

Gabriel Romo and Joshua Silveira

Gabriel Romo is currently painting an exposition in Guadalajara, Mexico, with artists Shaun Burner and Miguel Perez. Romo’s Labor of Love mural rests on the side of an old, wooden shed next to Limon’s Barber Salon.

“That was the first mural I painted outside,” admits Romo. “That piece was inspired by heartbreak. It started out as an ‘emo piece’ about the labor of love, but it was something the owner was not too interested in. I reworked the idea to include the barber, his labor of love and the piece itself was my labor of love to the community.”

Artist Josh Silveira helped complete the mural alongside Romo, who says painting outside has become his new labor of love.

Psychedelic mural painted in 1973
Old Tower Records – 726 K Street

Frank Carson

K Street businesses have come and gone, but one iconic mural still remains. Chipped away in some areas, but still as bright and psychedelic as ever, is rock concert poster artist Frank Carson’s work. The mural was completed in 1973 and resides on the old Tower Records building. Check it out–man.

Sunday Morning in the Mines
Masonic Temple – 1123 J Street

Stephanie Taylor

Inspired by the original art piece that hangs in the Crocker Art Museum by German artist Charles Christian Nahl is Stephanie Taylor’s digital reprint on the side of the Masonic Temple on J Street. Whiz down the busy street, safely of course, and catch a glimpse of the men who appear to be climbing out of frame.

Ancient Futurism
Shine Coffee – 1400 E Street

Shaun Burner
(End of tour)

Slapped on the 14th Street side of Shine coffeehouse is another piece by Shaun Burner. Burner admits to just going with the flow when it came to painting this piece, throwing it up in a couple of hours.

“For me, it is a complete release… If I mess up I just make it into something else, not worrying about the line I just dropped or the one coming up, but the one at hand. For me, this is meditation,” says Burner. “It’s my tai chi. It’s a metaphor for life. Do the best you can with whatever you do. Don’t reflect on the past too much or worry about the future, but be present in this moment that is continually happening, and own that shit.”

Burner’s on-the-spot Ancient Futurisms make another appearance on the front of the Midtown Furniture & More store on E and 16th streets.

In order to properly celebrate local artist John Stuart Berger’s 20-plus years of showing art in the Sacramento community, the Fe Gallery is hosting a music and art gathering with a few of Berger’s close friends. Berger is known for creating colorful abstract art depicting animals and insects that most people could only imagine in their dreams. The celebration begins Saturday, March 10, 2012 from 6 to 9 p.m. showcasing art from Skinner, Robert Bowen, Matt136, Kim Scott, Carrie Cottini, Allen Carrier, Mark Fox, Val Fernandez, Melanie Bown, Ianna Frisby and many more. Also, stay tuned for live performances by Sacramento musicians like Jackson Griffith, Bobby Jordan, Kevin and Allyson Seconds, Andy Sheppard and Kepi Ghoulie. For more information call (916) 456-4455 or visit Fegallery.com

Track 7 Brewing Company sticks to its home brewing roots

Words & Photos by Adam Saake

All hail to the home brewer, the humble beginning of so many great beers we enjoy today. From an independent and environmentally conscious Sierra Nevada Brewing Company headed by Ken Grossman, who like many of today’s brewers started out with experimental 5-gallon batches, to home brewer Sam Calagione who grew the small Deleware brewery Dogfish Head into one of the most recognized and respected craft beer names in America. In short, great beer begins with a love of brewing and a passion to share it with those who love to drink it. Geoff Scott and Ryan Graham of Track 7 Brewing Company are among the ranks of home-brewers-turned-legit who share this same philosophy. Their recently opened brewery and taproom in the Land Park area, just over the Sutterville Pass, is sure to become an off the grid destination for beer drinkers and has already been established as a local watering hole for its surrounding neighbors.

Scott says that Track 7 has been open since the end of December and the space they occupy, an industrial warehouse with a rollup door, isn’t just a brewery.

