“The Wonderful Adventures of Ozzie the Sea Otter, is to be celebrated by a hometown crowd in early December thanks to two wonderful hosts. SNAC; Sierra Nevada Adventure Company, and American Association of University Women. As well as a prolific artist, Stearns is an avid outdoor enthusiast and was employed by SNAC while going to Columbia Junior College. Now working on a Masters degree in illustration, he is a great example for those excelling in art and wanting to further their education and experience in university. In Murphys Ca, on Friday Dec. 4th from 5 to 9, in conjunction with the Holiday art parade, Stearns will be signing at SNAC. On Saturday the 5th, there will be a morning signing in Columbia with the University Women, and an afternoon signing at SNAC in downtown Sonora. The publisher Ron Andrews will be present at the signing with plenty of signed books to go around.” Quoted Press release.

The Wonderful Adventures of Ozzie the Sea Otter, is authored by Nora Dohlke of El Dorado Hills. It chronicles the exploits of young Ozzie the sea otter and his mother, as they travel from Monterey Bay to Prince William Sound, Alaska.

A link from the local paper Calaveras Enterprise about the event:

http://calaverasenterprise.com/articles/2009/11/26/bulletin_board/bulletin01_k_novtwntyfv_author.txt

ENJOY!

Arian Greenwood Stevens and I have been planning on having a show in Portland for some months now. Between my crazy grad school schedule and his amazing

prolific career we have made it work. Someone Gallery in Portland is going to exhibit our works for the months of November and December. I will be flying up to

do live art at the show, should be quite fun!  Juxtapoz

linked to the show here:

September 30, 2009 – Wednesday Oct 30Th Last Fri. Art Showcase w/ Arian Stevens & Forest Stearns

Someone Gallery

SOMEONE GALLERY

2718 SW Kelly St. Portland OR. 97217

LAST FRIDAY ART SHOWCASE

Arian Stevens & Forest Stearns will be showing their work from Oct.30Th - Dec.25Th @ Someone Gallery

*

Arian Stevens has been shooting all forms of photography for the past 13 years.

Growing up in the Sierra Nevada’s of California he photographed what surrounded him. The outdoors, adventure, and people.

Moving to Portland in 2005 to explore the possibilities a big / small city could offer, he came across a whole new realm not offered in rural areas.

Shooting both natural light and creative flashes, he captures a unique perspective that is truly artistic.

Arian’s work has been featured in promos for the living Legends, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, and many many of our fine North West entertainment scene.

Check out his photo blog at www.arianstevens.com

*****

Forest Stearns born the only child of artistically adventurous parents in the vast jungle of the Sierra Nevada, Graduate of Humboldt State now a graduate

student at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Being the founding member of Empire Squared, a monster of an art collective out of Humboldt County,

he is amazingly prolific and afraid of nothing. With emphasis on strong line work his work walks the line between spooky organic and super graffiti

illmatic. Biomorphic characters infest his works illustrating tales of wanderlust and creepy passion. He is a professional children’s book illustrator and

has been part of more than 80 months of fine art shows. Nothing is Safe from use in his artistic arsenal from watercolor to spray paint, sharpie markers to

chalk pastels, the embodiment of DRAWEVERYWHERE. He loves to ride his bike on midnight missions eating burritos and rocking pieces. Come visit

Someone Gallery and see Forest Stearns amazing work from Friday Oct 30Th to Dec. 25Th 2009.

www.draweverywhere.com

www.myspace.com/draweverywhere

The Opening for this show will be on.. Oct.30Th @ Someone Gallery Theshow will run for 2 months. At the opening on Oct. 30Th There will be amazing

art work, Live music by Retake Trio and free Beverage for adults with valid ID plus odourves and good people come down and support your local art scene.

Someone Gallery

Someone Gallery is brand new to the down town Portland area. Located right next door to PSU at 2718 SW Kelly, Someone Gallery is part of a much bigger

multi-faceted project. The layout of our building has a wide variety of hardwood flooring everywhere you look making our presentation space immaculate.

The Gallery is also part of the Someone Clothing shop, where artist Someone offers tons of art-driven clothing and one-of-a-kind products plus he continues

the art shows with his own art, which will be on permanent display. We keep two artists up for two months at a time, and there is a room downstairs that we

have dedicated solely to art installations. Though the shows run for two months, the installation room will be painted every month at the Last Friday party we

throw. Along with our monthly parties, we also have in-store performances and events frequently, so keep posted to www.someoneclothing.com and come

visit us soon!

www.myspace.com/someonegallery

www.someoneclothing.com

www.dbmonkey.com/someonegallery

Location : Someone Gallery: 2718 SW Kelly Ave, Portland, OR, 97201

Contact : www.arianstevens.com

Live Music by GREYSKUL & RETAKE TRIO

Recently I finished an interesting commercial job for a company called Chakra Nation from Humboldt County. The job ranged from nude and clothed figurative work all the way to ornate logo design, a good challenge for sure.

The first piece is the logo design, effective both with and without the letters.

The second  is a total reinterpretation of the traditional chakra symbols.  I maintained a geometric trueness to the original but made it funky and stylistic.

I am excited to see these logos huge size on shirts.

The second set of illustrations were figurative.

We evolved the idea from a set of nudes to full clothed models in specific outfits. Very challenging transition.

All in all a great learning experience.

Some Easter Bunny holiday love for yall!! Page killers in sharpie on random paper. ENJOY!

