sam

socal pop artist. visit samcarterart.com

Smarter Than Your Homicidal Maniac

Jul 182009
 

Taking a break from the Cult Cinema paintings but still in the Pop Vein, I felt like doing something to bring out the “Itchy& Scratchy” in me. The thought being what if Yogi actually snapped and made sure he got the picnic basket. I mean seriously, who the hell does the Ranger think he is anyway? He’s dealing with a wild bear in the forest for cryin‘ out loud! I think Yogi’s natural bear instincts have kicked in and what you see is what happens when you mess with bears. It’s not good. Boo Boo on the other hand is still a little unsure because his murdering instincts haven’t kicked in yet. His huge purple bow tie cracks me up for some reason though. So maybe consider this a public service message of sort, if you see a bear in Jellystone National Park, just let him have the Picnic Basket. Time to get off your high horse ranger, should have let him have the f’ing picnic basket. Were you even going to eat it? Jerk.

And for the record can I just say that Hanna Barbera sucks. For some reason I never liked it, I did give it a shot. I think I watched the Flintstones and Jetsons when i was 5 for a bit. But I always felt it was so weak compared to other stuff out there. I felt Mickey, Donald and Goofy owned it, followed closely with Bugs Bunny & Co. I just wish Mickey and them and the awesome violence that Looney Toons had. Anyway, enjoy.

Up next is another portrait of a Hanna Barbera “masterpiece”, Snagglepuss. Oh the possibilities, he might be the gayest cartoon character of all time. ( excluding Big Gay Al of course )

Conan Republic

Jul 012009
 

I’ve been meaning to paint this one ever since I heard Conan O’Brien was moving to LA to do his show. I felt it was appropriate to have some fun with the Masturbating Bear on our CA Flag. It kind of just made sense. My hidden agenda with this one is to somehow get it to him and maybe score some tickets for me and my friends. And if I knew it would actually get to him, I would give him the original. I mean, he is only one of the funniest people on the planet. If you are reading this and have no idea what I am talking about, you have been missing out on some funny stuff. Time to start catching up on some Conan.

There is no Dana, there is only Zuul

Jun 282009
 


This is the 2nd in what might be a Triptic, Or Holy Trinity of Ghostbusters if you will. Not sure if I want to donate that much time to this movie at once. Don’t get me wrong, it’s in my top 5 favorite movies of all time, but I need to spread it out a little. Maybe someday I will come back and do one of Zuul herself, and one of the Demon Dogs. Lewis would be fun to do to. But anyway, here is Dana Barrett at the top of Spook Central. It would be fun to do a series of babes from movies in this style.

GALLERY UPDATE: talking to some people about having a show in Old Town Orange. At first I was thinking early fall 09. But the space might not be available then, so it may get moved up to August. Which is the main reason for me to be cranking so much work out lately. As long as work stays at a normal level and doesn’t get too nuts I can keep up this trend of a painting a week. I’ve been a real slave to the canvas lately…. so I got that going for me, which is nice.

Who You Gonna Call?

Jun 092009
 

It’s been rough trying to find time to get some more canvas painted this year. May has been crazy busy. But I was able to crank this out this week. I actually started it in Feb and did the bottom half, but let it sit for a few months. Having the OC Fair around the corner will always set a fire under my ass. So this will hopefully be showing in the Visual Arts area of this years fair. I need to drop it off on June 19th.

So anyway, Ghostbusters, easily one of my favorite movies. Probably in my top 5 movies of all time. My goal was to give it a pop surrealism feel to it, I’m not sure if it’s as strong as I hoped. My other goal was to not make it feel like nerdy fan art. I’m not trying to say that it is not nerdy, it is VERY nerdy, but that’s why I wanted to paint it. But there are some dorks out there that crank out some really bad stuff based on their favorite nerd movie. We’ve all seen it, and I hope this is a couple steps above that type of art. It was fun to paint, I would like to do a series of paintings done in this style. Probably a Caddyshack, Back to the Future, etc. But this painting made me really want to do a 2nd Ghostbusters painting that just has a stylized “Dana” looking all possesed and sexy. Maybe Zule in the back, huh?

