Laser Cats at Gallery 1988

I had the distinct honor and privilege to participate in the Grand Opening show for the new location of Gallery 1988 West this past Friday. The show; titled,” Is This Thing On? #2” was a secret blackout show. Specifically, that means that people had no real idea of what the show's theme would be until the doors were opened that night! Of course, the artists were aware ahead of time and so we had some decisions to make. The theme was Saturday Night Live- any era, any characters, anything.

It was a fantastically broad area to work within but was so rich with fun imagery and story -so I was really excited.

I made a ton of sketches from a bunch of different skits. I really liked what was going on with the sketches I got from the digital short I chose. Ahem, this may be the only time I ever paint nine cats into the same painting. Ok, then again, it may not be. At any rate, cats with lasers shooting out of their mouths happened all over this painting. 

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I chose Laser Cats. The boys from the Lonely Island (Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer, and Andy Samberg) have put together one of my favorite series of short films in SNL history so I thought it fitting to pay a little homage to them through this.

Gathering reference for the painting was super fun since I got to go back through and watch all the shorts over again. You can find them on the Lonely Island website, NBC.com and Hulu if you'd like a quick refresh.

I've always loved 70's and 80's movie poster art so I used one of the greats from that era of genre of illustration, Frank McCarthy, as reference. Here you go:

By the way, you can also view my Laser Cats painting on Buzzfeed and Huffington Post along with a bunch of other awesome SNL inspired work!