A Crayola X-Mas

My roomie received some weird Crayola paper and markers for Christmas - I believe they're called "Explosive Color" - because the marker reacts with the special paper in a way that makes it look extra bright, almost like poster paint. I made this weird little drawing last night, just messing around with the markers...

Five Easy Pieces

After seeing the film "Five Easy Pieces" last week I decided to continue my (small) series of drawings of crying women in film...so far I have Debbie Reynolds in "Singin' in the Rain" and Anna Karina in "Vivre sa vie." This is Karen Black in a scene early in the film where she's sitting in the car outside of the bowling alley. This lady cries pretty much throughout the whole film, but this was one of the few times you can see her face easily. I tried to capture the washed-out color of early '70s film...I liked the idea of her head floating in a sea of pale yellow hair.

So that was the first drawing I made (above). After I finished it, I decided I wanted to try again and cartoon-ify it a little bit, and the result (below) ended up looking like some weird neo-Lichtenstein creation:

And below is a real Lichtenstein:

Top drawing is various pencils and watercolor, bottom drawing is Sharpie marker and gouache. Maybe my next serious should be crying men in film...

TEXTures in Brooklyn!

Last week I was delighted to show a small series of drawings in an art exhibit in Brooklyn, entitled "TEXTures," curated by my friend, and fellow artist, Molly (see her website at: http://www.mollydigrazia.com/) The show's theme centered around text in works of art, and the media ranged from drawings and paintings to sculpture, film, and photography. Here is a photo of the crowd that gathered for the one-night-only exhibition. My drawings are on the far left. Here's a closer look:

The series I created for the show is a suite of six 6"x8" drawings based on the short film by experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, "Puce Moment," of 1949. The text was taken from the First Duino Elegy, a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (originally in German). I used compositions from stills from the film and took some liberties with color, as well as simplified the whole in order to make them all the more "Becky-esque." <--new term just invented...feel free to use liberally...

For these drawings I used watercolor, Sharpie marker, pencil, and gold and silver metallic acrylic craft paint.

Lost in Translation

These are a few drawings inspired by the movie "Lost in Translation..."

This last one looks like a Francesco Clemente rip-off, although I wasn't thinking of it at the time...all of these are watercolor and Sharpie marker, and in this last one I added red marker.

Singin' in the Rain

Inspired by a shot of Debbie Reynolds in one of the final scenes of "Singin' in the Rain." Watercolor, Sharpie, and pencil.

From a Poster

This drawing (watercolor and pen) is based on a black-and-white photograph on a poster I have in my room.

From Memory

Colors always look brighter on overcast days, no? I saw this pretty combination of colors one day - sea green, dark brown, and slate blue - above the subway station, and tried to take a mental picture because it was so pretty. Then I did my best to recreate it using watercolor and pen. Turns out my picture is not very accurate, so I might try this again later...

Creepy Arm

Alternate titles: "Night of the Living Dead Arm," "Armhair Liberation party," and "Weeeeeee!" It sort of belongs with the two drawings below, also watercolor and Sharpie.

Zwei Kleine Bilder

Both drawings are watercolor, Sharpie, and pencil, and approx. 3"x3". I wanted to make a pair of drawings that were complementary colors but otherwise totally unrelated. Now the tongue just reminds me of The Rolling Stones.

Analyze This!

My roomate (Angel) recently asked me to create three drawings while he observed me work, for an Art Therapy course he is taking. He says that he will now analyze the works and my methods in order to identify aspects of my personality (or something like that...). Boy is he in for a treat! So here are the three drawings I made on three different days, with not much conscious thought behind them, instead I just kind of started drawing and went with the flow. I'm curious to see what conclusions Angel comes to - hopefully I'm not any more crazy than I already think I am!

Drawing #1: watercolor and Sharpie marker...it began as a still life, which I then decided was too boring, so I added the lady.

Drawing #2: um yeah, don't ask. I started by doin' a little watercolor, and then drew on top with Sharpie, but I'm not sure exactly how I arrived at such disturbing figures. The one in the middle is based on a doodle I made on the subway. Here she is in close-up:

Ok, and finally drawing #3...

This one is a little different. I drew on tracing paper instead of bristol paper, colored in with blue pencil and yellow highlighter, and decided not to include any figures. I like to think of it as "geometric parent-child volleyball with a brick wall in place of a net and no ball and also it's raining." Unfortunately the tracing paper is larger than my scanner so the top part got cut off. But you get the jist.

And the winner is...? Well Angel had to choose one of the three drawings to discuss in depth for his paper, and he chose Drawing #3! I kind of liked drawing under pressure, it ended up producing some pretty weird and interesting drawings!

It's Garry Shandling's Drawing

My new obsession is Garry Shandling. I've been watching "It's Garry Shandling's Show" and "The Larry Sanders Show," and wanted to pay homage to him with a drawing. I'm not sure why it came out so disturbing, but here it is! Made with Sharpie pen, pencil, and blue colored pencil.