Tag: skull

Grateful Bears

I recently finished up these two linocuts, inspired by the Grateful Dead Bears. They were originally sketches for a Splintered Sunlight poster I worked on a couple months ago, but I put them aside and forgot about the until recently. I have been working mainly with linocuts this year, and was eager to find something new to carve. The first bear is a mashup between a bear and the skull and roses image (aka Bertha), and the second is an accurate bear skull. I’ve also be trying out new printmaking techniques, so the Bertha Bear is a 3 color reduction print, and I plan to do some handcolored versions of the other bear. I currently have a small edition of both (or as a set) in my shop.

I’m also currently working on a shop that focuses on my printmaking work. It’s a work in progess, so more items are being added constantly, both old and current prints.

Tags bear, block print, grateful bear, grateful dead, grateful dead art, linocut, printmaking, skull

Art Printmaking

Cumberland Blues

20170227_175034

I recently finished up this linocut inspired by the song “Cumberland Blues” by the Grateful Dead. My largest print to date (12×18), this was quite a challenge since I was using a soft cut linoblock, which has the tendency to move when lots of pressure is applied. The print came out better than expected, and I ended up making 2 variations.

20170227_190300

The regular edition was printed on 14.5×22 90lb cream paper and limited to an edition of 50. The variant was printed on 15×22 140lb cold pressed watercolor paper (hand colored to create a “tie-dye” effect), and limited to an edition of 25. Both are currently available in my shop: www.etsy.com/shop/joseeen

Tags block print, coal miner, cumberland blues, dead, dead art, grateful dead, grateful dead art, linocut, miner, printmaking, skeleton, skull

Art Drawings

Drawing to the Dead

I recently finished two new illustrations, inspired by the music of the Grateful Dead.

Cosmic Charlie big copy - Copy.jpg “Cosmic Charlie” Ink, watercolor, digital.

Prints available

wla-fadeaway-copy-small “West L.A. Fadeaway” ink and watercolor/digital

Prints Available

I also created some variants of this illustrations:

wla-fadeaway-set

Although I’ve been a fan of Grateful Dead, I had’t done much art related to them until recently. Last year I was asked to create posters for Without A Net, an all star lineup of musicians playing the music of the Dead. This led me to create a few other illustrations that took elements of my own artwork with a GD twist, which I used to create some posters for the Dead & Co. show in Philly in 2015. And most recently, I created a poster for Splintered Sunlight, an east coast Grateful Dead tribute band. I avoided illustrating songs as I do for Phish, although I had plenty of people suggesting I do. It wasn’t until Phish’s recent Nashville show, which had Bob Weir sit in for their second set. They ended up playing 4 GD songs, which of course I had to illustrate!

bob-weir-set SET 2: Julius > Fuego > My Friend, My Friend, Samson and Delilah^[2], Twist^[3] > Miss You^[4], West L.A. Fadeaway^[4] > Playing in the Band^[5]

ENCORE: Quinn the Eskimo^[3]

This show featured the Phish debut of Samson and Delilah and Playing in the Band. West L.A. Fadeaway was last played October 6, 2000 (383 shows). Samson and Delilah through Playing in the Band featured Bob Weir on guitar. Weir also sang vocals on Samson and Delilah, Miss You, and West L.A. Fadeaway. The soundcheck’s Blues Jam featured a verse of Funky Bitch from Trey and Walking Blues featured Weir on vocals.

I plan to do a couple more songs in the near future, but I’m in no rush. I want the ideas to come organically, and for it to be original. This can be difficult, on account that fans have been creating Dead inspired art for almost 50 years now! But it’s a challenge I’m willing to take on! Stay tuned for some new art in the coming months!

Tags art, astronaut, basketball, bertha, cosmic charlie, dead, dead poster, digital art, gd bear, grateful dead, illustration, ink, skull, skull and roses, watercolor, west la fadeaway

Art Drawings

Brown Don’t Drown

I recently had the honor to participate in an all Latino group show put together by Sean 9 Lugo, a fellow artist from Jersey, who’s work is seen on and off the streets in Philly and NYC. The show took place at 17 Frost Gallery in NYC this July, and featured over 30 artists.

My piece for the show. It had been a while since I’d done an all graphite drawing. The piece is still available, contact me for inquiries.

Check out this article on Art & Fashion Salon for more pictures of the works in the show.

