trouble

well so much for me poking around this space more, right? Ugh. Is it still a valid excuse to say that being a parent is hard and time-consuming?

Here are some photos from the past art shows. How did I manage to pull those off?

City Market show:









My work at the Blood is the New Black show:


and my best art project ever:

post partum

Hello out there if anyone is still listening!
Adjusting to being a mommy has been so rewarding but so difficult and time-consuming!
As things get easier (and they do, one week at a time) I'm getting back into my "art life" and hoping to poke around this space a bit more often. There are a few art shows this month that I'm excited to be a part of:



Blood is the New Black & Junc Gallery Present:
Blood is the New Black: 5 Year Anniversary Exhibition
November 7 - December 14, 2009
Opening Reception and Party Saturday November 7, 7-11 pm
4017 Sunset Blvd
Silverlake, CA 90029

http://www.bloodisthenewblack.com
http://www.juncgallery.com

Featuring new work by:
Skinner, Skye Parrott, Keaton Henson, Demonbabies, Porous Walker, Andrea Shear, Jesse Spears, Bryan Ray Turcotte, Brendan Donnelly, Sumi Ink Club, Patrick Jilbert, Sterling Bartlett, Michael Sieben, Jeff P, Dan Monick, Mel Kadel, Travis Millard, Scott Barry, Pete and Jo, Josh Slater, Jason Fischer, Hannah Stouffer, Dylan Haley, Demonbabies & more!

Be sure to check out the Blood is the New Black pop up store opening night with shirts, prints, zines and more!

Beer courtesy of Nakhon Beer and cupcakes from Lemonade (yum!)

AND



I have secured babysitters and will be attending both shows so please say hi!

baby time

as you might have guessed i'm taking a brief hiatus to care for my new baby girl, Ember, born 9/9/09 (who i'm currently struggling to feed as i type this with one hand!).

be back soon!

looking for a road

Getting ready to head over the Blood is the New Black headquarters for the pizza party! I have some bed pile illustrations showing so come by if you're in LA.
Have I mentioned that pizza might just be my weird pregnancy craving?

happening

This Thursday if you're in LA:

unbelieving

I can't believe how amazingly tired I am all the time. It's the worst feeling of guilt to know there is so much I could be painting and drawing and doing but all I can do is lay around and fall in and out of consciousness.

I think I'm ready for baby and for fall. One month to go!

in the outfield

Sorry for my absence last week. The baby shower was at my house on Sat. so i was frantically cleaning and organizing all last week. With only 5.5 weeks till baby I'm frantically trying to balance nesting projects with art-related projects and feeling a bit hectic. It doesn't help that I pretty much have to take a nap every day and can't stay awake past 10:30 in the evening. Apparently there's no maternity leave in art.

sitting

at least

actually on time this week? crazy town.
not a lot of painting happening lately between the crazy nesting and working but I'm trying to keep up sketch-booking at least once a week.

walk the talk

belated as usual. . .
Hope everyone is having a great weekend.
Being pregnant in the hot summer is a challenge. I don't really recommend it.

running off

Have a great weekend!

put them up

Whenever I think I'm over drawing hands they creep back into my work.
Life is hectic: Sickness in the family + work + MJ tragedy + no work + new projects. OH yeah and the art project going on in my belly. But ultimately I feel really lucky. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

another day

black and white

These are extremely affordable original little drawings that I did as design ideas that didn't pan out so I've decided to put them up for sale (something I rarely do with my design work but these days I can't afford to hoard art).

Please click on the image to take you to the listing in the shop.

loving the love

A HUGE thank you to Poppytalk Blog for mentioning my broken hand mirror paintings today. Click the image to take you to the listing:

waiting

Feeling quiet today. I'll be back at work for a bit which is a good thing at the moment.
I'm going to try to do a small shop update tomorrow morning of some very affordable small illustrations.

again with the Friday

Sorry for being late again with the moleskine post. Thursdays have become so buys all of a sudden it might be moleskine Fridays for this month until things get back to normal.

Things that are happening:
-lots of new oil paintings on wood panels for future show
-learning to sew and looking into purchasing a sewing machine
-cleaning out the house and putting together the baby's room
-big art project in my belly
-enjoying life

Things that are not happening:
-working for actual money
-staying awake past 11pm

Those two categories never seem to balance out somehow.

inked

A commissioned tattoo design I did a little while ago that turned out pretty fantastic:

learning stuff

Please excuse my tardy moleskine post. Yesterday was hectic as I had my first sewing class in the morning and my first childbirth class in the evening and lots of stuff in between. Any sewing machine recommendations?

