matthew coombes does grief.

today i stumbled across the interesting work of matthew coombes & his lovely 'non-therapeutic tools of grieving' project. as a further discussion of my previous entry, i find that grief (& the outward process of) as well as ugliness & disfigurement, are taboo in society. i've often heard that americans have a very unhealthy process of grieving & dealing with death; since i was born & raised here, i feel a little inadequate to agree or disagree, but could see how this might be true & how artists such as matthew may feel the urge/need to create as a discourse to this taboo.

my other interest in this work is the notion of collecting, especially in the case of the pictured tear vial. as a obsessive collector myself, i've long been interested in whether or not tears can be collected & i love the idea of this, in all of his victorian grandeur.

i also recommend taking a peek at the interview matthew did regarding grief & his works here.

on ugliness

lately, as i've been sketching for my upcoming show, i've been thinking about changing my style of painting. i find myself drawn to objects & figures that are inherently ugly, disfigured or odd. in general, i find that my current painting style leans more towards being "pretty" although they are usually all metaphors for ugly/dark emotions or past tumultuous occurrences. as someone who is slightly, secretly disfigured i'm often drawn to things & people that are considered "ugly" because i find the convulsive beauty in them.

which brings me to a book i've been eyeing, 'on ugliness' which is a collection of artwork edited by critic umberto eco. i had a chance to peek at this in person on a trip my love & i took to the massive penn bookstore last week. inside it i came across the painting pictured below, which has haunted me ever since. i think if i had the magic ability to paint however i choose, it would be exactly like this:

portrait of antonietta gonzales by lavinia fontana.

besides having the name of my most favorite character by shakespeare, she painted more than any other female artist of the 1700's.

x

allison sommers does miniature monsters

(take a peek at the fascinating progression of this piece here.)

i've long been in awe of the incredible work of allison sommers. she's on my list of artists i'd donate a phantom limb to show at the toothless cat. her work is meticulously crafted and imaginative, filled with strange beasts and red nosed humans, often in states of devouring or hoarding. they are sometimes slightly sexually charged and with a touch of danger. most of the paintings are tiny tiny, which is amazing considering how much detail she can pack into her dreamscapes. i'm also interested in how much thought she has vested in the pieces, there is often a piece of literature attached to each one. i like to imagine her wearing a headband with a giant magnifying glass attached to it, looking like a mad scientist when she's painting.

x

paul romano does the toothless cat.

while i'm on the subject of my gallery, i'm pleased to announce the forthcoming solo exhibition of artist paul romano this october 10 here in philly at the toothless cat. paul has worked in the music industry for over 10 years, creating the album artwork for popular bands such as mastodon. although i'm not familiar with any of this music, i had the great fortune of being introduced to paul's work via a visit to his studio, & was blown away. the exhibition promises to show a lot of the original work used for the album covers, but in this new context of the gallery, they gain a new meaning, transcending their original intent. the work itself is executed with classical precision from a master, at times steeped in myth & with a dark aesthetic. i'll be visiting paul's studio again after the opening for fecal face & i look forward to seeing some of you at the opening!

xxx

The Toothless Cat Blog

hi there. although i've been a little quite about it on here, i am one third owner of an amazing gallery here in philly called the toothless cat. i've been working on the blog for the gallery & now that it's up i wanted to share it with you. i'll be posting artists who we'll be showing, artists who we'd give livers to show, as well as other things we find amusing or interesting. i hope at least some of you hop on over to it & enjoy the posts from the other arena of my life that i'm conjoined to. above is a shot of an amazing skeleton airplane sculpture by philly artist eric eaton who we are showing this month. i'm completely obsessed with it.........

a sci-fi/fantasy upbringing.

well into it's first year, this blog has grown into something strange & wonderful. i originally intended on it being a place where i shared pictures of my art//jewelry//novella in progress, but it quickly became a place where i shared all the inspirations to my work instead, with the occasional confessional post. today is one of those occasions because it marks the day i lost someone whom i loved & will be forever haunted/influenced by.

ever since i was young, i was shown movies of a fantastical nature, such as 'the dark crystal' (image above) which came out a year after my birth. other movies, such as 'willow', 'the last unicorn' & 'labyrinth' all put me under a similar spell whose ripples extend out to my current self, at the cusp of 28. my point of view has always come from this surrealist, speculative place & for that, i have him to thank. i hope you are resting well somewhere, someplace.

xoxo

magic colored pencils

 i've previously posted about both lilly piri & fumi mini nakamara, so i'm thrilled that they currently have a joint show up at thinkspace right now. i love love love work done in colored pencil. it has a soft, dreamy effect that i melt over. the subtle details and near flawless execution of the medium by these two makes me wish i lived in california just so i could go and stare at these drawings everyday. i'm especially in awe of the above pieces, the shape shifter series by fumi and this lovely rendition by lili of helen of troy being hatched from her egg. she was one of the twins conceived by leda via zeus as a swan. 

