the 6th annual art star craft bazaar kicks off tomorrow morning at penn's landing! i've been making so so many new things that i can't wait to share with everyone tomorrow. if you're in town, stop by, i'll be at booth # 48, right smack in the middle of the pier with my lovely roomate. one of my besties, bob dix and his lovely lady friend kristy brennan will have a booth right next to mine. so many other local talents have been curated for this event as well as amazing out of towners such as the runny bunny  for conjoined and mismatched ceramic statues, chez- sucre -chez  for sweet embroidery and the rad canadians of sweetie pie press who make an assortment of wonders. this is my 3rd year doing this bazaar and i can't wait to see what everyone has made this year! 

xoxo

p. s be sure to read the post below to enter my giveaway!

1st anniversary of blood milk and first giveaway!

this week marks the very first anniversary of my jewelry line, blood milk. i have always believed that jewelry serves purposes far higher than ornamentation; that the pieces you choose and wear become your talismans. for these reasons, last year, i wanted to try my hand at furthering my artistic pursuits of creating paintings and fictions to making things that people could actually wear against their skin. 

it is important for me to create the anatomies of my jewelry with vintage and antique elements as i have always been interested in the memories these haunted items have. each time we own and use something, i believe a part of ourselves, particularly our emotions, and our era becomes imprinted on it. i feel this belief is especially potent in pieces that are older or charged with spirituality such as vintage rosary beads and animal bones i purchase mainly from native americans, who often use bones in their jewelry for spiritual purposes. the addition of semi-precious stones and knives are meant to illuminate the idea of the jewelry being psychic armor, as the stones carry special meanings and soothing powers while the knives are meant to quite literally protect its wearer or serve as a metaphor for it.

 by adding these layers of age and spirituality by way of the surrealist spirit of assemblage is then coupled with my romance with language as i often create histories for the pieces based on literature, mythology and histories both real and exaggerated. each piece begins from the same place all my other work is rooted; the dark and complex feminine experience and the duality of our inner and outer landscapes, as the jewelry serves to be worn outside the body but meant to resonate with our inner lives. it is from this focus that I choose the name of 'blood milk' ;the idea of our life forces having a macabre tone as well as one that is nurturing and rooted in the female body. 

so! i want to say thank you to every one who has ever bought a piece of jewelry from me or has given me encouragement, or has read my blog, its been an amazing year! to say thanks i want to also offer my first giveaway...... a custom piece of blood milk jewelry. the winner and i will communicate their interests and beliefs and i will make a special piece for her/ him  based on these conversations. the winner will be chosen at random on Saturday, June 6th. To enter, just leave a comment to this post!

xoxo

collectors collecting

ephemeratopia is a darling blog i found via the black apple. it's a slow revealing of a personal collection of found ephemera. i'm in love and can't wait for more.

pride and prejudice......and zombies!!!

hmmmmmm......i wonder if this will be any good ? or will it just massacre the original which is a dear dear favorite of mine ever since my rad aunts in seattle turned me on to the a&e movie version with dreamy colin firth as mr. darcy? apparently, elizabeth and darcy are highly skilled zombie slayers that are brought together by their shared talents. in any case, the cover art is amazing and possibly worth the price of admission, however brief that stay inside might be.

xoxo

summer obsessing

lately i've been obsessing over owning the following oddities:

sword in the stone necklace worn by altered art artist marah johnson who taught at my mom's scrapbooking store in NY. my mom sent me this photo because she knew i'd be in love! i'm uncertain of its maker but i would give an unnecessary organ to own it.........
this handmade journal by local philly beauty the black spot books. she only uses vintage leather she finds on her many journeys. not only is she a member of the etsy cabinet of curiosities with me, she'll also be at art star craft bazaar this year too!  

true blood season one! i have daydreams of watching this at the gallery on my mini dvd player while assembling jewelry and painting. i can't wait for the new season! i torn through the last book in one day when i was laid up in bed.
i've been lusting for this book ever since i last posted about fumie sasabuchi's work. 
i posted about this digital mini rolleiflex last summer but i'm still craving it. i have visions of taking secret portraits. its also been popping up in my dreams and around the necks of the new doom and gloom ladies i've been drawing and painting.

steampunk for poets

i recently stumbled across this amazing laptop at datamancer. it makes me want to trade in (dare i say it....) my extra appendage of a mac laptop and work furiously at my novella on it. it also makes me think of time traveling and corsets and many dusty, romantic things. o how i long for victorian times!

xoxo

juul kraijer

by way of the netherlands juul kraijer's work has come to give a visual language to many of the feelings swarming within me recently. the drawings are often focused on the female body and are sometimes coupled with natural elements such as veins and roots as well extra limbs or conjoined bodies. the drawings appear ghostly and delicate in their creation and have haunted me all day since i fortuitously stumbled upon the work. sometimes work like this corners you in your dreams and i have a suspicion this work will long be an inspiration. be sure to read the accompanying essay by the artist here while you're exploring the cabinet of drawings.

