Grandma's Present

Finally got to paint on one of the 32 new panels I made, I'm happy with how they look. This is a Bird of Paradise for Grandma, she gets a new flower for every birthday and Christmas... she's got a pretty good wall garden going now.

Wild Cactus Hair

Sometimes you just get the urge to make something... in this case, a few little modern cacti out of reclaimed wood. Note the rock pattern stencil. They sure made for good holiday gifts, and they never die! Let me know if you want one.

Wahoo's Colorado Shirts

If you live in Colorado and you like delicious fish tacos, head on down to a Wahoo's Fish Taco joint and you'll likely be served by somebody wearing one of these nifty shirts I designed up. pretty outdoorsy eh? Signal Snowboards is your friend.

Happy 60th Dad!!!

The old man turned 60 a few days ago and we decided to push him out of a plane. As you can see, he loved it... can't stop talking about it. That was my number 3 jump and it seems to get better every time. Santa Barbara Skydiving is by far the best place to jump, it was clear as a bell and all the Channel Islands could be seen, plus they offer the highest jump in the country... 19,000 ft. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Words of Wisdom

"Make voyages! Attempt them! There's nothing else..." - Tennessee Williams

NEW ZEALAND... It's official!

PUSH: DSSP Auction

Busted out a deck for the Division Street Skatepark Project up in Bend, Oregon. The auction goes down December 12th. Click right HERE for more info.

The Wench

Matlock made a wench a while back. It's basically an engine with a spool with 1000' of rope and a wakeboard handle on the end. The thing is pretty rad. A few days ago we found a little jetty and set up camp for the day, pulled into some fun ones with no wetsuits in the middle of November... gotta love that! We failed on getting any action shots but here's Matlock with a few of his favorites; his Wench, ice cold beer and a warm day at the beach.

¡Los Ghettos!

Oh this was a great show! You should have been there. If you were downtown San Luis Obispo on Halloween and heard the echos of "Tequila" or "La Cucaracha" being played on Kazoos, consider yourself a lucky person. Note the pinata guitar!

Waveless

It's flat as a pancake down here in Ventura and I'm dreaming of empty Oregon line-ups like this from last January...

Poster Design for Wahoo's

Not too long ago I designed up a few posters, table tent and coupons for Wahoo's Fish Tacos and their Mountain High and Signal Snowboards promotion. If you're in the SoCal area, check it out...

Production Mode

There's something comfortable about working on an assembly line... Repetition, structure, known outcome etc... I recently decided to make 32 11"x11" panels with frames to paint on. Hopefully I'll get a bunch finished before the holiday, and they'll be very easy on the wallet in hopes of adding some funds to my travel piggy bank. Some will be collage, some screen prints, some stencil... going to be doing a lot of experimenting, stamps on paper have caught my attention lately and I've been on some sort of "Less is More" Zen kick lately. Keep an eye out.

Adios!

Some experiments with driftwood

I did these before I left Portland. Just messing around with small some pieces of driftwood. Has some potential.

Words of Wisdom

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page” - St. Augustine

Dear Oregon,

I'm sorry, but I had to leave. Many faraway lands have been calling my name to come and explore. Life is short ya know? Perhaps I'll be back someday to say hello, but for now, I've got a lot to learn and a lot to see. You have been good to me over the last several years, you gave me a ton of deep snow last winter and a few waves on your beautiful coast that absolutely blew my mind... I had to pinch myself just to make sure they were real. Take care of all my good friends while I'm away. Keep your delicious micro brew flowing, all your lovely strippers in check and don't forget to keep those summers nice and hot for all the drunken river floaters. I already miss you!

Love, Me

P.S. Keep Portland Weird.

Pix

Found a few cool pics I took while digging around in my cluttered hard drive...

Words of Wisdom

"There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it." - Henry Moore

New ODDICA Shirt Release!

Oddica recently asked me to design a shirt based on my painting "Infinite". This is my second release with Oddica and hopefully not my last. Printed with soft water-based inks on American Apparel Tee's and Polo's (Very limited number of these!).