“We got a special use permit from the city that allows us to manufacture and then have a tap room,” says Scott.

This mixed-use space creates something similar to what larger, more industrial-sized breweries attempt to accomplish in their accompanying restaurants or public view spaces. The difference is that Track 7’s space feels like you’re sitting and relaxing in the back yard of your friend’s house, except there are fermentation tanks off in the near distance making the delicious suds you’re savoring. The vibe is immediately neighborly. Couples cruise in with their dogs for a pint and groups of friends meet after a long day to unwind and chat with Geoff and his wife Rebecca, who greets guests from behind the bar and pours the day’s offerings from the orange and chrome taps.

Both Scott and Graham have been brewing beer for eight years. They started out by collecting their some-odd 15 batches of beer and having parties at their house where their friends would come over and enjoy the duo’s creations. But it wasn’t just their friends’ enjoyment and a collective skill for brewing good beer that motivated them to take the leap to brewery status.

“People said, your beer is really good, and at the same time our wives pretty much said, you have too much stuff at the house so you need to move it out. So it kind of worked out that way,” says Scott with a grin.

The transition from home brewing to having an actual brewery and operating on a larger scale wasn’t that difficult for the two in terms of process. Brewing was brewing. What did throw them for the loop was the assembly required to actually get started.

“One thing we struggled with was, the guy who built the brew house for us, he kind of just gave it to us and said here you go. We had to do all the piping underneath and it was like a giant puzzle trying to put it all together. We went off of one picture,” says Scott.

But the brewery did come together and the beer has been pumping out. Both Scott and Graham have different styles and tastes, which balances out their selections. Scott is more into IPAs and stouts like their Soulman Stout or Big 4 Strong Ale, where Graham gravitates more toward the Belgium style beers like their Alkali Wit that boasts flavors of coriander and orange. These beers, along with the rest of their concoctions, are all carried over from their days of brewing small batches and experimenting. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

“It’s interesting. Some beers like the Wit we probably tinkered around 25 plus times, and others like the Big 4 were born on the second or third try and that’s how they ended up,” explains Scott.

The four founders are dedicated to community and take pride in being a Sacramento brewery. Local artists like Skinner and Jesse Baggs have designed their bottle labels; their taproom table, a recovered railroad track and glass top, was also designed by a local artist. The name itself, Track 7, is derivative of railroad slang that refers to being out on the furthest track. Scott and Graham, two very down-to-earth guys, had a connection to this slang and felt it appropriate for their new venture. The beers they brew speak to their humble nature; thoughtfully crafted with balance and unique flavor. All eyes will be on Track 7 to see what they grow their new brewery into.

Track 7 Brewing Company’s taproom is located at 3747 West Pacific Avenue, Suite F, Sacramento. The brewery has a few events lined up for Sacramento Beer Week, including the release of a new beer Trainwreck Belgian IPA, which will be available at Track 7 starting Feb. 24, 2012. For more info on what they’ll be up to during Beer Week, go to Track7brewing.com.

Toy Sculptor Jay222 follows his gut… and then spills it on his grotesque creations

Following your instincts may sound like the easiest thing in the world to do, unless of course a primal urge is pulling you in an unlikely direction. East Bay toy sculptor Jay222 can certainly relate. Just a handful of years ago, he was enrolled in the Paul Mitchell school, studying hard at the hopes of “working full-force in a salon” as a hair stylist. But a class in special effects/horror movie makeup drastically changed the course of his life.

“That one-day class made me want to put all my focus toward creating monsters instead of doing people’s hair,” he says.

Though his skill at his craft may speak of a life’s work, in reality Jay is relatively new to sculpting. He says he started in 2006, barely five years ago. In fact, fine arts were just something he appreciated in the past. He admits he used to “paint a little bit,” but one day he went down to an art store to pick up some clay and decided to make sculpts of his friends just to see how they would come out and to impress the many visitors to his then home in Daly City, Calif.

