Happy holidays!

May your holidays be wonderfully festive....and may our Januaries be blissfully boring!

First Book Charity Event

A couple weeks ago I attended my first fancy-schmancy event as a representative of Abrams! (They're the publisher of my upcoming book) It was a charity event for First Book, which is an amazing organization that provides new books to children in need. Abrams works with them to contribute books, so I was happy to be introduced to the cause.

It was held at the legendary Waldorf Astoria hotel...


Galley copies of MY BOOK were out on all the tables for guests to take home. My book?! Surreal!

Bacardi Pushcart

Last week I worked once again with the charming Adam Aleksander, this time creating a retro Cuban-inspired fruit pushcart for Bacardi's "Legacy of the Cocktail" competition!

Here is the finished cart, brimming with fresh produce and goods you would find in a corner bodega. (Click to see larger)


I painted the cart in Adam's tenement, then helped dress the cart with all the produce and such after we wheeled it down the street to the event space.



This project totally made me think of all the little street-corner carts I saw in Ghana...

Control Group Whiteboard Mural

Last week I drew a fun WHITEBOARD MARKER MURAL for a holiday party being thrown by Control Group (a technology services firm) in the legendary Woolworth Building!

The walls of this curved conference room were lined with whiteboards, so I filled it with swirly wind, clouds, and snowflakes. And I laid out the custom-made blue lollipops in snowflake patterns to mimic my drawn snowflakes. (Click to see larger)



I wrote, "please sign our snowflake mural," encouraging the guests of the party to continue embellishing the walls during the party. Which they happily did!




On a side note, this space was used as the set for Mode Magazine in the first season of UGLY BETTY. My New York life is so very random.

Hendrick's Enchanted Forest

Presenting....Hendrick's Enchanted Forest of Curiosities!

It is part alternative holiday storefront, part performance space and part bizarre holiday bazaar. We transformed the 2000 square foot Gallery 151 art space into a handmade forest of sculpted trees and wall to wall murals. We included astroturf carpet, mulch, logs, a moss canopy, firefly lights, fog, and forest sounds. Even the DJ booth was inside a sculpted tree!

My role in this project? I was co-designer with Adam Aleksander, the floor manager during the installation (managing our dozen awesome interns), and also worked on scenic painting/styling. Here are my original set design sketches.

More pics from behind the scenes, amusing before & after shots, and professional pics are in this Facebook photo album. Oh, and we were just featured in New York Magazine!

So here's the storefront window (click pics to see larger)...

Here's a look inside...



We had various elements in the room in addition to our huge tree-stump stage. Here is the GIN TREE...

PHOTO BOOTH TREE (that's me!)...

WISHING WELL (punch bowl)...

Massive BAR TREE...

We even had boozy limericks to read while waiting in line for the bathroom...


And who DOESN'T love before and after photos? Here's the right side of side of the room. Before...

...and after!


Here's the left side of the room. Before...

...and after!


And finally, I thought I'd share pics showing the very first day of installation...

...and the last day of installation! Phew. What a mess.

It was super loud during the install! I lost my voice.


Events were held in the forest this week with New York Magazine & Upright Citizen's Brigade, Eater & the French Culinry Institute, The Onion, Flavorpill & St. Vincent.

If you'd like to check out the space it will be open to the public for a special HOLIDAY MARKET sponsored by Bust Magazine! Monday December 13th through Saturday December 18th, 4:00-9:00pm.

Short video I made of the space...