I just wanted to share my love of the German Expressionist Painter, Christian Schad(1894-1962). His work is so detailed and beautiful. He has a dreamlike realism to his painting and the eyes of his subjects just grab you. I love their strangeness and direct connection with the viewer. I feel as if I'm locked in a room with them, and I can't move.
Agosta the Winged Man, The Rasha the Black Dove, 1929
Cafe' d'Italia, 1921
Fraulein Mulino Von Kluck Christian, 1930
The Operation, 1929
Marcella, 1926
Maika, 1929
Maria and Annuziata from the Harbour, 1923
Count St. Genois d'Anneucourt 1927
Self-Portrait with Model, 1927
"Schad's portraits express much of the modern liberal-libertarian spirit of the age, of the awareness of life of people who really began to live-whose interesting life started-only with the onset of night."
Sergiusz Michalski, "New Objectivity"
As an illustrator, I love the way Schad plays with the shadows of light and dark. He amazes me with perfection of detail when he draws clothing and hair. It is so simple and stylized. (I'll admit, I am a bit jealous of his abilities) He has a way of creating beauty on the surface with ugliness seeping through on closer inspection.
Just a little show and tell...I was asked to do a little painting demonstration for GLOB paints at Flax art supplies last weekend. I had a little fun with creating some GLOB Aliens to show. Here is a peek...
And if you don't know about these paints, they were created in Berkeley, CA by Ashley Phelps. They are very non-toxic and made with herbs, spices, flowers and vegetables and other food grade ingredients. Which is good if your kids get them in their mouths. They come in 6 different colors (they come in cute little packets of powdered pigment)and can be watered down to a kind of watercolor paint(which I like) or use with less water as a tempura-like paint.
I've been thinking a lot about what I am suppose to do in my life lately and especially since I started to run bluehour studio full time. What is my purpose? What can I do with the gifts I have? How do I stop my fears and get my dreams accomplished. I sit, I draw, I worry and I wonder am I doing the right thing with my life?
The funny thing is, it is gift to even be able to ask these questions. I'm an educated, middle class, white girl from the US. I'm very lucky. I've been blessed with all the freedom in the world. I have wonderfully supportive parents and friends and I am blessed with an awesome, loving, smart and kind husband. With all their help, I have learned to find my strength and success in life.
This is not saying that my life was easy. I had my troubles, problems and doubts that I still deal with everyday but I survived and now I lead a very good happy life.
Some girls are not as lucky... Imagine if by the time you were 15 instead of worrying if anyone was going to ask you to the dance, you had to worry about who you were going to be married off to. You'd pray that your husband won't rape and beat you. And you pray you have the strength to raise your children. You would pray you would stay healthy and safe. It is not the way anyone should live. But millions of girls do.
I heard about The Girl Effect a few months ago and I was blown away. I mean, I knew that a large percentage of girls/women lead really, really difficult lives. But I did nothing. I suppose I felt helpless about it all. I mean what can I do?
I decided to join in with Tara Sophia Mohr and her Wise Living Blog. She is having a campaign for bloggers to tell people about The Girl Effect. It may be a little thing but it is something I can do.
Watch how supporting girls to helping change the systems can really effect lives:
And you can do something too. You can learn, you can give or you help spread the word.
P.S. I wanted to thank Tara@ScoutieGirl for pointing this out to me.
Let's have some fun...One of my all time favorite publishers (Chronicle Books) is having a contest for bloggers and blog readers to win an awesome assortment of books from their store.
I get to choose $500 worth of super cool books. You make a comment about these books. Chronicle Books picks a lucky blog and a commenter to that blog. We both win our own set of the books below. Pretty cool, huh?
So without further ado, here is my dream list of Chronicle Books. ( I will admit I could have chose 100)
Categorize this in "things every designer should know"...more info
I gotta eat and this looks very yummy, don't you think?...more info
Where all the love started, vintage illustration...more info
I hope you all like my list. I chose a group of books that are inspirational, helpful and just super cool. It is a good mix of art, design and fun that will push me forward as an artist, hopefully they will rock your world too. Let's cross our fingers and hope for the best. Oh, Chronicle books, have I told you how much I love thee?
And remember to leave a comment below to make this magic happen....
P.S. a little more info on how this contest works....
