I’ve done a few things since June. I’m behind. Amsterdam! I went to Amsterdam. I have the flight stubs to prove it. More on that later.

I helped Travis Louie finish framing up and delivering his show at Joshua Liner Gallery. It was fun for me anyway. Travis of course had to deal with all the little details. I just helped where needed. I drove a nice little 2007 Shelby Cobra Mustang GT500 up to the Rhinebeck area. This time I managed to avoid the deer on the way and going back. What a sweet car! Ballsy! Digging the Mustangs lately.

Travis’ driveway. This car looks cool no matter where you park…. example below.

Supermarket.

Travis next to Mr Pumpkinhead. These were some of his largest paintings. He said he wanted to collaborate with me on a really big painting. We’ll see if either of us has the time. HA!

Parnelli Jones 2007 Mustang, Amsterdam, Hermes windows, will get their own entries. I’ve been doing some cool stuff.

I will have a table in artist’s alley at New York Comic Con this Oct. Why would I mention that? you might ask. What would I see at your table Fred? I’m glad you asked, person I can’t see reading these words. Here is a page from Mirror World created and written by Thad Williams. Characters designed by me from Thad’s descriptions. It went two issues and the company went belly up.

Mirror World could have been set in New Mexico. Fred, why would you mention NM out of the blue like that? Why, this lets me bring up how the air force painting is going! I just have these brilliant segue. It’s sick, I know.

And speaking of cars…

2002 M2 BMW. Stopped in Mt Kisko, NY to pick up Mark Texeira (TEX) and then drove up to visit Mr. Travis Louie farther upstate. Along the way, I managed to hit a deer in the ear with the left headlight of the car. It put a dent in the trip.

Along the way, Tex’s cat demonstrated that death can also be a present to be laid on Tex’s doorstep.

More later!

I’m now a Manhattanite. I tried out Brooklyn for almost 19 years, and I thought it was time to try the next borough. I have a small group show coming up at Manhattan Classic Car Club Thurs. Sept. 24th. 250 Hudson St. I decided to have a group show with a real curator to organize it. Last year’s solo show almost killed me and I wasn’t really happy about the lack of promotion. It was all on me and I didn’t have the time to do it right. Samantha Levin and Danielle Ezzo are curating. They have a lot on the ball. Free booze at the opening naturally! Check out the artists here.

I’ll be attending the opening at Copro Nason Gallery July 11 for the group show “Monsters”. Travis Louie is the guest curator and there will be a bunch of great artists in the show as well. Here is a review at Erratic Phenomena.

The story of my visit to Travis’ place to frame and then mail my art to Copro Nason. I signed a 1968 Prsche 911 out of the car club. Picked up my friend Steve Ellis who was also in the show. A stick shift from 1968 while being well maintained at the club, is not a good car for a trip over 40 minutes. Ours lasted 3 hours. Because of traffic and getting lost and with breaks, it turned in to about 6. Had to give the old girl a break every now and then. After about 20 minutes on the highway, I realized I was going to have 3rd degree burns on my clutch ankle if I didn’t move it to a more uncomfortable spot above a metal bolt that magically blew piping hot air right at my foot.  There were no air vents, at least that worked, to dry out the windshield if it fogged up. We had to leave at least one window down even when it was drizzling or I’d be driving blind.  Shifting sucked! 1st gear was down and to the left. It was a hard gear to find especially when I had to down shit quickly. From 1st it was esy to shift it in to 4th gear by accident. The front hood which is the trunk, leaked. Fortunately I didn’t put anything that could be damaged by water there. I had a Molly Crabapple’s water color in there but I had wrapped it pretty tightly in plastic. Molly is also in the Copro show.

Once at Travis’ place he went in to framing mode and put us all to shame. I gave Mark Elliot a ride in the car as well. He was there dropping off art also. Travis took the back seat as Steve took the passenger side while I drove us on a supply run. I don’t know if Travis will ever get in a car like that again. It was a challenge to drive, but I actually enjoyed it.

