Not one to rest often enough, I'm currently in Seattle WA doing research and networking for VR filmmaking projects for 2016 which is super exciting, terrifying, ground breaking and happening very fast... But last night restless and a wee bit drunk armed with only an iphone 4 and a red lit basement guest room i got inspired. here's a few brief digital pieces created on the fly late last night. 

Bedroom Series (Andy J no.01) ©2015

Passages (Andy J no. 05) ©2015

Passages (Will August no. 01)  ©2015

 Up and coming actor Will August for the Passages series Will is the ninth addition to the series documenting modern masculinity within the arts. All the models in the series are artists, actors, and musicians based in Portland, OR. A book collecting this series is forthcoming in 2016.

Bedroom Series (Will No.01) ©2015

 Up and coming actor Will August turns on the leading man smoulder for his go at the Bedroom Series. Will is the ninth addition to the series documenting modern masculinity within the arts. All the models in the series are artists, actors, and musicians based in Portland, OR. A book collecting the series is forthcoming in 2015.

Bedroom Series (Heath No.01) ©2015

 Portland-Based actor Heath joins the Bedroom Series.  Heath marks the eight model to pose for the series which still seems to be going strong. A limited edition volume of selected works will be published later this year.

 The Devils series is getting some re-edits with more unseen pics still to come soon. stay tunes, just in time for the fall to begin.

The Vertical & The Horizontal  ©2015

an early morning selfie before heading out into a LONG day of errand running and theatre work.

while I'm working on a new full length album I enjoy randomly releasing these ambient singles.  It's a nice break from editing on the Bedroom Series book which is coming this fall and all my work at defunkt theatre. xo enjoy the brand new track after the jump.

I've taken a step back into less ambient waters as of late, musically. My art career is so diverse that at times I have to step away from one medium that I love to have an affair with another.  Making films  has patiently waited while my work as a theatre director has taken off and being co-artistic director of a company is quite time consuming and was one of the many reasons I chose to dissolve my last musical project/band Mattachine Social. I try to squeeze in photo shoots when I can. The other day, missing my bass guitar and my art-damaged improvised noise punk roots I recorded this quick composition. with  a simple set of rules: 1 drum loop, 1 bass guitar.  It's two takes (1 overdub) and zero fucks given, mistakes and all thrown in. Here's to shaking off the rust.

I decided to run a selection of my artwork through the Google Deep Dream code to see what hallucinogenic horrors awaited. Here's some of the results.  Enjoy

Things Change ©2015

Jon, Exposed & Manipulated (re-edit) ©2015

Frames no. 001 ©2015

 Frames is a 2015 series of video stills created in relation to my work in erotica and artporn. Re-imagining the imagery filtered through glitch-based software and removed from their context the new images represent a frozen moment of intimacy in our digital landscape.

I like to think of this kaleidoscopic mediation designed for somnambulism as less "music video" and more a visual aid. For the full effect I'm planning a gallery installation of the projection to go with the ambient composition.  Like much of my work aesthetic this aims to be surreal, dreamy, and sensual without the graphic hardcore quality that are exemplified by other works in my catalog.  somnambulism as a recording is available through my label Le Garçon Sale Records.

Chris, Passages Outtake no.005 ©2015

Implied Abstraction ©2015

Outliers is a series of manipulated works based on source photographs taken between 1995 and 2005.  Low rez, heavily manipulated , abstracted and processed evoking the way our memory leaves impressions without accurate details, emotional truth without factual accuracy.

Pagan Holladay, in the Clown Room @2015

I've had the pleasure to work with Portland's premier cartoon queen Pagan Holladay many times over the past few years. A talented designer and gifted performer Pagan is a star on the rise. Here's a candid portrait behind-the scenes from a recent video shot we collaborated on. 

Authorship/Censorship no.01 ©2015

 Due to the often explicit nature of my work finding the right venue to show is always a key concern. It's always a crap shoot booking models, securing screenings, dealing with curators- especially in non traditional spaces. It's typically something I avoid like the plague.  Recently I was talked into signing onto a show without being clear about the space which turned out to be a restaurant/bar. Look, Restos ( cafe shows)  are great and frequently sell more pieces for an emerging artist than a gallery show...however my work isn't really the right fit, but I said okay sure why not...then the inevitable happened the manager of the space vetoed pieces from my selected works due to partial or full frontal male nudity.  So I declined to do the show. No harm no foul. Just not my gig.

however it inspired me to censor my own work on my own terms as a reaction to the constant conservative pressure to make decorative art. again No harm no foul. Just not my gig.

