"Painters are constantly underrated as creative people. Paint is nothing more than colored goo that is forced thru a brush or machine or sprayed or manipulated in some way onto a surface creating something that represents a story, mood, feeling or thing. There is something to be said for that process alone."
PAINTINGS & GALLERY SHOWS
(updated 3-2-11)
The work is laid out in OLDEST to NEWEST - TOP to BOTTOM.
Scroll to the bottom for Apollo's newest work.
1989
After high school, Apollo attended Pasadena City College and Art Center College of Design from fall 1989 to spring 1993. It was the time during these years that Apollo began to experiment with various forms of art/paintings and ideas of publicity and 'environmental' art.
"In the last year of my High School, I was given a Polaroid camera for Christmas by my parents and I used to carry it constantly in my bag, documenting anything interesting. I never planned on using the fotos from it for anything other than taking pictures of objects and things that might be of use in my art and painting projects. I would shoot anything that inspired me to create a piece and write down the time and date of the foto. Soon, I was documenting everything, shooting hundreds of Polaroids a week. I used most of my weekly food money on Polaroid film and was forced to go across the street from the campus to this chinese fast food place and buy a small steamed rice for lunch, almost everyday. It cost fifty cents back then. The soy sauce was free, but they would charge you a quarter if you wanted a side of sweet & sour sauce."
-Apollo Staar, 2004
The following Polaroid picture is a past-up piece that Apollo put up in the locker area of the Ceramic and Sculpture Dept. at PCC back in the fall of 1989. They were photographs of pop artist Andy Warhol, that had a quote about his belief in 'surface' being everything, so Apollo took that to heart and pasted these repetitious poster patterns on every available 'surface' in the school.
1989 - STENCILS
While attending Pasadena City College, Apollo began to create 'Instant Paintings', by using stencils and spray paint on canvas and concrete.
"Since I couldn't draw freehand very well, the first stencils I did were simply pages from European fashion magazines that I stole from the Sierra Madre library when I was in High School. I would just cut out all the shadows with an X-Acto knife and so the paint would would create the shadows and the negative space would be the subject. We called these stencils 'one-timers', since after the first spray, they were too flimsy from the paint to re-spray a second time. But we had hundreds of them. A French Vogue had something like 300 pages, and then all the Fall fashions issues that come out in September had almost 1000 pages!! Since we were penniless, We must've raided every local library in the district on the first of September!"
"After a while we wanted sturdier stencils so we could layer them, slightly off center, over each other in different colors, creating a slightly blurred looking image. I remember going to the bargain store, Pic&Save, and once finding tons of packages of cheap cardboard 3-D glasses used to put in kids birthday party goodie bags. I bought them all and then figured out a way to spray the stencils red and blue, slightly off, creating a 3 dimensional effect when wearing the glasses. I Figured out that the further apart the images were, the closer the images appeared and the closer the images were to each other, the further back they appeared with the glasses on. One night we walked to the College(PCC) and did several stencil paintings on the walls of the Art dept. (R Bldg.) in the middle of the night, hoping to create an underground art movement mystery to the other art students. To our dismay, by morning, and our first class, all of the 3D stencils had been painted over."
"In time we each created personal Logos, in stencil, so that we could easily post these up everywhere quickly. Since I frequented coffee houses rather than clubs, I was known as 'Boy Espresso' and adopted the logo of a steaming espresso cup as my signature. Back in the early 90s, this logo could be seen everywhere on the streets, alleys and walls of Old Town Pasadena. I mean, we literally put them up everywhere. There was even one in the public bathroom stall in the lobby of the Pasadena Police Office on Walnut St. that I did on the wall behind the toilet tank. You could only see it if you were looking. It was my secret little revenge knowing I had desecrated some property belonging to the Law."
1990
Apollo creates a lawn sculpture as an homage to pop artist Keith Haring, who dies of Aids in February, 1990. Made out of 1/2 inch plywood, covered in latex housepaint, and then coated with varnish. Approx. 7' tall. Sculpture was displayed for 3 months until stolen. Whereabouts presently unknown.
