Alex Crist: Post-Phrenological Etchings

Because in our world, "sketches" is not nearly so interesting as the opportunity to use the word "phrenological" in any context. And sometimes my drawings, yes, they suggest curiously-shaped skulls. It's not just rule-of-cool. It makes sense, sort of, you know, if you get elastic with it.

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Max Von Sydow has probably my favorite skull in cinema, and just an astounding set of ears, as well as, according to the Game of Thrones commentary track, enormous hands.

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Artist Alex Crist, figurative painter and creator of Hipster Chupacabra, displays new works in acrylic at Small World Books. Free guacamole while it...

Got some new paintings going up at Small World Books in Venice, CA, this coming Thursday (May 17) and they’ll be up for a while after that, but anyhoo, the Art Crawl itself starts at 6 and the store will be open until 9 that night (normally it closes at 8) and uh, there’ll be guacamole probably?  I’m promising a lot of people guacamole.

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Sketched out my next painting

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I have an event coming up. https://www.facebook.com/events/1872584056324356/

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This one doesn't have a title yet.  The "Fun" promised below is a lie, or at least, a potentially-lethal-yoga-stretch away from the truth.

Also, I might need a better camera to take these pictures, huh?  iPhones have limits.

FUN MAKING-OF RANT:  This one took 27 days mostly because I couldn't figure out what I was trying to do with the background; also because I was using two different photo references and didn't realize until, like, day 4 of painting the sweater that the lighting was in no way similar in said two photo references.  Also about a week was lost there with gold leaf, and um, well, there's about a pound of composition gold leaf under that there paint.  In other new things: this one, like the last painting I did, is on a home-made canvas, ie, one that I stretched myself.  Is making it yourself worth it?  Not really!  Unless, like me, you've decided that all paintings should be 16"x24" (which you can't find pre-made at art stores) and you're so adamant about it you decide to go out and spend fifty bucks on stretcher bars and canvas and canvas pliers, and also gesso (because unprimed canvas uses a lot of gesso!) and you still happen to have a staple gun.  Anyway, so after making the canvas I wasted two weeks on the background, and then four days on the sweater before realizing I had the lighting wrong vis-a-vis the face, then did the face and had to do the background over because of smudging and then, uh, then I had to do the silver leaf like a third time...it's...it's all quite exhausting.

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I’ve never posted from Instagram before, didn’t know it would make my picture square, so here is a better version.

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Finally completed a new painting (been super busy the past 5, 6 months) and the background is not what I initially intended at all but you know what they say, "accidents happen and sometimes you screw up an effect but the world is going crazy and just leave it, it looks alright, nothing matters anyway, please stop talking about the background effect it's 3 am." Which is kind of a lengthy idiom but I've heard a lot of people say it, and who am I to judge the linguistic conventions of our age?

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A sketch that turned out nicely, albeit not exactly how I wanted. Was supposed to be St. Vincent

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Playing with markers to sketch out Keith Richards. Will paint at some point.

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Acrylic on wood; I’m not terribly fond of this, I don’t quite know if it works but if it’s a failure I nevertheless feel like I learned a lot about painting skin while failing at it.

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Ugly old white men, drawn whilst on the phone at work

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“Looking at the News After January 20th, 2017“

Acrylic on wood, and a pretty fair encapsulation of my expression watching the news these days.

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Things of been crazy the past two months and then I had the gall to start a canvas it's 24 x 36, and then I screwed it up by applying a gel that was supposed to be diluted by half, so I had to start over, but anyway, it's finished, so yay.

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My paintings are going up at Small World Books January 5 at 6pm. There will doubtless be refreshments, probably including guacamole. I will be present throughout and happy to answer questions and nod politely and hey, if you need book recommendations while you're there... Also, there's validated parking for 30 minutes at the Southwest corner of Market and Speedway, although, Thursday night in January, street parking should be a little more easily found. I will, of course, update with pictures after the opening night, but until then, take a look at the setup on the left and think just how much cooler it would be if they weren't all blurry--because in person, they're not!  They're actually really crisp and stuff!

You can check out the event’s Facebook page here or the relevant link on my website here.

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Max Von Sydow has probably my favorite skull in cinema, and just an astounding set of ears, as well as, according to the Game of Thrones commentary track, enormous hands.

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New painting; no title yet. Took me forever though

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John Edgar Wideman and Ernest Gaines for Blind Date with a Book at Small World Books in Venice, CA