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Ayin Es1 Comment

I’ve been busy busy. Sorry I have been neglecting the blog, but so many things are on my plate and it’s hard to eat everything when I’m so full, bloated like a big fat whale.

The work for Tinney Contemporary in Nashville is done, but I am still packing it up to ship it off for next week. My flight is getting booked and everything seems to be on track for that. I am finally all put away at the new Rubber Soul studio and been getting back to work on my Los Angeles show. Unfortunately, the assistance I was counting on has gone by the wayside and it’s all on me to do all the little prep work and details that I planned on being out of my hair while I just made the art, so it seems every waking moment is committed to work work work – which is fine really. I have one task being done by my original assistant and if she can manage to do it, that might be enough of a saving grace for me. We shall see. I have definitely learned my lesson about paying people in advance though – never again.

I have actually planned out the time it will take me to complete all the work right up until my installation and I have exactly 65 days to complete 8 pieces of art. 2 are not yet started, 4 are just barely started, 1 is a touch up, and one is going to take a long time to complete. I’m a bit nervous.

In other news, as I have said before, my new book, Scribbles in a Sandstorm published by Chance Press is going to be available at my LA show. Inside the book features am additional little sketchbook on top of all the other prints and fold-out goodies this book has to offer. It’s going to be a beautiful handmade edition. I found out recently that they are also making some special smaller editions of just the sketchbook by itself in a variety of special editions at affordable rates, and even taking these to show at the San Francisco Zine Fest next month. I am not sure of their availability at this very moment because I think they may not be technically released until October and/or at the Zine Fest, but I do know that they take pre-orders. Feel free to contact them. Here is a pic of the different editions of the sketchbook versions of the book.

10 copies are “deluxe,” bound in fabriano paper with a mulberry dustjacket*, signed by me with an original sketch (ships with a gocco print on watercolor paper): $25
20 copies are “really nice,” bound in canson mi teintes with a mulberry dustjacket, signed by me (ships with a gocco print on defunct office stationery): $15
30 copies are “pretty nice,” bound in canson mi teintes: $7

Please email Jordan and/or Justine at books (at) chancepress (dot) com for more info.

What Did You Do Today?

Ayin Es1 Comment

MJP and I moved my studio today. And now I can’t move a muscle. My achin’ back. Ow, ooh, ouch, and all that. I’m not the girl I used to be.

Now that that is done, there is a giant easel in my livingroom, because it will not fit in my garage. Somebody buy it please.

Up until today, I have been moving all the small stuff carload by carload while getting all the work completed for Goodbye Mrs. Beasley, which is finally done. Now I’m back to working on It’s Mostly About Me and Much Less About You. Back on track, but lots and lots to do. I have everything mapped out to do in 80 days, but can I do it is the question. It’s the stitchery that takes forever.

I am excited about going to Nashville. I am only going to be there for the weekend of the opening, but I really look forward to it – and some southern hospitality. There really aren’t people around these here parts like there are in the south. It’s damn refreshing.

Oh my, I really can’t get up from this chair. I am so wiped out, I can’t believe it. Someone get me some heavy duty pain killers and a stiff drink.

Whirlwind Wednesday

Ayin Es1 Comment

Well yesterday was busy. I’m a bit wiped out. I installed my drawing installation at the gallery for the On | Paper show that opens on Saturday at George Billis in Los Angeles (hope you can make it) and it took nearly all day. Every time I install this thing, it’s a bit different each time, and for some reason this time it took a lot longer than it has before. I cannot figure out why though. Maybe I’m just turning into molasses.

I have some brand new drawings in the show too, some that I made out in the desert, and a few that I’ve made a while back that I have never showed before. There was one piece that I was going to show, but I could not find it anywhere! I looked and looked, but I just could not find it – and I’m organized too, so organized. I don’t know what is going on. I know it’s in these chest of drawers right next to me, but they are just not there where I can see them. Maybe they are there, but my eyeballs refuse to indicate them. Maybe my brain will not register these series of drawings, or that particular book of artworks. It’s a whole series of little paintings on Thomas Bros. map pages and I had them all in one book together, and now? What on earth? I cannot locate them, so the one I was going to have in the show will not be there. Two of them will be there though… I think. If the gallery hangs them. They will at least be on hand. Those were already framed on the wall in my studio, so I was able to locate those, but not the rest of them. Where oh where can they be?

So, last minute, I had to come up with some alternative. I found one last stove print. It’s a drypoint that I made in 2007. I have already sold out the edition a long time ago. This was a test print. I decided to paint it pink with watercolor and pin it into a little frame. It turned out pretty cute. I hope someone will want it, especially because there isn’t another one like it. Oh, I’d show you a picture if I was smart enough to snap one, but I was in a giant hurry when I finished it. Poof! Off to the gallery I had to go. I framed it once I got there and I had to get right to work on the diary wall.

USA: 234 Years Old!

Ayin Es3 Comments

So I’ve been busy. What else is new? I found out that my Nashville gallery had an artist that pulled out of a solo show and I’m filling the slot, so now I have 2 back-to-back solo shows in the fall. They are actually flying me in for the reception, so that is going to be super fantastical! There are a few people I’ll get to meet in the area that I’ve known over the internet, and a couple that I’ve known from Los Angeles. I’m hoping my aunt, and really only living relative I have, will be able to drive up from Birmingham to see me. I’m only going to be there for 2 days. A regular “business trip.”

You can read about the show here. It’s called Goodbye, Mrs. Beasley. I’m exhibition both new work and a few pieces from 2008, but it’s all new to Nashville. I have to still produce about 6 more pieces for the show by August, and that’s not counting all the work I have yet to complete for my George Billis show! I have my work cut out for me!

This past week I have been trading off between 2 paintings: the 9 foot triptych and a 30 x 30 inch painting on linen, both for the LA show. Meanwhile, I’ve started my new assistant Sophie on some special handmade invitations that I’m sending out to a few critics and museum curators for the show. So far, Sophie is working out very well and she is going to be helping me install the drawing show I’m in that opens this weekend at George Billis Gallery called On | Paper. It’s a group show of about 10 artists. I’m installing about 50 pieces from the Journal Project and a few new pieces I created on my desert retreat. Once Sophie gets her website up and running, I’ll link her to my blog here because she is actually a wonderful artist in her own right. She’s a hard working 21 year old from Holland and I can hardly believe she somehow found me. I don’t want to speak too soon, but she might be the perfect assistant for me.

I’ve got 4 weeks left at Moppet. It’s going to be a little strange moving out. Every day, I take a small box of stuff home with me, only to find that I kind of need it back at the studio. But this had been happening when I’ve been at the studio. It seems there is always something I need from home when I’m at the studio. Once I’m back at home, this will never happen again! Something to look forward to.

The day after the opening at George Billis, I have to mention that there is a one day only show that I have a piece in at Yolanda Gonzalez’s studio (Ma Art Space) in Alhambra called STUFT. It’s a show of handmade sewn creatures and I am finally showing a little guy I once made called Barnacle Jim.

Oh, Happy Independence day! It’s been 34 years since the Bicentennial. That makes me feel old!