awkwards anonymous

i wanted to start making my friday posts dedicated to all the idiotic, hilarious, or awkward things people comment on about my disability, you know, since i get it at least once a week... but i haven't had the time to collect my thoughts enough..

a classic is when someone comes into a room and the first thing they notice is the chair, they don't do a thing to hide the shock. i recently got the surprised face from a man, followed by an "uh-oh that doesn't look good."  it doesn't?

next was kind of adorable. a 5th grader at my school, a really intelligent and thoughtful girl, asked me, "are your legs feeling better?" i  keep thinking i'm getting better at these interactions, by preparing generic answers, but they keep catching me so offguard with more and more new comments and questions that my pre-planned response is thrown out the window and become at a loss for what to say. she then asked when i was going to be out of the chair. i love when the kids ask these things, even though it's when i feel most awakrd of all. i think it is good for them to be exposed to my kind at a young age. yeah, i said it, my kind.

you would think after 10+ years and countless remarks from people, i'd have some witty comebacks to make for a less awkward situation for myself. i don't. my real disability is my social awkwardness. it's a serious condition with no cure. it's a burden that both my loved ones and i have to live with for the rest of our lives. i'm going to start a counseling group for others with my same disease. awkwards anonymous.

(i don't know what those images are from, i got them from google images. is that allowed? stupid copyright crap rules that i don't understand....)

CARDED!

this saturday i'll be part of a show called "CARDED!" it's an awesome event that i wish i could attend, but unfortunately it is a little out of reach at the moment. i submitted my 1EG (above) and was psyched to be one of the 50 artists chosen. with 120 submissions, it was the longest selection process for any of their shows so i'm ecstatic to have been chosen. i wish i could be there for some crazy awkward card heckling and trading, but here is the fun and exciting info on the show:

The creators of Hot One Inch Action present the 3rd annual CARDED! – a one-night only show of art on trading cards.
Saturday April 30, 2011

Gallery Gachet (88 E Cordova, Vancouver)

8-11pm

with music from DJ Darwin Meyers.

The work of fifty artists is presented on trading cards and made available for art lovers to collect and trade. These 2.5"x3.5" cards are displayed on the gallery wall and the audience is offered the opportunity to buy random cards in mixed packs of five for $5. If you purchase a pack that doesn’t have your desired card, get into some fast paced trading action with the people around you. How bad do you want that card!?

The artists for the 2011 show: Amanda McCuaig, Andrea Hooge, Andrew McIntosh, Arleigh Wood, Ben Worth, Carelle B. Dunn, Caroline Weaver & Jamie Bizness, Dacosta!, Dave Mah, David Camisa, Derek von Essen, Ehren Salazar, Eileen, Ek, Eli Wolff, Elisa Mader, Erin Gibbs, Heather Renney, Jackie Klobucar, Jenn Brisson, Kalynn Kallweit, Kasey Tararuj, Kathryn Mussallem, Kel/Kel, Laura Eveleigh, Laura Zerebeski, Lisa G Bauer, Mac Congrove, Mark Atomos Pilon, Matt Wainwright, Meagan Mah, Megan Majewski, Mel King, Miguel Shaw, Monika Koch, Nicole Pinkerton, Paul Gardiner, Peter Newman, Pierre Leichner, Randall Cosco, Rich Lehl, Robin Thompson, Rory Phillips, Russell Alton, Sarah Mulder, Shauna Eve, Soizick Meister, Thief, Trevor Jansen, and Tricia Pearson.

Invite your friends on Facebook. This show is produced and curated by Chris Bentzen and Jim Hoehnle. Check out our other show Hot One Inch Action.

check out the CARDED website for photos of past shows and cards here!

butterspy

 this is butterspy. he is a butterfly-thing, or more accurately, a butterfly impostor. he wears and flaunts his fake wings while snatching up defenseless unsuspecting butterflies. and then eats them. butterspy is the first figure i finished for the munnyworld megacontest, and funny enough, i hadn't really planned on finishing him for the contest since he's made of two different munnyworld figures: the head of a raffy and body of a rooz.  ever since i made the chloe figure (with raffy body and rooz head), i've been staring at the leftover pieces, thinking of a butterfly-thing. the contest has finally given me a reason to push aside all other work and focus on some toy customizing (like i've been aching to!), so i kept using leftover clay from other pieces to slowly build up my butterspy character... and i just got too excited to paint him, so here he is! i think i'm rambling. also! i made the cute little net from one of the dozens of munny accessories i had lying around. it was a tree branch (i think?) that i cut off some sticks poking out and attached a little net made from a bug-carrier that timmy found for me.

feel free to "like" butterspy on the munnyworld megacontest page (i think on page 4ish at this point?), my 5 other entries, and any other custom you love!

