C. Kovacs and Z. Cleve Progress

C. Kovacs Morrrre Progress...

Gettin' close...

Come Hither

Believe me, I don't want to bang a zombie. At all. Ever. This I know. But there is something interesting about presenting zombies in a sensual light. Ooh, that sounds like an old Isaac Hayes Halloween standard. 

Zombie Coco. Yeah, you heard me right...

I'm finna turn this into a zombie painting and submit it to Conan to see if I can get it shown on the TV. Zombie Coco, c'mon, who couldn't love it?!

Z. Cleve More Progress & Subject 007: L. Lacava

C. Kovacs More Progress...

Z. Cleve Progress...

C. Kovacs Progress...

I'm pleased with how she's going. I wasn't real sure how this method would work, but so far so good. Quite excited to see where this one ends up...

Z Gurlz

Some more zombies-to-be:

Progress......

Werkin it...

Thangs

Here's some stuuuff. I will explain each piece in a caption below it. B-low it. Blow it.

This is a new idea I'm working out. I thought of it a while ago when I was balls deep in my conflict UFC fighter paintings and when it seemed like the world hated me and when I had black dyed hair that covered one side of my face and I was skinny and pale and listened to Bright Eyes all the time. It has it's basis in conflict, but isn't focusing so much on the negative; more on how life can toss you about and you just never know what will happen. So it's concerned with fate. There's three figures overlapping eachother. And guess what? THEY'RE NAKEY! Can you spot the dongs? A lot of pushing and pulling of paint with this piece. Still figuring both concept and execution out, but as I go I believe I'll get a handle on both.

Progress shot of "C. Kovacs." Throwing more and more paint on. Building up texture. After this layer dries I believe I'll go in and start to define features -- AND THEN MUTILATE THEM HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Progress shots of "Z. Cleve." 

I recently went to the thrifty store and got some nifty frames, some with pictures in them, like Mr. Pope here. I just want to say I have nothing against this pope, not that I kept up enough with him to have an opinion. I liked the little golden frame this was in and I thought I'd make a zombie pope. Why not? This is about 2 by 3 inches.

  

Still want to build up texture. I'll see what I can get away with at this miniature scale.

Macrodactyly

Here's what it is:

(Actually this one^^ is Elephantitis, but is equally freaky)

I just kind of stumbled upon it when I googled "hand" to try out a new more volumetric way of drawing that I thought of today. What a happy accident, I think this disorder will be a perfect addition to my zombies, and perhaps other areas of my art. Zombies with Macrodactyly, why not? Some sketches:

Miami Panoramadingdongs

I was in Miami. It was for my art show. It was cool. Here are some panoramas:

 

 

Subject 002: Z. Cleve

Another zombie portrait. You might be thinking "Zach! GODDAMMIT!!! This guy could be a lot more decomposed and zombiesque. He just kind of looks like a creepy old molester dude behind a plant." I agree with you here, you angry person you. The way I'm thinking about these drawings is as such; most of the zombification takes place in the painting of the piece, where I let the texture of paint determine how the face is decomposed. I'd like to leave the subject in their drawn form still fairly intact, so as to have more information to work from. I don't know how the piece is really going to turn out; maybe the zombie will have their jaw missing; maybe half their face will be blown off; maybe they'll have some disgusting, festering growth coming out of their forehead. That is for the paint to decide. So there you go, feel better now?

Oh and here's "Subject 001: C. Kovacs." Forgot about putting her up:

Buddha on His Banjo

This is a sketch for a painting I'm doing for my uncle. As the title of this post explains, it's Buddha on his banjo. Kind of random yes, but not without reason. Back in college (I just wanted to make myself sound really old there) I did a painting called "God Practicing his Guitar." My uncle liked the piece and the idea behind it so he commissioned me to do two more--the Buddha one and also Mohammed playing a mandolin (which I'll pose for, not because I think I'm all that and a bagga chips, but because I'm Middle Eastern-looking as shit. Don't kill me terrorists!). I've taken my sweet, succulent time getting around to them but I'm finally getting 'em on. Yay family paintings! Family Matters. Bob Saget.