Scratchy Seal Robot

“We always had a lot of people over,” Jay says. “I’d constantly come into contact with so many new people, and I just thought it would be dope if the people who lived in the house had their own figures set up on the fireplace.”

The turn in Jay’s path that led him to toy sculpting occurred when he wanted to bestow a fellow artist with a token of his esteem. After getting tattooed by Horitaka, a renowned tattoo artist and owner of State of Grace in San Jose, Calif., Jay made his way to San Francisco to buy him a gift.

“I was loving his tattoo work,” Jay explains. “I was loving what he put on me. He’s such an amazing artist, so I wanted to give him a gift. I went down to Haight Street in San Francisco–Kidrobot–and I came across a tattooed Dunny [“a blank canvas designed to be repainted and reinterpreted by artists from many different backgrounds,” according to the Kidrobot website; it takes its name from its cartoonish rabbit shape] that Huck Gee had made. That was my first exposure to the art toys, and from there, I was just hooked.”

Jay isn’t the first fine artist to make the jump into making art toys. For example, in addition to the work of Gee, a United Kingdom-born illustrator and toy sculptor, Kidrobot’s Dunny series also includes the work of Japanese manga artist Junko Mizuno and Frank Kozik, best known for his iconic rock posters.

“I think a lot of it has to do with nostalgia, but it’s also something you can hold,” Jay says of the fine art toy movement. “You can bring it with you. You can bring it on trips. You’re able to collect them and display them as three-dimensional art pieces in your home or studio. I think that has a lot to do with it.”

Qbert Mixer

Whatever the reason, toys are clearly not just for kids any more. A quick perusal of Jay’s creations is proof of that. On his website, Jay222toy.blogspot.com, Jay has posted videos (one featuring DJ Qbert) of the artist at work. In them, you can see as he turns blank, white, rodent-shaped action figures into grotesque (yet still kind of cute) creatures–the kind that would make George Romero, Sam Raimi or even Italian “Godfather of Gore” Lucio Fulci proud. Jay’s horror-inspired work can also be found here in Sacramento at Dragatomi, which features his splatter-ific Benny Burlap sculpts and the charmingly nauseating Up-Chuck Throw-Up Kids figure. What’s remarkable about these creations isn’t only the vivid and twisted imagination behind them, but also the level of detail. Strangely enough, it’s Jay’s training as a hairdresser that honed is skill in recreating sinew and fascia.

“At [the Paul Mitchell school], they teach you all anatomy,” Jay says. “I studied it during school and kept all the books and kept looking at all the anatomy and kept trying to match the muscle tissue in the books and recreate what it would look like on these characters.”

Jay will bring a whole slew of memorable characters to Dragatomi April 9 with the opening of his latest art show. A tribute to one of his all-time favorite films, Big Trouble in Little China, this will be the first show for which Jay has served as curator. He’s getting off to quite a start, too. Also featured alongside Jay will be notable artists such as local favorite Skinner, Dave Correia, Task One and Alex Pardee.

“I met Alex a couple years back at Wondercon,” Jay says of Pardee. “When I first saw his work, it really blew me away–his detail, his colors, his imagination. He’s brilliant. He’s a genius. His work really caught me, and I’ve always been a big fan. I was really stoked when he said he’d be down for it.”

Jay describes Big Trouble in Little China as a film that has “everything.” Debuting in 1986 and starring Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall, it’s a story of a truck driver (Russell) who ends up in the thick of an ancient, mystical battle in Chinatown. The action-adventure/comedy was directed by John Carpenter, better known for his horror films such as The Serpent and the Rainbow and the Halloween series (the good one, not the Rob Zombie one).

“It had black magic, sword fight scenes, martial arts, comedy, monsters, creatures,” Jay gushes about Big Trouble in Little China “It had everything that’s awesome about a movie in one movie.”

While his love for the campy classic is clear, would other artists jump on board and share his fervor for the film?