A buddy of mine has been taking amazing photographs for a while now and he recently got intouch with me about having a show together up in the Portland area. Mr. Greenwood (Arian Stevens) caught up with me in SF when I did a live art show with DJ Shadow at Amoeba Records. Four Letters Clothing and I had out the spread of amazing clothing and the scene was great! Here is the fruits of his shoot there. I am fully inspired by his work and it will be an exciting challenge to put together a body of work the is as good as the stuff he is putting out there.

This is from his site:

”

Forest Stearns and DJ Shadow Rock the House in SF

…………..

ForestStearns http://draweverywhere.com/ throwing down some paint during the DJ Shadow Amoeba show…the final painting auctioned off later…Forest also designed the limited edition poster…using the classic silk screen technique …more shots to come…Aa few more from the SF trip…

here’s a few more including members of the fourletters crew, and some amoeba crew!!”

The End of an Era, Limited edition silkscreen of 39.

Zac Calbert, A friend of mine in my home town of Sonora CA told me an interesting story the other day after I gave him a silk screen print. He had won a Sam Flores piece recently and I had the honor of hanging next to it in his collection. Here is his story:….. ”

I am sorry that I have been slackin’ on the posts but I am in the middle of a lot of projects and haven’t finished anything for a while. Here are my new pieces of art that I have acquired over the last month or so. First is the huge ass, completely amazing Sam Flores piece titled Flores y Zorro that I won from UpperPlayground.com. It is a massive 4ft x 6ft acrylic and spray paint on canvas. I won it by simply entering my email address on the Upper Playground site for their 10th Anniversary giveaway. Flores is a well know Bay Area artist who I first discovered in Juxtapoz Magazine. The piece was hand delivered to me by Adam Krohn, the VP or Upper Playground who is a pretty cool guy.

The next piece was given to me by Forest Stearns when he was in town for the Art Show a couple weeks ago. It is a limited edition, several color, 18in x 23in screen print which I believe is titled The End of an Era. Forest’s work is always enjoyable to look at. There are plenty of little creatures and nuances I discover every time I look at this piece.

My final piece came when I ordered Mastodon’s deluxe Crack the Skye packaging which came with a 14in x 14in lithograph of Paul Romano’s album art. Romano’s design has made a huge impact on my work since I discover him and Mastodon on a shelf at a Tower Records in Long Beach. The music is great, the packaging is great. Check it out.

Of course these aren’t in their final and proper hanging devices, but I just wanted ya’ll to see them. If anyone has a sweet baby blue frame to for the Stearns piece let me know!

The fine little of city, and more specifically The Frog and the Fiddle Pub Gallery gave me the honor of showing my work this month. The artist Gary Burgin was the catalyst of the show, sponsoring the event, bringing up some great djs from the Bay Area, and making the event work out. It was a great opportunity to share my artwork with my home town community. Thanks to all of you who came out and purchased artworks, danced your butts off, and showed love!

If you look at the painting in the background, we really resemble the piece. Lurv- Forrest Stanley- Nisus- and Forest Stearns rocking beats. Notice Nisus’ hat. A piece a did for him a while back. I love getting down with some good beats, big ups to these amazing djs for coming out and shaking the room!

The show was a total success on all fronts. I was able to enjoy my community of hometown friends and some of my city friends while being surrounded by my art on every surface. A lot of pieces were sold to folks who had always known my art but this was the first time they had been in front of it live. A true joy to sell my work to my peers and friends who I know will love it, and I might even get to see it in their homes in a new light.

Again my friend Zac Calbert come through with a great post

http://utltrn.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/sonora-art-show-success/

”

There isn’t much to do out here in the foothills, but there is a small group of people looking to change that. Last night those brave enough to expose themselves to new music, images and ideas headed to the Frog & Fiddle in downtown Sonora. The Frog & Fiddle has become the new hot spot for interesting night life in Tuolumne County. The outstanding art of Forest Stearns provided visual entertainment for the evenings festivities. I met Forest through the Returning Show last summer. He is a great guy, terrific artist and an eager contributor to the new arts culture of Tuolumne County. Soon enough I will have collaborations and interviews with Forest to post for now if you missed out on the fantastic Art Show last night here are some images:

{Forest Stearns and Duane}

The art of Forest Stearns is always impressive and inspiring.

The DJs were doing their thing.

A great time was had by all.

“

Preparing for my show in Sonora, the Sierra Mountain Times newspaper did a very nice write up in me for their paper. Much respect for having me on your pages!

Here is the article: http://mysierramountaintimes.com/?p=3559

photos by Kira Tucker

THE SMT INTERVIEW The Art of Forest Stearns by Thomas Atkins

Art is everywhere. Whether in the natural world or the synthetic world, we are surrounded by creations and designs, shapes and shadows and colors and textures. We have all, at one time or another, contributed our own creativity to this constantly changing world of art, signing our names to the canvas of this fascinating and never-ending mural. Most signatures are nothing more than faint pencil scratches or ink stains, but those who are truly passionate about art are sure to leave a bold, noticeable impression on the world of art. These are the people who have made art a way of life and who are constantly inspired by their surroundings. These are people who like to draw everywhere. Forest Stearns is one of these people.  

Forest, who is currently enrolled at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, has spent most of his life immersed in art, and his experiences and dedication to his talent have allowed him to excel and succeed as an artist on numerous levels. At the age of 31 the Sonora native has already illustrated a children’s book, produced artwork for Warner Brothers, Tower Records, Four Letters Clothing (fourletters.org), and numerous other clients, and is continuing to catch the eye of all who witness his imaginative works of art on a commercial and professional platform. Those who haven’t had the privilege to examine the fruits of his entertaining occupation, will have an opportunity to do so next weekend when Forest returns to his roots for an art show at the Frog and Fiddle in Sonora. The show, which will also feature live music, will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 14th. It takes a unique individual to create such unique and interesting art, and for those who will be unable to meet Forest at the show, here is an inside look at this colorful character and the picturesque path that has brought him to where he is today.

