escapist new york

when i'm in the thick woods of painting at the bare bulb wire, i often fantasize about all the lovely things i will do once i'm released. lately, my escapist thoughts have lead me to my homeland, NY. I'll be sure to catch the brothers quay at my alma mater: the new school, whose wondrous films have often been my repeated nighttime lullabies and have nudged me into sleep.

i've also been dying to see the francis bacon exhibit at the met, where they'll have some of those obsessive velazquez pope paintings, among other dark beauties.

& to end what i'm sure will be a long day, i'd love to have a drink at elsa, from this lovely sewing machine tap, which would only be better if my twin fae was still in NY!!!!!!!

busy in the studio......

i've been crazy! in the studio, toiling on twins and jewelry. in the meantime, i've been checking out these amazing antique engravings that are bizarre and creepy with religious tones over at transmission atelier inc.

heather benning does dollhouses

     

i first discovered heather benning's dollhouse in lula # 8 months ago, and its still haunting me. the idea of a life size dollhouse composed from within a rotting, abandoned home in the middle of a prairie is so creepy & amazing, i've been working a on a short story about it. 

royal art lodge does quirky text

i'm a real sucker for these quirky pieces by the collective of folks over at royal art lodge. r.i.p? the text really makes each piece and i really dig nearly every one of them. take a peek for yourself.........xoxo.

topstitch x bloodmilk

if you live in philly, then you most certainly know about the amazing boutique topstitch located in olde city. the collaboration of several of philly's best powerhouse female designers & artists, topstitch is known for selling the most interesting and fashion forward clothing & accessories. i'm thrilled to announce that they have recently started carrying my bloodmilk line. i also recently updated my etsy shop with a few new jewels too!

xoxo.

heather nevay does the bedroom

heather nevay paints how i'd love to. her subject matter is creepy and unnerving & her painting skills are old master good. this lithe white haired girl appears in nearly every painting of hers, in a similar scenario of iron bed and claustrophobic room that is always growing some sort of natural landscape on it's walls. i dig that she's obsessive yet innovative. 

xoxo.

current nighttime obsessions iii.

icarus & hubris late night. ////feather headband by reid peppard found via.

fragment of the head of the queen /// poems by cate marvin. if that cover doesn't kill you........

xoxo.

sarah gamble does unemployment

in the piazza, where my gallery, 'the toothless cat' lives, there are also many other wonderful galleries such as 'bambi gallery,' that hosts amazing monthly shows as well as handmade lovelies. this month's show 'unemployment paintings' by sarah gamble really caught me in their childlike paint application which is built up as if squeezed directly from the tube. each painting has a haunted, lonely feeling that still retains hints of childhood nostalgia. my favorite one is this huge, victorian, seemingly abandoned house that has a rainbow filtering into it, that may or not be inspired by the lightning & subsequent fire the painter endured to her own home. 

while i was there, i couldn't resist getting a picture of the love note a stranger left for gallery owner candace's bike. every now and then philly lives up to being the city of brotherly love.

xoxo

brandi milne does the circus

although i've recently posted about brandi milne's long legged lovelies here, i'm really digging this new painting with the inclusion of not only twins & a mini circus tent, but blood. she's also having a give away on her blog for an artist proof print right now.....

xoxo

alexis mackenzie does surrealist collage

i love surrealist collage; especially those of max ernst, which is why i really dig the collages by alexis mackenzie, who hand cuts and pastes each one. although i think i've seen her images floating around, i really got into her & her work on this studio visit post at fecal face. she has a new show 'never be sad' up now park life, which includes text pieces spelled out with flowers and other natural elements. i like the idea of nature arranging itself to give you coded signs, but i really love the work that features women in supernatural situations, such as the four headed lady with coral lightning growing from their eyes above.

lisa kellner does the body in silk

'almost perfect' (detail)

i've been lately mesmerized by these silk, bulbous sculptures by artist lisa kellner. created with a focus on the female body, these abstract sculptures represent or suggest, its skin, blood and shapes. the work appears beautiful & delicate but addresses and questions the complex issues of the female form.

'slab'

"Unnoticed images of daily life continually capture my attention.  I look for evidence of imperfections that generate specific patterns of decay.  An arrangement of cat scratches, aging skin or an oil spill on the pavement becomes my starting point. Patterns of decay or imperfection are merged with repurposed materials to create work that becomes the physical manifestation of a particular human response.  A primary premise of my work is the belief that insignificant patterns of decay are in fact, rich with history and meaning.  By highlighting these defects, I propose an alternative to the modern inclination of concealing the flaws of everyday living.  My work asks the viewer to form correlations between contrasting elements and to consider the role of seemingly inconsequential patterns.  These visual topographies become my mechanism for uncovering the basic elements of identity in a world characterized by façade." 

