tom banwell does bunnies

i've been furiously working on my new show, 'i am writing to you with my eyes' that will be up at mew gallery next month. it seems there aren't enough hours in the day! & i imagine that soon i'll be sleeping less and less as i toil away with my paint and jewelry pliers. 

most of the work will be dealing with non-verbal communication, how the eyes, the written word and visual imagery are used to express emotions & inner landscapes. while doing research for my show i've been looking for masks to reference and i stumbled upon this lovely etsy shop, owned by a man named tom banwell. it's filled with the most amazing handmade masks, steam punk helmets and hand painted quill pens i've ever seen! i'm especially smitten with this bunny mask and it will certainly pop up in my work which i will share very soon.

xoxo

leda and the swan

lately i've been thinking a lot about the myth of leda and the swan as i prepare for my upcoming show at mew gallery this august. i was struck by this myth of how zeus took the form of a giant swan and imposed himself in this form on the young and beautiful leda. the idea of the veil between mortals and the gods being so flimsy was captivating to me, as well as the choice of bird zeus choose. the result of this rape was the birth of twins castor and pollux as well as helen of troy and clytemnestra, thought to have been hatched within two separate twin eggs from leda. such a bizarre and striking image to reset the imagination.

this is a photo entitled 'that white rush' from photographer/film maker sam taylor-wood. the title comes from a line from the lovely yeats poem about this encounter:

And how can body, laid in that white rush,  

   But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

i am writing to you with my eyes

now that my intense jewelry assembling has slightly subsided, i'll be focusing  more of my attentions to my upcoming solo show at mew gallery this august. i'm very excited to be showing there again as i had my very first show there (outside of a bar or boutique) last summer and the ladies who run it are absolutely amazing and have supported me from the start!

the show will be called 'i am writing to you with my eyes' which is a line of text i found while i was re-reading frida kahlo's diary recently when i was stuck in bed. i began to think how artists, specifically a few of my favorite female artists have done this by revealing intimate parts of themselves through visual images, such as self-portraits and photographs. i also thought of one of my favorite poets, anne sexton, who i feel also does this in written texts because her language is so visual and intensely personal. and so, the idea for my show began sprouting all the while i was exiled in my bed with frida's diary, a book of diane arbus photos and anne's complete poems. 

i've begun to collect imgaes of vintage cameras for reference, such as the one above, which is really a tiny tiny working camera from Japan after WWII. If you have any images of vintage cameras, please please send them over to me! at jlschnabel@gmail.com.

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

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.

the state of things.

'half-life' a new smallish painting. prints in the print shop.

 inspirations: tim walker, novelist shelley jackson, from her book 'half life' which tells the non-linear tale ofm a girl decides to extract the head of her sleeping sister whose body she shares. this is for the art auction at the south philly tap room tomorrow night for the lovely mew gallery. i'll be showing there again in august!

i recently decided to move my studio space from our large 'dining room' area back up to my suite. i have 3 'stations' to work at, one large one to paint, one to write and one to make blood milk jewelry. its working out well despite being overwhelmed by my many collections and objects....finding places for things has been a bit challenging.....

a portion of my art collection. v hates the chaotic layout of this wall but i love to stack/cluster art. i argued that it's very american to have so much space between paintings.:) this wall has 2 jon todd paintings, 2 jenny bird paintings, a lily piri drawing and print and various other coveted pieces. i have some more space to the left that i plan on attacking soon with some work downstairs.......

xoxo