GREEN DAY’S UPCOMING U.S. TOUR TO FEATURE A ROVING GALLERY SHOW OF INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS AT EACH VENUE

ARTISTS SUCH AS RON ENGLISH, THE LONDON POLICE, AND C215 CREATED WORK INSPIRED BY EACH TRACK ON BAND’S LATEST ALBUM 21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN

DATELINE – Burbank, CA – Green Day have a special treat in store for fans attending their U.S. tour this summer. A roving art gallery will be set up at each venue to display work by a collection of eclectic artists from around the world, each of whom has been asked to create an original piece inspired by a track on Green Day’s new album 21st Century Breakdown.

The show is curated by New York-based stencil artist and die-hard punk-rock fan Logan Hicks, whose portraits of band members Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt will also be on display. A passionate art and music lover, Hicks has assembled an impressive group of noted artists – including world-renowned New York-based painter Ron English, Amsterdam-based street artists The London Police, French stencil artist C215, and British illustrator Will Barras – to show the connection between music and art.

“I chose artists whom I felt had a similar visual approach to art as Green Day does to its music,” Hicks says. “Although most of the artists represented are well-established in their careers, they embrace the same emotional rawness with their art, which speaks from the heart and swings with the fist. Their subject matter is struggle and injustice-they shoot from the hip and their art is their weapon.”

“We are really excited to be touring with this incredible show,” says Armstrong. “Seeing the pieces that our new album has inspired is very exciting. Many of the artists Logan has chosen  show their work on the street, and we feel a strong connection to that type of creative expression. We think the fans coming out to see us on the road will love it.”

Green Day’s 2009 trek is the band’s first proper tour of the United States and Canada in more than three years. The tour begins July 3rd at Seattle’s Key Arena and will cross North America through the summer, including a July 27th stop at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, before finishing up with a show at the Forum in Los Angeles on August 25th.

Not sure if you’ve seen the artwork for the new album but it’s all stencil stylee and was based on artwork created by Sixten. The album consists of 18 tracks and from what I can gather a number of artists were contacted to take a track each and create a piece of artwork based around the lyrics of that track.

I don’t want to give away too much at the minute as to what will happen with the artwork but I was given the track ‘Last of the American Girls’. I haven’t even heard the track yet but the lyrics can be found here and below is a selection of rough digital sketches that led up to the final painted piece. I usually start all my work on the computer using Photoshop and a wacom tablet as it helps me quickly sketch things out and change colour and composition with minimal fuss.

Hmm, not sure if the BIG paranoid works in the background.

Quite liked this one, nice comic cover feel to it, but would it work on canvas?

Getting a little closer. This composition feels tighter.

Let's throw more colours in the mix. Too obvious though?

A Little less in your face, but the blue could still be a touch too obvious.

Bingo. I know it's a bit odd adding drips a digital file but it gives me a better idea of how the painted piece could look.

The last image is a photo of the final painted piece. I’m pretty happy with it. It’s graphic enough to tick the boxes for album artwork and looks good as a standalone piece of art on canvas. It feels pretty ‘Green Day’ to me and relates nicely to the track lyrics and the general ‘America is screwed’ themes that can be expected from a Green Day album. I’ve no idea how much the piece will be used, if at all! But it was awesome to be asked and an interesting theme to work with. If anything goes further with the piece I’ll let you know.

Incredible as always. Heaven is taken from Unkle’s latest album End Titles…Stories for Film. If you haven’t got it, get it.