-from kellner's statement on her website.

current nighttime obsessions ii.

it's currently 3:06 am here in philly & i've been up all night making new jewels, including a few pieces i'm thrilled about that are made with snake vertebrae. i'll be making more new stuff & have plans on having a separate collection of work specifically for my poor abandoned etsy shop starting next week.
a favorite friend recently lent me the vivian girls album, which i've wanted for a while now, admittingly only because they named themselves after henry darger's army of younglings, but really love it & have been listening to it on repeat all night while stringing together spinal cords with vintage brass. i've listened to it so much already that its become trance inducing. the ladies have a lo-fi style & sound like they may be singing in a damp, echoing tunnel underground or beneath a bridge. i hope to catch them live in person this summer.

lastly, i was recently made aware of the breathtaking artwork of remedios varo today. it's been one of those discoveries that feels like an epiphany. how could i have lived my life this long without ever having seen any of this before? apparently the artist was good friend's with frida, was a surrealist & took art classes with dali. i look forward to reading a book on her life and work that was lent to me today as well. coincidentally, the woman who wrote the book is one of mictlan's professors at moore. o world! how small & delightful you are. 

xoxo goodnight.

*sneak peek*

i've been busy milking jewelry the last 2 days but as soon as tomorrow's world cafe live art fair (which i'll have a booth of blood milk at) is over, i'll be back to working on all the twins i'm painting for my show which opens next month at mew gallery called 'i am writing to you with my eyes.' this is a peek at the press image, which is an imagined portrait of photographer diane arbus with a mini rolleiflex camera around her neck writing ribbons from her eye.

PS these press images for my show card were made by the lovely & amazing leila marvel from red heart cult.

mike worrall does ladies of la mer

lately i've been having reoccurring dreams//nightmares of the sea. these paintings by surrealist visionary mike worrall (who's been making these beauties since the late 70's!) reflect those dreams for me, as well as my usual attachments to the metaphors of flooded interiors & masked women. i also particularly love the french time period evoked here and the heavy dresses, that in other works appear so large, they look like tables.

xoxo.

current nighttime obsessions

i feel myself unraveling uncurling longing for the sea & inner battling these days//nights as i maniacally move my fingers over wood panels, around paintbrushes; fingering sacred hearts staked by the seven sorrows and twinning things into earrings. these are my current obsessions:
'the way through doors' by jesse ball promises stories cradled within themselves//each other like russian nesting dolls to be unpacked page by page. i've been somewhat mute on the book front, reading journals instead such as the lovely annual 'bat city'; but need this book.

a favorite friend rightfully promised me my life would change if i watched the experimental films of supernaturally beautiful maya deren. i started tonight with 'meshes of the afternoon' & have already dreamed up a companion piece of blood milk for it.

odland's new record, 'the caterpillar' is on constant repeat here at the fury household and i adore this picture of one of its members surrounded by all these children's musical toys. i find that i gravitate towards music that sounds like a 1920's carnival. 

xoxo.

ann wood does clipper ships for escapist voyages

i've briefly mentioned the lovely new york artist ann wood before, when i posted about her cardboard castle. then i slightly let her slip from mind until i recently rediscovered her. i believe she may be best know for making little birds that people seem to go nuts for, but it's her clipper ships that really get me. part 'science of sleep', part paper mache and part literary collage, these lovelies, whether shipwrecked or floating, really resonant with my escapist desires for travel and the french ocean.

xoxo.

denise grünstein does children of the fog

these foggy photos, by photographer denise grunstein, of what appear to be faceless/masked children afflicted with some sort of madness or supernatural power, creep me out; much in the same way that when i have a snip of nightmare so weird i suddenly become aware that i'm (thankfully) only dreaming, then reach for the nearby notebook and pen to record it for later pondering and potential creative use. these images have that texture of residual dreams/nightmares and i found myself thinking of them long after i came across them while night voyaging on the internet.

xoxo.

liz mcgrath's new blog at juxtapoz

i recently met the multi-talented liz mcgrath when she came through philly to play at the khyber with her amazing band miss derringer. although i'm pretty shy when it comes to speaking to people, especially people who's work has been a big inspiration to me, my friend tim o'hanlon, who is currently showing his stenciled work at 'the toothless cat' was brave enough to strike up a conversation with liz long enough for us to realize that besides being incredibly talented, she's also very approachable and really lovely in person. i gave her a special jawbone necklace that she blogged about on her new blog over at juxtapoz!!!!

swoon & friends do venice

brooklyn artist Swoon has created an apocalyptic yet beautiful Noah's Arc (which has been expanded to three gypsy boats) with 30 or so artists and builders made entirely out of "trash." the boat was assembled out of discarded materials that was shipped to Slovenia from New York, about 60 miles from their destination of Venice, which they sailed to in their new home to crash the Venice Biennial. words can't describe how desperately i wish i was part of this project. all photos credited to todd seelie.

part of the crew is one of my favorites, artist monica canilao.

you can read more about his on fecal face and here.

xoxo

the arnolfini wedding

i recently had the good luck to visit the home & studio of a fantastic artist. (more on that in the upcoming months) amongst his many works was a skeletal version of this painting by jan van eyck. when i was in boarding school taking drawing classes, we often referenced 'the art book.'  it was within it's pages that i had an early introduction to many of the great painters of the last few centuries, such as this one painted in 1434 and held in the national gallery in london. 'the arnolfini wedding' has always haunted me. it has a strange, almost supernatural quality to it, with the unseen presence of god heavily painted within the painting's many loaded symbols. what gets me most, besides the never ending question of "is she pregnant or not?' is the reflection of the sitters, witness and painter caught in the tiny convex mirror on the far wall behind the couple.