my dream chair

maybe some day i'll be privileged enough to have a high-tech super-chair, too..

molasses & jiffy

 

the classic story of the tortoise and the hare! molasses the tortoise is always getting jumped all over by the zaney jiffy the hare. originally when i started this, i had planned on making a cute little turtle with a little snail friend. once i finished sculpting both creatures, i had the idea of customizing one of kidrobot's dunny figures into a bunny (or hare.) i thought it would be funny to have the crazy hare jumping on the poor, confused tortoise's head. i threw out the snail idea (though, i have him sculpted already so be on a look out for him as part of a future custom!)

i tried to keep my little reptile simple and i was in love with him once i finished the sculpted additions, but i painted him not once, not twice, but three times before falling in love with him again. it drove me insane and there is an unholy amount of paint on him, but i finally got him painted the colors he was destined to be! i didn't want to make him a plain old green turtle, but the color combinations i came up with weren't working. i'm usually happy with my color choices right away, and maybe it was the rushing or poor planning, but i just couldn't get the right colors. my second attempt was to make him an albino tortoise, and although i absolutely loved the idea, his features didn't stand out enough to make him a strong piece (but i made up for it by making the hare albino instead.) i was stressing out about his colors, while everyone in my house yelled at me to set it aside and come back to it later. i did so, felt better, and finally settled for the typical green and yellow, which i'm pleased with since the contrast of those colors with the albino hare look fabulous.

here are my two attempts. i really loved the albino tortoise from this view, but from the front i just wasn't happy with him.

as of right now, molasses doesn't stand on his own with jiffy on his head, so keep an eye out for updated pictures once i get them on a nifty base !

please feel free to "like" my entries on the munnyworld megacontest page ! molasses the tortoise, ned finklestein the nerdy water buffalo, and slinky the prison lemur. hurry and do it while they're still on page 1 !

cupcake mania

cupcakes galore! a little break from the artsiness to bring you some decorating attempts. that pretty little lady bug is the very first decorating i've actually gotten paid for. the smash cake. when i started this i hadn't considered being paid. it's a full on hobby, which thrills me. who wouldn't want to get paid for extra practice?

the cats and fish are from the hello, cupcake and what's new, cupcake? books.  i did these strictly for fun one day. i changed some colors and improvised a bit, but they came out kinda cool.

the flowers are from hello, newsletter. i made them for a friend who was returning to work after 2 weeks. i was a little embarassed to bring them to work since i wasn't exactly thrilled with the results. i changed the colors and didn't fully follow the directions so they aren't perfect.... but still pretty, no? i was told by one guy that they were the greatest cupcakes ever eaten in is life, but i think he was just trying to be nice. technically, i think every cupcake is the greatest cupcake i've ever eaten in my life

i'm on spring break, i'm allowed to have crappy posts this week. it's my first real spring break since high school (college spring break totally do not count.)

runts

here is runts, my pride and joy! the hungry little chimp who can't get enough bananas. this is basically what i look like every time i eat.

runts is a customized foomi figure that i wish i could take full credit for, but the idea of making a monkey with bananas actually came from my sister, dl. while i was spending endless hours customizing too many munnyworld figures, dl said the foomi figure head looked like a bunch of bananas from behind. so i took the idea and ran with it. i love trying to use the DIY toys in different and unique ways (my snail garth as an example) so i was eager to take on this banana bonanza challenge. i had no idea if it would work out, but i'm thrilled with my new baby chimp figure

 

this is what the blank foomi figure originally looked like. it's kind of weird to look at runts in the way the foomi is intended to be used.  i like to compare.

feel free to "like" runts, capt'n snips (the hermit crab), and butterspy (the pinkish butterfly imposter), and any other submission you love on the munnyworld contest page. as of now they are on the 2nd page, but who knows where they'll be after more entries pop up...

3B pieces !

 here they are all together!

the autumn society's "3B show" featuring back to the future, bill and ted's excellent adventure, and beetlejuice
may 5 at gallery 1988 venice in santa monica, california

back to the future (part 2):

 "hill valley, 2015"

bill and ted's (bogus journey):

"hell gets personal"

 beetlejuice:

"number fifty-four million six hundred one"

be sure to read about each individual piece here!

i love pop-art that illustrates individual characters from movies (etc) in all different people's creative styles, but what i really love most are the ones that bring you back to your favorite scenes and moments, the ones that give you that happy, tingly, nostalgic feeling in your tummy.  i'll get excited over basically any artwork dealing with movies i love, but the ones portraying specific scenes really get me. with these and past pieces, i've actually given myself this feeling, and i genuinely hope i can give that to some other crazy fans out there too! i am inexplicably excited to head to california for the 3B show opening, and especially excited to see everyone's beetlejuice pieces in person.  be sure to check out all the 3B pieces here to see the variety, uniqueness, and awesomeness of everyone's work.

