By Vanessa Carr
“Egg”
If you’ve ever seen the strange monsters and fantasies of the bizarre 16th Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch and thought, “Man! I wish that guy could have given me a tattoo” — well, you might still have your chance with San Francisco tattoo artist and painter Mike Davis.
In addition to owning San Francisco’s Everlasting Tattoo, Davis is a self-taught painter whose oil painting seem plucked from another time. The inhabitants of the fantastical world he’s created are insects, crustaceans, snakes, birds, scorpions, eggs, fruit-bearing trees, trumpets, birdhouses on fire, the classic dripping ear, and draped figures.
“We show Mike not only because he is a phenomenal painter, but because no one else is doing what he is doing,” says White Walls Gallery owner Justin Giarla.
Davis’ first solo show, “Solo Flight,” opened this past weekend runs through April 12 at the White Walls Gallery, featuring 24 paintings and drawings from his upcoming book, Blind Man’s Journey.
White Walls Gallery, 835 Larkin, SF. 415-931-1500, www.whitewallssf.com