Bubba VonMax

Artist/Painter/Photographer/Founder, Arizona Guerilla Stuckists Well, here we are. I appreciate you taking the time to discover my page. Just like VonDutch used!

Hell, I am even more appreciative of the fact that you might even be taking the time to read this. I am Bubba VonMax, and I guess that this would be the requisite "bio" page. So, let's get this over with. I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. As a kid I was really into the custom car, hot rod culture. I started doing pinstriping for my dad on vintage cars that he would restore. He would let m

e practice on old rims and fenders that he had out on the salvage lot. After seeing Kenny Howard, (aka) Von Dutch (hmmmm, could be a connection there), and his style of pinstriping and the type of sabre-styled brush he used, I fashioned my own from a popsicle stick, the bristles from an old brush dad had in the garage, and electrical tape. My first paints were the Testor's enamel used on models. Once the old man saw that I was getting decent at it, he bought my first sword style pinstriping brush. Growing up in the 60's, I couldn't wait for each new monthly issues of Mad, CARtoons, and Hot Rod magazines. I loved the art in all of them. It didn't take long for me to become of fan of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, and Von Dutch, of course. from there I fell in love with the lowbrow stuff that Mr. Robert Williams (the Godfather of Lowbrow), Jim Flora, and the groovy pen and ink work of R. Crumb. I couldn't even buy Crumb's work that was prominent in the underground comix movement in the 1960s. Hey, I was twelve when the 60's ended so I'll admit that I really didn’t know exactly what it was they were doing back then, but I knew that Crumb and Williams drew and painted naked women and the style in which they did it was cool. Really, really cool. Suffice it to say that a lot of my earlier stuff was done in my own similarly surrealistic vision. I took a hiatus from painting while I served in the United States Navy. Two things that I regret about that period is one, I didn't paint, and two, I didn't stay in and retire. However, I did get to travel and travel I did. Every country that I would visit I made it a point to go to at least one of the art museums. It was seeing the abstract works that intrigued me. I didn't really get into it because I didn't understand what all of the fuss was about. I just didn't get it. HAH! That was until the late 1980's when by chance, I visited the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. It wasn't an actual religious or congregational type of chapel. It was just a place open to those who wanted to go in and meditate, relax, or just look at Mark Rothko's paintings. Surrounded by his works in such a setting, I could see that there was so much more to art than I had ever realized as the depth of his work drew me in. I've never looked back. I am not Rothko, Pollock, Kandinsky, nor any of the other great abstract expressionist artists. But I have learned the value of color and perspective. I have learned how color can affect one's mood. How colors can make an individual feel peace, joy, sadness, anger, and love. Mark Rothko once said that, "A painting is not a picture of an experience, it is an experience.”
I hope that you've enjoyed your experience here. Thank you for stopping by.

Bubba

Occasionally he still incorporates pin striping and tattoo flash art in his work but these days most of what he does is on canvas….and other materials. A true recycler (or maybe just truly cheap), VonMax is always making the rounds at the local Goodwill and other thrift stores as well as salvage yards and demolition sites to find old cabinets, wood panels, sheet metal or anything else that he might be able to paint on. VonMax currently resides in Winfield, Kansas with his wife, Wendy, three dogs, two cats and a Sulcata tortoise named "Aphrodite." His work is on display at the Gallery 1001, 1001 Main Street, Winfield, KS 67156.

01/24/2025

On the subject of found art, here is one (also on a cabinet door), that I created from a couple of bags of plastic gears that I found on a property where we had recently evicted the resident. A lot of junk to go through, yet for whatever reason, I was drawn to these plastic gears.
Being from Arizona, Dia De Los Mu***os is a well known celebration and sugar skulls of some type can be found in a variety of stores.
After laying everything out, I gave them a couple of good coats of primer black spray enamel. After that, they sat in my studio for months before the idea finally hit me. Using metallic acrylics dry-brushed over the enamel, I started arranging them in a variety of patters before I settled on the sugar skull. After adhering them to the door, I broke out a striping and a detail brush and went to work. This piece now is in possession of my step-daughter and her husband.

01/23/2025

"Crucifried"
Can and do we sometimes cross the lines with art? Absolutely! I know that I have on numerous occasions, some intentionally, others by accident, created something that was viewed with criticism. To be honest, I never thought any of it to be as bad as Andre Serrano's "P**s Christ." Remember him? He immersed a crucifix in a bottle of urine and photographed it.
To put it simply, I enjoy creating art. I have discovered that using found objects; things that I have found from Goodwill, leftovers from home renovations, and crap that I just happen to stumble upon to be a most enjoyable process. Such is the case with "Crucifried." It is a true parody of the public crucifixion of fast foods and other restaurants. It was little more than a fun respite created on a cabinet door.
The fact is that under Pontius Pilate, there were a number of criminals (and Jews) crucified. In the 1st century it has been estimated that the Romans crucified anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 Jews.
As far as the Burger King is concerned, he just doesn't fit the description of Jesus from the Bible.