“I wasn’t really sure how it would go over, because I’ve never seen a show that was based on one film,” Jay says. “I’m sure there have been gallery showings that are based on one film, but I wasn’t aware of any, and I wasn’t sure how it would go over with other artists.”

However, Jay stuck with his original idea, and in the end found that others were just as stoked about the project as he was. “It felt right,” he says.

Jay also went with his gut when creating his contribution to the show. He sculpted the Three Storms, characters from the film imbued with the powers of thunder, rain and lightning, which will be available in three different versions thanks to Task One, who helped Jay with the roto-cast resin process.

“I kind of normally stick with my first instincts as to what to make,” Jay says.

And why not? They seem to be serving him well thus far.

Remote Control

Big Trouble in Little China: A Tribute opened at Dragatomi on April 9. A full list of participating artists can be found at Jay222’s website, Jay222toy.blogspot.com. Dragatomi is located at 2317 J Street in Sacramento and online at Dragatomi.com

Artist Robert Bowen returns to Sacramento for group show

A collection of exotic colored butterflies and beetles mounted in simple black frames hangs on the studio walls of San Francisco based artist Robert Bowen. Scattered around the room are various other oddities: animal skulls and mounted antlers, curious antiques and Disney collectibles. The latter might not seem so odd in comparison to the others, but in Bowen’s paintings he reveals to us exactly how he feels about Mickey and friends. One in particular shows Mickey Mouse standing at the center of the composition, his cartoon white hands rise into the air and violent electricity passes between his eight fingers. His head is cocked up, revealing his iconic grin that now seems sinister. Behind him is an enormous elephant skull; the tusks curling and mimicking Mickey’s shocking arch.

Although it all seems dark and sick at first glance, it’s hard not to ponder his sense of humor in all of this. Who paints Mario Lanza next to a giant banana that peels to reveal octopus tentacles? Or, Peter Criss of KISS appearing as Jesus with two giant kittens resting innocently in the foreground? It’s completely twisted but in a way that you can feel alright about being totally invested in it. A painting like St. Elmo’s Fire shows Bowen’s hilarious generational approach to subject matter. The lovable Sesame Street character Elmo is pictured as a biblical saint breathing fire as a white dove flies overhead.

“It’s what I thought was a pretty silly joke and then it turns out to be a painting I’m kind of proud of,” says Bowen.

Bowen himself isn’t the only one impressed with his paintings. Recently, Juxtapoz magazine said that Bowen “is overdue to blow up in the art world.” Even genre superstars like Alex Pardee (whom Bowen has collaborated with) have chimed in on his skills with a paintbrush.

Juxtapoz is arguably one of the high ranking authorities on pop surrealism (lowbrow if you can get away with it, new contemporary if you’re selling to the big wigs) and a glance through the monthly publication will surely point you in the direction of who and what is making waves in the scene. And though Bowen has had his time to shine, many artists who have done so similarly are no longer new and interesting and have simply become a drop in that ocean past the breakers. The key is change and, furthermore, reinvention. Artists like Doze and Twist (the latter who was an important influence for Bowen) have continued to reinvent themselves along the way and have thus staked a future claim for themselves in an oversaturated genre. Bowen is on track to do just that. He has continued to evolve by incorporating stencil, mixed media and sculpture into his shows and isn’t stopping there.

“I want to have bronze works of some of the elements in my paintings,” says Bowen. “Some of the figures and whimsical characters would make really cool bronze sculptures. It’s always in the back of my mind.”

For Bowen, bronzing harks back to his art school days, when he learned quickly that the painting program wasn’t for him. With his introversion toward other students and an overbearing faculty, Bowen eventually “gave up on having art school teach” him how to paint. Since he was already enrolled, Bowen made the switch to a major in sculpture, hoping to have better luck with his formal art education.

A glance at Bowen’s own art history leaves me wondering why he chose to attend art school in the first place. Graffiti was Bowen’s first love and on the walls is where he learned to paint and where he studied color theory and composition. When Bowen was a kid, art programs were being cut (sound familiar?) and there weren’t many outlets for creative expression.

