News

Horsebucket

Ayin EsLeave a comment

My solo show at George Billis has come to an end, but you can still see some of the pieces there in the secret “back room.” I’ve been having those after show blues, while battling an attack of major illness that has kept me pretty horizontal for the past 2 weeks. This hasn’t stop me from sketching out ideas in my trusty little Moleskin book, enough to create a small, hand-bound Artists’ book of simple drawings. I am excited about this.

 

Interesting how I was forced to make these drawings. I’ve had this annoying tremor in my hand, so while drawing in gauche with the paintbrush, I had to swipe the brush quickly as to not wind up with a wiggly line, and I really love how free-flowing they wound up. I could never ever do this if I wasn’t forced by wiggly lines or at gun point because it goes so against my grain. I’ve wanted to be able to loosen up for so many years, ever since I saw the drawings of MJP’s and James Scott. I owe them both for the inspiration. Since finishing the images, I headed over to my new letterpress printer at Aardvark to begin to process on the covers. I was my first day out in a long time, but I got much accomplished. I also went to see Sandra Bernhard at the Orpheum Theatre which kicked ass – as she always does.

 

Anyway, my new book will be done very soon,  in the next week or 2 so they can be purchased before the stinkin’ holidays. Don’t worry, I’m keeping this one under $150. It is called: “Horsebucket” and this is what I know so far:

 

5.5 x 8.5 inches closed. 13 laser-printed drawings on acid-free paper, with some original scribbly bits. Text is hand typed by artist on a 1930’s portable Underwood typewriter. Hand sewn binding, Letterpress covers with custom die on Crane’s 100% cotton Lettra paper.

 

Now for  some cool end papers and a box of some sort…

 

Something to think about while I spend my day inside an MRI machine today. 😛

 

 

SAVE THE DATE!

Ayin EsLeave a comment

October 11, 2008 5-8 PM

Please join me for my solo show:

Carol Es
She Dreamed She Remembered

October 7 – November 15, 2008

Reception for the Artist:
Saturday, October 11th 5-8 PM

George Billis Gallery LA
2716 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
tel: (310) 838-3685

She dreams she is free, yet, connected. And she remembers she can do whatever she wants – because art has no rules.

Life is lived in a parallel facsimile – where her affections for everything that is alive (both here and non-existent) is as true as time is a lie, and reality, a concept.

The girl the artist calls “Moppet” appears in both canvases and panels in various ways: crawling out of black holes, flying between them, and hanging on to familiar behaviors. Some are just Moppet heads floating about – observing memories, dreams and thoughts.

Carol Es is a native Los Angelina and self-taught painter whose work intimately explores her Jewish Identity and the tribulations of childhood trauma. Her new works are witty psychological portraits and pieces such as “Arctic Memory” mark her past, while serving as a release. She uses language, both Hebrew and English to denote her message as well as embroidering directly onto the canvas adding a distinct 3-D dimensionality to the painting. The string acts like a literal thread running through her life’s memories and tying them all together. These artworks embody multiple transitions in her art making, along with humor, pain, angst and reverie.

Es’ works are featured in numerous private and public collections including the Getty Museum, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Brooklyn Museum, UCLA Special Collections, the Jaffe Collection, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. She has exhibited at Riverside Art Museum, Torrance Art Museum, Craft & Folk Art Museum, and Zimmer Children’s Museum. She is also a two-time recipient of The ARC Grant from the Durfee Foundation and a grant from the Artists’ Fellowship in New York.

Image: Arctic Memory, 2008.
40 x 60 inches, Oil, paper patterns, pencil, thread, embroidery on canvas.

40

Ayin Es5 Comments

Well the other day I turned 40, and boy do I feel old! Not really. I kid you. I do feel different though. I feel better. I feel better to leave those pesky 30s behind me. What good are they? Except for confusing the hell out of us. I think I was freaked out for the entire decade. Panic attacks, worry, redefining myself… Exhausting! Today I feel sick and tired of that shit and I just am happy to begin the best part of my life. 40 is da shit I tell you! 40 crushes the little girlyman 30s and ignorant, glib-ass 20s. Poop on you hot, fresh youngins with your perfect bodies and bluetooths – being handed prestigious solo shows fresh out of art school. Ya’ll aint got nuthin on me, I’m 40! Four-oh! And I can kick, streeetch aaand kick! I’m forty years old! (Okay, maybe I can’t kick so well, but I can almost touch my toes.)

The only thing I still have to schlep around with me from my 30s are these 30 extra pounds. What is with that? I know that some of the weight comes from medications I have to take, but why should my laziness and indulgences in ice cream be so punishing? I remember ingesting nothing but candy, peanut butter and cigarettes throughout my 20s and never gaining so much as an ounce. In fact, I think I lost weight. And in my 30s, the pounds came at me slowly but shirley. Fuckin’ Shirley. She’s such a see-you-next-tuesday.All of my 30s I lamented my wondrous smoking, thinking that was my ticket to skinny. I considered taking it up again, but alas I probably would have just been a fat smoker opposed to the smelly, musty waif I once was. Oh how youth is wasted on the moronic young.

Okay I think I’m done ranting and raving about my pot belly. I need to go to my Spanish lesson and get ready for a special visitor that’s flying in on a 6pm flight from St Paul.

That white painting I’m working on is coming along, but I haven’t had as much time to work on it as I would have liked. Here it is, more than 3/4 done with the painting. It will need about 45-60 hours of sewing — at least. The mini garment patterns are in Hebrew. It says Stop apologizing for who you are.

OMFG

Ayin Es3 Comments

Okay, I am awake now, TOTALLY inspired! I was just reading Fette’s blog and saw a beautiful (IMHO) drawing/painting by Eden Veaudry. So I looked up the artist’s website to see if there were more beautiful works, and sure enough: WOW!!!

This is the kind of shit that motivates me to really paint, I mean really paint. It gives me permission (no idea why I need it) to be myself in my work. To create without boundaries, to trust myself, trust my hand, let go, and reach that sacred place. I think that is always some kind of struggle for me. I am so distracted by the life that goes on around me. It makes me want a private studio outside of my house. A place where life stops interrupting and a silence sucks me into that zone.

I miss “the zone.” Oh my god, I’m going to cry! I know it’s a stupid thing to call it, but I am not in the zone to call it something different. But it’s a portal into a universe that is impossible to explain. And I miss the moments that I just barely touched upon it, and right now I feel so far away from it.

Seeing Eden Veaudry work gives me a jolt, and it’s like making some clouds part for me. I love it so much I could scream. 🙂