For my last blog post, hard to believe I’m saying last, the year went by too fast! Full of many ups and downs, highs and lows, but we did it!!

For my last post I wanted to combine horror and contemporary metal, literally. The newest Robert Englund film titled “Fear clinic” is AMAZING! Starring Slipknot’s Corey Taylor also, and he even performed and wrote a song, “The Dark” for the film with his band Stone Sour! It plays at the credits and the music video is epic!

“A doctor (Robert Englund)works to cure patients suffering from crippling phobias by placing them inside his invention which induces and controls hallucinations.” That invention id the Fear Chamber, it makes your greatest fears come to life, it helped people conqueror them, until Fear grew into a literal reality! This is more of a physiological thriller horror as opposed to my usual slasher classics, but as all Englund horror/film flicks, purely amazing role! And With Corey in on the adventure it further illustrates just how close horror and the metal genre are, from scary bands to creepy, smashing, guitar blaring soundtracks. Again metal and horror are trying to answer those hidden questions, often those hidden answers and questions we hide within us. A movie where our fears come to life…..pure terror. I totally recommend this film, it is amazing and really asks tough questions about fear and the human agenda/psyche.

To end this I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for reading, offering feedback, and support, it meant the world to me. It was truly an honor to be in class with you all and to hear your stories through your blogs. I’ve learned so much from you guys and often times you have helped me face my fears and adversities this year, so truly thank you!

I hope to continue this blog maybe here or elsewhere, I’m glad to have gotten this blogging experience, I never even considered blogging ever before RCL came along. So I’ll post my last artwork for now and go back to hiding in the studio under paints and essays and projects…..Good luck to everyone, and if you ever need anything don’t be afraid to ask, I’ll be officially living in my new studio in 3rd floor Visual Arts building next semester!

In light of one crazy and emotional day for me today. Officially becoming a BFA here at Penn State, getting my official studio, and being able to earn my fine arts degree in Drawing and Painting when 7 of us were chosen out of 16 total applicants. Needless to say sleeping and eating were replaced with drawing, painting, oral defenses of my work, conferences, crits, and running aimlessly through classes and campus keeping up with everything, tonite is my catch up night……boy do I have a lot to do.

As the days ran into nights and music kept me alive and drawing, I found further inspiration for projects, not only from the horror films I engross myself in, but the literature I read, specifically horror/scifi literature. From a recent conversation with the Head of painting Professor Bowman, it dawned on me how much I use ideas from the stories I read. He asked “Do you read much?”

I said yes, mentioned my second major as being English, and that I love reading and do it constantly in my spare time (which ceased to exist, but I digress…) He gleefully said, “Great! Good readers and those who love to read make amazing art and have some of their greatest ideas come from books.”

As I went home I pondered everything he told me and it is all true, We read stories that often have no pictures, yet we can often visualize the scene or the characters by combining it with our own ideas or imagination! Authors like JG Ballard, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelly, George Orwell, and Edgar Allen Poe have crept into my works and I have often created scenes from parts of their stories how I wanted to see and convey them.  This lead to many awesome and original pieces that I used in my review, it wasn’t pop culture like, but it was still horror. Words turning into pictures has always been a great interest to me, seeing some of the great films, horror especially, I often like to create my own versions or characters, adds another really cool connection. Songs too for me, whether it be the band name, album name, song title, or lyrics, all it takes is a few words and my brain starts on an adventure. I guess it may be a hindrance only when it causes me not to sleep some nights because I wake up and have to sketch, but I love it either way!

Try an idea design out one day as you read something you like, it could turn into something amazing!

Cant wait to start work in my new studio next semester! Still hasn’t sunk in…..cant believe its official.

Thanks for reading, in this post are the last works I did for my portfolio. Let me know what you think!

Decided to get back on the classic metal and rock posting by pointing out some amazing news and some cool but kind of upsetting music news. Good news, Huge Van Halen North American Tour just announced! Saw them in 2012 with Diamond Dave at the helm and it was AMAZING! Running with the Devil, Panama, and  Unchained have been on my playlist since the announcement! It should be an amazing tour, in support of their new live album.