Beginning Art: 

Growing up in the scenic town of Sonora, Forest instantly had a connection with the surrounding beauty, but he had other factors as well that inspired him to pursue art…his parents. As with most young children, Forest naturally followed in the footsteps of his parents – which were constantly leading him in the direction of art. With a mother who was an art teacher and a father who was a cabinetmaker, Forest’s artistic roots drank deep of the creative well within him.

“What brought me to where I am now was having the foundations in my own household,” he said. “I am an only child and my parents are both artistic on two different sides of the range. My father taught me how to see things from an engineering and building perspective of making everything tight and perfect and measuring everything correctly…and my mother has a really tight eye for design, but she is also a lot more spontaneous in her painting and more emotional and provoking, and she taught me the fine art side of it.”

Observing Forest’s natural talent, his mother encouraged him study her library of art books.

“I knew a lot about other fine artists and the classical artists growing up and I was really inspired without even knowing I was being inspired,” said Forest. “Having that constant art inspiration is what made me an artist and made me really want to do art on my own. Plus, art made me feel good and it gave me a connection to my family and friends.”

Organic Food Justice Carrots, silkscreen limited edition

Art also allowed Forest to connect with others in the community as he began attending art shows. By age 10, Forest took ‘Best of Show’ at the Tuolumne County Fair and at age 14 he sold his first painting of a landscape from a gallery. By his junior year at Sonora High Forest was awarded a summer scholarship to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco…a taste of things to come.

“When I went down there that’s really what set my mind to be like, ‘wow, I can be a professional artist, but I can do the art that I want to do’ rather than being stuck in the niche of art that I was seeing up in the foothills,” said Forest. “There is nothing wrong with that art and there is a lot of amazing artists up there, but I was young and wasn’t into painting landscapes and barns. I was into comic books and really bold linear work.”

Another inspiration for Forest was graffiti, an art form that was foreign to the foothills.

“I had a tight group of friends and we started coming down to the city and checking out the city scene and getting inspired on graffiti,” he said. “There wasn’t any graffiti in Sonora so we kind of jumped on it.”

This group of friends would also gather for ‘art fests’ at Forest’s mom’s art studio.

“We would get together once every other weekend and draw in our sketchbooks all night long,” he recalled. “We would even make our own t-shirts and sell them to our friends. Our friends loved the artwork we were doing so we were becoming commercial without really understanding what that was about.”

Although Forest was unknowingly scratching at the surface of a possible artistic career, after high school Forest wasn’t sure what he wanted to do professionally so he decided to attend Columbia Jr. College where he earned two associate degrees, one in liberal arts and one in fine arts.

“I was constantly doing art and constantly being inspired by art but I didn’t really want to do the exact same art my mom was doing and I wasn’t really so stoked on being such a perfectionist builder like my dad, so I was feeling it out for myself,” he said. “Although Columbia was great, it was such a narrow niche for what I was figuring out existed.”

The more Forest traveled, the more his eyes were opened. 

“I started traveling a lot and living in different places,” he said. “I lived in Yosemite, Alaska, Pittsburgh and Washington D.C., so I got a chance to travel around and meet a lot of folks and get new influences…which was epic.”

However, even while living in such extraordinary natural setting such as Yosemite and Alaska, Forest’s artwork didn’t necessarily portray what most artists would produce in those environments. 

“I am really inspired by nature, but I am not inspired by the contrived beauty of postcard nature,” he said. “I am inspired by it personally – Yosemite is one of my favorite places on earth – but I am not just going to do a painting of Half Dome or a painting of a field of horses and consider that something that I am happy with. Because I grew up in Sonora it wasn’t like the natural outdoor landscape was new to me – it was kind of like second nature and I was way more interested in the subtlety of society within that nature and even the exploitation of that nature. If you look at my art now you can see that as the underlying current. There is definitely something spooky about my landscapes; something kind of edgy…and I love that. I was so used to this prettiness that I began to think, ‘what is it about this that is interesting to me?’ So I would push things a little more graphic and a little more edgy and spooky… maybe just to be outside the lines of what my teachers or peers were telling me to do. But this has really developed into my style. I think it’s sophisticated and intelligent, but also makes you look at something almost at a surreal level and be like, ‘why is something that is so beautiful, a little bit spooky?’”

It is because of this style that he has been able to stand out in a sea of striving artists.

“My style is really strong and graphic,” said Forest. “It’s bold and linear and I’m really trying to work to make it less flat. It’s not rendered. I would say rendered is the opposite of an explanation of my work. When you look at something rendered there’s obviously roundness to it…like a Rembrandt piece. I’ve always liked that and now that I am in graduate school I am learning how to render things so I am trying to bring that into my work…but do I like the flatness of my illustrations.”

Yet before entering graduate school, Forest had a lot to learn, and his next destination was Humboldt University.

Intermediate Art:

“Before I headed up to Humboldt, I spent some time in Santa Barbara and got really stoked on the graffiti scene down there, and just the urban-ness,” he said. “But I got sick of society in Southern California and decided to do my undergrad at Humboldt because it was the only state school that wasn’t in a big city. I figured I might as well go to a smaller school, because I had the graffiti mentality that it would be easier to get noticed in a small community than go to a big city and get noticed.”

It was in Humboldt where Forest and his friends took a more positive approach to the idea of graffiti art.

