Some day You Will Ache Like I Ache.....My Influences List:

As mentioned in my last post [Click to read if you're lazy and don't wanna scroll down.] I am going to list my artistic influences and music/writer/movie influences for your reading pleasure. Plus, if my sketchbook ever gets lost, combusts, etc., this will be recorded on here and I can come back and read as well:

ARTISTS: [And What I Like About Their Respective Work]

[Pages From My Sketchbook. Click to Enlarge.]

1. Lee Bontecou

* organic shapes, autobiographical, the statements her work made about war, politics, being a woman in the 1960s, rhythm, autobiography, her drawings are as a free-spirited as her sculptures.

2. Barbara Hepworth [See this Month's Inspiration!]

* round organic shapes, simplicity, boldness as a woman in the art world.

3. Kiki Smith

* dealing with the figure, "what it's like to be a woman", organic shapes, boldness, use of plaster, use of material, rhythm of the figure.

4. Frida Kahlo

* colors used, autobiographical, deals with all issues in her life, bold, the theme of "womanhood", connected with her culture.

5. Judy Chicago

* ambiguity of shapes, "what it's like to be a woman", BOLD, different media used - not just painter; sculptor; installation, Feminism, autobiographical but also about all women in general.

MUSICIANS/WRITERS/MOVIES:

1. Ryan Adams

* his honesty, emotion, pain, autobiography.

2. Walt Whitman

* honest, autobiographical, true to himself as an artist, paints pictures with words.

3. Bob Dylan

* poetry, true to himself, autobiography, you can "hear the pain."

4. Wristcutters: A Love Story

* darkly funny, in your face about issues in life people don't want to talk about - mainly suicide, death, sadness, music, honest.

This is a movie based on the short-story by Etgar Keret [Kneller's Happy Campers], there is also a comic book adaptation. The score of the film is done by Bobby Johnston as well as including songs by famous suicides such as Del Shannon and Joy Divison (Ian Curtis). Plus music by Gogol Bordello. Plus Tom Waits is in it. I Love It. Watch This Scene.

5. A Cross Between Jeff Buckley, Allen Ginsberg, and the Counting Crows [Because I couldn't Decide]

* they were/are truthful about themselves and their art, went with their instincts even if that's not what people around them would expect them to produce or like. They inspire me daily.

[Ryan Adams]

"...I can smile in the face..of mankind..."

Interestingly enough all my art inspirations are women and all my musicmoviewriters are men. Food for thought.

People who almost made this list worth mentioning: Niki de Saint Phalle, Eva Hesse, Cindy Sherman, Sam Phillips (lady musician, not Sun Records), Miriam Schapiro, Faith Ringgold, and so so many more.

What Inspires You? XO.

Love Changes Everything.

....So in Fibers last week....WE MADE PAPER. Which I was informed, by my friend Jason, that usually 4th graders do that project. Well, we never did at my fascist school (...you know the one that recently banned but un-banned but still require parent permission for high schoolers to read? yeah, that one. if you want independent, intelligent children DON'T send them to Republic High School. Yeah, I said it. Be all you're told to be, Republic Highschoolers.), so I thought it was an awesome project!! And my paper looks like New Year's Eve threw up on it.

.......Somebody had the purple drink......



These are my two newest works:

Left, sewn cardboard. It is about 1.5 ft across and juts off the wall about 8 inches. My plan is to make another one. Bigger. WAY BIGGER. With some crocheted drapery hanging off the side......More to come on that.

Right, an old Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt I used to wear, when I was 15. It has a large bass and drum kit on the front. Whenever I used to wear it, my father would get really pissed and yell about how women can't play music and that hopefully when I were to grow up I would just marry a doctor and stay home and have babies. Did I mention that he was a peach? Yep. So I decided, first of all, fuck that noise about just being a stay at home wifemom (which is fine, just not for me. Unless you act like a martyr mother. That's annoying.) and secondly I am going to start making more autobiographical work. My 399 [that means "individual instruction"] teacher Sharon Harper [she's amazing. See For Yourself. Click.] gave us this great assignment last week. We had to list 5 artistic influences, and then 5 that were musicians, writers, and/or movies (my next post will be my list, i've decided). Then list what we liked about their work. After all of this, we were to draw the common threads between all of them. My main common thread? Autobiography. (Second place was Feminism, imagine that...) I never realized that I wanted to make work about my life. I thought I just wanted to make work. So the last few days I have been collecting old family photos to use as a source. My childhood was interesting to say the least. My mother was/is a saint, my father was a misogynistic Satan. Need I say more? Using these photos, I will make work (still out of cardboard and wire - I missed using cardboard so much!) describing my feelings during those times and during now. So, basically, on that Hard Rock t-shirt piece above I am en route to making a fucking giant vaginal shape popping right out of the center. Yeah, you read that right. Snap.

I'm excited for this project/research to start. More to come on that later....I'll keep you posted.......

In other news, Monday, I dressed like "Rock & Roll Harry Potter" [someone else's words] to school. I'm pretty cute, I just have to say:

Oh, I got new glasses by the way. I can actually see now without headaches! Who knew? Haha.

....Here's some method for your mischief:

What was that about women not being musical? Oh yeah, it was bullshit.

She loves art history as much as I do.
XO.

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Silver Wings Shining In The Sunlight...

My newest sculpture. It is about 2ft tall and 3.5 ft wide. I have just a bit more sewing to do on it, then Hatch (the sculpture teacher) and myself are going to turn it upside down and fill it to the brim with plaster. Then i'm either going to gesso the outside and paint it OR just stain it with some wood stain. We'll cross that bridge when we get there!

