modern cartoon impressionism

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Official Gallery portfolio of rising Los Angeles artist Leftyjoe.

Resume updated for 2010
Leftyjoe: Modern cartoon impressionist

Leftyjoe, an LA based artists wishing to continue to further my progression as a participant in the art world.
I hope to bring my own twist to some old techniques and a new take on some established concepts.
With my love of impressionism and my love for retro cartooning combine with a love for all things cult and pop, I'll try to show pop culture in under a new light.

Gallery portfolio of Leftyjoe, LA artist.

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Biography

Bio:
Leftyjoe, once a commercial artist is now a Los Angeles based pop artist seeking to further establish himself in the LA art scene. Leftyjoe hopes to reach out to the world, showing them his unique view of the world around him.
Having once worked as an Illustrator for several books(two which have been published and are in stores), has graphic design, product design, packaging design, 2d traditional animation, Character development and Character design, background and prop design, flash animation and more under his belt, Leftyjoe has recently accapted that his passion hasn't just been Character design, but Painting!
While working in the art industry, Leftyjoe always kept a close eye on the Gallery circuit. An artist, and naturally a lover of all forms of art, walking into Galleries was second nature.
"I remember walking into a gallery for the first time. It was in my hometown of Covina. The gallery there contained works from all types of artists, but, Henry Asencio was one that made me feel something inside. Something hot and primitive poked and prodded at me, igniting something in me that would burn very very slow over the next ten years. Some sort of change was harmonizing the way I viewed the world and the way I felt about my perspective of it. A warming feeling that I couldn't quiet pin point the epicenter of, until one day."
The day that Chuck BB, a friendly acquaintance of Leftyjoe, (buddies from The official and original Drink and Draw social club in Hollywood) Chuck invited Leftyjoe to put a piece in his "Make mine METAL" show. "I was so freakin stoked!!! I had never been invited to an art show before. I was even a bit disappointed when acquaintaces of mine would pass me up for the opportunity. But once Chuck asked me to submit a piece, strangely, it felt like the culmination of my entire art career rested upon that very moment. As if, having been invited by a rather well known and accomplished artsit such as Chuck BB, somehow meant that Leftyjoe could slowly start to win the respect and acceptance of his peers. "It meant a lot to me, I had never been invited to a group show!!! I was excited all day log, I even put aside my work just to plan my piece, I do a lot of research before I even sketch, I like o formulate ideas and jot them down and brainstorm. Well, I was working for Liquidgeneration.com at the time as the Lead character designer. I loved that job dearly, character design will always be my passion."
The piece Leftyjoe submitted was decent, the weeks were busy before the show, Chuck even picked it up personally at the very last possible moment. Leftyjoe didn' even make it to the show. "Probably the ex-girlfriend's fault at that time, I remember missing lots of important things in my life because of bf/gf drama. I was really sad, my first show and I totally missed it."
Later Jack Rossi, then only a friendly acquaintance too, invited Leftyjoe to participate in Jack Rossi's group show. Jack Rossi would be the Featured artist, headliner if you will, but the show would contain 8 friends. The Drunken Master, and the eight immortals of wine according to Kung Fu legend. Leftyjoe, one of the Eight drunken immortals. The theme of the show was to be the mythos of the Drunken Master, or the Master of the drunken fist, a style of Kung Fu called "drunken boxing" or the way of the alcohol fist. "Perfect, I love kung fu movies, and getting drunk is always fun, Jack made it mandatory that I get hammered and paint while hammered! Well, I like Belgian beer, so I bought some Delirium Tremens and got to work. Right away I knew what to paint! The bottle had a pink elephant on it, and I remembered that I had drawn a big pink elephant with big Buddhist beads, an a big gourd. Totally inspired by the concept of a drunken master. Well, what does one see when you get to that magical level of inebriation? Supposedly pink elephants? Man, I remember the phone conversation with Jack, I was so excited to not only be in another Gallery show, but to have just a few days prior to the invite, thought of the subject for the show. I was Planning on doing a series of Drunken Master pink elephants just for fun. Now, the Pink Drunken master elephants would be in a gallery show in Long Beach!"
That my dear friends, is what caused Leftyjoe to get the painting BUG!
"I always like to really develop my idea throughly, although my style preference is very simplistic and minimalistic, the development is absolutely imperative for the design to be strong and appealing!"

Since those first two occasions, Leftyjoe has been working on art show after art show, after art show. Hopefully Leftyjoe will attain a level of appreciation from his piers and his audience. Keep an eye open for this young Los Angeles artist: Leftyjoe.
A latino artist, born in Mexico city to a once wealthy highly Educated family. Transplanted to the United states bi airplane, legally with an vacation visa. His family just never went home back to Mexico. Here in the U.S, he struggled with a now scary notion that, while having been wealthy in Mexico, his family would have to rebuild from the ground up, and Jose David Torres would have the chance to live a life that most people born with a silver spoon in their mouth would rarely ever see.
Like Siddhartha, Jose would grow to see and experience much suffering, enlightenment and happiness.

