New Additions!

Two new zoo foods from today. I'll let you guess what they are ;)

Red Riding Hood WIP

New painting time! Spent about 7 hours today working the underpainting up from the drawing. This subject is actually a rehash of a painting I never completed in 2010, and suffice to say I'm digging this composition much better than how I approached it in college! The same basic elements are there, but the composition has changed drastically.

And yes, another oval piece! This was going to be a vertical rectangular piece, but I decided that the flow would work really nicely on another shape, thus, the oval! I sized it at 16" x 20" to fit a wonderful ornate oval frame I bought a few months ago that's been sitting, staring at me to be used ever since. Can't wait to finish this baby.

Zoo Food!

Alright, to preface this incredibly long post, I currently work as an art teacher in Bridgeport, CT. About a month ago, on of my students, Katherine, burst into my room, arms akimbo, and simply shouted: "APPLE TURTLE!" I asked what possessed her to come up with such a combination, to which she had no idea, but, I knew at that moment it sounded fun and I just had to draw it! That day, I brought that apple turtle to life, and thus began a project I had no idea would become so popular and engaging to my students.



These are the original five: Apple Turtle, Banana Bunny, Pumpkin Lemur, Orange Dog, and Pomegranate Cat. These first five I laminated, because I didn't want them to get damaged (however, the Pomegranate Cat got stuck in the laminating machine and got all wrinkly, go figure).

In these past few weeks, on a daily basis a group of girls have designated themselves the Secretaries of the Zoo Foods and keep a roster of fruits and vegetables and animals to pair them with, while I carry the responsibility of creating them. Every day kids rush over to the little wall above the sink counter to see the new additions, and the wall is filling up so fast, I need to move them to a larger area! See how many there are now!



Some of my students also wanted a hand in the fun, and this is what they created:



So far this is an amazing project, and I want to see this go even further. Expect to see a book dummy featuring these guys sometime soon!

Medusa, Finished!

After a hectic 2 months, Medusa is complete! Enjoy!

Medusa WIP

A WIP of a painting I've been working on lately. Unfortunately I've been sick with the flu since Saturday, so I haven't made much leeway in the past few days due to feeling so tired and icky... A word of advice: try not to paint while you're sick if you don't need to, otherwise you will paint your figures cross-eyed... Gotta fix that!

New Painting: Shroud

I leave Cakes alone with a brush for 2 minutes! Sheesh, that bird... Anyway, finished a small painting just a few days ago, "Shroud", a small 4" x 6" oil painting on canvas panel, and it reminded me how much I hate working on canvas... Oh well, at least it was cheap to buy! Enjoy!

Thanksgiving = Magic!

What else to do on Thanksgiving but to do a MtG draft? After dinner, of course. ;)

Diner Drawing

Some drawings of Amanda and AJ while we were at the diner playing some MtG this fine evening.

Doodle/Movie Night

Allo, allo! Some sketches I did of John while we lazed around and watched Deathly Hallows parts 1 & 2. Cassie also makes a brief appearance, as well!

What's Cookin'

An owl, that's what! Just thought I would pop in and post a teaser for a new painting, and then run... into the sunset...
Stay tuned!

Tattoo

Got tattooed today! Continued upon the palette and brushes I already had on my wrists and added words, filigree and shading. Took 3 hours and my wrists are actually very swollen right now but I'm not too surprised, they took a beating.
Edwin was the man behind the needle over at Regeneration in Allston and since I was the only client a majority of the afternoon he, Dan and Brian (the two other artists there), Felisia and I talked Tim & Eric, power ballads and sodomy used in performance art... It was a good day! I highly recommend the studio, fantastic place.
I'll get a better, healed, clearer, un-medicated shot of these when they're done flaking. In the meantime here's a little something I spotted at the Kenmore subway entrance this morning:
Yeesh...

Come See!!

If you're in the Boston area next weekend you should come and see...

I... You... We... ROBOT!
@ Space 242

I have a piece in a the show and will be there at the opening as well. Remember: Friday the 29th from 6-8!

90% Robot

Space 242 is soon having a show featuring robots and today was the deadline for submissions. I've framed the Rust piece I did for Edlund a year ago and will be submitting that, as well as a new painting.
There's something about the Rust piece I still enjoy, and it's a robot so I thought I might as well. I bought a floating frame--love 'em!--and covered the frame in copper and oxidized it. It's pretty ballin'.

This painting has been in planning for a month, and of course I didn't finalize composition and details until Saturday. So I started this yesterday, and got it about 90%, enough so that when I fix it up later this week when it's dry it won't be dramatically different, just better ;)
I hate not having access to a photo set-up when I need it most. Ah well...

Hello, Chelsea

So, had a fun day romping around Chelsea with Lou today! Our first stop was to the Levine Gallery to see Audrey Kawasaki's show--which was wonderful by the way, to see some of her work in person (magazine prints just don't cut it). Following we meandered around to the other galleries in the area and met up with a sleepy fat tabby cat and a trio of happy pugs. To top it all off, it was a beautiful day :)
After we got our art fix we headed down to St. Mark's to window shop Toy Tokyo and eat at the most flamboyant Indian restaurant I have ever seen:
Again, infamous cell phone picture, but the motion blur sort of puts this place in perspective... If you are taller than me (a modest 5'2" and change) you would have to duck to walk underneath the smörgåsbord of Christmas lights, pepper lights, balloons, foil decorations, streamers and beach balls hanging from the ceiling. The walls were lined with the most garish floral upholstery fabric, which was further accented by multi-colored holographic sheets of paper, topped off with a myriad of metallic banners celebrating Christmas, New Years, Halloween, and, if it is, your birthday. The final touch? Bollywood techno. The food was damn good.
Afterwards I introduced Lou to bubble tea (lots of people I've talked to lately who have never even heard of the stuff, amazing) and called it a night, took the 6 uptown, and parted ways.

I have been rendered fat and happy :)

Still Doing

The frames for the color studies are finished: assembled, stained, just need to pop the paintings in. Apologies for the blurry pictures, I have a horrible habit of getting lazy and using my camera phone. Got the large frames assembled as well, just need to stain those.

Had a pleasant 3 day snowfall this past weekend. Read and watched the birds outside chase each other around and actually picked up a small case of cabin fever, which was cured today by going out and having a lovely lunch out on the beach with my mum! Again, watched the crows and seagulls chase each other around while munching on my foodstuffs.
I've been steadily sussing out summer plans, and I have decided I will be flying down to Brazil to stay with Vlad for a while in July! Not sure how long, exactly, but I am very excited nonetheless. Rio will be hella fun :)

Adventures in Home Depot

Went to Home Depot today to get molding to frame my DP pieces. Oooh, so many choices...
Decided upon one type of molding for the color studies and another, larger, but somewhat similar molding for the larger pieces. Home Depot didn't sell the stain I wanted (custom "classic black") in pints, only in quarts... So I am on a mission to go see what I can find tomorrow.Played with the saw for a while and am sussing things out. Will continue tomorrow with a fresh mind.