Introductions...

Hi, my name is Jake Overton, but as you can tell, to most people I'm known simply as "Shaggy". I got that nickname from my tattoo artist, Shawn Will, up at Bay Area Tattoos because i had my display name on my myspace page as "shaggy" for a while (because I'm a big Scooby-Doo fan), and since he didn't know my real name for a while every time i would come up to the tattoo shop to get some more work done he would always call me Shaggy. After that the name just kinda stuck. but its fitting since I'm rather tall, lanky, a little whiskery on the chin, and will not let my hair be cut any shorter than my chin, i still resemble the great Shaggy from one of the world's best Saturday morning cartoons! enough about my nick name though, moving on. i am 20 years old, and i am a "starving artist", quite literally at times. Ive been drawing all my life, from growing up as a little boy in a Baptist church in Tennessee doodling on any piece of paper i could find, to now painting with acrylics on stretched canvas, to designing tattoos for myself as well as my friends, to sanding down the hood of my old totaled car and drawing on it with chalks and clear coating it, art is definitely my passion, and i hope one day to be my career! when people ask me what my plans are for my distant future and my career path i simply reply "if it ain't art, i don't want no part!"(you can see the mountain accent coming out in me when i say that). the purpose of this blog is rather simple, i want to write an autobiography style art book explaining my paintings and some of my other art work, and my mom (who is a professional quilter and fanatic blogger) told me, "why not blog it first and get feed back on it before you actually sit down and write it?". so here i am, and here's what to expect from this, I'm going to upload one photo of each of my paintings in a blog post and then explain that painting. what it is, what it represents, what the meaning behind the name is, what my influences were for that particular painting, and basically a small look into my mind and the madness behind some of my paintings. so i hope you all enjoy this, and i am eagerly awaiting your feed back on what you all think of my paintings! i will try to put all my paintings in order as they were done so not only will you be able to see how Ive progressed in my self taught painting, but also in how Ive progressed in being able to express my thoughts, feelings, and ideas through my art work.