.: December 2009

The Glamor Shots and more...

I must confess, I sometimes use my natural good looks to gain attention toward my artworks. This is my latest "publicity shot". What's that? Yeah, I guess so ..."Pretty is as pretty does"... or something like that.

2009 Infected... Here I am with my infected cyst...a visitor that clearly over stayed his welcome. Yes surgery was required.

1960 Myself with Mr. Pumpkin...I really don't know if it was Mr. Pumpkin that was making me hear the voices but if it wasn't, I 'm firmly convinced he knew who was.

1961: My first date. Her name was Karen Kaylor and her father was a truck driver that lived up the road. In a rather weird coincidence, a few years later my best friend and I were happily engaged in throwing apples at trucks who sped by (back when the speed limit was 75 mph). With impeccable timing and practiced skill, I threw the apple 15 feet ahead of a speeding, targeted truck, knowing that by the time my projectile reached the roadway it would be a dead-eye shot across the truck's windshield. My friend and I squealed with delight...but then the truck began to screech to a halt- so quickly that it nearly jack-knifed- and with a shock of recognition Mr. Kaylor came storming out of his cab. He chased me through 3 backyards and a field before my apprehension, and delivered my first real ass whoppin'. It was the first time I heard a man utter "YOU LITTLE MOTHERFUCKERS !"

1969 14...NOT a good time, lost my ability to speak in class, my face looked like a peperoni pizza, I shook all the time not knowing that the adult prescription that my mother's psychiatrist gave me might be contributing to my general teenage mental meltdown. It didn't stop me from eating however.

1969 Age 14, 200 pounds and very unhappy...at this point I could not even accept the love of a warm dog.

1973 age 17 A year of transition, still awkward and s-s-stuttering shy but my love of artwork , books and music was beginning help me form a new identity form a new identity. I also had a best friend Danny whose big brother, an enlisted Army guy stationed in Germany had brought back reel to reel tapes of The Rolling Stones, Hendrix and Cream. He also brought back "pot" which I tried one afternoon with my friend. We snuck out to his brother's car to listen to an 8-track tape [ask your parents] of Led Zepplin since his brother did not have their music on reel to reel tape. We sat in his car overwhelmed buy the rolling music we heard and my first "buzz" until the car battery ran out making for a rather displeased older brother.

1973: Hippie boy Wince. I was still in high school and inseparable from my drawing tablet.

1974 Same year as Homer Simpson graduated High School in Springfield I was getting the hell out of High School. Quite a senior year, suddenly I had girlfriends, 3 at a time...I even dabbled in shooting up and the like. I was" busted" for Marijuana possession, early on in the year and lead out in handcuffs, my act of a stupid miscalculation made me truly "Heavy". I gained the nickname "Head" because I was the guy who obsessively kept up on "Counter Culture" as well as movies, art and all things music, not just rock but jazz and the blues and even classical, although nobody seemed to ask me about the latter. Yes, the a-1 certified cool guy in a back-asswards hick high school in rural Ohio. A self satisfied smirk on my face, me not knowing I was actually a medium sized fish in a very small wading pool.

1984 The last date...Leah and I looked great together, but...

1985 Photo 30 years old, taken above in my apartment above The Garden Burlesque, a strip bar on North High Street.

1985 The "Butt Shot", as it became to be known. I was just coming into my own as a "known artist" in Columbus when this was snapped. I knew it was a good one, and used it in quite a few announcements for my shows and the like. Shameless, I know, but secure in the knowledge that I possessed real artistic talent while lacking any degrees or connections to institutes of higher learning (I was a hick from rural Ohio who never even got enough credits to graduate High School), I figured "What the Hell? I may as well use some pretty boy shots if it will get me noticed." Men's butts...I have never understood the appeal myself, but I guess that's another strange quirk in the fascinating female psyche.
photo: Greg Anderson

1983 An altered picture of me when I was newly arrived from rural Ohio to the big city lights of Columbus.

1987 Photo with my girlfriend of 3 years, the witty, sarcastic, let's drink too much, have sex in public, talented, red hot partner in "grime"[ combination of the words "crime" and "glamor" ] writer /photographer , did I already say "smart" ? "K". We archived a great balance of "loose" but "tight" that I've never been able to replicate in a relationship since.[ I'm wearing cuffs but they're broken"] She sort of drifted into darker waters for a few years and our relationship came to and end. I have to add that because of her intelligence and strength of character she has reemerged as a caring and responsible mother and a great friend.

