3G love!

/Film (http://www.slashfilm.com/) made it's third post of artwork from the awesome 3G show, including my 3 paintings! check it out here.  my excitement for this show keeps on growing. 

the show is getting all kinds of fun publicity, which you can check out on the autumn society's post here. (unfortunately my computer is a piece of junk and i can't get it to work long enough to read them all myself...)  but even cooler is joe dante, director of gremlins, commented as well: www.theautumnsociety.com/2010/08/joe-dante-comments-on-3g-show.html

a lot of the pieces in the show are really, really amazing, so make sure you check out everyone's work here when you can!  fun stuff

opens this friday in LA at gallery 1988!

turning japanese

i went to philly this weekend to check out the turning japanese show, which meant i went to pick up my pieces, and one sold weee. most of the show was already down so i "borrowed" these photos from the autumn society's blog. i just like to have photos of any and every place my art shows, no matter how big or small. cool show overall. while we were in philly, we checked out the black light show at smile gallery.  tim knew someone in the show, so we stopped by.  it was nice and awkward considering it was open, yet the door was locked and everything was shut off.  so we waited patiently outside while the man opened and turned on the lights, then i had to be carried up a long but narrow flight of stairs.  gallery was teeny tiny. the idea of a black light art show is awesome, but the work was kind of lacking.  i did enjoy a couple pieces, but i horribly regret forgetting to check out the black light show in trenton not long ago. 

 i would really love to make artwork meant to be seen under a black light. so many possibilties.

munnyworld!

remember when i so graciously won the munny munth contest ...twice..?  well all those little white figures above are the bunches of munnyworld figures given to me as part of my prize. time for lots of customizing! my artsy obligations are slowing down now, so between projects i plan on creating lots of new figures. starting now!

please excuse my craptastic phone photos.

KAOTIC KRITTERS: kona

this is kona! it was my sister's birthday last wednesday, and she has been asking (telling) me to make her a kaotic kritter of her puppy. i completely forgot until the night before since i was so busy with my 3G pieces, but i managed to finish in time. kona is a teeny tiny little furball who has the sweetest personality. she loves anyone; climbs, and jumps all over everyone; kisses, cuddles and sleeps with everyone; and obviously since she's a puppy, she's off the wall and off balance. adorable.

the 3G show!

THE 3G SHOW ( FEATURING: GHOSTBUSTERS, GOONIES, & GREMLINS )

one last post of all 3 pieces together. i feel like in my individual posts, there's too much to see and you're too distracted to see the final piece on its own.  if this is the first you're seeing them, please go to the individual posts to read/see all about them! i spent a whole lot of time and energy on these.  i'm a huge, huge fan of all three movies and i'm beyond excited for this show. i grew up on them and they hold a special place in my heart, forever!

show premieres september 3, 2010

gallery 1988 los angeles

7020 melrose avenue

los angeles, ca 90038

huge thanks to gallery 1988 and the autumn society for putting together a fantastic show
see everyone's pieces here!

hi-ho movies

here is the third of 3 paintings for the autumn society's 3G show at gallery 1988. ghostbusters, goonies, and gremlins!  again, keep in mind this is a 3D layered painting since my photos can't show it!  a gremlin and popcorn painted on glass, about an inch apart from the background of the movie theater.  it has depth! visualize!

sketch:

final pieces:

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final piece! 

this must be my favorite of the three 3G pieces i did. i think the layers really make this one, and it wouldn't be nearly as cool without it.  it's really disappointing that you can't see in the photo, but i feel like it really looks like a chaotic movie theater with popcorn, flying in the air and being flung all over the place. like my ghostbusters piece, i had this scene picked out for my gremlins piece the moment i heard about the show.  this is one of my favorite scenes from gremlins and i watched it 90 times so i could paint this, and it still makes me laugh every time. i love hearing them sing the dwarfs' song. hi ho hi ho! i didn't want to paint the actual dwarfs from snow white, so i took the scene they are watching and painted that-- just with silhouettes instead of flat out disney characters.  and i picked out a some of the crazy things the gremlins are wearing during the movie (there were so many more i wanted to do..) but i chose the popcorn bucket on the head, popcorn bags on the ears, silly hats and tinsel boa, etc. adorable.  very fun one to paint

details:

stripe!

i know i'm repepitive with this, but i really, really, reeeally wish these looked online the way they do in person. this one i really love the depth in. so fun

the giant it

here is the second of 3 paintings for the autumn society's 3G show at gallery 1988. ghostbusters, goonies, and gremlins! like i said, the difficulty of photographing this properly combined with my lack of photographing skills resulted in an unfortunate poor visual of my painting!  remember, it is a "3D" painting; a painting in layers; sloth painted on glass about an inch away from the background painting.  dimension!

sketch:

final parts:

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final!

my reasons!  my initial idea for my goonies painting was going to be of the wishing well, but that was the extent of my planning.  i watched the movie to expand that idea, but ended up finding a shot of sloth in his chains. it's the first scene mikey (and we) see him, and it was so dramatic and beautiful that i wanted to paint it.  i just loved the light coming through the window, the way it his his face and hands, and the black shadows it created.

details: 

tried again to show depth via photo, again didn't work, but try to visualize!

 seriously. way better in person. go to california to see it.  take me with you.

library presence

here is the first of 3 paintings for the autumn society's 3G show at gallery 1988.  ghostbusters, goonies, and gremlins!  unfortunately, they were extremely hard to photograph, and since i'm already pretty horrible at taking pictures, these are the best i could do. i really believe they look a 90% better in person, so take that into consideration before judging me.

process: 

finally!