“A group of us would get together and do a good 100 pieces of art at my house and then walk around the city on a Saturday night and put up free art everywhere,” he said. “It was taking graffiti past the vandalism and bringing it back into a collective community consciousness. A few of us got in trouble for vandalism and you can only take that so far, but if your doing these pieces with the same intention of graffiti – of getting yourself out into the community and getting seen – but doing it in a medium that can be taken off of the walls and collected, then your artwork lives past just some dirty tag on the wall. If you saw a graffiti piece you were struck by in an alleyway and were like, ‘wow, that’s amazing,’ it may live in your memory, but if you were to see a really cool piece done on a scrap piece of wood stuck in some corner of an alleyway, you may be affected the same way, but this time, if you had the initiative, you could climb that wall, pull off that piece and take it home.”

Forest has often seen his street art hanging in homes throughout the Humboldt area.

“I’ve been to parties in Humboldt where there are like 35 of our pieces of art on the walls and they have no idea who I am because I don’t sign my name,” he said. “We try to do it anonymously…because it’s littering – but when you go to a party and see these pieces on the wall, you are totally stoked! You’ve given someone else your art vibe without even having to push it on them like galleries or advertising.”

Of course Forest didn’t have a problem with hanging his artwork in galleries either…in fact he co-founded Empire Squared, an art gallery that was started by an impactful group of artists that took the town by visual storm.  

“I met up with a crew up there and we renovated a big warehouse into an art gallery and started our own non profit gallery art collective,” he said. “Every single month we would have an art show and that’s what really made it happen for me and my peer group. Having a peer group that really pushed each other inside and outside of school was what made me strong and fearless as an artist. School was great, it taught me the technical side of it, but so many artists in state school weren’t pushing themselves past their senior show…and we were having a show every single month! The teachers were watching it happen, but none of them were really stoked on what we were doing because we were doing it outside of the school premise. We didn’t have the academia support, but it didn’t really matter because we had our own energy. We went from six people getting together in my apartment to having a crew of over thirty people in a warehouse where we could have amazing parties and amazing art shows and newspapers would do write-ups on us all the time. It was mega juice…total energy!”

Although Forest and his crew had created a lot of energy outside of the classroom, Forest found inspiration inside as well.

“There are a few of my undergrad teachers that I really admire, but James Moore gets the most props out of any of them,” he said. “He inspired me to take my art to the next level. He could see what I was about and told me to push myself rather than my mark, and that was so inspiring to me. Teachers in general who push their students past the academia and into developing themselves as confident artists are the teachers I have the most respect for. Teachers that would tell me to make better work, push myself harder, go bigger and make myself proud.”

Of the Heart - 2′x3′ acrylic

Besides teachers, family and friends, Forest is inspired by a wide range of artists.

“I admire everyone from Michelangelo to Gustaf Clint to fine artists of today,” he said. “Anyone who I can look at their art and I know that they are making themselves proud and they are going #&%* huge just by wanting to…those are the artists that I respect the most. And sometimes those artists can be my own high school students who often have more ambition than some professionals that I know.” 

After graduating from Humboldt in 2005 with a BA in Fine Art, Forest stayed in the area for a few years and was an instructor of illustration at Arcata Art Institute.

“For two years I pushed my high school students to take their art past art class and into published medium and their art was published in a book called the Encyclopedia of Nonsensical Ambiguity,” he said. “That was really fun for me to see that process happen. The book is out in the community so the kids have a lot of pride in the book they produced. It’s super inspiring to work with kids and work in a community and take your art out of your studio and put it back into the community and sharing it.”

His teachers, peers and students had inspired him while living in Humboldt, but after establishing himself as an artist up there, Forest decided it was time to take the next step and moved to the city to attend the art school of art schools: the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. 

Advanced Art:

Forest left Humboldt with over 75 months of art shows under his belt and was now ready to take his work to a larger audience…which he quickly found in the city as he began doing live-art shows with musicians. 

“I’ve done a lot of art and music shows,” he said. “At Amoeba Records in Hollywood there were like 400 people in a store surrounded by row after row of people screaming and watching the DJ while I am doing art. I’m going, ‘I better not choke.” But you just have to go with it. You get stoked on the energy and hopefully you have a good idea in you mind and enough confidence to smile and nod and fix your mistakes – because if you make a mistake and you are able to fix it…it’s not a mistake.”

Sloths Angeles, is a big 5×7 foot painting on paper

Forest has also had the privilege of performing at interactive music-and-art events with DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Z-Man, AC Alone and De La Soul.

“These are pretty big names and to get on stage with them is like, ‘Wow!’ – all of a sudden your heroes are your peers,” he said. “And they love the fact that you are creating a visual for their set.”

Some of these sets last for hours allowing for Forest to create a giant mural…while other sets are much shorter.

“Cut Chemist said his set was 36 minute and I was like, ‘wow,’ I need to come up with a picture in 36 minutes that is both finished and as professional as Cut Chemist is with his music,” he said. “It’s a fun experience and I love working with musicians and with people that have a project going that they feel pride in that I can share my own work with.”

This is also how Forest feels about the companies he does freelance work for.

“I’ve done work with Tower Records and Warner Brothers and Four Letter Clothing Company and I’ve done record covers for folks…I’m trying to stay well rounded,” he said. “I just finished doing a 90 page children’s book about otters. It was so fun because the publisher and author were so into the story that it allowed me to be into the art. I love that! So I’m maintaining my graphic style, but pushing it within all these different elements…which is making me better.”

Of all the art mediums Forest has studied and practiced throughout his years as an artist, his favorite is drawing.

“I love to draw,” he said. “My drawings have always been my strong point during my undergraduate degree and now that I am doing my graduate degree I chose illustration because it’s really based on the skill of drawing.”

