GirlZilla: Destroyer Diary

Hello Ladybugs! I wanted to show you what I've been away working on. We're gearing up for our very first gallery night: scrubbing the studio, fliers flying and paintings exploding all over!

For this exhibition, I wanted to experiement. The goal was to recreate this journal entry on a large scale. I'm being called to my journal more and more and wanted to translate some of that manic process oriented spree into my painting. Here are the results!



I began with a bunch of boxes I scavenged from the dumpster behind the museum. After a generous coat of gesso, the city was sketched in...


















I always default into this stuffy super serious figure drawing mode and it just wasn't working. Still after days of drawing and redrawing, the face was all scrunchy and wrong...so I scrubbed it out -->



















While frustrated with the yuckiness I had achieved, I joked about just making the head GIGANTIC.

And then decided that's how I would solve the problem. :)

























GirlZilla!
























Outfitted with a found cardboard bow and war paint to compliment her rainbow laser-vision, she was ready to crush the rest of the cartoon city. But even with the additions, it wasn't jiving...it didn't have the collage-y vibrations I was going for. It was time for DRASTIC MEASURES!



















So I pulled out the big guns: Spray paint, stencils, chalk, markers, oil pastel and GLITTER! I learned so much about my materials making this painting: what sticks to what, what resists what, what mixes with what. And that stars make everything better...



















Add a little leopard print eyeliner and GirlZilla is ready for Gallery Night!

What have you been making, Muffins?

Nose Candy: Paint Diary

Hello Kittens! There's gold leaf on the ceiling and green acrylic on my sweater-- getting new pieces ready for "Kitschmas" a group invitational exhibition we're hosting in a few weeks. The theme for this show is Kitsch: the gaudy, the gross and giggle inducing. It's been liberating being able to really experiment and get silly. Here is the progress of my totally tasteless contribution:

My process always starts with a photograph.

Next, I start "carving" out the figure with broad strokes--most of the under-painting is still exposed. The patterns really needed to pop--I'm finding myself being inspired by fashion magazine spreads and obnoxious dubstep remixes. It could be weirder. So, I pushed it further--

One gold-leaf unicorn horn and a snort of silver glitter later, I came to this. It got gross...and I'm pleased. I've never made a painting quite like this: it's tighter, smaller and stranger than anything I've made in recent history. I'm excited to see where the tacky train takes me. :}

Destroyer Day Dream: Art Journal Entry

Hello cherry bombs! Went the the journal today with day dreams of wasting the city with rainbow laser vision and white lighting. I'm going to ride around on a big black raincloud fulla sour candy--smash up some parking meters and swing around on bridges. A new painting perhaps?

What are your fancies today?

Bad Luck No Fun Social Club: Sneak Peek!

Hello Chickadees! My co-conspirators Commadore Will-Sin, The Monk and myself (Col. Mime) have been collaborating on an effort of pure poor taste: a comic book full of crude drawings, middle school locker-room jokes and all types of two-dimensional jackassery. The official release party for this filth is October 8th, but here's a sneaky peep:


You can follow this garbage on our facebook page. :)

Sketchbook Smetchbook Video Blog: Do It To It!

Hello Honeycombs!* For Paint Party Friday I've got a new vlog hot and fresh out the oven: a quick discussion about sketchbooks as tools and how to chameleon them into YOUR creative practices.





How do YOU sketchbook, Starlings?

***
I also made a wee bit of progress on my latest painting! She and I have a hot date tonight. ;)


I foresee gold leaf and glitter in the near future... Happy Paint Party Friday!

Shelter From The Storm: New Pages

Hello Cupcakes!*

I'm taking off for a psychobilly show in Chicago this weekend with my brother and sis! But before I take off to make mayhem in the windy city, here are a few peeks at the latest studio Tinkerings:



I've been keeping a goddess inspired art journal for a course and this week's entry is based on the electric and beautiful bard-like lyrics of Bob Dylan's Shelter From The Storm. (Ask anyone around me--I'm on a Dylan kick this week.) I've been puttering a lot with tracing paper and masking tape:

An in-progress portrait for my painting strategies course:

I have more painting bits...but blogger is posting them upside-down and silly like. Boo!



I am supposed to be creating a visual diary of my daily doings for my illustration course: making a drawing about conversations we have, places we go, things we notice. I've been scribbling these out either on my lunch break or while waiting for a dryer at the laundromat. Here are a few of this weeks day-in-the-life doodles:



More work to come as soon as Blogger is done being willy-nilly!



What have you been up to, my pretties?



For now, I'm off to pack!

Until Next Time, Dearies--

Much Joy and Merry Making!

Very Merry UnDrawing!

Hello Dumplings!*
I have a confession to make--my name is Molly and I'm afraid of making anything ugly. Though I am grateful for the art school experience that has trained my hands to edit, Edit and re-edit until a piece is nothing more than pulp--it has instilled a fear in me. I have recently found myself unable to doodle on napkins or grocery lists, because the results may be less than stellar, the variation of line quality shotty or the proportions imperfect .

