Seattle based artist Casey Weldon, first featured in HF Vol. 32, paints colorful and glowing works with nostalgic pop references and a touch of humor. In recent years, his paintings have become increasingly mystical, taking otherwise everyday places and animals and giving them a luminous, candy-colored twist. For his current exhibition at Roq la Rue gallery in Seattle, “Hastemaker”, Weldon builds upon his vibrantly colored, dreamlike world. It goes far beyond his “cute-gross” style, as he describes it. In his previous exhibition, “Tropefiend”, covered here, Weldon shared a newfound fascination with the supernatural. Here, light especially takes on a character role of its own, whether beaming from the eyes of alien-like figures, vibrating waves of water, or a cowboy’s glowing lasso. Although utterly bizarre, there is strange familiarity in some of the pieces. In fact, Weldon describes his exhibition as one of “mystical chronicles”, in other words, a surrealistic account of important or historical events. His painting, “Sugar Trade”, portraying two men in a rowboat stowed with candy, slightly recalls the marine subjects of Winslow Homer. The rowers look on in fear as a young woman emerges from the sea like a mythological Kraken. In another image popular throughout American-west oriented art, a cowboy struggles to hold onto his rearing steed, a cute tabby kitten. Take a look at these and more works from “Hastemaker” below, now on view at Roq la Rue gallery in Seattle through October 31st.
On March 5, Seattle's Roq La Rue Gallery will present two solo shows from artists with distinct aesthetic sensibilities. 
Whereas his past work brought viewers in close, like a whisper, 
New York based illustrator 