At last, UNDEFEATED Artwork and Photos!

Hey-hey-hello! At long last, I've uploaded photos and shots of the artwork for my current solo exhibition, UNDEFEATED. Sorry this was so long in coming for all you fine peoples who aren't able to see the show in person. My life took a fairly extreme flip the week the opening. Since then, I've been in the process of moving The Bunker to a new location, and terribly preoccupied with all the wonderful details that go into apartment/studio hunting in a big city. But, ultimately, the show must go on! So enjoy the photos below.


The guys at D-Structure were great, and let me just fill up the space however I saw fit. I'd created these large wooden-cut-out characters, and gotten them mounted on a few walls. And while I was locked in for an all-nighter before the day of the opening, it dawned on me to rock this mural over the paintings, from the front of the store to the back. It really helped tie everything together.

"Undefeated"
house paint on wood

"Title Bout"
house paint on wood

The Angel & The Brute going head-to-head!

"Victory"
house paint on wood

The Angel marches ahead, to do battle with The Brute
and his horde of mutated pugilists.

Winged children -- the followers of The Angel

Warped & Twisted Adults -- subjects/victims of The Brute
*** It's about here that I actually fell off of the ladder
I was working atop of. Luckily (fueled by coffee, Red Bull and
Pop Tarts) I landed on my feet like a kitty cat!***


The Brute & His Horde

For this exhibit, I really wanted to break out of my regular "illustration mold" and challenge myself as a painter. I feel like I learned a lot making this much work, and on such a variety of scale & style. And I'm already starting to implement those lessons in pieces for a charity show in SF this September, a group show in LA in January, and a new body of work that will take me well into 2010. So below, for your viewing pleasure, is the first step in an exciting new direction for my fine arts, illustration and painted works.

"A World Without Good"
oil, acrylic, and collage on canvas

"Bookie By The Bay"
oil and acrylic on canvas

"Bring It"
oil, acrylic, and collage on canvas

"The Unavoidable Conflict of
Plus Versus Minus"
oil, acrylic, and collage on wood

"Awakening"
mixed media on illustration board

"Call To Arms"
oil and acrylic on wood
SOLD

"For Love Or The Gun"
acrylic on retired silkscreen

"Booty & The Beast"
acrylic and collage on wood

Hope you enjoyed this little virtual tour of my show. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think. My imagination is already rolling and tumbling like a monster-sized cement mixer for the next exhibit... cooking up something even bigger and wilder than UNDEFEATED. So, as always, stay tuned to this blog and hiredmeat.com for more updates, sneak peeks, and hooty-hoos!

In the meantime....

BUNKER OUT!

UNDEFEATED Press Release

Below is the press release for my solo show. Feel free to copy the text, grab the flyer image and re-post, email, and share the living hell out of it all. I'm hoping to get as much press as possible for this exhibit. So by all means, feel free to help me spread the gospel of the Hiredmeat!

With mad love for all my Bunker Folk,

- Bunker, out.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

“UNDEFEATED”PAINTINGS AND RECENT WORKS BY
DAVE CROSLAND
www.hiredmeat.com

AUGUST 7 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 2
OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY AUGUST 7, 8 – 11PM
with DJ’S TRIZZAE, KERO ONE, GREEN TEA, and THE TONESRSVP AT www.going.com/undefeated

D-STRUCTURE SF 520 HAIGHT ST.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117
415.557.2431
www.d-structuresf.com

Dave Crosland’s UNDEFEATED is a visual story following the eternal conflict of Good versus Evil, characterized by The Angel, a giant in boxing gloves, and The Brute, a beastly wolf-headed boxer. This solo exhibition features these nemesis behemoths as they face off for the fate of all humanity. The Angel battles with love, nature and creation – the essence of life. The Brute employs fury, vice and destruction – the keys to mankind’s undoing. Along with the giant pugilists, these new works also focus on ordinary people caught up in the sway of the fight. From innocent children heeding the call of The Angel, to mutated adults warped by the dark promises of The Brute, Crosland illustrates a world that balances brooding ferocity with childlike hopefulness. At times colorful and controlled, at others raw and explosive, these paintings, drawings and large wooden cut-outs represent classical themes while reaching beyond black and white archetypes. The end result is an exciting tale told in paint, pencil, ink and wood that will capture viewers’ hearts and imaginations. In dark days like these, it’s easy to think that Evil has the forces of Good on the ropes. But they’re not out of the fight yet. Not by a long shot.

