Workshop... in southern Oregon

The Southern Oregon Art Academy has asked me to teach a workshop for them. They have moved to a new facility and are really growing. It's my honor to share the things I'm learning at a place where excellence is the standard. I'm honored and humbled to do this. It will be a full day including demonstrations in oil painting, application, technique, tips, and tricks, I'll also be sharing the things I know about making art your passion and your career. I've been making a living as a full time artist for over a decade and selling my art for 25 years. There are limited spots available so sign up as soon as you can. Anyone is welcome, SOAA is offering a discount for locals, so if you live in southern Oregon , make sure you call the school and get the code to obtain the discounted price. The net income of this workshop is going to the school, and it is my honor to help them. click on the Southern Oregon Art Academy link next to this post.

CALVARIA

CALVARIA: is the Latin word for skull. I have always been captivated with mortality; the condition of being mortal, or susceptible to death; the opposite of immortality. I Have been painting and tattooing skulls for the past few years, simply because I enjoy it, and I like the reminder of my own mortality. The skull is both a metaphor for mortality and a complete structural and textural painting challenge. I have gathered a collection of most of the skull paintings and tattoos I’ve done over the past few years. These have been printed on the highest quality paper with the highest quality ink, and bound, by hand with the best care taken to make sure this book will last a lifetime. I have chosen a leatherette cover to accommodate the mindsets that would find real leather compromising to their values. The 12"x 12" cover has been given a blind deboss with a custom die I designed. I have reached for the simplicity and elegance I see in Japanese culture. These books are a true limited edition of only five hundred printed copies. I will sign and number them by hand. I believe in rarity. I’ve always been one to strive for something that not everyone has, or can obtain. I like the idea that, as in life, opportunities come, and opportunities go. I have saved every dollar I could, I have not paid bills for months, and I also borrowed money to get these books printed. I could have had thousands printed for way cheaper in China or something like that, but I chose to go with a high end handmade product from North America. It’s been a gamble, but it’s been a gamble I believe in, and am willing to risk. I plan on having a signed and numbered limited edition print available to purchase with each of the first two hundred copies, if you so choose. I also plan on having stickers, t shirts and a poster that will compliment the book. These are all in the works. but the first two hundred books have been paid for and are on their way. I wanted to give you the opportunity to pre order your copy now. I will be selling these numerically on a first come first serve basis. I am willing to take requests on specific numbers, also on a first come first serve basis, but cannot promise your requested number will be available. Traditionally, limited edition artwork was sold numbered because the printing plates would wear over time and the quality would diminish. These days the quality is consistent but there’s something about getting a low number in an edition that tends to add more value. This blog is basically a sneak peak of this project because I’m very excited to offer a full collection of these skull pieces, including twenty one lithograph quality, high resolution scans of paintings that are available in limited editions, and thirty five professional quality photographs of paintings never scanned for reproduction. That’s fifty six of my skull paintings in one place. Even my most inexpensive promotional prints I sell at shows for ten bucks would cost you $560 to have all of these. I have also printed thirty two studio photographed skull tattoos I’ve done from here in the US , in the UK, and Japan. Eighty eight signature marked pages with two introduction pages explaining how I came to be known as “That guy that does skulls.” There are two velum pages one with a Gogue Art skull logo watermark, and the other over a portrait my daughter took of me, holding the skull that has been such an inspiration.

If you are interested in getting this book, please visit my shopping page on my website.

as I see it...

AS I SEE IT WITH JEFF GOGUÉ


Published in the current issue of Skin and Ink Magazine. Aug. 2010


Is she born with it? Or is it Maybelline? Do you remember those commercials? The obviously beautiful woman, a professional model, in makeup applied by a professional makeup artist, with the wind blowing perfectly through her flawless hair. Are they still doing those? There is another thing I remember clearly: the first time I ever saw Stevie Ray Vaughn play the guitar. I had often heard his songs but never really thought much of them. Half-listening, I had heard his guitar playing in the background in lots of coffee shops and on random radio stations as I was driving. But one late night, I was flipping through the channels and came across his appearance at Austin City Limits on a public TV station. In all honesty, my jaw dropped as I watched this man with a grin on his face, his head tilted back and eyes closed, move his hands and fingers effortlessly over the frets and strings with such precision, speed and accuracy. I honestly questioned if he were really playing. To actually experience the complexity and hear the number of notes he was generating absolutely baffled me; the subtleties like his strumming high up on the neck to get one kind of sound or right up against the bridge to produce another, how he’d hammer-on the strings as they were being plucked or how he’d slyly turn the tone knob, the volume knob or pull up on the tremolo bar all while playing. And never once did he look down at his hands. The only word I could use to describe it was “effortless.”