Anyways, a lot of you ask me how I get my ideas - so, here is the page from my sketchbook [click to enlarge] to the final piece. I tend to work off the cuff so it's a rarity that I have a sketchbook page about it. I am working on that though. An artist isn't nearly as efficient without their book of ideas. We can't remember everything!!

In other news, I just ordered some super cute new (nerdy) glasses and they have yet to come. It has been 5 to 10 business days dangit!!! They better get here soon. Anyways they are black with a bit of a stripy pattern up the side (i believe it's red, blue, and orange). If i like them, I am so going to order another pair from the same website. ZenniOptical. Really good deals. I am so going to get a pair of cat-eye glasses!!

Hopefully in the near future (hah!), I will go see this at the Moxie [our local indie film venue]:

Oh, my goodness, Miranda July is so beautiful!!! And honest. I hope I'm influential and totally remain myself just like her in the art world someday. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one......

Anyways, I'll stop swooning like a school girl.

Here's some pep for your step, well, actually not too peppy at all:

Ok, this is a Merle Haggard cover. I love me some Merle, but I have been listening to this version lately. Yes, it comes from the movie Country Strong. Don't judge me. I just like the music. Enjoy. And ladies, you're welcome. He's foxy.
Pixies cover. This version can be seen in the film, "It's Kind of A Funny Story." Pretty good (the film). Lighter take on mental illness. I listen to this song on a daily basis. And if I ever get married [that's a big IF because A) he'd have to be quite persuasive and B) I'm holding true to my pact on not getting married until EVERYONE can legally) I would have this song play as I walk down the aisle. Yep. Beautiful. Plus whoever made this video did a great job with the old film matching up to the song.

I'll end by showing you a gift my friend Ashley gave me recently. She made it. And i LOVE it.

I'll probably go see The Future with Ashley and her manfriend Andy. They make amazing ice cream. Hope you all have a great rest of the week!!
XO.

Outside, Outside The World....Out There You Don't Hear The Echoes & Calls....

Hey, Beautiful Friends!!

So it's September!! Yay! I am so excited for fall. I am writing this right now with all the windows in my house open. Lloovee.

So, tonight was my first night to work as a lab monitor in Brick City. It was great! I mean tonight I was all alone for about 3 hours (slightly creeped out since I just watched Insidious the other night on FatNight with my hetero-lifemate Tiffany), then my teacher Duat came and put me to work. I moved furniture, dusted, the works. Every Sunday from 2 to 8 PM, I will be at Brick City sitting, dusting, cleaning, and working on my own artwork. "Keeping watch over the City" if you will. My brother brought me chinese food tonight (that's my fortune above. It made me smile) and then we had an Art Party. It was so much fun! When we were kids, Jason was always the most amazing artist; he would draw Civil War soldiers and Wildlife - he's the realist and I'm the abstract one. But tonight, to my surprise, I gave him some drawing lessons! I think after he got the hang of "the rules" he enjoyed himself. He hasn't really drawn in awhile, and I'm really glad he got a chance to express himself. We just stood around and drew and sang along with the Counting Crows. Talk about refreshing. I think we both needed it.

At first he was just drawing out of his head and I was sewing on my latest sculpture, then we both decided to draw a plaster-casted model of a man with an orange electrical cord around his neck. Here's my finished piece. I got really into it at the end, so I decided to add some paint to it. I haven't painted in ages. It was fun!

The last two Thursdays in a row I have stayed up all night with Miss Tiffany watching creepy movies. We pretty much live like every day is Halloween! Last Thursday we were watching movies and doing her laundry because she was leaving the next day to go visit her aunts in St. Louis. We put the clothes in to wash at her apartment's community machine and then put on a creepy movie. When we went to put them in the dryer - the dryer had been turned off for the night!! Of course it was 3:20 AM, but Tiffany told me that the machines usually stay on all night. So we walked to the next complex and tried to use their dryers only to find the same thing had happened!! Apparently, the all-night dryer policy has been thrown out. So, we hung up all her laundry in her bathroom, on the kitchen table, on chairs, back of the couch, pretty much everywhere. Did I mention she hadn't done laundry in like 3 weeks? Haha!! So anyways, here are some pictures of us doing that. I thought they were funny. I'm very proud of the sock mountain I made on her kitchen table.....


She's pretty much my favorite person sometimes! I gotta stop staying up that late on nights before school though (one night I didn't go to sleep til 8 AM with class at 10:45....) or create another day where I can just sleep. Haha I'll try to work on both.

Alright, I'm off to read the book Carl just let me borrow. It's about Zen Buddhism and inner insecurity vs security. It should be suupperr interesting. And, I'd just like to say that I really really really love Carl and his wife, Kathleen. The last 4 weekends in a row (that's a month, people) they have made me dinner and entertained me. They're kind of like parents. Haha which is funny since they are both younger than me by a year. Either way, we've had Art Parties, School Parties (Kathleen teaches the 1st grade) and movie nights. Not to mention "Fort Night"......

(Carl is at the bottom on the left, and Kathleen is the one taking the picture. The other people in the picture are some of my artfriends Ashley [to the right of me], her manfriend Andy [top left] and the every hilarious Christopher [bottom right].) We are hoping the have another Fort Night in about a Fortnight. Hah!!

Here's some drugs fo yo brain:

This is Jeff's version of a Porter Wagoner song. Holyshititssobeautiful. I just rediscovered it this last weekend. You're welcome.

Off to cleanse my spirit. Or just read. Either way, Love You Guys. My Cat Is Beautiful.

XO.