“In the Garage: Art Celebrating Geek Culture”…. 1986 print

This coming Friday is the art opening for the new Blank Space Gallery show entitled, “In the Garage: Art Celebrating Geek Culture“ in Milford, CT. As you might recall I participated in their 1st show a couple months back, “Every Mistake: the Art of the Beatles” and it went well.  For this show, artists were chosen and given the task of creating a piece that represents nerdom from your past.  The piece I created is a 6-color (18′ x 24′) print entitled, “1986“.

I actually had a hard time with this concept, not necessarily the execution but rather whittling down the options to get to the final concept. The theme was a bit broad and made my brain flood w/ too many options… oooh games, comics, D’n’D, toys, 80’s movies…. too much stuff to choose from.   Should I do a Destro or an Orko piece? Maybe a super detailed Zelda print… Casey Jones?  Eventually I thought about it more and instead of just drawing a representation of some cool toy or something from my childhood I wanted to try and capture a moment from my childhood and I sketched out this idea….

I spent many a night sitting in the dark w/ the glow of the screen entranced by one NES game or another.  It was a big part of childhood.   My favorite toys were all there.  Looking at current state of geek culture I feel this year in particular had a major effect w/ its toys, games, movies, etc.

I just got the prints in yesterday and they look amazing. Lots of hidden nerd stuff in the background to try and find. 100 were printed and 50 (signed/numbered) will be available this Friday at the Blank Space show. The remaining 50 (signed/AP) will be available on this site in about a month. I’ll let you know.