Friday, September 30, 2011

Cribbage




Some say it's all in the cards. That may be so in the 52 pick-up of life. The cards used to be just cards and how you read them...but with the elevation of games trying to be sports, ideas of past times have changed. When some people speak about making decisions in their life the phrase "play that card" is a metaphor. Others also use the phrase for description "such a card" for a character, like a Joker. My father's father, Papa Frank used to save Joker cards and give them to my sister and I. It wasn't long before we built up a bigger collection than other things we were collecting like dolls or hotwheel cars. I never thought of the Joker collection till I went into Chicago's ol' World Tattoo Gallery and a clear glass table box displayed a whole series of card collections. The image of Batman DC comic villain The Joker has changed over the years rubbing off it's grease paint all over the film entertainment world. I've heard cool street types with the ever present game face say "pull yer card" with connotations of picking the Ace away from you and saying he knows you're hiding an Ace. Fortune tellers read your cards with spiritual auras of advice and readership. I've heard bluesmen read a regular deck of cards, like that of tarot cards, but reassigning the role of each suit to the tarot deck. So they have read the deeper meanings and interpretations of tarot with a playing deck of cards. I haven't had that feeling around the idea of a card deck until I watched the fortune teller character in HBOs Boardwalk Empire. Cards and numbers have a math finality I associate with the Bohemian world. Their decorations and potential for magical tricks are all there within themselves. Just like the Queen of Hearts-off with their heads! An updated feeling is sonically transcribed by the ever influential Motorhead with the song Ace of Spades. Being around the printing industry in the past I've cut, shipped, packed and stacked thousands of business cards. Cards of self description, trying to lure your wallet to open, or make some sort of attempt at communication with their residual reminder on a little rectangle of stockboard paper. Have greeting cards gone by the wayside of past generations that used to send hand write? My nostalgic self loves prayer cards and their hidden and obvious images of holy decoration. I like post cards and how they always cycle in and out of popularity with their famous celebs and exotic destinations. I've drawn and painted many images from cards. My thoughts were over by a deck I saw on Sheffield Avenue of Salvador Dali's interpretation of the Tarot. Years later, I saw stacks of those same cards in his Sarasota Florida museum. the same feelings overwhelmed my insides from the past. Its difficult for me to admit that the cards are just cards because an entire universe of feelings and emotions are associated within all types of cards both good and bad.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Kitchen Painting

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Our Lady Of Flora















Saturday, September 17, 2011

Spontaneous Combustion





These are some old covers I did for a zine....called Spontaneous Combustion in the 1980's.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Rec Room



New Pics




Thursday, September 01, 2011

Tony's band in Pilsen "Yellow Jacket"