The Fine Art Blog of Daz and Holly

…you know the scene in the movie Titanic where the guy is sketching the girl.

In that case art helps the biological needs of love become more romantic and cerebral, which ultimately make the biological parts of love more enjoyable. The picture below is a collage of a couple of artworks of mine that Holly modified (to give herself wings!) then I modified it again!

How has Art enhanced your life?

Holly wrote me this poem. I am smiling!

My poem for Darren Daz Cox:

And If

and if
your feet
were left, with not one right
and in you
beat no metronome with which
you kept the time
i would remain
steadfast at your side
on that hard, cold plastic chair
playing “paper, scissors, rock”
as all the couples swirled, afire,
Flamenco dancing

and if
your ears fell black silent
to a mysterious, shadowy affliction
and you accompanied me
to that film
where all the anxious crowd
were laughing giddily
over a well-wrought comedy
I would not slip a smile
but remain stoic
in respect for your darkness

and if
you could not walk with me
beside the wet shore
where the sky met waters
in azure blue we’ve only seen
in dreams
I’d print you pictures
of that place
and we would
sit out on the porch
and watch the cars pass
and talk of things
we’d do together
if we could only go

because it’s not
what you do
it’s who you are
that I love most

H.P. Lovecraft was a writer of strange fiction, though not a popular genre for his era. However, a cult following developed and increased in strength after his short lifetime. Lovecraft first introduced the fictional Miskatonic Univeristy in 1922, and, due to his great skill and imagination, many came to believe that it did exist and was comparable in prestige to the likes of Harvard. Raised in poverty by parents who died insane, Lovecraft himself died in poverty at the age of 47 in 1937. So dear to him with the fan letters he received and he was said to have saved all of his spare money with which to purchase the postage necessary to respond to every letter. To save money, he would often have one sandwich per day. I would make this bread for him. – Chef Chauvinist Piglette aka Holly Eitenmiller. 

My recipes are long because I offer as much advice as I can when I write them, rather than dumping some ingredients in your lap, and some cooking times … so trust that this recipe is very simple!

A few quick things – on my last batch, I was out of milk, but had almond milk and used that instead. I believe the bread was softer than before, and I’m probably going to only use that or soy milk instead, and that’s great for the lactose-intolerant, anyway. I’m betting the vanilla flavors of soy or almond milk would be really great in it, as well.

2 pkgs. yeast (quick-rise is fine, but don’t eliminate a second rising, regardless of what the package says)
3/4 c. water – 105-110 degrees
2 c. milk (can sub in goat, soy or almond milk), room temperature (If your milk is cold, microwave it on a power of 3 for about 4 minutes, and that’s fine)
3 T. butter
3 T. honey or sugar
2 t. salt
6 c. white flour

Whisk the yeast with the warm water and let rest 5 minutes. To me, if my tap water is kind of steamy and burns a little, it’s the right temperature, but if you’re concerned, use a thermometer.

Dice up the butter into chunks and drop into yeast mixture, and add the milk, honey and salt. Stir slightly, then add four cups of flour and mix well.

Add another two cups of flour and mix it the best you can. Much of the flour won’t incorporate and the dough will still be pretty gooey. It’s important not to add too much flour at this point, because, in my experience, it’s very difficult to deal with dough that’s too dry. You’ll have to struggle with adding teaspoon after teaspoon of water to regain a good texture. I’d rather babysit 15 2-year-olds at a wading pool than deal with that …

Dump the dough on the counter. It should look messy. Begin to knead in a bit of flour at a time until the dough is nice and elastic and maybe a teeny itty bit sticky. It’s okay that way … better than dry.

At this stage, stop and wash the goo of your hands, dry them well and knead the dough until it’s just a little more smooth, adding flour at just a tablespoon at a time or so, if necessary. Place the dough in a bowl that’s been slicked with butter or oil, or sprayed with non-stick spray.

