What's Happening?
I'm finally getting back to being able to look around the web and one of my favorite places to visit is Super Punch, by the awesome and generous John Struan. He rounds up such amazing art every day, from book covers to buildings. Well that's only the b's but you get the point. I went there today and found this:
A building in Taipei decorated with Friends With You.
I wouldn't mind waking up to that view every morning :) Thanks John.
While doing a search for jellyfish (and no, this article has nothing to do with jellyfish, but...) I came across practicalfishkeeping.com. I'm pretty damn sure that this is not practical, but they had a lovely piece on the world's largest planted aquarium. "It has been created by nature exhibit design consultants Green Chapter who have also produced many of Singapore and Malaysia’s best public and private aquatic exhibits" So this amazing 'fish tank' is in someone's home in Malaysia.
Roland Seah is the genius who created this beauty and is the founder, head honcho, big magoo for Green Chapter.
If you want to read more and see details on temp, construction and the lucky little fishies who get to live here, click here.
I had the best email yesterday from Michael Lalonde who creates the comic Orneryboy He made a little coffin for the Zombie I had made for he and his wife, Jen, and sent along pics of it. It is awesome and I wanted to share a bit of win with you all today.
And please check out his flickr account for closeups and how he made it.
AND...while you're looking around at cute, morbid things, check out Jen's shop, Sick On Sin. It's chock full of Michael's characters on tshirts, buttons, etc. Like this Cupcake Fiends button set (and you can get any of these illos on tshirts as well)
Or the Gulf Gang set where Sick On Sin is donating 100% of the profits from sales of this pack to the National Audubon Society, an organization that has protected birds, wildlife and their habitats for over 100 years.
Check them both out and give them some love. They are wonderful people who have supported CRM and myself over the years and I'm honored to know them.
Enjoy :)
I just finished the last two commissions I got before I shut them down in February. I can't thank Joy and Jen enough for waiting so long for their pieces.
"Muddle" 7 x 9 acrylic on wood plaque. For Joy who simply gave me the word, 'mojito', and said run with it.
"Wahnilla" 5 x 5 acrylic on wood plaque. For Jen who loves vanilla beans, vanilla orchids, the beach and a bit of morbidity.
And with that I am bidding you farewell for the time being. I hope to be back in a month, or two. A good friend of mine brought it to my attention that Winston Churchill called his depression the black dog. My black dog has been following me for the past month but never quite out of sight. Now after circling around my feet he has jumped back up into my lap. I need to clean my system out before I can try my last med so a relapse was inevitable, I just didn't think it would be quite so quick.
I'm going to be making some changes around the shop soon (I hope). I wanted some feedback about my prints.
1. Would you NOT buy my prints if they did not come with a certificate of authenticity?
2. Would you NOT buy my prints if they were not numbered if they were an open edition?
I would still be hand signing/dating them. I would be printing them in my studio on our brand new Epson professional printer (the absolute latest technology they have). I would still board and bag them.
Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you :)
These three works that I did for artAmsterdam did not sell at the convention. They are now available for purchase through artKitchen gallery. You can contact Jeannette at info@artkitchen.nl for details.
"Make Like a Banana..."
"Slice and Dice"
"Soup du Jour"
Ed showed me this girl yesterday and it made me so happy. She's amazing. And...the video is not sped up. Look, listen and enjoy.
Here's my final piece I was able to do for Art Amsterdam, "Soup du Jour" 10" x 8.5" acrylic on a custom wood plaque. It's my small homage to one of my favorite dishes -- crumbled Ritz crackers in Campbell's tomato soup. That and the fact that my dad worked for Nabisco :)
How I got these ambitious pieces done in the midst of the worst of my depression is beyond me. I think I must have been on auto pilot. Now staring at a piece I need to do I am at a loss for even how to begin to paint. I now have an idea of why people who cannot paint are amazed by people who can. It seems impossible right now. I'll take another shot at it tomorrow and hopefully will have something new soon.
Enjoy
I promised another of the last two paintings I had done for Art Amsterdam, which is going on right now. I humbly present, "Make Like a Banana...". Another large one for me, 14" x 9.5". Once again my dad helped me out by cutting the plaque :)
And as an added bonus, while painting I had a thought to take photos as I went along. I always love watching progress videos and thought I'd take a shot at it. I also wanted to thank Ed for putting together all the photos into the video, complete with soundtrack, while I was sleeping. You're the best :D Please enjoy!
I apologize again to anyone who is still waiting for me to make something. I can't seem to get better. It just keeps going on and I'm losing the will to even fight anymore. I swallow my meds every morning and every night and still no better. My Dr. keeps changing things around and I get a modicum of hope that this time it will work. It still hasn't. We only have two weeks until our trip to Amsterdam and I don't think I can make it. I can't even email the gallery about when my work will arrive for them. I am writing this because I felt like you all needed to know that I'm still not well. Hard for me to say that I'm sick. No wounds, no stitches, no bits of metal holding bones together. But I feel like I should. I still have days that I'm a walking zombie, unable to speak. Other days I get unjustifiably angry at everyone and everything. Other days I'm just numb enough to not care one way or another. Ed has been taking care of everything including me. He's been wonderful but there are days that I push him away. I'm sure he can't stand it much longer either. I have an appointment with one of the top ten phsychiatrists in the country in Philadelphia on June 9th. My Dr. knows him and says he may come up with something he hasn't thought of yet to help me. It's a seven hour evaluation. I can't imagine what that will be like. I can barely endure a trip to the supermarket.
So no need for anyone to feel sorry for me because, honestly it won't get through this thick black wall that's suffocating me. I just hope that I still have some fans left when this is over to be able to work for. Sorry for being such a downer.