alicia papanek

MASS TRANSIT : JUST THE TIP

2011-05-23T15:18:00.006-04:00

These are some of the final comps of the album design for Mass Transit's album "Just the Tip"
All of the typography is done with press on letters, which were photographed at odd angles, and composed in photoshop. It has been quite a tedious process, but so worth it.

XXX

2011-04-27T16:19:00.004-04:00

Seriously. I'm kind of sorry if anyone is offended. Not that sorry though.
enjoy. ;)

dropcards

2011-04-23T12:29:00.002-04:00

front

back

Part of the design project for mass transit is doing these dropcards. prettty stoked on how this typography is shaping up.

the dress.

2011-04-16T20:37:00.004-04:00

a fleshier version of dan in the dress for mass transit.
the color looks completely off, but you get the idea.

JEALOUS?

2011-04-14T10:51:00.003-04:00

Sunset from my apartment...

digitize me

2011-04-07T00:22:00.002-04:00

My my I've been busy today.
Working on a digital sketch for a soon to be mural. Coming in May...ish.

my dirty life.

2011-04-06T16:44:00.005-04:00

What a day.
Ain't nothing like Nancy Sinatra, an empty house, a 24 oz and trying to make a paper cut out landscape look like a girl getting fucked from behind. This is a sketch. At it's finest, but a sketch non the less. It's kind of blowing my mind how well this optical illusion works.

JUST THE TIP

2011-04-04T16:24:00.003-04:00

I'm working on some album artwork for NYU's acapella group : MASS TRANSIT. The album is called "Just the tip" Pretty amazing. These are my thumbnails for the first round.

SPARE TIME

2011-03-10T21:32:00.004-05:00

A Self Portrait?
Yes, that was my original intention. I used an old photo I found of myself. Cut my hair, blah blah. This is a big one : 5 ft by 3.5 ft, oil and acrylic. (I really don't like the way these look in photographs... again, they look much better in person... I'm also not doing a very good job at photographing them... ) The background stripes I did after working at the gugg in an abstract art gallery all day. What a great effin day.

This is a painting I'm working on right now that's currently in it's ugly stage. That horrible period in the painting process where nothing is working and you just have to walk away and let it dry and stop pushing around the mud. But, I thought I'd post it anyway. It started out as black and white in a completely different pose, so, it's transformed quite a bit. It'll get done... eventually...

REVAMP

2011-03-10T10:35:00.003-05:00

Hey All! Things have been craaazy busy around here. Unfortunately I wish that it was crazy busy with art making rather then Pizza slangin, but a girl's gotta work. I recently rearranged and rebuilt my art space in my apartment. Pretty stoked on it. I made that shelf with left over Guggenheim ply. It is seriously a dream. Everything is exactly where I want it and my clean up has been cut in half. I still have a few shelves I want to put up... in due time. I need some space for all my chemicals so they're not scattered about the floor.

That painting on the wall is done now (not in the photo) and I'll post that when I get home from work. I finally got it out of it's ugly stage that every effing painting goes through. So check back soon.

JUMP

2011-02-14T17:18:00.003-05:00

I just realized I never posted this because I never took pictures of it. Here's the mural that is currently at Kings County in Bushwick that I did last November. ! :)

KAIT SLAM

2011-01-07T16:30:00.003-05:00

I'm so sad today. Today, I had to throw away nearly 8 pieces of wood canvas due to New York living issues. I also had to throw this painting away.

Last night, in an attempt to be productive, Anthony, Kait and I embarked on an exquisite corpse painting, in which I traced Kaitlin's silhouette to a piece of wood, and we doodle painted all over it. It turned out pretty sweet, and I'm so bummed I had to toss it. It's outside of my apartment if you know where I live and want it, although I wouldn't suggest it.

KATRINA

2011-01-01T12:29:00.004-05:00

And another. This is Katrina. Also, bad photo - this one is better in person. I suggest you come over and see it. It's about 4.5 ft x 2.5 ft. ish.

PENELOPE?

2011-01-01T12:01:00.005-05:00

She kind of looks like a Penelope. So, that's what I'm naming her.
Here's a new painting. The glare is annoying, but I'm too lazy to try to fix it. 3 ft x 3 ft and is for sale at Kings County Bar for $1000.00. Go buy it. Love you.

3 NINJAS!

2010-11-16T10:34:00.002-05:00

For Halloween, Jake Simon asked me to paint some masks for him and his buddies so that they could be the 3 Ninjas. Awesome project, to say the least.

60s PISS. PAINTED.

2010-11-16T10:21:00.003-05:00

process

process...

process!

finished.

and done... sorry for the shitty photo quality though..

I've been so terrible with my computer lately. I've only been using it to watch Hulu and not to do anything productive. Mainly because I've just been painting a shit ton. Here's some of the stuff I've been working on. This one, specifically is of my sister, Marissa, who tends to be my muse on most of the things I do. Haven't decided if I want to go nail it up somewhere or hang onto it. Or, anyone want to buy it?

