Art Plunge

Just sold a very important piece in my reportoire- "Between Dreams"- which had once gotten me all the way to NYC. It had been chosen for a group show called "LANDSCAPE:A SENSE OF PLACE" by Annette Rose-Shapiro (managing editor of ARTnews magazine). (Annette Rose-Shapiro and me at SITE: BROOKLYN) I had only a few days to submit to the competition and didn't think I would finish this painting in time. I was swamped working to pay the bills but I kept thinking- do it-do it-do it...you never know if you don't do it. So I would drag myself into the studio after work and paint. I remember getting the acceptance letter-what a feeling! "Between Dreams" what a fitting title for a piece that shows the boundaries between fantastical and reality- and just which location are you heading to? Which one are you leaving behind? This one's been hanging in my house a few years now, it's been shown a few times. It reminds me that I did it once- which...

Zappa Light Up LED Record Light Just finished a commission light up piece and got it to it's owner yesterday. I had to do it while I was not feeling well but I did it. I DID IT! It came out pretty cool and the gift recipient should be so lucky to have a thoughtful cool girlfriend who would commission such a thing. I had gotten these 15" inch Phonographic red see thru discs from a friend and they aren't easy to find so they cost a little more than your average regular 12" record. I knew they had to be utilized to show off their wonderful red see thru properties and hence- the record lights were born. This is my second, David Bowie was my first. I've gotten their making down to a science now, drills, bolts and washers, epoxy and LED lights and where to find the right ones. From different angles different things reveal themselves, I'm fond of putting little secrets in my work. Pay attention and the secrets reveal themselves to you... ZAPPA! The bac...

"The Path of Diligence" 48" x 36" acrylic/krylon on canvas It's finished!  I only worked a zillion hours on it. It's funny to think back on all the hours in the studio and how many hundreds of songs I listened to while this was being produced. I can't wait to get it shot by a professional so you can really see the lichen which was a breakthrough for me in this work. This one was appropriately named "The Path of Diligence" because that is what it takes to make it in this world. Diligence. Like a busy bee always on task to make the honey. Like a crane patiently fishing to feed itself. And all the fruits hung like little gifts if your eyes are open and you are diligent about getting them. There is an abundance of good in the world if you are diligent. As for the lichen, I've always loved the stuff. On researching it for the painting I discovered that it's a way to tell if a place is polluted or not. Lots of lichen means HEALTHY ...

"The Path of Fruitfulness" 24" x 24" acrylic/krylon on gallery wrapped canvas I finally finished this piece I've been slaving away on! It is based on a Gankyil (Wheel of Joy:The Base, The Path, The Fruit) and I took a few detail photos :

Benny Hill, when I was a kid I thought he and Ozzy Osbourne were one and the same! Bowie madness continues. Alladin Sane. Ziggy Stardust mania. Record painting every day! My goal is to finish ONE more by tomorrow and....I can do this....just gotta buckle down and not think about all the other things piling up. They will get done. Like surprise graphic design deadlines. People I thought were on vacation coming back and needing things done this week. Shipping out stuff. It will all get done, especially if I run around like a sped up film while the Benny Hill theme music plays. That will make stuff get done a LOT faster and make me laugh too. In fact I think I'm going to put that song into my ipod so when I go running I can laugh my ass off. Getting my hair snipped today! Writing my bio for the Origin magazine feature! Finishing another record and making dreaded phone calls! I hate phone calls. I hate the phone. It's important business and must be done though. I'll be...

Wake up you sleepy head Put on some clothes, shake up your bed Put another log on the fire for me Ive made some breakfast and coffee This has pretty much been my weekend. Starting early in the studio (7:30 am!) and working on THIS, THIS up above for hours without stopping to eat, drink water or even pee. TRUE! If you read my post from yesterday you might have an idea of the hard fought battle this became. Since yesterdays post more mistakes popped up and had to be fixed, such as accidentally scratching the pretty pink painted smoke and having to fix it with another layer of light pink. I let the mistakes dictate the direction of the piece. I decided whatever FATE intended this to look like in the end would be the way I would roll. So...what was just going to be a straight up backlit David Bowie became him standing poised in front of pink smoke and stars. Suddenly it was taking shape and I owe it all to mistakes and errors. You have to see things this way so you don't start h...