“When we were all growing up, public schools were falling by the wayside,” recalls Bowen. “It’s sad that kids have to resort to doing something that’s considered illegal to get an artistic background.”

The graffiti influence is seen in Bowen’s paintings in a way that lends itself to his stylistic approach. The bright, bold colors of spray paint translate to acrylic selections on the canvas and what we see is beautifully rendered characters and natural world specimens mixed with lifelike portraits of pop icons like Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian or Batboy from the pages of Weekly World News. What I like about Bowen is that he’s a sort of keeper of all things cool in pop culture. He paints them to mock them, yes, but he also paints to preserve them. The images from his childhood are sacred inside his own mind, and we’re offered an exclusive glance at what he chooses to unearth via these portraits. He’s not embarrassed about being a self-proclaimed pop culture geek, and he’s quick to defend his favorite relics. A recent Twitter post from Bowen reads, “Dear Hollywood, PLEASE stop ruining everything that was cool about my youth one shitty movie at a time. It’s getting really sad…”

It wouldn’t be fair to pigeonhole Bowen by only shining a spotlight on his horror-like characters or his pop culture icons, though. The Audubon Society is a peak interest for Bowen, and we see that abundantly in his paintings. Out of the 51 images in his online gallery, nearly a quarter of them feature some sort of bird or bird-like element. And it doesn’t end there. Sloth, ferrets, tarantulas, bees, what appears to be Bowen’s dog and even Bowen himself make regular appearances in his work. Those curious collections that decorate his studio are fodder for his creativity, and he has no problem locking himself away and painting whatever sparks his interest.

“I’m kind of a hermit and I stay home,” says Bowen. “I’m totally fine just sitting in here and painting.”

You’d think living in San Francisco would prove to be a distraction. I know many creative minds that have lost their way in a city that has way too much to do all time. But Bowen maintains his focus, and maybe he learned a thing or two by living in a city with a slower pace. Bowen lived in Sacramento for about seven years before he made the move back to the Bay Area where he grew up. While living in Sacramento, he crafted his painting style alongside talented locals like John Stuart Berger, Kim Scott and Skinner. The late and sorely missed Toyroom Gallery was an important meeting spot for all these artists and Bowen showed there often.

“They always wanted to put us in shows,” remembers Bowen. “I showed a lot with Alex Pardee and Poor Al.”

After the Toyroom closed, many of the artists who showed there frequently continued to produce art but all went off in their own directions. There were scattered galleries here and there that offered shows that were similar, but none offered the kind of regular support and progression that Toyroom did.

“They had a good eye at the time, and they brought to the town what was needed and what wasn’t there. It’s a shame that it didn’t last very long because I think it’s still needed,” says Bowen.

Even though Bowen is “the one that got away,” he still has a special place in his heart for Sacramento. He’ll return June 12 like a prodigal son for the opening reception of Beyond the Frame at the Solomon Dubnick Gallery. Also on board for the exhibit are John Stuart Berger, Kim Scott, Gale Hart, Joshua Silveira and many others. Come see for yourself what makes a Robert Bowen show so hard to look away from.

The Places In-Between

Sacramento is home to John Stuart Berger, a prolific artist who has been creating and showing his paintings for over 20 years. With two decades under his belt, you might imagine a man jaded and burnt-out. He is quite the contrary, instead painting constantly and showing regularly-all while raising his 4-year-old son and teaching art to disabled adults at the Short Center North.

“I’m constantly painting. It’s the one thing that everybody always asks me, ‘Do you have a show coming up?’ and a lot of the times I don’t,” he says.
Lucky for you, this time, he does. His show, titled The Ubiquitous Mandible Crushing Sideshow, opens April 11, 2009 at the Upper Playground in Sacramento and runs through May 31. Submerge met up with John at his studio inside the Verge Gallery on 19th and V in Midtown to discuss painting, growing up in Danville and male bonding.