1991- Pasadena, CA.
(pics coming soon)
1992 - Los Angeles
Apollo had his first one man show at TROY Cafe in Downtown Los Angeles in 1992. The following are images from that night.
1990 to 1994
OCTOBER 2008
Paintings for the Installation at The Thought Gallery. (more info on the show in the 'CURRENT PROJECTS' section.)
"Drunk Werewolf Vs. The Teen Sluts"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"Nosferatu of 42nd St."
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN--PAINTING STOLEN FROM GALLERY.
last seen hanging at the THOUGHT Gallery next to the Burgundy Room on Cahuenga Blvd.
"The Mummy in Acidland"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"Dracula in the land of Whores"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"IT CAME FROM CAHUENGA"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
SOLD to the collection of Vanessa Moselle and Anthony Belanger.
"Frankenstein on Planet SEX"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"Phantom of the Blvd."
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"Night of the Morlocks"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
December 2008
'Saint Sid'
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
16" x 24"
$650.00
'Lady Lydia'
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$250.00
January 2009
"4 Rooms" (Quad painting)
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on (4) 6"x6" mini cotton canvases.
(as a quad) 14" x 14"
$250.00
"Hotel California, 1974"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birtch wood.
12" x 18"
$150.00
SEPTEMBER 2009
In addition to the previous 4 mini-paintings, the following 8 pieces were featured in the
EROTIC ART SCHOOL Gallery show, Oct. 10, 2009, as a whole series of work.
“The Sailors Dilemma”
FEBRUARY 2011 "PRETTY VACANT"
One Man Show at 'The Coffee Table' restaurant in Silverlake, Los Angeles, for the month of February. Paintings inspired by the Punk music movement of the late 1970s. Apollo included some previous paintings, but most of them were new, just for the show.
(updated 3-2-11)
The work is laid out in OLDEST to NEWEST - TOP to BOTTOM.
Scroll to the bottom for Apollo's newest work.
1989
After high school, Apollo attended Pasadena City College and Art Center College of Design from fall 1989 to spring 1993. It was the time during these years that Apollo began to experiment with various forms of art/paintings and ideas of publicity and 'environmental' art.
"In the last year of my High School, I was given a Polaroid camera for Christmas by my parents and I used to carry it constantly in my bag, documenting anything interesting. I never planned on using the fotos from it for anything other than taking pictures of objects and things that might be of use in my art and painting projects. I would shoot anything that inspired me to create a piece and write down the time and date of the foto. Soon, I was documenting everything, shooting hundreds of Polaroids a week. I used most of my weekly food money on Polaroid film and was forced to go across the street from the campus to this chinese fast food place and buy a small steamed rice for lunch, almost everyday. It cost fifty cents back then. The soy sauce was free, but they would charge you a quarter if you wanted a side of sweet & sour sauce."
-Apollo Staar, 2004
The following Polaroid picture is a past-up piece that Apollo put up in the locker area of the Ceramic and Sculpture Dept. at PCC back in the fall of 1989. They were photographs of pop artist Andy Warhol, that had a quote about his belief in 'surface' being everything, so Apollo took that to heart and pasted these repetitious poster patterns on every available 'surface' in the school.
1989 - STENCILS
While attending Pasadena City College, Apollo began to create 'Instant Paintings', by using stencils and spray paint on canvas and concrete.
"Since I couldn't draw freehand very well, the first stencils I did were simply pages from European fashion magazines that I stole from the Sierra Madre library when I was in High School. I would just cut out all the shadows with an X-Acto knife and so the paint would would create the shadows and the negative space would be the subject. We called these stencils 'one-timers', since after the first spray, they were too flimsy from the paint to re-spray a second time. But we had hundreds of them. A French Vogue had something like 300 pages, and then all the Fall fashions issues that come out in September had almost 1000 pages!! Since we were penniless, We must've raided every local library in the district on the first of September!"