Now, half way done with his three-year graduate school Masters of Fine Art (MFA) program at the Academy, he is amazed to see how far he has come.

“I just passed my midpoint review and I am building my thesis project right now,” he said. “My thesis is based on looking at sacred mythology and symbolism but seeing it on how it’s been developed in the industrial age and how old school symbols and myths are now seen with the advent of such insane technology that we are in. It’s crazy to think that I am really doing this because this is the terminal degree for artists. I grew up in a small town never really thinking I would go to college, and now I am getting the highest degree you can get in it!” 

But his teachers still constantly remind him that he needs to get better.

“About 80 percent of my graduate school teachers are saying, ‘you guys are in the field that you’ve chosen, now where are you going to go with it? You’re all good, but you all need to get so much better. This is what good work is right now, this is what good work has been historically and this is where you guys need to strive for.’ They are kicking our asses! But it’s so good because they are telling us how we are going to succeed as an artist both in the business side of it and the skill side of it. They tell us, ‘use our own judgment because the world of art is different for everybody, but get really good and make yourselves proud and you will succeed.’ That resonates so hard for me. I love that, and I love teaching kids that and my peers that.”

It is for this reason that Forest’s ultimate goal of the Masters program is to become a teacher.

“I want to be a teacher at a college level so I can have a group of artists that I am always inspired by,” he said. “Maybe that’s a self-indulgent thing, but I can always further my own education and always be stoked on my students and push my own style and be inspired by my own work.”

But in the meantime, Forest wouldn’t mind working with bigger clients as well.

“My education right now is all about working my way into the business side of it with big clients,” he said “I have always been a snowboarder and a skateboarder and I would love to do a line for Burton…that is an amazing goal. To have Burton snowboards call me up and say, ‘Forest we have seen your art and we want you to do the line for the baddest snowboards we have…and we want to give you one of each of them and send you around the world to snowboard on them.’ That would be so cool. I would humbly thank them for that opportunity.”

But even at the skill level that Forest is at, he knows that being an artist isn’t easy.

“I really want to find success in this art thing…and it’s really elusive, especially in our times right now where art is definitely put on the backburner for 700 billion dollars going to the banks,” he said. “Where is the money for the arts and for the culture? I can always hope that I get good enough that I get recognized and to have clients to pay me well for my good work, but I don’t expect anything for myself but to be as good as I can be. I mean, I hate for money to be the main purpose for art, but I am a professional artist and need to pay the rent. It’s a factor. The ultimate goal is selling my work, but I do a lot of work and I still have a lot of work that I’ve done just for the fun of it.”

It is this enjoyment and fun that Forest finds in art that allows him not to hold on too tightly to his art.

“I try to maintain a pretty humble stance in my art,” he said. “I try to keep my own personality disconnected from my art because I don’t want my art to be me. I kind of want to be an artist doing work because I want to constantly be able to get better, and if I get so attached to my work I wont be able to progress and leave that body of work behind to do a better piece. It goes back to the graffiti mentality – always try to be on top but as soon as you do a piece, let it go.” 

This is probably why Forest is more about the experience of the art than the final product. 

“I definitely have pieces that I love, but I mostly love the working aspect of it,” he said. “It’s usually the breakthrough pieces that are my favorite. They may not technically be the best, but it’s intellectually where I went and I figured something out about my process to kind of start the next set. I’m constantly getting breakthroughs just by looking at other people’s artwork…for example, my good friend Sunny Wong in Humboldt. He does graffiti letters like nobody’s business and every time I look at his work and try to do it myself I get better. Every time I look at certain artist’s work and really study them and try to put their mark into my work, I get better…and I love those pieces. So I don’t have one super famous piece, but I definitely have moments in my artwork that are my favorite moments.”

Yet like in every artistic field, Forest admits that there are unfavorable moments when he will fall into the inky abyss of artist’s block.

“There is definitely artist’s block,” he laughed. “I think that the more education you have about the kind of art that is out there, the less this will occur. If you know what happened in art you can always do something to either contrast that, or if you know how art is done within a lot of different techniques then you can always contrast ideas there. People get artist’s block when they aren’t inspired by other things. Artists that say they aren’t inspired by anything else or that art comes from nowhere else are full of #$^@. Like Picasso said, ‘the best artists don’t borrow, they steal.’ You are constantly taking really good ideas and making them your own and if you can do that as an artist without plagiarizing, its like you’re having a dialogue with the past with things that are done.”

However, sometimes this can be a very fine line.

“Look at Shepherd Ferry, the artist who did the Obama poster,” said Forest. “He is in contention for using the syndicated press photo which he manipulated to make into his own artwork. Is it plagiarism or did he take it to the next level? All of his artwork is based on other people’s photos but is he having a conversation that is bettering the artwork and taking it to another place? If you can take anything to another place, you’ll rarely have artist’s block. I mean I’ll get up and have days where I just don’t feel creative, but for the most part I can always come up with some ideas. If you take three different things that you’re stoked on and you triangulate them into one thing…you have something new.”

Currently, Forest is discovering new mediums that are allowing him to explore different artistic options.

“I am really getting into silkscreen right now,” he said. “I love it! I love the idea of taking it to the next level and doing different pieces of paintings with a lot of different colors and silk-screening my line work on top of that. I am really into multimedia and I am not restricted by medium, but I am inspired by how many mediums can be used on the final product. Nothing is safe from use.”

Forest is also inspired by the challenge of re-creating the human body in art form.

