In the deep recesses of the Darkest Garage I came across this bit of nostalgia.
During my early years in Los Angeles I lived in a rundown apartment building called The Golden Palm. Those were among the best years of my life. The building was packed with Art Center students, novice illustrators, up-and-coming photographers, and comic artists. My neighbors and/or roommates included Jim (James) Gurney, Tom (Thomas) Kinkade, Paul (Paul) Chadwick, Bryn Barnard, Laurie Newell, Alan Munro, a bunch of sometimes-entertaining drunks, a fat landlady with a collection of clown paintings, a paranoid woman who believed men in helicopters stole food from her fridge when she was away, and oh, so many more.
For several years after going our separate ways the GP Gang stayed in touch by mail. We traded cassette tapes, photos, drawings, and such. Eventually time, families, growing careers, and chance broke up the club.
I still run across artifacts of those days. This image is one of them: a mail-order art jam. I apologize for the poor quality of the image. This is a scan of a color photocopy given to each of the participants after the original returned to its maker.
I believe Bryn Barnard started the jam with a Space Parrot floating against a blank blue background. I don't remember the order in which the next images were added. The distorted face was painted by Jim Gurney, the spacedog was contributed by his wife Jeanette, and the fellow in the robe was done by Paul Chadwick. Tom Kinkade did the landscape at the bottom. I was the last on the list. I couldn't figure out what to add so I finally framed the entire image with a monitor and installed a 1930's space babe in the foreground.I know Jim and Tom painted their bits in oil; I believe Bryn used acrylic. Paul's figure is painted in the gouache style he was using at the time, but I don't know for sure which medium he or Jeanette used. I painted mine in casein. The original was about 8 inches square on a piece of heavy illustration board.
God, I loved those old GP Jams!
3 comments:
Almost unfamiliar. Memory is funny.
I wonder where the original is.
I wonder where our Sam-Peckinpah-as-a-teenager jam strip could be. I can't believe how much time we spent on it.
Maybe Bryn still has the original.
As for the Peckinpah jam...be careful what you ask for!
Great memories, thanks! I had forgotten about the details of Mrs. Smith's paranoia. We've got some collabs too. One of the best is the ET sketchbook, some of which is not publishable.
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