2010-10-26T00:24:00.003-04:00

WHO THE EFF IS NICKI MINAJ?

2010-09-18T14:43:00.003-04:00

I've been working on this painting in my spare time, and it's finally done. (My apologies for the shitty quality. I did it on craft paper as too diminish it's preciousness... and because it was so fun working with Quel Beast on craft paper, so I thought I'd continue the trend) I was flipping through a Paper Magazine, saw a picture of this chick, and loved the facial expression, so I started painting her. Later to find out she's some huge pop star and I had no idea. Oh well. I don't really think it looks like Nicki Minaj anymore though. Some things got warped, I gave her a hair cut (or a wig cut in this case), changed her make-up a bit... gave her some accessories.

I also listened to a SHIT TON of electro-pop while I was painting this. Which I think is where the inspiration for the color came from.

La Roux puts me in a pop pastel mood.

DA MOOSE DA MOOSE

2010-09-18T14:24:00.005-04:00

I feel like that's a title from a song we used to sing at sleepaway camp. I think...

Anyway, I'm doing this mural at a friend's apartment. He approached me wanting a very atmospheric nature painting on his wall, and I'm not great at doing atmospheric stuff... but I can do sketchy ridiculously large intricate trees, and he seemed okay with that. He's also a mountain man kinda guy. Goes hiking in Colorado, get's lost on trails... someone with a lot of pockets in his clothing, you know what I mean. So, after finishing the tree, I kind of stood back and looked at it, thinking, this needs a large, absurd animal. A moose seemed fitting for Chris. If I were to dub a spirit animal for Chris, it'd probably be a moose.

I think this is the biggest drawing I've ever done. It's probably 10 feet high by 12 feet wide. This is just the drawing thus far. I'm going to start painting it in the next few days when I get a day off from work. If ever...

QUEL vs ALICIA

2010-09-01T09:56:00.004-04:00

starting to paint...

quel brings over the portraits.

this is nearly done, however i'm pretty sure we got a lot farther on it. I'll go to the bar and post up the final piece soon enough.

------------------------------------

At Kings County, in the backyard were basically three cement canvases that were different from the brick that made up the wall, about 6 ft x 3.5 ft I want to say. I was to take over the first one, a friend of mine was supposed to do the middle, and the last one was all the way in the back so we didn't care about it and ignored it.

Unfortunately the friend who was supposed to take over had a bit of a conflict last minute, so Mr. Ford rallied up his contacts & sent over a street artist by the name of Quel Beast. (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/quelbeastart?ref=ts) <-- In case you want to gander at his other work. To say the least, I was very excited, as I had seen his work around Brooklyn here and there and his style and drawing skills were immaculate.

In an effort to fill the backyard of Kings County with artwork, we opted to create a collaborative mural in just 2.5 days. Quite a feat, but we succeeded. Instead of working directly on site, I was interested in his processes, using craft paper & then wheatpaste, so we did self portraits, going back and forth painting, keeping with the modern day pin-up style of the show.

I don't think I have any pictures of this actually in the bar, but here is what the almost finished piece looks like. It's about 5'8" x 3'5". Generally life sized.

WEIRDEE GIRL

2010-09-01T00:43:00.004-04:00

As I explained in my previous post, I did a mural at this bar called Kings County in Brooklyn. Here are some of the process photos & the final photo somewhere in there. Weirdee Girl is a go-go burlesque dancer who often dances at Kings County.

TRANNY TRAVIS

2010-08-24T14:57:00.002-04:00

A couple weeks ago, I was at this bar called Kings County in Brooklyn off the Morgan L train, and just happened to meet a curator by the name of Andrew Michael Ford. We got to talking, had the most name dropping conversation ever, and turned out he knew all of our teachers at Otis, the same artists & curators we knew in LA. It was a very serendipitous meeting to say the least.

So, we got to talking & told him of the idea to paint the back of this bar with pin-up murals, as the bar often has go-go dancers on the bar. He said he's been wanting to do a pin-up show in this bar for quite some time, so again, thanks universe. This is the painting I'm putting in the show. It's of a friend from LA. They had a tranny party a few months ago and we all know how awesome art school dress up parties are - people go balls to the wall dressed up. So good. So, this is from an image of Travis from the party. :) The image quality isn't great, but you get the point. I gotta find a frame for it.... like yesterday.

Saturday, August 28th at Kings County Bar off the Morgan L train on Siegel & Bogart. Please come join us for the Pin-up group show!

BROOKLYN212

2010-08-23T08:50:00.002-04:00

My friend Chloe is starting yet another online clothing shop called doikick, with a subbrand called Brooklyn212. I'm doing the artwork for it. Check it. Look out for stuff pretty soon. I'll post when it's all finished.