In sadder news, Black Sabbath has announced their final tour, before officially breaking up (yes I know again for like the 200th time) but this time I think Sabbath is retiring, each to their own respective bands and projects. I am excited but sad at this last show, I am already going to see Motley Crue’s final show this coming august, ending with Alice Cooper “Killing” them, so having another one of my favorite metal bands call it done is really upsetting.

I swear I was born in the wrong era, considering all the bands I love are retiring, but I digress)

Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne were pivotal figures in starting my interest in horror (besides Freddy and Robert Englund of course). The dark music and themes lead many fans to understand the stories they tried to tell through songs such as “War Pigs” or “Electric Funeral”.  The classic and ominous guitar riffs and Ozzy’s/Dio’s eerie but amazing vocals painted a picture for listeners with each word, a story within each song. “NIB” about the devil, “Black Sabbath” also, and “Heaven and Hell”. Black Sabbath has been utilized in numerous horror films and documentaries, especially when mentioned how parents and groups protested because they thought the band was Satanic. Heavy metal itself was often questioned and labeled “the Devil’s Music” with bad influences within each song. However, most metal songs are like horror, they touch on subjects that society often wants to hide, it often tries to ask those hard questions.  Sabbath actually was inspired by a horror film playing across the street from their studio, and from there they wrote “Black Sabbath”. and the band started with themes about war and destruction because they came from a war torn England and saw the effects  of war on the land and the people. They simply used their songs to express some of the turmoil in the world at the time, like many other bands, that was their statement. Many people see them as Satanic and turn away, but when you get really down to it, a lot of metal and rock songs, like horror films, have deep underlying meanings. There is always a reason they are telling this story.

Van Halen and Sabbath have been on my “work” soundtrack while I live in the studio till my review in 2 weeks roughly. Below are my recent finished pieces, plenty more are getting done tonite after I get done posting, so I apologize there is less art this time, having multiple projects and crits going at once has me trying to juggle everything.

As always thanks for reading! Till next time I recommend breaking out Van Halen’s “1984” or Sabbath’s “Paranoid” if you want a new adventure during your hectic week or weekend, great songs, great albums.

I’m going to deviate a bit from horror and music to just music in general and to offer some advice from my Spring Break. My break was literally hell, I went home to find out that my publishing internship and contract were null and void due to some horrifying choices done by one of my now former bosses. Then I visited my dad and found out he is sick, only he won’t tell me, so I return to campus defeated, trying to get my head back on track for my BFA review in early April. If I don’t get in, I don’t get my art degree. So do or die time sets in as I balance class, pull all niters, look for other paying jobs, and attempt to pull off some projects to fill my now revamped portfolio to give it my all.

Through some frustrating nights, crying, anger, disappointment, you name it I found my solace in not only may art, but the music I love, rock and heavy metal. At this point I have funneled all that anger and disappointment into creating better art, doing all I can to express my ideas and imagination all the while listening to Black Sabbath, April Fool, WASP, KISS, and so many others. I put my ipod on shuffle and let it go, many songs inspire me to keep drawing even when I’m tired, or give me a cool idea for a project (thanks Sabbath). So below I will post my new portfolio finished pieces, and my in progress portfolio pieces. Let me know what you think, any feedback is appreciated.

My advice to you is don’t let anyone’s actions or decisions define who you are, what they did has nothing to do with you, learn from their horrible choices and forge onward finding your own way. It may be hard, I’m still trying to figure it out myself, but with the support of family, friends, and role models, and my music, I’m forging onward to show the art department my best, at least they cant say I didn’t try. So whenever you need motivation turn to your own “eye of the tiger” song and Carpe Diem! As always thanks for your support and reading, I appreciate it! Next week I shall return back to horror, music and Elm Street!

my finished portfolio so far….

Progress portfolio pieces…..

