JIMMY DANKO | artist | Gorilla Empire » painting

Homeward Bound

jimmy — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:15:32 +0000

After three and a half years my time in Argentina is drawing to a close. In less than 48 hours I’ll hop on a plane bound for the States. Bound for home.

It’s been a wild crazy ride down here, full of ups and downs, like any good adventure should be. I would attempt to put what this all means into context for you now, but the truth is I still haven’t been able to get my own mind wrapped around it. What I can say is that while one adventure is ending, a new one is about to begin. The Orange Gorilla, the mohawk, and I are bound for Los Angeles, where we’ll continue our unending quest for world domination, and making cool stuff (not necessarily in that order).

Until then, I leave you with the last 4 things I made while living in Buenos Aires.

click on image to enlarge

TO BE CONTINUED
20″ x 34″ (52cm x 86cm) | oil & acrylic on wood panel

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BACK OF SUBWAY PASS #22
pen & pencil on subway pass

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Photo: “One Day. 12 Trains”
I spent a day riding every line in the Argentine subway system. Check out the entire blog post here.

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SUBWAY RIDER: THE LAST STOP
sketchbook | pen & pencil

PAINTING | Annie

jimmy — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:14:33 +0000

ANNIE
28″ x 34″ (71cm x 86cm)
Oil & acrylic on wood
2010

The last painting of 2010…

DANK Video 010 | Three Gorillas | Music by WHITE ARROWS

jimmy — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:13:42 +0000

(having trouble viewing the above video? go here)

An experiment with latex paint…

MUSIC IN THE VIDEO

ARTIST: White Arrows
ALBUM: Coming Or Going (RAC Mix) Single
SONG: Coming Or Going (RAC Mix)

A few months ago my friend Creeping Elm introduced to the tunes of the WHITE ARROWS and they’ve been echoing off my studio walls ever since. Originating in NY and now calling LA home, this is definitely a band I’m looking forward to checking out once I get back to Socal. The song in the video, “Coming Or Going (RAC Mix)”, along with the rest of the White Arrows discography is available on their website here. The White Arrows can also be found in the following places: http://www.myspace.com/whitearrows
http://twitter.com/whitearrows
http://www.facebook.com/whitearrows

ART IN THE VIDEO
The three gorilla paintings were inspired by a stencil I made about a month ago. Rather than just letting the beast live out on the streets of Buenos Aires, I thought I’d domesticate him and let him live on indoor walls.

THREE GORILLAS
15″ x 20″ (38cm x 51cm)
Latex paint on wood panel
2010

Click below images to enlarge.

COMMISSION PAINTING | Ape Flyer

jimmy — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:40:16 +0000

APE FLYER
15″ x 15″ (38cm x 38cm)
Acrylic and Argentine newsprint on wood panel
2010

Above: A recent commission piece for a pilot friend of mine over at Jet Blue. This painting is based loosely off of one of my previous paintings, Big World, the first painting I completed after moving to Argentina.

PAINTING | “Blue”

jimmy — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:52:16 +0000

BLUE
24″ x 24″ (61cm x 61cm)
oil on wood
2010

This piece, a departure form my regular style, is the second in an exploratory series where I revisit a painting technique I experimented with when I first started painting in which I use a palette knife instead of brushes to apply the paint.

PAINTING | “Stillness”

jimmy — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:01:49 +0000

STILLNESS
24" x 24" (61cm x 61cm)
oil on wood
2010

Over a decade ago I experimented with a style on 5 or 6 paintings (see “Untitled #2″ below) that was much different than the style I have developed over the years. It was free and loose, and used a palette knife instead brushes to apply the paint. Last week, after hitting a creative wall in the studio, I decided to revisit that style and see what happened. “Stillness” is the piece that resulted.

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Scissors | 13″ x 24″ (33cm x 61cm) | acrylic

jimmy — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:13:13 +0000

Scissors | 13" x 24" (33cm x 61cm) | acrylic on wood | 2010

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First Self-Portriat in over 10 Years

jimmy — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:41:29 +0000

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I’ve only painted two self-portraits in my lifetime and both were done over 10 years ago. In early 2006 I had an idea for a new one. At the time my studio was a garage in San Diego and in the corner of it sat planks of wood I had collected for use in future paintings. I snatched four of the planks and hammered them together. Over the years that followed I would periodically apply with a palette knife the leftover paint from other paintings onto this wooden panel.

The idea was that the background would consist of a random/chaotic conglomeration of colors from my other visual explorations and over the top of that would be juxtaposed an image of myself in grayscale. A few months ago, 4 years after beginning the background, I began working on that grayscale image, and finally finished it earlier this week.

To me, the finished piece represents a visual journey, and an amalgamation of intertwined, contrasting ideas: Color versus black & white, chaos versus order, and the movement of time versus a moment of it. The piece is called Self-Portrait (Somewhere).

Work in Progress | Self-Portrait – 50% Complete

jimmy — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:02:35 +0000

The first and only self-portrait I ever painted I did over 10 years ago in college, in an Intro to Painting class. I’m not sure why I’ve waited so long to do another, but I figure it’s time I knock one out. Below are the work in progress pics of a new one coming to fruition.

Pencil outline and first layers of paint.

Gessoed over the area to be painted.

New size = approximately 26″ x 31″ (66cm x 79)

When I started the background years ago I didn’t know what the composition of the self-portrait was going to be. I always try to keep in mind the words of one of my professors, “Try not to let the canvas size drive the composition of the painting.” In this case it meant cutting down the background to the size I needed.

For 4 years I’ve had this wood panel, made of 4 planks of wood, sitting inside my studio. Periodically while working on other paintings, I would apply the leftover paint from a session on the panel with a palette knife with the idea that it would one day serve as the background of a self-portrait.