4 july 2010

sketches from my figure drawing class

p.s click here to see the gallery and add my facebook page! xox

how is your skeleton?

woopwoop!

i have alot more to catch up on posting, but i can immediately share my first ever t-shirt template made in Illustrator, yeahhh! this is something really important to me to be learning; in turn i can translate my artwork onto the t-shirt template and have a more professional layout with which to share my work/applications. more to come xo

act I

too much forethought is effectively destructive.
fluidity, consistency, what are these things?
how have i shaped them with my own hands, unaware and faltering?
the ebb and flow of each predetermined 'no' served only
as an imitation of the genuine likeness.

takes one to

so in order to keep up and in with our increasingly technological era, i've been learning Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign. in college, i foolishly saw graphic design as a very black and white thing; maybe i was surrounded by too many people creating their 'artwork' solely through use of filters and clone tools, etc..
i was only familiar with the bare minimum as a tool for creating transparencys for silkscreen, and even then did the majority of my transparencys by hand (including the one's for my thesis- intense. also, will have pictures/info regarding that soon).
anywayys, here's my first attempts at photoshop, kind of a self-portrait. although, besides the hair, the facial features aren't an accurate likeness. but can ya dig?

?!

it's all calypso

remember those lion/lamb hybrids from march on? finally took some pictures.
it was a total trial and error process for me, the whole 'hybridization' through sewing, and after seeing how they turned out:


, i wish i had kept more of them separate. the concept was not executed the way i had seen it in my minds eye; is that not one of the most frustrating things working as an artist? to visual something so strongly and have the tangible outcome so far from what you saw. these things happen, and i'm glad to learn from them though. i realize the imagery of the two animals are too disconjoined; there is something that is needed to link them better together, probably a body, huh? haha. i wish the sense that makes right now had appeared to me in my creative process, but there is always a next time.

the lion now seems comical to me, whereas the lamb is able to hold a certain serenity and depth in it's face.

so on sunday i set up a little table at my friends yoga studio/coffeehouse where they were holding a craft/yoga fare/wellness bazaar. i sold one baby lamb pillow, alas the market was not really into it. but a couple of children really dug the patches with my tag on them, so that was some unexpected recognition haha.


there's my table; so precious! i generally have more of an edge, but considering the crowd i went for demure.

trash into trash equals trash flavored trash

working on small crafts, in preparation for the opportunity to have a table at a local coffeehouse bazaar!
more to come

SGC wrapup

so blogger decided to delete this post FOUR times after i wrote and unsuccessfully attempted to publish it, hopefully it works now

after the official southerngraphicsconference business, we headed south to this awesome bar tattooed mom's and got to enjoy 1$ PBRS while we relaxed in our shared success and completion of the conference with all our fellow printmakers. the best part is the bar was aware of the conference and in complete support of it, so they had set up buckets of wheatpaste for us to come and wallpaper the bar with our prints! the already graffiti covered walls layered even more with our collective works, overlapping and melding into eachother.




you can see the previously defaced painting/icon starting to get covered with other artists wheatpasted prints, beautiful.

especially in an environment so easily dirtied and destructed as a bar, it's interesting to put work up that you know isn't permanent. that's an idea relative to the whole of street art and graffiti, how you can put something up just for it to be teared down later, or tag something that you know someone's going to destroy in two seconds with a throw up. considering the medium of wheatpaste, i would love to visit back and see the slow deconstruction of our work; how it's maybe started to fall apart, or what else was added to/towards it.

i put mine up right over the doorway leading out of the back room, a good friend told me "it'll be the last thing people see as they walk out."


climbed a stool, hung from the doorway and put that shit up; super proud.

molt of the fawn

so from where i left off, the rest of the conference continued to be nothing short of amazing. on the last day, i was able to set up my work at a table in the conference center, alongside hundreds of fellow talented artists and printmakers. had my wear your horns out now and heavy hangs the head.. prints, as well as the corresponding t-shirts (see my previous post for the photoset). tracy brought the most adorable/badass ipodspeaker shaped like a vintage boombox, and we played aphextwin and some 50's beats to the pleasure of everyone stopping by our booths. a couple of people even came over just to dance.