FROSCAPE pt 2

2010-08-04T15:33:00.002-04:00

Hey Guys! In other good news, I won the Laurence King Publishing sticker contest!

Check it out:

http://www.laurenceking.com/news.htm?sw=show-item&id=43

THATAWAY!

2010-08-04T14:47:00.004-04:00

Last May, Kerstin, Emily Cobb & I decided to take a drive up PCH and head to El Matador in Malibu. It was a beautiful, sunny, California beach day, we were all funemployed and making the best of what summer we had left. While sitting on the sand, we noticed a strapping young gent with a big back pack writing in a journal.

After a while we decided we'd talk to him & hung out with him on the beach for a while. His name: Ace. We later found out that Ace had been hitchhiking his way across the USA, starting in Austin, Texas with an eventual destination to Seattle. Kerstin, being the spontaneous devil she is, made a perfectly good argument for why we should drive him up to San Francisco. I agreed, and off we went.

Considering this was Ace's first adventure in California, I decided it would be best to take the long route up highway 1 in order to get the best of out the experience. 4 / 5 hours later we arrived at Big Sur, halfway up the coast of California. Somehow, we snuck our way in, or perhaps abused the honesty policy they had going, and found an empty campsite.

We bought a few bottles of wine, set up Ace's tent, made a bed in the back of my car, and to my surprise, also found an Autoharp in my trunk. All of the factors of a wonderful evening. We walked around the campsite, Autoharp and wine bottle in hand, telling stories, getting drunk, and singing songs.

The next day, we woke up bright and early, as to not get in trouble for stealing a campsite for the night, and continued our journey up the pacific coast highway. Ace needed to get to San Francisco, but I knew that I wasn't going to be able to tolerate the traffic, and I had a friend in Santa Cruz that I could surprise & stay for a few nights with. So, we arrived in Santa Cruz, dropped off Ace on the side of the road, never expecting to see him again.

Over a year later (about 2 weeks ago) I get an E-mail from Mr. Ace, informing me he has written & recorded an album about his hitchhiking adventures & needs an artist to do illustration for his new website. ACE? what? but how? What're the chances?

I love connections like this one. I've included the process of making this illustration here, plus the almost almost final painting. Ace also came and stayed with Aaron and I for a night last week and sang us all the songs he recorded. He's awesome, and I'm looking forward to running into him in Texas one day.

Be sure to buy some songs! (I will reap some benefits!)

www.nickelslickmusic.com

My illustration should be up soon.

THE THIRTEENTH MOON

2010-07-15T12:42:00.005-04:00

I've just finished a few projects, so I'm going to be posting a bit more frequently over the next week or two. The most recent dream job that I finished was a book design for author, Sandy Johnson. She wrote a 250 page memoir that I got to design the interior and exterior of. I've posted the cover and some of the spreads. To see more, please visit my website at www.aliciapapanek.com.

To purchase, visit
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1453600078/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=048ZKJNC9WAJ1EF2WXD0&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Seriously, dream job. Wish I could just make all my money doing this, and only this.

ICON

2010-07-14T23:42:00.003-04:00

Seems as though I'm updating once a month now. Good for me, way to stay on top of things. I guess it's because I haven't been doing small things as much - mostly been working on longer term projects / bumming around. A combination of both.

In GREAT news : I finally got my website up! www.aliciapapanek.com is now the official site of my portfolio. I still need to figure a few things out such as nicer margins and some overall better spacing, but I'm going to need a web nerd for that. The whole process was a nightmare. I successfully rerouted my website to itself, destroyed the html, had the wrong things talking to each other, talked to godaddy every other day for 2 weeks, at least 5 times a day. Nightmare. However, the worst is over, and I finally have something to direct potential clients to. Fewf.

So, the visual candy I have for you here are some icons I developed for this project I'm working on with Big New Ideas. (www.bignewideas.com, check it out) It was going to be used for pattern development, but we decided to go in another direction. I'm not usually an icon lady, in fact, I have a really difficult time with it, but I had fun with these... putting them into the different circles, creating wacky characters. Plus, it's fun to relearn illustrator.

PIANO

2010-06-20T16:53:00.003-04:00

Wow it has been a long time since I've posted here. Nearly a month I think. I don't think I've neglected this blog for so long since November. Anyway. I've been pretty busy. Moving, settling into Brooklyn, trying to make some friends, be creative, stay sane and sober all at the same time. Shit's rough. Quite good though. Very much enjoying Brooklyn. I've done some venturing in other places, and Brooklyn really is amazing.

I've been working on a couple of things since I last posted. I recently finished a book design job for an author named Sandy Johnson. The book should be coming out soon. I'll post everything I did for it once it comes out and then you all can purchase tons of copies and tell everyone what a wonderful book designer I am get me loads of work! Great. Thanks all.

