Twit and a Comissioned Skull

I LOVE Meat Joy

I'm really excited about this show.. got to go! Check out Meat After Meat Joy at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge.

Other People's Ephemera

There is an allure to painting the relatives and friends I never had. They are ciphers for relationships I never had, experiences I never had. I was getting my car fixed Thursday and I pulled out some of the drawings and the source material and started working on them. The woman next to me in the waiting room became fascinated with the process of translating these Victorian and 1940s and 1950s era women into drawings. She invented pasts for them, asked questions of their background, scrutinized each photo looking for place, names, handwriting clues, etc. It was really fascinating to watch. I wanted to make sure I also had a grip on the recent past, so some of my borrowed imagery is now making an appearance. These ladies are awkward in the most endearing ways, wether they are posing over 80 years ago or in a 1990s high school year book. Not June Cleaver or some starlet, I feel at home relinquishing my control of the image to these women.

Pencil Portraits

New Studio

I'm moving into a studio with WINDOWS. I did not know how important windows were until I was in an interior space for 2 years. Windows are good. Light is good.

From Model Drawing Group

Straight from my notebooks, two of my favorite model drawings from the last two weeks. We have been having WONDERFUL models at my drawing group, I don't know if I'm doing the models justice really, but they may make an appearance in my paintings by virtue of their talent and poise. Have a good Thursday everybody! Oh, and if I missed you on my new blog list, shoot me an email or a comment so I can add you, I'm oh-so-absent-minded these days! Oh, and sorry about the cropping, my scanner makes things blue at the edges so unfortunately I will be cutting off feet and hands and such!!!

Pinup on the Forest Floor with Still Life

Something I'm tooling around with at home because of the heat. (I LOVE air conditioning!) I have been neglecting everything else in favor of drawing, a weakness I suppose, but one I need. To those I haven't contacted, I'm sorry, I'll be in contact soon. Just got to finish a few underdrawings like this one. I've just got to work out my nymph and satyr in the forest / Vargas girl thing and then I'll be back in touch. Everything falls out of place when the studio work is foundering, I feel like I'm beginning to find my way and that is a gift.

New Underdrawing

This was made with good food and good conversation on Sunday night. Cheers to the craft night ladies, esp those ladies who happen to crochet plastic grocery bags!

Mustard Ground Portrait

New Portraits

New Drawing

This drawing has been a few months in the making, I keep having interrupted work time. I think this piece benefited from my inattention, as I made some strange decisions with the color and pacing of the work. I just had a few lovely visitors in my studio, and I was absolutely thrilled that one of my visitors affiliated my work not only with that of Audrey Flack (a hero of mine) but also Dita von Teese and the "new burlesque" movement! It was a lovely read for a few works I have yet to put up here, but I thought I would share as I start to post the new work!

Weeds

Why don't we go out into the garden and eat worms? A weed for you for exam time and crunch time in our too-cold New England Spring. This little plein air painting that had me focusing on the ground instead of the marvelous vistas of mostly urban landscape. A 20 minute weed of sorts, the little bugger grows next to the driveway and has come to dominate the grass. I am pleased with its speed and silliness. I hope to make more messy little paintings of our funny urban tundra.

Stylish Glasses

Dalliance from the Studio

Ribbon Stash