I like to turn my oven on to about 225 degrees and put the bowl on the oven. This slightly expedites the rising. Cover with a twel and let rise until double. When I use super-fresh yeast, the rising time seems to be about 45 minutes or so. If it rises too much, it’s less likely to be as fluffy, so use your judgement.

Now for a handy cleaning tip! Don’t wet the mess on your counter, it just makes it worse. I take a spatula and scrape it clean, then wash it.

After it rises, punch the dough down, and toss onto a lighly-floured surface, knead it down,and divide it in half. I’m pretty good at weighing it between my hands. If it feels slightly heavy on one side, pinch portions from one to the other and knead it together. Form the dough into two loaves.

Press the loaves slightly in greased loaf pans, cover with a towel and let rise until double (about 1/2″ over the tops of the pans). Near baking time, preheat the oven to 350. Gently slide a serrated blade over the length of the tops of the bread, then carefully smear chunks of soft butter into the trenches. You may also drizzle olive oil into the slits instead.

Place the loaves in the oven, with a cookie sheet beneath them to catch butter or oil drippings. Bake for 25-30 minutes. If you have an old oven, like I do, you may want to turn the loaves around midway through to ensure even baking.

Don’t worry if your bread seems ultra brown on top, and even hard and crusty. What follows is the secret to awesome bread …

Within five minutes of removing the loaves from the oven, dump them out on the counter top. Immediately slather butter with your bare hands all over the loaves, and don’t skimp on it! Frankly, my daughters and I cut the crust off of store-bought bread, but with this bread, you’ll eat the crust first.

As soon as the butter bath is complete, wrap the warm bread completely in plastic wrap, or seal immediately in a large plastic Ziploc bag, eliminating as much as air possible. Expect the wrapping to be coated in butter, and don’t replace it for while, just let that yummy, perfect butter saturate the bread.

Immediately make two more loaves of bread, because these will be eaten within one hour.

I will offer variations of this recipe, such as corn bread, onion bread, honey wheat and so on …

Keep up with Chef Chauvinist Piglette on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ChauvinistPiglette

 

Vincent Van Gogh’s first epic painting was his “The Potato Eaters”. He wanted, from what my heart and research has told me, was to show the honesty of the peasants who grew their own food and appreciated the fruits of their labor. One thing that art historians don’t emphasize is that the whole family is there, around the table engaged in a shared pleasure. Family was very, very important to Vincent, even though he rarely got to share a meal with loved ones, and unfortunately rarely was a meal brought about by the fruits of his labors.

Since Holly aka Chef Chauvinist Piglette, loves Vincent Van Gogh at least as much as I Daz do, maybe more, she named her yummy potato soup after him!

It’s the time of year for soup that makes your belly sing and warms the soul! Here is my Ode to the Dear, Lovely Vincent Van Gogh Potato Soup … Mmmm!
Recipe for Creamy, Steamy Van Gogh Potato Soup

Before I proceed, let me emphasize this: if you do not have some of these spices in your repertoire, dont worry about it! This soup is excellent with salt and pepper added to your liking. And, of course, feel free to improvise with your own favorites!

Ingredients:

8 russet potatoes, or 10 red potatoes
1 large white onion
2 T. Better than Bouillon Vegetable, Chicken, Beef OR
about 6 c. chicken broth OR
boullion of your choice, measured to about 6-8 c. water
3 T. flour
1 t. rosemary
2 t. garlic powder
2 t. salt
1 t. celery seed or salt
1 t. basil and/or tarragon
2 t. pepper (I use white pepper)
2 pinches saffron
3 egg yolks
1 c. heavy whipping cream or half-and-half or milk (in order of my preference)
1 c. unsalted real butter (margarine may be substited, but you will lose some of the ecstacy associated with butter)
1 c. hugs
An MP3 of Vincent by Don McLean

If you’re moderately lazy like me, don’t worry about peeling the potatoes, just wash your spuds, dice them up in bite-size pieces, place in a large pan and cover with cold water or broth, a little over the level of chunks-o-spuds, and bring to a boil over high heat. Once, boiling, reduce to a high simmer.