You have a show this month at Upper Playground. Are you doing all brand-new paintings for the show?
For the most part they’re new for Sacramento; some of the pieces I’ve shown in Los Angeles and San Francisco. With the exception of maybe three pieces, they’re all new to Sacramento and then 70 or 80 percent of them I’ve never shown before. I’ve just stashed them away over the last couple months.

Over the past three years, according to your Web site, you’ve done over 130 paintings and I’m sure there’s many more. What kind of time schedule do you create for yourself so that you can be so prolific?
It’s hard [laughs]. I kind of joke and say that I don’t eat and sleep. The fact is, I have a 4-year-old son and he keeps me really busy. I have to make blocks of time. My wife has a really variable schedule too, but usually she has some nights off. So, there are one or two nights a week that I come here to the studio or there’s the male bonding thing over at Skinner’s house [laughs]. We call it that, but occasionally we do get some women that do that whole thing.

But then it’s not as fun because there’s not as many fart jokes, right?
Right, right. We totally want the women to come to the space, but it’s so dominated by testosterone”¦ I mean, I’d be afraid if I were a woman.

I know you and Skinner Davis are pretty good friends and have worked and painted closely together. Have you noticed his style or even his work ethic rub off on you over the years?
I don’t know if we really influenced or rubbed off on each other. I think we just fed off each other’s energy more than anything. I think technically we come from two different backgrounds. He’s got a big comic book influence, which you can totally see in the line work of his paintings. I’ve got that a little bit; I looked at a few comic books when I was a kid but I actually learned to draw from field guides and old 18th century etchings and shit like that.

That’s where that animal and plant influence comes from then?
If you look at some of the stuff, it’s that three-quarter profile shot of the birds. It’s classic field guide—Audubon staging—and that’s where I learned to draw. We lived out in the country in Danville when it was very rural. The community that we lived in didn’t even have a sidewalk so it was all ditches and roads, and we had 60 or 70 acres behind us. I was very influenced by that surrounding. We had this big creek behind our house that I would always go to and admire all the crazy plants and animals. Then I got into field guides. I could draw from them because I could have them with me; draw before I went to bed and draw when I was outside. Then I would have fun mutating the animals and breaking them down and doing composite studies.

Looking at your work, it all seems like a photo album of candid snapshots of this alternate animal universe.
Yeah, it’s funny. A few years ago I was showing at more of a fine art venue, like Solomon Dubnick and Himovitz and now I’m showing at these urban”¦like”¦I don’t even know what you would call it. I’m sure there’s a label that’s more appropriate. It’s considered lowbrow now I guess. It’s defined as pop surrealism and it’s fragmented off all these different things.

I just call it Juxtapoz-y.
It’s just that these people have a very different background than me. These guys are all comic books and cartoons. A lot of the stuff that’s popular right now comes from that. I did a little bit of that. I did some skating as a kid and I read a few comic books, but my emphasis and where I drew a lot of my inspiration from is totally different. It’s kind of weird and awkward sometimes too. Everybody looks at you and tries to figure you out. Sometimes I almost feel like I don’t really fit into the fine art thing, and I don’t really fit into what’s going on now. I shift back and forth in the parameters of both.

Do you think that’s a good thing?
I think it’s good. I mean, everybody’s art is derivative in a sense, but I think that it makes me less derivative”¦ I obviously do have influences and then people can draw correlations that make me derivative, anybody can do that. They can construct a hypothesis of who you are but I like the fact that I’m just doing whatever it is that I do, and that I do have a different background. I think a lot of people have a hard time identifying, because I don’t do a lot of people. For a while I tried to lecture myself. I’d ask myself, “Should I do people?” You go through these periods where you beat yourself up. You just get really introspective. Then you’re comfortable and say, this is just what I do for whatever reason.