Now, I actually can play the guitar and, I can assure you, it never has and never will come close to being “effortless.” Never! I don’t care how much talent you’re born with. But what is talent anyway? The best definition I could find is: “A special creative or artistic aptitude, or ability.” Aptitude is a capacity for learning, inclination or tendency. Personally, I think most people mistake “skill” for “talent.” Like I said, talent is a special capacity for learning. “Skill,” on the other hand, is the learned capacity to carry out predetermined results, often with the minimum outlay of time, energy or both. So do you need talent to attain a skill? Do people think I was born knowing how to draw? Was Stevie Ray Vaughn born knowing how to play the guitar? Of course not. We—and that includes everyone on the planet—aren’t able to speak, walk or even keep from pooping our pants when we’re born. It’s not talent that impresses people, it’s the skill, the learned capacity or ability to do something and make it look easy.

Talent, at least in my life, has generated a seed of resentment for many of the people with whom I come in contact. “I wish I had your talent,” they say to me. What they mean is, “I wish I had your skill” or “I wish I were able to do what you do and make it look easy.” Well, I truly believe that just about anyone can “make it look easy,” if they really want to. Being “talented” or, in other words, inclined to learn quickly and easily, would obviously get people to their goals faster, but it’s not the speed at which you attain something that is the most important thing. In fact, that can actually take away from one’s credibility and respect. Compare someone who worked her entire life to attain a great skill to someone who came to the same skill level quickly and with very little effort. Which one are you going to respect more? You’ll respect the one who worked hard for it and you will, by nature, suspect the other. Unless I miss my guess, I assume that anyone would rather be “respected” than “suspected.”

Whether or not she was born with it or whether she uses Maybelline, that doesn’t really matter to me as much as whether or not she is intrinsically beautiful. You may be extremely talented and things come to you easily (and you can’t help that) or you may be one of the lucky ones who have to work hard for your accomplishments. I envy the latter. Nothing feels better than accomplishment. Especially accomplishing something that’s difficult. The trick is, once you’re there, make it look easy.

R.I.P. Stevie Ray Vaughn. I’m sure you worked harder than any of us will ever know.

—Jeff Gogué

You get what you pay for.

So, what did THAT cost you? The typical question when you show someone something nice that you just got. Isn’t that the foundation of how we value things, the cost? I'm not talking about the “manufacturer’s suggested retail price”... the “MSRP” I’m talking about the actual cost. I went to a gun and knife show today. My first one. My son and I walked in and were overwhelmed by all the people and stuff. I wasn’t planning on buying anything, just going to check things out. On our way down the last aisle, we both noticed a table full of Samurai swords. The price tags ranged from two to four hundred dollars each. The guy selling them saw that they caught our eyes.

“Fifty bucks”, he said.

“Fifty bucks?” I replied, as I read the price tag of $329 on one, and $289 on another. “Why only fifty bucks?”

“Guy went bankrupt.” he told me. “I picked ‘em up at auction. Figured I could get rid of ‘em here, but no one’s buying.”

I started looking closer. I picked my favorite one and had my son pick his. I paid him his fifty bucks each and headed out. When I got home I googled the swords, and sure enough, they were priced in the hundreds. I felt like I got a really good deal, but the cost for me was low. I walked in. Showed my wife, and set them against the wall behind one of my guitars. They may have had a high price on them, but the “cost” for me was low. They came easy and cheap. I guarantee you, if I had actually paid six or seven humdred of my hard earned dollars for these two swords, I would have valued them much more and set them in a more prestigious place.

I’ve been greeted numerous times with, “I hate you!” at shows, on here, by friends, by family, and by strangers... I know people mean it almost as a compliment, but it kind of implies that things come easy for me, and they hate me or resent me for it. The truth is, I work hard for it, and it doesn’t come as easy as people might think. I've attached a couple photos of my “Canvas Graveyard” as I call it. these are just SOME of the stretcher bars I have that I bought as stretched blank canvases, put my full effort into, and ended up cutting them off and throwing them away. I sold a couple of them, but almost all of these you see here were complete tragedies. the best painting intentions... fallen short, and abandoned. Ironically, their skeletons await their resurrection as something new and hopefully valued rather than despised and tossed aside. Another promise I can make to you is that every painting, every image, every brush stroke, comes at a cost for me. I’m investing my heart and soul into all of it, so when I complete something and feel good enough about it to show you... You see a painting. What you don’t see is the conceptualizing, the sketching, the photography, the under-painting, and you definitely don’t see the canvas graveyard.

I devote almost all my energy and most of my time to my art. Like I’ve said in earlier blogs, I do it because I love it. I’m grateful to all of you for your support, encouragement, and interest. I hope these pics encourage you to keep hard at it. not for any other reason than the fact that you love to create. Even if it’s been done before, it hasn’t been done by you, so do it... And if it doesn’t come easy for you? If you feel empty? If it’s inconvenient? If you mess up and have to start again? whatever... just remember, You get what you pay for... And when someone asks you, “So, what did that cost you?” You can just say, “You don’t even know!”


Every one of these at one time had a painting on them... almost all were abandoned, and thrown out.