"Go Go" acrylic on vinyl record (collection of Patrick Foisy) Sometimes the best things come from unlikely places. Yesterday I got an email from a Canadian TV show asking if I would give consent to having my art on TV. They were referring to my vinyl record "GO GO" which a fellow by the name of Patrick Foisy purchased from me last summer. I thought this an interesting little story to tell, especially for artists...on how you never know what little thing will set a domino effect into motion. Let's rewind to last summer......I was BROKE. Luckily my friends at the Fallout Lounge had agreed to let me have a one person art show there showcasing all new vinyl works. The theme "Girls of Summer". I got to work on all my retro girls and popsicles and bikinis. I worked tirelessly, I wanted at least 20 slices of new vinyl. I needed money. At $45 a pop and 20 pieces I could pay my rent and bills. I hustled. On a whim I decided since my work was retro 60...

The Lolli Dollies at the Texas Theater for the Serge Gainsbourg tribute! Last night I had the rare pleasure of three things....dancing, seeing my ladies AND seeing a movie with my best friend. YAY! It has been a hot minute since I had danced with my girls the Lolli Dollies (missed you Melissa Miao!) and we had a nice time catching up on our girly woes. Health problems, outfit problems, you know...the important stuff. I have missed my girls! The evening was fun, I brought some French 60's tunes for us to dance to and we go go'd it up in the lobby. Afterwards I caught the Serge Gainsbourg documentary and the film I had been wanting to see. A nice evening that left me wanting......crepes when I woke up! With the promise of more dancing with my girls this Saturday I'm cruising into my Friday pretty smoothly. I woke up to such nice support on my Facebook page this morning, friends still congratulating me and shout outs. I even got a little write-up here at Oak Cliff Bu...

What do Bjork and I have in common besides being tiny? (she's 5' 4") We're both all magazine worthy thats what! I'm sure anyone that reads this blog is on my facebook page so I won't get all Miss USA on ya. But the big news yesterday was that I AM IN! In the Origin Magazines September issue that is...and not ME but my ART which is super exciting to an artist...to have your work seen outside of your city? It's a great feeling! Origin Magazine is a national Art+Conscious Lifestyle magazine that is sold at Whole Foods all over the nation.  The World of Traceable Ghosts This is the piece that won us into the magazine! I'm super psyched to see it PRINTED in beautiful color! The official announcement goes out today but I was notified yesterday and wanted to share the good news. I could not have done it without EVERY single one of you that voted, shared,campaigned and supported me. I felt like I was annoying every one and I probably was (sorr...

firecracker firecracker boom boom boom First I want to say that for the first time in about a year I slept through the WHOLE night without waking up at 3:30am then 4:30 am and not being to sleep and getting up at 5:30 am. I'm going to thank the tiny melatonin pill I took last night for letting me get some much needed restorative sleep. I feel energized today. Supercharged and Best Quality. Like a flashlight cracker! Which brings me to the second thing I wanted to say...I love firecracker art. I've always been a fan. I had ideas to paint firecracker art on my wooden boxes, wouldn't that be cool? Maybe even the records. But where is the time? I think they would look awesome.Maybe after I plow through all the work I have to do I can play around with that....but I digress....the graphic design I'm working on for the next issue of Mercado Bilingue is going to be firecracker themed in honor of 4th of July. To give it a spin we're looking at MEXICAN FIREWORKS...whic...

"Agua Fresca" at El Fenix I woke up this morning to a titillating little piece of cheese in the ol' mousetrap. Yes I said titillating....7 year old! There's a competition of sorts to get your work printed in a National Magazine called Origins. I have been fortunate enough to have a small feature in there once upon a time for the BARTERING ARTISTS group but having my art printed is a whole other ballgame. That would be nice and make my Mom proud. So I started facebooking trying to get some votes. Kinda disastrous. Perhaps I need another cup of coffee? I could not for the life of me explain to my friends how to CLICK a LINK and LIKE A COMMENT in a THREAD. I started laughing. It's my own fault. But if you happen to be reading this and would like to help me out...the piece I would like to see printed is this one: So if you like this piece and would like to see it printed let's try to get a vote in. Bear with me as I try to explain this again. :) Maybe...

my very second instagrammy photo thingamajig Yesterday I spent the day finishing up a vinyl record order, unfortunately it's a secret and  a gift so until the guy gets it I'm not allowed to blast it to the public. However a select few in my illuminati were exposed to it yesterday and it garnered another order. Ding! I feel like I'm immediately back in my groove,my freelancing groove. Primered more records for todays work, a Hans Solo record which should be fun. Also organized my paint (see above)...well, that's a real half ass way to organize paint but it's better than it was ALL tossed together in a deep basket so I had to dig and didn't know what colors I had. I found many dead paint tube carcasses up in that thing. DRIED, EMPTY TUBES!!! An unorganized paint box leads to stupid things like buying 4 tubes of Burnt Sienna. If anyone has a better solution than using the lids to baking pans to organize my colors please pass it on. I need visibility and for ...