aya takano does the future.

lately, i've been becoming increasingly paranoid & obsessed with the end of the world. part of this has something to do with the literature i love to read & write. but mostly it has to do with the imminent threat of all the libraries in philly closing on october 2nd. this terrifies me to no end.

but what is there to do? continue reading, continue learning, continue filling your life with the things that inspire you. which leads me to aya takano. her work has a sci-fi edge, a world of night, filled with young girls on the precipice of sex; lanky girls with flushed cheeks and flat chests. i love them all.

xoxo

happy 5th birthday Trinity Framing!!!!

part of the reason that i both love // hate living in this 'small town' city philly is that the smallness of it sometimes allows you to find people & places with whom you really connect with//share similar interests with. one such place is trinity framing in philly, who are celebrating their 5 year anniversary this week!. back when i was bartending and had extra $$$ for original art, i would take all of it to trinity to get it framed. they have a real passion for low-brow art (they frame a lot of work for the joshua liner gallery in nyc) and took really great care and time with each piece i brought in. their friendliness and enthusiasm is refreshing in a city where sometimes people are a little harsh. if you live in philly i recommend you getting your work or your art collection framed there, i promise you will not be disappointed.

riikka sormunen.

i posted about riikka sormunen last year here, but i love her work so much i had to post some new pieces. she also has a new site where you can take a peek into her sketchbook. i'm at once jealous of her skills & in awe of her.

xxxx

le fin.

my latest show, ' i am writing to you with my eyes' came down today. this group of paintings was my most cohesive in aesthetic and emotion. it was full of twins, some conjoined, some identical; separated by the panels of wood, but all communicating to one another in the secret texts of twins & the unconscious.

studio shot, where i now paint, within the toothless cat. i paint with a really awesome dude named dave glass. the pope painting was done by my partner, jason goldberg. he's one of my favorite painters.

one half of the diane arbus twins. 'a dream behind bone.' her twin sold. it's a little sad for them to be separated now!

vampire sweethearts. they sold when i was hanging the show! i let the guy take them the day after the opening so there is a new set of vamp twins in their place. i should have prints of this soon!

leda & the swan. 4"x 3". one of my biggest paintings to date. although there aren't twins shown, leda gave birth to twins in eggs after the encounter with zeus via the swan.

one half of the 'lighthouse' twins. this one was very personal & coincidentally, a friend painted something eerily similar. neither of us had prior knowledge of the other's work! so strange and wonderful.

some drawings that i might turn into paintings soon.

xoxo

inspired etsy finds.

cicada wing earrings. by studio swoon.

i've been working a day job lately, which is why i've been posting at night. hopefully next week will even out & i'll be somewhat back to normal. cross your fingers for me cause i'm so tired! due to this, i've been SERIOUSLY neglecting etsy, more than usual. so i thought i'd try something new and match an etsy item to a photo i found while internet voyaging. i'd like to do this more often. hopefully i'll have some new stuff in my etsy shop soon!!!

cicadas mean a lot to me. i heard the buzzing and singing in the trees outside the house i lived in, in the south of france. for some reason they are very popular down there and you can find many things with made with their image. my super mom bought be a huge real one framed one year, and recently i've been hearing one outside my house here in philly.

xoxo

xoxo

mari shimizu does dolls

although i've been creeped out (seriously) by dolls since my childhood, (my teddy ruxpin doll definitely talked to me once without batteries in it), i've been fascinated by the dolls that japanese artist mari shimizu makes. i couldn't find many images of her work, but there are some here. they remind me a bit of wax saint statues and a little like some of my favorite paintings by jennybird & mark ryden, when there are landscapes inside dresses or within the chests and throats of beautiful women.

xoxo

Sätty (Wilfried Podriech) does collage

Sätty (Wilfried Podriech) makes these amazing collages that remind me of max ernst, whose work i'm completely in love with.

xoxo

kristen ferrell does blood and sugar.

i've been long loving the bizarre art of kristen ferrell. her highly detailed paintings are filled with creatures who devour each other & themselves, as well as portraits of females covered in blood. despite the dark themes of the work, they are wielded with a playful feminine hand, which shows in the delicate scrollwork and colorful palate. she's also in 'max & the siamese twins' book with me!

max and the siamese twins.

max & the siamese twins is a new book out now featuring a compilation of conjoined twins by contemporary artists that accompanies a short story about a man named max dating a pair of conjoined twins. of course i'm in love! & also in the book!!! my 'shared heart' twins are alongside some of my favorite artists including jennybird alcantara. you can pick up this lovely hard cover here.

xoxo