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final piece!  this is why it was hard to photograph.  it's a painting in layers. i painted the library background first. then on a sheet of glass, i painted the drawers and flying papers.  since this was the first, it was also my test piece, where i learned how it's a hundred times easier to paint the glass BEFORE the background. live and learn. so what you can't see in the photo is that there is about an inch or so of space between the library background and the drawers/papers. basically a 3D painting, reminds me almost of a shadowbox, except way cooler.  it's hard to imagine without seeing it, but just pretend you can see the depth in the photograph and think it's awesome.

so about the actual painting.  this one is for ghostbusters, and i wanted to some something subtle rather than just a picture of the men in uniform or slimer, or gozer (who i still really, really want to paint as 1EG, with terror dogs. ohhhhh).  this idea was the initial thought i had when i first heard about the show, so i went with my gut even after a dozen other ideas. i'm worried people won't get it, which will either be because you're not a TRUE ghostbuster fan, or because i didn't execute it well enough. i'm hoping if people don't get it, it's because they're crappy fans. this is, however, my favorite scene in the movie. the opening scene in the library, which still sends shivers down my spine.  floating books, flying cards, opening drawers, and that goddamn creepy music.  i'm actually getting creeped out thinking about it (may be because it's 2:30 am and i'm scared of everything at night).  so this is the librarian walking down the aisle as the card catalogs slowly open by themselves and cards start visciously zipping out of the drawers. 

it's scary, and i don't care what anyone says. and let me tell you. this painting gave me the biggest headache of my life.  all those shelves. all those drawers. all those books. i'm not one for being "precise" or "neat" when it comes to painting, and this was painful for me. so much time, so much thought. THIS is why my brain hurt. i'm so relieved now.

some details:

 trying to show the depth below... but you really still can't see it..

i swear, it looks so much cooler in person.  go to california and see it!

tubing down the delaware!

i hope this post doesn't come off as one of the sweet journal entries i used to embarrass myself with back in high school/college, but i wanted to note my first experience tubing down the delaware as a paraplegic.  i'll try to keep it short but i ramble, so...

i've been wanting to try tubing for a few years now, but i was terrified to try with no idea of what to expect (especially since we went only a week after shark week and i don't care how dumb that sounds). duel family tubing! with my family and tim's family, how adorable. as usual, i had a lot of piggy backing to expect, but i had bus rides, steep hills, tubes, and bathrooms to figure out.  after waiting in line for the bus, i was carried on and my wheelchair was left in the hands of a bunch of clueless teenagers for the entire day.  it's always fun to be so trusting to leave my only form of transportation to the unknown.  from the bus, i had to be carried down some dirt hills and down some steep man-made "steps" into the river.  from my point of view, and i don't know if i was being crazy, it was straight down and all that kept running through my mind was tim slipping and snapping my neck. the best part of all this is no one even knows i'm in a wheelchair at this point, and will see me being carried and babied the rest of the way with no clue as to what's going on

now i'm finally in the tube, and let me tell you. it is not easy to adjust and get comfortable in these things when you can't move half your body. my sweet size-too-small black and purple shorts continuously fell down and i was nearly useless for paddling, but we made our way for 4-5 hours down the warm river, and it was fantastic. i hopped out of the tube to swim around like a frantic puppy, but getting back in wasn't so easy. i needed not one, but several people to try and lift my deadweight body up and back into the tube, of course at points where they couldn't even touch the ground. we get to the hot dog man, with dirt and stones, tables in the water, and a confused kc who has no idea where to go or how to sit up and eat.  we made a little fort of the tubes, stacked up with me on top where i ate my burger and delicious "frozen" snickers bar within seconds. mmm.  this was after i was carried by my dear fellow family, still in the tube, up and over the water onto land.  i was a princess.  this was one of those awkward moments that no one knows i can't walk, and just sees my tube and me being carried like lazy royalty. 

we finished the river and it was glorious. loved the water, the sun, the mini "rapids", and the feeling of floating for what could be forever. we finish, take the bus back, etc and so on. and now it's bathroom time.  my favorite kind of bathroom, the porta potty. not even the handicap ones that i can fit in by myself. i'm sure no one needs or wants to hear about my peeing escapades, but it's probably the biggest issue i run into, everywhere, and most people really don't realize how frustrating and difficult it usually makes things. obviously i needed to be carried into the disease-infested, gross, tiny box. and the absolute worst part my mom came in with me (yes that's two people in one) and had to help me, considering it would have been nearly impossible to deal with the horrible suction of my drenched clothes beneath me without having lower body movement. truly an embarrassing and frustrating moment.