The broth or water in which you’re boiling your spuds will serve as the soup base. Because of this, add whichever of the following spices you may have or like, and some of the ones you favor which aren’t on my list:

celery seed/salt
garlic powder
tarragon
basil
salt
pepper

As you boil your perty little taters for about 12 minutes, peel all the unwanted papery layers off your onion and dice it up. Melt 4 t. of butter (or margarine … eeeewww) in a saucepan. If you wish, you may also sub in yummy olive oil. Also, if you’ve ever been as broke as me, and you even lack any of those three ingredients, use a few tablespoons of shortening or vegetable oil, that’s fine, too. Saute your onions over low heat, stirring occasionally, in the butter/oil until nice and clear and tender.

By now, your potatoes are probably nice and tender. Reduce the heat on the spuds to low, so that they’re gently simmering. As you wait for your onions to soften, now is an excellent time to take a sledgehammer to your telelvision set. If you don’t have one, smash your neighbor’s.

Once your onions are ready, dump about 3 T. of flour over them and mix well. You’ll wind up with a gooey gum of onions and flour. Let this mixture slightly brown by stirring over a medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Spoon or ladle broth from your simmering potatoes into the onions, stirring frequently. Add as much broth to make kind of a soupy mixture. Now, spoon that mixture back into the potatoes and mix well. It should blend nicely!

If you have saffron, add two nice big pinches to the soup now, mmmmm!!! Now also is when you should add the cup of hugs.

This is a great time to stop if you’re completely lactose intolerant. If you wish to thicken it a bit, just mix a few tablespoons of corn starch or flour with cold water and slowly incorporate it into the simmering potatoes, stirring constantly until thicker.

If you’re only moderately lactose intolerant, go ahead and complete the recipe, as the cream or milk used in this is fairly negligible.

Add about two cups of water to the soup and bring to a slight boil.

As the soup simmers, blend the cream and egg yolks together in a medium-sized bowl. With whisk or fork in your dominant hand, ladle or spoon steaming broth from the soup into the cream, whisking constantly and quickly. Continue to add steaming broth until you’ve doubled the amount of liquid in the bowl. Essentially, what you’re doing is poaching the egg yolks.

If you’re like me, you always forget to buy that damn egg separator when you’re out and about. Really, it’s easy to do it with the shell. Gently crack the egg, then break it open over a bowl, with the egg north and south, and the crack east and west. Carefully trade the yolk between halves until most of the white has dripped into the bowl below it. It’s okay if there’s a little egg white left around the yolk! And don’t worry if you can’t get it right the first few times – they’re just eggs and they’re cheap!

Once done, slowly pour the cream into the soup and simmer, stirring constantly. Your soup will become even creamier now, and only increase in creamy deliciousness as it is stored and re-heated.

If you didn’t take a sledgehammer to your television set, then turn it off and feed your family and friends your delicious Ode to Vincent Van Gogh Potato Soup while listening to Don McLean’s “Vincent” and discussing Van Gogh and what a wonderful, kind artist he was!

The Comfy Towel art by Darren Daz Cox. This was an attempt to capture that awesome feeling of being wrapped up in a big fluffy towel!!
I was thinking of the famous painting by Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas where the model is sitting on a fluffy towel. He excelled in capturing how the light fell on the figure and regardless of certain stuffy art history texts, I believe he posed the model with her towel, not only to show that she had just bathed but was comfortable and in a state of luxury rather than it being some kind of endless chore in the drudgery of everyday life!Frau bei der Toilette painting by Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas.
Below is a flyer by Holly for the awesome Peoria area folk rock band Something With Trees!
Something With Trees flyer by Holly Eitenmiller. You can keep up with Something With Trees at their website http://www.somethingwithtrees.com.
And this one is a digitally enhanced pencil sketch a of hippy girl! Holly is making a flyer for a 60′s themed concert and so I was inspired to draw from her happiness vibes!
Double Hippy Chick art by Darren Daz Cox
Trippy and cute art just randomly put together on a snowy morning in January 2012!
And below is a sculpture I did some years back in porcelain clay, I am inspiring myself to make some Fimo clay sculptures!