This painting is something I did for my dad for his birthday/fathers day. It's so awesome having a dad that all he wants is art for his new "groovy pad." His words. So good. So, I've painted him a groovy piano for his new groovy pad. Voi La.

The other is a little doodle I did the other night. She runs a tight ship around here.

FROSCAPE

2010-05-22T22:30:00.000-04:00

signed it! (we WILL have the hussies website up soon. promise.)

Last week, Max, Justin and I were all on their roof after the AIDs walk, "winding down", to put it eloquently... or legally... and began to notice the complete lack of art in the surrounding area. So, of course we agreed to do a mural on one side of their roof. We bounced around a few ideas, but ultimately this seemed to be the missing piece.

Since we had a square in the middle of a skyline to work with, we thought about somehow utilizing the space by making it seem like someone was actually hanging out in the square, for instance : maybe all you saw were legs dangling at the top as if someone were sitting there, or perhaps a girl would be leaning on the edge. Anyway, we came to this. Noelle Raffael (www.noelleraffael.com), a new friend we made today helped us with it, and did an awesome awesome job at that. We really enjoy painting murals, so if you ever need a mural done, please don't hesitate to call us. We have references.

DRUNK DUTCH

2010-05-19T18:05:00.000-04:00

I was rummaging through some of my old work today, looking through as much as I could so that I can actually compile an actual professional website. What a drag. But it must be done, so I've started collecting and organizing. Anyway, during my search, I came across some old paintings I did in Rotterdam 2 years ago, and I thought I might share them with you because they are actually pretty sweet. I need to paint more like this again. I remember how much fun it was. I locked myself in my apartment for like a week, watched 4 seasons of Six Feet Under and smoked a lot of that Holland weed. Good times.

By the way, NY is good. Still on the job search. It's only been a little over a week though, so the search is probably exactly where it should be. Applying to lots of places. I very much hope I can get a job that utilizes the fact that I can paint and be creative. Fingers crossed. Wish me luck.

NEW YORK, HERE WE COME

2010-05-09T11:00:00.000-04:00

Today is my last day in Los Angeles. I've packed everything: studio, bedroom, including all the other spaces that I've occupied over the years. I have to admit, I'm a little nervous and a little nostalgic and my mind is running at a million miles a minute. I had the great pleasure of cuddling for the last morning with my cat sly. Our flight is at 7:10 AM tomorrow.

We found a place to sublet for 3 months in Brooklyn, specifically Bushwick. Aaron nor I have been there, but we're hoping for the best. We're going to be living in someone's basement which is actually oddly ideal for NY summer living. I've been applying to lots of jobs and internships at galleries and museums around Manhattan and Brooklyn, but I suppose things will make more sense once we get there.

Oh, also, the photo I posted here is from the "Portraits of the Abstract" installation. It came out very well and we were absolutely thrilled with the turn out. Thank you to everyone who came out and supported!

THE HUSSIES

2010-04-27T14:26:00.000-04:00

I am procrastinating hardcore.

BEAR HUG

2010-04-25T23:44:00.000-04:00

almost done...

Aaron and I have been hanging out at his friend's Niel and Orien's place. They live in this beautiful apartment off La Brea. Old brick building, huge open rooms, big wooden old school windows, hardwood floors, and a complete and utter cluster fuck of a mess. It's great. Anyway, they were kind enough to let Aaron and I paint a Pin-up girl riding a bear on their wall. So, please enjoy. We enjoyed the shit out of making it.

(We very much want to include red text behind this whole gruesome scene. If any of you have any good suggestions, PLEASE don't hesistate to comment)

X CITIES : INSTALLED

2010-04-23T15:43:00.000-04:00

While I'm here, bloggin and shit, I figure I might as well post the final installation of the shoe project. It did turn out sweet, although I think Aaron and I hated every single second of this. We will never make art out of shoes again.

If you want to see this installation in the flesh, you can go to New Puppy LA Gallery at 2808 Elm St. in Cypress Park. Each pair is for sale for $100. Please go buy them so Aaron and I have some extra money when we head out to NY!

PORTRAITS OF THE ABSTRACT

2010-04-23T15:29:00.001-04:00

It's been a little while since I've posted anything new on this blog. Mainly because I've just been trying to finish up a bunch of design projects that are relatively boring. A website here and there, some branding shit. You know, the whatever projects.

Those of you who have been following this blog probably know about the Portraits of the Abstract project that I've been working on with Aaron and Danielle. Well, I've just recently named it that. The gallery we were going to show at fell through, due to the fact that the date they wanted to show it, Aaron and I would not be in the state any longer (NY in 2 weeks!) and we really wanted to be here to see it through.

