new! and upcoming!

Today is the day! We’re hanging the House of Icon show at Gallery X… I’m somewhere between being so excited I’m like a kid with ADHD on Christmas Eve, and so exhausted that I could curl up anywhere and nap for about seven hours. The exhaustion is probably the time change, we fell ahead and now I’m all messed up. My body thinks its an hour later than it really is! What sadistic bastard came up with changing the time in fall and spring?!

And in more good things… here’s some art I didn’t have time to scan and post this past week. I feel it is very Halloween inspired, but fun just the same. The last piece was clearly inspired by watching Rocky Horror Picture Show on Halloween night.

Candy-Candy-Candy-Candy

Over the course of a week I created these fine Halloween candy bags using colored pencil and marker on fine quality brown paper bags.  They were requested by my Mother for my cousins (on her side). The one thing I can say about my Mom, she has a zest/desire to decorate every goddamned thing for every holiday. Lucky for her, Halloween is the only holiday I actually like… every other holiday has the tendency to make me sad.

dressing up and down…

I am still stuck in Halloween mode, then again, one of my favorite things to do is dress up. I love clothes: vintage clothes, comfy clothes, dress-up clothes, pj clothes, clothes, clothes, clothes. I like checking out what other people are wearing, sometimes I wonder why they are wearing what they are wearing, sometimes I feel a bit envious.

I can see why Cindy Sherman does what she does, because allegedly, she just likes to dress-up. I used to play dress-up as a child, clearly I have yet to outgrow it. I start planning Halloween in August. I take pictures of myself (which my girlfriend enjoys) in various styles of dress… though I seldom dress like a whore, even for Halloween… which brings me to women dressing like whores on Halloween. Now, I admit, I once dressed as a hooker, as a joke on Halloween when I was 15. And at age 29 or so, dressed as a dominatrix, though the costume wasn’t really slutty, because a dom can be mostly covered up.

Anyways, this was the first year that I went to Providence on Halloween. I was interesting just to people watch, while not driving down the streets, trying to avoid the hordes of people. I fully understand the concept of donning a different persona for one evening, so maybe these women are your typical ‘good girls’ who think a short skirt/shorts, spiked heels and cleavage make them look ‘sexy.’ Actually they all ended up looking like clones.

I’m all for being sex-positive, but this wasn’t it. Dressing like a whore for Halloween isn’t empowering, I felt a bit bad for them. They were doing it to attract attention, possibly of men. Its the promise of being/feeling sexy and one that may not always be fulfilled. I know, I’ve bought into sexy underthings.. they ain’t getting you laid, or bringing you eternal, or momentary happiness. Your just going to have pretty underwear and/or sexy clothes.

Maybe that was all the clothes they had? Maybe they were protesting the law finally banning indoor prostitution in RI? (a much debated issue that I found trivial and frivolous for my tax dollars, but that’s another topic for another time)

Halloween inspriation…

My best friend, Pop’s, obsession with zombies has clearly rubbed off on me. Every once in awhile I sit down and create some zombie-esque image… or skeletons. Every day is Halloween here at my cozy house/studio.

And, last year’s “Zombie-rina” owned by Popicn…

in the spirit of Halloween…

I’ve working furiously on sketches for the Lizzie Borden show at Gallery X as well as sewing a very much involved “Queen of Hearts” costume. The costume still needs work and I may need gloves, ladies back then wore gloves. However, the skirt is currently my nemesis.. three layers of skirted craziness.. I’m going to be wearing so many clothes! I hope its not 80 degrees on Halloween. Thankfully, I live in New England and there’s only a small chance of that happening.

On a good note, I’ve finished my Lizzie Borden piece, the biggest obstacle was finding a cutting board at a local thrift store. Any other time, I would’ve found seven, this time it took me almost two months to find one. I was ready to give up and use one of the dozens of wooden boxes one can find at any given thrift store. I was going to call it “Lizzie’s Box,” kind of borrowing the Throwing Muses song tittle “Vicky’s Box.” …because hey, sometimes art imitates life and sometimes art imitates art. True, the song has nothing to do with Lizzie Borden, it just popped into my head when I was sketching the box. The box that didn’t happen, because I found a cutting board, so all is well and no possible law suit will ensue.

sparkling and swooning.

I am in my reeling, stary eyed, happy place… What a grand, craptastic hot day, yet its all good (I feel like Henry Miller right now! the happiest woman alive!)… the desktop on my computer is wonderful (its the breeders), the sun outside is shining, the heat – it is all wonderful! everything just plain rocks today.

I thought to myself, while driving down Benefit St. “I wish I’d brought my camera!” Everything just looked like a perfect image. Speaking of pictures, I need to go take pictures of this church on Dexter St. in Providence. I think its a church, it kind of looks like a castle. Its looked amazing at sunset last night, but cell camera just didn’t seem like it could cut it photography wise, I really wanted my Nikon.

I bought part of my Halloween costume and its fabulous because while I do have to alter the skirt, its this fun pattern – its crazy and works perfectly for a queen of hearts costume! the pattern is going to be an over-skirt. The under-skirt part is a black kind of puffy skirt which should make the top skirt also puff out once I’m through with it. I can’t wait to wear it.. if only Halloween lasted a bit longer so one could dress up and be fun for an extra night or two.

Halloween Fun

Became inspired to create some creepy chics this year, so here’s one, I call her “Zombie-rina”: