"Purity of Heart" triptych : Latest mural project in Denmark

Here are some shots of my second mural project in Aalborg, Denmark, titled "Purity of Heart". The title of this triptych comes from the popular book by Søren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing.

"A Providence watches over each man’s wandering through life. It provides him with two guides. The one calls him forward. The other calls him back. They are, however, not in opposition to each other, these two guides, nor do they leave the wanderer standing there in doubt, confused by the double call. Rather the two are in eternal understanding with each other. For the one beckons forward to the Good, the other calls man back from evil. Nor are they blind guides. Just for that reason there are two of them. For in order to make the journey secure, they must look both forward and backward."

This was commissioned by Martin Nielsen, who recently renovated this century old orphanage. The murals face a large assisted living facility, and every day I painted I felt an extra sense of obligation to my elderly audience to make something beautiful. I also wanted to paint a powerful, dignified portrait of my friend Dame's father Fabian, who has been battling cancer for years.
Painting this was an amazing experience. Many thanks to the Nielsen family and Galerie Wolfsen for making this happen. Thanks also, once again, to Ari & Lone for all their help. Thanks to Lacheln & Fabian for posing, and to everyone else that showed support.

"Our Lady of Aalborg" : New Mural in Denmark

Here are shots of a mural I just painted in Aalborg, Denmark while there for my solo show at Galerie Wolfsen. The mural is titled "Our Lady of Aalborg". It's across the street from the maternity ward of Aalborg University Hospital, so an iconic symbol of motherly love seemed appropriate for this location. Painting this was complicated by unpredictable weather and rain, but it was a great experience. Painting three stories up in a lift while it's raining isn't so bad, at least in retrospect. Many thanks to Rasmus and Kent of Galerie Wolfsen for making this mural possible. Thanks also to my brother from another mother Ari Bracamonte for providing ground support for the entire process. Thanks also to Bri Acsani for modeling, Lone Allen for her help, and everyone else that showed support.

Solo show in Denmark + Group show in Los Angeles

Just a quick little update on a couple upcoming gallery shows.

I'm having a solo show this month opening May 16th at Galerie Wolfsen in Aalborg, Denmark. This will be my first solo show in Europe, and the first one since 2010. I'm really excited to be back in Denmark again and show work here.
*Update* The opening has been pushed from May 8th to the 16th due to a small medical emergency at the gallery. All's good. Apologies!



I'm also showing a new painting in "Selfish", a group show of self-portraits at Katherine Cone Gallery in Los Angeles. The show opens May 4th and runs until June 22nd. It should be good..

Mural commissioned by Rapt Studio for Adobe

I was commissioned by Rapt Studio of San Francisco to paint this mural for the new Adobe campus in Utah. It was exciting and an honor to be part of such a cool project, since Adobe has become such an important force in modern creativity through programs like Photoshop, and the building itself is a huge work of art.
I consider myself somewhat of a traditionalist, in that I favor a classical approach to art that emphasizes drawing from life, painting from observation, studying the great masters of the past, etc. I also embrace the use of modern tools such as photography and, of course, spraypaint (although you could argue that those examples aren't really that recent considering that people were blowing pigment on cave walls over 40,000 years ago, and the camera obscura has been around since the time of Leonardo Da Vinci). For this company that has had such a huge technological impact on art over the last few decades I wanted to paint an image representing an innocent approach to creativity, something that could convey the fundamental appeal and power of creation that's inside all of us.
Many thanks to Cory and everyone at Rapt Studio, Adobe, MTN, Kim, Carol & Noah, and especially Milena for modeling.
Process photos above by Weston Colton


This is a pretty classy video just released by Rapt that documents some of the process.

"Birds of No Nation" for the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial (@ QAGOMA)

These are shots of a large mural-sized canvas commissioned for the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial in Australia, which opens this weekend. It is a collaboration with Shamsia Hassani and the Propeller Group. Shamsia Hassani is the first and probably only serious female graffiti writer in Afghanistan, and is also an associate professor in the Fine Arts Department at Kabul University. I painted the central figure in the piece based on photos I took of her, using spraypaint and fatcaps, freehand as usual. Shamsia painted the surrounding designs and poetry with spraypaint and acrylic. It reads:

پرنده های بی وطن ،همه اسیرن مثل من ،صدای خواندن ندارن

Birds of no nation
Are all captive
Like me
With no voice for singing

We painted the piece in Saigon, Viet Nam, where The Propeller Group is based. They coordinated the entire project, and are behind a few previous collaborations together in Viet Nam and Singapore. This project is part of VNTWT, and they created this video documenting and discussing the process.

Many thanks to Tuan, Matt & Phunam of TPG & VNTWT, Shamsia, the good folks at San Art, QAGOMA, APT7 (and airport security in Kabul) for making this possible..this was a really special, inspiring project.

It will be on view from 8 December 2012 - 14 April 2013 at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane.

No Doubt print release

No Doubt will be releasing a fancy, high quality print today of the paintings I did for the cover of their new album. The prints are 27x27"..signed by myself as well as the band, printed with a raised glossy metallic black ink over a matte white ink on heavy Stonehenge paper...
More info HERE & order HERE

"Old Earth" : New mural in Santa Fe with Kofie

So I've been on the road the last month or so and haven't kept up with blogging so this is a little late by internet standards...

These are pictures of a mural I painted with my good friend Kofie in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Tesuque Village Market. This mural was painted as part of "The Hour Has Arrived" during the Santa Fe Indian Market. The portrait is based on a photo I took earlier in the week of Rose Fragua, of Jemez Pueblo.

Thanks to Kofie, Jaque Fragua, N8VPA, all the good folks at the Tesuque Village Market, Rose B. Simpson, Henry Chalfant(who took the second photo from the top, and is THE Henry Chalfant of Subway Art), Yatika Fields, Gavin, Zane, Sug, TNR crew..and everyone else that helped in some way.. special thanks to El Ice Plant of Santa Fe which hooked up some shirts and has the most amazing logo of a Zapatista Penguin ever..