We printed 4 portraits of the girls that don't necessarily highlight the paintings, but more highlight the girls that were so wonderful to come out and model for us. Something that I really wanted to do with this project was put these paintings in a different context, one that would allow me to get up close and personal with these paintings that I love, but don't necessarily understand and to allow the girls to build a relationship with the paintings. In addition to the portraits, I've been designing books that highlight the rest of the photoshoot. There were so many amazing photos that we took, choosing 1 for each girl didn't seem like enough. So, along with the photographs are small zine type books.

We're going to be showing them at a small party at my home in Cheviot Hills in about a week from now. I'm pretty excited to show them in this personal, fun and laid back setting, considering thats exactly how we approached this project. Once I've finished the books, I'll post photographs of them for you to see.

X CITIES

2010-04-07T15:56:00.000-04:00

VEGAS

PARIS METRO

HUMBOLT

BRISTOL

ARKANSAS (alexis branger did these... absolutely amazing)

Remember the shoe project I talked about before? It's finally coming to a close. Here are 5 / 10. Come out to the show at NEW PUPPY GALLERY in CYPRESS PARK at 2808 ELM ST. THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!

L'IL SAM

2010-04-05T14:25:00.001-04:00

My dear friend Sam Webster is having his final recital for CSUFullerton. It's been a long and treacherous road for him, but April 16th he will prove his awesomeness to everyone. Using the cheer of a L'il Abner cover, I did a watercolor flyer for him to promote his performance. And here it is. I hope to see you there!

SERGIO, WHERE HAVE YOU GONE?

2010-03-31T00:28:00.000-04:00

Sergio's gone. Off to Austin, Texas he went. Aaron and I are still left in Los Angeles and to my utter and extreme disappointment, we're not leaving for New York for 7 long, tiresome weeks. I had been saying 6 weeks for a couple weeks, just to make myself feel better, but today I thought I better tap back into reality and count exactly how much longer we have. 7. weeks.

It's Tuesday today, 9:30 PM as you might recognize from the time stamp on this blog, and I am extremely bored. Aaron and I are working on this project, making art pieces out of shoes for a travel show at New Puppy gallery in like... maybe a week and a half. April 10th, whenever that is. I've been making things out of sculpey and dipping dead lizards from my garden in resin. Things like that. I'm not sure we'll get it done. Aaron is walking around bored too. Come on New York, just be May already. Jeez.

AMINALS

2010-03-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

Sly's wearing it as a hat.

So, Aaron and I went to Graphaids the other day and bought some sculpey. I've never used sculpey but I've seen Jessica and Danielle do it enough that I thought I'd mess with it.

For the BoomKat costumes, I'm going to make a tiger head hood for Tiger Lily. I was trying to work out a pattern, figure out how the hell I was going to make this thing look beautiful and functional and not like a craft student project, and I couldn't wrap my head around the 3D aspect of it. So I decided to make a little tiger head out of sculpey! Really fun. Gonna keep doing it. I also made an elephant for Marissa because I feel like she needs one. For good luck, of course.

PISSA PAINTS

2010-03-21T15:27:00.000-04:00

Last week we painted my sister Marissa. I want to replace the image of me with her for the show. There's something a little too self indulgent, even for me, to put my partly naked self in something. Maybe one day, but not now.

I still wanted to used Mondrian as a piece in the collection and also figure out how to do it with out it seeming too similar to the Yves St. Laurent dress from the 1960s. We found this painting called "Broadway Boogie Woogie" that was far enough away from the Mondrian we all know and love (the three colors, the big geometric rectangles and squares) while also completely recognizable as the artist.

Anyway, it went well. Marissa was great, as she often is. She's been subject to my photography practice time and time again and she never ceases to amaze me.

Good work Piss, oh and I miss you terribly and please come home!

NEVERWONDERLAND

2010-03-15T17:16:00.000-04:00

Success! Ah such great success. This was a hectic weekend beyond belief. I don't even think that I would call it a weekEND because it very much felt like Monday. Every. Day. I guess this is why everyone else in the world dubs Americans to be such hard workers. It finally makes sense.

We had our photo / video shoot for NWL this weekend. I'm actually not sure if I've ever mentioned this project on my blog, so I'll do a bit of explaining. Aaron Needham, Danielle Buerli, Jessica Dalva, Steve Edlund and I make up the design team for a dance company called BoomKat. (www.boomkatdance.org) We're currently working on revamping NeverWonderLand, a show that went up about 10 months ago. It's a lovely story, developed by BoomKat, existing as the prequel to Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Anyway, we all have our designated jobs, mine being costumer.

I included 3 costume sketches that I did a few months ago in preparation for the shoot. Seeing them come to life was so... awesome. For lack of a better word. Phenomenal maybe. We shot the Queen of Hearts played by Juliana Tyson, Alice played by Lili Fuller, Peter played by Nathan Parsons, Captain James (Hook) played by Donald Webber Jr., The White Rabbit played by Joe Sofranko, and Tinkerbell played by Emily Iscoff-Daigan.

