Hooo boy.

It has been a while, hasn't it? Longer than I meant. Oh well, it happens. I spend too much time on the internet not doing much of anything.

Recently I was propositioned by a local band to create some artwork for their use on CDs, tapes, t-shirts, whathaveyou. As a result, my newly refueled desire to draw has been bolstered even more. Alongside the few unrelated pieces I've created in recent weeks, I finished a couple things for them yesterday and took pictures of them. Pictures need some editing before I can share...but expect to see them soon-like.

Fuck schedules, I can't stick to them whatever I do. I have a second artist interview all ready to go, and will be posting it in short order...here's hoping it won't be as frustrating as last time. I'm still learning the Blogger ropes.

Finally, my current obsession is a little website called Lookbook.nu. It's a fashion rating community, but without the negativity you might expect (or maybe I haven't encountered it yet). Basically, you hype the "looks" you like, ignore the ones you don't, leave pretty comments, participate in the forums, and of course, post pictures of your own looks. I've gone all out in that regard - my friend James and I did photoshoots yesterday and last week so I would have looks to post.
Gives a bit of an ego boost and exposes you to fashion trends from around the world. Righto.

Here's one of my more successful looks.

Don't worry, I still exist.

Not that anyone is keeping tabs, but I haven't forgotten about this blog. I've been unusually busy, what with the holidays...so I haven't been making as much stuff as usual...I have a new artist interview lined up but the artist is currently without internet access, so we are at a bit of a standstill on that front. I guess I could line up another artist, but I honestly haven't had time to think about it. Loved ones are in from out of town, etc. and they come before blogging!
Also, I'm going to be out of town for the first two weeks of January, no telling whether or not I'll be able to update then, though I'll make my best effort.

Ciao until the dust settles!

Well, I missed a day. Oops.

I'm sure it won't be the first time. 

Not much to update on anyway. I made a couple necklaces yesterday that I'm really happy with, and I wore one proudly today and showed if off to whoever I could.

Got a little perturbed with dad (and he with me) over some of his decisions regarding the jewelry making. I just don't like it when he uses findings, chain, etc. that I've bought and might've had plans for without asking me. Plus he's just not as careful/thorough as I am, and it bothers me. I don't want anyone questioning my craft, especially potential customers. When I'm putting things together I want it to be as neat and nice as the materials and tools allow. Dad just sort of...throws things together without giving it too much thought. I pointed out that he'd damaged something he made (rendering it, to my mind, unsalable) and I think it bruised his pride. I heard him grumbling to mom about me after I left the room.

I guess we need to have a heart to heart about how we're going to continue. Maybe we should have separate supply stocks (wow, my cat just farted and it was a ripe one). Or when I have plans for something I'll point it out and ask him not to use it. 

I hope I didn't piss him off enough to make him want to quit :(

Vintage Wednesday.

Here we are (or here I am, since it seems to be me and the crickets so far), the first vintage Wednesday. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, because it was another rainy day and quite dark in my house and I am dumb because I haven't invested in a tripod yet.

To the point, ever since I was a child, my mom and I have shopped at local thrift stores. It was never an embarrassment to me; I enjoyed the "one person's trash, another's treasure" element - the chance that you might find something really, really awesome if you took the time to look. I'd say more than half of my current wardrobe hails from thrift stores and secondhand shops. 

Beyond clothes, my newly redesigned bedroom incorporates a majority of vintage/retro/antique items. Wait, wait, total photo op! For example, here is my fabulous headboard, which was found via my local Craigslist...

It was off-white with dusty gold accents when I got it; my dad painted it black for me and built a simple bedframe out of materials he already had (salvaged from our old waterbeds, haha). Bed presto!

So recently I got to thinking, with all the thrift store digging I do, and all the sweet items I come across that I must leave behind for one reason or another...maybe I should start grabbing these items up and offering them to my fellow vintage fiends for reasonable prices??

Once I have a decent inventory I'll be opening up shop on Etsy (ahhh, that's my current mantra). People seem to have mixed feelings about vintage goods on Etsy, but Etsy makes it clear that it is not a strictly handmade wares outlet by allowing and encouraging supply and vintage sellers. If they don't have a problem, I don't have a problem. Furthermore, vintage goods can easily be used as supplies for handmade projects. Reusing, repurposing, all that good, environmentally friendly stuff!

Hopefully by next Wednesday my inventory will have grown a little more and I'll have a sneak peek at some of the items you can expect to find for sale in my shop. Now it's my usual dilemma, coming up with a good shop name...

Bling.

A while back, my dad was out of work for about 2 1/2 years, which royally sucked. To pass the time and avoid being carted off by the men in white, dad spend a lot of his time doing what we lovingly/loathingly called "hunting for rocks." 

Actually, dad was finding quartz crystals in the creek across the street from our house.

I'm not talking a few crystals, I'm talking hundreds of the damned things. And some of them are quite beautiful. 

Recently dad got a wild hair (funny, he's bald) and decided we need to actually do something with the crystals instead of allowing them to take up space without paying rent (kind of like me, and only I'm allowed to do that). 

Glad to have something to do with dad, since we're both sort of artsy-fartsy but need a lot of badgering to get on with it, I agreed. So now we're making jewelry with them! Of course that means having money to buy all the supplies you need to make decent jewelry, which is actually a significant chunk of change...so it comes in spurts. Last night I glued up some badass crystal pendants. Here they are drying...

I also put caps on some teeth dad found while walking in the woods. Maybe dog, maybe possum, who knows? They're big suckers. And you can see some of many boxes of neatly organized crystals they're sitting on.

Sorry for the crappy photo quality. We had one of those gloomy winter days that didn't provide much light.

