Minnie and Moskowitz

This piece was made awhile ago but I forgot to post it. Based on a scene from "Minnie and Moskowitz," the John Cassavetes film from 1971, which I saw in the theater last year. Watercolor, tempera, and pen on paper.

Juicebox EP Art!

Official release of the Juicebox EP - "First Cut"! Here is the artwork that I produced for the CD. Check it out: http://music.juiceboxfunk.com/

This is on the cover - dancin' legs struttin' down the street!

And this is on the CD itself - jammin' out to sweet grooves!

The Royal Tenenbaums

A pair of paintings created for my friends on the occasion of their wedding in Kentucky this past weekend.  Depicted are Luke Wilson and Gwenyth Paltrow, from the scene where Gwenyth steps off of the bus, the film goes into slow motion, and "These Days" by Nico starts playing.  I've always liked that scene for capturing a romantic moment (even though Luke and Gwenyth are brother and sister in the film...never mind that) that feels out of time and place.

Here's the scene so you can see where I've taken some 'creative liberties':

Blue Valentine

This painting, on a slice of wood, is based on a scene from the movie "Blue Valentine" (2010).  Although the movie is about the disintegration of a marriage, this is one of the few moments where the couple is in love (granted they're on a bus after she Michelle Williams decides not to get an abortion but rather raise the baby with Ryan Gosling...) Nevertheless, I found it a very tender scene and decided to translate it into a painting in honor of Valentine's Day!  I should mention that I originally intended for this painting to have many more components and colors, but stopped myself along the way as it seemed to be resolved already.  For example, the woman's face was going to be a light pink, with an indication of mascara-d eyes and bright red lips, but i liked her with an absence as a face better.  Also I was originally going to add touches like a wristwatch and a coat button but decided I liked it better more bare.  Made with watercolor (blue background) and acrylic paints.  

P.S. I'd like to try painting on wood again, but I'm still trying to figure out how to get a more even wash with the watercolor on the unprimed wood - it went on kind of patchy as it absorbed more at the beginning of the brushstroke.  I think maybe a fan brush might help?  

By the way, here's the still from the film in case you were curious:

Juicebox Cover Art: Part Deux

These are two of the other images I created for Juicebox, designed to serve as front and back of an album cover.  I wanted to make something really crazy, sexy, and colorful that harkened back to album covers from the '70s...

...combined with creepy, crawling drips reminiscent of Dali...

...and punched up with the bright colors of Tropicalia that I love so much:

But the winning cover art for the upcoming Juicebox album has yet to be revealed!  Stay tuned...

Juicebox Album Cover Art

Over the summer I worked on images for an album cover for the groovy/funky/jazzy New York-based band "Juicebox," brainchild of saxophonist extraordinaire Nick Myers.  I tried a few different styles, media, and types of imagery, as you will see below.  Inspired in part by some visually interesting films and a few bottles of gin.  The winning image has yet to be scanned, so stay tuned:

This started out as the sheet of paper that I was wiping my brushes off on.  Then I took a still from the '60s film "Bedazzled" as inspiration for the drawing I made on top.

This was inspired by the Tropicalia art I've seen on album covers of the '60s.  It seemed to fit the style of Juicebox's fun, vibrant music.

I'm not really sure where this came from, although I was sort of thinking of seeing the face in terms of a topographical map, with a sort of "face paint" to accentuate certain lines.  I had another album cover in mind when I made this, but am too embarrassed to say which one, since this looks nothing like it.

Legs inspired by a scene from the 1976 film "Car Wash." Wrong format for an album cover but I was just playing around with the materials I had in front of me at the time.  

Arbitrary '80s color behind a contemplative female face, with eyelashes that seem like they belong in some surrealist painting.  Not sure it really goes with the Juicebox vibe but it seemed just weird enough that a jazz musician might dig it.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman

This is a self-portrait I made during college round one - in 2001 to be exact!  In other words, this is how I saw myself over 10 years ago...apparently under heavy Picasso influence like most 20-year old artists.  I found it stashed away in one of my portfolios recently and thought I'd share.  It used to hang on my bedroom wall in my Poughkeepsie apartment but I guess I forgot about it after I moved to the city.  Made with oil on canvas, 9x11".

