Padraig James Smalley

Another from my upcoming book "Facebook Sketchbook Textbook"

From the upcoming book "Facebook Sketchbook Textbook"

These recent drawings will be part of a unique artist's book called "Facebook Sketchbook Textbook". Here's another:

Here is a high resolution version (3.5 mb)

For a high resolution version, just click on this blue phrase (3.7mb)

Earlier this summer my friend says he's curating a night of eclectronic music at Bookspace. He says the event's called Expose and that my facebook portraits are digital and "expose" their subjects, and he wants to exhibit them during the event. I say thank you, but I don't do one night shows (too much schlepping). He promises to have transportation and that it'll be well attended. I say ok. The event IS packed. People dance and drink and unconsciously act out some of the scenes in the paintings which hang precariously from warehouse pillars and the many shelves that are home to thousands of discarded books.  City Rain, who are having the summer of their lives with a debut cd and quite a bit of radio play, also take the stage and it feels like tonight is really really awesome and I should be grateful for the invitation. Which I am. But its getting late and I've been hanging a bunch of pictures in a sweaty warehouse since noon so Zoe and I leave. The next day I log into facebook and am bombarded with pictures from the rest of the night, and I get this strange feeling which only happens from photos that are libertine, rediculous and inspiring enough to become the genesis for my fb paintings. At that moment everything swirls full ciricle in my head and I am content.

facebook art, portrait paintings, city rain, bookspace, facebook paintings

Two Girls in a Mirror

14 x 14" Oil and collage on canvas. 2011.

This piece started when I found a photo on facebook of some kid from the Main Line passed out at a party with a Sharpied face. I wanted to do a painting of what he was dreaming. I made several small paintings over the printouts of his Facebook page. As it turns out, this kid had recently died, drunk on the train tracks. Real life hit Art with a pretty loud smack at that point. I made a digital collage with my face stitched over his, to put myself in his shoes. This made things more interesting, a little stranger. A Frankenstein of psychologies. The ideas worked themselves out through creating additional studies. To make is to think. The following images are presented in somewhat chronological order.