“My last semester at Humboldt I studied abroad in Greece and I was really inspired by the figurative work and sculptural work,” he said. “If you look at my paintings there are a lot of nudes and I love doing figurative work because the challenge of doing a figure is so hard. Everyone knows what a figure looks like so in order to do a figure you have to do it right or else even a kid will say, ‘that’s not right.’ So if you’re starting to draw faces and they’re not right, you better really make them stylistic and abstract.”

Yet besides finding new mediums and outlets and challenges, Forest wants his art to have a theme that will better the world.

“The main importance that I am coming up with in my art and that I am really being inspired by is self sufficiency and food justice and transportation justice and social justice,” he said. “We all need to be intelligent about our sustainability. I really want to try to start pushing that in my own work. Because after all, art is just stuff, and I feel like the stuff that you’re making has to have something more than just beauty to it. Whether it’s a spooky notion where maybe I need to look more into this, or an educational notion of ‘wow, this is a big problem and we can ultimately solve this by being positive and effective and getting educated about it.’ So I am really looking to do art that has that basis of making a change – and not the contrived change, and not like Obama’s change, but us personally doing something that is bettering the community. I think that is the ultimate importance in art because art illustrates history after history has passed. You look at every single culture historically back to caveman drawings and the artists are the ones that we look at for the visual record of the society and the culture. It’s our jobs as artists to do things that promote the good of society because that is ultimately what will be looked back upon and they will illustrate where we are coming from. I am trying to do that in my own art and I suggest other artists to do that as well. I mean, musicians and everybody! We all have that same responsibility. It’s a luxury to do art and an honor to be able to be part of a community and to take that art and pass it into the community is something that I love. My statement to our own community is to support the arts and support education.”

For those who are feeling the effects of the dwindling arts programs, Forest has words of wisdom for aspiring artists.

“Learn how to love hard work,” he said. “Push yourself really, really hard and get influence from everywhere.

Don’t be afraid of anything. To me it’s not about who you are, it’s about how you work with what you have. Put in your hours! I think anyone can be really good at art, and if they want to learn art, they can learn it with a lot of practice. It’s not something that is super ultra intellectual like math or science. It just comes down to putting in your time. Be passionate about it and don’t covet your ideas; share your ideas…because the more ideas that get shared in the world…the better they evolve.” 

To see some of Forest’s ideas on paper, canvas and silkscreen, be sure to come to the Frog and Fiddle at 177 Washington Street in Sonora. The $10 event will feature Forest’s art (which will be for sale), entertainment (San Francisco band NISUS, local band LURV, and Santa Cruz DJ iLL Tones) and food, and will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday March 14th. To see more of Forest’s artwork, visit draweverywhere.com.

“

I had the fun opportunity to get down and draw at 111 Minna with my friends.  Dr.  Sketchy sketch sessions collaborated with Minna to have a Tuesday art jam. It was really well put together. In the front of the room expanding rings of serious sketchers and onlookers surrounding a beautiful burlesque model. She took great pinup poses and the artist responded with some nice works. Behind them was a long table with place holder for invited artist to rock pieces and pin them to the wall. My friend Noah Ptolemy, who had originally informed me of the event had a seat and was busting awesome drawings and people were diggin his works, Sam Flores was 2 seats over and his work never fails to be a highlight. At first I was drawing the model in my blackbook, chatting with folks and meeting some great people. Then the opportunity arose, the spot in between Sam and Noah was empty, the designated artist had picked up and left, so I procured his spot busted out the paper and started my own line of pieces. It was great to chat is up with Flores, I have always enjoyed his works and been inspired by his work ethic. Noah is another rocker, he gets down with a powerful style. It was a fun night, we all did some great pieces. Another artist Erin Wapple was in the house and Sam and I did a double page killer in.

An inspiration to paint a piece of the Dali Lama. 2×4 on a linen it is my personal interpretation of an amazing human being. I have read his writings and I am incredibly awed by his wisdom and experience. Much Respect.

This month I was honored to work with one of my favorite Hip Hop heros Abstract Rude. Some good old friends from Fat Bol in Humboldt came to me knowing my work and my love for hip hop to do this piece. As always I am excited to network with other talented artists. It is always such an inspiration to cross pollinate between music and art. Big ups to Chris Noonan and B Swizlo for making this happen.

“The assignment: To illustrate a portrait true to character, of the soulfully eloquent and hard working California hip hop artist Abstract Rude. The theme was to combine positivity and maintain the strength of the underground scene. Fat Bol gave Ab final artistic approval of the piece and in a flash of drawing and designing came the new illustration. Both graffiti and natural elements were used in the piece to portray the smiling Abbey, an LA hip hop veteran. The Illustration is presented as a three color silkscreen on a brown tee shirt with a strong image across the front.

The Fat Bol logo is displayed atop the back of the shirt. This tee is not quite available instores or online yet, but fans can pick one up just in time for Abbey Rizzle’s guest appearance on the spring Lemons tour.” This is straight from Ab Rude’s Myspace.

Last week I finished my first semester in Graduate School at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. AMAZING! I am totally inspired to take my technique to the next level. This piece is the final project for one of my classes with instructor Zack Zdrale,
The 6 hour class was beautifully challenging and I would love to do more work in this style now that I am comfortable with charcoal.

For new years I joined up with some amazing artists to blow the minds of thousands of party goers.. The black tie festivities were at the glamorous Westin St Francis Hotel at Union Square in San Francisco. My good friends the notorious Cripe Brothers work with a group called the Pacific Art Collective doing live art for many occasions. I have heard tale of the 2007 new years party and it is an honor to be asked by these two guys to paint with them this year. The three of us were also stoked to be joined by the amazing Erin Hamilton and Carmen Olsen. Five really prolific artists on one canvas for five hours, you know something good is going to happen.