coffin couches

the folks over at coffin couches promise that these are not reused coffins but coffins that had minor defects that made them unfit for their intended purpose as final vessels for our earthly bodies. amazing and macabre, they are created in all colors and sizes, ranging from a claustrophobic armchair to this lovely pink version named 'the pink panther.' being insatiably curious and uncertain about death and the afterlife, these seemed to be a silly detour in my own thoughts about my last resting place.

xoox

amy earles has some lovely new work at double punch in a group show called 'we have a remedy' with another favorite, betsy walton. what i love most about her work is the strange images she invokes, often seemingly rooted in the nostalgic effect of fairy tales coupled with elements of the dark and ghostly. painted with gouache, her new work has the same delicate approach as her hinged paper dolls available to cut up and play with on her etsy shop, yet each read as a contained universe within the image. 

Today is the grand opening of The Piazza @ Schimdt's  as well as the grand opening of 'The Toothless Cat' gallery! I'll have more posted soon!

xoxo

i was super thrilled to go see the amazing show, 'shadowless summer' of the multi-talented artist Liz McGrath in NYC a couple weeks ago at Sloan Fine Art. its really amazing to see all her critters in person, so much detail is put into into each one. i wrote a nifty little review of it over here at fecalface.com.

xoxo

sf artist anne faith nicholls has started a new and exciting endeavor called 'project s+imulus package'. Every day for 30 days she sells a painting for a steal at $100. i'm kicking myself for missing out, since i'm a huge fan of her art. what captivates me so much about anne, despite being a real beauty in person, is that her art reminds me of another favorite artist i recently mentioned, frida kahlo in that it seems that her work is always closely personal. also, i love her color palette and folk art style. i hope she has another show soon on the east coast! 

xoxo

p.s 3 more days until the grand opening of 'the toothless cat'!

the toothless cat

this weekend marks the opening of the project i've been working on for a while now, the opening of 'The Toothless Cat' at The Piazza at Schmidt's in northern liberties. the gallery is owned my myself, Jason Goldberg and Dave Fox, both of whom are amazing painters as well as renown tattoo artists. the opening show 'The Magnificent Egress' features work from over 40 artists, many of whom are tattoo artists as well. the theme is hybrid animals and the work looks amazing! The gallery will also be home to my line of jewelry, 'blood milk'. the grand opening is this Saturday, from 11 in the afternoon to 11 at night. 
also this weekend is the opening of 'hand did' at mew gallery, featuring local artists including one of my favorites, the lovely kris chau, who will have a bunch of black and white pieces like the one below for sale. if you're in the philly area, swing by the both of these events!
xoxo

i'm a big fan of l.a.'s alison casson, especially her collage-like painting and drawing style and her french aristocracy tattooed femmes. she also makes clothing and accessories and has also created album art for some rad bands like miss derringer. 

same ghost every night.

i just went through all the lovely and lusty new work of art star audrey kawasaki for her first ever solo show 'watching shadow' in tokyo, japan. as usual the work features beautiful, ghostly females on wood panels. I'm especially digging the three erotic femmes created on organic wood slices. take a peep over here for the rest.

also, a new print of the lovely above painting is available today at noon p.t. on her website for the lucky 200 who have probably been glued to their computers all morning. for the rest of us, there's always ebay!

xoxox

i'm really enamored with ken garduno. he has amazing ink skills and paints his women so lovely and strange (although rather skinny) that i find myself wishing i was one of them. each piece has a creepy 'twilight zone' feel to them and are mostly in shades of gray and black with little touches of color. although i usually seem to be drawn to work that is very feminine and female based, i really dig how ken paints his dudes. kinda ethnic, kinda 70's and in oddly large proportion to his females. he had an amazing show at black maria gallery a few months back that i meant to post about called 'channels'. the body of work explored the notion of flicking through tv channels, each piece representing a quick, captured televised image. the idea reminded me, strangely, of mike teavee from willy wonka, and worked well as a cohesive element for the lusty and futuristic mix of work. i've really wanted to purchase a piece from ken and hopefully will do so in  the future.... in the meantime, i have the above image taped up in my studio that i stare at in jealously of its owner.......

keep calm gallery has an amazing selection of illustrative text prints for sale, like the incredible one above by artist frank chimero. i'm sure you'll find one that speaks to you in such a way that you'll be desperate to have it on your wall asap........

lately i've been recovering from a serious back injury that has left me bedridden and unable to paint, make jewelry, and up until now, write. during times of lucidity i have been thinking more and more of one of my lifelong inspirations, frida kahlo. due to multiple surgeries as the result of a terrible accident she endured when she was in high school, frida spent many long periods of her life bedridden and immobile. yet, somehow she found the inner strength to still paint and created many of her best works in bed bound in a plaster corset. above is an image from a beautiful editorial of frida from a new magazine dujour and below is one of my favorite paintings of hers, 'the dream' which i have hanging at eye level next to my bed. i hope to be painting soon and sharing the new work i'll be creating for my next solo show in august at mew gallery.