5.29.2009

And Now The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes...

Spent the morning listening to old-school Elvis Costello and finishing up the reds in young Eli's uniform. You can see it in the football, red piping on his pants, and his socks. Now, all that's left is putting the greytones in his wristband and pants, a touch up here or there around the canvas, and... Holy Mother of Crap! This thing will finally be done. Then, I'll be immediately moving onto either a Brandon Jacobs or Osi Umenyiora colored pencil drawing. Call John Connor up, because I'm like a fucking machine right now!

Enjoy the high quality pic above taken with something other than my BlackBerry.

5.28.2009

In The Home Stretch

Eli's flesh is done. All that's left is some detail on the ball, his wristband, and his pants, and the single most ambitious piece of art I've ever tried will be done. I'm gonna do whatever the hell it takes to have it done by Monday, then move right into my next piece.

5.27.2009

Super Details

Ahhhh.... Normalcy

Quote of the Day -

"The star maker says it ain't so bad/ The dream maker's gonna make you mad/ The spaceman says everybody look down/ It's all in your mind" - The Killers

Or at least as close to a semblance of normalcy as I'm likely to ever see. I now have my schedule set up very nicely for me to be able to work almost full time out of my studio, which means a much less stressed, much more stable existence for me, and all sorts of new goodies for you kids out their on the interwebs. I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend and is looking forward to a great summer. It's definitely looking like it's going to be a great summer here at CM Studios, so keep checking back.

5.21.2009

The Eye Of The Storm



Taking a quick break from a crazy day to just throw a little bone to my loyal blog readers (Hi, Mom!). Here's a quick pic of me working away in the new studio and a MUCH better pic of that painting I did for 180. I'll elaborate the next time I get a li'l more time. Either tonight or after the weekend. There will definitely be a lot of new stuff up after Monday. Until then, everyone heartily enjoy your Memorial Day Weekends.

Get drunk. Get laid. Do whatever makes you happy. Just be safe, kids.

5.19.2009

WorkWorkWorkWork...

Quote of the Day -

"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. " - Charles Darwin

Finishing up my lunch break in between a morning out washing windows and an evening putting together some new artwork. I'm doing a Giants memorabilia show on June 13th and will be spending the next month doing absolutely NOTHING, but NY Giants artwork, while also washing windows in the mornings and bartending @ night to pay the bills. This should be an interesting month. By the end of it I'll be hallucinating that I'm on the Giants. Or that I'm a hummingbird of some kind. Back later with pics of the new studio and art updates.

5.15.2009

CB Checkin' Out CM

Here's Mayor Booker checking out my portfolio.

Preach On Booker!

Mayor Corey Booker of Newark just gave an absolutely tremendous and inspirational speech on volunteering and Americans joining together for a common good. Being a guy who had just about lost all faith in humanity up until recently, and has been working on getting that faith back, it got to me. Good stuff.

An Artist's Hands

180 Benefit

So, here I am @ the 180 dinner, set up in the gorgeous Berkeley Hotel in Asbury Park. My piece is pretty much done at this point. I'll go into a lengthier explanation of it when I'm not typing on my BlackBerry. I'll be back w/ more pics and updates throughout the night.

For those of you with nothing better to do on a Friday night than read my blog.

Turning Lives Around

Quote of the Day -

"Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight" - Bruce Cockburn

Tonight, I'll be @ a benefit dinner on the Asbury Park boardwalk for 180 Turning Lives Around, a charity organization dedicated to helping victims of domestic and sexual abuse in Monmouth County. My function there will be as one of 5 artists creating a piece to represent one of the 5 programs they'll be celebrating the success of. The largest donor to each particular program will win the corresponding painting as a thank you gift. My particular piece will be for their Safe House, which is currently so full they're turning away needy women and children at the door because there's no room to put them. They have bought land and have plans for a new Safe House, but they need the funds to start construction. Please visit 180nj.org and watch the video. Then, maybe throw them a few bucks if you can. Even if it's just a small donation, every little bit helps.

I'll have pics of the painting up later on tonight when I put the final touches on it at the event. It's a bit different than anything I've done before, and, honestly, I'm not even sure what the hell I'm doing. I just hope it comes out looking good enough to hang on someone's wall.

