Dave Warshaw has been creating distinctive tattoo art for two decades, thirteen of those and counting at one of the best known tattoo shops in Southern California, Avalon Tattoo II.
Recently, one Dave’s appointments canceled at the last minute. Dave’s pal, Ryan Sinn, formerly of The Distillers and Angels and Airwaves was at the parlor and decided to take the time slot. Dave tattooed his “Four Eyes” creation (currently on display at La Luz de Jesus Gallery) on Ryan – in one shot – a total of four hours! Tattoo art genius!
Dave also creates fantastical imagery on wooden surfaces. From the poetic and surreal intertwining of live thorny vines to nectar-oozing flowers surrounding his detailed creations which he calls “Urbantaxidermy,” the artist’s compositions flow like a virtuoso playing his chosen instrument. Warshaw’s mediums are ballpoint pen and wood – all types of wood, from balsa to skate deck. At one time Warshaw carved wood and painted with watercolors and acrylic, but now strictly creates his art with ballpoint.
“My first creations were based on original commercial clay and steel wheel skateboard graphics from the 1960s. I then began morphing the company logos into my own surreal creatures. I use cheap ballpoint pens, the kind you find at the drugstore. If the wood surface is too grainy and unfriendly to the ballpoint, I will use a fine tip ink pen for my line-work – and then go back over and finish with ballpoint pen,” explains Warshaw whose art is heavily inspired by Southern California car-surf-skate-comic-Tiki and punk rock culture. It was Warshaw’s creative efforts that lead him to a career in tattoo art.
Warshaw starts his pieces much like his tattoo art, using a sketch which he transfers to wood, then lines and shades using his improvisation and imagination as his guide. “I don’t scribble on the surface– you have to be cautious as the ink from the pen smears easily and you cannot erase wood,” says Warshaw who, as a tattooist, knows well that you only get one shot and cannot blow it! Among the many wooden “canvases” Warshaw uses for his art are one-of-a-kind skate decks specifically made for him by the oldest manufacturer of skateboards, Watson Laminates, the company that was responsible for the original Dogtown decks, among other classics.
For the second year in a row, Warshaw’s art appears in the rebranded annual La Luz de Jesus juried group show -”Laluzapalooza“
Along tattoo art and his ballpoint pen, Warshaw plays guitar in The Creepy Creeps, a San Diego surf-garage-punk rock band with releases on Dionysus Records. In 2011, the group were hand-chosen by Robert Plant to open for his Band of Joy shows in Southern California.
Warshaw works and plays in San Diego, CA. where he enjoys a family life with his wife and son.
View more of Dave Warshaw’s ballpoint and tattoo art here
IMAGES:
“Foureyes” – Ballpoint pen on wood, 8″ by 11″ (in the La Luz de Jesus “Laluzapalooza” show)
“Foureyes” tattoo
“Birthday Gifts” Ballpoint pen on wood, 8″ by 11″ ( in the “Petals To The Metal” show at Vishuddha Creatives in South Park, San Diego)
Follow Dave Warshaw on Instagram: @davewarshaw
www.davewarshaw.com
www.urbantaxidermy.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/urban.taxidermy
Orchestra Superstring is performing at the Del Monte Speakeasy in Venice, CA – Sunday February 12th at 9:30 pm.
The group will be playing their special mix of Latin inspired jazz and exotica with DJ Bonebrake on vibes, Mike Bolger on trumpet + keyboards, Danny Frankel & Debra Dobkin on percussion, Woody Jackson on guitar, and Paul Eckman on bass.
The Speakeasy is located underneath the historic “Townhouse” at 52 Windward Ave,Venice, CA, 90291.
One set only!
Come down to the beach and enjoy the evening Orchestra Superstring!
www.orchestrasuperstring.com/
Hey everybody!
Well, it’s been quite a while! But I can tell you 2011 was a very busy year for us. Since the release of our third album “Meet Redondo Beat” last January we’ve been getting a lot of attention, and have been playing quite a lot. Touring Southern Europe last summer was amazing! People in Spain were crazy about the new album. Radio 3 DJ, El Sotano, opened one of his shows playing three songs back to back, and also listed “Do you wanna have this dance?” in his top 50 songs of the year. Playing at the Fast Fun and Bizarre festival in Logrono made us once again realize how much we love it down there. Watch out Spain, we’ll be back this May. In the fall, we toured the United States once again, and it was great as always! We started out on the west coast and slowly made our way to the east, spending quite some time in New Orleans, hanging out at the No.1 music festival, the Ponderosa Stomp. Playing with the Preachers Kids again in Oxford, Ms brought back sweet memories and while spending a week in Memphis we even ended up playing at Gonerfest. Good times!