As a child he attended a school that was far from where he lived. The nearest school wouldn't accept him due to his social security number. All the kids on his block got to go to a nice school, Jose, or Joey as he preferred to be called by his classmates had to go to a less nicer school. Luckily though, that school had a great art program for the kids. As soon as 1st grade was over, he was put in G.A.T.E, what ever it means, it's for gifted and talented students. That programs geared him towards art and animation from a very young age, and away from gang affiliated graffiti. Well, it worked during elementary. lol.
David Torres, as he chose to be called during highschool, had his hands in vary many art related projects at school. He was volunteered almost coerced into these projects. He helped design and build the "Little shop of horrors" puppet for the drama team, he was the schools Cartoonist for the school paper where he earned much respect, praise and admiration by his piers. He was the president of the Art club two years running.
He later went to an adult R.O.P program at a very nice high school that had funding and equipment for the kids and adults to learn 2d animation. The equipment was donated by Disney and Warner Bros if I recall. There he would spend a year and a half waisting time not drawing nor animating.
He then finally recieved his social security number, (a real one) and his permanent resident alien card. Now, Jose David could go to college.
the nearby community college had a good art program, he enrolled and took mostly life drawing classes. He fooled around with his friends a lot, but drew constantly at home till the wee hours of the morning after he came home from being out gallivanting with his college buddies. Soon, during his first year at college, tragedy struck.
His girlfriend accidentally kneed him in the groin, being a hypochondriac he wanted to get home and check his goodies as most men should do whether their girlfriend accidentally knees them in the groin or not. He got home, turned on the TV as was customary to do so on the way in. PBS was showing the documentary of Tom Green's testicular cancer ordeal. Once again, the hypochondria set in. Jose David checked, and sure enough, there was something wrong. He called his girlfriend who soon started sobbing. But she held it together as best as an 18 year old could do n that situation. His girlfriend at that time did some research that night while he layed sleepless. The next day, he went to the family doctor, whom by the way, started crying. "We have to save Davd's life" doctor Davis said. And well, at the age of 20, Jose David Torres was diagnosed with cancer. He nearly lost his life in 2001 to a virulent mixed germ cell tumor in his left testicle. The cancer spread with days to his lymph nodes, 25 of which had already been riddled with the metastasized cancer. This whole ordeal happened during his first year of college. Things always seemed bleak, but somehow a silver lining was very close behind. Jose drew all the time, and more seriously. the cancer thing caused him to take his career more seriously and to work harder at the dream. What a wake up call right.
So, his left testicle was completely removed along with all the cancerous lymph nodes in his chest. When he returned to college, his buddies there gave him his nickname,
"LEFTY"
Joe, as he prefers to be called these days, has now to keep progressing and keep reaching for that goal. Always painting, always drawing,always reaching to meet his potential.

Stay tuned on this Blog as we follow the career and life of Leftyjoe.
all updates will be posted her regarding upcoming shows featuring Leftyjoe's art.

My friend Leftyjoe

Leftyjoe is an LA based latino, chicano, mexican artist. Having worked in many different facets of the art industry, Leftyjoe has just caught the painting bug. Over the recent last few years, he's been in gallery show after gallery show, even during his full time character design career. For Leftyjoe, doing paintings has been something he never thought he'd be doing full time. I guess his romantic bohemian side finally caught up with him.
Leftyjoe had developed a style of character design that has been well sought after by several large companies, so with his taste for a impressionism and pop art, he's bringing them all together.
Van Gogh has been one of Leftyjoe's lifelong favorite artists, as well as the rest fo the impressionist movement!
" I figured I had something with this style of character design, when people keep asking me to design their characters to pitch to networks using the style that I concocted! Mixing my love of design and drawing in this style, plus the painterly rough techniques of Impressionism, I've fallen in love with interpreting the world in that style. I also really liked that old "Nightmare Ned" cartoon, along with Tim Burton's stuff, and much much more along those same lines. I love and respect all art. /this is all just my own taste and interpretation."
Leftyjoe will hopefully be a rising presence in the LA art community.
Keep your eyes open, hopefully he starts a trend, or just simply brings his view of the world to people of all types!

Foreword:
Uncle Louie, aka Luis Bali jr. Chef, Bar Marmont, Chataue Marmont Hollywood.

modern cartoon impressionism

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Official Gallery portfolio of rising Los Angeles artist Leftyjoe.

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