There's a meme on Deviantart called the Influence Map, where you fill in various sized squares on a gridded template with various things that influence you as an artist. These don't necessarily have to be other artists like I put, for me that just seemed the most obvious choice. It's a pretty fun exercise, I enjoyed seeing artists who I am fans of filling it out as well. Interesting to see where we as artists come from. From the template itself: "As an artist, you are influenced by things. The reason why you do what you do is the combined application of all the things that influence you. If you run into a major block and cannot create new work, chances are you are forgetting what inspires you and need a refresher. Fill in these squares with everything that influences and inspires you to fuel the art you love to create. Refer to it as a kind of "map" in the future in case you get lost. You can literally put anything in these squares-- photos of locations or people, other artist's work, artists themselves, video games, TV shows, music, movies and books. You name it, you can put it in there. Fill the grid by placing more prominent influences as larger images. A 3x3 image being the biggest."
So on Friday August 6th my 2nd ever solo show took place at Saints & Sinners Tattoo in Fells Point, Baltimore. What a crazy night! Getting down in the hometown! The show was primarily composed of framed digital prints of my work from the past 2 years, as well as a convention-style merch table where I was selling magnets, necklaces, prints, artbooks and Miss Mary Jane toys. There was also free wine, beer, cheese and crackers. My best friend Fenny even brought a tray of macarons- these delicious French cookies that one of new favorite things. Sooo many people showed up, including my parents, grandmother, brother and his wife and my aunt and cousins, all of whom never attended one of my events before- adding to the stomach-churning anxiety I had for weeks prior to the show. They all loved it and had a great time, it was so great to share this aspect of my life with them. Overall I'd say it was a smashing success and quite the place to be in Fells that night!
My work will be on display for the rest of August!
My mom did an awesome job of framing and matting everything for me- I owe her alot!
Lots of sexy ladies for Baltimore to enjoy!
The Pumphrey family in the house!
Merch! Buy it up!
Reuniting with old friends
Macarons!! Om nom nom!!! They were basically my dinner that night.
Me, struttin through the crowd. I was going for a spooky pirate brothel madame look.
That's about it. Started to get working on my Michonne (from The Walking Dead) pinup. All the while also getting ready for my art show this week down in Baltimore at Saints & Sinners, which looks to be a blast! Always enjoy these get-togethers. It's such a perfect opportunity to see all my friends from back home, catch up and they can see what I've been up to (at least art-wise, which is pretty much all I do anyways) since usually every other time I'm back in Maryland for a weekend it's for a specific event or I'm only there to see my family. I'm trying to make a solo art show in Maryland an annual thing.
Comic Con 2010 trailer for The Walking Dead AMC tv series
I am SO EXCITED for this show. Come October I am kissing my ability to sleep soundly goodbye, since I am utterly terrified of the idea of a zombie apocalypse. I would rather fight the Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein all at once than have to fight thru a zombie apocalypse. I'm a HUGE fan of the comic series, I will devour each graphic novel in a single night when it comes out- it is the most realistic, heart-wrenching, dark, addictive comic I've read since Preacher. SO AMAZING. What's truly amazing about this series, is that eventually it doesn't so much become about zombies being the scary big bad of the series as much as the possibility of other humans our band of protagonists run into in their journey and what their motivations could be. Because really the only people who would survive an apocalypse are those that would be capable of only the worst possible things. At least you know the zombie's motivations. The humans could sidle up all nice and then boom- death and dismemberment. And to those of you who say it looks like 28 Days Later, the beginning is the only similarity, believe me. It really delves into the human condition. It's known as 'the zombie movie that doesn't end'.
***Tura Satana***
OMG, Tura needs no explanation on why I love her. Just watch this little snippet of an interview, you'll see.
What's funny is I've been familiar with Tura quotes from Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! since high school thanks to samples used in White Zombie albums. I only in the past couple years have familiarized myself with her sheer awesomeness. I even got a shirt from Pinup Girl Clothing that resembles the one she wore in Pussycat. Pair that shit with some black pants and I can make believe I'm Varla, her bad-ass alter ego. I know I definitely want to draw a picture of Varla one day. Oh yes...
***The music from Bonk's Adventure***
Bonk rules. Released in 1990, it was on the Turbo Grafix 16. My brother and I were lucky enough to get a system at launch cuz my dad won a sweepstakes at Toys R Us and even luckier we had an awesome Mom n' Pop video game rental place in the neighborhood. (Video Game Exchange! Hollah!) So that summer we were the coolest kids on the block. I was *obsessed* with Bonk when I was 9, it was one of t he few games I was actually kinda decent at. If I remember correctly it might've even been the first game I ever beat.
First off: Finished a cute little simple mermaid I plan on using on jewelry and magnets. A non-'boobies out' version will be available... eventually. Or maybe you should stop being such a prude. ;)
I also have two personal pieces I'm working on.
A pinup of Michonne from my favorite comic series right now, The Walking Dead. Weird trying to marry something so dark and serious with my chipper and cartoony style. Art rule I have: if you have a katana and are wearing sneakers, they will always be Onitsuka Tigers.