01/22/2025

"Der Groteske Serie Ein"
There are times when a doodle just gets away from me. Such happened with my series of grotesques. A friend of mine once commented on this piece writing that it was what she would imagine if, "MAD magazine merged with old wood block prints." I rather liked that comparison.

01/21/2025

"Vote for Me!"
Jim Flora was an illustrator known for his hip and cool designs on jazz record covers through the 40s, 50s, and 60s. As a kid, I would listen to Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, and most of the old Big Bands and jazz ensembles. I loved the designs Flora created on the jackets. Years later, in my own Flora-esque style, I started doing my own illustrations like the one you see here.
Now, I'm not looking to engage in political debate or discussion on this, but I believe that both main parties have played crucial roles in creating the circus known as the Presidential elections. Hence, I have done this parody of what I believe to be the quintessential politician; Big ears that don't hear, big eyes that don't see, and controlled by one of the two main parties.
I thought that the Hamburger Helper gloves added a nice touch.
With apologies to Mr. James Flora

01/19/2025

I really want to than you for the response to post from a couple of days ago. Art is about art. Yes, I do get excited when someone buys one of my pieces, but that is not why I paint, draw, doodle, or whatever the hell it is that I do, do.
Today is one of my illustrations where I have combined characters and objects with doodles. I called this one, "Col. Capelli and the Bunnies in the Garden of Literary Greatness." The good Colonel, upper center, was initially going to be a caricature of my Dad. But somewhere in the process I made him bald and gave him a huge moustache. He is in a number of my drawings. The bunnies are just there for comic relief. On the petals of the flowers is either a title, the first or the last line of some of what I believe have been the greatest novels ever written.
It is crowded with a lot of stuff to take in, but that is what I do.

01/17/2025

"Grief"
I painted this a few days after my mother had passed. She had suffered from Alzheimer's, A bit of a misstatement to say that she had suffered, as she seemed to be happily living in her own world. The real suffering for her was the diagnosis and the fear she felt. The suffering for us was watching this once vibrant force of nature telling us about the imaginary garden she had planted. Or watching my nephew as a young boy who was now a groan man, playing baseball outside of her window. The suffering of her looking at me with a blank stare, clueless as to who I was. Yet, for a couple of years we would visit Mom every week. I'd take her out to the patio at the home she was in. Smoke a few ci******es and listened to her stories. She might not have fully known who I was anymore, but I knew and loved her which was really all that mattered. I was right there by her side on the day she passed, she seemed at peace. Although saying goodbye was hard, it brought me comfort knowing that she would soon be joining Dad. I didn't really cry until I started this painting. In letting my emotions out it helped me to heal. A few years later, after moving to Winfield, a young woman saw this painting and wanted to buy it. I had to ask her why. She went on to tell me about her mother who had succumbed recently after a battle with cancer. She told me that she found some comfort as the painting expressed her feelings as it had did mine. I gave her the painting and told her that I could only pray that having it would help her get through her loss as it had helped me through mine.
As an artist, I am happy that this simple image helped a couple of people find comfort in their times of grief.

01/13/2025

Pope Bubbaronicus Vonicus Maximus I

Believe it or not, this was actually purchased by a multi-millionaire back in Arizona. I love iconography from the Byzantine era. It's the style that has always fascinated me. This oil on wood panel was my attempt to somewhat replicate those images. Needless to say, I chose myself as model so technically this would be a self-portrait.
Perhaps the buyer has a collection of iconographic paintings and wanted to add this for comic relief? I don't know. Nor do I care, he paid cash.

01/11/2025

I've mentioned before that it was actually trying to learn how to pin-stripe that got me started in painting. I was a big fan of Kenny Howard (aka VonDutch) and the whole West Coast hotrod culture. My Dad would let me do some pinstriping on cars that he would restore and I ended up making a few bucks here and there. What it did actually do for me was start a habit of doodling. I was constantly doodling designs an any piece of paper that I could find. I was doing the same thing on scraps of metal, glass and any other surface that I could find. As art gradually became a hobby as well as a form of relaxation and stress relief, I did work in other styles but always found myself going back to the doodles. Whether in pen and ink, oil or acrylics on canvas.
The attached image, "Faces" was an idea to see how many faces I could hide in plain sight. This painting also won first place at my very first Art in the Park in Winfield. By the way, there are a number of pen and ink doodles from my series, "Midnight at the Doodle-Rama along with other paintings from myself and the other artists at Gallery 1001.

01/10/2025

First "Midnight at the Doodle-Rama" for 2025 - "The Loneliest - With Apologies to Harry." 5X7" pen and ink on paper.

Address

Winfield, KS

Website

https://vonmaxart.com/

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