This is a really special project for me and an event I'm greatly looking forward to. In the past I'd be doing this simply for networking or exposure. Actually, in the past, just about every bit of art or music I created was for nothing other than money. I've been through some great changes in my life recently that will be changing that, though.

The serendipity surrounding how I ended up with 180 is quite amazing, actually. You see, way back in September my mother was diagnosed with uterine cancer (which she continues to battle as I write this). Then, in January, my wife and I split up. The next few months were long, cold, and dark (it was winter), but, ultimately ended up putting me on a better path in life than the one I'd been on. One thing I did take from losing my wife and staring my mother's mortality in the face was the importance of wives and mothers in our lives, and how irreplaceable those two women ultimately are.

I got the idea about a month ago of doing a piece that I could auction off for some sort of domestic violence charity, but didn't know where to start. The day after this thought, though, I got an e-mail from a fellow artist putting out the call for help on this 180 event. I immediately said yes, then spent the next few weeks getting in touch with Barbara Napoli, the wonderful woman putting this together and tried to figure out what in the hell to paint. I'm still kind of trying to figure that out. I'll post some pics later and explain exactly what I did come up with.

I've also decided to use this event tonight as a springboard for what I'm calling Craig Mahoney 2.0. I'm 31 and divorced now, and, as I spent the last few months battling depression and reflecting on my life, I realized what a truly miserable little cunt I'd become. I spent most of my 20's chasing cheap thrills and adding layer upon layer of cynicism to my personality, topped with a healthy layer of alcohol-feuled manic-depression. I then ended up getting married to a great girl, but, unfortunately for her, I got married but never settled down. And, while I was no Ike Turner, I was far from a good husband. By the last year of our marriage, I was a cynical, nihilistic, misanthropic asshole whom neither of us could stand living with anymore. She was able to leave, but I was stuck with myself.

That's when I had to make the decision so plainly stated in The Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy living, or get busy dying". After a 4 day bender followed by a 2 day hangover, I made the decision to start living and start changing. It was tough at first, but a funny thing happened along the way: I realized that, deep down, I wasn't that big of an asshole and that this world we live in isn't that bad a place. I also realized I had the power to change some bad things about them both, too.

From that moment on I've decided to bring out the little kid in me again. To have hope and embrace crazy feelings like love and joy. It's nice these days to be able to look in the mirror and like the dope staring back at you. Now, before I sound anymore like a god damned Oprah guest, let me say that, in most ways, I'm still me. I've decided to battle the darkness and join the forces of good, but I haven't gone the full Bono. I still love beer, sports, cigars, and boobies. And, I still don't believe in superstitious notions like god and fate. However, I do believe in the power of the human spirit. I believe in happiness. And, above all, I believe in myself, and that I can do more than just churn out copied pictures of athletes or sing in some bar for beer money.

So, yeah, that was my big Stephen Dedalus moment (just google it). From here on out, it's gonna be an exciting time at Craig Mahoney Studios. I've got some interesting things coming up with the sports art, and I'm in the beginning stages of planning the recording of my first album. I'll also be experimenting with a few different things visually, and doing some more charity work as well. And... while I won't be revealing half as much as your average reality tv star does these days, I will be a bit more honest and open about my life and work on this blog, which should make for some interesting reading.

So, in closing, don't be a miserable cunt. There may not be a god, but we're still here anyway, so we may as well make the best of what we got. Get out in the sun, fall in love, smell the roses, sing loud, sing proud, then raise your glass to the sky and make a toast to life. As Frank Sinatra once said, "You gotta love livin' baby, 'cause dyin's a pain in the ass!"

Craig on The Jersey Shore Podcast

Hey, kids! This week I was the featured guest on the 60th episode of The Jersey Shore Podcast, a weekly audio guide to what's going on 'round these parts each and every weekend. It was a good time hangin' with Joe, Dan, and D.J., and getting to promote my new website and charity work. Check it out here.

Work, work, work...

Sorry I haven't posted in a week. I've been working a few non-art-and-music related side jobs so I can do crazy artist/musician-type things like eat solid foods and live indoors. Today, though, I'm spending the day finishing up a painting that I'll be donating to 180 Turning Lives Around @ their benefit dinner tonight at the Berkeley Hotel in Asbury Park.