More art and recipes coming up!!

Autonomous Robot’s Fabulous Roast Chicken by Chef Chauvinist Piglette.

My lovely little Chauvinist Piglettelette, Autonomous Robot, a.k.a. Autumn, shares my love of cooking, so what follows is a list of spices for her to-die-for roast chicken.

IMPORTANT! You must turn the television set off and dine with your whole family and/or friends around the table, though we recommend throwing your TV in the garbage. Be sure to update each other on your lives, gossip, tell jokes and sit around the table together until well after dinner’s over, even if that means later bedtimes! Without laughter and love, no recipe is as delicious …

Now, as far as this list is concerned, use your judgement on how much you use, and it’s probably okay to eliminate those that you don’t care for or have on hand, then reserve whatever is unused for a later concoction. However, this combination as a whole rocks … as does Autonomous Robot. She mixes all the dry ingredients in a separate container, and sprinkles the first two wet ingredients directly on the chicken:

chicken – boneless, bone-in, whole, etc.

soy sauce
lemon juice

California garlic salt
taco seasoning
Italian seasoning
Lowry’s Seasoned Salt
smoked paprika
Montreal Chicken seasoning
celery salt
garlic powder
scant of red pepper

Preheat oven to 350, wet chicken with soy sauce and lemon juice, then sprinkle with seasonings. Bake boneless chicken for about 35 minutes, bone-in, about 45, whole chicken according to packaging. Eat while talking with your mouth full.

Coming Attraction: Slaughtering Julia Child’s French Chef Cookbook – a.k.a. How to Make Her Really Great Gourmet Recipes Without All The B.S., Like De-Boning A Duck!!!

Make sure you LIKE the Facebook page for Chauvinist Piglette!

Willy Wonka: But Charlie, don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he he always wanted.
Charlie Bucket: What happened?
Willy Wonka: He lived happily ever after.

Sometimes the art just flows. I don’t need to suffer to do great art as the cliche might go.
Most of my art exists in glorious potential, simmering deliciously in my mind. The sketch above is a mural idea, actually the bottom part with the top part having angels bouncing on clouds.
The sketch below is a representation of the ‘attention’ concept that girls work with in their social development, without that concept we would not have dance! I suppose they invented it to keep from being eaten by bears and saber tooth tigers. I’m not really concerned about the science though, I’m just an observer of happiness and creativity.

Below is Dancer with a bouquet of flowers (The Star of the ballet) by the mighty Edgar Degas.
Degas was the original Painter Of Light!! Visit WikiPaintings for lots of good stuff from Degas!

In a lot of ways this painting symbolizes the attention concept for me. She is so happy, she is the center of attention and no bears will be able to eat her as she is loved, and the crowd would rush to save her should a bear, or saber tooth tiger were to rush the stage looking for lunch.
Speaking of saber tooth tigers, come on down to the Speakeasy Art Center this year for the Wine Share concerts in the art gallery! You bring your wine, and common sense, and have a good time!
Flyer by Holly! She can make one for your event too!

And here is a nifty liquified pic I made of a photo taken of holly this unseasonably warm January!

and here is my collage for my Facebook page cover pic!

I have sooo much art and so much abundance! Have a great day everyone!

I am a pretty cool guy, I make art, I write poetry and have always been a dreamer.
One day I met my soulmate Holly and the adventure began.
She made me a soda cap button like the couple in UP.
I made this Adventure book for our souvenirs!
Holly is my favorite art model and inspires my figure drawing with her natural poses, I mean she is wearing a posh frock, pearls, painted but bare toes and is peeling potatoes for her gormet soup right now. We call it Vincent Van Gogh soup because we are poor like his Potato eaters painting! Being poor and creative is far better than being rich and un-creative! She made me a Dead Milkmen ‘taking retards to the zoo’ (it’s a song off their debut album) unofficial bootleg t-shirt for Christmas which is so excellent and punk rock! The pic below was drawn long before I met Holly and kind of symbolizes the past for me. The bored angel with her neglected guinea pig haha! guess that isn’t too hard to find some psychological meaning in there if you like to do such things.

