Drawsomethingawful's Blog

Site/Show updates.

drawsomethingawful — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:19:04 +0000

I am currently in the process of redesigning my main artist website. If you happen to go over there and see the void, that’s why. In the meantime I will be trying to put more work into this blog. maybe.

Anyway, the good news is I officially booked a show in September at The Distillery Gallery. It’s for my Beverly Hills, 90210 series that I’ve recently started on. Some of my loftmates are most likely going to collaborate.

The best part is, the opening will be on September, 2, 2010.

or……9/02/10.

Also, there should be a studio 11 show coming up in a couple of months too. It’s for anyone that’s live in our studio in the past 25 years. It should be interested.

Stay tuned for updates…closer to the actual dates.

Sketchbook Marilyns

drawsomethingawful — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:29:29 +0000

So I am working on just…sketching again….without pretension, without worry. At times, I get so caught up in trying to make the perfect piece, or my anxieties about my skills that I often become just..static. So I’ve started to keep a sketchbook again, and the crazy thing is, I am sketching..for fun.

Anyway, it’s an easy when to churn out some Marilyn studies, because like I’ve said before…due to the nature of Marilyn’s image saturated in the media..if you are going to make art about her…you better be able to get her feature right…we all know what they look like.

So, some quick studies from this week, playing around with paint markers.

Sketchbook 1

sketchbook 2

Also…can you tell I just saw a Tolouse Lautrec Exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts?

Hitchcockian Marilyn in Real Life

drawsomethingawful — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:31:53 +0000

Often when a celebrity or person unexpectedly passes before their time, we are loaded with speculation about what ‘could have been’. In the case of Marilyn Monroe, there are already lists upon lists of never realized Monroe vehicles. Amist the future projects conjecture, perhaps the cinematic quality of her everyday life becomes overlooked.

I came across this candid photos of Monroe and was forced to do a doubletake. It seemed as though Monroe walked right out of a Hitchcock film….except…in real life.

courtesy of everlastingstar.net

She may not be a Grace Kelly, or a ‘Grace Kelly was busy/Eve Saint-Marie, despite not wanting to join the masses, it’s hard not to wonder “What If…”

My new home is magical.

drawsomethingawful — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:01:10 +0000

my fabulous new home.

The Distillery

Fabulous Celebrity Saint Candles on Etsy

drawsomethingawful — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:54:27 +0000

These candles make me smile, as well as wish I had disposable income.

ArtsyChica on etsy.com

Check it out:
Celebrity Prayer Candles on Etsy

Musings of Truman Capote.

drawsomethingawful — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:05:39 +0000

For ages I’ve been swayed to check out the writings of Truman Capote, but for ages I have been preoccupied to do so. Tonight I finally sat down with Portraits and Observations: The Essays of Truman Capote and am already won over.

I particularly liked this passage from “New York 1946″

Lunch today with M. Whatever is one to do about her? She says the money is gone finally, and unless she goes home, her family refuses absolutely to help . Cruel, I suppose, but I told her I did not see the alternative. On one level, to be sure, I do not think going home is possible for her. She belongs to the sect most swiftly, irrevocably trapped by New York, the talented untalented; too acute to accept a more provincial climate, yet not quite acute enough to breathe more freely in the one so desired, they go along neurotically feeding upon the fringes of the New York scene.

Only success, and that at a perilous peak, can give relief, but for artists without art, it is always tension without release, irritation with no resulting pearl. Possibly there would be if the pressure to succeed were not so tremendous. They feel compelled to prove something, because middle-class America, from which they mostly spring, has withering words for its men of feeling, for its young of experimental intelligence, who do not show immediately that these endeavors pay off on a cash basis. But if a civilization falls, is it cash they find among the ruins? Or is it a statue, a poem, a play?

Which is not to say the world owes M., or anyone, a living; alas, the way things are with her, she most likely could not make a poem, a good one that is; still she is important, her values are balanced by more than the usual measure of truth, she deserves a finer destiny than to pass from belated adolescence to premature middle age, with no intervening period, and nothing to show.

-Truman Capote.

He sure knows how to tell it.

Perfume of the Dead

drawsomethingawful — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:24:15 +0000

Interesting article that I discovered via Immortal Marilyn

Perfume’s heaven scent: New ‘Antiquity’ fragrances based on DNA of dead celebs

BY Nancy Dillon
NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF

Tuesday, November 17th 2009, 4:00 AM
Peculiar perfume line features DNA-linked scents of a veritable constellation of luminaries, including Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein.
Kornman/AP, Clyde Fisher
Peculiar perfume line features DNA-linked scents of a veritable constellation of luminaries, including Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein.

LOS ANGELES – Get ready for Eau de Elvis.

A Beverly Hills company is formulating a line of “Antiquity” fragrances based on the DNA of dead celebrities including Elvis Presley, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson – even Richard Nixon.

The firm, which also makes individualized scents based on a customer’s cheek swab, says it’s conjuring the star potions from DNA tests performed on hair clippings provided by renowned celebrity hair collector John Reznikoff.

“I can’t go into our secret process, but we base the fragrance on the genetic code,” said Dr. Diva Verdun, chief development officer at MyDNAFragrance.com.

Verdun conceded buyers aren’t getting a tangible piece of their deceased idol’s biology in the bottle, admitting that “you couldn’t do a reverse DNA analysis off of the perfume.” But she vowed the process is scientific.

“I did a little research on Elvis, and he actually had really bad body odor. So we don’t want to clone him in any way or create a fragrance that actually smelled like him,” she said. “DNA has nothing to do with bodily functions. There’s no way it can stink.”

