Thunder Road, 9″ x 12″, acrylic, July 2016
My new art book Oaxaca Painting Service arrived today! It’s a 40-page perfect bound color book of my paintings of my adopted city of Oaxaca, Mexico. I bop around and paint street food, cactus, beat-up cars and as you can see above, a mezcal still.
You can buy the book at Lulu.com for $18.00 — a nice way to visit Oaxaca on the cheap!
Steve
My Kickstarter campaign to fund a modest book of my paintings from Oaxaca is a success! A huge thanks to all my backers!
This piece I painted from a photo of my daughter Geni walking the ruins at Yagul, Oaxaca.
I’ll put up more info soon about my book of paintings. I’ll have it ready to go by the end of July. Gotta get some sleep now!
Best,
Steve
Cactus with Telecaster
My Kickstarter project to fund a book of my paintings from Oaxaca, Mexico has 6 days to go. Really hoping to make the goal of $1250.
You can sign up for the book or other art rewards here.
Thanks!!!
Steve
I’m really pumped to announce a book of my Oaxaca paintings, and a Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing. But first, let’s look at the most recent paintings! The first is the river/stream running through San Andreas Huayapam, and the second is a Tejate seller at the Pochote organic market.
(Tejate painting is Sold)
Here’s the details:
Veteran underground cartoonist Steve Lafler is set to release his new book Oaxaca Painting Service in August. Lafler collects acrylic paintings depicting life in his adopted town of Oaxaca, Mexico.
The paintings document the small moments of life in Oaxaca, from open air markets to the thriving street food scene, and the nascent cult of mezcal, the distilled agave spirt that is gaining a toe-hold in the U.S. Market.
“I love the buzz and hum of daily life in Oaxaca. This mountain town is the cultural jewel of southern Mexico, and I’m on fire to capture it’s flavor in paint”, quips the artist.
Lafler is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of the book.
The Kickstarter URL:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stevelafler/steve-laflers-oaxaca-painting-book
Oaxaca Painting Service is a 40-page perfect bound limited edition book produced in full color.
For further information, contact Steve at steve.lafler@gmail.com or 503-213-3671
I’ve been having a fine time painting this late spring, here’s two more paintings of subjects in Oaxaca, Mexico where I live.
This is a night time food vendor making Tlayudas, giant crispy fresh tortillas with beans, cheese, salsa and other delicious toppings, served hot and fresh! A meal worth traveling thousands of miles for, and dirt cheap to boot.
This is a Tobala agave, a wild variety that grows at altitude under shade of mountain forest, prized for the amazing mezcal that can be distilled from it.
I painted my favorite memela puesto in Parque Llano in Oaxaca. The masa is super fresh and delicious! A memela could be described as an open face taco made with fresh masa, but that barely does is justice. It’s all about super fresh, delicious ingredients thrown together of a moment and garnished with your choice of salsa.
I take my kids to Parque Llano, Oaxaca’s splendid city park, on Sunday mornings. My wife Serena dances zumba while the kids and I play, drink fresh juice, and eat memelas. The family that runs this booth is quite amiable. The chef, she always wears shades! Her husband and I talk about running, he doesn’t run anymore but in the past was a fine distance runner.
A commissioned pet painting! This is Abril, my runner friend Richard’s retriever. She passed last year. Abril went on many a mountain run in Oaxaca with Richard and I. She was a strong pup, part long distance mountain goat, before health problems caught up with her.
Hey, I can paint your pet too! Drop me an email. XOXO, Steve
Here’s a 12″ x 16″ acrylic sketch of the nopal (cactus) in my courtyard, executed on unstretched canvas. I’m working myself back into painting just now. Nothing challenges my painter chops like working from life!
I’m calling it “Nopalito”. It’s yours for $200. This includes shipping/insurance via DHL (I’ve sent many a piece of art stateside this way, works like a charm.)
Cheers
click my name to send an email
Just completed a BugHouse painting for an old friend. He wanted to buy an existing painting of the “Dennis” character, but it was sold. So I sat down and worked up this canvas. It was a heck of a lotta fun!
Indeed, I’ve been doing a bit of painting in both cartoon mode, and also some painting from life here in Oaxaca, Mexico.
If you’re interested in purchasing an acrylic painting, please send me an email at this link.
Here’s some of the on site acrylic works I’ve done lately. These two have sold but there are more in the works.
Good question! Turns out my next comic book is right here on my drawing board. I’m inking page 14 today. Here’s a section of page 13, just completed:
The truth is, I’m working at a slow pace on this issue of my eventual next graphic novel. Why? There’s the basic economics of comics. I don’t make a living doing this, more like a bit of pocket money. Well, here and there I get a blast of real income from comix, so I settle in for some extended ink-slinging. In truth, I devote a lot of time to non-comix work to pay the bills.
Anyhow, I’ve been publishing since 1981. What’s the rush? I don’t have anything to prove. I came to this mudball to make comics, we can all agree on that. I’ve got a lot of bullets on my belt yet, so don’t go anywhere!
But I like doing other stuff too. I’ve been a runner since 9th grade. It’s a time consuming passion, and I don’t have any intention of letting up on it. Certainly I’m a better cartoonist than a runner; but what matters is that I enjoy running and competing immensely! Good for the heart, good for the head. I remember at 15 years old, a light bulb went off over my dome. “I am a runner, and a cartoonist. Yes, that is who I am”. Very happy with it all.
Finishing a 10K race, December 2015
Why stop there? I was an aspiring musician and singer as a kid from about 9 to 13. I really liked it, played trumpet, sang in the chorus, etc. But, I more or less consciously put it aside in favor of art as high school beckoned. You gotta decide, thought I. I’d been asked to sing in a rock band, but declined as I threw myself into furiously pumping out comics pages in my parents basement.
These days, I find that’s changed. Since moving to Oaxaca some 8 years back, I’ve been re-bitten and deeply smitten with music making. I’m the rhythm guitarist/singer/songwriter for a shit-kicking little outfit called Radio Insecto, a sort of country punky bluesy producer of raucous cacophony!
With Radio Insecto at Casa Colonial, Oaxaca, January 2016
So I soldier on with Death in Oaxaca, and it will appear in due course. As Iggy Pop once said, “Girls have beautiful shapes. I wanna live to be 98”. Well Iggy, I’ll see that and raise you a few years, so I can keep running, slinging ink (and guitar too for that matter!)
Buy Death in Oaxaca comic books from Alternative Comics
Steve Lafler Comics & Illustration 