As one would guess, none of the point&click photos capture the chaos that was Paintallica.
In retrospect, I wish I’d drawn a real-time carnet to document the rowdiness rather than pathetically slather cardboard with house paint.

Here’s a little review of the “pleasing mess”.

I don’t know how to describe things except as an extreme sports version of craft night. We worked with the theme “War Party”. 8pm until dawn for two nights. I felt pretty useless the first night as everyone buzzed about with 2x4s and powertools and strung cables between 30 foot pillars. But the second night I happily busied myself with cartoony details. There were no lights so we brought our own halogens making for eerie illumination (also strobes and smoke machines). There was also no bathroom so we peed (Dan pooped) in a five gallon pail. There was a lot of beer and spray paint fumes.

The new website Bill set up acknowledges the participants: Jesse, Dan, Gordon, Jamie, Cece, Shelby, Jeff, Bill, David, Jay, Greta, Jeremy, and Posie. My role was minor, but I was grateful to be along for the experience.

I’m a bit anxious about what I’ve gotten myself into…
…agreeing to participate in a chaotic painting/performance/installation/collaboration called PAINTALLICA.
The namesake should cancel out all the artsy-fartsy pretensions. My understanding is that there will be
a couple sleepless nights of a group of us ransacking a PICA-ordained gallery space. And the project is
headed up by my recently-mentioned Wisco’ art buddy Dan Attoe. It’s all part of the famous
Time Based Arts Festival in Portland. Here’s some details. And at the Portland Mercury.
For comics fans, Jeremy Tinder will also be joining in on the action. Also there will likely be much shirtlessness.

My longtime Wisconsin buddy & famous painter Dan Attoe and I are doing a talk at the Portland Art Museum
~ This Thursday, August 7, 6pm, 1219 SW Park. The museum is exhibiting some of Dan’s paintings and neon as part of
their Contemporary Northwest Art Awards show. They’re really sumptin’ to behold — Epic naturalistic landscapes
speckled with smaller vignettes and revelatory text. Dan might be hesitant to admit it, but they’ve much in
common with the beloved medium of comics. Difficult to capture in crappy photos and jpegs, but here’s a glimpse.

Anyways, Dan and I will be doodling live on stage and sharing scandalous stories of our shared upbringing as troubled rural youth.
I’ve got some embarrassing doozies to tell about Dan and you can be certain he’ll retaliate with shameful accounts of this
scrawny country lad awkwardly growing up in the agricultural heartland of Wisconsin. Here’s a link to a community college scholarship
trip we took in 1995. And here’s a photo of us from last September.

What am I showing him in my hand? Come to the talk and find out!