Sunday, February 07, 2010

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Here is a painting I created for PULP: Works On Paper an exhibited curated by Matthew Hilyard and hosted by The Erman B. White Gallery at Butler Community College.


"DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE (HYDROGEN BOMB)"

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

PROTEUS MAG FEATURED IN BLANKET MAGAZINE

The latest issue of Blanket Magazine features an interview with Dustin Parker about his work on Proteus Mag. The issue also profiles several other amazing PDF + print magazines including Bearded Magazine, Ammo Magazine, Unless You Will, Mankind Mag, New Sugar Magazine, Forth Thread, Wooden Toy Quarterly, and Beautiful Decay.

You can download Blanket Magazine issue #20 - I Think I can Fly at www.BlanketMagazine.com.

Blanket Magazine is also offering a 6 issue subscription for ONLY $12. Plus you will also receive the Blanket 2010 DIY Calendar free! {usually $5}. The magazine will be delivered straight to your email inbox when a new issue is released.

Blanket Magazine is a really incredible publication and is well worth the $12 subscription fee.



THE DUSTIN PARKER INTERVIEW

I would love to know why you wanted to start your own magazine?

A couple years ago I stumbled across Bloodwars Magazine and Rodeo 27 and flipping through those two magazines ignited the spark that later became Proteus Mag. Looking at other PDF magazines inspired me to start thinking about what type of magazine I would do.

I originally intended to create all of the content myself and use Proteus Mag as a platform to create experimental or collaborative works. I was really attracted to the idea of creating a collection of random images and then presenting them in the form of a PDF file. I really liked the idea that people could download the magazine and print it out or they could just view it with an internet browser without having to pay for it. I liked the idea of PDF files as a distribution medium.

Another major influence at that time was Sabrina Ward Harrison's incredible art books. I think her influence is really obvious in the first couple of issues because I was really inspired by her books THE TRUE AND THE QUESTIONS: A JOURNAL and SPILLING OPEN: THE ART OF BECOMING YOURSELF at that time. I think her work was a huge influence on the design aesthetic of the first few issues of Proteus Mag.

At some point I decided to invite other artists to contribute content and then Proteus Mag quickly grew into something much larger than what I had originally planned.

And it was a great excuse to learn Adobe Indesign.

What research did you do (if any) about the magazine industry?

I didn't do much research beyond looking at dozens of other art publications and keeping a mental note of what I liked or disliked about each publication.

Have you always wanted to start your own magazine?

No, I never had any aspirations to start my own magazine before I started Proteus Mag. I think Proteus Mag was a product of looking at PDF magazines and thinking "I can do this."

How did you decide on the format your magazine would take and how did this effect the final outcome?

Print was always out of the question because I didn't have the money to print a monthly or semi-monthly print magazine. I wanted Proteus Mag to be free and I didn't want any advertising or corporate sponsorship or anything that would distract from the artwork. Most print magazines rely on advertising and subscriptions to survive and I didn't want to concern myself with either of those things. I thought that a PDF mag was the best option because people could download the magazine from anywhere in the world and you could give it away for free. I ended up doing an 8.5 X 11 format so people could print out the magazine and share it with friends.

You no longer release Proteus magazine as a PDF but are concentrating on the blog. Can you tell us a little about your reasons behind this choice and what you intend to do in the future?

The "final" PDF issue of Proteus Mag came out in June 2009 and rather than continue to release PDF Mags I decided to focus on creating daily content for the blog such as the "Artist Of The Day" feature. Creating the PDF magazine was extremely time consuming and I had a difficult time maintaining a consistent release schedule. Between painting, freelancing and working a regular 9-5 gig, I had very little time available to work on Proteus Mag. The blog allows me to publish daily content and people don't have to wait 2-4 months for another issue to come out. The content hasn't really changed. I just changed the distribution medium. It also opens the door to do other types of content like video, artist interviews and news bytes. However, there is always the possibility of more PDF editions of the magazine in the future. I think the PDF editions would be focused editions with a specific theme rather than a random collection of images.

What were some of the highs and lows while publishing Proteus magazine?

Working on Proteus Mag has always been an extremely positive and fruitful experience. Proteus Mag has given me the opportunity to work with some really amazing artists and I've been introduced to hundreds of incredible artists that I would have never known existed otherwise.

Shortly after Proteus Mag #7 was released I received a frantic phone call from my web host concerning my bandwidth usage and the site was shut down for a couple days. I ended up moving all of the PDF files over to the Internet Archive in order to keep the PDF version of the magazine online. It was extremely frustrating that I had to worry about the site being shut down because too many people downloaded the magazine. I released issue #7 knowing that it would be the final PDF issue of the magazine and all of the web hosting issues made it easier for me to stick with that decision.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

143

My contribution to the 143 exhibit at Tangent Lab...

