The Return of Fine Art Friday

Sorry I missed Fine Art Friday last week, but I am back on track. This weeks fare showcases the work of one Bawidamann, Andrew Bawidamann. I have been a fan of his work for years. The cool thing about his work is it looks a bit like it was done on the computer. It has those clean lines and blocks of great color that almost look like they were created in Adobe Illustrator. But they are all painted by hand. The strength of his art lies in it's simplicity also. If he only needs two lines he only uses two lines. Good lesson.

Bawidamann's unique style of Pin-ups are usually clad in WWII and military style gear, so I dug this piece for it's Southern California vibe. Check out his stuff, his store is always stocked to the top with T-shirts and print. The_Art_of_Bawidamann

Yet another great sketch from Greg "Craola" Simkins. This was from his show entitled, "Don't Sleep". This idea of having his characters in an amusement style ride is a reoccurring theme for Greg. Let's hope that one day Greg gets popular enough that someone makes a CRAOLA LAND. We will be able to ride on these wonderful inventions. Greg has also opened a new store and anything there would make a great give for the holidays The_art_of_Craola

BONUS: Because I missed last week I wanted to add a bonus piece. This awesome heart sculpture piece comes from the multi-talented Eric Merrill. This dude can do anything. This piece rocks in real life because of it's 3D element. Great stuff Hope_Gallery_Tattoo

Friday's Fine Art

This weeks selection comes from an artist by the name of Raphael, I mistakenly thought our friend Krystof created it, but he is just the main scientist character. He created this version of Pulse in the lab via water color markers. I always like the piece due to it's comic book layout. It's a bit askew, almost as if someone is looking in on the operation, but maybe staying hidden out of view. Hmmm. Upon placing the detail of the piece into the blog I noticed the top of the scientist's paperwork is the title John 3:16 which quotes the bible -"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life". Is the message that the Pulse scientists are trying to create another messiah in giant test tube. Are their machines savior like? By using their equipment will your tattoo's live on forever? Deep waters. I am not sure where Raphael is working now, but Krystof recently relocated to sunny Las Vegas Nevada. He now plies his work at Club Tattoo in the Planet Hollywood Hotel. Nice work if you can get it http://www.clubtattoo.com/

Another cool piece comes from another old school pal of ours the illustrious Gunnar. This is an older piece of his. It was definitely a forerunner to his current style, and that is why I dig it. I also felt the piece had a lot of emotion. Why the tears sweet geisha? Happiness or sorrow? I always felt she looked a little ambiguous. Like perhaps she has just gotten word that her master has been slain on the battle field. She must shed tears because it is expected of her, yet she is joyful inside that she may be gaining her freedom? Did I look into it too far, perhaps... Hey Gunnar still rocks...http://www.myspace.com/artofgunnar

Fine Art Friday

This weeks work is from a power duo. Direct from Philly wonder twin powers activated on this one. Dave Fox did this painting with Josh Hoffman. They created a set of prints and I was lucky enough to snag this piece. I do believe they were going to start a set of flash and it morphed into a series of paintings. Both these dudes have great styles and they work really well together. Love the pirate imagery - this is a power house of a piece.

Keep up with the crew -Dave_Fox_Studio_One

Also this week is a great painting from artist Jamie Cross. Jamie and I worked together for years at a couple different studios. I have always enjoyed watching Jamie grow through the years with both his tattooing and painting skills. Jamie has always had a tremendous enthusiasm for tattooing that still survives to this day. He has developed a great following for this monochromatic work. I have always like this piece. Look him up Jamie_Cross_Tattoo.

Fine Art Friday

Direct from the King of Seattle comes this beautiful demon painting. Our long time friend Aaron Bell from Slave to the Needle painted is especially for us. What a great gift.

He even included the Pulse logo. Along with being a tattoo staple in Pacific Northwest Aaron has created a ton of great flash that we sold the wheels off for years. I would bet you could stop in to almost any street shop in America and find Aaron's designs on the wall. He has a great eye for creating what the customer wants.I also seem to remember that I spend a bunch time riding Aaron about parting with the above sailor girl painting. It was a Skin & Ink magazine cover as well as a best selling print. I love that painting (I only own a print of it) and hope he will tire of it on his wall one day and part with it. One can always hope. Still going strong -Slave_to_the_Needle_Here

Also this week comes a strong painting from artist Mike Shea. I always liked the way the classic style and tattoo elements were twisted just a bit. Mike is always doing nice work up in Boston. http://www.redemptiontattoo.com/

Fine Art Flowers

This set of paintings was created by tattooist / painter Jay Langer. Jay had done a beautiful series of paintings that interspersed bones with flowers. It was a nice mix of morbid beauty, I loved the concept and the pieces were great to mount together with the ribs up top and the hip in the lower position.

Jay is a very talented guy, along with holding down full time duties at his studio he paints, plays in a band, builds bikes, designs for a T Shirt Co., makes flash...yeah Jay is one of those guys. Super energy, super productivity -great combo. Check him out -http://www.myspace.com/jaylanger.