picture of me at Cedars West Arts Festival manning the paint station for Magic Garden Program photo by Gabriela Elguea and Heather Shoulders Sometimes it's good to just pause from the busy life and TO DO LISTS and the stuff rolling around in your brain and take inventory of all that is good in our life. I am doing that right now. It dawned on me today as I turned in my blog for  I Am Bilingue   that the last cover I gave them was for a Fathers Day edition and the very first assignment they gave me was for...a Fathers Day edition. I remember very clearly meeting with Fabian Campos, my contact at the paper/website, and how it just seemed a perfect laidback fit and I hoped against hope they would like my work enough to keep me on. my first cover for Mercado Bilingue, I've been teaching myself Photoshop and Illustrator  Here I am a year later and I have 13 covers under my belt and countless blogs. A lot of the features have been memoirs of my life with my D...

disclaimer: these are NOT I repeat NOT my sexy legs so hold your marriage proposals Well! Where to start, it's been a busy weekend and I've decided to totally OBLITERATE all of last week from my brain since it was nothing but pain and stress and worry. So onward we go, the weekend! I spent Friday doing some work getting ready for the CEDARS WEST ARTS FESTIVAL. I was hired to do some CHALK SIGNAGE and then Saturday I showed up to create kids chalk stations on the street. The asphalt was kinda hard to draw on but I created some fun stuff and here's where all the trouble started. I worked for about two hours, drawing a big giant sun, an octopus (moustachiopus), flowers, recycling symbols, some bunnies, smiley clouds, anime kids, etc, etc....each drawing required me to squat down and stand up and squat down and stand  up... and do you see where this is going? It wasn't until that evening after I had kicked off my shoes and laid down for about 20 minutes that I realiz...

Welcome June! Welcome Summer! I see you tearing through my curtains with your fiery orange beams, trying to get me into my bikini and to the pool. This seemed a fairly innocent way to get people to read my blog....posting a sexy Brigitte Bardot in a bikini and entitling it " swimsuit edition" . Got you here didn't it? Tsk Tsk you naughty readers! :) photo by Alan Blanquicet (Robert Taylor and Dan Pritchett) Just wrapped up an art opening at RISING GALLERY on Friday and was so pleased to meet some new people and reconnect with some friends I hadn't seen in awhile. All the art was fantastic and it was nice to see the work in person. Every one of the Project 7 x 7 collaborations were auctioned off and went to new homes while raising money for Alley's House. I got excellent feedback on my work and newest pieces. photo by Alan Blanquicet (me with my work) I also learned that if the Flaming Lips are in town almost 90% of your friends will probably be the...

Comp Pass to AKON! It's that time again! Silly fun at the convention dedicated to Anime, Japanese live action, Monsters, etc, etc....GEEKERY! Last year I had a blast shooting photos of all the wild costumes, stuff I couldn't afford and "interesting" personalities. My friends from Monster Attack Team will be doing another panel this year- TODAY in fact! Yamahama- I thought it was gonna be tomorrow! So my day now includes getting dressed super early to catch part of the panel before I head over to Rising Gallery for the art opening. Of course everything fun happens all at the same time and I haven't learned to clone myself yet. At least I'll get to see part of the panel AND my pass is good all weekend long....Saturday I'll be back at it shooting photos to blog about for I Am Bilingue. Will I find the Godzilla shirt of my dreams today? I just might! Tonight I'll be at Rising Gallery showing off the labors of my love. This is the equivalent of me...

Thunderstorms have come to Texas again. There is something nice and romantic about these storms. I am fully enjoying being able to appreciate them from inside the coziness of my home as opposed to the days when I had to bus around in them to go to work. Don't get me wrong, I love a good soaking from the sky ceiling ...it's the rude cars splashing muddy water on me I do not miss. I have/had plans to go downtown to my gym today but will now need to see what the weather is going to do. The rain is reminding me of something important though....I need a nice dry environment to spray and primer records and some of my canvases. I'm also reminded I left my yoga mat outside and it's getting nice and clean by Mother Nature again. So I feel a little thwarted in the art productivity department, but I do have some graphic design work I need to get done anyway. Must remember- rain will halt production, utilize sunny days for priming in bulk!  My inbox had something funny and unu...