I’ve noticed through my long homework filled nights while I was sprawled all around my desk reading under dim light drinking umpteen sodas or spread out all over the floor between a midterm drawing and painting, movies have been my salvation! I have noticed, unlike Dream warriors I mentioned before, that songs that were created long before these films are added to the soundtrack often fit the movie epically! Specially, Freddy’s Dead the Final Nightmare, the Condemned, Paranormal Captivity, the Condemned, and Crow: Salvation. These horror and or action flicks have amazing soundtrack albums, found on ITunes, and contain an array of music from soft rock, rap, to heavy metal. Each song seems to fit the scene it is in perfectly! Ozzy’s Crazy Train in Ghost Rider just as Johnny Blaze makes that jump, or the Goo Goo dolls or Inna Gadda Da Vida from Iron Butterfly in Freddy’s Dead allow you to connect to the scene or characters just that much more! I collect many soundtrack albums myself, starting with the Scorpion King and Rocky 4, and I gotta say, soundtracks are often overlooked.

People actually sit aside from film production to deliberate (like we just finished) which songs or genres they feel would fit this particular film. Would a heavy metal song enhance this action sequence? Would a fast paced song get this high speed chase just right and keep audiences literally on the edge of their seats? Or will this sad Celiene Deion Titanic song make audiences break out crying every single time they hear it (yes, that’s me, “near or far, wherever you are…” gets me every stinken time. I watch the movie, love it, but use like 4 tissue boxes) Some movie scenes get added into bands music videos of that song, its really cool tio see again how music and movies are inseparable. what would Jaws, Halloween, or Titanic be without its signature songs?

I included the Titanic song because I couldn’t resist hearing it and tearing up, and my recent water color paintings and comic I finished. As always thanks for reading and have a great spring break!!!

Horror the art we love to hate? Or fear?

I wanted to elaborate a bit further off my old horror ted talk and specifically discuss horror artists a bit (actors, painters fx make up artists) Let me know what you think! also attached are my recent watercolor and charcoal pieces I just finished. As always thanks for reading!..

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Screams of terror, blood and gore, nightmares, gruesome ghouls, and thousands of sleepless nights, all caused by one genre: horror. One of the most controversial art genres of our time, and it is a genre people have either loved or despised. Horror fans are some of the most loyal fans of any genre. The camaraderie at those yearly conventions can be seen throughout the whole weekend. The fans adore their horror icons, the creators of their nightmares, stemming from Wes Craven and Robert Englund to Boris Karloff and Vincent Price. Those fans are willing to fight for what they believe in, and for years they often had to. Horror has been deeply debated among our society on the canvas and the silver screen. According to a University of Oregon Blog horror as a genre has been growing rapidly in recent years. The main purpose of horror is to instill fear in its viewers. The blogger mentions that the main appeal of horror is that it “represents the decay of society, showing the value of staying within social norms, and allows people to feel fear within a controlled setting.” However many groups have formed to combat horror and its gruesome images or concepts. Horror does show our dark side. Over the past few decades parent groups have tried to protest the showings of movies such as <p>the Nightmare on Elm</p>Street and even the Exorcism because they feel that horror depicts topics that should not be discussed or presented to the younger generations. Horror has been accepted and battled, but each side of the argument has used horror for their own reasons. Horror lovers watch it because we are “Thrill seekers” or we embrace the artwork because it gives us something to enjoy that is beyond society’s norms or acceptances. The anti-horror people view horror out of their own curiosities (uoregon.edu).

Horror has been the outcast of society but as of late, it has been gaining a sort of cult following. Well known horror artists have been using their creativity to make the nightmares come alive through their costume/makeup designs as well as their paintings. David Miller has been turning actors into the horror fiends since the early 80’s, and Chris Kuchta has been recreating the classic horror monsters in drawings and paintings so exquisitely that they look as if they are ready to leap off the page. Vanity Fair magazine has been following horror’s emergence to the spotlight due to show’s like the Walking Dead or Bates Motel. Horror has been censored and often battled but the reality is that horror represents what is wrong with the world and those concepts people should confront. Horror icon Robert Englund said it well, “horror is so universal that anybody can identify with it. Who would know that by playing a nerdy alien and a child killer (Freddy Krueger), I would have a 30 year career in Hollywood?” Only time will tell if horror and the artwork that goes with the movies will be embraced by the curious crowd. Until then the debates and nightmares will continue.