The final photos and video will be up in about a month. Get excited.

WEBSITE THOUGHTS

2010-03-08T12:13:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on the website design for The Writing Company. We're going with the typewriter style for the overall look, also incorporating classic editing symbols like the double line underneath something that should be capitalized, the paragraph sign, etc. Here's two ideas, Aaron figured out how to work out the piece of paper with his fancy shmancy photoshop skills.

Dear designers reading this, please don't hesitate to give feedback. I'm in need of crit. Lay it on me.

ALEXIS NEXUS

2010-03-06T22:39:00.000-05:00

What a day! No hangover, up and ready to go, another painted girl that worked beyond perfection, a team that is getting pretty near flawless, I could go on... What a day. We painted Alexis Branger today, an old Otis classmate wearing a strapless semi-heart shaped Hans Hofman painting. Aaron and I planned the shit out of these colors. We mixed about 10 colors prior to Danielle and Alexis's arrival making sure that each one was perfect on its own while similaneously considering the extent to which it would mix with the other colors. A methodic process indeed, and well worth it. Not to mention the fact that Alexis was a superb model - a ton of fun to work with, brought ideas to the table, incorporated props. Thanks Alexis! You were awesome.

At this point, the only one left to finish is Eba - the Jackson Pollock peice which will take place at New Puppy Gallery pretty soon. The hands on aspect of this project is coming to a close, time to fuck with the photos.

GUESS WHO?

2010-03-05T14:17:00.000-05:00

It's time to start a new painting. A couple of months ago I took pictures of Aaron and Sergio for a project they never finished. Really good facial expressions though. Since Sergio is taking off into the Texas abyss to chase southern bells and record producers, I figure it'd be good to spend some time painting him. As Jack Nicholson. This is the drawing I started today.

TESTING EBA

2010-03-05T14:02:00.000-05:00

Eba Weber came to my lovely abode last Monday to do a test run of the Pollock piece. EXTREMELY glad she did. For the final piece we're going to go to the gallery and document it and all that jazz, so figuring out how to work with the paint in a splattering fashion was crucial prior to our little adventure. Luckily we now have a few tricks up our sleeves in order to make it the best we possibly can. Understanding how to make it look like a Pollock rather then just a ton of paint splatter all over her is also going to be a bit of a challenge, but I suppose we'll manage. Ain't nothin we can't do. Lots of pre color mixing, lots of patience, lots of drying time and a shit ton more tape. Eba is a trooper. Cheers girl.

NICOLE BABY

2010-03-04T15:51:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we painted another girl : Nicole San Filippo. What a doll. We used a Franz Klein painting. Mostly black and white, with some smaller touches of blue. In painting more girls and working with these abstract paintings, something that I completely forgot to consider was the fact that all of these artists used OIL! OIL! But of course! We're using non-toxic airbrush paint which cracks and dries within minutes. Not exactly the same feeling as oil. Trying to find the happy medium (ha!) between these two types of paint has been a bit of a challenge, but certainly never ceases to make me fall in love with it more. We're figuring out how to photograph better, how to direct the model more cohesively and how to develop the concept. All in all, success.

SIMPLY CAKE

2010-03-04T00:53:00.000-05:00

It worked! Huzzah. My cake adventure, beginning in catastrophe actually ended up being awesome. I don't think i got the taste down too well, but I can always work on that. Got a super design nerdy cake out of it, most of which got eaten. The other of which is sitting in my kitchen, wanting desperately to be consumed, and I refuse to do it. Too sweet for me.

CAKE MESS

2010-02-28T16:56:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-20T16:30:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-16T20:29:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-07T14:32:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-07T14:06:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-02T20:58:00.001-05:00

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

2010-02-01T16:25:00.000-05:00

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

C'EST L'AMOUR : HEARD OF ELEPHANTS

2010-01-22T13:43:00.000-05:00

Aaron

Marissa

These are the three paintings I'm working on for the Heard of Elephants show on FEBRUARY 6TH AT 7 OCLOCK AT Synchronicity Space 4306 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA 90029! Did the bold catch your attention? It's powerful that way.

Anyway I'm working on a self portrait, a portrait of Marissa (my lovely sister) and Aaron. I'm half sorry about the quality of the photos and half not at all because I think you should all just come to the show and see them for real. Consider this a fuzzy pixelated teaser. I've been really into painting portraits, gravitated towards them pretty exclusively... although I guess these are a little different. There's no full face in any of them... They're all cut off in some way. In mine the head is completely out of the frame because I was jumping on a trampoline. If you come to the show I'll tell you the stories behind each painting. As that is the most exciting part.

CROP TOPS

2010-01-22T13:40:00.001-05:00

the back detail... all sewn by hand.

and the front.

