Featured in #91, the forthcoming Pacific Coast edition of New American Paintings, available on newsstands next month, the work of Conrad Ruiz doesn't take itself too seriously, and neither does he. Featuring a host of characters in mild to wild circumstances, Ruiz's exciting work is one colorful and exuberant playground. Humor is as inherent to the work as the paint used to create it, and his compositions are often filled with subjects in oddly fantastic circumstances, like Obama riding a giant Corgy or smiling characters on the back of a great white shark.

Graham Kolbeins of Future Shipwreck recently caught up with the California artist while he was working on a mammothly scaled painting which he claims is the largest watercolor on Earth. Be sure to pick up #91 on newsstands in December!

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/15729516 w=530]