Art Plunge

"Use What You Got"  acrylic/krylon on canvas 24" x 24" This is the latest finished piece I did for the upcoming shows. I wanted to discuss the beetle and it's symbology. Beetles are often thought of a symbols of protection, because of their hard little shell or armor. Here are some observations on beetles from the symbolic-meanings.com site:  symbolic meaning of beetles (at-a-glance): Progress Simplicity Persistence Stability Methodical Contemplative Practical Grounded Potential Security Introverted Protection Solidarity Beetles speak to us of groundedness. They move with bellies always close to the earth, and so  their wisdom is sacred and deep .  They are connected to the core of earth, and so they are rooted in their knowledge about the way of life and nature. Beetles also talk to us about steady, gradual progress.  Observing them, they do nothing without pragmatic, methodical movement. Beetles impart messages such as: “Get t...

My finished MUNNY: King Roly Finished my Munny the day before Christmas and good timing too as something really weird happened. It SNOWED! And it got SUPER FREAKIN COLD! Like 19 degrees! Right now only the oven is heating the front part of the house and my studio so it's a bit too chilly for me to really work, maybe when the temp rises up a little today. Regardless, today is DROP day for this little guy. Here are the photos I shot of him before Snowmageddon hit I made a little staff and some roly poly bugs out of Sculpey- then I epoxied the bugs to their proper places after baking them and painting them. He is my little Nature themed boy, so cute! Details, details...I base colored him with spray paint AFTER primering him then used acrylic to paint all the details. I used a spray primer. For the sculpey parts I primered with acrylic (do not spray sculpey, sticky mess, *do not- do not spray sculpey) He was spray glossed with Clear Coat to protect all my work...

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 ...

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...

A friend and I are trying to figure out the name of this plant. I call it the "Bulbasaur Plant" because it has little bulbs that look like Bulbasaur. Don't know what a Bulbasaur is? Let me pull your hair for a second! BULBA! Ok so I took a few days break from blogging and blah blah blah-ing all over the internet. I need that sometimes. I have a HERMIT side and it needs to be quiet and reflective and only hang out with plants and paintings sometimes. Since all the events I had to promote were finally over I felt it a good chance to just catch up on real life and shun the social network timekiller. I'm still kinda feeling that way so I might be less mouthy and loud this week. Plus I have a new painting I'm working on and you know me....these paintings take forever and the more I can get done on them right now the better. Ok, here's a little peek See what hanging out with plants do to you? Some of the dreams I've been having lately have involved ...

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...

when it rains it pours....true dat Morton salt girl, true dat! Apparently your kitchen is full of little wisdoms like that! This morning I'm looking at a heck of a week! I'm going to have time manage myself unbelievably to accomplish everything but I can do it....the trick is to remember to have fun while I'm doing it. "SMILE, BREATHE, GO SLOWLY" is going to be my mantra...but my SLOWLY just needs to be focused and not derailed. It was something we laughed about in the freelance world, when you knew your project was about to be up and you were putting your feelers out for new work...anywhere... and not getting any bites. Because the flipside to that was when you were securely working in the thick of a project you'd have ten people tugging on your shirt wanting you to do some work for them. That is how it is and that's where my week is....which is AWESOME. It means rent money, bills, food and keeping my air conditioner on! Lots of graphic design work...

Shoot for the Stars! Latest painted record featuring Han Solo AVAILABLE ($50) Theres a beautiful rain falling this Friday morning, it's a quiet steady and soft rain. The complete opposite of how it started....loud thunder cracking, waking me up from sleepyland and making my computers blink. Now it's just a little drip drip and quietude. Rain makes primering a no go since I primer outside. I am looking for the perfect large box to spray in, this will ease a lot of trouble with tree detritus landing on a barely sprayed record and wreaking havoc. My house was busy yesterday with order drop off and order pickup and then a graphic design job I was waiting to hear about popped up so I'm officially BUSY for the next two weeks at  least. Wrapping up record orders and the graphic work and I'm happy to be busy and working from home. This record featured above is up for grabs until someone grabs it. I won't have time for new vinyl for awhile so get it while it's t...

"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 ...

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...

Things are about to get bright, hot and chalky around here! As a freelance artist I am duty bound (in order to pay rent, eat and pay off my dental bill) to take some odd and end kind of jobs. You really never know where you're going to go, what you're going to do or who you are going to meet. This Friday I will be meeting a big hot concrete wall for instance. Well, I did meet this wall yesterday actually. I looked him up and down and decided he and I could work together on this little project.  This wall is located where the Cedars West Arts Festival is going to be taking place and I'll be creating a nice bit o' signage in colored chalk. I'll also be creating little colored chalk "fun stations" at various sidewalk points along the festival path so kids can come and color in, draw and get chalky too. There are challenges to taking on this job, namely the HEAT and also that little hindrance of not having a car. It's going to be an adventure fo...

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...

The iconic Peter Max After dropping off art at Rising Gallery yesterday I remembered hearing about Peter Max having a show in town somewhere nearby. It seemed like a good day to hunt it down....after lunch. I had my first Twisted Root experience. It was good and the way they call you a celebrity name at the counter was funny. Although I was not thrilled with my name. Everyone else when called to the counter had a funny little joke, quote or lyric with theirs. Mine was simply called out straight and really what else can you say with a name like PINK . PINK?!?!?!  Ha!  At the drink machine I saw the word root beer and filled her up. I took a drink, this was supposed to be amazing root beer. What filled my mouth was not the taste of root beer at all. I was dizzy for a second as pure sugar rushed through my blood. What was this taste....so familiar...almost like cream soda, kinda like root beer but...no...it was...BUBBLE GUM! Then I spied a little piece of paper taped ab...

Latest works in my studio I snapped a shot of these two together before I wrap em up today. They are going to go travelling to Rising Gallery and my studio is going to look like a boring old dining room again. Little tip for the artists, a nice roll of painters drop plastic goes a long way towards protecting your art for travelling! Wired up the pieces yesterday so they'll hang nice and decided that the latest piece would look much sharper with the sides painted black. I decided that after messing around with a photo of it in Photoshop and seeing how striking it was against black. This one would actually look cool framed in black if someone bought it and felt like doing that. :-) I've entered two juried competitions in the past week, one was the Hecho in Dallas put on by the Latino Cultural Center and the other was the Craighead Green New Talent show. Both were free to enter and I have found it's best to promptly forget about these things as soon as you sub...

"The World of Traceable Ghosts" acrylic, krylon on canvas 30" x 40" C'est fini! It's done! I put a lot of hours into this and excited to show it in public this Friday at Rising Gallery. I'm curious to see it hanging next to the mice. Today I just finish off the sides and install hanging fixtures to my pieces, wrap them up for travel and they are ready for the ball. I took some detail shots with my  humble camera detail  detail A lot of symbolism snuck it's way into this one subconsciously. I've also added secrets than can only be seen in person.  One thing I want to say about my work, I almost never have a set idea in my head of how it's going to be. No road map. No sketch. I let the canvas tell me what to do. I feel like I learn so much more when there isn't a connect the dots to follow. The forms, colors, figures, they appear like magic apparitions. Each thing sparking the next thing, like dominoes falling. I ha...