>>me blowing tracy a kiss xx

<<>

the lion/lamb canvas bags i made (check this link for the photos) were my best seller, sold every single one i had brought to the conference! that was really exciting for me. it was nice to meet so many new artists and exchange dialogue regarding the contemporary art world and our places in it; like so many of my peers, being able to share how it is being out of school and trying to continue artistic endeavours when the venues seem few and far between. on that note, i'm proud of my decision to quit my job and work at the LowerEastSidePrintShop in order to create this body of work. i know it can be pushed farther though - just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak - and am looking forward with the utmost excitement for that next step.

i got a bigbigbig heartbeat yeah.

timetravel

realized i had posted these on my facebook page, but not on here. had a great day of printing and went over to a friends where we had a realfun photoshoot of my MARCH ON apparel. check the link, and p.s. add my page! xo http://www.facebook.com/pages/chris-tina/284044206905

work all day, keep the rhythm through the night

allright.

SouthernGraphics was INCREDIBLE. i'm so glad for everyone i met, all the great things i got to do, the inspiring art i was surrounded with the whole time, and of course philly, because wow what an great city.

saw the most phenomenal demo by joseph lappie on making a drum-leaf artists book, which essentially is a series of folds and gluing that doesn't require any stitching in the spine. when you open it, the two page spread is seamless and uninterrupted by those wouldbe stitches, prime for artwork. click on his name and i've linked in his website, great work. i really admire his thesis work especially.

there was alot of traditional letterpress workings, it was so refreshing to bear witness to and take part in the handmade considering how things are done more often than not as of late (mass production).

in the courtyard along side one of the UArts buildings a group was constructing these phenomenal 'beached whales'; wood exoskeleton to be covered in clay and allowed to dry and crack in the sun over a period of time. i think they might actually be taking them down today.

aaah have to go, be back later with more

xx

had the most incredible 2 days in the city, spent the afternoon walking crosstown to the river and taking in the sun. climbed over the railing and hung out on the rotting dock, learning how to skip stones and being entranced by the lapping sound of the water.

ended up on 11th and just sat on a stoop taking photos and discussing the horrible addition to our already overly technological culture that are electronic books, after finding some vintage books on the street and reveling in the shared pleasure of five senses at work while reading one. in contrast to my previous video of wind and rain, check this one out from today:

!!!

so it's been a minute, my bad. i had been prepping insanely for southerngraphics, and have been there since wednesday. i just got back after getting terribly lost in new jersey, cannot wait to share/play catch up. just need a minute to catch my breath. met so many amazing people, fellow artists and thinkers (and drinkers). talk to you tomorrow, need a goood nights rest

xx

MARCH ON!!

duality is something that is very close to the heart of me. i try not to put too much faith in astrology but being a libra (my sign is the scales), i've found myself in a perpetual pendulum swing; an up-and-down-and-across from various perspectives. never truly at rest and absorbing stimulus from all angles. as of late, well-known expressions in relation to my current state have been repeating in my mind as a kind of call-to-arms. march has been a very important month for me; many goals and ambitions in full swing thanks to a self-motivated nice little fire under their asses haha.

march comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, and for sure it's that way this year. march has been a very important month for me; many goals and ambitions in full swing thanks to a self-motivated nice little fire under their asses haha (permitting this is the catalytic leaving of my job and frantically getting back in the studio. which feels INCREDIBLE). and now, as it winds down like the lamb it truly is, i find myself in awe. in that struggle for balance, the lion and the lamb are the yin and yang and the right and wrong of my life-scales. the extremes and while i still falter daily (being a part of the human race like i am) i think i got this.