We had had a meeting the day before in Casey’s lab and the idea was set on what the five of us artists would do on this 8×8 piece of looming blank wood. We arrived at the St Francis to find the canvas’ ready to be painted, they stood in a giant ball room. The panels are a good size and are a great way to see the size of the room in comparison.
I stand ready to rock with my talented cohorts in front of the freshly primed canvas.’

The party was a 3000 person affair, open bar, fashion show, multi-roomed maze of crazy folks in a beautiful huge hotel ballroom. We unpacked and at around half passed eight we got started with our concept.

The amalgamation starts to take shape in black and white.

Our concept was to illustrate a biomorphic creature made of from a multitude of body parts of many animals but to maintain the shape of a recognizable animal contour. In other words to have the head(s) in the top left then the legs,wings, legs, all the way to the tail. You get the picture. I love this part of doing a piece with multiple people. It is when the piece looks the most chaotic but the marks are the most carefully layed down to create a good composition. With five people the piece was quickly laid out and the black line work quickly took the shape of a great beast.

Reaching high and painting low we are all enjoying this fully.

We are going at it at a fast pace. On the other canvas is Damon Soule, his piece morphed through the evening. I have been a fan of his work for a long time and it was a pleasure to see him in action.

Erin is the first to drop the gold on some big blinging tusks, Casey works from a sketch he had previously brainstormed. The piece is starting to get smaller details, textures and bold fills. I really love the way that all of our marks blend together really cohesive and seamless. That is what really excites me about working with other artists on one piece.

Erin is the first to pull out the paint brushes and get bold with color. We had decided on the effective main color scheme of browns, oranges and yellows for the animal, the piece is evolving at an exciting rate. The colors are quick to show volume and depth within the creature.

Casey takes an important minute to step back and check the masterpiece, he is not the only one in amazement. All night there were hundreds of people bubbling over the barriers to see the artists in action.

All arms at work bringing in the yellow to make the animal pop. Notice that happy little bird rocking out!

Tyler putting in some detail.

The whole team hard at work.

By this time we are a few hours into the piece and the crowd is roaring with well dressed belligerent energy. The piece is coming together quite well.

The colors are looking great. The creature is an indescribable behemoth of wings, heads, horns, and hoves.

The Fantastic Five, a sure shot success, posing in front of the finished piece, Word…….

Erin Hamilton, Carmen Olsen, Casey Cripe, Forest Stearns, Tyler Cripe.

Representing the amazing Empire Squared is always fun. E2; an art group spawning from the inspiration a a solid group of Nor Cal artist out of Humboldt is still a force to be reckoned with. This poster I designed for the gallery is for an open edition that visitors can buy when going to the gallery for one of the notorious art shows. Often the shows are of an avant garde nature, with the entire space becoming an installation. So that means that the space is not reliant on sales so this poster can raise some funds when the installation is too hot to buy. Get one by contacting the E2 page.

For the last two years I was honored to teach a class to the Arcata Arts Institute. This morning I was able to meet up with the director of the program Anne Bown-Crawford to catch up on a book that we are publishing. The book showcases the works of ten amazing and diverese students. We worked together once a week for a year to bring their works into fruition in the for of a 140 page book. My good friend and associate Casey Cripe was my teaching assistant during the class and was a big influence on the students works. You can pick up the book from LULU Press and the proceeds go to the AAI program. Here is a preview of the works for the book.

First off check her out for your self @ artwithwings.com. Her works never ceases to amaze me, and since we have shared a studio for a while now I get see all of the work she does. It is very inspiring to have such a good artist around to be inspired by and get critics from. Lucky me, for real.

We worked together on a series of pieces that premiered in Arcata’s Garden Gate. The work for the show was a good test of our compatibility. We went on a big road trip together out to Texas. It was a great trip and when we got back home we had 2 weeks to paint 15 pieces together for the Garden Gate show.

these are 2 of our collaborations.

It was exciting to mash our styles and our work habits. I really enjoyed the experience and we have worked together since then on numerous pieces. Erin and I did live art with Aceyalone, Micah 9, and Dres @ the Eureka Red Fox Tavern.

Erin and I also teamed up with 2 other amazing Humboldt Empire Squared artists to rock a set of large outdoor murals at the Inferknow parties. What can I say, she has great talent, she can bust a great drawing at the drop of a hat, and she is admirably humble.

A great deal of inspiration has come from looking at Wayne Thiebaud’s works. After hearing him speak I like him even more.

Much respect to those who put in work and love it.

Here is a painting about sloths that has nothing to do with the post…or does it.

A lot of people ask me what is LIVE ART, isn’t all art live art?

Well yes and no. Of course all art is art done live, but the term is meant like Live music. Art in action, art during the process, art in a space where the viewer can watch the actual developments of a piece by the artist not just the disassociated final piece on a wall. I really enjoy the excitement of working in front of a crowd with good musicians because it gives the viewer a complete experience. There have been dozens of concerts that I have been to that do not stand out in my mind. The ones that do had some sort of visual spectacle that sets them apart in my memory. There have been viewers that have come up to me and told me that they watched me make a piece live at a music show, they can tell me things about the progression of the piece that I did not even remember that had an effect on them. That is cool to add that layer to a show. You have the sound of talented musicians piping out of the speakers, you have the smell of the crowd and the tastes of the beverage, you have the feeling of all the other bodies undulating around you, and you have a visuals of hopefully an entertaining stage performance, So to add a large piece of art being made on stage in the midst of the performance, started at the beginning with a blank canvas and at the end of the show having a canvas that has been illustrated to go along with the performance, adds a great level of visual involvement.

