ken garduno does strange days

ken garduno is one of those artist's whose entire catalog of work is hysteria inducing. i imagine filling a whole wall with his strange inky lovelies. he's showing this weekend at subtext gallery with a couple friends in a show called 'strange days' in san diego. i kick myself every day for not being born a west coaster.

i'm really enamored with ken garduno. he has amazing ink skills and paints his women so lovely and strange (although rather skinny) that i find myself wishing i was one of them. each piece has a creepy 'twilight zone' feel to them and are mostly in shades of gray and black with little touches of color. although i usually seem to be drawn to work that is very feminine and female based, i really dig how ken paints his dudes. kinda ethnic, kinda 70's and in oddly large proportion to his females. he had an amazing show at black maria gallery a few months back that i meant to post about called 'channels'. the body of work explored the notion of flicking through tv channels, each piece representing a quick, captured televised image. the idea reminded me, strangely, of mike teavee from willy wonka, and worked well as a cohesive element for the lusty and futuristic mix of work. i've really wanted to purchase a piece from ken and hopefully will do so in  the future.... in the meantime, i have the above image taped up in my studio that i stare at in jealously of its owner.......