Malaise

I made this drawing a few days ago when I was feeling really anxious and had a lot of pent up energy.  Somehow the weave of the sweater would represent the tension and containment I was feeling.  It's hard to recover from a case of "general malaise," but I'd like to think that drawing that malaise helps a bit.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday to my momsy, who turns ___ years old today, although she doesn't look a day over 30 :)  And because she is as beautiful and dainty as a flower, I decided to draw her some flowers (which may or may not be daisies, roses, and poppies? I'm not really sure...) in her honor. 

Bon Anniversaire, Maman!

Happy Father's Day!

Hi Pops!  As you can see, my appearance has changed dramatically since you last saw me :)  And it was all done in the spirit of Father's Day to honor my beloved Papa Siefs!  Next year it'll be a tattoo. 

P.S. I tried to draw something in the style of a Mad Magazine cartoon since it's up my dad's alley...he has passed down to me the love of all things abnormal and hilarious, and for that I thank him.  Oh and I also thank him for my love of weird cartoon drawing and a sense of mild mischief.  If only I had a copy of his drawing of PoPo the cat to demonstrate!  Anyway.  Happy Dad's Day!

Rebel Without a Cause

Drawing inspired by James Dean classic, although I got a bit carried away somewhere along the way...hmmm, it's probably best not to show your local analyst this one!  Made with Staedtler pen and light gouache wash on sketchbook paper.



And God...Created Woman

This drawing is a "creative interpretation" of a scene in Roger Vadim's 1956 film, "Et Dieu… créa la femme."  Brigitte Bardot's "beau" has just passed her by in a bus without getting off to meet her as planned, and the camera watches her for several seconds as the wind whips her hair all about.  Gouche, watercolor, and Staedtler pen on sketchbook paper.

Atlantic City

After I took my awful Qualifying Exam in January, I went to Atlantic City to blow off some steam and forget all 2,000 of the images I had just memorized. That night, my man friend and I ended up in a casino bar with several nearly nude ladies dancing on platforms. I found them oddly fascinating, and I'm not exactly sure why, but the whole scene was very grotesquely mesmerizing in a sad and beautiful way. This painting was made in response to that evening. Partially inspired by Milton Glaser's psychadelic Dylan poster from the '60s (see below). Acrylic and metallic craft paint with Sharpie on canvas, 16x20.

Stan Brakhage

A still from a film by Stan Brakhage, "Window Water Baby Moving," an experimental short film showing the birth of Brakhage's first child in all its gory glory. Believe it or not, this still is from before the baby was born. I was lucky enough to walk in with my dinner just as the baby's head was "crowning..." Blargh! Au revoir, appetite! Anywho his films are full of rapid, jarring cuts that make you feel as if you're having a seizure. I found this still by careful pausing. Staedtler pen, watercolor, and pencil on paper.

Vivre Sa Vie

This is a drawing I made about a year ago after seeing the Godard film, "Vivre sa vie." It shows the scene where Anna Karina is watching the silent film about "Jeanne d'Arc" and as the woman on screen starts crying, Anna starts crying too. I included this with my drawing of Debbie Reynolds (Singing in the Rain) and Karen Black (Five Easy Pieces) in my "Women Crying" series that was in my friend Molly's exhibit two weeks ago. I will post images of the 3 together in a bit. This drawing was created with black Staedtler pigment liners on sketchbook paper.

Sleepwalking

Hmmm...where to begin? I started drawing a figure, only having a vague idea of what I was doing. I wanted to make a weird lanky female with really long, blonde hair, and I wanted to keep the composition really simple. I decided I would use only a few colors - pale yellow for hair, pale purple for the body, and either light gray or white in the background. But somewhere along the way I turned the figure into what now appears to be a male with an incredibly long forehead wearing a sleeping bag and walking on a green pasture with the pattern of my pajama pants in the background...hmmm....I changed the colors of the arms from a dark maroon color to the current teal/blue and also added the harlequin-like diamond pattern in select areas.

Here's a close-up of the face, which I find hilarious for some reason - such determination! Such a giant forehead! Created with Staedtler permanent marker, gouache, watercolor, pencil, and colored pencil.

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.