Paintings I've Done in the Last Five Years (Because I Pay for This Website, So I Should Use It, No?)

Here’s a buttload of work I’ve done since 2020, okay?

This is my 2025 submisstion for the Amarillo Museum of Art 20x20 fundraising auction. It’s a painting of a video still from the 1991 Mount Unzen dome collapse where a massive cloud of vocanic ash (pyroclastic flow) spilled down the mountin; it’s notable as it killed three renowned volcanologists: Katia and Maurice Krafft, as well as Harry Glicken. If you haven’t seen the documentary “INTO THE INFERNO” by Werner Herzog, I highly recommend leaning into volcano worship.

Here’s the real deal. Feels like 2025, comin’ in HOT.

This was my 2024 submission into the 20x20 for the Amarillo Museum of Art. It’s a famous Herb Alpert album cover, because he was playing in Amarillo the night of the art show…and I had the chance to interview him for my show, so I was really excited to see him live. (Unlike the woman in the actual photo on the album, this woman looks exactly like Janice from the show Friends, am I right? LIke “Oh…my…GOD!”)

Here’s the original. (Not a Janice!) Great album, by the way.

This was the 2023 submission for the Amarillo Museum of Art 20x20. It depicts a still from a viral video that I love. High praise to Bilal Göregen, a brilliant Turkish street musician who nails “Ievan Polkka,” which is a very old Finnish song written in an Eastern Savonian dialect spoken in North Karelia. He’s playing a goblet drum, just so you know. My friend’s daughter liked it so much I had a high-res canvas print made for her too. I also wanted to send one to Bilal, but then I found out that he’s blind and wouldn’t be able to see it. I did email him to let him know I did it, though.

Here’s a still from the video; mine looks really Pixar compared to our source cat.

This was my 2022 submission for the 20x20. It was taken from a very creepy ad that I saw in a cattle industry magazine. I painted it on a very old canvas — like fromt he 50s, I think — and the jesso was crusty and rotten and as i sketched the image in pencil, the jesso would crumble away and made the outlines etched in (but also made the paint easily flake off). So this was a beast (pun intended). It’s a half cow, half man with a parasite (tapeworm) sliding out the eye, through the ear, out and around the hat, and out the other other ear. And yes, the tapework is crying. Seems like she’s not a fan either. #ConsiderTheTapeworms (Note: I named it “Wants Fewer Parasites” because, as a copywriter, the incorrect use of “less” creeped me out as much as the unsettling Island of Dr. Moreau-evoking image.)

Pedigo'ing, Going, GONE.

Hayden & L'Hannah Pedigo moved to Lubbock today. Yesterday, i dropped off their farewell present , which I started long before I knew they were leaving Amarillo. (L’Hannah got a scholarship to Texas Tech, and she’s going to slay in grad school—but these two will be very missed in this town.) The portrait shows them on the side of Fritch Highway in front of a cutout; the train is headed south, as is Archie, their scribbly dog…but the boots are facing back home, because we hope they come back. The sod poodle on the billboard is a tribute to the one I ran over in Lubbock once; bad things have happened to me in Lubbock twice, and I’ve only been there three times; he’s eating a cricket because they’re delicious and duh, Buddy Holly. The yellow sign is an actual Dynamite Museum piece that has to be somewhere in Amarillo, right? (Anyone know where?) I put L’Hannah in overalls and a work glove as a nod to her love for theater production and set design. Hayden’s sporting a Chalino Sánchez hat because why wouldn’t he, and his yellow rose belt buckle is so he won’t forget his hometown. Safe travels, friends. I hope this reminds you of whence you came while you’re away. Also, I’m coming to visit you (and the Panera).

Mike's 40th Birthday Gift: From Sketch to Mobile

Mike: “Make me a mobile of these legs in socks taking a shower.”

Me: “Um, okay. I’ll try.”

(The final was more like knees and socks, but happy birthday, Mike!)

When the interior packaging from Blue Apron seduces you into accessory manufacture.

Basically what I said. I made purses out of the the thermal bags from Ryan’s Blue Apron boxes. I mean, why wouldn’t you?

Straight Up Bonked: I Painted a Still from Hayden's City Council Video

For the Amarillo Museum of Art’s 12x12 Silent Auction fundraiser, I thought I’d be topical and paint the final still from Hayden Pedigo’s video announcing his run for City Council Seat 2. It sold for the minimum big. I say that’s a victory. VOTE FOR HAYDEN!