Aug 23, 2010

pie, wonderland & nymphs

Nothing like pie in the eye and up your nose!
Here's a (low-res) slideshow from last Saturday's filming for Mindy & Candace's upcoming Pie In The Sky show at WWA Gallery

After getting pie'd, I headed over to the Cactus Gallery to check out illustrations of Ron Llanos' busty burlesque bomb-shells
Ran into friend Ashley who has a few Gorey-esque pieces in the show
Runs til September 5th if you didn't get a chance to take a peek yet
Last week I finished a Beginning Life Drawing class thru Art Center at Night. It was very challenging especially since I hadn't drawn much at all since I was young. I really needed something good for my soul, this was it. Ron was my AMAZING teacher.
Here are a few of my drawings from one of our homework assignments, which was to mirror illustrations from the Figure in Art book~
Our final assignment was to choose two pre-20th century art pieces with three or more characters and reinterpret them using a different medium then what was originally used.
Since I'm slightly obsessed with Alice...
I chose this Sir John Tenniel illustration, 1872, from Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There
Here's my version~
I used gouache, glitter, fabric, buttons and ribbon on paper. The pieces had to be larger than 18x24 so this is fairly large. I'm already slow as a snail and don't have much experience with gouache or painting for that matter but gouache seems pretty gritty and takes a lot of paint to get the coverage needed even when watered down so I felt that it took me even longer to finish. My next painting attempt I may try a different medium.

The 2nd pre-20th century masterpiece I chose was John William Waterhouse's oil painting from 1896 called, Hylas and The Nymphs
The story behind this is Naiades of a spring take a liking to Hylas and lure him into their waters. The fate of Hylas could have been either an abrupt death by drowning or everlasting sexual bliss.
Here are several versions of my modern-day take on the Waterhouse painting~
 Not the easiest task to try to direct, model and photograph in a corset in the sweltering heat!
Thank goodness for all my fabulous assistants/models :)
Hairstylist extraordinaire, Elisa Loretta worked her magic~
If you ever need new heights in hair, she can be found here.
Thanks to all my sexy nymphs for modeling and running around downtown LA high-heeled and corseted for this last minute photo shoot. And of course to Dove (aka Hylas)!

Jun 27, 2010

ok, now some fun


Saturday night was the opening for a very special exhibit by the uber-talented and darling Brandi Milne. She asked that we put flowers in our hair, so Elisa rocked her hairstyling skills with a victorian-inspired updo, she's dynamite.


The awesome Mr. Cat Head happily posed with us



Afterwards, we had a bite to eat and were pleasantly surprised by a few Searle treats (sorry about the funky reflections in my quick snapshots)


And now, some photos from my getaway with Eddie at the ultra-swanky Parker Palm Springs






Jonathan Adler was sprinkled throughout