Bachelor of Fine Arts Final Project

Sacrifice of Mrs. Lewis

Independence Now, Independence Forever

Fugitive Signer

Cannoneer Nelson

Bulletproof Washington

Black Paul Revere

This was a series of paintings I did so I could graduate from Brigham Young University with an Illustration degree. It was fun to do, I really admire these individuals, they are all from the Revolutionary Period, they all sacrificed to bring about the glorious liberties that we have enjoyed for so long that are now being lost and in the balance. The show was called Revolutionary Heroes, I wanted to tell what I believe is the real story of the Revolution, that has in it sacrifice and miracles. Sometimes we get revisionist history that is really critical of the founding fathers, trying to negate what they brought about.
The thing that was really amazing to me was the people who signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. I thought that was just a saying but many of them ended up in prison, their families and they were hunted down. One guy I painted John Hart, he stayed in the woods for about a month during the winter hiding from the Hessian troops. Comes back to find his wife had died in the meantime, he dies prematurely a few years later due to exposure.
The style I tried was puppet looking characters, big heads, hands, and feet. I think if you want to make a good painting or drawing, you have to nail the head and hands, the rest of it doesn't matter as much.

Ron Paul Wins

I did this digital illustration during the 2012 Election Season. As you can tell by now, Ron Paul is my hero. This was based off of the Republican debates where Ron Paul challenged Gingrich, Santorum, and Romney to a 20 mile bike race in Houston in the heat of the sun. So I had fun with this one. Santorum is rockin the sweater vest with a Jesus Fish tatoo. Mitt is a Mormon missionary on a bike, Gingrich is a pimp with hat, cane, goblet and all, referring to his loose morality, and Ron Paul is a principled colonial Constitutionalist. I hoped they would have done that race, more so I hoped that Ron Paul would have come off victorious in the Presidential Race.

Keynesian Chaos

Maybe you can tell by now, I am a bit political in my pictures, and in some of the things I say. I did this picture when thinking of all the free money the government was giving Wall Street in hopes of saving them.
In the back I have the Keynesians, John Maynard Keynes himself and Ben Bernanke.
They are trying to save our country by doing all the wrong things, regulation, pumping up certain well connected businesses, and running up trillions in debt.
In the front I have the Austrian School of Economics, with Ron Paul, Friedrich Hayek and the Ludwig von Mises. They are building a solid foundation on gold, or sound money. They believe in saving, not regulating businesses out of existence, not favoring certain companies over others, and letting the market work. Financially their ideas would save our country. But unfortunately our government agrees with Nixon who said, "We are all Keynesians now."

New York Breakin

This was the second of the series of music dance city pieces. I thought New York is a little more gangsta, so I did the old school boombox with break dancers. I was looking at Rudy Gutierrez, he does a lot of great music pieces in his art. I hope I captured a little movement. I used Herman Cain's head for the guy on the right to dance on. (It would look more like him if you could see his mustache and if he had glasses on) If that's disrespectful, that's ok.

Rudy Gutierrez

Chicago Steppin

This illustration is highlighting how cool Chicago is, at least their music and dancing. Their politics are terrible. Chicago Steppin is a style of dancing that I first learned about listening to R Kelly music, he is obsessed with that type of dancing. It looks fun, I would actually like to take lessons with my wife.
My grandma married my grandpa because he was a good dancer and a looker. I know I didn't get my wife due to dancing, I don't have two left feet but I'm not great.
The painting was fun, I was influenced by my brother Nate Pack's work, he does a lot of music pieces in his paintings with these crazy hands, I can't get as crazy with my work (although I wish I could sometimes), I'm more reserved with my style. Below is a picture of my brother's work.

Nate Pack

Sin, Circus, President

In this picture I have Abraham Lincoln pulling the rug or the flag from underneath Jefferson Davis as he is trying to juggle the Confederate States of America. In some ways I really side with Jefferson Davis, I don't like how our country Nationalized during the Presidency of Lincoln. The original intent of the Constitution is for states to have their Sovereignty. I don't agree with people having the freedom or right to own slaves. It goes against life, liberty, and property for everyone. the massive death toll of the Civil War makes me think there could have been a more civil way of handling the slave issue. I am not sure that was the reason for the civil war, I think it was because the North was losing revenue, the people who were being majorly taxed through tariffs were leaving the Union. Lincoln, was he a hero or a villain? I dont know.

Ben Gogh

This was a personal piece I created for my profiles online, my avatar. I can relate to Van Gogh as an artist, his work is amazing. He was a little unbalanced, if you remember this portrait which I painted my face on was the one he painted of himself after he had cut off his ear. (I added blood to the bandaging) Some think that you can only be a good artist if you are unbalanced or a little crazy. Probably true. My only critique of this picture I painted was from my mom, she doesn't like how I am smoking. But if I took out the pipe, it would make no sense, it would no longer represent Van Gogh.