Yes I'm casting a shadow...Hey, what can I say ? Photo: Chas Ray Krider

1989 For the photo shoot I thought, for a switch, I'D put on the handcuffs. I was never a slave for my girlfriend at the time...but taking an overall view I've always been a slave to women in general...not necessarily singular however and this has lead to some disturbing/exciting problems/intrigues.
Photo: Chas Ray Krider

1993: Publicity shot by the amazing Chas ray Krider

1994 New Orleans vacationing with Columbus artist Melissa Vogley Woods.

2001 With writer Nancy Patzer back when she was drinking. I remember a wild u-turn in the center of Broad Street and a confrontation in the beer line, due to the fact that Nancy had literally shoved her way to the head of said line at The Palace Theater. Then we saw a great show by Jr. Brown and the evening was topped off with more drinks at Little Brother's on High Street...We were both flashing some sass

2007 Standing in my garden...photo by Ken Geiger.

2007 I'll have you know I put up this sign BEFORE the midterm elections and expected at least a tomato or two to splash across my front window...but the tide had turned Bush's Iraqi excursion was no longer as popular among most Americans. And the only reaction I ever witnessed where some "thumbs up" from people walking by...of course this was in a liberal neighborhood in Franklin County.

2008: My art opening at Monkey's Retreat Magazine and Book Store

2008 Opening at The Doubting Thomas Gallery, Cleveland Ohio.

2009 New Year's Eve with guitarist Paul Brown of Paul Brown's Science Gravy Orchestra. It was a Burning Mickey themed party...Something to do with the fact that Micky Mouse is an American icon and this country's economy is going up in flames ! Let's all pray together that we don't get what we deserve and end up in "The ash heap of history" [from a quote by another American icon, Ronald Reagan] Can anyone say Mother American Meltdown...the tittle of my next major painting.

2009 age 54. Dealing with the gaping hole left behind by my infected cyst "Buddy". I think about him every time I look at the scar left on my neck...but I can't really say I miss the motha' fucka'.

2009 At the opening of Juctionveiw Studio's Por Vida ,curated by artist Kat Moya, a show that my work was included in. Here Posing with my good friend, Miss. Sarah Selhorst, Photographed by Chas Ray Krider,

New Year's Eve 2010 Here I am with the ghost of Edie Sedgwick, looking like we're trying to escape the flash bulbs of the paparazzi...the glamor of being a "known" artist...never mind the smell of turpentine, the paint all over the furniture from when your dog sat on the oil pallet and and then spread it around, the hours in the basement making your own frames to save money, the cursing that ensues when you realize that because you were drunk the night before, you forgot to clean out your brushes and now 3 expensive sable brushes are "toast". Oh shut up ! I really do love it. Plus, I'm really not very good at anything else.

2003 This shot was taken in my dinning room and ran in People Magazine for their article on author Julie Gregory who wrote the international best selling book Sickened.
In the background is the sculpture The Thorned Woman, a work I commissioned from sculptor Mary Beth Stickler. The original image this sculptured work was based upon, was taken from a painting I bought from artist Melissa Vogley Woods back in '92.

2012 Hollywood BLVD I'm looking very L.A. here I must say. Like some aging lounge lizard...Spent the entire February out there while enjoying my Featured Artist status at L.A.'s fabulous Hive Gallery and Studios. So much better than being in Ohio in this month of winter.Why doesn't EVERYBODY move out here ! ? but then there's the traffic problems, the high rent, the high cost of EVERYTHING, as well as the "Crazies", I've never seen so many people urinate in public, on the sidewalks, broad daylight...I think I'll stay put in Ohio.