Gallery of the Absurd

Donald Trump's Sign of the Apocalypse

While in Las Vegas last month, I snapped this photo of the Trump International Hotel and Tower sign. After downloading to my computer, I was shocked and amazed that Donald Trump pulled a Virgin Mary and mysteriously appeared inside his own sign! Take a look inside the U and you'll see not one, but two miraculous images of Trump's profile and hair.

The Virgin Mary isn't picky about where her apparitions appear. A grilled cheese sandwich, a tortilla, a Chicago underpass, or even the belly of a turtle are all perfectly acceptable materials. Trump, on the other hand, refuses to appear anywhere else but inside the giant gleaming lights of his own name.

Here are some other photos from my trip:

I thought the function of a billboard was to lure in business, but this one seems to designed to cause cold-blooded fear and apprehension.

I'm fascinated by reflected shapes.

Glitter Portal.

T is for temptation.

Clothing of class and distinction can be found in various trinket huts lining the Las Vegas Strip.

Gossip Trading Cards: Deranged Lunatic

Whenever Gary Busey shows up to an event or agrees to an interview, you can expect an erratic tempest of nonsensical utterances, unsettling glares, unpredictable outbursts followed by bear hugs and then more unpredictable outbursts, and best of all, the spewing forth of didactic gibberish through a mouthful of clattering teeth. How can you not love (from a distance, of course) the crazy that is Gary Busey? I've decided to get back to work on my Gossip Trading Cards series, a collection of trading cards based on the diverse archetypes found in the world of celebrity gossip. I've already completed cards for Lindsay Lohan and Papa Joe Simpson, and many more are to come. Medium: Colored pencil and ink scrawled in sketchbook while riding in car hurtling down I-5 toward Los Angeles.

The back of the card includes one of my favorite Gary quotes. Find more of his wisdom here.

What I've Been Working On The Past Few Days

Sometimes when I need a break from the pop culture-inspired illustrations I regularly post here, I'll take a day or two and paint something completely different. It's different because I let go (letting go is challenging for me) of control and all expectations of what the painting should look like and allow it to emerge on its own. If that makes sense. I throw paint at it, close my eyes and draw on it, smear it, dance and drink wine in front of it, rotate it all around so the direction is constantly changing and at some point in the process, I stop. These three scans are from the same painting. Title: Rescue. Medium: Enamel, acrylic, charcoal on paper.

Jeff Polage Squats Like Rose McGowan

When I saw the photo of Rose McGowan squatting on the sidewalk to pick up her goofy-looking dog, I felt a kinship. I've been there. Like Rose, I have a bug-eyed boston terrier...and like Rose, I've often found myself in regrettable positions while walking my dog on the city sidewalks. All I can say is thank goodness the paparazzi doesn't follow me around. I asked Jeff Polage to throw on a wig and stuff his feet into a pair of pink high heels while picking up my dog, Abigail. Poor Jeff couldn't quite squat as impressively as the lovely Rose was photographed doing, but then he's not used to wearing high heels either.

The Joker - A Catalyst for Change

While my favorite playing card is the Five of Hearts, I also have a special fondness for the Joker. While he's most often depicted as a court jester or fool, my interpretation is focused more on the mythological Trickster archetype. Tricksters have been used in mythology throughout human history and across several cultures as an catalyst of change.

A Trickster may entertain and cause us laughter, but with that entertainment comes a price; hard truths we may not wish to face or accept. By tempering conflict and provocation with entertainment, the Trickster destroys our well-established world while creating a new, unfamiliar one. Change is constant, but most of us resist and cling to what's comfortable and familiar even though it no longer serves our purposes. The appearance of a Trickster can be viewed as either positive or negative depending on how attached we are to our established illusion of the world.

When you draw the Joker in the Pleiadian Deck of Cards, watch in awe as your entire hand changes before your eyes. Are you holding a winning hand in a high stakes Poker game? Are you on your last bet after a long night of losing at the Black Jack table? Expect nothing. When the Joker shows up, everything changes. When you thought you were winning, you were really losing...when you thought you were losing, you were really winning. How very entertaining! Medium: Ink and acrylic on paper.

