Now I'm listing locations of Springfield: Albania, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic (I'll never learn to spell this country correctly), Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia (this is a political statement against the Greek nationalists to not to call it FYROM), Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania (I think I go there in March), Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates.

Obviously, these places have nothing to do with the 35 Springfields in the United States, 13 Springfields in the United Kingdom, six Springfields in Australia or four Springfields in Canada. Neither this is not related with the most famous place called Springfield - the fictional city where the Simpsons live.

I've always been fascinated byt the lists of countries or cities (Paris - Tokyo - New York) in the plastic bags of brands and the bag of Springfield, the Spanish clothing brand, looked attractive with it's long list with exotic countries, though surpsingly it doesn't operate in the any of the two superpowers of the planet, the United States of America and the People's Republic of China.

I'll do an exhibition at Korjaamo, Helsinki, in the end of February exclusively of my list drawings. I'm still choosing the works but this is more or less the selection:

1 My Favorite Brands 2 My Favorite Chemical Weapons 3 My Favorite Drugs 4 Springfield Locations 5 My Favorite Banks 6 My Favorite Shops 7 My Favorite Execution Methods 8 Kim Jong Il-s favorite drinks 9 My Favorite Camps 10 My favorte Places 11 Prostitutes in Madrid 12 My Favorite Cities 13 Gals 14 My Favorite Yellow Fats 15 My Favorite Chinese People 16 The Life Style I Dream of 17 My Favorite Parade 18 My Favorite Drinks 19 My Favorite Sniper Rifles for Killing Civilians 20 Top Diets 21 My favorite Christian Terrorist Groups 22 My Favorite Hypermarkets 23 Best Escort Girls in Novosibirsk

Three years ago, I stayed two months in Tokyo – the monster megapolis par excellence if we don’t count Beijing. The Nipponese capital city doesn’t have street names and for that reason every ad, every flyer and every invite includes a map where you find marked McDonald’s and 7 Eleven. You navigate through the city the Golden Arches as your North Star. It’s celestial navigation of the consumers.

I’ve been reading in the newspaper maps of  Port-au-Prince, which was – before devastated by the earthquake last week - the capital city of Haiti. The Caribbean republic is - according to CIA World Fact Book - the 168th richest country of the world sorted by the gross domestic product at purchasing power per capita. The last time we heard something from Haiti was a couple of years ago when the price of the rice went 50% up and the food (or famine) riots hit the country.

Anyhow, in the maps of Port-au-Prince, the name Carrefour caught my eye and I was thinking how the world’s second retailer that invented the concept of hypermarket would have occupied this poor island. And furthermore, why the Carrefour hypermarket was pointed on every single map I saw. Carrefour was showed with the same importance that the presidential palace or the airport. I was consternated by the power of the brand.

Sometimes, we forget that the words had meanings before the brands hijacked them. Seven and eleven were numbers - not a convenience store, and a shell was the external covering of mollusks - not a gas station. Reading one of the numerous articles about the destruction of Haiti, I finally understood that Carrefour - meaning crossroads in French - used to be a haven for tourists when the infamous dynasty of Papa Doc and Baby Doc ruled the country. After the Doc family dictatorship the tourists went to th neighboring Dominican Republic and the Carrefour became abandoned and one of the poorest communes of  the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.

A sniper is a highly trained marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or long distances.

The Serbian sniper warfare during the siege of Sarajevo in the early 90's was an infamous terror tool by shooting at any person, whether military or civilian, adult or child. Inside the city, the Serbs controlled most of the military positions and and the main boulevard of the city was called informally Sniper Alley.

I continue with my sinister list drawings and now I listed my favorite sniper rifles for killing civilians.

