So Long Easy Rider. Dennis Hopper Dies Of prostate cancer at 74.

Dennis Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010)

Actor, writer, director, photographer, painter, voice-over and patron of the arts, Dennis Hopper finally succumbed to prostate cancer this morning at the too young age of 74.


above: portrait of Dennis Hopper by Andy Warhol. This 1971 portrait of the famous actor Dennis Hopper was painted just a couple years after his appearance in the hit movie "Easy Rider" of 1969.

Best known for edgy film roles in such classics as Rebel Without A Cause, Easy Rider, Apocolypse Now, Blue Velvet, Hoosiers, The River's Edge and many more respected productions (check out his massive film credits at imdb). He was also a painter, a photographer, a voice-over and a friend to hundreds.

Below are a few photos from his illustrious career. I will be following up with a post on his art and photography, which will surprise you if you are not familiar with it.


Rebel Without a Cause (with then dear friend James Dean):

Robert Altman photo of Dennis:

1978, photo by Bruce Broom:

Apocalypse Now, 1979:

Easy Rider, 1969:

Self portrait:

Blue Velvet:

Water World:


Dennis in front of Julian Schnabel's painting of the actor:


No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos:

Rest In Peace. Dennis.

In tribute to his recent passing, Dennis Hopper, Behind The Camera And The Canvas, is a comprehensive retrospective (100 images!) of the actor's work as a photographer and fine artist.


Dennis Hopper, Behind The Camera And The Canvas.

Some Of The Sharpest Sharpie Art Out There

above Sharpie art by Cheeming Boey

No, I'm not going to share with you a bunch of cute canvas Keds or even cool Converse high tops decorated with Sharpie markers. No tote bags, backpacks or notebook covers. We've seen hundreds of those already. Nope, instead I'm going to point out some less obvious ways various talented people have used Sharpie markers and pens that are both innovative and impressive.

Sharpie for prototypes

Multi-talented Ruby Heubner (artist, graphic designer, photographer and web developer) who has created a line of clothing (Rudyland) is currently developing a line of great-looking surfboards. They ultimately won't be produced with Sharpie markers, but she began by sketching on surfboards with a Sharpie:




The surfboards that are currently in development will ultimately be digitally printed and laminated, prototypes are shown below.

visit Rudyland here.

Artist and illustrator Eric Ellis created an entire typeface / font using colored sharpie markers to render the design.


You can buy the final font here.

Sharpie as Couture.

Now, for you fashionistas who want to save a buck or $800, here are some brilliant examples of people who have created DIY versions of some very pricey designer items. Great idea!

The Chanel Sharpie Tee:


Chanel DIY Tee images courtesy of Luxenoir

Fashionista showed us how to save about $800 with their own DIY Jessica Cushman Word bangles:


Sharpie as Make-Up.

Model/Mogul Tyra Banks, in her appearance on Gossip Girl as actress Ursula Nyquist, had a Sharpie used to create her Josephine Baker character eyebrows and forehead art:


And Taylor Swift says she reaches for a Sharpie when she can't find her eyeliner:


Sharpie Ad Pitch

The following comps were created by talented artist and illustrator Chad Kouri for an ad agency (I can't divulge the name, sorry) when they pitched the Sharpie account. Unfortunately, they did not win it, but here's some of the fun Sharpie work created for the pitch by Chad:








Sharpie as Decoration

Artist Peter Bragino uses many types of media for much of his fine art which ranges greatly. But, amongst the paints and pens, he uses Sharpie markers to decorate guitars, banjos and even himself, as you can see from the images below.




See his site here.

And just some of the phenomenal Sharpie drawn cups by artist Cheeming Boey. (I could write an entire post on these alone).




Cheeming Boey sells his amazing Sharpie decorated styrofoam cups here.

Related posts:


•And You Thought Sharpies Were For Writing Your name In Your Undies
•Sharpies Rock The Runway: Rodarte tattoos


What the heck is the Sharpie Squad?


You may have noticed that I've blogged a few times about the amazing things people do with the Sharpie pens and markers. As a result, it was a nice honor for me to be asked to join the 2010 Sharpie Squad, a group of artists, designers, bloggers and more that use, enjoy and/or promote work created with the hundreds of types of Sharpie markers and pens on the market. They even made a funny little avatar of each of the members - that is mine is shown above.

Now, I want to introduce you to some of the other members and their websites, so you can see how they've promoted Sharpie work of their own and others. You may have seen some of their work in this post and previous posts of mine.

Mark Rivard (Skateboard Art)
Travis Todd ( Sharpies cars, bikes and more)
Hanna Agar (DIY Recycled Sharpie Artist)
Linda Ellett ("Lesperancetile" on ETSY.com)
Laura Kelly (Girly Artist)
Debbie Bookstaber (Mamanista)
Kristin Lesney (Our Ordinary Life)
Corine Ingrassia (Complicated Mama)
Heather Batts (The Domestic Diva)
Allison Whitmore (One Pearl Button)
Erica Domesek (PS I Made this)
Tali Buchler (Growing Up Creative)
Derek Benson (Lunch Bag Art)
Jon E. Nimetz (SuperFine Art)



And there's a lot more to see at Sharpie Uncapped and The Sharpie blog.