Dave Crosland is an independent illustrator based in San Francisco’s Lower Haight district. UNDEFEATED is his third and most ambitious solo exhibition to date. His previous works include comic art for Image Comics and IDW Publishing, character designs for Cartoon Network and Disney, and album art for Blueprint and Gym Class Heroes. Since the start of his career in the year 2000, Crosland’s original artwork has been enjoyed by private collectors of all ages, both in the USA and abroad.For more info, visit www.hiredmeat.com and www.d-structuresf.com.

The Annunciation

So I've picked up The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, again, and am at the part where one of the main characters is a radioman in a remote Antarctic outpost. And I realized, "Hey, it's about time I sent a report out from my own hidden Bunker.

I apologize for being out of touch for more than a week. I wish I could say I was on some tropical vacation or modeling off the coast of Saint Barts with spider monkeys. But naw... I was just here, working my ebony ass off. One of the results of said ass-working-off was the diptych above, titled "The Annunciation."

It's for UNDEFEATED in August, and will appear on some of the promo material. The piece depicts The Angel boxer beckoning children to follow him and on his road to put Good back on top. This is a theme I'm revisiting in a few paintings for the exhibit. I'll try to get another piece (that's still in progress) scanned for a little blog show-and-tell this week, between the other things on my plate. For now, I hope you enjoy this one.

Oh, and welcome to the new blog subscribers! Nice to see the list growing a bit. Tell your friends to sign up, too... everyone's invited!

Peace and Monday meats.
- Bunker, out.

D-Structure Drawing Session Video

UNDEFEATED // DAVE CROSLAND //DSSF from Azikiwee Anderson on Vimeo.

My friends at D-Structure put together this time-lapse video of me working on the "Angel Versus Brute" drawing. Enjoy, and be sure to check out more on the D-Structure Blog!

- Bunker, out.

Sketch 74: Angel Versus Brute

Last Thursday, I had another drawing session on D-Structure's patio. I rocked the sketch for the third and final installation piece I'll be doing, depicting a scene from the epic battle between The Angel and The Brute. The drawing itself is about 8 feet tall by 11 feet wide. I got to really slosh the paint around and get wild with this one, since the image called for more energy and movement.

All in all, I'm please with how these have all come out, though I'm planning some tweaks in the poses in the final paintings on wood. June and July are my months to actually make all this stuff. So get ready for a glut of boxers, kids with wings, and mutant fight fans!

- From The Bunker, with love.

I'm On The D-Structure Blog!

D-Structure's photographer/graphic designer, Scott La Rock, snapped some work-in-progress photos of me doing my thing, Tuesday afternoon. You can view more of the pics and leave comments on their blog: D-Structure Blog, dawg

He also has a time-lapse gadget, so you can look forward to some of that action as work on the installation pieces continues!

- Bunker, out on a lovely day!

Sketch 73: Victory

Another actual-size sketch I did on Tuesday, for one of the "Undefeated" installation pieces. This is the big one that will be at the back of the store, titled "Victory." It's about 10 feet tall, so that (in the final) his gloves will actually reach above where the solid wall ends, and extend over part of the windows to the upstairs office. Fun with cut-outs!

Also, the blank space across his midsection is where I'll be mounting a series of 12 framed pieces (rough color drawings, with collage), each depicting one round in The Angel's title bout against the main villain of the show, The Brute.

Raw power!

- Bunker, out.

Sketch 72: Undefeated

I spent Tuesday afternoon working on the back patio of D-Structure. That's the shop/gallery space where my San Francisco solo show is hanging, in August. This is a preliminary sketch for one of my 4 installation pieces, titled "Undefeated." While the final piece will be painted on wood (then screwed into the walls), I did this giant sketch (1o x 1o foot sheet of paper, ya'll!) to give myself a sort of road map. Now, when I move on to the final art, I know how large the piece will be, approximately how long it'll take me to work on it, and how strenuous it will be to create. Also, there are little tweeks (the position of his head, arms, etc) that I know to make, when I'm drawing out the final.

It was fantastic fun, working this large. I haven't drawn anything this big since Mahfood and I rocked a mural at Meltdown Comics, last year. I'd forgotten how physical it is! I was bent over, working on this Jackson Pollock-style. Next time, I gotta remember to stretch first. I'm sore like a mofo!

- Bunker, oversized and out!