Some skeptical experts said the type of DNA test used for old hair clippings wouldn’t reveal much we don’t already know about our icons.

“It’s the least precise form of testing, only tracking the maternal branch of your family tree. But it can give a sense of your deep ancestry, say if you’re Native American or Asian,” genealogy expert and Ancestry.com spokeswoman Megan Smolenyak told the Daily News. “I’m just scratching my head here.”

The Antiquity line is $59.99 per sculpted aluminum bottle and available online. The company hopes to begin deliveries in the next few months.

“It’s very scientific. They are working toward evoking the individual represented in the DNA,” Reznikoff told The News. “It’s far from an astrology reading.”

ndillon@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/11/17/2009-11-17_perfumes_heaven_scent_new_fragrances_based_on_dna_of_dead_celebrities.html#ixzz0Zb9pg0HL

#1 Photoshop Marilyn studies.

drawsomethingawful — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:19:08 +0000

So as I am sure I’ve probably stated before, Marilyn Monroe is such a ridiculously hard image to work with. You get that with any cultural icon, because icon alone is such a loaded word. The entire subject its filled with layers and layers of meaning, opinions, facts, fiction, and associations. I can’t figure out if its more loaded dealing with her inside the art world or inside the hollywood/biographical world, but then I remember the lack of seperation.

I’ve realized I primarily need to just organize and work with the oodles if information I have. She is so overworked, discussed, and represented that it’s hard to actually separate from it all and deal with her image in a meaningful artist manner. At times it seems impossible. Organization, working, drawing, writing. I need to keep at it.

I also need to not just isolate myself to the subject matter either. It leads to my brain getting stuck.

So on the topic of unstucking brain/and organizing Marilyn images, I’m doing some quick photoshop studies, and will probably be posting them here. As far as actual physical drawing, I am still working with doing studies of her to get her image down straight and properly. Then I will have the freedom to use her as please artistically. These photoshop studies are simple ways to to play/organize with images of her and help articulate some thoughts.

Again, attempting to organize my brain and my at, and this blog helps.

"Is this thing on?"

Current work in progress. 12/7/09

drawsomethingawful — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:46:28 +0000

In progress, still working at the MM studies. However, I am finding I need to switch it up from just working on Marilyn. It gets constricting and I get stuck. The biggest problem is dealing with my work space. It’s tight and not conducive to art making. So mostly I am restricted to studies to try to keep my skills in check. Also, in order to really do what I want with Marilyn, I need to be able to draw her in my sleep. She is one of the hardest people to draw. You generalize too much and it becomes instant characture or cliche. Her face is so familiar that one instantly recognizes any features that are off. So like I said, I have to be able to draw/paint/sculpt/perform her image in my sleep.

The good news is, I am moving to an amazing amazing live/work space in January. It’s basically my dream space. It’s a gorgeous gigantic loft in South Boston. I am living with my artistic brain twin, and the entire building is artists. It’s basically the opposite of my current situation.

No more working in a corner for me! Expect a massive increase of workflow upon moving.

The Irony of Candid Marilyn Monroe

drawsomethingawful — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:13:18 +0000

I’ve developed a fascination with candid photos of Marilyn Monroe. Despite the vast media saturation of her image, it’s very much of her created image rather than the person. (*although I do not intend to propose that the two are entirely separate.) Despite being one of the biggest icons of this past century, it’s the proportion of her candid images to her created images is incredibly small. It’s interesting seeing (or attempting to see) just how controlled her image was, especially with our current age of easily accessible privacy eliminating tools (ie cameraphones, blackberries, you tube, twitter..the freaking internet…..). Yet Marilyn, one of the most photographed woman of the 20th century retained so much control….and still does. She controlled how she talked, walked, and even the movement of her facial muscles. When working with photographers, she would demand approval of every photo. Scratch out photos of herself on the contact sheets and permanently damage them. Her ‘candid’ responses were premeditated witicisms. She could not deal with the public on a whim, she famously required hours upon hours of preparation.

We in a way can relate to her image projection with how we represent ourselves digitally. With facebook twitter, youtube, etc….we can control what images, sound bites, videos, and words of ours are projected out into the world. It’s easy for personal use, but ridiculous for celebrity because after all …we have the same tools.

There are so many reasons I find candid photos of Marilyn so striking and powerful. What I currently find the most interesting is the very degrees in candor in candid-like photos of Marilyn. Often the photos of Marilyn …not being ‘Marilyn Monroe’ (i.e. headscarf,sunglasses MM) are taken by someone familiar, like teenage follower and friend James Haspiel. In order to find that Marilyn, you had to work at it and get to know her. There’s other photos where she’s aware she’s got a bit of the public’s eye, but is choosing not to acknowledge it because she can’t handle it at the moment (i.e. leaving Payne Whitney) , Other photos she is ‘being Marilyn Monroe’ and we can see some of her guard let down. There’s also those few few photos…where Marilyn is in fact….oblivious…….which for one of the biggest image control freaks of the 2oth century..evocative of privacy/celebrity/public relationships to come later in the century. It’s easy to try to dismiss the Marilyn Monroe hype…especially because there is so much hype. There are many reasons she’s an icon, and still is endlessly talked, written about, and her image slapped on just about anything. The bottom line is, this woman who’s been dead nearly 50 years just keeps staying culturally relevant.

unaware but dressed to the nines.

Posing but private.

photo by James Haspiel

We are the voyeur.