Today it's gloriously rainy in LA. I love it.

PS: For those of you in LA I have a piece at the Hive this Sat. and Sticky Lift has a wall at this month's show.

home alone

Happy Thursday. I've been doing a lot of painting in the studio since work has been slow, trying to get as much done as possible before this baby comes. I've been pretty happy with the outcome and will hopefully be able to show a few pieces here soon.

space

I want to take this opportunity to announce a collaborative project that I've been working on for a while with Sara Brum of Sticky Lift called "LittleLift". It's a combination of my illustrations and Sara's layering of paint and tape.

This Friday, May 29 LittleLift is having it's debut show at Una Mae's in Los Angeles. Please come out and see the work if you're in the area. If you can't make it the work will be up for a few months so there is time to catch it and Una Mae's is one of my favorite Los Angeles boutiques. WinWin!

Here are some examples of the work.







You can view the entire collection here.

Maylay

I had to draw this yesterday after a friend sent me this clip


Our little getaway was perfect! There was an amazing seahorse exhibit at the Monterey Aquarium and the beach at Carmel was awesome (although the water was far too cold). Wish I had taken more pix.

outta here

A little sketchbook for your Thursday.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm heading north out of LA with with some loved-ones for a much-needed mini-vacation. I hear this is the best time to do that kinda thing since I'm still "comfortably pregnant". This is also my favorite time of year to drive up through some of the beautiful CA countryside and coastline so I'm really excited. I plan on bringing my sketchbook along but I never manage to get as much drawing done as I should. However there will most likely be lots of pictures upon my return.

Unfortunately being gone this weekend I'm missing some interesting shows here in LA such as:

“Wishing Well” from Jennifer Davis + “Pretty TV-Love” from Kristen Schiele + “Magic Hour” from Jill Simonsen at the Cerasoli Gallery

Timothy Karpinski at the POVevolving Gallery

and Jeana Sohn at the Taylor De Cordoba Gallery

If you're in LA check out Sour Harvest or your favorite LA gallery listing resource for other goings-on and let me know how they are!

Have a great weekend!

For those of you interested I just wanted to report that the Ellen DeGeneres show was AMAZING and the whole audience got hooked-up with a TON of really expensive baby stuff. Without going into too much detail some of the highlights were a really expensive stroller, a highly-rated car seat, a crib from target, Dwell bedding, and a washing machine! Lots of other wonderful and helpful supplies. It really saved me since work has been slow and I was wondering how we were gonna pay for some of this stuff. If you plan on getting pregnant I highly recommend making sure you are pregnant during mother's day and applying to be on the show :)

lullaby

Not art related:
Today is going to be a strange day! I've been invited by a friend to go to the taping of the "baby shower/mother's day" episode of the Ellen DeGeneres show.
I'm definitely an Ellen fan so I'm pretty excited and I understand that there are going to be some cool giveaways. Just had to share!

new work in the shop

New Little Boxes in the Etsy shop. Click on the image to go to the listing.



A new "nighttime" version that I've been playing with:




This last one is not currently for sale in the shop as it is part of a show at The Green Gallery East on May 9:

the equation

sleepiness

In other news, it looks like I have a little girl in my belly!
I hope it's not annoying when I talk about personal stuff like this here but it will be interesting to see how this experience affects my work. I often think about the fact that when the time comes I will have to fight harder for time to make art but I know it will work out...

the middle

I wanted to thank Holly Becker of Real Simple's Simply Stated for featuring me last week on the blog! There was also a mention on her fabulous blog Decor8. Such an honor!

the new surreal

Happy Thursday as promised:

wonderful for you

Culver City art from last Sat:

LaBasse Projects:
Tessar Lo


and Eric Fortune





Sylvia Ji at the Corey Helford Gallery:






I've heard some interesting opinions about the Sylvia Ji show. There seems to be disappointment in the fact that this show resembles her show last year at the same gallery too much. Unfortunately I missed her last show but I have seen the work and I understand the critique. Still pretty neat though. I much prefer the "day of the dead" and masked portraits to the straight-up portraits.

PS
I know I missed posting a moleskine this past Thurs. so there will be a double-dose this week.