This was one of the tops for The Great Gatsby piece in the Beverly Hills High School Dance Company show. Worn with dark denim and black chucks. It looked pretty sweet. All the tops were different. Some had fringe, some different beading. I'll post them soon. I'm waiting for the photographs from the show so you can see all the fringe in motion!

THERAPY

2009-12-23T11:55:00.000-05:00

Some delicious pleasures. How I adore this photo...

HOOK

2009-12-23T11:36:00.000-05:00

A little Donald preview for BoomKat's NeverWonderland. The costume's still in the works, but it is slowly getting there. I've only attached 1 chicken bone to it thus far, but there are going to be 12 total. (I'm a vegetarian and I decided that I wanted to put real bones on Hook's jacket. Because our budget is SUPER tight, I went to the supermarket and bought 12 chicken drumsticks, most of which I made Aaron eat. I then had to strip, clean, boil, roast, and bleach the bones. My house smelled like chicken for days. It was gross.)

Unfortunately I've had to put NeverWonderLand on hold for the time being due to the insanity that is Beverly Hills. I'm currently working on some fairy dresses for the Pinocchio piece. Lot's of sparkles and blue shininess, although I'm not sure that I'm completely happy with it so far. I think I need to take a drive and think.

PINOCCHIO

2009-12-22T20:39:00.000-05:00

So I'm designing costumes for Beverly Hills High School Dance Company. Here is a little Pinocchio sneak peak that I made the other day. ;) Also some bad ass girl superhero silver spandex mania.

FLAMENCO QUEEN

2009-12-22T20:29:00.000-05:00

this is bonnie. she is amazing and she dances flamenco. i made this for her for christmas.
my apologies for the crappy quality image.

SPACE AGE

2009-11-11T16:28:00.001-05:00

I must admit I do neglect this blog, although considering my current dilemma of unemployment and my absolute need to be busy at all times in fear of getting depressed, dedicating myself to something as pointless as this could give me something to do besides watch reruns of Law and Order SVU (the only Law & Order that's worth anything) and gorging on... well... just about anything.

I'm currently sitting on the plane on my way to New York, flying Virgin America. It's like I'm flying for the first time. I'm comfortably nuzzled in a space age plane with every form of entertainment you could ever need with no fear of being dragged into the firey pits of boredom. Although considering the previous mentioned dilemma, the fact that everything fun and intelligent numbing comes with a price ($$) just makes me thankful that my wonderful mother is here with me. Thanks momma!

My boyfriend and I have been in a slight rut as of lately. Feeling helpless and losing control of the creative freedom we once had full, undeniable control over. The ideas are there but the lack of outlet and audience makes it feel useless at times. Figuring out what it is exactly that we want to say, how we want to express ourselves, etc. I'm working on laying out an assignment for him. I will be his audience and will grade him, rewarding him with sexual favors depending on his own performance. Appropriate, right? Good. Does this fall under the realm of hooking? Desperate times my friends, desperate times. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. Leaving out the gorey details. I will just bless you with the work. :)

Another thing that I think could be fun. But first, let me tangent : I suppose blogs are pretty self absorbing. You write an entry about things you've done and expect people to read it like they care about you. Keeping in tune with this oh so self important rampage of mine, I'm going to share with you some of the crap I get myself into on a day-to-day basis. I'm a do-it-yourself kinda girl and I love to figure things out on my own. I like to refer to books, but mostly to get the basic jist of something. Then I throw it to the wind and try to attack the problem with my own critical thinking abilities. I will share with you, paintings, art shows, opinions, critiques, recipies, jokes, photos (but only good ones, no party pics unless I find them to be absolutely necessary) music, and things to think about it general. Maybe I'll be able to do it better then all the other assholes with blogs.

When I say "you" I obviously mean the dark hole of the internet.

Coming all the way from an altitude of 37362 feet, soaring over America's Heartland, Iowa.

a

KERSTIN

2009-10-02T13:07:00.001-04:00

So, this is Kerstin. I decided that I'm going to start putting painting on this blog as well because I can't figure out how to log onto my website. Gonna have to change that... anyway. There will probably be more to come, and probably more with some interesting writing to go along with it, a story perhaps. Thanks for looking. love.

DUBLIN CALLING

2009-08-09T18:42:00.000-04:00

This one was my favorite. One of Eva's friends from school.

Beautiful Eva.

Waiting for the bus.

With this amazing woman.

One of those kinds of nights...

Walking through the park.

Doing a bit of shopping.

Some passers-by laughed at me when I asked this girl for a picture. I'm so glad I did.

ADVENTURES IN THE WILD

2009-07-27T22:53:00.000-04:00

we walk.

kerstin's new glasses. the world really does look better through rose colored glasses.

a box of literary treasures on the side of the trail.

pulling over to dance.

and dance hard.

MARISSA KHALO

2009-07-27T22:26:00.001-04:00

my favorite.

OH HEY!