Above is one of my latest sketches taken from real life. Holly likes to jump up and down on the bed, because she can and that carefree frolicking inspires my art more than more ‘serious’ topics. I am a Roccoco fan (it’s the art of the court of Marie Antoinette!) far more than what came after that era of art! I have always wondered if the figures in famous paintings of the past were inspired by lovers (rather than it being an intellectual exercise in line and shadow for example). I’m sure if Vincent Van Gogh had found his soulmate he would have painted lots of pics of her! Here is a pic of Holly working on a painting!
Holly has been making some great stuff with Femo clay! I love the fact that her art compliments mine. It feels good and makes people happy.

I just had the best Christmas of my life (since I was a kid anyway!).
DJ Disaster suggested that I should buy a ‘Our first xmas’ ornament and I said “you don’t know Holly if you think she would buy something like that or think it was cute that I bought one of those hideous mass produced pieces of generic crap!”.

It’s cool being punk rock artists, Holly and I have the same thought processes and attitudes to materialism and general weakness in society. There’s more to xmas than buying crap! As I suspected, she made a flying guinea pig ornament with a Gustave Klimt inspired present in his little paws haha! So excellent! We will meet him again next xmas!

I have so much more art to put on this blog but for now, this photograph I took of Holly and her bird paintings in progress really makes me happy, I hope it inspires you to be creative too!

“I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” Vincent Van Gogh

So much cool stuff going on in the Pekin area! I have been inspired and drawing some little sketches for paintings!

And continuing my web comic series “Lives of the artists” based on real life!
My cool artist/poet/photographer/graphic designer/art model friend Holly one day decided to make a castle for her guinea pig. She is making a cardboard facade for his cage and covering it with rocks and seashells (magic ones of course). I will design the cellophane stained glass windows for the turrets! Guinea pig appropriate flags will adorn the tops!

Speaking of Holly, she is compiling a database of the art work from the ICC student show and you can see it here! And here is the video from last nights opening at The Speakeasy Art Center!

And here is a brand new poem for the GoBzine poetry book!

Free the guinea pig in your heart
let him chew away the driftwood of discontent
and nibble the celery of appreciation

And here is the sketch for my new giant life sized dragon mural which will weave into the other two thirds of the wall, Holly donated her wall so now I can do the dragon head part there and work the body into the other two thirds already in some phase of completion!

and here is the 3rd floor studio with as much of the wall I could fit in the shot! you can see the white wall where Holly’s studio is and the 2/3′s of my murals!

I’ve been busy working on bringing culture to the midwest and to the world! Eventually I shall bring it to the rest of the universe, but for now what I have been working on lately…
My new web-comic called Lives of the Artists which obviously (to me!) is an homage to the mighty Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574), he, 500 years after his birth, still inspires my creativity with his poetic and often hilariously gushing accounts of the artists of his day (Michaelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo etc) and the ones that opened the door to the Renaissance, many of whom we really only have his accounts to get a idea about the person behind the artwork.
This is hardly on par with the great masters but I love art and use the principles they wrote so passionately about and practiced. I plan to do a regular series of these! Featuring art-girl Holly and art-guy Daz with assorted flying guinea pigs!

The comics will be re-printed for the paper ‘zine, GoBzine, that I like to send out to my friends and random strangers who show a shred of curiosity about my work. The comics will also have lots of my art and tie into the poetry book that real life art girl Holly is working on! Those poetry books will be distributed at the local Peoria area poetry meetings as soon as we get them done! Donations of cash and poetry are welcomed to fuel this project. Just drop me or Holly a message on Facebook or to gobzine@gmail.com (me, Daz) and Holly’s email is writeoneforyou@gmail.com.
Here is a collaboration of my art and a poem by Holly, it is a clerihew poem! (or a variant of one called a Hollihew to be technical!)