Jeff Polage Takes On Carrot Top

You asked for it. I've been in Los Angeles all week with my camera, my laptop and my actor pal Jeff Polage. He's getting more work these days and even made an appearance in Iron Man. Sure, he only appears on screen for two seconds, but it's clear he's giving Robert Downey Jr. a run for his money.

In order to achieve the full Carrot Top effect as shown above, we used a ratty old wig, cheap eyeliner and scotch tape to pull Jeff's eyebrows skyward.

We've got another photo shoot scheduled today and our props include a blonde wig, a hot pink bikini, and a couple of cantaloupes. Can you guess who our victim might be?

Sketchbook Chronicles: People Watching in Las Vegas

One of my all time favorite recreational activities is people watching. I can be thoroughly entertained for hours as I sit and observe the parade of humanity pass before my eyes. My sketchbook and camera are always handy for recording some of the more unusual and entertaining specimens that happen to catch my interest. Above is a quick sketch of a bickering couple I saw trudging down the Las Vegas strip. I'm not sure what they were arguing about, but they were doing it loudly and seemed completely disgusted with each other. He looked like a giant angry owl with his pointed hair and large-framed thick glasses and she was dressed in schlumpy tourist garb, but had obviously spent hours applying heavy makeup and sparkling jewelry.

A few months later, a client was flipping through my sketchbook and spotted the owl man. He screamed "that's it!" and asked me to create a character logo for him to use as his company mascot. So odd.

World Exclusive! The Scientology Boot Camp Handbook

When I spotted the "Scientology BOOT CAMP FOR KATIE!" headline on a recent copy of Star magazine, I knew I had to investigate. I called in favors from an underground cartel of international spies I associate with and demanded they secure a copy of the Scientology Boot Camp Handbook to share with my readers. While they were only able to scan four pages of the handbook before being ambushed by the SSSS (Secret Scientology Surveillance Squad), it's enough to give us a glimpse inside the secretive compound where Katie Holmes and countless others have been held. Below are the other scans in no particular order:

Star magazine claims Scientology Boot Camp consists of "grueling lie detector tests, 36-hour auditing sessions, and constant surveillance", but the magazine never mentioned the entertaining recreational activities participants enjoy during their stay. Despite the barbed wire fences and forced interrogation, Scientology boot camp can be barrels of fun. For more recreational activities, such as Wig-Making with John Travolta, take a look here.

Okay, now I'm jealous. Scientology Boot Camp victims participants get to fly in vintage DC-8 Interstellar Space Planes! Not only that, they'll sleep in a realistic-looking Mothership Dormitory. Hold me back, I'm this close to signing up!

Each handbook features a special introductory letter from Tom Cruise welcoming PCs to clear their engrams and avoid SP influence during RPF telepathic regeneration ORC assignments. Medium: Digital collage. Created in collaboration with Candy Kirby. Letter from Tom Cruise written by Candy.

If Rothko Had Painted Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt

Each time I glance at a photo of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, all I'm able to see is a blur of predictable colors (see below). Take for example all those ridiculous staged photos of them prancing about on the beach. Their hair dissolves into a floating rectangle of yellow-blonde. Exposed flesh translates into large amounts of peach and light orange, which dominates the image. If they're smiling, flashes of blinding white might appear. Depending on what color bikini Heidi is wearing, lurid infusions of hot pink or zebra print cuts through the monotony of the flesh and sand tones and reminds the viewer that they're almost naked, but not quite.

Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970) was a Russian born American artist best known for his large-scale paintings of cloud-like rectangular forms of color floating against a solid color background. I seriously doubt he'd find any interest in painting the vapidity and force-fed "entertainment" that Heidi and Spencer represent, but if he did choose to paint them, this is how I imagine the canvas would look. Medium: Oil on linen with a splash of digital paint.

Heidi and Spencer as they appear to me. Remarkably, you can still recognize them.

Wouldn't it be amusing to remove all the headlines from this Rolling Stone cover...except for the one on top?