180 is a charity dedicated to helping victims of domestic and sexual abuse in Monmouth County. It's gonna be a great night, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'll have more on it later this afternoon before I leave.

5.07.2009

Spring Cleaning

Here are some details from the touch-up work I had to do after putting the new background in on that Eli painting:




What A Month...

Quote of the Day -

"Ridin' high in April. Knocked down in May. But, I know I'm gonna change that tune... When I'm back on top in June." - 'That's Life', Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon

Man, between the Yankees, the rain, and the frustrations I've been encountering in my work lately, I'm not a big fan of May'09 so far. Still, there are 3 1/2 weeks left. Time to get the ball rolling on something good.

5.06.2009

Yankee Doodles




Get it? "Yankee Doodles"? Because I'm doodling Yankees, and... It's the name of a song!!! Gosh, I'm clever.

Anywho, I'm trying to polish up my caricaturing skillz. And, I figure a great way to do that is to just sit with a sketchbook and pen in my hand while I'm watching some TV and have at it. With that in mind, these are far from perfect, but I think they is a'ight.

For all of you regular readers out there (are you out there?), this is gonna be a regular feature as it is nice to take a break from some bigger pieces and just go nuts with pen and pencil. Not necessarily just Yankee doodles, but all sorts. I'm gonna be going dipsy doodles with all my doodling.

See The Yanks For a Good Cause

From Pete Abraham's LoHud Yankees Blog:

"Pete:

My good friend Dan Traum, who I met in the first grade and have been friends with ever since, was a huge Yankees fan. He and I had been to dozens of games over the years sitting in the bleachers during the really bad years of Dent, Green, Merrill et al.

Dan was thrilled about the upcoming season and for the first time in his life bought season tickets, as he wanted to be there to see the Yankees open a new stadium. He finally bought those tix about 10 days before the season started. A few days later, Dan tragically passed away in his sleep of a heart condition at the age of 34. The next day the tickets arrived in the mail. He never got to see the new stadium.

Dan’s family has started a foundation in his name to raise money for a scholarship fund for the high school that we attended together and they are using the tickets to try and raise money for the foundation. They have set up an auction on ebay to sell the tix and we are trying to spread the word to as many people as possible in order to help sell the tickets.

I certainly know how tough times are these days so raising money is really a challenge, and there (unfortunately) are plenty of seats available but if people buy these tickets it will help raise enough money to really make a difference in starting the Daniel Traum Scholarship Fund.

Dan was such a good guy and anything we can do to help his name live on would mean a lot to his family.

It was signed by a blog reader named Daniel."


Here's the link to their eBay page. Sounds like a good deal to me. You get to see a game at the new stadium, help out some high school kids, and help a fellow Yanks fan's name live on. I wish his family the best of luck with it, as well as sympathies for their loss.

Happy Birthday, Mick!


Quote of the Day -

"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too." Samuel Butler, Notebooks, 1912

I'd like to wish a very happy 1st birthday to my good friend and loyal assistant, Mickey Mantle Mahoney. I've had a rough few months, but the one constant has been The Mick's uncanny ability to constantly cheer me up (unless he's waking me up way too early or pissing on the carpet).

5.05.2009

Home Sweet Home

Well, I FINALLY have my apt/studio cleaned up and in order. Now I can kick back, watch a bit of Yanks/Sux, and get some painting and web design done. It's next to impossible to sit and get any work done inthe midst of chaos.

Back To The Grind...

Quote of the Day -

"Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor." - Andre Gide

Hey, guess who spent Thursday really hungover from his birthday night out, then spent the next few days way too busy and/or tired to update his blog?

Give up?

It was me!!!

I finally got all my furniture set up and rearranged in my new apartment/studio, and even got a little painting done last night. As far as the new website goes, that is still being worked on. I wanted to get it done by last Wednesday, my birthday, to sort of symoblize the whole "new year, new Craig" theme, but it's just not at the point yet where I'm satisfied with it. I decided it was more important to get the website looking right than to rush it to meet some stupid deadline that only I recognize the symbolism of.

I've got a few things on the plate for today. Updates to follow.