2009-07-06T13:05:00.001-04:00

i have been traveling for the past few months. the insanity has been wonderful, the photography that is soon to come will be an appropriate story board of all of my adventures. mostly focused on sydney, australia. took about 20 rolls of film, all of which i have yet to finalize. unfortunately i forgot my film camera in europe, but my friend eva in dublin is letting me use hers. so there will be some dublin photography. so sorry for the long long wait, but bear with me! i haven't forgotten about le blog. love.

ERIN // IN BLURRY VISION

2009-04-24T18:49:00.000-04:00

Waiting for a table.

TIME WARP!

So many choices.

Outside / Inside.

I know this one is REALLY blurry. But I love it for some reason.
So bear with me.

Also blurry... eating.

Where'd we park our car again?

Home. Sweet. Home.

Tired from a long night.

The best.

A TYPICAL SATURDAY NIGHT

2009-04-08T18:05:00.001-04:00

Van Gogh Tattoos.

Because upside down lense-less glasses are fucking cool. Duh.

After a few wines.

Effin beauty.

We play cards. A lot.

The hand sculpture. By Logan & Piss.

Offering you a place to trash your cigarettes.

Chain smoker.

Oh hey Logan.

Changin the music.

Ummm... yeah.

Sweet tats.

What've we got here...

PRE DORKS

2009-04-01T14:27:00.001-04:00

Setting up.

Test shooting Lance's model shots.

Ride em cowboy?

Pensive Chris.

The "Yo, Go get something" stance.

So much passion in those eyes.

STUPID3OUS DORKS

2009-04-01T14:09:00.001-04:00

So amazing.

The GREEN SCREEN!

MMMmmmm. Cotton Candy.

One of the few where I actually dig the green.

Just some fun.

HAPPY 101st BIRTHDAY

2009-04-01T13:51:00.001-04:00

There she is. Drinking Champagne like a champ.

The chances of any of us seeing this in reference to our own lives... slim to non.

Some of the neighbors.

So precious.

GOD she's incredible.

Giving advice.

ATHLETES

2009-03-23T15:55:00.000-04:00

Channeling the inner child.

Flip.

Please don't fall.

Ready for the olympics.

Sascha's a wrestler... clearly.

Fly like an eagle.

Construction? or destruction?

Cute.

Our idea of exercise.

Yeah, we shoot hoops.

Shadow puppets.

Supernatural levitation powers.

A & M GO FOR A WALK

2009-03-12T00:26:00.001-04:00

Taffy taking a dump on a beautiful spring day.

Butterfly.

Come on piss, we're going for a walk.

Sidewalk angels.

O!

The walking was short lived.

Home from a long day at school.

Naughty archer girl.

Run home little ones!

WE EAT

2009-03-10T15:00:00.000-04:00

Is this the one with most calories and sugar?

Awesome, I'll take it.

Making crucial decisions.

Gettin graphic.

We buy in excess...

Dragging along.

Oops!

Causing all kinds of ruckus in the supermarket.

So funny.

Getting a little too big for the shopping cart...

What else do we need?

Nothing can stop her...

WILD CHILD

2009-03-03T23:43:00.000-05:00

So, this week I have two groups of photos.
Old Man Markley & Erin.

The Old Man Markley group was an attempt at playing with light and movement in a setting where I could not control the movement and had to go with the flow. Also, in terms of diversity in Los Angeles, I like the grittiness of Molly Malones. It's a hole in the wall and so easy to miss. I only go there to see bands that I know so I always feel really comfortable there--I also have found that I only go there during the mid-week or on Sunday's, so it becomes this kind of guilty pleasure, non-weekender, escape from reality kind of place.

Erin's photos are a perfect example of the comforts of home that Los Angeles brings me. Fucking around on a Wednesday night and becoming inspired by the nothingness that we do together--which ultimately becomes this grand somethingness, followed by Lost and Nip/Tuck. Duh.

OLD MAN MARKLEY@MOLLY MALONES

2009-03-03T22:45:00.000-05:00

Yeah!

We will blow your minds.

I love how ridiculously invasive this is.

Trying to get as intimate as possible.

Humanizing.

Washboard SPLASH!

Hands moving quickly.

They're married, which is probably why their on stage chemistry is so good.

Everyone rockin out.

This is Ryan. He opted to play in his underwear. Apparently no one argued.

Waiting for the bathroom.

I really love the above flash in this, the way his suspenders and his shirt came out.

Accordian nonsense.

E&A. BEING PRODUCTIVE.

2009-03-03T22:22:00.000-05:00

Swirl.

It's absolutely true.

A frustrating story indeed.

Mysterious.

Man we smoke a lot of cigarettes.

Erin in the sky with diamonds.

Art. Fag.

3 at a time.

The computer takes over her life.

first.

2009-03-03T22:02:00.000-05:00

So, I guess I'm an official blogger as of now. Welcome to the digital revolution!