Check out and purchase the Tee's here: Infinite Tee

And the Polos here: Infinite Polo

Art Featured in Surfing Magazine - Nov08 Vol.44 #11

"The Cypress" featured in the Last Ride section.


They also used one of my "Flat Earth" sculptures I made for the Global Storming show as the section header throughout the mag, word on the street is the next issue will also be using a different one.

Special thanks to Scott Chenoweth @ Surfing Mag for making this happen!

Words of Wisdom

"Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life." - W. Somerset Maugham

Erik Abel on Current TV

Stoked to be included as one of the artists interviewed for Current TV! Brandon Bloch came down to the Ripple event in DC while I was setting up and took some video... he also picked up a painting, thanks buddy! The video came out great despite the fact that I speak in a boring monotone voice the entire time, what a dork. I encourage you to leave a comment on the Current TV site about the video. Be nice.

A couple of randoms...

Almost forgot about these...

Art Scout

I just finished designing the website for Bridget Larrabee and her new Art Consulting venture, Art Scout. She's kicking things off with 8 artists from the PDX region including yours truly. Take a look.

Words of Wisdom

"The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does." - Hugh Macleod

NEW BOOK: INVISION 2

Helloooo... for those of you who have been wanting to purchase the new book featuring me along with 11 other Portland artists, you can purchase directly from Another Sky Press. They've got a good thing going on; they charge you the price it costs them to print and ship to you and you can choose however much additional money you want to contribute beyond that, whatever you think is fair, kind of an honor system type thing I guess. I'm very pleased with how the book came out.

Get your copy right..... >>>HERE<<<

OCEANIC TEMPLES @ Bridgeport Brewpub | Aug 7th

View all the pieces from the show HERE.

WHAT: "Oceanic Temples" A new series of paintings by Erik Abel.

WHERE: Bridgeport Brew Pub, 1313 NW Marshall St. Portland, Oregon. Some art will be downstairs and a bunch more in the Mezzanine Room upstairs. (In the bar... perfect!)

WHEN: The show will kick off on First Thursday, August 7th and will be up through September. End your First Thursday Art Walk here and join me for some delicious beverages!

WHY: Because I'm cursed with the urge to create things and if I don't express myself through art I will implode in a matter of weeks. Also... this will be my last show in Portland for a looooong time as I will be leaving the beautiful NW in a few months to travel for a while.

"Oceanic Temples" Statement:

This series is an exploration of new techniques and a new direction for me. It deals with an abstract concept of spiritually and a deep connection with the ocean. The inspiration stems from the conclusion that the ocean is one of the most important things in my life. I can rely on it for happiness, comfort, and a place to purify my mind, body and soul. It's a place of refuge for me and it's worth worshiping and protecting. I feel this series is the closest my work has come to expressing truth, and as an artist, I believe the pursuit of finding truth in my work is an important aspect of art making and discovering who I am.

Words of Wisdom

"The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy." - Florence Shinn

So true it's not even funny.

Invision 2: Book Release & Group Show | July 31st

Stoked to be involved in this, it'll be my first appearance in an actual book...


The Goodfoot, Artpdx & Anothersky Press are proud to announce the realease of Invision 2 A Collection of Visual Art from Portland + Beyond - an 80 page book featuring full-color reproductions of works from 12 exciting artists. In celebration of the release, we have organized an exhibition of work that has appeared in the Invision series as well as new works by many of the artists involved.

Please join us on Thursday, July 31st from 5 - 11pm at the Goodfoot for the opening. Show will be up until August 25th.

artists included in the show from
Invision 1
Released: September 6th, 2007
Published by: Another Sky Press
Featuring the work of: Kendra Binney, Ryan Bodiroga, Paul Fujita, Chris Haberman, Scott Wayne Indiana, Tim Karpinski, Tom Keating, Charlie Alan Kraft, Asley Montague, Dan Ness, Jesse Reno & Keith Rosson.

Invision 2
Released: July 31st, 2008
Published by: Another Sky Press
Featuring the work of: Erik Abel, Ashley Anson, Damon Ayers, Jason Brown, Michael Fields, Justin Gorman, Jason Graham, Michael Edward McGovern, Russel Short, David Stein, Alisha Wessler & Eric Wixon.

