happy holidays

I know it's kinda early...but is it?

This is the holiday card I designed for 826LA, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center in Echo Park, Los Angeles!  They are super great and awesome.  

I never ever ever work for free (if you ask I'll say no) but when they inquired as to whether I'd be willing to donate some time + energy to illustrate a holiday card for them I said yes.   I just really believe that what they do is fantastic.  

If you live in the area, you can visit their Time Travel Mart store front (the front of the space is a little store, and the back of the space is a big giant room where they tutor the kiddies).  The store is very silly, and very very fun.  If you live in San Francisco you might be familiar with the Pirate Store, it's founded by the same folks.  

Read your kid a book!!!  And happy holidays.

last post of the year.

One last post before 2009 is kaput.

It's been a looooooooooong year. I think 2010 is going to be about 1,276x better. I have a good feeling.

Hope all your holidays were remarkable and fantastic! Thanks for all the love, blog followers. It really does make me feel good about the things I make to know that so many people (mostly complete strangers!) support it. Cheers!

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!

sketches + my movie picks

I don't have a lot of pretty shiny colored work to show this week, but I don't really think anybody does. You know why? Because THANKSGIVING! That's why! Everyone is too distracted by pies and dealing with their own crazy families to be looking at blogs, or drawing pretty stuff, or posting fancy paintings. But because I promised myself I'd keep it up, I gotta get my two posts in this week, and here's one of them. These are all sketches which are really plans for paintings, and they'll be paintings very soon. Sorry they're so messy and incomprehensible.

First of all, a triptych with these three lovely girls. If you can guess who they are I'll give you one hundred points.



And some little foxes...



And this girl and guy, who are cut into slices like that for a reason, I swear! It'll make sense when it's done. They're shy.



And now, my Thanksgiving weekend movie picks! Stuff to watch while you are recovering from a day of eating till you almost explode, and then eating some more!

Charade: The 60's, Givenchy clothes, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Paris, Saul Bass titles...it's like they made a movie just for me. It's not fantastic, but it's highly watchable and very stylish. It's light hearted in nature for a mystery/thriller too, so it won't upset your tummy by making you all tense.

Nightmare Before Christmas: In kid logic, this is the perfect Thanksgiving movie because just like Thanksgiving, it takes place between two vastly more important holidays: Halloween and Christmas.

Better Off Dead: It kind of takes place at Christmas time, well some of it anyway. I know I've blabbed about it before but if your sense of humor is anywhere near similar to mine, you'll probably fall in love with it. It has a very young John Cusack, exploding faces, dancing hamburgers, skiing, Barney Rubble, aardvark suits, raisins, and all those other things that make a film great.

The Sound of Music: YEAH. So I love The Sound of Music! Yes it's a story about a nun, in Austria, and they sing on mountains while riding bikes. It's great. If you can't at least appreciate the wonderous filmmaking in this movie, apart from all the singing and nunnery, then I think your soul may be a little broken. It's just beautiful to look at.

Smokey Mountain Christmas: Although technically a made for TV movie, this one really makes or breaks the holiday season for me. They used to play it every year on USA, channel 7, at least a hundred times between October and January. It has, hold your breath, Dolly Parton as a country singer who returns to the log cabin of her youth to find some X-mas spirit. There's orphans in it! It's undeniably hokey, and there's singing in it, but me and my little sis eat it up every year. So ridiculous it's good.

Three Caballeros: It doesn't go anywhere, and it doesn't have to. I think most of the time is spent watching Donald Duck chase women and have strangely psychodelic visions of cacti and flora, but it's so beautifully art directed, who cares? And how can you beat lyrics like "Three happy chappies in snappy serapes"? You can't.

I will probably watch all of these this weekend, after I eat my Tofurky and homemade cranberry sauce. Have nice holidays everybody!