About Billy Blob

By Billy Blob

Yabba-Dabba-Doodle!

My earliest memory of any kind of appreciation of art or style were the thick black lines in the Flintstones cartoons. I didn't know why (still not sure) but I loved those fat black lines. As a kid I started tracing Fred off of Coco Pebble boxes. I learned a formula where I could draw him free hand in seconds. I can still do it all these years later.  But it was just a trick really, not real talent, right?

Mrs. Smith, please please please, let me get what I want this time.

In 7th grade, I had an art teacher Mrs. Smith. She was very short and had some sort of spine issue, kind of bent over all the time. I don’t remember anyone asking what it was. Anyway, she was the greatest. She showed me my first Picasso and tried to teach me about modern art. At the time I was not all that interested, I wanted to make art that showed people how talented I was. 

Mrs. Smith thought I was talented and offered me a spot in the class art show and told me I could try and sell whatever I entered. So I created this drawing with a deer standing next to a creek with mountains in the background. Things I was sure people would like. I priced it at $25.00 and started looking for the new BMX bike frame I was going to buy when it sold..   

Are We Not Artist?

Fast forward a few years to this one day in gym class, when this guy who I didn't really know, Ron Ranallo (sporting a blond polka dotted hairdo* ) says to me, "Are we not Men?" I only knew how to answer this question because I’d been listening to this strange new radio station in California called KROQ.

The answer “We are DEVO” was the password to a club full of New Wave, Punk, Ska, Rockabilly freaks. Looking back I’d say these freaks were the first artists I’d ever met. They smoked clove cigarettes, watched Larry Bud Melman on Letterman, shopped thrift stores for cool clothes for cheap and the coolest ones started bands. Not only did I love these new friends and their music, but the whole “aesthetic”(a word I didn't know at the time) would be the template for what I think is cool to this day. 

*Created by dipping a tennis ball in bleach (not recommended).

Getting Schooled

I took two classes to start, creative writing and art. 

Believe it or not, I got a B+ in creative writing  although I had to pay a typist to correct and type up my stories. She would later tell me she felt like we had cheated because of how bad my spelling was.

I had joined the art class to maybe get a job in graphic design or something, but instead the crazy art professor, Rob Kinneer took me and the class through a portal into the world of fine art. 

California Dreaming

After Rob filled my head with new possibilities, Venus (my girlfriend and later wife) and I moved back to southern California to pursue the art life. Kitchens and garages at the apartments we rented became studios where I could paint after work. Venus put up with all this because… I still don’t really know, she’s just wonderful. Anyway this went on for years, and my work was getting more confident, but I was still a big wuss and couldn't bring myself to show my paintings to anyone in person.

Hello World :)

Around 1994 we bought our first computer, an Apple “Macintosh” Quadra 610.  

Of the many artroverts I left around LA, only one person ever contacted me . His name was Eliot, and not only did he pay for the art (around $20.00) he also sent me a photo of the piece hanging in his home. I was beyond stoked! This gave me the confidence to keep on making art. Thank you Eliot!

One day I put the new R.E.M CD, Monster into the Mac and stumbled onto some strange interactive content that blew my mind (play it here). It was created using a program called Flash and I had to have it. It wasn't cheap, but we saved up and soon I was making my own strange content, cartoons, shareware programs and even a Flash based website called billyblob.com. 

One of the first cartoons I created with the program Flash, was called ‘Color Blind Hummingbird’ and it ended up getting showcased on the Wired website. This was a huge deal at the time, and brought tons of traffic to my site. The cartoon hasn't been viewable on billyblob.com for a long time, but I recently found it and have uploaded this cartoon about a Hummingbird who ignores his Dad's advice, for you here now. 

Note: This is from back in the day when everyone was on dial up, and the files needed to be very small hence the music repeating.

My new found Flash skills landed me a cool webmaster Job in Kansas City, so Venus and I moved to Chiefs Kingdom. We ended up loving it here, the people are super nice and traffic hour is really only an hour (no more CIG alerts).

And then in 2002 a cartoon of mine, Karma Ghost, was accepted into the Sundance Film festival, and it ended up winning the audience award for best online cartoon. At the festival I even did a Q and A in front of a packed theater after the showing (almost pooped my pants). 

Things were going great. Venus and I bought a home and I started doing some freelance work (Flash web sites, animation and graphic design). After a while the Freelance stuff took off and I started working from home full time.

What about the Paintings?

Oh yeah, I had started posting them on Billy Blob and they were selling as fast as I put them up.

I started getting offers to participate in group art shows. My first one was in New York City if you can believe it!

I didn't sell anything, but Venus accepted my marriage proposal on a rainy street there in NY, and made it the best art show anyone could ever have.

And I later had my first and only solo show in Fort Lauderdale FLA (Thanks Booksiiii).

Poison Apple

So then, Steve Jobs goes and invents this thing called an iPhone. These amazing little devices were not compatible with the Flash websites I was making for clients and soon a large portion of my freelance work had died off, along with billyblob 1.0. 

Thankfully I had a few clients that still needed me for stories and animation. If it wasn’t for them I might not be typing this at home in my PJs and I know I would not have had the freaky thoughts that came next.

Freaky Thoughts That Came Up Next

I started thinking maybe I could write something for myself, but something I didn't have to animate, you know, like a script.  Which was nuts really, because, like I mentioned, I can’t spell ‘Author’ without Alexa or Spellcheck. But Anyway next thing I knew I was directing a one act play I'd written for the KC Fringe Festival called Freak Up the Street.

The play got good reviews and we even got a shoutout for making the best props of the festival. But really I had no idea what I was doing, and if it weren't for Andy Garrison, the lead actor in Freak, it would have never happened. Andy brought together an amazing cast for the other roles along with a wonderful stage manager. Their talents, ideas and dialogue changes made the play way better than the thing I wrote.

Return of the Blob

After years of neglect, I am getting back to posting more on the site. Keep an eye out for new paintings and more.  

And hey, I'm even working on a new cartoon for the first time in a while. Below is a snippet of an early scene. Let me know if you would like to see more of these works in progress videos, and I’ll keep posting them.

Another addition to the site it this ‘About’ page you are reading now.. I’ve never had one before. I think I was trying to be mysterious or something. Which was stupid, because I always go right to the About page on other artist websites.  I may have over done it a bit, but once I get started talking about myself... 

And last but not least, there’s a new links page on the site just like I had back in the old days on billyblob 1.0. It may tell you as much about me as what you just read.

Thanks for your interest.

Love always,

Billy Blob