Get Back

Apr 152009
 

I knew I always wanted to do a piece based on the Beatles but wasn’t sure how to do it. After seeing “Love” in Vegas I was inspired to pump this one out. I wanted something that tried to capture a little bit of each era of this band. It’s based on some famous shots of them on the roof of their Apple Records in London performing “Get Back”. Which also happens to be the last time they all played together as the Beatles. Lot’s of references in this one… there is the black birds flying above, war torn Liverpool in the back, the early days of “help” jumping in front, line art from Yellow Submarine, Ringo’s drum has the faint left over art from Sgt. Peppers. Fun stuff. As far as bands go, I’d love to someday do a DMB, Sublime or U2 painting. Someday.

Malice in Wonderland

Apr 152009
 

I painted this one when I lived in Huntington, it is kind of the second in a series. The first one being Dorothy, and the next one is a yet to be painted Sleeping Beauty. I plan on doing that one with our famous princess in silk sheets and a bottle of sleeping pills. That one is on deck. But this piece I am a fan of. The model is Joanna Krupa, one of my favorites if you couldn’t tell. Lot’s of little things about this one, you have the pervy Mad Hatter whispering nothing but bad ideas in her ear. You have the Tweedles holding hands, they were always a little gay to me. The huka was a must, now that i think about it I wish I painted a catipillar on it. And I think when I show this at a gallery I want to get a real bottle of Jack and recreat this label for it. I just know one of my alcohalic friends will take it. Oh well.

Kamakura Samurai

Apr 142009
 

Ever since my trip to Japan in 05 and o6 I really wanted to paint the Hokusai woodblock print of the great wave. I thought… why WOULDN’T a samurai surf that thing? When I was out there with Sarah and Phil we stumbled upon this surfer town, Kamakura. It’s where that huge Buddha is. It was basically the Japanese San Clemente. That city was the main influence in this painting. The Hello Kitty surfboard is a little tribute to my old boss Dave Earick. Plus I wanted to add a modern touch to it so I added the Tokyo Tower next to Fuji. Japan Rocks, I want to go back.

The Usual Suspects

Apr 142009
 

I started this set last year, and needed to take a break from it. Haven’t really touched in in months. Each one is 5″x 5″. I wanted to have at least 8 more pieces in this set. But I think I will be keeping this as Series One and leave it at that. I have been working on making a character design that it recognizable, but ridiculously simple. It’s a challenge for me but this type of art really inspires me. There are some artists out there that are REALLY good at it. Who would have thought how hard it is to make something so simple. If you haven’t figured it out, each of these “suspects” are characters from Disneyland based on rides. I am trying not to do the ones that are famous from movies, but famous for not being from movies. Minus Indy and Dumbo, but how can I leave them out?? There are a few more characters that need to be hit up, stay tuned for that. This will definitely be part of my Gallery. I am not sure if it will only be sold as a set, or each one on it’s own.

The Fast Supper

Apr 042009
 

This was my first painting that I feel really got a lot of recognition. It won Jurors Choice at the OC Fair in 2004. Even while I was drawing it out, a lot of the old ladies in my Art Class at CSUF were getting nervous because they knew I was doing some sort of spoof to a religious painting. It was about the time I painted the face on Jesus in white, and put clown make up on when they finally had their heart attack. To me this has nothing to do with Christianity, it’s more about the Religion of Fast Food. I painted it because I has almost no money and always needed to grab a bite around campus. I felt that these commercial icons were my disciples. Plus I was listening to Jason Mraz Fast Food Nation song a lot while making this one. When people see this, there is usually at least one character they don’t recognize, which blows me away because sadly I feel like these bums raised me. There have been about a million spoofs of the Last Supper, but I felt I had to throw mine in the mix. This piece was bid on by a few people, but I ended up hanging onto this one. I have sold quite a few reproductions of this one tho, it’s one of my favorites.

Dorothy

Apr 042009
 

This was my first painting that I sold. I painted it while at CSUF, like most of my older pieces. I really miss having those 6 hour studio classes everyday. I was cranking out paintings like crazy. The model was based from a pose in Maxim Magazine, some hotty that stood out to me. The original was sold to an awesome guy who put it up at his store in the Arty area of Long Beach. I don’t think they are in business any more. But when I sell a piece I make sure to get a high res picture of it, so I can reproduce it whenever. I’d still like to show it when I have another Gallery, it’s one of my favorites.

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