My academic art making is very systematic: idea hatch, mind map, sketch, re-sketch, research, re-re-sketch, more research, take reference photos, scrutinize visual resources, plot, grid, execute. I've reached a standstill in which without the preparatory pomp, I am paralyzed and can't pick up a pen and go!

This silliness can not stand. In order to rectify it, I have decided to take some time to unlearn.

I am UnDrawing.

I'm art journaling in a found book with the intent of working intuitively aka Willynilly! I will not wrack my brains over composition or realistic representations of depth or traditional western space or art historical references or blabbity blah blah BLAH. If it's ucky--that's too damn bad! I'm remembering how much I like Making. Sharpies and magazine bits make Molly a happy human. I plan on filling every one of the 280 pages with UnDrawings...

...Very Merry UnDrawings. :)

Until Next Time--
Much Joy and Merry Making!

Super Shrines: Painting Diaries

Hello Dumplings!*

Now that I've overcome my turkey coma, the name of the game is Progress! Here's a quick peek at the balls-to-the-wall-exam-time-brouhaha that's brewing in Apartment #5:Bedazzling the crap out of my Aphrodite shrine. Making progress one sequin at a time...


My cat Miss Marney Pants providing moral support while I wail on watercolor assignments...


I decided to keep a "Painting Diary" to record the progress of my Bast (The Egyptian cat goddess of perfume, protection and pleasure) shrine. This is the first initial wash over the collaged ground and line drawing.
The initial straight-tube compliment underpainting and a second slightly metallic ground coat...


The initial first coats of oil. Tomorrow I'll be able to finish off her arms, work in with glazes and start her Cleopatra style collar piece...
I'm hoping to squeak in some time to make a December Dream Board this week in the midst of the mayhem! Now my pretties, what sort of magic and creative mischief have you been making?

Until next time,
Much Joy and Merry BeDaZzLiNg!***

Life Being Eaten: Send Help: Studio Updates

Hello Kittens!*
So the semester is beginning to wrap up and school is eating my life--NOM nom NoM! Here are a few snippets of what sort of shenanigans have been happening in the studio:









What have you been making?

Massacreade Recap + New Work!

Hello cupcakes!*

Ahhhh--feels good to be back in the blogosphere! I've been off making mayhem! And as you know when working on a project of Epic Proportions one must prioritize and something has to "give". This time around those "somethings" were laundry and blogging. The latest project my dear friend and Kelly and I were toiling on ended up being an H-Bomb of Awesome! Our Halloween schmorgasboard of art and music, "Massacreade: The Curious. The Marvelous. The Macabre." was well received--we sold out two performances in one night--and was enjoyed by all the freakish and fabulous in attendance! Here are a few highlights from the evening:

Anna looking exquisite with the Famous Graves
on upright bass and our special guests The Echelon String Quartet.

The final fierce pose from Skellywag Fashions (my mom!) smashing debut runway exhibition, "Glampyre"!
That's Kelly in the powdered wig!
The incredibly lovely Evan Flynn, special guest violinist and model.

My muffin looking dapper behind the drum kit.
He deserves a medal for putting up with me being a banshee
for 2 months--a really really shiny one.

Leah Schultz rocking the viola--ensemble coordinator of
The Echelon String Quartet and all around Renaissance woman.
They're amazing performance changed a lot of minds that night--classical music is METAL!
A full view of me feeling like a princess in this awesome
Rosemary Clooney inspired gown Mom made for me.
It was a treat to perform in this incredible outfit, certainly helped
me channel all the dead jazz singers The Famous Graves covered!
The talented Mrs. Julie Ivens was behind the camera.
John Miller of The Echelon String Quartet destroying the crowd with his cello--
nothing hotter than a man in a bunny mask. :)

Our dear friend and talented artist Rick in
his clever costume doing what he does best--being spooky!

While Mum, Anna and I were recuperating from this extravaganza we decided to indulge in some retail therapy at a funky antique mall where I found this excellent Athena statuette! She's a stunning addition to the collection.
I'm also trucking along in my studio classes making books for my print studio, drawing goddess portraits, making shrines, practicing watercolor technique and as usual, up to my eyebrows in naked people for figure drawing! Here's a little peek of my hard ground etching project. The process involves little copper plates that are coated in a black waxy ground. You remove the black coating with a stylus, just like a scratch board and then dip the whole shebang in an acid bath to etch the exposed lines. I'm illustrating one of my favorite ghost story songs, "Long Black Veil", I think it will be rather lovely when it's finished. :)


I've also been lucky enough to make some new friends in town! The ladies at the Bewitchingbee Magical Supply, a wonderful metaphysical supply and spiritual advising operation here in Milwaukee, are sweet as pagan-pie! I'm working on some new signage for their storefront. Shhh! Don't say anything! It's going to be a Halloween surprise--I can't wait!More Making Stuff photos to come soon--and I mean really soon, not "3-weeks-from-now-soon"! hehe!

Now tell me dearies, what sort of mayhem have you been making?

Until Next Time,
Much Joy and Merry Making!*