But here's the first few stabs at processing the constant restraint.

New Math no.01 ©2015

 New Math is a series based on archive low-rez photos re-purposed for glitch-based  manipulation. A commentary on how our memories distort and the geometry of our minds changes over time. Distance becomes farther, wider, the laws of physics cease functioning and in memory the deterioration of feeling can sometimes be beautiful.

Chris O/T ©2015

Bedroom Series (Toby No.01) ©2015

Metal rocker Toby Spellman (formerly of Almost is Nothing) joins the bedroom series. The Portland, OR-based musician is the seventh model to join the on-going series thus far.

Passages (Toby no. 01)  ©2015

 Former Almost is Nothing front man Toby Spellman joins the Passages series in it's 7th installment (!!).  It occurred to me today unintentionally all the models for the series have been actors, artists, or musician.  Enjoy

Deforestation ©2015

 THE following pieces represent casual play and digital manipulation. created in an almost meditative automatic writing (in this case editing) sort of practice. The works are playful in their addressing of our urbanoia and anxiety, our isolation and our manipulation of our own emotions in a digital landscape.

cut-out no.01 ©2015

the start of a new series of old school cut out manipulations. Mostly for fun but they have their own charm.

Objectified Obscura no. 02  ©2015

A second piece from Objectified Obscura. It's been a crazy busy few weeks so more to come.

Chis B&W alternates #01 ©2015

Sometimes a shoot yields so many usable frames I'm forced to create alternate takes, alternate color pallets so as to not over crowd a series with one model over another. It's a lovely problem to have really. Here are some alternates of actor and model Chris from the bedroom series.

Samson, American Dreamer #01 ©2015

 Actor and model Samson makes my job easy.  Here's some on the fly shots we did for a recent shoot, American Dreamer. Enjoy.

Nick, sometime in the past #01 ©2015

I just re-discovered a small cache of photographs I snapped on-set with writer Nick Mattos while filming "I Am Not Myself Today". They were soft focus , playful double exposures in a close intimate setting (or snapshots of the bloody clean-up post FX sequence.) Here's a few of my favorites.

Bedroom Series ( Andy L  No. 01)  ©2015

I turned my dashing photographer friend Andy Lindblom (check out his work HERE) into a model today for Passages and the bedroom series (he didn't seem to mind too much really). I'll be collecting the Bedroom Series into a book later this year, with some unpublished photos as well in the mix. Until then enjoy.

Passages (Andy no .01 ) ©2015

Passages (Andy no .02 ) ©2015

Nature photographer and model and friend Andy Lindblom dropped by to pose for the Passages and bedroom series today. Always fun catching up with your friends when you've been swamped with giant projects as of late, a nice reminder that there are fun people in the world when you have tunnel vision on work. (check out Andy's work here and here.

Window to the World 001 (digital debris ©2015) A recent addition to the digital debris archives takes this Seattle shot self portrait and sends it through the broken coding works.

Continuing the digital debris series of glitch based photo manipulation as a means of expressing our urbanoia and social media malaise. Some times romantic, sometimes elegiac then shattered in the code transfer.    Jon, digital debris ©2015 (Black Rainbow Alternate)

Pin-Up King ©2015

 Brand New Retro is a series that blends my love of retro beefcake mags of the 1950's and 1960's with their eroticized masculinity and kitchy California ease and the more evocative plays of darkness and light more associated with my surrealist-horror work like Devils.  I like for the uncanny and the erotic to blur lines, they (hopefully) then subvert their sense of ideological marker and lead the viewer somewhere richer.

The limited series is  sensual, over-processed, and yet austerer and simplistic.

Here again working with model and actor Samson to evoke a half remembered dream of a pin-up star.

Samson, Objectified Obscura no. 001 ©2015

After a brief break/holiday escape to Hawaii to recharge my creative battery,  I am launching my first new series of 2015 Objectified Obscura.  Here's Samson in the first preview pic,  enjoy.

After ending Mattachine Social and having now released a double album and an ep of instrumental electronic world music and film score as Boarding School  I thought i was time to start wring towards an eventual solo album (as AKV) . I'm lining up a great batch of accomplished and game session players and I'll be in and out of the studio all year but in the meantime I have this lo-fi dance pop single Tired Old Queen  and  the Townie remix that came from a recent session. Enjoy.

The Bride of Frankenstein ©2015

What's a  boy to do with an iPhone, Instagram,  some free time and a series of Funko/ Super7 line of Kenner inspired Reaction figures based on classic film monsters (the Universal Monsters, Hellraiser and Trick r Treat to be exact) . Here's a one-off series just for fun.