"Alien Alphabet: A Collaboration"

Two of Bellingham's most beloved artists, Thomas Wood and Randy "FishBoy" Clark, come together on canvas, Feb. 16-March 23. Each bringing their own unique style and vision to these one of a kind creations. Public reception for the artists Saturday Feb 16, 6 - 8 p.m.; Join the artists for a a full day of live painting 11 a.m.-5 p.m. March 2. It's almost a circus sideshow to watch and listen to these "titans" of the Bellingham art scene.
The paintings in the show were all done together simultaneously… Show more - Wood worked in the Fishboy's realm, bringing his classical training to the union. This is a union of classical fine art and folk art.
A merging of a Western painter and a sign painter. They both have different approaches to image making and they draw differently but many of their images are similar- fish, figures and animals. The artists have the same cultural interests-popular culture especially music. Wood is known for his landscapes and this is not a landscape show. RR works in acrylic which was new for Wood. Tom says that working in acrylic they were able to generate lots of images quickly unlike oil paint. This entire body of work only took 3 months this could never have happened with oils. The work represents what Wood calls "spontaneous sketching" with now much thought going into refinement.
These two artists have distinctively different styles of working. Wood's work is planned out, careful, craft-oriented fine art whereas RR is loose, fast, fun and not serious- everything happens fast.
The method of painting saw one painter starting the piece and the other painting it out, it was a battle of visions.
Wood says "although each artist painted out things from the canvas they knew where the center was and they tried to stay there."
Some of the paintings are more Wood and some are more Clark.
There are 40 paintings and works on paper. Wood took Clark into his print studio and they collaborated on some delightful and zany etchings and monotypes. They would work back and forth on the etching plate. Wood's technical printing skills brought these whacky drawings to life because he knows prints and knows which images work well in the etching process.

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