CAKE MESS

2nd attempt

First, god awful attempt.

Today is a Sunday, yet again. Now, I don't know if any of you watch this show on the Food Network (the best network), Ace of Cakes? Or perhaps Cake Boss on TLC I believe, but in the past couple of months I've become slightly obsessed and today I'm experimenting with making my very own cake.

My favorite part of these cakes, aside from the brilliant creativity and craft that goes into each one, is the FONDANT! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's basically a sugary paste that resembles play doh and goes on top of the cake to make it extra smooth and extra perfect. I looked up a few recipes for it, most of which involved things like glycerine or gelatin, and I really didn't feel like tracking those things down, so I found a super simple one that just involved marshmellows and powdered sugar. Super sticky process, but I did it.

I've also never made a cake from scratch. I'm a pretty firm believer in cake mixes from the supermarket, but in light of making fondant and trying to bake a cake, I decided to make a chocolate pound cake from scratch. My first batch was completely unsuccessful. I cooked them for way too long and they got dried out beyond repair. Currently I have my second batch in the oven and am watching them like a hawk, hoping to God that it works out.

My plan is to make a three tiered cake with vanilla frosting and then cover it with fondant. The creative part will just have to unfold as I begin to decorate. It's turning out to be much harder then I anticipated. Wish me luck.

SWEET AS CANDY

Today we painted another girl: the beautiful Candy Winters. We used a Barnett Newman painting that has a beautiful intense blue with a white stripe going down the middle. Candy's got a lot of tattoos which we wanted to cover up (as awesome as they are...) so we painted a long sleeve turtle neck shape. VERY pleased with the results, especially with her black bob. It's good that we did this one first because it was easy enough to figure out. Some of the other abstract ones are definitely going to be a bit harder... especially Jackson Pollock.

If all goes to plan and we really kick ass on all of these, we have a place for them at New Puppy Gallery in Cypress park for an abstract show they're having. So perfect! Thank you Candy darling, you were absolutely glorious.

THE WRITING COMPANY

I've received another job! How fantastic. I'm currently working on a logo and website design for a dear dear friend of mine. She owns a company called The Writing Company and I've been experimenting with different ways of treating and designing a logo.

The script is inspired by a typeface she sent me. I didn't want to buy the typeface so I found one that was kind of similar to it and then just drew my own over it. I also feel like I'm cheating when I use already existing typefaces to design a logo. I like having my hand feel in there.

I started all of these on the computer and felt utterly uninspired so for the next one I busted out my dad's old typewriter. Yes, we saved it. Thanks dad. Unfortunately all the ink cartridges were sucked dry so Aaron had the brilliant idea to paint calligraphy ink onto the ribbons! I really like the way that one looks. Perfect Imperfections.

The last one I drew with a pencil and did very little touching up. I wanted it to feel as though it had been written. Fitting for "The Writing Company"

Must start on website! Must keep working!

SOMETHING NEW

I semi got around to photographing these paintings nicely. Unfortunately I don't have the best camera, which significantly impairs my ability to take sharp photographs of my work. Perhaps I'll have to go back to the gallery sometime in the next week and steal someone's space age image maker. It also doesn't help that my ability on photoshop is just, well, sad. I do try my best though.

Thank you to everyone who came out last night to see the show. I tremendously appreciate the support and love!

SOMETHING OLD

Last night was the opening to Heard of Elephants at Sychronicity Space! It was definitely a success. A lot of people came out I wasn't expecting, got good feed back, etc. An old comrade and teacher, Alex Maloutas, owner of New Puppy gallery in Glendale came out as well. It was wonderful to see him and I completely forgot that I had done design work for him about a year and a half ago. Just some illustrations for his website, the logo etc. This is the logo. Go to the website to check more of it out!

www.Newpuppyla.com

Hopefully at an upcoming show he's having, Aaron and him will be embarking on a funny porn project. I won't give anymore away. I guess you'll just have to come to the show and see for yourself.

NAKED PAINTING

I've painted Yves St Laurent's Piet Mondrian's dress onto my naked body.
I'm embarking on a new project with Aaron. I haven't come up with a name for it yet. As of now I'm just referring to it as the modern art body painting project. As this is exactly what it is.

In the last year or so, I've been trying desperately to appreciate and understand modern art, more specifically abstract expressionism. I've gone to countless museums, spent time at the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Tate Modern in London (how pretentious am I?), MoMa in NY and I concluded that perhaps I just don't like it. This is a fair conclusion to a year long expedition in appreciation, yet completely unsatisfying, and clearly there is something about it that I'm drawn to that I just can't figure out.

If you stumble upon this blog everynow and then, you've probably noticed that I work on costume and styling projects for photography and theatre as well as random painting projects. This project is my way of fusing the two, while also using the part of modern art that I seem dig so very much. I guess I'll just figure that out on the way.

SO : CALLING ALL BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, CAN I PAINT YOUR BODIES? Sure, I have fun being photographed like this, but in being the one photographed, I'm restricted to the detail in which I can paint and play and create. If you're interested in being painted, please contact me. I'd love to paint you.

MONSIEUR EGG

Yesterday and today I got to paint a food cart for a new food business starting up called "Monsieur Egg". It's essentially the same idea as a taco truck, but for morning downtown folks in need of some delicious breakfast before starting a long day at the office. The logo was designed by a friend of Jaime's (the owner) and I was commissioned to paint it. It was one of those jobs where I had a slight idea as to what I was doing, but winged it for the most part. I used 1-shot to get the job done. Finicky paint... I'd never used it before but slowly got the hang of it. I'm pretty stoked with how it turned out.

If you're in the downtown area in the morning and are lookin for a bite to eat, check out twitter.com/monsieuregg