Romantically Apocalyptic

Wondering if I should work this into my artist statement or bio today...

I am an extraordinary zombie who finds happiness mundane and is romantically apocalyptic. I also enjoy long walks on the beach in hopes for a tsunami, collecting geodes with traces of Carbon 14, and growing tropical plants only to have them wither away in my too-dry atmosphere, subsequently enjoying and tracking their demise.

Oh I am kidding. Not feeling that tragic.

I have captured my birth chart in all of its glory. Of course this means nothing to most people. I am studying astrology again, which is a dead art, since the universe is constantly evolving.

More messy paintings

Unfinished - WIP

This one is called Unfinished. It is about business that never comes to fruition. And about just letting it go. Letting it be. This is not actually done, and it never will be.

Previews

Zombie Plant??

Soooo, this plant is not an evergreen. At least I did not think it was. Yet it is surviving freezing temps and snow. It has been snow-covered at times. It is still green as the day I bought it. I have not watered it either. Why should I? I left it to die; it should be dead.

Yet it lives. Zombie plant.

HUGE Canvases Everywhere

I had a great pace going this weekend, creating work for an upcoming show. I am looking forward to transporting this one. So nice to not be dealing with heavy framed boards!! I think even the biggest canvases I have do not weigh as much as a large board. Plus, I am getting use to working bigger and enjoying the surface. I thought I would miss the boards, and they definitely make it easier to get the effects I like, but I am adapting.

Photo: Volcanic Rush - 20" x 20" - Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Communications

Sober:
Write out message...save message...read message later...discard. What the hell was I thinking?

Scotch:
Write out message...kinda read message...send. Think about it later. Shit.

The Other Paper - Alternative Art Spaces

You know, just a few of years ago, I would grab The Other Paper and scour the art ads for call for entries, thinking, wow, wouldn't it be cool to show my art? Today, my art is pictured in one of their cover story photos for Columbus' Alternative Art Spaces.

The article is really worth checking out. It talks about the art scene here in Columbus being very independent, and how independent artists can make it happen on their own. I have thought about approaching galleries along the way, but I am having too much fun working with these alternative venues. Just to name some...

Image Optical (March 2009)
Haiku (June 2009)
McGraw Hill (July/August 2009)
J Gumbo (October/November 2009)
Core Fitness (November2009/January 2010)
Qwirk (January 2010/February 2010)
The 614magazine Gallery Hop featured artist at LaFogata (2/4-2/6)
Union Cafe (March 2010)
and more!

And not to be forgotten, amazing group venues like C-Note, OAL, RoyGBiv, The High Road Gallery, and Agora. And even more exciting to me, because it is 100% abstract, the C-bus Ab-Ex shows coming later this year.

PS...Due to my manic pace at making art and the slllllooooooow economy, I have plenty of work to go around.

Interview in Sublime Rush

Issue 002 of Sublime Rush is out. I am in there. :-) Check it out!

A Gift That Keeps On Giving

I may have talked about this painting on this blog at some point in the past few years. If so, I am sure you would not have read it, or you would have a hell of a time finding the post. At one point in time I decided to put it in a box and ship it off to my friend M in Seattle. He is the one who inspired the painting. I painted another one and he said that the shapes in it looked lik spark plugs on peyote. Well, of course a comment like that burns a visual in my head that has to be brought into existence.

M is a pop artist, who use to be an entertainer in the 80s. In a very Warhol-like way, he documents his life. He posts this documentation on iamabee on dA. Below is his documentation of opening the package I sent to him.

Kate and Jack

Found a few old pictures of my parents in the photo album of movie star photos. This was December 31, 1949. They eloped to the hills of Kentucky to get married. They were high school sweethearts. Jack was captain of the football team and a star football player. He won a scholarship to play football at OU, but declined. Mom was a pretty, brainy chick. They had babies and lived happily ever after.

Until 1968 or so, then they had one more oops baby.

Movie Stars My Mom Wrote

Started one of my blog projects called Movie Stars My Mom Wrote.

It will include a different photograph, once per week, until the entire collection is published. Along with the photo of the star. I will include links and facts about each star.

RIP Aunt Mary

I just found out my husband's aunt Mary died yesterday. She was a feisty old woman in her eighties. Even with all the tragedy of the past few years she kept on. I heard she was withering away because she missed Dorothy and Bud so much, but she probably still had enough fire to go on forever. When she went out to walk her dogs yesterday, she fell on the ice and hit her head. She then had a heart attack while lying in the snow. Another tragic end.

I only hope to be as feisty and fiery as she was in my life. I loved and admired that woman.

Now This Is Snow!

Photo: Me in 1985 or 1986, after one of the worst snow storms...that is not a drift. It snowed about three to four feet in a couple of days. That is like a Level 15 here in Columbus.

Art I Purchased In 2009

I love buying art...almost as much I love making it. Here are a few pieces I bought in 2009 from various people around the globe.

Love and Other Demons by Basia Konczarek.


The Holy Butt by Gromyko Padilla Semper


Transisnce v1 by David Senecal

Ugh...Mercury In Retrograde

Okay, there are some things that are just so. You cannot talk me out of what I think is their level of influence on my existence here. One of them is Mercury In Retrograde.

It is reeking some havoc on me this time....or else I just want to think it is the cause of my happenings, or not-so-happenings, at the moment.

Photo: I always like to keep the ferns I buy in the spring hanging up through the fall and winter to watch them deteriorate and weather. I took this in October, I think.

