Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Beast



I have art news. A friend of mine, Zoey Stevens (http://www.zoey.com), invited me to create a piece for an upcoming group show opening tomorrow. The goal is to raise awareness and to fund research for a cure for type 1 Diabetes, the title of the show is 'Pre-Existing Condition'. I had an uncle that suffered from type 1, so I used him as inspiration. I am excited to be in the same company as Shepard Fairey, the artist responsible for the recently popular Obama portrait & 'Obey' street art. I've attached a low resolution version of my submission. If you want to see more detail, below is a link to the final high resolution version (large file ~ 30MB). A description of the art and information about the show is also below.

http://www.vincentburkhead.com/downloads/__TheBeast_Final_PRINT.zip


The Beast

My late Uncle Lowell Burkhead was a true original. He was an electrical engineer, woodworker, tool maker, inventor, visionary, caver, educator, writer, lover of nature, musician, organic gardener, mole killer, story teller, loving son, brother, uncle, and a type one diabetic. He held several patents for his inventions. Lowell was an inspiration to many. As a good friend of his once said: “Lowell was a lot of different things, but dull was never one of them”.

One of his strange creations is The Beast, a hybrid of two unlikely vehicles - a six wheel drive WWII era amphibious vehicle and a 1960 Ford Galaxy. The forty eight inch wheels easily weathered the brutal Iowa winters. The Beast is an apt metaphor for Lowell’s strong character and tenacity. Unfortunately another beast lived within him, one that eventually cut his life short at age 56. This piece is a celebration of my Uncle’s accomplishments, as well as a visual depiction of what was lost by his premature departure.

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Pre-Existing Condition

The Light Gallery (www.thelightgalleries.com) of Costa Mesa, California will debut the group art show, “Pre-existing Condition” on March 20, 2009 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Gallery Location:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Costa+Mesa&state=CA&address=440+E.+17th+St.&zipcode=92627

The show was organized by Zoey Stevens (http://www.zoey.com) and Dereck Cruz of Type One Clothing (www.typoneclothing.com) as a way to both raise awareness about diabetes, and raise money to fund research for a cure for type 1 diabetes. Proceeds from the show will be gifted to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (www.jdrf.org) All of the artists participating in the group exhibition share a connection to diabetes, either by having the disease themselves or having a friend or relative with diabetes. Artworks featured in the show have been created specific to the event and express the artist’s perspective of the disease. Participating artists include, Vincent Burkhead, Shepard Fairey, Thomas J. Novy, David Stoupakis, Christina Christos, Anna Impullitti, Anthony Ausgang, Andreina Davila, Alone One, C. De La Luz Medrano, Mark George, Marcos Miguel Sanchez, the Molten Brothers, Ahnna Jade, Marcus Parrish, KRK Ryden, Big Toe, Frank Ippolito, Paul Torres, Tara Parrish, Rony Alwin, Julie Bossinger, Heather Ritts, Dereck Cruz, Gregory P. Rodriguez, Robert Holton, Joshua Ellingson, Ryan Boyle, Sean Brannan and Zoey Stevens. The show will travel nationally, stopping in Las Vegas, Nevada, Phoenix, Arizona, Dallas, Texas, and St. Augustine, Florida before returning to Los Angeles, California, where M Modern Gallery (www.mmodern.com ) will host the closing show. All original art works will be available for purchase as well as limited edition prints. Type One Clothing and Identity Board Shops will also offer limited apparel with proceeds to benefit the JDRF.

For more info visit: http://pre-existingcondition.blogspot.com/

The show will be traveling to multiple cities. For those in San Diego, the gallery opening is about 85 miles north, but still south of LA. I know that is a long haul, especially on a Friday, so consider this is more of an announcement than an RSVP request. Just wanted to keep you in the loop.

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