small cats

These are going to the small stuff show at bear and bird gallery in Florida. They're small! Only 5"x5" each.

I'm trying to get bolder with my colors, and a little looser with my paintings. I tend to paint really, really, really anal-retentively, leaning over the painting and holding my breath and stuff. I think things come out a little stiff sometimes because of that though! These were small and simple enough that I could just kinda do them without over thinking.

The first one is based on my cat Milo. He was orange and crazy! Now he is a ghost cat.



The siamese is based on nothing, because I never had a siamese myself. Or maybe its based on my awesome vintage TV lamp that Sean got for me... (that is not a photo of MY lamp, but mine is seriously identical)



They're off to Florida! By by kitties!

that book...

Remember that book I illustrated, and how I had to do it really fast and I didn't update my blog for like a month because of it? Well here's proof that it exists!

Right HERE!

I can't tell you how crazy it feels to search my own name on amazon and actually have something come up! By the way, I'm not responsible for the cover...that's just a screen shot from the film (weird). It's not actually available until August, but I was excited about it regardless.

AND my gallery opening was last night and it was great, if I do say so myself. So many people showed up to be supportive and check out the work and that was super awesome, and my friend Jenny + pals played some great music, and my bff Matthias made vegan cupcakes which was so sweet of him. Pictures coming soon! In the meantime, here are some little paintings from the show that were very spontaneous and fun to do...

lillian gish as the L.A. river

I know that when you hear "L.A. river" a bunch of clever, mostly negative quips come to mind, like "what river?" and "why isn't there any water it it?" and "oh that big cement thing?" and "that's not a river it's a jumbo sized storm drain!" etc. etc. and on into infinity. But I've actually hung around the LA river before, and yeah there's water in it, fish even, lots of birds, lots of bugs, some garbage, trees, reeds, and sometimes a rogue shopping cart. It doesn't smell very good and I wouldn't swim in it, EVER, but it's there and it's actually a pretty nice place to hang out in certain spots. Like all things in Los Angeles you have to seek it out and know exactly where to go and when. To me it's just another one of those magical secrets hidden away in the city...




AND, this is the last time I'm going to shamelessly advertise my show this weekend (Sunday) at Pehrspace. I'm going to be there all evening, from 6-11pm, eating Newman-O's and generally schmoozing, so if you're in LA you should stop by. There will be lots of paintings for sale, including this one! Next post will probably be photos of the show, so if you are inhabiting remote lands, don't fret! You'll still get a peak.

Kudos to all the folks whose films I saw at the CalArts Producer's Show last night, by the way! Good show, everybody.

building fun!

I'm gonna remind you right now: I have a show at Pehrspace next month! The opening is the evening of May 10, which is a Sunday, and there will be musics and alcohol stuff and also CUPCAKES! Cupcakes with stupid plastic googly finger puppet monsters on top! You can't miss out on that!

And if you've got crazy money burning in your pockets, you can even buy one of these...



...or you can just run up and touch one while I'm not looking, stuff your face with cupcake, dance around and leave.



Either way I'd like you to go if you can!

audrey

Hey, it's Monday! Here's a painting!



It's to big to fit in the scanner. The little chunk that did fit in there didn't even scan right. Blargh!



Because my horrible disappointment of a camera is pretty much a paperweight now, I had to steal Sean's iphone to take these pics (while he was sleeping! in the middle of the night! sneaky!).



Pink and mauve trees.



Also, my work space is now a total hole. Yuck! But it's gonna be that way for a while still. More later...

friday paintings

Some odds and ends for my show at Pehrspace next month. I wanted to take pictures, but because my camera has decided to suck no matter how many new batteries I put in it, I had to cram them into my scanner instead. Sorry about that. They're all real for real paintings, done with gouache and acrylic and brushes and water.

Pijon!




The scanner messed this one up pretty badly...



Coyote in the roses, drinking a strawberry crush.



More soon!

those foxes!

It looks like I'll be under the avalanche of my illustration project for a while, but here's those other two fox paintings!