The following is an interview that I did with Billyjam of Amoeba Music in San Francisco:

PAINTING BY MUSIC: FOREST STEARNS’ INTERACTIVE ART

Interview with artist known from Amoeba Music instores

“[If you are a regular at Amoeba Music you may have already seen the silk screened poster art of Forest Stearns who has done several pieces specifically for Amoeba events. Or maybe you’ve been lucky to catch Forest doing his art live at one of the interactive music-and-art Amoeba instores he has been a part of over the past year.

These include one with DJ Shadow (San Francisco Ameoba instore) and two with Cut Chemist (San Francisco and Hollywood Amoebas). He has also done live interactive art with hip-hoppers such as Z-Man and at other events such as Reggae On The River.

Additionally the NorCal artist, who is just about to move to San Francisco, designed the poster for the Noisettes instore show at Amoeba San Francisco which reportedly everyone loved including Universal who Forest says want to take and flesh out to make an animation based on the illustration. I recently caught up with the artist to chop it up about life and art, and art and life. For more information visit his website: draweverywhere.com.

AMOEBLOG: What inspires you to make art?

FOREST STEARNS: Art is what I do. It is a way to be myself. It is exciting and thought provoking, it creates a dialogue and has a lot of history to build from.

AMOEBLOG: And what keeps you doing art on the shitty days?

FOREST STEARNS: The shitty days are cool. I can sleep in then have some tea then by that point I can do some art and the day turns out pretty nice. The shitty days are when you work for someone else and hate it. I work for myself and work with others on projects that I get to choose. I am an optimist, so shitty days can usually be squashed by either looking at the art of others or getting down with some art of my own.

AMOEBLOG: Regardless of time or place who are among your favorite artists and why?

FOREST STEARNS: Egon Schiele for his spooky graphic nature he has inspired my
figure work greatly, Erin Hamilton because she uses the most amazing color schemes you have ever seen. Sonny Wong in Humboldt for his amazing letter styles. Richard Diebenkorn for his ability to rock both abstract and with amazing line work. Chris Bachalo for killing graphic novels with style and prolificness. Michelangelo because he could draw better than the rest. Yoshi Toshi for his amazing inovation in line quality and the style he started. Os Gemeos for going huge and global in graffiti…to name a few. I love creative innovation on classic ideas. A good idea with a good artistic mark. But I may have a new list of artists by tomorrow.

AMOEBLOG: I understand that you are soon about to move from Humboldt to SF where you said to me earlier you will be “on the grind to take over the visuals of the city.” What exactly does that mean?

FOREST STEARNS: Well the SF takeover is simple. I will be as prolific as possible in both my graduate school program and in my gallery showings. I will continue to do live art with DJ and hip-hop friends like the Glitch Mob and Z Man in the city and continue to grow the client base of my commercial work. Simply: build clout and respect through quality artwork and prolific nature. Build relations with companies like Amoeba, Upper Playground, Kid Robot, Lower Haters, and continue to fucking rock!

AMOEBLOG: You have worked with several musicians doing interactive art-music. What exactly is that experience like for you as an artist?

FOREST STEARNS: Fast and furious: have a basic idea of what you are looking to portray in the live piece, be assertive and efficient, know your time frame, maintain balance, create a focal point, stand back and enjoy the making of the piece within the space of being on stage with amazing musicians, Make the piece tight, sign it with good hand styles, be humble, enjoy the experience, Take a good picture, let someone buy it so you don’t have to take it home, it happens fast. You had better have you shit together because everyone is watching and expecting a good performance.

AMOEBLOG: What were the events you did at Amoeba and what did you think of them?

FOREST STEARNS: I have painted live with Cut Chemist twice and with DJ Shadow for instore sets. For both of the shows in SF I created a hand pulled limited edition silk screen poster with Four Letters Press, they were very cool.

The dynamic of the performance is interesting, people packing the rows of the record store to see an amazing DJ for free. I really enjoy doing live art, and I really enjoy good music so for me it is the best of both worlds. I get to become peers with my musical heros and I get to inspire them with my own work.

Amoeba does a good job of making the viewer/musician dynamic as personable as possible with I appreciate. Last month I create a poster for the Noisettes, studying their style and illustrating them in SF. Their live set was amazing and the posters were a hit. Universal is talking to me about making animations for the band as well as using the image for apparel.

AMOEBLOG: How has the experience of working with Amoeba Music been for you?

FOREST STEARNS: Amoeba is a great business to work with. They appreciate creativity and promote viewer participation. They are generous and personable. Amoeba has style that spans from old school Haight rock to New School hip -hop.

Billyjam interview: July 25, 2007 at 09:56am]”

Saturday I was asked to go out and do live art @ the Adidas Concept Store SHOE BIZ on Haight in San Francisco. My good old friend Dustin Delany, better known as NISUS THE MOVEMENT, DJs there quite often, bringing the sound rukus to all. We all know that great music goes hand in hand with good art SO, he had me along to bring some fresh visuals to an already styling store. The sneaker world is pretty huge, so a concept store is on the exciting cutting edge of style. I was very inspired being there with Nisus, and I would love to do some pieces on sneakers in the future.

The piece I worked on is a revisit on a piece that has a history of controversy. “100% Safe and Non-Offensive” is the title. The set was just long enough to get some good black and white changes made, the rest I will attack in the studio to finish with more elements. The finished piece will be posted. Carey Peterson of Four Letters came through and hooked me up with a new American Apparel hoodie fresh off the press. The image on the back is a piece I painted of clustering animals around the Four Letters logo. It is always good to see friends in the city.