Also a 'Nancy from Sin City'-esque topless cowgirl in chaps. I might do 2 colorways on this, one that's Nancy-looking with blonde hair and black chaps and one that's more like Sluefoot Sue from the old Disney Pecos Bill cartoon. This one is actually taking a bit longer than expected because I'm trying to do the fringe super smooth in Illustrator with vector points. Which is kind of like creating art with math, not very fun but it makes it look very precise.
I think I posted it before, but in case I didn't or you missed it, I'm closing down shop for commissions until next year to focus on personal projects and a potentially huge project in 2011 that I hope to get off the ground over the holiday season. Unless I have already talked to you or you already gave me money, I am not taking fresh commissions until next year.
So in pursuit of new blog content I am going to attempt to post 'Things I Love Thursdays', which are when every Thursday you post a small pictoral list of the things you are currently into. A few blogs I follow have been doing it and I think it's a neat idea. Hopefully I can keep it up!
***Ddukbokki***
OM NOM NOM OM OMG! I have recently become obsessed with delicious, delectable ddukbokki since my friend took me to a Korean barbecue joint in K-town for my birthday last year. Apparently it's a popular street food in Korea. It reminds me almost of giant barbecue flavored Spagetti-O's that I get to eat with chopsticks.
***Blue Oyster Cult- Veteran of the Psychic Wars***
If I ever did burlesque, I'd so do a spacegirl number to Blue Oyster Cult's Veterans of the Psychic Wars. In a blue vinyl catsuit with silver gloves and boots. With a fog machine. And blue lights. And a bubble helmet. And it would be glorious. And yeah, I know, I say 'if I ever did burlesque, I'd do a blah blah number to blah blah song' alot. ;P I CAN DREAM CAN'T I??? Believe me, if I didn't have 8 million pieces of artwork to do all the time I would sooo have jumped up on stage by now. Maybe one day when I go freelance and my side work becomes my work-work I can supplement my desire for extra-curriculars with rhinestones and pasties. In the meantime however, I'll just listen to this on my headphones on repeat every morning on the subway.
Words cannot describe how influential this short was to me at 12 when they played it on Liquid Television on Mtv.
***Fenny and I's cigarette girl/showgirl costumes for NYCC***
Coming up with ideas for my BFF Fenny and I's cigarette showgirl costumes for New York Comic Con in October. I'll be red and she'll be blue. With lots of sparkly star appliqués and gold fringe. Also not pictured are our cigarette trays that we'll be handing flyers off of. I'm already glue gunning rhinestones and sequins in my head. OMG our costumes will be EPIC. And I actually get to walk around a convention for the first time in 3 years!
So for one night only on Thursday July 18th from 9pm to 1am at Niagara Bar in the Lower East Side was Girls Drawin' Girls's first east coast group art show. Presented by the Antagonist Art Movement and curated by yours truly. And yes, this was my first time curating a group art show in New York. Definitely a learning experience.
Me at the merch table
Flyer inspired by Blondie's Parallel Lines album cover
Over all the show was a success. It was part of Antagonist Art Movement's rotating Thursday night art show space at Niagara Bar, and the show was to be put up and come down all in the span of that single night. Setup was a challenge. I also worked that day, in Midtown Manhattan (where Times Square is) and everything from the art show was split between my apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and my office. So after an aggravating subway ride in the morning with my granny cart and a super nice and helpful taxi driver that evening after work, I along with help from the Antagonist liaisons put the show up, then after a verrrrrry looooong day the evening began and I got my second wind after I put my party dress on and started seeing friends come in. To which I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to all that came out so late on a 'school night'. I and the other members of Girls Drawin' Girls really appreciate the support, help and purchases that made it such a success! There was a definite drop-off of attendance after midnight, so we packed up a bit earlier than originally planned and got everything in the rented zipcar my boyfriend had the awesome insight to get ahold of for the ride home.
I'll take part and help organize another Girls Drawin Girls show in the future, but I'd really like to check out some other galleries where I can set up one day, have an opening the next and break it down like a week to a month afterwards. As fun as the Niagara show was, to do all of that in the span of 6 hours is exhausting especially with the added stress of handling other peoples artwork. If I do another show at Niagara, which I would like to do in the future, it'll definitely be a solo show. Or shared with like, 1 friend who is responsible for bringing their own work.
ALSO!!! I have some really awesome news!! Girls Drawin' Girls has a table at New York Comic Con!!! Which means there will be an actual table selling my merch at NYCC that you can go to instead of looking for me and my best friend Fenny as sparkly cigarette girls. Worry not though, because we'll still be making rounds around the Javits Center in our cigarette girl costumes, which are shaping up to be AMAAAZING. I commissioned a friend who's a burlesque performer to make us showgirl headdresses and featherbutts! And I'm already eyeing trims and rhinestones for our costume bodies. After all that drama about my Artist Alley table I'm sooooo glad to see things work out! We will however be acting more as crowd control, steering folks over to the GDG table instead of selling stuff off the trays. So YAY!!!!