As we made our way up north, we were sobered by the terrible news that our great friend Zoltan Shoubber passed away. We’ve been playing with him a lot in the past 10 years, and you can hear him on some of our records. We instantly included “Tigergirl” by the Tigermen in our set, which was one of Zoltan’s faves. He was way too young and is sadly missed.
In all we had a great time, playing in great cities, with great bands such as the Royal Pendletons, Missing Monuments, and the Party Stompers. Thanks to Van Thompson, Scott Rogers, Gabriel Hammond, Adam Gaither and all the bands we 
played with. We will be back very soon. Stay tuned!
Roman Aul – Redondo Beat
Photos of Roman and Max by Michael Dominici
Ex-Satelliters bass-player and close friend of the band passed away of heart failure at the age 42, mid-October 2011.
Zoltan aka Stu was the most passionate guy we knew. We first met him when we played together in 1995 in Frankfurt. Back then he was the bass-player of The Insectmen, a really crude and mean garage-punk-trio playing well-chosen covers like “Tiger-Girl” or “Go Go-Gorilla” in their very own and great style. Since then we never lost touch. We shared the stage from time to time and after his band broke up and in 1998 and we were going through some line-up changes, he agreed to join The Satelliters. Zoltan took-over the bass-playing in a storm and brought our backing vocals, song-writing and arrangements to new dimensions. Without him we would have never been able to record one of our best records ever, our “mile-stone,”
“What´s Up With Timothy Dee?”
Rehearsals were so much fun and recordings always filled with new input, because he always had something new in the pocket and pushed things to the limit and beyond. His influences are still vivid in our music and his criticism on later records and live-shows were well-founded and welcome. When he left the band due to his disease he became a closer friend than ever and made his never easy way step by step. He never lost touch with music and bass-playing. He jammed from time to time with different people and helped out Redondo Beat when needed. He carried on collecting cool bass-guitars, recorded some fine lounge tunes as Stuart Westcliff and released one 45 on Redondo Beat´s Label Soul Sale. Beside music, Zoltan was a cineaste and an avid reader and he loved the Mighty Boosh. He always came up with new and unknown films, books and sure great music (most of it Soul and Soundtracks) and gave us new input over and over. He was a sensitive, friendly and funny guy and we always had a lot of fun making music and hanging out together…we sadly miss you!
The planned re-release of “What´s Up With Timothy Dee?” on Dionysus Records will be dedicated to Zoltan to keep his works and music in living memory.
We lost a close and long-time friend and band-mate and our world will not be the same without him – thank you Stu!
Steve Satellite
on behalf of The Satelliters & Redondo Beat
While poking around a closet at the Dionysus office, I came across two sealed boxes of an 1989 Dionysus Records LP release, “Smells Like Fun” by 27 Devils Joking, a guitar dominated psychedelic band from New Mexico. This is a timely find as the cover art is by the late R.K. Sloan whose art is in the current La Luz de Jesus 25th anniversary show. I’ve just put the stock in the Dionysus cart which you can find here. There are also a few copies for sale at Soap Plant / La Luz de Jesus.
(more to be added please come back to the post for updates!)
Sept. 9th – Oakland, CA
Stork Club
With: The Touch-Me-Nots
Talky Tina
City, USA
Sept. 10th – Las Vegas, NV
Double Down Saloon
With: Wreckin’ Katz
The Spoofs
Schoenberg Knife Fight Ensemble
The Scoundrels
The Mutineers
Sept. 11th – Los Angeles, CA
Redwood Bar & Grill
Sep.13th – Austin, TX
Beerland
With: John Wesley Coleman III
Suede Uppers
Shivery Shakes
Sept. 14th – Denton, TX
TBA
Sept. 15th – New Orleans
Siberia
With: King Louie’s Missing Monuments
Sept. 19th – Jackson, MS
Hal and Mal’s
With: the Wild Emotions
Sept. 21st – Oxford, MS
Blind Pig
With: The Apostles
Sept. 24th – Memphis, TN
Gonerfest after party!!!
Buccaneer
With: The Royal Pendletons
Sept. 27th – Memphis, TN
Hi-Tone
With: The Burning Sands
Sept. 28th – Nashville, TN
Foobar
With: Mystery Twins
Sept. 29th – TBA
Sept. 30th – West Ashville, NC
The Get Down
Oct. 1st – Athens, OH
The Union
Oct. 4th – Toledo, OH
Woodchucks
Oct. 5th – Columbus, OH
Café Bourbon St.
Oct. 6th – Milwaukee, WI
Quarters
With: The Fairweather Friends
Phylums
Oct. 7th – Detroit, MI
MOCAD – Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
With: Jojjon
Outrageous Cherry
AFTER PARTY AT DONOVAN’S PUB!!!
Oct. 8th – Lafayette, IN
Black Sparrow Pub
With: Eric & the Happy Thoughts
The Gestalts
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