Zombie Portraits

Sooo basically I wanna paint people I know as zombies, which I'm excited for on a number of levels. First of all, turning people I know into zombies is awesome. Second, I get to have fun destroying anatomy and painting blood and deformity and mutilation and so on. Third, painting zombie portraits seems like a really good fit for where I'm going with my painting technically--I want to work up layers of paint and focus on texture in a figurative context, kind of like how I did with my meat paintings. The physical qualities of a zombie, with layers of rotting, peeling flesh and gross deathly colors just seems so appropriate to this direction. Ideally I'd like people to feel nauseous when they view these paintings. Maybe I'll throw rotting meat juice on them... I'm very excited for these pieces. Here's some progress shots so far for "Subject 001: C. Kovacs":

Texture, glorious texture!

The Laboratory

Oh crap, I'm in a Zombie dance party

Continuing with the theme of "zombifying" photos, here is a sketch in the spirit of Dusk Til Dawn. You know the one scene where the main characters are hanging out in that crazy biker club and everything's cool and then BAM! Errbody's a vampire! I imagine the dude in this sketch to have been dancing with these girls believing they were, you know, regular broads only to suddenly realize he's in a damned zombie dance club. Why didn't he realize earlier? Maybe it was too dark to tell. Maybe he was on a lot of drugs. Either way, he's f'd.

Holy Shit...

I just got a sweet idea. More to come soon...

Sexy Zombies

You know what, while I'm at it here's a couple more zombie things. These are my sexy zombies.

And there's more where these came from.

Two Grapps and Zomb

I'm happy to say that I've finished all the work for my show in Coral Gables, FL, which occurs on the fifth day of the eleventh month of the Gregorian 2,010th year. I am relieved fo sho, although I'm not 100% sure if the work has arrived safely. I'm just gonna assume that it did. God I hope it did.

The two paintings I've posted here are for that show. I feel I should explain what they signify, but meh. I'm tired of the whole fighters thing. If anyone would like to know tell me, I'll happily tell you, but I don't feel like explaining it now. What I WILL explain is the sketch you see. Now that is something I'm excited for.

I've recently found myself captivated with the macabre and, specifically, all things zombie. Actually, I've been into the whole zombie thing for a while. I sleep with a katana by my bed. I have a machete in my studio. Apparently I would last for 1+ years in a zombie apocalypse according to a completely reliable Facebook quiz. I know there's a lot more I need to know and own in order to be prepared, but I'm down with the whole dealio. So now I want to bring the zombie thing into my art, and one way I want to do that is make fairly large paintings of party scenes wherein the partygoers have been replaced with zombies and yet-to-be-zombies. It will be fun to create a new narrative based on what I stumble across in these party pictures. This will probably be the next painting I do, and I hope to stay interested enough to do more of them.

Back...From the Future

Well not really,

But back I am. Back from Iowa, livin in Cincinnati, in my parents' basement, playing video games all day, as a 30 year old. I've been busy beyond belief since returning in June, all art stuff, all good things but man it's been a lot. I'm close to having my first significant rest after this Wednesday (10/13/10), when I will have (hopefully) all my work finished for my upcoming first ever one-dude show in Coral Gables, F-L-A. This occurs Nov. 5th and if you happen to be in Coral Gables area you should swing by and give me a high five. The show is being put on by my representin whatwhat gallery RDZ Fine Art, who have been amazingly accommodating since I've been there. So anyways I'm feeling proud enough of my newest work to post it so that's what I shall be doing later this week.

Oh and yeah I changed the blog name from "zMeat" to "The Slammerr." Why slammer with two "r's?" Because some turd took "The Slammer" with one "r" to ramble on about political shit. You know, typical boring "this is my opinion about nothing and you really don't care" blog stuff. Yeah I'm a little bitter, but perhaps I may come to appreciate that second "r" and, who knows, maybe some day I'll learn to love it. I picked "The Slammer" because that's what I've decided to name my studio, which is an indication of how tethered to it I've felt but it's for all good things. There's also a big black dude who has been desperately trying to give it to me up the butt since I've been here, too.

Alright so thanks for reading this. Hopefully I didn't just write this to myself. Let's go over the key points of this entry:

•Back from Iowa, parents' basement livin in Cincinnati
•Art show in Nov.
•Blog name change
•Black dude trying to rape me

Here enjoy this:

>Little Justin<