number fifty-four million six hundred one

"if i knew then what i know now, i wouldn't have had my little accident."

number fifty-four million six hundred one: my beetlejuice piece for the autumn society's 3B show at gallery 1988 venice !  my third and last 3-dimensional piece for the show. with the waiting room background, and in 3D: the gal in half, table, and desk window. since photos do don't the layered paintings any justice, here are images of the different layers, to get a better idea of how the piece looks in person:

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(below, you may notice the 3D effect of the window on the glass raised 1/4" over miss argentina on the background)

this has my absolute FAVORITE pop-art piece to paint, seeing as beetlejuice is one of my favorite movies of all time. it has just always been such a special movie, close to my heart, so much nostalgia, bringing me back to my childhood every time i see it. i desperately wanted to do 3 different scenes for this piece (the singing possession scene, the bring back to life scene, and the afterlife waiting room.) it pained me to choose one, but i had such a distinct vision for the afterlife waiting room in my head, that i just knew i had to do it.

i also had a really hard time with this scene because there was just too much i wanted to include. so many unique and amazing characters that deserve to be highlighted. due to size restrictions, i had to limit the characters illustrated, so unfortunately i was sad to cut out some of the greatest characters ever (the smoker, the employee who got ran over, the camper in the sleeping back with the rattlesnake.) i considered adding them all resulting in cluttered, chaotic scene, but i feel like the afterlife waiting room atmosphere is so calm, quiet, and awkward, that i tried to keep that same vibe in my piece.  so! here we have miss argentina (the wrist slitter), shrunken head dude, chicken bone choker, shark attack victim, and girl in half.

i made up for the exclusion of the other waiting room characters, by adding little subtle details here and there.  mr. chicken bone man above is holding the handbook for the recently deceased! i would have loved to do a piece based on that handbook, but i was excited to have it as a minor detail in my piece. also, i would have loved to do a 3D piece of the sandworm in its environment, so instead i did a mini tribute to the sandworm as a random magazine cover on the table in the waiting room.

i had one more little tribute in my piece. instead of painting the actual paintings that were on the waiting room's walls in the movie, i decided to turn the sculptures made by lydia's stepmother into little paintings (below.) i used some extra texture to make them "pop." i've always loved her sculptures, despite how little i'm normally attracted to abstract art. it may be because they came to life in the end, who knows, but i love them and thought it would be a fun extra touch. i also wanted to note that i gave the walls a ton of texture to give it that same look as in the movie. i was (am) pretty proud of that...

so i hope beetlejuice fans out there love it and appreciate the little things as much as i do! it was one of my favorite pieces ever to make.

hill valley, 2015

"shark still looks fake..."

hill valley, 2015: my back to the future piece for the autumn society's 3B show at gallery 1988 ! sticking with the 3-dimensional painting theme, with marty and the shark painted on glass 1/4" above the town background.  i added a bit more of the 3D touch to the flat background by raising the cafe and jaws signs. here are the individual layers to give a better idea of the piece's look:

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when i found out one of the movies for the 3B show was back to the future, i wouldn't say i was disappointed, but i would have liked to illustrate a new movie, considering i had just done two BTTF commissions. the two commissions i did were from the first and third of the series, so naturally, i took this as an opportunity (and challenge) to complete the set by illustrating a scene from back to the future part 2. my BTTF buff of a boyfriend suggested the 3D jaws scene, so i took it and ran with it.  i watched this specific part dozens of times for reference, and when marty says the "shark still looks fake," i laughed like an idiot every time. fantastic. i wanted to do a little more than just a painting of a cartoony shark, so i pieced together some different elements from that specific scene.  i had no choice but to include cafe 80's since there is nothing i love more than the 80's.

i also added in the antique shop that marty takes a peek in.  it is a teeny tiny piece of the painting, so it was hard to get too detailed, but i made sure to (attempted..) to include the infamous sports almanac. i also noticed a roger rabbit stuffed animal in the window, when i realized robert zemeckis, director of BTTF, also directed roger rabbit, one of my all time favorite movies, so i had to include roger in my piece as well.

i'm pretty excited about marty's color changing cap. while painting his pretty, shimmery, metallicy multi-colored hat from the movie, i realized i had some iridescent paints lying around and they were perfect for a little extra detail. i was a little overexcited about it, but in the end, you could only see the iridescence in the right light, from the right angles.  but it's there!

also, i have posted some photos below to (hopefully) give a better idea of how the 3-dimensional part comes in. you may notice (probably based on the shadows casted) that both the cafe and jaws signs are raised a bit above the painting. just trying to give some more dimension in addition to the paintings on glass.

next up, beetlejuice!