Birthday Blog

Here's a couple drawings I just made yesterday afternoon...please click on the images to see the full size:

He says to me, "You're just sending off the wrong signal." I scowl at him from the passenger seat, not in the mood to be given advice. He continues, "Instead of saying, 'I'm single' you should say 'I want a boyfriend.' It's a totally different way of presenting yourself." I pause, eventually replying, "Hmm...well, I think that sounds like a bunch of HOOEY." But then a couple days later I realized he was right.


I know, this is another relationship-themed drawing. (It's just because everything else in my life is going so swimmingly these days that I don't need to sit around and analyze the other stuff.) This drawing is also on the topic of "what I'm doing that's preventing me from getting involved with someone else." It shows my metaphorical guest room, which used to be very hospitable for visitors but over the years has become crammed with my various endeavors. AKA: art stuff. I'm sure I could clear out space if I met someone who I really fancied, but I have a fear that my lack of space for someone else makes me come across as standoff-ish.

And here's a fun little collage I made tonight inspired by birthday flowers that Jamie gave me...


Yup, it's my birthday! My Through the Looking Glass Birthday Picnic on Saturday was so much fun, thank you everyone who could come out and join us! You can see pictures of what you missed in my facebook photo album.

Last night I continued celebrating my birthday at karaoke, but then my bag disappeared! Keep your fingers crossed it will turn up, because it had my wallet, keys to my apartment and bike, phone, ipod, birthday picnic guest book, gifts, etc...

Currently Listening: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros...Up From Below

Sunny Side Up

I'm sorry there hasn't been any art to share in the past week, but I've been doing double duty working on Christmas windows during the day and then working on my book at night. Here's one new one to share, please click on the image to see full size.


The caption to this one is, "Let's make omelettes." I know the heart motif isn't original, but it's what my heart wanted to draw. It was feeling like an egg.

I'm helping my friend Matt repaint the back of his building, check out our progress so far! Once we get hold of a compressor we'll blend the colors together and start painting the REAL mural on top of the blue background. (It's above East River Bar on South 6th Street in Williamsburg...you can see it really well from the bridge!) I'll keep you posted.




Next weekend I'm having a BIRTHDAY PICNIC, so if you're in New York check out the facebook event...I'll be Alice and the guests will be the Wonderland! We'll have a homemade Cheshire Cat pinata, unconventional croquet, mad games, wine served out teapots, and even pink flamingos to greet you as you arrive.


Currently Listening: Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66...Greatest Hits

Labor day tidings

Here are a couple gouache paintings I made on Friday night. (Please click on image to see the full size)

You know my rule about flowers...when I get them, I draw them. These were from Diana when she visited me last week.

This painting is about the distance between people that makes you feel like you're stuck sending smoke signals to each other. The caption at the bottom of the painting got cut off, but it reads: "I like you." "I like you, too..."

Currently Listening: Carla Bruni...Quelqu'un M'a Dit

Recap: Art Show, Show N' Tell, Frak Earth

**ART SHOW**

For one week I got to take over HiChristina with an art show and different events each night! I hung up scads of drawings all over the walls, along with my great friends photographer Diana Arge and painter Bishop203! Diana came all the way up from Charlottesville just for the occasion.






**PRESS**

The super supportive fellas from BrooklynStreetArt.com came by while Bishop and I were hanging our show, and they posted a nice write-up about us and our work on their website! Here is the link: BrooklynStreetArt Q&A


**WRITERS (& CARTOONISTS) SHOW N TELL**

Tuesday is normally Writers Show N Tell night at HiChristina, so during my show we decided to make it comics themed! People presented their work and then the audience interpreted it in various ways, from posing as the characters to dancing. I shared what I'm working on for "Page by Paige" of course, but we also welcomed special guests Nathan Schreiber and Dennis Calero!





**FIGURE DRAWING**

This was a fun night where most of the audience ended up posing as models themselves! (Including Diana and myself) I posted drawings made by me as well as other guests in my blog posting here.



**FRAK EARTH**

This event was put together by John Brooks and I, and thanks to a mention in TimeOut we got a whole slew of devoted BSG fans to come out! (But I was the only one nerdy enough to dress up) We served ambrosia and algae cookies, played original games (Cylon arm wrestling, Gaius Baltar Inner Monologue Karaoke, and "Frak, What's my line?"), tackled John's challenging trivia, gave out lots of BSG themed prizes (from stogies to kamala extract), and THEN had a lovely discussion with a panel of experts.

Our panel members included Patrick Di Justo (Author of "The Science of Battlestar Galactica"), Shane Froebel (From Frakmedia, Battlestar Wiki), Ajay Chaudhary (a religion/ philosophy professor at Columbia), and my cohost extraordinare John Brooks. Both Shane and Patrick posted nice little write-ups after the event in their blogs. The event went SO well we're thinking of pitching it to other venues on a larger scale, so I'll keep you posted!

I lost my camera (Frak!) so these are a few pictures I got from Shane:




*******

If you wanna see more pictures from the events, check out my facebook photo album.

And if you'd like to see pictures from my art show and events that I did A YEAR AGO at HiChristina (they were in their old space in the Lower East Side) here is the link to that blog posting.

Recap: Puppet Open Mic, Art Therapy

**PUPPET OPEN MIC**

Thursdays are normally Open Mic night at HiChristina, so during my art show I decided to make it puppet themed! Because, well, puppets make everything more fun. We had a fun mixture of regular attendees and new folks, including our special puppeteer guests Matt Lesser, Adam Jones, and Ronny Wasserstrom!






Here is a short video featuring clips from many of our performers...this is WAY better than trying to explain the event through pictures:

(If you'd rather watch it larger on Youtube please click here.)

**ART THERAPY NIGHT**

Whereas the other events this week were a collaboration with other creative friends, THIS night was my event. In my official looking labcoat, I led everyone in a mixture of personally inspired activities that encourage introspection as well as sheer play and exploration: scribble vomit therapy, glitter expressionism, twister finger painting, and life size self portraits.

A mention in the Nonsense mailing list brought out lots of new faces, and the outpouring of creativity (and glitter) by our attendees was impressive! This night was SO much fun. The event itself was filmed by HD Net, a cable network that came out to cover the event. So I'll let you know when and where the story airs!






*******

If you wanna see more pictures from the events, check out my facebook photo album.

And if you'd like to see pictures from my art show and events that I did A YEAR AGO at HiChristina (they were in their old space in the Lower East Side) here is the link to that blog posting.

Playing at 5Pointz

This weekend I took my visiting friend Diana to 5Pointz. And thanks to our friend Bishop, we unexpectedly found ourselves with cans of spray paint in out hands! I hastily painted this somewhat older image of mine because everyone at my art show this past week seemed to respond to the metaphor...

And a few more pics...



And what is 5Pointz? It's a block in Long Island City where graffiti is legal...

And I painted at 5Pointz one time before. It was last September as part of my grand-birthday-weekend-o-fun...the picture of that piece is in the blog entry here!

Currently Listening: My go-to-when-I'm-sad-and-need-to-cheer-up-music...Billy Joel.

From my figure drawing night...

Last week at HiChristina I hosted a figure drawing night where a large portion of the audience (myself included) ended up posing. It was quite a fun night! Here are some of the drawings I made. (Please click on the image to see full size...)




Here are a couple drawings by my friend and co-worker Matt Mikas. (the first one is yours truly...I was reading a book.)


And here are a couple from my talented studiomate Reilly Brown:




In one group pose I was drawing the rest of models on Fritz:



Currently Listening: The Noisettes...Wild Young Hearts