This little trio of foxes is going to be up for sale in my shop next week, along with some other original paintings that have been hanging out for a while...call it spring cleaning, if you will. More details on that later, so stay tuned!

shangri-la's + upcoming holiday events

I spent most of today painting these guys. I can't believe it's so late! I was so wrapped up in painting that I didn't even notice the time passing and I almost forgot to eat dinner!



You should watch this video! Then you will understand what is so fascinating about these ladies and their shiny pants!



I know there are four in this clip and I only did three. I'm really, really bad at math guys. Not really...the 4th Shangri-la just wasn't always around. Sometimes she's there and sometimes she's not. Ultimately, I just thought a triptych looked so much nicer than a whatever a group of four paintings is called. I also took liberties with their long poofy sleeves because c'mon, those sleeves are just silly.

I'm gonna be really busy the next couple weeks, because I've got all this stuff coming up:

Handmade Brigade, Dec. 6th

GOOD Local World's Fair, Dec. 7th

Unique LA, Dec. 13th and 14th

Yes, very busy indeed. Wish me luck!

rose red, rose white + movies

I bought these really cute, very small wooden plaques at Michael's a few weeks ago. I could spend a LOT of time in Michael's, being tantalized by big jars of glitter and pondering the possibilities of paper mache boxes, fabric paint and all those other crafty objects who potential is usually squandered. I busted out my gouache for these, and realized that I am REALLY rusty with it.




They didn't turn out the way I had planned. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about them. I had never painted on a tiny little wooden plaque before, and the surface was pretty bumply and course and most of the time the paint just did whatever it wanted to. I don't know why Rose Red's hair is all crackly like that. I can't exactly remember what the Rose Red and Rose White fairy tale is all about...something like, there are two sisters and they befriend a bear, and then he turns out to be a prince, and then one gets all the princess type glory and one gets nothing. So it's like Beauty and the Beast except with a weird sibling rivalry angle. I don't know. I should Wikipedia it but it's Friday night and I just ate like a LOT of vegan ice cream from Scoops (strawberry lavender!) so I think I'll go drape myself over the couch like a big cat now.

Oh, speaking of cats, the cats are based on kitties that I have known that have since gone to pussycat heaven: Jerry was my favorite grey cat who used to sleep on my pillow next to my head every night, and Milo was our goofy ginger tabby that would sit on the back of the couch and attack your head when you sat down to watch TV.

Hey, Thanksgiving is next week! If you're in Los Angeles, you should go see some movies at the Egyptian Theater or the Aero! West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and Singin' in the Rain are all playing next weekend. Go look at something totally beautiful while you digest all those cranberries.

mocking bird + tea party + five years

Little Update: Jason Anders posted his interview with yours truly on his blog, right here. If you're interested in hearing about what I did at Pixar or Disney or CalArts or what cartoons I like, then you should read it!

I realized that although I took a horrible photo of this painting several months ago (before I even went to Austria, which feels like a bajillion years ago) I never scanned it! It's been lingering above my desk for all this time. Now it gets the luv it deserves:


That's real for real paint: acrylic and gouache. I had to cut the cardboard into an oval shape to make it fit into its frame, and it is HARD to cut cardboard into a circular shape of any kind, let me tell you. I've thought about putting in the shop, but I'm hesitating. It's kind of a personal work.

Also, here is a coyote and a crow having a tea party. They are eating rabbit sandwiches with fancy mustard:


This one is digital, all photoshop. There are prints of this in the old shop right now!

In more personal newses, it's me and Sean's 5 year anniversary today! Huzzah! I can't believe it's been that long. It doesn't feel like it. We're going to see "Nightmare Before Christmas" at the El Capitan here in ridiculous, hot as heck Los Angeles because that's what we did on our first date: we saw Nightmare at the El Capitan. Here's a little pic of us in the Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg, Austria. Sean looks grumpy because he couldn't get his cigarette lit. I have a series of photos of him after this where he is just standing about in the background of each photo trying to get the stupid thing combusted. Court has some amazing pics of us arguing in Vienna and I WISH I could show you those, because this picture is so nicey-nice, it doesn't really tell you anything about us except that we both look alright.



One more thing! I started a flickr! So if you flickr and I flickr, then we should be flickr friends. You can peruse my artwork and photos and stuff, too, and look at more pics of my stupid face if you want.