The Goodfoot
2845 SE Stark
503-239-9292
Goodfoot Art Gallery

And here's a peek at some of the fish I'll be having up in the show...

Inked Souls @ Art Whino | Aug 2nd

I painted some custom shoes for this show and I kinda had fun...

RIPPLE Event Video & Pics

The Ripple event went off!! June 20th was International Surfing Day and a big crowd made it out to Art Whino Gallery at the National Harbor. Almost $6,000.00 was raised for the DC Surfrider Chapter to help with a new water quality program in the area. Check out a little video from the event...



Thanks to all the sponsors and everybody who helped make this event a success!
Part of my installation...I actually brought a bag of rocks from the Oregon coast on the airplane so I could stick them on the wall, it came out pretty rad...Live painting I did on Saturday...Me with Mr. Art Whino himself, Shane Pomajambo...The Okoto kids, Joe and Amy came down from NJ (what a barrel of fun they are!), and that's Julie from Surfrider DC who happened to bust her arse for this event...
O Susannah of Art Whino, this girl works her ass off too...The silent auction had some great items...Good shot from artist James Walker...These last few pics pretty much sum up the rest of Saturday night, who knew a case of Twin Fin wine and a grassy knoll could be so much fun? ...


You can check out all my work from the show HERE and if you're interested, contact Art Whino to see what's still available.

Vans Cover Contest Plug in Surfer Magazine

Sometimes you just submit something for the hell of submitting something and sometimes it pays off, in this case, the recent Vans Cover Contest where people can upload a picture or graphic and customize a fake cover for Surfer Magazine. I was just putzing around checking out the contest website and looking at everyones covers and decided to take about 15 seconds and pop in one of my recent paintings, never thought about it again... next thing I know my cover gets a little shot in the mag and an email asking for my address so Vans can send me a free backpack, pair of sandals and a shirt, as well as entering me for a chance at winning cash and the grand prize. Sweeet!

Words of Wisdom

"You're confusing product with process. Most people, when they criticize, whether they like it or hate it, they're talking about product. That's not art, that's the result of art. Art, to whatever degree we can get a handle on (I'm not sure that we really can) is a process. It begins in the heart and the mind with the eyes and hands." - Jeff Melvoin

Bill was great!

We went and saw Bill Maher's stand-up the other night here in PDX... just about gave my self a hernia from laughing so hard. So right and so funny at the same time, how is that possible?

Words of Wisdom

Hahaha...

“An amateur is someone who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to enable him to paint.” - Ben Shahn

A Painting for Teach!

Just finished up this Fish painting on a reclaimed hollow-core door from The ReBuilding Center. Portland is sooooooo RAD!!! It's hanging nicely in Teacher and Micah's condo. Happy Birthday! I didn't get a super good pic of it, but you get the idea, and here's a detail shot to see all the fun...

Plug from Jaimal Yogis

There are a few nice words about my art over on the blog of Jaimal Yogis. He's an award winning Journalist and photographer who currently lives in San Francisco. He's also releasing a book next year, "Saltwater Buddha: A Surfers Quest to Find Zen on the Sea"

Words of Wisdom

"Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love." - Rumi

Miss crawford's 4th Annual Ping Pong-A-Thon!!!

Teacher(AKA Miss Crawford) turns another year older and that means one thing... Ping Pong. And not just any backyard Ping Pong BBQ tourny, it's her special, renowned, annual event... Ping Pong-A-Thon!

This 4th Annual just happens to be 70's Athletic themed so my paddle partner Micah and I did a little thrift store shopping today and came up big... we look sooo disgusting it's almost sexy, just need the mustache to fill out and I'll be there.

The undefeated champion team "Do Drugs, Don't Wear Condoms" has finally fallen apart just weeks before the big event. Joey will have to scout for a new team mate and try to defend the infamous, Crawford Cup. Every great empire has to fall buddy! You're going down! Muuuahhahahaha!

I'll be sure to get some pics up after the dust settles.

>>UPDATE>> Team portrait... sooo gross it's awesome!

RIP George

It's a saaaad, sad day when you find out that George Carlin died. Brings a tear to my eye.