Vincent Van Gogh
potato soup swirling
The spoon, a paintbrush twirling.
Soften the gnarly spud
he plucked from ochre mud!

It is a pleasure to know artists like Holly who are dedicated to the arts and the community. Here’s Holly with her side of the Speakeasy Art Center – “Gallery Open” sign we use on the sidewalk to bring the public in! It was her idea to re-paint it for curb appeal. I did the other side.

*<3*

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” – Vincent Van Gogh

Both Holly and I are graphic designers in addition to being fine art painters and poets.
Holly has been honing her Photoshop skills for photo manipulation and photo restoration work in these fun examples below (that’s our faces over the more famous ones!). You can find her at The Speakeasy Art Center a lot of the time if you have some graphic design and photo work you need done (She is a professional photographer as well as the all the other hats she wears! – Mom, gormet chef, superhero etc.)

Speaking of The Speakeasy Art Center, there was an Art Fiesta on Nov 11 2011 and here is a little spontaneous video of the band Noodles N Chicken that played! Holly put her helper hat on for that event (we support the arts community however we can but don’t have much money so this is what we do).

The next night, Holly’s friend Dana Taylor played at the monthly Wineshare event (check the Speakeasy Facebook page for upcoming events!) and while I didn’t get video of that event, I did record him while Holly and I painted on the “Gallery Open” sign a few days before! First time he played the songs it was flawless, he got a little camera shy when I recorded them though haha!

but wait that’s not all! Here are a couple of Dana Taylor’s awesome songs on MP3 you can download for free, two more originals and his really sweet Fleetwood Mac cover! He will be playing live around the area so support your local musicians by going to the gigs!

Holly, like the cool kids do, loves guinea pigs (of course) and here’s some liquify filter guinea pig art I made recently! There is a bigger (printable) version on my Flickr account!

Geez, still not done with this blog post, I really should have kept up with all this, and will *shakes fist in determination*
Below is the complete MP3 recording of the October 26 2011 Poetry night at ART SHOW on Jefferson in Peoria Illinois.
It was a weird night! NOTE: The next Peoria poetry show is Thursday Nov 17 2011 at CHAMPS WEST 515 N Western Ave Peoria Illinois. Here’s the FB event page! CHAMPS WEST REVIVAL holistic hootenanny Gala of Poetic glory
David Von Behren will be the host and will also be featured prominently in the forthcoming poetry ‘zine as edited by Holly and illustrated by Me!

I think that’s all for this blog post but lots of other cool art projects are poised to happen and are already underway! I know, I have some video art projects long overdue to post but they aren’t quite done yet!

Finding out what you do best, perhaps even what you are destined to do is a wonderful thing.
I think I have found out my purpose and best possible future timeline to follow.
I am a creative catalyst (always have been) and I have set things up in my life so that I can literally affect the timelines of creative types; help them to move over to the timeline where they are more creative and productive.

Here’s how it works…We all have a set of probable futures based on what we do today; our dreams are somewhere in the potential outcomes..With a bit of encouragement, equipment and experience in A/V editing and a firm grasp of SEO, I can increase the audience for a fellow creative person.

So as Art Director for Riverfront Media, I am proud to announce our Creatively Adjusting Timelines Service (or CATS). We figure out what you want to do with your talents and set about increasing your visibility.
We interview you on our radio show, upload videos of your work/performance and generally tie you into our cool group of cats! We cannot guarantee fortune, love or even happiness but we can guarantee that you will be more productive, well known and creative!
Riverfront Media is in the process of creating an online radio station, an online TV station and tons of other services catering mostly to creative type things! This is our destiny and this is your opportunity to be promoted for free!

Well, it worked for Dave Omega Moses! He is now more creative than ever and will be bringing new original hit singles and old forgotten folk/bluegrass and blues classics from the 1930′s (for example) back!!!
Because DJ Disaster and I wrote the song “Dave Get Off The Couch”, he did, the universe opened up an opportunity for him to play a no pressure gig, he took it and the result is history! And you can hear it below!