You said you can be real introspective, which is self-inflicted criticism. Have there been any outside criticisms that have made you question how or what you paint?
If anybody says anything that can be construed as being negative, it would be that everything looks so angry. This older stuff [motions to a painting of fish with piranha-like teeth that hangs on the wall], this is 13 or 14 years old, it’s got these really dark and shadowy backgrounds. Everybody refers to those as everything looking dead; dead and angry, with teeth! I put teeth in everything and I don’t know why I do it. I think I’m fascinated with the whole predation thing; things consuming other things. Now it’s gone to parasites. That’s just my geek background again.

You’re painting the whole field guide, from the parasites, to the birds, to the reptiles.
And I’ve got a whole arsenal of old textbooks. Those are the greatest. If you go to thrift stores, for 50 cents you can pick up an old biology textbook. Just some of the plates you can draw from are great. I got this really great paleontology book a few years ago; it’s just got the most incredible etching line work drawings that are inspiring.

As far as acquiring shows and selling artwork, do you feel that Sacramento has been good to you?
I’m in a weird place right now. I’ve been showing in Sacramento for almost 20 years, which is crazy to think about. I kind of feel like artists are a lot like bands. When you are up-and-coming, everyone wants to see you. Then you get to that point where everybody has seen you”¦ You’ve saturated the market, basically. So the next obvious thing to do is go to the bigger markets. But the bigger markets don’t know who you are, and they either pick up their own people that they’re into or they’re big enough that they’re getting really big people. So, you totally get lost in that shuffle too. So, I’m kind of in that in between area where I’m a little fish in a big pond and I’ve kind of worn out my welcome. That’s the way that I feel, like I’m in this whole in between. Nobody really knows who I am, or everybody’s seen me”¦ But as far as Sacramento being good to me, I like Sacramento. I like the size of it and the fact that everything’s tangible. Proximity too, I can easily go to San Francisco and do a show and it’s no big deal. Then basically everybody that I’ve shown with, artists and galleries combined, I’ve really enjoyed and had a good time. I’ve got a lot of positive feedback here. I’ve had very few bad experiences.

You said you have a 4-year-old son. How has that influenced the way you make art?
He’s probably become aware—what I would consider aware—of my work in the past six to eight months. We’ll go somewhere, around town, and he’ll see stuff 500 hundred feet away and say, “Oh my god, that’s one of daddy’s paintings!” As far as how I approach my artwork, the only thing that’s really changed is how I divide my time up. I really want to be a good dad and spend time with him, but I obviously have this thing where I want to get artwork done. I really have to make my time count, because I used to be a little more haphazard with my time. That’s the influence. I have to structure my life differently so I can still get work done because that’s important to me.

We’ve heard from just about everybody about how bad the economy is and how we are in a recession, etc. Have you been affected or are there always economic ups and downs as an artist?
Ironically enough I’ve already been through one. It wasn’t as bad of a recession as this. Actually it was…when George Bush Sr. was in office. So, I’ve already seen that fluctuation, but this time it’s definitely a lot worse. I just don’t sell as many paintings, but I’ve always been somebody that’s had a day job. I’ve got a couple friends that rely a little bit more heavily” on their art or a facet of their art to make their primary income, and they’re hurting.

Skinner Foresees the Fall of Man with His Latest Exhibition

Whether you’re a nerd, stoner or activist, Skinner’s art may speak to you. The Sacramento-based artist has had his work adorn local architecture ranging from the Sacramento City Skate Park to Big Brother Comics, and now with his upcoming show at Upper Playground, entitled No More the World of Man, Skinner hopes to “raise the bar” for himself.

“It’s fun for me to do these insane art shows, and this is the first time I’ve gotten really socio-political and it’s because my mindset is now so affected by the Bush administration and the world beneath that,” says the artist. “I feel like we’re an obnoxious entitled white culture. I think it’s bullshit. I think a lot of things need to be addressed before we can become this evolved, peaceful society of people. And if that doesn’t happen, fuck it. I don’t think there should be any babies for 100 years, and then the animals can have the planet back and everything will be cool.”