Today is a good day. I just sent of a drawing for ScoutieGirl's new publishing adventure and I'm so psyched because Tara loved it. I'm so relieved. Doesn't it feel great when your artistic life feels like it is actually coming together. It has been 5 months and I am getting out there and I have to admit it feels really good.
I think with any big jump in life there is huge risks and you have to face them. I've been working on the fears that have been holding me back . But it is really hard. Nothing is instant and I think I am learning to see my steady growth. It is all about the learning. And I think it is also about self love and forgiveness.
I'm still expecting so much from myself. And am working on combating the dreaded procrastination but baby steps right? So what am I hoping for in the next 6 months?
I will be making enough money that I will stop clearing out my savings.
I will get myself out there. I want to be published in a new place each month.
Start getting myself published in the offline world.
Strengthen my sense of self.
Strengthen the body and the mind.
Take classes ( I want to always be learning).
Finding better balance between work and family and friends.
Find my voice and let it shout!
Maybe this won't be accomplished in the next 6 months, but I want it to be started at least... I am looking to create the ideal me. I want live my soul purpose. I feel that my artwork will push me in that direction. I always wanted to help people and I think I could do that with my artwork. How? I think good art and design makes people stop and notice things. It is the connector. It could connect people to causes. It could connect people to learning. It could connect people to others. I think that is really important. Don't you?
Do you think you've found your soul purpose? Are you working on your dreams? What steps are you taking?
Ok, so I'm freelance illustrator that works at home. No one really cares what I wear. But in a perfect world my everyday jeans and a t-shirt would look like this. Call this future me...cute, stylish, classic with a little tom-boy flair thrown in.
Note: this Polyvore site is super fun. It is the best for guilt free shopping. You can join in the fun here.
Who can not fall in love with really amazing animation. It must of course, blow your mind artistically, make you laugh or make you think. Sometimes the artist just goes in and grabs at your heart. I think these do all of the above.
Here are a few that I found that I just loved:
Madame Tutli-Putli by Maciek Szczerbowski & Chris Lavis...more of their work here.
I'd like to thank the website "Drawn" for introducing me to such wonderful and quirky artists. I highly recommend you checking out their new & improved site.
It has been a crazy month of getting work done. I'm pretty excited to blast away at my 5th official month of my illustration business, bluehour studio. Things are starting to happen. And I am ready to get to work after a few days off. This is some of the stuff I finished in November.
Paintings for mini book(almost done, 6 paintings)
Edwardian Masks for Glob Paint.
Created my Fox Halloween mask.
Continue Volunteering and learning at San Francisco Center for the Book.
Go to Virginia for much needed getaway.
Continued reworking of blog.
These are the goals I will be working on this month:
Finish Mini Book, add text and put the whole thing together.
Coloring page for Scoutie Girls' new publishing adventure.
It is going to be a crazy month of working hard and getting everything together. December will be my 6th month marker and a big indicator of how this illustration thing is working so hopefully it will all fall into a happy place. Fingers crossed...paint brushes ready for an awesome month of lovely art making.
I hope you all have a wonderful and successful November and you get all that you want accomplished and then some.
Note: The Meetup is a monthly sharing of goals between artist and creative folks. If you want to learn more and join up( it has been super helpful to me). Contact Liz at her website and start setting your goals.
Just came back from and amazing trip to Virginia City, Nevada. I've been celebrating Halloween there for the last 5 years or so and it has become and annual event. It is such an amazing place. It is full of history and hauntings and such beauty and decay. By Halloween most of the tourists are gone and the town becomes yours.
I feel it is a spiritual place where you can stop the whirlwind of your life for a while. Here are a few pics from my trip...you can see the flickr set here.
this is the decay of which I speak...
little baby rest in peace...
As seen between the gate...
holding hands with death...
My hubby doing the robot...
Me in my fox mask...
Devil in Red...
To a lovely weekend, full of spooky things...and coming home to San Francisco to the SF Giants winning the world series and people partying in the streets. Tonight a Day of the Dead celebration in my neighborhood and a very needed nights rest. Can you say sensory overload?
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of fun. What did you do for Halloween?
Just a little reminder for the folks in the U.S. if you haven't gotten it done yet. Get out there and vote! Do it now! You will be proud you did it. Really you will...