Speaking of DJ Disaster and myself, we have a band, well, we are too hardcore and abstractly minimalist for such a bourgeois concept of a band in the western capitalist sense but we make music together and then add it to video art and/or mini-mentaries like the ones below!

(above) Darren Daz Cox, filmed by DJ Disaster of Riverfront Media on a visit to the Checkered Raven Art gallery and Studio in Peoria Illinois circa 2002. It is now called the Contemporary Art Center, home of Preston Jackson our most famous artist (next to Chris Keller) and is still an awesome place to see art! Music by Homer Simplex.

(above) Devil On A Tortilla by Homer Simplex

(above) Android Afternoon by Homer Simplex using footage from the 2002 Peoria Pirates arena football team.
Riverfront Media has footage if you would like a DVD of that game.

This blog post documents the OPEN MIC POETIC GALA (confluence of NITE OWL-CHAMPS WEST POETRY SERIES) at the most poetry filled corner of the universe in Peoria Illinois on Wednesday, September 14 at 9:30pm – September Christember 15 at 12:30am. The place was Gavra Lynn’s ART SHOW (Abstract + Multiply = The Emotive Math) Civic Center Plaza On Jefferson.

Resident artist Chris Keller draped a sheet over local ‘dark ambient metal’ musician Rick Winn and he became the Ghost musician and really added an extra layer to the performance.

Coincidentally I was thinking of bringing my Ghost of the Speakeasy Art Center painting (shown) to the ART SHOW gallery since the Nite Owls poetry was hosted there but my zine art is on the wall instead!

Info on the legendary Champs West poetry nights can be found here on the Peoria Bar Blog Peoria Bar Blog and here pjstar.com

There is a nice article in the Bradley Observer about Champs West founder Will Ankrum here and his work can be found online in a poetry ghetto (I call it that because you have to subscribe and that means mostly only poets subscribe) here and a poem that Will described as ‘a piece of shit poem’ but he read it anyway (it is good of course) that you can read (out loud please!) here.

The videos I’ve uploaded so far are loading up below and here is an mp3 of all the show that I recorded (either stream or right-click to download). Will Ankrum, Jessica Stephenson, John Phillips, David Von Behren, Adam Oldfield, Chinaman and many more! NOTE: I deliberately did not record all the show as you really have to be there and it doesn’t matter where you are to hear live poetry, what matters is that you DO IT!!! make your own scene and DO IT!!!

Here are the videos. First up the powerful words of Jessica Stephenson -visit her poetry and thoughts blog here! http://inpotentia.tumblr.com/

John Phillips is a Peoria Illinois writer and wrote the classic Comfortably Nowhere which can be purchased for 12.95 from authorhouse.com

David Von Behren is a writer and poet and you can read his blog here http://miredmusings.blogspot.com/

Will Ankrum is that cool poetry teacher you wish you had taken a class from.

Next show! Night Owls – Spoken Word Strikes Again!
Wednesday September 28th 2011 ART SHOW
331 Jefferson – across from the Civic Center
Peoria, IL
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=255785044461785

and because I don’t want, in the words of Jessica Stephenson, “the plainest walls I have ever seen”, I bought this masterpiece by Chris Keller. Chris said that the black line between the couple represented the impending divorce between some friends of his and it was harsh and gloomy and depressing etc but I didn’t see it that way, it’s romantic and mystical and full of life!

My cool friend Chris Keller is living for the entire month of September 2011 (we call it Christember) in an art gallery called ART SHOW in Peoria Illinois!
He is making lots of art, as you would expect, and bringing in bands, guest artists to collaborate on ‘live art’ (to raffle off for charity) and even dogs from the local shelter to find humans for adoption. Yes, it’s that cool!

