This is a current studio shot for the Memphis College of Art.
Pictured are alot of my illustrations and paintings, along with some installations.
I spend all of my spare time here working hard on assignments and commissions.


Thanks for looking at my blog,
Sincerely,
Alex Harrison

This is a detail of my studio wall.
The Gang Initiation Myth series and a band flyer for my band The Warble:
www.myspace.com/thewarbles

These are some good examples of my crosshatch affinities.

Sincerely,
Alex Harrison

This is a REPOST with a better picture

In intermediate Illustration we were assigned to create our own Cellestial Seasonings Tea Box design. Since my bicycle is electric green, I chose Rejuvenating Green Tea. recently I added reds to the mix, so it has become something different.
i painted it with acrylics and paint markers. it is 9" x 15"
The elephants are supposed to be serving you the tea (or coffee) -- thats where it gets weird to me,
they seem so happy to be in the service industry..

thanks for looking

Sincerely,
Alex Harrison

Urban Myth Illustration:

During the next two to three weeks, there will be gang initiations occurring in which the initiation is to kill a mother and small child shopping in Wal-Mart. I'm not sure how far the initiation reaches but this is supposed to be happening in the Desoto and Memphis areas for sure. Please tell everyone you know not to go shopping in Wal-Mart alone, especially if you're a woman accompanied by a small child.

I really hope this turns out to be a rumor. But just in case it isn't......

You can never be too cautious.

THE MAN WHO MARRIED A TREE

I keep adding layers of collage to the pile up in the upper center area.
The little cartoon heads are all staring at the wooden thing nailed ontop of all that other stuff.
I pruned this piece like a bush towards the end- trimming out humped cloud like shapes.
I was thinking about a story from McSweeny's # 20 called "The Man Who Married A Tree" by:Tony D'Souza

Sincerely,
Alex Harrison

i love the dry yeast packages in my cabinet -
"highly active" always makes me smile ...
in this image there is a giant ear schwab coming out the window - rubbing a toxic scab.
(related to dystopian novels)
before I added the random garrish chemidots on the scabbish circle, there was a "support our troops" yellow ribbon magnet that had been runned over a hundred times.
it fell off... SO here it is.

This is an illustration for being indoors alot but still being highly active////
related to staying on the computer alot. bed sores. couch sores. ol' starch gut - -

Sincerely...

Alex Harrison

I shall post a better picture of this soon

and another

here is a sketch of my afore mentioned Frayser near-death experience =

This is a sketchbook study of Ben Shahn's "Trouble" (1947)

Crime Rates

Can crime be beautiful? Yes, if it is stylishly rendered in fiery reds and anxious yellows. (and as long as i'm not the victim)

the Dali Lama realized the beauty of destruction. Artist Losang Samten(former personal assistant to the Dali Lama) dismantled his sand mandala and poured the remains in Colby's Johnson Pond, an action in keeping with the principle of impermanence.


What about those Memphis Crime stats? Well, back in the middle of July memphis hit 100 homicides for the year! C'mon ya'll let's go for a walk in Frayser at night!

"It used to be that I couldn't even walk out of my door," says Mary Bratton, referring to the environment of her Frayser neighborhood. She has been broken into twice. As a young woman she was raped twice, once with a gun to her head. She says for years she was never the same, "I was afraid. ... He messed up my mind."
Remembering my near-death experience in Frayser = I was at my first job in Memphis over at the mega-office store - my hour lunch break came and I jumped in the car to "ride around" - Ignorantly, I drove north into a group of 15+ hardcore gangstaz with shiny guns and color coordinating outfits. Several of the young men were beating a man to death in the street. I drove up in my bone white 93 honda civic, squinting my stigmatic bad eyes, then sweatily dropping my jaw, as my life flashed before my eyes. "Liks like wee gat urs a hotboy hur" - a gun resting on my left temple as they threw the one guy up against the front left tire of the car. I stepped all the way on the gas and pulled the wheel to the right.
i decided it didnt matter to hit someone. I escaped unscathed, crying all the way back to work. I couldn't even eat my apple.

The extra laws that oppressed my childhood Mississippi.

I am attracted to Peter Brueghel the Elder's prints and I am passionate about groceries.
This is ink on Stonehenge paper 14" x 18"

This is a piece I did over the summer for Youth Villages, a Memphis based non profit organization that helps underpriveledged children. Youth Villages paired up with HOB (www.helponboard.com) and commisioned a Monopoly style gameboard to represent Memphis.
This is the artwork for the center of the board.