Tags 17 frost gallery, art, brown don't drown, calavera, illustration, josean rivera, latino, latino art, latino artist, nyc art, nyc art show, philly art, savage habbits, sean9lugo, skull, wolf, wolves

Sancti Calvariam

I’ve come up with some new(ish) things the last couple weeks. I’ve continued to draw and paint on new surfaces, including wood, vinyl, floppy disks, ect. Although some are for sale, the majority of the work I’ve done lately has ended up on the streets of Philadelphia. I’ve revisited the theme of saints, which has been a favorite of mine. Each drawing is done with oil markers, as well as copic markers. They are then installed throughout the city.

They are up all over the city, some prominent, others hidden out of sight. Philly has a very active and diverse street art scene, and it’s share of devoted fans who document it. For a sample of what Philly offers check out Elgrba and DDay521‘s Instagram feeds for a taste.

dino install with Old Broads. Photo by @old_broads

I’ve got 2 larger ones I’ve done for sale via my shop. I’ll be doing more large pieces in the near future as well

st nicholas — St. Nicholas-mixed media on encaustic board

St. Patrick- mixed media on encaustic board.

Tags art, calavera, dday521, elgrba, etsy, icon, instagram, install, installation, joseeen, philly street art, saint, sale, skull, street art

New Things on Old Things

Apologies for the lack of posts! I had spent the last couple months of 2014 focusing on my other site. 2015 began with me revisiting one of my favorite theme, dinosaurs. I’ve created a series of studies on wood panels and other random surfaces.

Skull Study

Acrylic on cedar wood panel

Slave to the Traffic Light

acrylic on cedar wood panel

I’ve never really painted skulls, so this a nice practice. I plan to do more, on other surfaces as well. Recent trips to my parents house (and their requests to take my old stuff home with me) have yielded a treasure trove of old relics of my youth. I’ve been using some for installation pieces I’ve put up around Philly, but recently have been painting on them as well. This is starting to become a series of extinct animals on extinct items.

T-Rex

Acrylic on Nintendo cartidge (Super Team Games)

Tricertops

Acrylic and oil marker on Iomega Zip Drive (100mb)

Spinops Sternbergorum

Acrylic, Oil marker on floppy disk (Microsoft boot disk)

Herrerasaurus

Acrylic and oil marker on Legos

All work is available for sale, and I’m sure I’ll be making more of these in the future. A majority may end up as installations, but you can contact me (joseanriverafineart@gmail.com) for availability, or commissioned pieces.

Tags art, dino, dinosaur, dinosaurs, extinct, floppy disk, nintendo, painting, panel, skull, trex, triceratops, wood, zip drive

New Shop Now Open!

Throughout the last couple months, my Phish related art has taken off, and most of my time with that. I’ve been drawing illustrated setlists of every show since summer tour, and that has taken up my Etsy shop as well. I decided to open up a new shop for my other artwork (the stuff with skulls, dinosaurs, and girls). Some of it had previously been available, some will new, others will have never been offered online. I’ll be offering old work at reasonable prices, including sales in the future and be adding new work regularly.

Tags art, bean, dinosaur, etsy, illustration, printmaking, skull

Free Art Friday

Today was my first day of summer vacation. Spent the day dropping off some canvas panels for Free Art Friday around Philly. Locations on my twitter account: @joseeen.

Tags art, free art, free art friday, free art fridays, skull

New Things

Here’s some stuff I’ve done in the past weeks. I’m gearing up for spring, so I’m making quite a bit of work for an upcoming show (TBA) and of course First Fridays in Old City Philadelphia as soon as it gets warm enough.

This taco painting was inspired by the Taco Tuesdays at Tattooed Mom’s in Philadelphia. Their newest taco sounded so good, but it was about 0 degrees out so I didn’t want to walk or ride there. So the thoughts of tacos remained in my head, resulting in this painting. Oddly enough, the owner of Tmom’s saw a work in progress pic of it on instagram and bought it. Expect to see the image on some flyers and whatnot, and yes, I did eventually get to try the Korean pork taco and it was awesome.

A gift to a friend for his birthday, inspired by his cat Miles.

Tags art, comet, dinosaur, skull

Art Misc Paintings

New Art now for sale

I admit it, I’ve been horrible at updating my site. Although I’ve been creating new work, you wouldn’t think so by looking at this site (to be honest, I’m way better at updating my Facebook page and Instagram.) As the holidays approached, it seemed prudent to finally get motivated and post some new art up for sale on my Etsy, as well as share what I’ve been up to. I’ve been working on various series, ADD style. Some will continue into the spring, others won’t. But they are all up for grabs, and by using code FESTIVUS15, you can get 15% off! As usual, all orders ship with stickers and whatnot.