Another great painting that hangs at Pulse with a beautiful traditional flower comes from Grez DNA. If you are familiar with Grez then you know how clean and strong his tattoo work is. His paintings stand up to that same visual test. He has a great eye for structure and a great grasp of those classic images that define western traditional tattooing.

Is that not the perfect tattoo rose? I also remember eyeing this pieces for half a day as I cruised through a convention. I came back to buy it right before I left and was really happy. As I was thanking Grez and walking away from the table CIV had walked up and was asking Grez about this painting, it seems he also wanted to purchase it. I am sorry about that CIV, but I love the piece. Grez has been tearing it up over at Mike Rubendall's Kings Avenue Tattoo. http://kingsavenuetattoo.com/

Friday, Art Time

This week brings a great pen and ink from the one and only Greg "Craola" Simkins, and yes we do have a bunch of Craola art. One - because we love it and Two- he is most talented guy working today. I love how he blends ideas and his style is instantly recognizable. That is not an easy thing to achieve, to create and right upon sight everyone knows who did it. I think that is the holy grail for an artist. He's is getting there and trust me he is going to keep pushing himself forward into that rare league of artists working today. Take a minute and check his bio, he has done art for everyone from Kid Robot to Disney to Vans to well...Us. The kid is the bomb, don't believe me, -http://www.imscared.com/

This cool little piece was a gift and I can't remember the artist name I think it was Eric and it's signed CHUNG so I assume it's a great piece from Eric Chung the painter of people inside animals. Also if I was any animal I would be an octopus or a squid, so I made a personal connection with this piece. -Oh, and the painting wasn't a gift from the artist, that would suck if he had given me the painting and I forgot his name. -BONUS- This weeks bonus piece was also a gift from our friend and artist Kore Flatmo. Kore scripted up our name in true tattoo fashion. We always meant to do T-shirts but never quite did. We did however take to using this piece as a laser burned logo for our Archer machine box. I would still like to see it make it's way to a shirt. Flatmo rocks-http://www.plurabella.com/

Fine Art Friday

This Friday brings a great piece from artist Eric Merrill. This piece was created with pastels which are some of the best pieces I own. The thing about pastels is they have to primarily be worked and blended with your fingers. So the artist really has to get their hands dirty (literally) I also feel doing pastels takes a toll on the artist, the substance is very drying to skin so the artist fingers get cracked and dry, couple that with tattooing in latex gloves all day and you can imagine how tough it is to spend hours each day working pastels. So that means a lot when you know what goes into each piece.

The best part of this pastel is that it was a gift. I had attended a gallery opening at Hope Gallery and was going piece to piece checking out the info on each piece in the price sheet. When I got to this piece on the wall it was listed NFS (not for sale) private collection -Brett Bryan. What a great way to get a gift, it is one of the most special pieces I own and admit it that is a sexy pose. It's also quite big 24" x 36", no joke. Talented by the pound -Eric Merrill -check out the video of the new studio http://www.hopegallerytattoo.com/

...and speaking of Hope Gallery another great story is how I acquired this piece from Joe Capo. This Hope -Lost -Hope Mother painting was a give away painting at an opening. They sold a bunch of raffle tickets with the money going to a cancer charity. I bought a large handful of tickets and guess what...I won....I felt bad for a minute, I own so many paintings from Joe, but I got over that quickly because I loved the painting and it hangs in my office to this day.http://www.joecapobianco.com/

Fine Sketch Friday

Interspersed with our fine collection of paintings is some really great original sketches. My favorite is from comic artist J. Scott Campbell. He had created this Princess from G-Force drawing for a "Battle Of The Planets" trading card set. Campbell's art is traditionally colored on the computer (sidebar: isn't it funny to hear the word traditional with the word computer) so with him this is as close as you get to his original art. Most comic artists are really sketch artist because they will turn over their pencils to be outlined and colored by someone else.For my money Campbell draws just about the best girls in comics, hands down. I only wished he did a monthly title like he did with Gen13 or Danger Girl. Never lose sight of the fact comics are great place to look to be inspired. They always have inventive ideas for layouts and creating action with a flat picture. I love em. (I think I just outed myself as a geek). http://www.myspace.com/j_scott_campbell

Another great sketch we have is from artist Andrew Bawidamann. Andrew does those really graphic Pin-Ups you see on shirts and poster. He actually does some tattoo shows with his art. He mostly creates in 1-Shot auto paint, even though his stuff looks like he did it in Illustrator, he still keeps it old school. Great web store - http://www.bawidamann.com/home.html BONUS -The bonus sketch this week comes from comic artist Joe Linsner. Linsner is the creator of the infamous "Cry For Dawn" comics. Joe's Dawn character has taken on a life of her own and has the merchandising pedigree to prove it from calendars to statues to contests of look a like Dawns. She's big time. Joe Linsner wrote the foreword to Joe Capo's art book. They grew up together airbrushing in Long Island. What's in the water out there? http://www.linsner.com/

Fine Art Returns

We were away last Friday at the Paradise Tattoo Gathering and missed the update, but we are back. Josh Hoffman did this awesome "Rock of Ages" painting for us. He substituted the traditional stone cross for our gear logo. Josh's work has a special touch to it, he is a great composer and constructor of both paintings and tattoos. Clean lines and great layouts!