Accuracy International AS50
Al-Qadissiya tabuk
AMP Technical Services DSR-1
ArmaLite AR-50
Arisaka Type 97
AWC G2
Barrett XM109
Blaser 93 Tactical
Brügger & Thomet APR308
CheyTac Intervention
Ceská Zbrojovka Uherský Brod  CZ 700
China South Industries AMR-2
Dakota Arms Longbow T-76
Denel NTW-20
Desert Tactical Arms Stealth Recon Scout
Dragunov SVD
EDM Arms Windrunner
Famae FD-200
FR F12
Harris Gun Works M-96
Heckler & Koch HK417
Hellenic Arms Industry Kefefs
István Fellegi Gepard
Izhevsk Mechanical Works SVDK
Kalekalip KNT-308
Kongsberg Small Arms Mauser M67
Knight's Armament Company SR-25
Marine Corps Systems Command M39 Enhanced Marksman Rifle
MKEK JNG-90
Mosin-Nagant Model 1891/30
Norinco JS 7.62
OBR SM Tarnów Bor
Parker Hale C3A1
Prairie Gun Works C14 Timberwolf
Pusca Semiautomata cu Luneta
Remington Arms M24 Sniper Weapon System
RH-Alan RT-20
Robar RC-50
Sako TRG
Savage 10FP
SIG-Sauer SSG 3000
Springfield Armory M25
Steyr HS .50
Valmet 7.62 Tkiv 85
Våpensmia NM149
Vidhwansak
VSS Vintorez
Walther WA 2000
WKW Wilk
Zastava M93 Black Arrow

I'm drawing Eden Club, which is a brothel in Bangkok but because I'm planning to show the work in Malaga, I relocated the club in Torremolinos.

The Spanish police  raided several bordellos during the weekend in Andalucia, including the infamous S'candalo where the owners and they lawyers where eating jamón iberico when the cops entered - and of course they didn't find any sex slaves or cocaine. Though S'candalo is famous, Bangkok's Eden sounds much more interesting when you look its menu:

Eden  Club = 1 Man = 2 Ladies (or more)
Services Place Only
VIP Card Available = VIP First
For only one lady, please, in your home place
36 Bisexuals (Lesbian) Ladies
If not satisfied abour services = Free
If special fantasies, let us know (uniform on request)
90 minutes time upstairs, 1-2-3 times up to you
Per lady: 1600 baths before 8pm / 1900 baths after 8pm
Everything paid, barfine, room, lady paid
You pay only when you come down, only if staisfied
On the left side of the yellow line are the ladies who can do anal sex. Oral sex, all of them.
Best way to do = Choose one lady and let her choose her girlfriend.
Take away = 4000 baths before 10pm / 2500 baths after 10pm
Everything paid. After 6am up to the ladies.
Have a good time.
Visa, Master, Amex cards welcome, no charges.

I liked Galeria Gacma in Malaga and I'll do a show there sometime this spring. Our plan is to show a series of large scale drawings accompanied with another series of A4 drawings and a wall painting. The gallery has a very nice space, though the location is peculiar  in an industrial park outside of the city center. For my stuff, the interesting detail is that in the front of the gallery there is a big brothel called Latidos. No doubt, it will appear in one of my works for the exhibition.

After the dinner, Antonella and  Cecilio took me to a Finnish Bar in Torremolinos, a tourist industry town next to Malaga. It was a funny feeling to step into a place that looked like any bar in any Finnish suburb.

It's the Epiphany when in Spain the Three Kings of the Orient bring to the kids toys made in  the Orient - People's Republic of China. I got a pyjamas from Carrefour though I'm atheist and republican.

It was kind of nice to have one day of fiesta after having been working hard few days after all the Christmas and New year parties. Undoubtedly, the new works are going to be master pieces but the problem is that they treat prostitution, one of my main themes, and contain explicit images and texts and this is something that I prefer not to show and explain to my daughter. How do I explain her the mother and daughter that want to fuck with you? Neither I can keep her out of the studio where she loves to be, help me and paint her own stuff. I really don't know what attitude to adopt.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to Malaga where I have a meeting with a gallerist. I must see how the gallery is and what they offer me. At least, this time I'm traveling in style by AVE train 300km/h and sleeping in a fancy design hotel.

The change of the decade made me feel a bit old. The 2010's don't belong to me anymore. The first decade of the millennium was my era - then I became adult, created my identity as a person, developed my agenda as artist, graduated from the Academy, got married, got my first child and bought my first car. The 2000's are what I will remember when I'm a grandpa in a rocking chair in a sanatorium.

Actually, it wasn't the New Year that made me feel a dinosaur but my four-year-old daughter who was painting a canvas in my studio and announced that she is a better painter than me.  She told that I don't take care of the details and I'm also too slow. She offered to teach me to paint better and faster. Finally, she demanded a half of my studio for her use.