"After a while we wanted sturdier stencils so we could layer them, slightly off center, over each other in different colors, creating a slightly blurred looking image. I remember going to the bargain store, Pic&Save, and once finding tons of packages of cheap cardboard 3-D glasses used to put in kids birthday party goodie bags. I bought them all and then figured out a way to spray the stencils red and blue, slightly off, creating a 3 dimensional effect when wearing the glasses. I Figured out that the further apart the images were, the closer the images appeared and the closer the images were to each other, the further back they appeared with the glasses on. One night we walked to the College(PCC) and did several stencil paintings on the walls of the Art dept. (R Bldg.) in the middle of the night, hoping to create an underground art movement mystery to the other art students. To our dismay, by morning, and our first class, all of the 3D stencils had been painted over."
"In time we each created personal Logos, in stencil, so that we could easily post these up everywhere quickly. Since I frequented coffee houses rather than clubs, I was known as 'Boy Espresso' and adopted the logo of a steaming espresso cup as my signature. Back in the early 90s, this logo could be seen everywhere on the streets, alleys and walls of Old Town Pasadena. I mean, we literally put them up everywhere. There was even one in the public bathroom stall in the lobby of the Pasadena Police Office on Walnut St. that I did on the wall behind the toilet tank. You could only see it if you were looking. It was my secret little revenge knowing I had desecrated some property belonging to the Law."
1990
Apollo creates a lawn sculpture as an homage to pop artist Keith Haring, who dies of Aids in February, 1990. Made out of 1/2 inch plywood, covered in latex housepaint, and then coated with varnish. Approx. 7' tall. Sculpture was displayed for 3 months until stolen. Whereabouts presently unknown.
1991- Pasadena, CA.
(pics coming soon)
1992 - Los Angeles
Apollo had his first one man show at TROY Cafe in Downtown Los Angeles in 1992. The following are images from that night.
1990 to 1994
OCTOBER 2008
Paintings for the Installation at The Thought Gallery. (more info on the show in the 'CURRENT PROJECTS' section.)
"Drunk Werewolf Vs. The Teen Sluts"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"Nosferatu of 42nd St."
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN--PAINTING STOLEN FROM GALLERY.
last seen hanging at the THOUGHT Gallery next to the Burgundy Room on Cahuenga Blvd.
"The Mummy in Acidland"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"Dracula in the land of Whores"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"IT CAME FROM CAHUENGA"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
SOLD to the collection of Vanessa Moselle and Anthony Belanger.
"Frankenstein on Planet SEX"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"Phantom of the Blvd."
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
"Night of the Morlocks"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$350.00
December 2008
'Saint Sid'
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
16" x 24"
$650.00
'Lady Lydia'
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birch wood.
18" x 11.5"
$250.00
January 2009
"4 Rooms" (Quad painting)
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on (4) 6"x6" mini cotton canvases.
(as a quad) 14" x 14"
$250.00
"Hotel California, 1974"
Acrylic, Acetate, Polymer Resin coating on Birtch wood.
12" x 18"
$150.00
“Massage Parlor Wife”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“Hot Twin Sister Fun”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“Teenage Porno Star”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“Lustful School Nurse”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
SEPTEMBER 2009
In addition to the previous 4 mini-paintings, the following 8 pieces were featured in the
EROTIC ART SCHOOL Gallery show, Oct. 10, 2009, as a whole series of work.
“Instructors Special Student”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“Come When I tell You”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“Deliveries in Rear”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“Doin’ It Doggy Style”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“The Nurse Plays Doctor”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“The Young Stewardess”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“Stepsisters Skillful Mouth”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
6" x 6"
$100.
“The Sailors Dilemma”
Acrylic, Acetate and Polymer Resin Coating on Canvas
Apollo Staar
$100.
FEBRUARY 2011 "PRETTY VACANT"
One Man Show at 'The Coffee Table' restaurant in Silverlake, Los Angeles, for the month of February. Paintings inspired by the Punk music movement of the late 1970s. Apollo included some previous paintings, but most of them were new, just for the show.