i guess i'm just doing what makes me feel good

remember that crazy storm a couple of weeks ago?

beautiful undulation of trees to the beat of animal collective from my car.

i made these guys a couple of years ago, stuffed animals based off characters from dante's inferno. had a small obsession with the concept of there being corresponding punishment specific to each 'sin' or wrongdoing, and was exploring different aspects from that book, these guys being characters that doled out those punishments. never got around to a larger piece involving the work, but produced these and am glad for it.

i'm making some stuffed animals now again; its really nice to combine printing with my passion for sewing and the handmade. i bought the plushest fabric for them the other day, don't want to say too much til their done, but i'll have pictures soon when the first one is all stuffed and sewn up!

detailed photos, check em out:

wear your horns out now

that last post was a little rushed, i was just super-eager to share what i've been up too. being back in the city, back in the studio, i'm infinitely more of a person; an enhanced, happier version of myself. pounding pavement and smelling pollution has never been more satisfying.

so this print goes along with the 'heavy hangs the head...' print, a diptych. these little guys have been filling my brain as not just standing for our physicality with one another but our collective conscious; holding their own while still representing the whole. that feeling

of being the only one in any given situation or emotional state, but the knowledge that we are all interconnected in our same innate flaws; two of which being pride (re: crown) and, respective to this print, deviance.

i think i said a little too much already; it's late and i haven't really allowed myself to wrap my own head around where i'm at. i've just kind of been doing whatever i feel like and following through with passions and ambitions without having to think too hard. very fluid, undulating, calm.

speaking of which, saw animal collective at the guggenheim: INCREDIBLE. womb-like, repetitive hypnosis. the complete opposite of their film ODDSAC, also with Danny Perez that i saw with geoff at SVA 2 days earlier. if Traverse Temporal Gyrus was a lucid dream, ODDSAC was an epileptic nightmare of anxiety; flashing vague ideas of fear and loss, lacking a real plot line and resolving itself only in it's silence after an almost entirety of high pitch and horror. we sat there jaw dropped. meeting them afterward, my heart was beating out of my chest.

so relieved to be hearing this again everyday/night

i don't run with sheep, the shepherd can't herd me

heyy!!
so, i've been furiously printing/life-enhancing, and i have my first batch of prints/shirts made and ready to go for SouthernGraphics. two-color silkscreen, lemme know if you want one.

from top left: prints on the drying rack, photoshoot with my beloved tracy of me and my new boyfriend on christopher street, awkward angle of myself at the studio.



'heavy hangs the head that wears the crown,' silkscreen 2010

correct

hey, i know it's been almost a while. my computers hard drive crashed, i'm pretty much completely devastated. years of music, photos, writing, instantaneously gone. i'm trying to find comfort in knowing that it happened for a reason, and it was about time for a clean sweep of life clutter and weighted past mementos. now i have to re-photograph all my work, (which i'll be posting as i do) and manifest myself in the work i'm making.

i had the perfect horoscope today, so fitting for positive change and life organization that the first of the month is a monday.

in the same vein of miniatures, for christmas i made my mother this small watercolor and placed it in a coaster frame. it's my interpretation of a thermal scan of the thyroid, of which she's had problems with. she showed it to her endocrinologist and he got a total kick out of it. hah!

mold from the thaw

i've added another layer of vellum to some of these and i think they're coming along nicely. once i have a more substantial quantity i'm going to post some for sale.


