On July 2, 2009 — I became a full-time artist. My first sale? A 30″X30″ painting of The Guggenheim, created on 5th Avenue, in front of The Guggenheim. When the desire to paint Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece struck again, it felt too opportunistic… unless. Unless it became something grandiose… a benchmark for my career.

So, I decided to paint The Guggenheim, each year, for twenty years. Back then, as a dude living in NYC with a steady girl and a scary new career — it felt impossible. Today, I find myself living in Idaho, married, with three kids and nine Gugg’s to go.

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For this year, I went clean… and shared the time lapse with some explicit beats, courtesy of my boy Louis Metric. Not only is this guy a microphone assassin — he is a total beer-league sniper… listen, follow, and watch him ascend.

Getting down and dirty with a deep red under painting and a delicate sketch.

The first of FIVE passes on the background. Oh, and I’ve begun using a new surface — primed linen stretched over aluminum. It’s glorious… light… warp free and beautiful.

At first, I went in with some darker grays… but realized — it wasn’t right, so I reversed and went from light to dark. This was the move.

Not much different here, but isn’t the light spectacular? I always say… it’s one thing to see art online, with clean, gallery crisp images — it’s another, entirely, to live with art… watch it change… play… interact, and bear witness to your life.

I’ve taken to a new methodology of painting gradients… it’s about multiple overlaps to increase the smoothness. When you paint, paint, paint… one is constantly looking to improve the process, and result. Oh, and every square inch of the Guggenheim was painted with a size 000 brush… three times!

Here we are… getting down to it. Really, what remains is the details… the devil lives there.

And boom! Year 11… the Silver Guggenheim — 9 to go. One day, this series will show in a museum. Here’s looking at you, Gugg…

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