Tangent Lab
Old Town Farm and Art Market Square, Rock Island Market Building
143 N. Rock Island, 3rd Floor, Wichita, KS 67202
Exhibition: 143 = I Love You
Exhibition Date: Friday, February 12, 2010, 7:00 - 11:00 PM

A fundraising exhibit to benefit Tangent Lab, 143 = I Love You will feature several artists work on small boards that will be able to be purchased for $20. The event takes place two days before Valentine's Day.

More info at www.TangentLab.com


"Ghost In The Heart (Part 1)" | Mixed Media On Wood


"Ghost In The Heart (Part 2)" | Mixed Media On Wood

DEATH SONG

I just finished a NEW digital painting.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

BUY DUSTIN PARKER PAINTINGS ON ETSY

All of my NEW paintings are available for purchase on my ETSY SHOP.
Go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/dustinparker.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

6 X 6

Here is a batch of new 6"x6" paintings on paper.
You can purchase these paintings on my ETSY SHOP
www.etsy.com/shop/dustinparker





Saturday, January 16, 2010

DUST BRUSHES VOL 1

Dustin Parker has created a collection of 10 custom Photoshop brushes called DUST BRUSHES using scans of his abstract paintings.

You can download DUST BRUSHES VOL. 1 for FREE on his DeviantART profile - http://dustinparkerarts.deviantart.com

DIRECT LINK - You can download DUST BRUSHES VOL. 1 at http://dustinparkerarts.deviantart.com/art/DUST-BRUSHES-VOL-1-TEXTURE-150621376

Here is a preview of the brushes.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/

Friday, January 15, 2010

THE DEAD CAN'T DANCE OFFICIAL STILLS

Check out this official still from Rod Pocowatchit's "The Dead Can't Dance" featuring Dustin Parker going FULL ZOMBIE!



You can see more official stills on Rod Pocowatchit's facebook page at - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=138385&id=640698852 and tons of awesome behind the scene photos at - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=138389&id=640698852

Find out more about Rod Pocowatchit' Zombie movie "The Dead Can't Dance" at the official Harmy Films blog at http://www.harmyfilms.com/blog/

Monday, January 11, 2010

I'M A SERIOUS ARTIST

Sunday, January 10, 2010

MATADO TEES LOGO

I am currently in the process of designing the logo for my new t-shirt company MATADO TEES. I thought it might be fun to share some of the early logo concepts that have been developed so far.

Why Matado Tees? Why A black cat?

MATADO TEES is named after Katie's cat Missy aka "THE MATADO."

Missy recently passed away and I wanted to honor her memory by naming my company after her.

MATADO TEES will offer a variety of illustration heavy t-shirts from myself and many of my long time collaborators. It should be a fun collection of t-shirt designs.

I plan on getting MATADO TEES up and running this summer.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

THE 25 BEST FILMS OF THE PAST DECADE


I thought it would be fun to create a list of my TOP 25 favorite films of the past decade (2000 - 2009). It was EXTREMELY difficult to narrow down the list to just 25 films. I could have easily created a top 200 list.

1. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
2. Requiem for a Dream
3. Memento
4. The Departed
5. Garden State
6. The Wrestler
7. Adaptation
8. No Country For Old Men
9. Lost In Translation
10. Mulholland Drive
11. Punch-Drunk Love
12. 28 Days Later
13. City Of God
14. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
15. Juno
16. Million Dollar Baby
17. Amelie
18. District 9
19. American Splendor
20. The Dark Knight
21. Shaun Of The Dead
22. High Fidelity
23. Napoleon Dynamite
24. Mystic River
25. Broken Flowers

Friday, January 01, 2010

EXPLODING LANDSCAPES


Tuesday, December 29, 2009

NEW LINCOLN PAINTINGS






NEW ABSTRACT ART







Friday, December 25, 2009

LEARNING TO FLY

I created two new paintings and gave them to my Mother and Grandmother for Christmas.

I created a simple drawing of a bird on the computer and printed it out on plain white paper. Then I pasted the printed drawing onto the panel using acrylic matte medium gel and painted on top of it. I usually draw directly on the panel using a paint pen or china marker but I wanted to experiment with an alternative method for creating the underdrawing on the panel. One panel that I used was originally used as a palette for mixing paints and the other panel was an abstract painting from the SUICIDE PIE series that didn't make the final cut.

My painting style is usually very painterly but I wanted to experiment with a painting style that is a mixture of drawing and impasto painting. I wanted an unfinished look. I wanted to keep the energy and expressiveness of the original drawing. I would like to continue to experiment more with combining drawing and painting together and create a more stylized version of my my current painting style. These particular paintings failed to hit the mark. I don't think the experiment was 100% successful but the end result gave me a better understanding of what ideas should be explored in more depth.

Overall all, I'm happy with these paintings because they gave me a blueprint for future paintings.

Expect more little experiments in the near future...