Painted With Dead Roses - WIP

That is so fucking goth, isn't it? Yes, I painted this stretched canvas with a big, ugly fan brush, a dirty sponge and a dead rose from my love. I was listening to Burnt Flowers Fallen (not on purpose...oh, isn't that kismet?). The only thing that I can add to make it more gothy is to say I used my tears caused by my lover. But the last part is not true, so screw it. It means nothing.

WIP - Crackle Medium

Whoa, my ADD is raging today. Anyway, I started this 24" x 24" WIP today. I am using 2 paste mediums as the base. The top half has a crackle medium (will crackle once dried), while the bottom half has a medium body gloss paste. The latter shines like glass once it is varnished. I shaped the top to work into fiery rain. The bottom, a tumultuous ocean. You know, me and my creation/destruction "fetish". I just hope these paste mediums add to the effect!

Quick and Dirty

It was 11:30 last night when I realized I had not completed my first of 2010 artwork as planned. So, I got my ass down the hall to my studio to work on it. This is it. I used 10 colors and did some designs in sets of 10. I used liquid acrylic, fan brushes (I heart Bob Ross) and air. Then varnish, smelly like I like it, and a bit o silver pen.

2010 Bookshelf

My 2010 Bookshelf

1. How It Ends (Advance Copy from Norton to review) - Chris Impey
2. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
3. Eating the Dinosaur - Chuck Klosterman
4. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
5. Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
6. Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
7. Glamorama - Bret Easton Ellis
8. Catch 22 - Jospeh Heller
9. The Naked Lunch - William Burroughs
10. Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut
11. Stranger Than Fiction - Chuck Palahniuk
12. Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
13. Pattern Recognition - William Gibson

There's more, but there always is, isn't there?

Also, may be ready to write something substantial...or develop Divining Dada Park, which I have been thinking about for years now.

What Was That?

A Decade in Review - Oh who gives a shit? I am having a hard time caring, so why should you?

Here is a list of accomplishments from Arty 2009:
Core Fitness Club (solo) - 12/09 - ?
J. Gumbo in Columbus (2 person) - 10/09 - 11/09
Autumn Joy - High Road Gallery, 11/09
C-Note - Junctionview - 09/09
OAL Sponsored Show at McGraw Hill (solo) 07-08/09
Abstract Show- No Right, No Wrong (Co-chair) - High Road Gallery - 06/09
**Second Place Award at No Right, No Wrong
WCE (solo) - Haiku - 06/09
Agora VI - 05/09
WCE (solo) - Image Optical - 03/09
MS Awareness (group) Upper Arlington Library - 03/09
Sunny Side Up (group) - High Road Gallery - 03/09
**2009 GCAC Potential for 2009 Business Parner Awards
Omnibucket Interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson
Omnibucket Interview with The Polish Ambassador.

Misses...I meant to publish the WCE book via Blurb. I also meant to work on more Omnibucket stuff and did not. And I meant to do more paintings. I won't go into detail as to why I missed these goals...it is not important at this point. All that matters is that my focus is back on now and I know what deserves my attention in my life, so look out for some awesome shit.

And here are my groovy arty goals for 2010:

Books:
WCE - 2008/2009 Review (yeah, still doing it)
The Horrid - sure, in my opinion, Zombiezville USA has damn near ruined the genre...can Omnibucket reclaim it as cool? I think we can.
Twenty10: Documentation For My Unauthorized Autobiography - That is fucking hilarious. And I am serious. It will have an Explicit warning, I promise you.
Interviews:
Issue 2 of Sublime Rush will feature me as one of the artists for issue.
And I intend on interviewing lots of notable peoples for Omnibucket and Sublime Rush. I won't name names at this juncture...let's just say I have me some plans a cookin' with gas.
Art Shows:
Union Cafe in Columbus - March 2009
Local Girl Gallery in Cleveland for an MS Event - March/April 2009
C-bus Ab-Ex at OAL - May 2009
Websites:
Movie Stars My Mom Stalked (working title) - this will be a blog that I will start in a couple of weeks. My mom wrote over 50 movie stars in the 1940s and got their autographed photo. Nah, she did not stalk them...I just like to say she did. This will feature one of those 1940s era stars each week with extra cool stuff.
PeggyMintun.net - My site will be even more awesome than ever before.
4bstr4ct4rt Group - Trying to get that started again as a group. Thank goodness for Shawn Hansen, coming to my rescue on that interface.
Also, working on Art4Art Discussion Blog.

Oh shit, I better get busy.

Oh yeah...a personal goal...being healthier. I am using Daily Mugshot to track the changes in my mug. I'll add it once I have a couple months on it.

The Golden Suicides

"And you could, in a sense, rationalize their occasional erratic behavior. They were artists, after all, and artists are allowed a degree of lunacy."

Every once in a while I talk about The Golden Suicides: artists Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan. Evidently one of my favorite writers, Bret Easton Ellis, is writing a screenplay for a movie about them. It may or may not be released in 2011.

I forget now how I first heard about the couple...it was either on NPR or in an issue of Vanity Fair. Their story, as sad and distraught as it was, has always fascinated me. Blake was a digital artists, doing animations and produced art for Rock Star games (you know, GTA - Vice City). Duncan produced video games, but wanted to be a screenplay writer. You can read a ton of stuff about them out there on the internets, and see some of what they created while they were here.