I had a perfect weekend. Thurs. Paul Booth worked on my arm tattoo. Friday, I signed out a BMW z8 convertible, drove to East Stroudsburg and stayed in a bed and breakfast with my girl, Molly, and um , there was something… something else. Oh yeah, I JUMPED OUT OF AN AIRPLANE AT 13,000 FUCKING FEET! I didn’t jump, it was more of a plummet. At the entrance to the airstrip, I saved a 4 inch snapping turtle that seemed to have been confused between what a pond felt like and the middle of a road. I put him back and proceeded to what I thought would be my eventual “bone shattering sort of falling into earth death” with the calm that I saved a little snapping turtle. It was the most amazing experience I ever had. I fell around 120 mph horizontally and then drove a stretch of road at 120 mph in a vertical direction! Sunday we drove over to visit Ron English and he showed us around his studio and home and neighborhood.

At the car club.

2 hours before testing gravity.

That would be me in the blue suit throwing up… out?

That’s the Delaware Water Gap.

One of 6 still-life studies with gouache on Bristol. My favorite coffee cup.

I don’t do this promotion thing very well. I posted it to the right. I have a drawing in the “DRAW” show at Shooting Gallery in San Francisco this month. Last count, there were about 400 artists in it. I feel like a fish in a school, or a cog in the machine, or a “Where’s Waldo” thing. Where is Fred in this show? I think I’ll need a neon, talking, fire works shooting frame to bring any attention to my little pencil drawing. I did do some singling out in my own way by putting it in my “PREVIEWS” section. I guess you can present-view and after-view it also.

Just for kicks. I had the opportunity to see what a Lotus Elise can do. I went to the “Gunks” but it was too cold to rock climb.

I was driving  a 2007 Corvette ZO6 with 500 horses under the hood. After driving one block, I almost turned around and turned it back in. Starting out, I sat in the driver’s seat getting familiar with the dashboard etc. as the car growled at the on coming traffic. It talking to me, telling me to do things, to change how I drive. It was a demon. A demon in the shape of a sports car trying to posses me. Shifting in to 1st gear it’s belly growled, it wanted to eat the road and any car not quick enough to get out of the way… which would have been most. I stalled. It was such a powerful machine, I thought the police would stop me at any time and ask me to get out of the car and lay on the ground while they tazered me for daring to drive this incredible beast in such slow traffic.

I drove up to 41st St by Bryant Park and parked on the corner to make a call to my friend Tex, whom I was suppose to meet. I wasn’t there a minute before a guy came up to my car and asked if I was in the car club. It was the architect who designed the lounge at the club and who is also a member. I guess the vette was one of his more memorable experiences because he managed to get 2 speeding tickets in one day. I mostly stayed in the city the whole time, so no speeding happened. Though I did spin the tires a few times. It wasn’t hard.

I turned the demon in on Fri. for a different sort of demon. A 1967 Chevelle SS. It was an automatic, but vibrated more than the Corvette. It had a 396 big block V8. It was a very social car. Everywhere I stopped for lights etc. I was getting thumbs up from every dude that looked at the car. It put everyone in a pleasant mood. I never experienced something like this. After the first day I realized it was a guy magnate car. Women seemed frightened of it a little. My girl was digging it. She liked the vette also. But she came to hate the Chevelle once I took it on the road.

I had the genious idea to drive the car to the Prime Surrealestate Show in Jersey City. I didn’t think rush hour traffic would be so bad. 2 1/2 hours later and my girl was at the end of her rope and ready to walk back. We got there before everyone left, barely. After the show we headed north. Poor sign placement and a detour got us lost in NJ. We checked in to a hotel late at night. The CD player didn’t shut off when I turned the car off. Battery was dead in the morning. Had to find someone to give me a jump. Let the car run for a while… ran out of gas just a few miles from a friend’s place and a gas station. Car wouldn’t restart. It still looked fantastic on the flatbed that came to pick it up. The whole day was lost and I even had two batteries die in my digital camera! Metro North ended up taking us home. I fear I’ve almost completely lost any interest my girl was starting to have in my car club, at least the driving part.