Over the years I had built three or four machines for Josh, but they never seemed to hit hard enough for him. I did just about everything I could think of to make a hard hitting machine, in fact the last rig I did hurt my thumb as I tested it without a needle set up. Trust me it hit, but I still don't think it was hard enough. I guess Josh Hoffman is like L.L. Cool J "Hard as hell".

The piece also made it's way to a Pulse T. We are very happy with it.

We are also the proud owners of Josh Hoffman's Abrasions skate deck. Josh painted the piece on paper then cut it out and shellacked it to the board. That is some serious scissor control. JoshHoffman

Friday, Art Time

Yet another great painting from Shawn Barber. I have been a fan since Shawn begin using the art of tattooing as his subject matter. The energy and point of view that he captures is truly unique. No one has ever put this particular spin on the process. He also has a great way with portraits. He grasps something that no one else does, I love his art and hope he keeps creating painting using tattooing as his subject matter. Always eye opening http://www.sdbarber.com/

This piece comes from an unknown artist and was a gift from my good friend Thug Josh. He was recently in Vietnam and bought this piece for me outside of a temple. It is silk screened on a burbur type of fabric. I think they silk screened right there while he waited. No big machine or special printer. BY HAND! Each screen.

Check out the details, just incredible. Craftsmanship comes in all mediums, I think here in the U.S. we take silkscreening for granted. It is how they make concert T-shirts and posters, but it can be elevated to a great artform. I am going to keep my eye out to add some more quality silk screen pieces to our collection here at Pulse.

Fine Art Friday

Back again, the great Jime Litwalk. Jime created this painting for us when we had the idea of using a lunchbox for a machine package. We thought it would be great to have our own Pulse hot rod rat fink style guy. Jime just did the perfect thing, it was better than we imagined it could be.

Another great thing about Jime's paintings are many of them are done in 1 shot automotive enamel. It really has a great quality in real life. For a piece like this it also adds a bit more of an authentic feel. We also lost the source for these lunchboxes and replaced them with a simple tin. So if you own one of these they are now a true Pulse collectible, so stop pack'in your lunch in it. http://www.jimelitwalk.com/

Oh another great skateboard from our original "Abrasions" collection. This deck is from the tremendous mind of Rodney Raines. I was fascinated by this deck because of the way it told the story. It really used some great comic book type pacing. I thought it would really make a great production deck for some skate company. It was easily my favorite deck from the show/book and I am very happy it lives here at Pulse.

Check him www.acecustomtattoo.com/rodney.htm

Fine, Fine Art.

This weeks featured painting from our collection here at Pulse, is from none other than the queen of pin-up art -Olivia! I have owned this piece for years and not a day goes by that it doesn't get looked at. I love how soft the features of her face are. I have been of fan of Olivia's since "Let them eat cheesecake" first came out, so it is a genuine treat to be able to own an original. It does not disappoint!

Also the piece looks at first glance to be watercolor, but I believe most of her stuff like this is done in gouache. It also adds to the depth of the piece. http://www.eolivia.com/

Also this week from kick ass artist Tom Strom. An amazing rendition of the "The Virgin of Guadalupe" but with a Pulse twist. You want to know a secret about this painting? It wasn't painted at all - it's all alcohol markers. Damn how fast do you have to work when doing a piece like this in marker. Have you ever tried to use them? Once you run over the same spot again it instantly gets darker, they are tough to control, but not for Tom. Our kudos to him, he has done some great art since his days knocking out this kind of stuff. http://www.thestromrefinery.com/artists/Tom_Strom/

Detroit Art Friday

This week brings the real deal from Detroit, Bob Tyrrell. If Bob isn't on the top of your list of people to get tattooed from -check your list. The nicest guy in tattooing has been on the top of my Best black and grey artists for years. I was blown away when Bob drew this skull up especially for us.
His work is so detailed and soft. It's that same technique that Bob uses to create his feathery soft portrait work, building up light layers to create the great tones. Bob did this skull with just 1 pencil. ONE. Very impressive.
The T-shirt was also a great reproduction of the original and it's now a classic. Bob travels a ton, check his schedule and go get tattooed from him when he rolls through your area. You can thank me later. http://www.bobtyrrell.com/
I couldn't have a Detroit Friday without the favorite son of the big D -Jime Litwalk. I was looking for a Hula girl from Jime for a sticker. Somewhere along the way she lost her grass skirt and coconut bra. I wonder if the Tiki had anything to do with it? Jime rules, http://www.jimelitwalk.com/