but an overall fun-filled day! and i can't wait to do it again

gremlins

i can't seem to keep up with anything lately.  except my art obligations, and somehow this blog (kind of..)

i'm busting my ass to finish my gremlins piece in the next few days so i can ship all 3 out to california.  no sunlight for me.

i always wanted to do the cool "sneak peek" cropped photos that shows a only a tiny bit that makes you dying to see more.  i don't have enough finished to even make myself excited, but i'm doing it anyway. so here's my poor excuse for a teaser for my gremlins painting. i'm tired...

hydro!

my brain's fried from my 3G pieces.  ghostbusters, my biggest headache, is finally, finally done.  and i'm ungodly relieved i was able to finish goonies last night as well.  so i felt the need to paint this after. there's really no thought in it at all (its purpose) except i was thinking about following tim home this morning from his house in the light rain, and he randomly decided to swirve and plow off the on-ramp road towards (but thankfully not into) a bunch of trees and bushes.  followed by cops who happened to be driving by and stopped in the middle of the highway to run to him. even knowing he was okay, i still got really scared and semi-emotional, i don't think i can handle trauma very well. anyway, i painted this in only about 10 minutes, hence the crappy painting job, the cliche-ness, and the fact that you can't even make out what half the objects in the raindrops are.  but it was fun to paint after the oh so carefully planned out paintings i've been spending every waking our on all week.

my brain hurts

i spent the last million hours working on my ghostbusters piece for the 3G show, which is about 90% done.  i've never been so happy to finish a painting.  my brain hurts. you'll see why later. owwww

for now here's peaches. from 2007

crow feet

i'm getting obsessed with making a mess of different colored paints. i made this one late night while i was grumpy and irritated. it's only 11"x 14", but now all i can think about is if i had my own real studio, i would do massive paintings like this. i'd be able to throw paint, drip paint, spray paint, and make an even bigger mess without worrying about ruining everything in sight.  i love working big and my limitations are starting to drive me mad.

geeraff!

adorable little tiny geeraff!  i did this quickly while waiting for other paintings to dry.  it's cute and little.  6"x 6"

turning japanese

the autumn society's TURNING JAPANESE show at brave new worlds opened friday.  i'm not really familiar with much japanese pop culture, so i stuck with what i know and love, super mario bros.  i didn't have much time so i kept them simple.  i don't feel like these are really my style but they were super fun to paint, i would have loved to paint all the mario enemies, especially the bullet and goomba. 

go see the show all month long!

kc bust!

sculpture by timmy!

quick break from my own artwork.  about a year ago, tim made a bust of me, for me. he finally painted it.. a year later.. with details from my dino tshirt to my kidrobot sweatshirt, and he even added little accessories of my parasaurolophus, 1EG, paint, disney castle, my puff (favorite), etc.  love it, so you should too!

springing

fun one! i threw paint on top of paint on top of paint until i painted the girl, or whatever, over top.  i painted this in the middle of the night recently. it started off semi-normal, until i started watching zombieland, and although it's not really a zombie at all, i guess it was influenced by them.  i'm liking the quick late-night paintings more than anything else lately, i assume mostly because of the fun, not so much the outcomes.

i'm also excited to find out my one-eyed girl sculpture was accepted into TCNJ's art alumni exhibition. i wasn't sure how they'd feel about the 1EG series so it was a nice surprise. i loooove their new art building so i'm psyched i get to be in their new gallery. i'd kill to be in school again. opens sept 15, with opening reception oct 1 !

ghostbusters

right now i am watching ghostbusters and taking screen shots of the scenes i want to recreate for the 3G show in LA.  the 3G show is a show by the autumn society at gallery 1988 in september.  ungodly excited for this show, where each artist has a piece for each of the great 80's movies ghostbusters, goonies, and gremlins.  3 classic favorites of mine (and i assume everyone else alive)

sometimes i feel like i'm in physical pain when i have to choose between so many different amazing ideas. i want to do them all. i'm considering a montage of different scenes, but sometimes less is more, and in this case, i think i need to focus on only one.  it's actual torture to accept that i will probably only be making a single scene.... i have 10 screen shots and i'm only a half hour in the movie..

it's killing me.  and as sad as it is, i'm 24, have seen ghostbusters a hundred times, and i'm still sitting here creeped out by myself creeped out by the beginning

big sur

number 2 of the paintings on photographs on canvas.  made in celebration of 3 years of fun festivities with tim.  again, like the yosemite one, this was a practice piece for the ultrasound.  tim and me at the prettiest place in the world (so far that i've seen) big sur in california.  it's not as fun as the yosemite painting with the focus point on tim's misery, but i figured i'd make one for him to portray our fun and happy memories... despite the fact that hours after this photo was taken, tim barfed up his roadside burrito once we drove off those long, winding, neverending roads along the monster cliffs in the dark under the starry night sky..  so romantic