2"x 2" plastic, vellum, thread, watercolor.

everywhere

hoping fast that my arrow hits the mark

as of late in working on these small boxed watercolors, i was reminded of my own previous work, realizing that i've always been fascinated and interested in small encapsulments; whether they stand alone or, in the past, were part of a bigger picture. this is a work i did in college that represented the latter for me. imagery from all aspects of my life were interwoven to create the piece as a whole, but each box broke off little parts of these combined experiences into small capsules of specific interactions or periods of time. it still remains untitled.




colored pencil, gum arabic transfer, thread, keys, icons, berries, heart and soul. 2007

i found this article in this months ARTnews; a couple posts back (this one) i mentioned seeing what i thought was one of richard serra's pieces on a flatbed in manhattan, and i'm glad to have found out for certain it was.






and to any and all those wondering, p.s.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwcaQ3qJ88U

small bones

so.
southerngraphicsconference (www.sgcphiladelphia.com) is coming up in the end of march, and i have pretty big plans for what i'd like to have to show at open portfolio. i've elaborated the concept of those small wolf-men from my coffee cups, and will be printing them en mass on paper as well as apparel; pictures to come as of march when i'm back at LESPrint.
i've also been working on a series of small watercolors, encased in clear plastic boxes of various shape and size.
this one above is a fairly simple notion of a landscape; i've enjoyed playing with subtle variations in opacity and adding texture with thread.
the two below are more successful in my mind because of the play of light that's allowed between the clear box and the translucency of the vellum. the subtleties of the watercolor become more and subsequently less apparent as the light shining through them changes throughout the day.


clicking on the pictures makes them pop up in another window at a larger scale, you can see more of the details.

taking a step back?
GET THE FUCK BACK UP!

translating vibration into knowledge

trying to keep my internal momentum.

these are the coffee cups at my job, i've been drawing on them to differentiate from other peoples. i'm thinking i'm going to end up with about 28. this is just a really great table at my house, but i envision a shelf similar on the wall with them all in row like this. they each have naturally developed unique stains from being in use for several days. is daily grind too camp?

these drawings too have been appearing on everything in my waking life and my subconscious. i've got studio space and the LESPrintShop starting in two weeks and i have a lot of really exciting ideas in terms of the work i want to make. oh man, cant even wait to be back in the studio.

retrospect?

non stop train. been actively organizing and celebrating.

excessive digression
undulating corpselikelaying
reverberating analysis
not intuitive ENOUGH
am i really that callous as I claim to be compassionate?
cant care dontcarewontstop cant stop.
I'm treading water, placenta, womb like
so easy to get lodged..; stuck
no time to speak out of place.
what's good with synonymity?
What Exactly has perched claws deep into my clavicles in an eternal shoulder rest?

recharged

had a very inspiring time in the city over a few days!!! after an unexpected plate-sized pancake breakfast whose color scheme made me think of diners in the fifties, we took the metro into manhattan to check out the highline on the upper west side (http://www.thehighline.org/about/maps). i'd been there months ago in early summer and only the first two blocks on the north half were open, but the whole length of it's finished now and it's absolutely great. really a nice walk, i highly suggest checking it out. i'm dreaming of how nice it's going to be when i'm there warm in the summer, but i really loved the straw texture of all the tall grass shriveling/shivering under winter's chill. on the way we turned onto ninth and this is what greets us:

i'm pretty sure that's one of richard serra's pieces; it was on a giant flatbed on the side of the street. i couldnt find anything online in regards to a possible upcoming installation/exhibition somewhere, i'd love to go see it once it's up.

found this supershort video on serra and his crew while trying to find info.

i laid my body down to go to sleep tonight, and found my mind entirely alert and racked with regret over i think almost everything i've ever done. the longer i lay there, the more i realized it was regret for everything i haven't done; yet. for months since i graduated school i've talked hollow goals and worked a job entirely unrelated to art with no room for creativity. i'm newly aware to just how much i've squandered, and it's really time it stops. i'm not going to make this public until it is somewhat substantial, but i'd like to keep it as a place to put all aspects of my subconcious conscious; the videos i make on the train, 'candied slices of life' as tracy would have said, the small writings that are so necessary to my coping, the drawings and tiny works i dream of all day and yet never sit down in the evening to make. i am "physically" manifesting a home for all these things and thoughts; my hope is that with a place for them to all go they themselves will finally physically manifest.