Blogs Blogs Blogs

I recently helped a friend design her blog so it looked as sexy as the name might imply. Check it out here.

AND, I decided to create a separate blog dedicated to my paintings. As I mentioned before, I'd like to start applying to galleries for shows and I thought it would be easiest to have all my paintings in one place. Take a looky-look!

Akrylic Inquisition

Check out this interview of me by Randy Gladman - creator of the blog Akrylic. I think he does some pretty cool interviews - I love the questions he asks, not your typical sort of stuff.

CLICK HERE!!!!!

Person I've Never Met, Conversation I've Never Had

This is my submission for No Brow's competition/project with the theme "Person I've Never Met, Conversation I've Never Had". I think its a pretty cool idea - they plan on selecting their favorite entries and publishing a book with a collection of these images. Elvis has been on my mind recently. Maybe its just because he's so sexy or perhaps its that velvet voice. Or maybe it was his unglamorous decline. Something about him is amazing to me. I would have liked to meet him and speak with him.
This is how I imagine the conversation would have gone (if it were a short, dramatic, and to the point conversation). Enjoy!

First attempt at animated GIF!!!!

Blogger doesn't seem to like animated GIFs - so click the link below to see my first attempt!
Best viewed on Firefox, Safari runs all choppy. Anyone with any advice on fixing that?

ELVIS OR SADDAM OR ZOMBIE MUSTACHIO?

Mania: An epidemic

So these two little buttons of delight were for a student run magazine called "Mania Magazine" (as you can clearly see from my cover illustration). The illustration with the text is for the front cover - and the beach scene is for the back cover. I know you all are thinking, "Why the hell did she illustrate people at the beach when summer is practically over?!? Is she trying to drive us further into depression?!?". Well, no, I am not. This magazine is published at the University of California - San Diego - where those damn bastards get sunny days all year round. It's okay...I'm not jealous...

So yes, another requirement was it had to be BLACK & WHITE (yet another obvious statement). But I enjoyed working with that limitation. You know what they say, limitations don't cause no heart palpitations! Ahahahhahah...I'm just kidding. So enough with my nonsense...enjoy the art.

Beardyman + POTSZZZ

Two different projects in one post. Talk about CRAMMING a lot of information into your brains!!! Anyways, a while back I posted some images I came up with for a new t-shirt for the British beatboxer Beardyman. Here you can see the finished product, which I received in the mail today! I love how bright it is and I cannot wait to wear it.

Then, I've got pictures of 8 different flower pots I painted for a commission. My friend just had a baby girl named Violet, so he grew violets and wanted to give them as presents to all the people who were helpful during the whole child-birthing process, if ya know what I mean. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. He wanted them all to look related, but different.
Here's what I came up with:

Super8 Collaboration (sorta)

Recently I was asked to participate in a project/collaboration with Super8, an Italian magazine. They are creating a series of posters based on different themes - I chose "I Fight". All of the themes were "I" + a verb. The challenge was to use my style AND their style at the same time. Kinda a weird way to approach a collaboration, but I thought it could be interesting. Took me a couple tries - but I ended up adding extra collage elements to get nearer to their aesthetic. Still, they said it was a bit too crazy - but they'll use it anyways, hahah. It's hard for me to tone down my craziness!!

SEXY TIME

For those of you faint of heart and those of you who are easily offended...I apologize for burning the corneas out of your eyeballs with this post. But perhaps there are others out there who might appreciate the racier side of life. Perhaps.

Anyways, this is my submission to GOOD VS. EVIL for their upcoming issue, themed: Man vs. Woman. With a topic like that how could you not make something like this? There seems to be a sexy theme going on recently with my work (see previous posts to see polish tour guide + jew). AND THE THEME WILL CONTINUE!!

I was recently invited to contribute a piece for a show in the upcoming OFFSET 2009 conference, curated by The Small Print. The show is called "Peepshow" - and contributors are asked to draw/paint/whatever their most x-rated fantasy. So that's coming up! For now, enjoy or hate this drawing.

Wall to Wall Comic

This comic was inspired by a wall to wall facebook conversation sent to me by Elizabeth Jurczak (a partner in crime). She was telling me how nauseating the wall to wall of this couple was - and as I read through it, I couldn't agree more. It's ridiculous to me how Facebook and other social networking sites have made keeping up "friendships" and "romantic love" so easy. Saying "I love you" is now essentially meaningless. The comic below chronicles their relationship from its start up till now.

Check out Liz's new blog (it is very new). Only one post up now, but I guarantee there will be more and they will be excellent social commentary.

slip on shoes full of labor

These lovely little shoes used to be black polka dotted converse. I then attacked them with spray and acrylic paint - and this is the result. I think they actually could pass for dress shoes now (artsy dress shoes).

The sun is set and my stomach is full of watermelon.

Good vs. Evil - and the family

I recently discovered this lovely little publication called GOOD VS. EVIL through a blog. It's a self-published magazine interested in discovering the weirdest and coolest art out there - especially new artists. I'm going to contribute to the next issue - Man vs. Woman - an awesome theme, if I do say so myself. They were nice enough to put up some of my work on their BLOG. Take a look, and buy a copy of Issue 3 - support print and support great art.

And I thought this post would not be complete without several sketches of my family that I did over the weekend. This includes, my brother sitting with terrible posture, my mom and dad sitting on a black leather couch, my grandpa with very high-waisted pants, and my grandma, sitting by her lonesome on a chair. In my family, there is a constant battle between good and evil - between right and wrong - between just and unjust. Are these all the same thing? Perhaps....or perhaps we are all just oysters seeking our shrimp king?

I would like to leave you with something my grandpa told me the last time we parted ways:

"Ana, you should come here by yourself one time. I will tell you things and you will leave a different person."

Scary or intriguing? Maybe both.

NYC SUBWAY::MUSIC INDUSTRY::DEATH&SEX

You all may be confused by my strangely specific yet elusive title, but once I sort things out for you, it will make PERFECT sense. These three illustrations are for three separate publications that exist on three different corners of the world, but work together in a slow-moving plot for WORLD DOMINATION......just kidding. Well, maybe I'm not kidding. No one will ever know. Not even me.

But anyway onto explaining these drawings:

1) The first one is for a literary publication called The Fray - whose next issue's theme is Sex & Death. How can you go wrong with a theme like that? My particular story was about a young Jewish man who goes on a vacation to Poland with his family to see where all his ancestors had been killed by the Nazis. Instead of focusing on the depressing scenery and stuff going on around him, he instead lusted after his sexy Polish tour guide the entire trip. I loved this concept.

2) The second one is for SF Weekly - on an article that discussed the changing music business - and how it is still remaining profitable despite all the free downloading thats been going on. The general gist was that fans, not business executives, are having more say and more direct contact with their favorite artists - therefore cutting out the "middleman". I see this as a great step in the right direction for both musicians and fans.

3) And the last drawing is for an online magazine called Glasses Glasses. This article was a hilarious commentary on the backwards NYC subway system, written by Olivia Dunn. References were made to vomit, stabbing, and suicide, so I thought it best to include all three in the illustration! As someone who takes the subway pretty often in New York, I could definitely relate to the madness.

In other news, I am painting a new pair of shoes and a series of soda cans. Once done, I will post pictures!