Good morning! Closer to noon here, actually, as I’ve managed to inexplicably sleep past 10 for the second day in a row. After several minutes of cold-sweat-panic and confusion, I’m now enjoying it with a mug of homemade mocha and a pile of photos to dig through. First up, a few shots from the Conjoined reception. Below is me with my Alien Botany paintings – don’t let the squint-face fool you, it was a super-fun night! To finally finish not …
My latest painting, the startling Alien Botany specimen, Cypripedium Lingua, is now finished! Come see it in the flesh, along with the Cephalotus Geminus, this Saturday at Conjoined 2. If you haven’t already, check out this Haute Macabre write-up about Conjoined and, if you’re in LA on Saturday, be sure to come say hello at the show! I heard through the grapevine there will be an interactive robot tentacle, so you know where I’ll be all night. The details: This Saturday, January …
It’s a busy January, between finishing paintings for this Saturday’s reception, working on interviews and photos for ChinaShop, drawings for tattoo commissions and a pinup for Occupy Comics. I’ve also started Spring cleaning early – a few fancies are out on eBay as we speak. On Monday, I managed to escape the toil and spend a day with my mom. I love, LOVE ramen. Real Japanese ramen, not the packaged dry sort, and I finally introduced mom to this magical concoction. …
I’m racing to get ths piece finished for Chet Zar’s Conjoined group show on the 21st and it turns out one can get a lot of painting done in four-and-a-half hours if enough over-steeped Pu-erh tea is on hand. The question now is: will I even sleep again?
The past few days have been filled with shoots and interviews and catching up with some of the ridiculously talented people I’m glad to call friends in the midst of it all, while ferociously digging into One Hundred Years of Solitude. On page 180 now. Today I’m diving back into a painting, in hopes of being able to wrap by the 18th. Time for serious caffeination and concentration. This is from my documentation of the Silverlake Zombie thing a couple …
All I knew about my New Year’s present from A was that it was something spectacular. Every time we had guests in December, he’d take them to his laptop and conspiratorially show them, to the sound of inevitable WOWs. It didn’t arrive -in two big, heavy boxes carried by grumpy UPS employees- until the two days prior to NYE. Our friends Allan and Ulorin came over for the big reveal, which elevated the suspense to a fever pitch. I battled layers of …
Let’s call this my first painting of 2012. Happy new year, everyone!
Time for another year-end summary, my seductive space warriors! 2011 has been one incredible adventure. I took hundreds of photos in Europe, wrote thousands of words, conducted my very first Kickstarter project that sent me to teach and make art in the Amazon jungle, debuted as a spoken word performer, made time to model for Stephen McClure, Allan Amato and Lydia Hudgens, was featured on LA Weekly – several times, released the 6th issue of Coilhouse Magazine, created my first iPhone cases with Izozzi, auctioned off a hand-painted denim jacket to benefit the Tor project in Egypt, designed custom tattoos, …
I give you a few progress shots of my toothy Cephalotus, being brought into existence for Conjoined – Chet Zar’s group exhibit at Copro Nason on January 21. This is maybe five sessions of varying lengths since the first layer post a few weeks back, as well as one unfortunate 5-hour stretch that ended in me erasing half the piece. The painting was on pause for a few weeks while I was plagued by a nasty case of strep throat, …
This is a copy of an article that just went up on Coilhouse. It’s important for me to post it here, as well, with the new year just around the corner. To what lies ahead! It’s been a fun-filled, illuminating, topsy-turvy rocket ride, but over four incredible years since we launched Coilhouse, the time has come for me to move on. The need to focus on creating versus curating has been nagging at me for the duration of this endeavor, …
Yesterday was the day of Grand Shippening. All of last week’s print orders are off, along with D4RT incentives. If all goes well, said incentives [aside from commissioned drawings] will be with my backers before the end of the year. Calculating postage for 150 oddly-shaped envelopes was rather complicated, but my awesome D4RT intern Celia and I were as diligent as time allowed, so I hope not to have to deal with returns. Also, if you haven’t spent two hours …
Our New Year’s tree is now complete and man, does it smell great in here. The massive cookie candle helps, as well. If you’re a new reader: though I don’t celebrate Christmas, welcoming the New Year is a big deal around here. Read about Russian New Year’s customs here, toward the second half of the article. The doll head isn’t a “Russian thing”, by the way – that’s just my special touch.
I took these last Sunday – the final Sunday of the Occupy Los Angeles City Hall encampment, taken over the course of six and a half frenzied hours between 9:30 pm and 4:30am. Quintus iPhoned that sweet action shot of me. Aww yeeh. View all 61 images in the slideshow below.
LA’s being pulverized by the harshest winds in over a decade, which makes this place 1. Downright apocalyptic 2. Ideal for cookies! Here is a honey walnut cookie recipe that’s excellent when you’re feeling impulsive and don’t have a lot of time, or a lot of ingredients. It made for some nutty, caky, almost madeleine-y goodness. My version is slightly modified; it uses half the ingredients [because I certainly don’t need two sheets’ worth] and no sugar. INGREDIENTS 1/4 cup unsalted butter, …