Chris asked me to be the guest artist for live art last Saturday the 10th of Christember and just so happened to have my friend J.D. Greving of Memorial For A Dove on the bill and Dave Omega Moses too (whom, if you read my last blog post, DJ Disaster and I wrote a song for -to inspire him to ‘get of the couch’ and he did, and the rest is history!).
This photo is of me, Darren Daz Cox and Dave Omega Moses! We are both fat and like the Ramones.
Below is Chris Keller, the ember of Christ, working on the live art pic (I created an angel with a guinea pig to match the zines I brought to share and Chris painted an alien and spaceship).

And now some gratuitous nudity videos of the event!


Dave Moses doing his original song “Outback” and JD Greving doing his original song “Scene”! Both really great tunes!
The Two above were filmed by DJ Disaster of Riverfront Media.
Below is for historical reference and not so groundbreaking in a musical way, but hey, it’s my life and I am very thankful for all this awesomeness! You can hear Something With Trees warming up in the background before Dave goes solo!
and here is a little clip of Something With Trees (I really should have turned my I-Phone around doh..

Well the zine project is off to a great start! Over 50 people have received their copy of Faerie Zine #1 (in various incarnations as I worked on it!) and some people really liked it! I’m sure everyone appreciated it that received it but it obviously isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but the art project was to do it! Spread the love! Below is art from the next copy out in a month or so! GoBzine Publishing rules!

You can get your own free underground art zine by writing to Darren Daz Cox box 1111 Pekin Illinois 61554 USA Planet Earth. (I know, how excellent to have box number eleven eleven right? The universe loves me and wants YOU to get cool art for free in your analog mail box!!)
Eventually, as Riverfront Media gets settled I will have color copies of zines aand poster sized prints available for whomever asks!

There was no thought, no conscious intention even, just peace and harmonious feeling channelled through to the hand from the soul…
The one below was from the same pages of the wonderful sketchbook I bought on sale at Hobby Lobby in Pekin (yea! I love that place!!!). It is using a variety of art materials and is a prototype for larger paintings!

Soon after that yellow bird appeared on the drawing above, I saw a bright yellow bird in the parking lot at my day job and he inspired me (along with his greener colored mate!).

and if you realllly want to hear it, here’s a link to a song I made with my band Homer Simplex (in the Riverfront Media studios at the Speakeasy Art Center 353 Court st. pekin Illinois) to inspire Dave Omega Moses to write some new material since he is a really awesome singer/songwriter! Dave Omega Get Off The Couch
and if you need to read the lyrics for that 30 seconds of musical genius*…
this song goes out to Dave Omega you need to get off the couch
pick up your banjo make your fans go wow wow wow
put down the star wars dolls stop drooling on boba fett
you’ve watched so many Netflix movies you’re turning in Shrek
you used to write some real good songs but now you a lump
so get off the couch dont be a silly chump – Dave!

I am working on getting royalty free audio material for our 24/7 streaming radio station (for arts related projects and community service that Riverfront Media is initiating with me as the program director!). I will have a bunch of short stories and poems as well as original olde time radio Theee- a-Tor!

Oh and I almost forgot, here is my latest inspirational poem!

This world is a mirror of how you feel
it reflects back symbols of you
so BE the change that you want to see
and find out that this is true.

If sad why stew and make the world blue
and hating just makes your fate worse
and you CAN get the whole world to smile with you
but you will have to smile first!

*the amount of genius in this song is mostly due to Apple and Garage Band on my Macbook!

I’ve been working on big murals and sketches for tiny underground zines!
I’ve also made a facebook page for my publishing company, GoBzine and if you would like a free snail mail zine or two for free then drop me a line on the GoBzine page.
I’ve been making zines for a long time and find they are even more important in these days of digital information, after all, what do YOU get in your mail box, junk mail, bills and crap from people who claim to represent you but if you also get an awesome underground anarchist faerie art zine you would probably like it!
Don’t misunderstand my use of the word anarchist, I only advocate peace but suggest that the faeries do not have a need for government because they know what to do for the good of all of them instead of being self-serving, this is similar to A.E. Van Vogt’s Null-A supermen! You can become a Null-A ‘superman’ by reading up on General Semantics!