First in a series of works for a show at the ellO Gallery next month. I gotta get crackin'; i was planning on turning out six pieces, all framed, for June 7. This shouldn't be so difficult, since it takes me, what? like a couple hours to do one of these (a little more if I add color), but i haven't been so motivated lately.

I blame the beads.

(Buh....buh....but they're so pretty!)

Speaking of beads, i got a new Donna Kato (polymer clay queen extraordinaire) book the other day, and I'm so in love with this piece.

As usual, i have an opinion (surprise!) regarding polymer clay art. It seems to finally be getting away from the uber-tacky hot pink spirals and checkerboard phase (yarf), and has since chilled out into just being an interesting and versatile medium in of itself. On the other hand, though, i don't really care for the other end of the deal, where it's used to imitate all kinds of other materials to equally tacky extremes (ie, fugly plasticky looking wood grain, fake stone, bad flowers, and, and....... FAIRIES!). Aieee. Can we just let materials be themselves for once?

Hey, I like art, and i won't begrudge anybody their creativity. But here we apply the rule of:

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. I am looking at you, creepy flower polymer clay fug.

Sigh. Stay classy, polymer clay. Stay classy.

Also, Matt sold the first of his Robot Clocks, which was really exciting. He tends to doubt himself as an artistic person, or that he can actually be a creative entrepreneur and use the talents he has to his benefit. His family kind of rolls their eyes at him when he talks about his art or why he does it (they play golf, hehe), so there's all that to overcome. But now the clocks are selling, so hurrah!

Ok, the end for today. Can you believe i have to clean the studio AGAIN?

I suppose anytime you put your work out in a public forum you're gonna get critics. I don't mind critics. I actually like getting feedback on my work. What I don't tolerate are stupid ignorant critics who are critical just because they're envious. I can't stand the hateration. That kind of thing gets me all twitchy and cheesed off. But I can deal.

I logged on to my flickr today to find that I'd gotten some lame anonymous comments over and over on my series of Graffiti Abstractions, essentially flaming me and saying I'm a fantastic asshole for "stealing" the work of the graf artists who originally painted it and trying to make money off their work by selling prints. (Woo, ten bucks a pop. Be mad jealous! I are famoze & wealthy photographerz! Don't hate, yo.)

As if. I politely explained (with teeth gritted) in my best most politest art jargon that by reinterpreting an existing creation- nay, collaboration- and emphasizing certain features, textures, and colors, I'm essentially abstracting what exists and turning it into something entirely different. By reinterpreting a work of art to the degree I have, it becomes my own. Nevermind all that, but the photos clearly aren't even about a particular artist or tag as a whole, it's about the creation and destruction of paint on a wall over time. Nor am I entirely unfamiliar to the subculture around street art, since I essentially cut my creative teeth in a crew the summer I turned twenty, and that's had a huge influence on all of my work ever since. And if my photos get more people to appreciate how pretty graf art is? Then fack yeah, more power to me.

So, I win.

But onward. There are better things to do than dwell on morons. I have completed three more drawings for the Jamaica Plain Arts Association Small Works Sale. behold:

Invincible Summer

Starlight

Jungle

Today, I have eaten two cupcakes and some vanilla soymilk. Wawa wee woo!

Things I have accomplished on my sugar high:

• Sorted through my freshwater pearl hoard;
• Soothed the worldly woes of my best galpal;
• Purchased 5x7 matte photoprints of a range of my artworks, to sell later or just gloat about;
• ordered 100 swanky looking mini cards from Moo, with my contact info on the back (see "gloating");
• Set up an account at Imagekind [looking pointedly at the right side of the page] and put some fine art prints up for sale;
• Found out my photos ARE FEATURED ON THE BOSTON PHOENIX WEBSITE!!!
• Sorry, excited. Fame and cupcakes and all that.
• Poked at my Flickr sets with a stick (poke, poke..... );
• Added more Graf photos to the Shop;
• Tweaked a few things on this here page, because it's gonna be in a Xanga Beauty Contest.
• Next up: grocery shopping expedition. Even FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS need toilet paper, it seems.

In my neighborhood there's a 300 foot wall tucked away behind the train
tracks, which serves as the canvas for one of the most gorgeous,
ever-changing street murals I've ever beheld. It's pretty much a
secret, so there's not many people who even know of its existence.

The
wall is in a constant state of flux. Every day new pieces are added,
old paint crumbles or is intentionally destroyed, layers of tags and
signs and full-blown pieces are layered on top of one another. It's an
incredible riot of color and texture. It's also a testament to the
creative subculture which created it, and to the ever evolving nature
of art itself.

Due to popular demand (er, one person nagging me, heh), I've made some 5x7 prints of my graf photos available in my Etsy. Ten bucks plus a small shipping fee, not bad, right? They look pretty bangin' just framed on their own, and even better paired with other photos from the same series. Pretty soon I'll be adding more images, as well as more framing and printing options, so if you're at all into this kinda thing keep a look out. : )

---

Hot off the press! I just got an email from a scene writer at the Boston Phoenix. She spotted my photos in a Flickr pool and wants to feature them in a blog on their website. Scha-weet!

Today at the crafty store I scored a bag of mixed buttons. GRANDMA'S GRAB BAG of mixed buttons, to be precise. It turns out I am endlessly amused by sorting through little bits of things and organizing them into little compartments by size and color. Yes yes. Plus, my button stash has increased exponentially!

These look pretty good and i have some big plans for them, rest assured, but in the process I ended up with a whole lot of crapola. Thanks a heap, GRANDMA. Witness:

I don't even know what most of this junkus is for. I assume it's useful for scrapbooking or something. I kinda dig the pink letter A, and there's a button with a panda face on it which amuses me only because of some obscure internet humor and I'm a just dweeb like that. There's also a hot pink.... thinger-thing? which says Viva LasVegas! and that's kinda spiffy. Oh, and the dolla dolla bill yo button is also pretty cool.

I stuck the plastic shark in there. Did i mention I'm a dweeb?

So as it turns out, new buttons + vintage flower stash + swarovski rhinestone hoard = button flowers, which will eventually become cocktail rings.

I'm a big fan of the yellow and grey one and the bigun' with the freshwater pearl plunked in the middle (yellow and grey are the IT color combo this season, you know). Plus, they all are matchy matchy with  my spring flower bracelets, so there you have it.

Keep an eye on the ol' Ets, there may be extra bttons and kitschy junkus overflow showing up there soon.

New in the Etsy:

The other day I caught Ugmoe (the rabbit) digging around in a box of beads and making a big mess. The little troublemaker!

"Oh hai," he said, "I was just halpin' yoo tidy some stuffs."

Inspiration! I put together a sampler bag of beads that Ugmoe the Bunny "picked out" all by himself. It contains a fun assortment of goodies, including: my handmade paper beads, metal spacers, glass sead beads, lampworked glass, vintage lucite, furnace glass, stone, freshwater pearls, india glass, polymer clay, bits of my own tumbled "seaglass", vintage & antique glass beads, and handmade tags featuring my "Nine Divas" artwork. That's a lotta beads, I suppose.

Ugmoe, however, is not included in this deal. Being nine pounds of furry lop-eared grumpiness, he simply won't fit into the bag. Plus, the mailman seems to be scared of him for some reason. ; )

 

(Courtesy of Toothpaste For Dinner)

ETIT: Ok, with the exception of some tweaking, i think I've FINALLY settled on something i like.