In addition to the show’s content, Skinner will also employ a few different techniques to create a more engaging event than simply looking at paintings hung on a wall. The artist has welded life size bodies and swords to adorn the gallery space and 3-D glasses will be available to heighten the viewing experience. He says the glasses work by separating the color spectrums of his paintings causing some colors to appear closer to the eye while others seem further away. The effect is rather trippy.

“I’d probably go to jail for giving everyone LSD-laced Kool-Aid, so I’ll just give them some 3-D glasses,” he jokes.

No More the World of Man opens as part of Second Saturday on July 12 and runs through August at Upper Playground on J Street. In anticipation of the event, Skinner gave Submerge a brief window into his “weird ass brain” during a recent interview.

I’ve heard the term “lowbrow art” used to describe your work, and I was wondering how you felt about that.
See, I think that’s an interesting term. It’s an interesting term, but it can be used in a negative way. It marginalizes the message or the effort of something. When something is considered lowbrow, it marginalizes what it’s capable of doing and what it’s capable of being. I personally think my artwork is fantasy art, even though it’s not traditional oil painting stuff. It’s fantasy art. There’s so many mixtures of influences in my art, but primarily I would say it’s fantasy art with tendencies toward socio-political commentary. I think the term lowbrow art doesn’t necessarily apply to what I’m doing, because I may smoke a lot of weed, but I’m not stupid.

It seems like a condescending term.
Well, it was a direct rebellion from the pretentious fine art movement, which is so fucking lame and boring.

What kind of things politically do you hope to express with your work?
There have always been these struggles in society between the upper class and the lower class. I provoke a lot of those influences in my art. Also, the idea that we are struggling in this society, especially since this is a capitalist society where the people with the money have everything—the conveniences and the luxury—and basically everyone else is making sure that that happens by working very hard for very little pay. There are some gender inequalities and social inequalities that I find to be totally infuriating. I’m trying to provoke some thought with my art without standing on a soapbox.

Since your art features a lot of monsters and other fantasy images, do you think viewers pick up on the messages or is that not something that concerns you?
I think people pick up on whatever they’re going to pick up on in art. A lot of people like looking at a character doing nothing in a painting, and I think that’s fine, but it’s just not for me. I provide the influences and creativity that I’m a part of, or that I see is relevant in my life and put it out there. I feel like even if people aren’t catching on to whatever knowledge I’m trying to kick out there, or whatever thing I’m trying to share, that they see there’s a level of sincerity to it. I’m grateful if anybody can feel that way about what I’m doing.

When I first saw your paintings I picked up on the Dungeons and Dragons influence because I used to play myself. When did you get turned on to D&D?
I was like 15. I just got into it. There was no social pressure; there were no sports. It wasn’t anything fucked up. You could just draw and get weird and eat pizza with your friends and get into something that’s escapism. I think the reason I try to maintain that level of naïveté or innocence in my artwork is because that’s the part of myself that I see that I love in other people. When I see someone who’s hella old or in a business suit or something like, but then there are these little moments when they act like a kid or you can see how they must’ve been like when they were little, that to me is the magical shit right there. How you were and who you were before you were influenced by social pressures and our social structures, which kind of steer you into column A, B or C. I’m just like fuck all that. That shit doesn’t make me happy. Competitive capitalist ideology—I can’t flow with that shit.

Your work is really psychedelic also. When did your fantasy influences start to merge with the more hallucinatory stuff?
I started to research a lot of these Mexican and South American tribes and their usage of psychedelics. I noticed that their awareness of the color spectrum and their ability to use colors to create optical illusions and create a level of intensity that I found very spiritual and strange. I introduced that into my work; a lot of artists now are using low tones and mid-tones, tans and dark greens and stuff, but I just got brighter and brighter. I just like it. It looks really good to me. Plus, I did a lot of acid in high school and I would take a lot of drugs. It was really hard for me to exist with my weird ass brain in Auburn.