Fake Louis Vuitton trash. Seen. Googled. And purchased.

Instead of dealing with my own obscene interior yesterday i made that blog post. In this pic can u find:

The paper mache head i got in Tokyo that I recently wore to a dance party in Chinatown.

2 chairs i bought for the sex club that we won’t end up using that i don’t know what to do with now.

luggage not unpacked since Christmas.

Ikea shelving meant for your garage.

An LA Weekly i can’t toss because it has a hot guy on the cover and I need to find out who he is. I’ve been meaning to do this for over a year.

The cardboard model of the gallery and disco ball prop from my PARTY MONSTER installation.

Every issue of Nest magazine, not in any order.

A Buddha machine.

Childrens toy birds that make noise during an earthquake.

Storyboards for a book project that will never get published.

Issues of McSweeney’s i’ll never get around to reading.

Several lampshades i thought i might use for the sex club but probably won’t but they were only $1 each so i had to.

Vintage Hallmark paper honeycomb centerpieces. (Not that i have a table to ever put them on.)

Souvenir metal miniatures of the World Trade Center I had a NY friend buy me on Sept 11 2001 because I knew every miniature made after that would say “Never Forget” or something.

A box of Obscene Interiors books. No it’s not that box. I don’t know what’s in that box. Oh I just looked, it’s confetti.

Very “this is the piece that’ll get me into art school.” Drag queens standing on a black shard. Sharks (a metaphor?). And a primitive Basquiat-inspired demon figure. Shit like this plays well in a crowded BFA portfolio review meeting – “This one’s got the passion, he just needs to focus.” – but after you’re accepted you don’t know what to do with it, and lord knows your parents don’t want it, so you stick it on your wall in a desperate attempt to deny it’s true fate: the thrift store. And it’s there a couple kids will find it and have a great “omg look at this” moment, maybe snap a pic on their cell phone, and then go to lunch without buying it.

Art like this is only acceptable to display if your mother painted it, and that’s what you see when you look at it. Because the rest of us see the most boring and overused image ever. Flowers in an old-world windowsill. And it’s horribly composed and poorly rendered (as this scene so frequently is). But again, if mom painted it it’s great and warm and u can keep it.

I bought this exact same print on a family trip to Laguna Beach when i was 15 or so. I didn’t care about the joke: “Sitting duck” har har. I just liked the chill nature of the duck. I needed any image supporting relaxation to be on my walls at that time.

I really try to be supportive of people being creative. But sometimes it’s really REALLY hard. I mean you have no idea how badly i want to put quotation marks around “creative” here.

Blurry squiggle flowers in a penis vase is a new way to combine two common subjects and secure a purchase from a gay buyer.

Great example of the piece that didn’t get you into art school.  You hang it on your wall in a sour grapes victory. Who needs art school anyway. Theory just turns you gay. I like colors. Immago paint my walls yellow.

20 years later you think about the suckers still paying off their CalArts loans while they work at a brand licensing firm and insisting finding ways to put Dora the Explorer on a toothbrush is “still being creative you know.” You might be working as a bar back and considering charging guys to watch you jack off online but u know that’s still better than Sallie Mae having a $50,000 grip on your ass into middle age. OMG this has nothing to do with what i’m supposed to be talking about. What’s happened to me. I’ve become an LA Weekly film critic.

Opening night is sold out. More pics to come after I recover. I designed all the sets/props as well as all 40-some illustrations projected on the scrim.

The Good Soldier Schweik for Long Beach Opera – It’s a comedy, in English, based on a Czech novel about the start of WWI. Only 2 performances, each in a different theater, the first one being far superior and almost sold out – Get Tix here if u want.

This is the tipsy bar – which i think is quite a sublime little piece. The mugs attach magnetically to metal hidden under the top allowing repositioning of the mugs – and re-balancing or un-balancing of the bar without the mugs falling.

this bed is made from platforms and crates used in other scenes. The look is spoze to be very traveling troupe with a circus/military feel.

I got this green chair for $5. Making it into a wheelchair cost a bit more.

These sketches were rough early concepts. The birdcage was found on craigslist and i added the extra who-ha at the top. I think adding chandelier crystals to those chairs and cage was a bit of genius but that’s me talking about myself. And let me tell u what a bitch it is to paint a birdcage.

this was the front door on Christmas after we cleared the walk.

This was taken as i walked into the gym – from where the car got stuck.

And this was in the Fargo paper today.

I was planning on much more being completed by now but had to pause the sex club effort to do a mega job for a mega company (which I’ll be back on from mid Jan – mid May) and then was asked to design an opera (opens Jan 23 in Long Beach) – which I’m completely absorbed in right now. But in between the two i designed the club’s condom and lube packets.

The condoms aren’t in yet because they must go through FDA approval (yes even if only the packaging changed). In designing them i looked at automotive product packaging and the masculine simplicity of generic IKEA-like labeling. Once inside the club i try to avoid text as much as possible and switch to using icons instead – like a big drip shape to indicate “lube,” because reading is is a forced mental process but image recognition is part of our animal nature – and when you’re in a sex club u r definitely getting in touch with your primal state.

The auto-body shop inspired entry is almost done. It still needs the new light fixtures and a few other elements. I wanted to beat it up and distress it but i can’t bring myself to do it yet. Maybe by may it will have happened naturally.

O and this is why i’m not blogging much – BECAUSE I’M DESIGNING 3 JOBS. Sex club, opera, and this other big secret gig. And while doing all that i’m trying to get Obscene Interiors II to happen, launch a zine, plan another major gallery event/show/party for late summer/fall, and find a publisher for another book project. My bathroom hasn’t been cleaned in months and i’ve discovered Fabreze works when you don’t have time to do the laundry.

I’m also looking for graphic designers (especially with dimensional and/or way-finding understanding), set designers,  3-d modelers/CAD/sketch up, and a lighting designer. And when i say graphic designer I don’t mean someone who laid out their church picnic brochure. I mean a designer with FLAIR and DRAMA who also understands it’s a sin to stretch a font in Photoshop.

Ok so that’s the deal. I’ll continue to post when i can find the energy to stare at my computer for yet ANOTHER hour. But as long as no other dream jobs land on me i’ll be spending May-September 2010 creating my OWN awesomeness for your viewing pleasure. Omg i’m so exhausted most days i just want to cry.

i’m hopping on Luke Nero’s back and we’re both having our birthdays at his club Mr Black Tues Dec 15 here.

The Good Soldier Schweik for Long Beach Opera – It’s a comedy, in English, based on a Czech novel about the start of WWI – if any of that interests you. There is also a scene with 5 guys in a bed together getting enemas. Maybe i should have gone with that for the poster image. There’s only 2 performances, each in a different theater, the first one being far superior I think – Get Tix here if u want.

Kent Anderson Butler’s “Chic” spotted today at Carl Berg Projects at the Pacific Design Center.