If everything goes as planned we'll be opening  shop on Etsy sometime early next year. I just need to decide on a name for our little "business." I've been tossing "LeeLee Jewelry" around, since my middle name is Lee, and his middle name is Lee. Isn't that cute?

In case you're wondering, most of my jewelry findings come from LuLuLaLaLand, one of the most successful supply shops on Etsy. They have a wide range of quality findings for delightfully cheap, with the added bonus of honest shipping rates and friendly service. Do recommend!

Monday interview: JP Morrison (Tulsa, OK)

Ms. Morrison is a cherished friend/robot/shemale impersonator of mine, but that isn't the only reason I chose her for my first (hopefully, of many to come) Monday artist interview.

JP's work is a true reflection of herself - flamboyant, perhaps a little bit egotistical, mind-numbingly detail oriented, weird, and smelling of cats. 

So with no further ado...

ONE: What do you do when you're experiencing a creative drought?

I make really sh*tty uncreative art. I cannot lie about there being a bit of gloating that goes on inside my head when I say this... which I'm ashamed of, but, I definitely don't quit making art. I have in the past, but it's been a good six years since I went through a stretch of several months without making something. Now, to really answer the question: I have learned that the only way to get through a block is to pretend it isn't happening and accept that during that time you will make art that will fail. This failure will go on for awhile, but often there is at the very least something to be learned from it. I learned a lot about how to think about this from the book Letters to a Young Artist by J. Cameron. Great book, it can get a bit spiritual from time to time... but with some really helpful stuff in there for how to stay motivated as a Creative.

TWO: What would you say to someone who criticized your "photorealistic" style?

I usually don't say much, it's often not worth the energy. People are entitled to like and dislike whatever they choose. I find that if that person is an artist, I usually don't like what they do much either. However, there is a great sort of automatic safety net if you are a photorealist. No matter if people dislike the style or the subject matter, there is often an undeniable "wow" factor embedded in the technique. If a person isn't even impressed with the training involved then often they are working some intellectual angle, and they will find issue in the straightforwardness of my work. I usually just find that tiresome and likewise don't say much.

THREE: What mediums/techniques would you like to use in the future?

I'm really happy with my mediums at present and have no plans to significantly alter or abandon them. I am most happy when I am drawing, and I often use so many other mediums that I stay entertained. Some techniques...I would like to be using more dramatic lighting, I have started this and am happily struggling along with it. The trouble is that my lighting is directly linked to my source image, so... I have to get better at the lighting I use with my models and using my camera. It sort of leaves me speechless. I'm not sure where to start... but I will get there.

FOUR: What's the harshest critique you've ever received? How did you deal with it?

I'm pretty sure I've blocked that out. I couldn't even begin to quote anything to you. I can tell you that I have escaped to my car on a few occasions during lunch or smoke breaks to bawl. I built a wall and a door in my studio space during junior year of college to deal with it, which wasn't really dealing with it at all. I take technical critiques pretty seriously and to heart, but more often than not critiques are of a personal and subjective nature, and those I don't have much use for, I make my art to fit into my reality, not a critic's. I make art that satisfies my creative needs and desires, that because it first evokes something within me will hopefully evoke something similar in my audience, and I make work to sell. Critiques sometimes miss a lot of those points and become strictly subversive. I'm thinking exclusively of art school critiques here, outside of school that kind of discussion about my work is pretty nonexistent, which I suppose is what makes going through all that worthwhile. It doesn't happen much afterwards, at least not until you start getting write-ups in the New York Times and stuff... I'll let you know about that in our next interview.

FIVE: What advice would you give to someone trying to start a gallery?

Try it on at first and then do it right. Get an accountant (as an arts org. you can often get them for free or reduced costs). Boring I know, but so true. Be on top of your press. Be willing to see yourself as a used car salesman, and if you're not the retail type get someone to help you who is. Often art doesn't sell itself. Be willing to tell your artists "how it is." 

-and now a tangent- 
It is totally unacceptable as a professional artist to adjust your prices for the percentage being taken by the consignment, the market, etc., etc., etc. Gallerists talk to each other and they will quit showing you. Buyers, i.e. collectors, talk too, and those who paid retail will loathe you if they find out they could have gotten it for half that. Wakka wakka wakka. Be professional and consistent, as a gallerist and an artist.

Thanks for this opportunity Hissingfauna, I'm super flattered and you're the best!!!

-JPM

Aw, shucks! Well, that wraps up our first interview, hope you found it informative...thanks again JP. Until next week!

PS, to see more of JP's work or to comission her, visit her website -

www.jpmorrison.net

Sunday is off-topic day.

When I said off-topic, I really meant off-topic, okay?? An old roommate bought me a copy of "Earth Girls are Easy" (1989) for my birthday a few years ago, probably from the $5 bin at Wal-Mart. I didn't get around to watching it until earlier this year, and now it's become one of my all-time cheeseball favorites.

It stars Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, and Damon Wayans, with songs from the soundtrack by Yankovitch-esque Julie Brown.  It's probably the only movie in which Jeff Goldblum is even mildly attractive (close second being "The Fly," before he gets all gloppy).

Favorite moment: Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis getting it on in a flurry of glitter.

Best line: "Omg, you're like totally black!"

Best dance-off: Between Damon Wayans and some club-hopping late 80's weirdo.

If you're wondering what it's about, well, that's not really important. Watch it for the awkward, "wait, am I a musical??" moments. Watch it for Geena Davis singing solo while wearing lingerie and a cheap blonde wig. Watch it because you haven't got anything better to do. Invite friends over, make some popcorn, put those boring art films you got at the library under the couch cushions, and enjoy.