Things I Throw Myself in to Tuesday

or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

"There were three times in the month of March where I needed an egg or two. When I bake I want it to be spectacular-spectacular. Cooking's just another creative extension. At any rate, and for no reason I have to explain, I needed an egg or two. I didn't need a huge carton of eggs, I just needed a few, and a half dozen a week would more than do.

I'd shlep to the shops. I'd find that once again, in my hippy Brooklyn-town, free range/non hormone/anti-chemical/vegetarian chicken eggs were so popular that they'd be sold out. I'd ask when there would be more. Some market guy would shrug. I'd put off the spectacular-spectacular.

I've been living in Brooklyn and shopping in Brooklyn for a long time now. Before I was doing those things I was the five-year old bawling my eyes out after seeing Star Treck: The Voyage Home. The tears flowed freely once I realized it wasn't so unlikely my future children would live in a world without whales. It's been a life spent picking up six-pack plastic can holders off the street. I carry them home where I cut them into something that doesn't resemble a noose. Add years of living NYC where you can, um, acquire certain personal opinions about what food is, how it should be aquired, how far it should travel, and how it should be enjoyed.... Just like that you become this overly prideful Brooklynite. You find yourself at a crossroads where there's just flat out no-way-in -hell you're going to buy an egg that isn't from a free range/non hormone/anti-chemical/vegetarian fed chicken.

But you still need eggs...

So you google 'til your fingers bleed. One thing leads to another, and then all of the sudden, well, you know, you do the thing any other organically minded Brooklyn girl would do...

I'd like to formally introduce you to Good Golly Miss Molly.

I think she is beautiful. Don't you? You know - in a Tilda Swenton kind of way?
I'm paying her rent. Don't worry, we've worked out a barter system. It's Brooklyn. We go hard.

Pushing Pattern

My Favorite Hopper

See how happy this kid is to be wearing this Amber Alvarez Original?
Oh yeah. He's stoked.

Oh! That's better.
Hoppy Easter!

If you want to know more about this, you should know it's at touch up to this post ;)

Easter Goose

Mama needs a new scanner.

I should have told the Easter Bunny about that one....
Tonight we dine on dark chocolate and expensive cheese, and for dessert we eat dark chocolate alone. DOWN WITH LENT!

Straight from the Book Thursday: Enjoy the Journey!

One of my very most extreme favorite things about coming to NYC when I was a teen was peeking at what people were reading/writing/drawing on the train. In Hawaii there is, how shall I put it, less of an industrious spirit. Hawaiian hands sit idle on public transportation. In Hawaii's defense, there is a lot of really gorgeous stuff to look at out the window. You're in not a tunnel.

I used to thrill to sit next to artists who were sketching away, because up until this point, the only people I knew like that were me and my dad. I'd peek and I'd crane to see how they used their books and what they were scrawling. The other night (on my way to see PJ Harvey) a girl leaned over and whispered "Hi". I wasn't sure I'd heard right over my blasting music, so I took my headphones off and looked at her. She was wearing jeans smeared with acrylic, too much make up and an asymmetrical top. Oh, I was familiar with this girl. Haha.
"Um... can I see your sketchbook?"

She's an FIT illustration major. She's just getting started and she hopes she can make it. She devoured my book and pointed and questioned and reminded me, of what it is like when you're hoping. I'm hoping now, but you know, when you're hoping.In honor of a certain girl, circa 2002 - in too much make-up, torn and painted up jeans and a leather jacket with a Hello Kitty tattoo slapped on it, I thought I'd show you a few pages I did yesterday at the park. You know, for old times sake.

Before It Was Something

There are 3 major ways the sketchiness you see at She Sure is Sketchy becomes marketable art. Usually I do a sketch. I look at it. I put it aside. I think, "meh..." Weeks, months or years later I am woken at 3 am with a sudden knowledge of WHAT IT NEEDS TO BE!

Sometimes I go through my box o'paper (the bane of my mother's existence in my childhood, now a tax asset). I find snibbits of long forgotten sketches in this idea house -- even if it looks like it houses a gerbil. They suddenly speak to me. From nothing - something.

Sometimes, - the best times, I do a sketch and I just know. I know exactly what it will be. I know exactly how it will look. These flamingos are some such sketches. They're the 'OH man, this is gonna be SO good' kind of work I do.

One great thing about this "Oh man I know exactly" process is how funny it is to witness. Even when I'm the only one staring into my full length mirror to my immediate left in my studio. I watch that girl there in the mirror bite her lip and scribble as fast as she can. Sometimes it looks like the page is going to combust. It's like when a little kid tells you an imaginary story. You know the kind. The kind that run off in rambles:

"THEN THE DRAGONS WOULD COME INTO THE GROCERY STORE AND THEN THEY WOULD JUMP ON THE BREAD! "
Genius.

You're staring at them and they're so excited they're half laughing while they speed talk to make sure they get all THESE GREAT IDEAS out of their heads. The brilliance is just coming so fast. These stories make you grin even though they're beyond reason. You love them all the more because they're little bundles of lunacy.

I am often a little bundle of lunacy

SERIOUSLY THOUGH, OH MAN - THIS IS GONNA BE SO GREAT!

Girls! Girls! Girls!

"Friday night and I need a fight
My motorcycle markers, watercolors and a switchblade knife
Handful of grease pencils in my hair feels right"
--motley crew and me

This was my eleventh year sitting court side at Pratt's Annual Draw-A-Thon.
Friday night found me sprinting through Clinton Hill towards Pratt, my fortress of solitude. At this point in my life 12 hours of straight life drawing is about as exciting as Christmas.

Sandra and I have this all-nighter down to a science at this point. Even though it was a "Friday Friday" there was none of this "which seat should I take" crap. We stake. We know the best angles, and the best way to accommodate a night of sitting, standing, aching, breaking. We come like we mean business. We openly resent anyone with less noble intentions, kid with the cowardly lion hair cut, you know I am talking to you. Here are my favorites on white paper.
They're all 30sec-2 minute sketches in Tomboy marker.

This one wouldn't have been a favorite. There's a lot of ish going on in spots, but look at that hand and look at those legs. Yep. Nailed it.

Any of the fun and long drawn out forms happened between 4 and 6 am. They all made my favorites cut. Apparently, when the exhaustion sets in and the giggles kick off I go all Giacometti-- in a sexy way.

After looking at 12 hours worth of 30second to 5 minute drawings, this is my favorite:

I like this one because this girl actually started to fall this pose was so unweighted. I think the drawing captures her off center.

I'll show you some on Kraft later in the week.
I drew some guys too, but you should know now, none of the boys made the cut. You know how I feel about drawing the naked male form.

WOYWW - Bunnytown

I sketched this


then I cut it out


I iron it on to a shirt and then slap some paint over it. I wait some. Then I peel it off, yo.


Moving forward....


Oh like you don't need a bunny shirt? Haha. Now I think I want one too. This is going to be a gift. I'm excited to show off how this turns out.

Hop on by Julia's she's the head elf chicky around these parts on Wednesdays!
What's on your Workdesk?

WOYWW - A Kiss With A Fist

It's that time of year, 3....2...1... Panic mode.

Luckily I have Florence and the Machine pumping through my headsets every second of the day. Some how she makes everything better, even this love-hate, kick in the teeth relationship I have every year with my annual show. We're in count down mode people!

So tonight here's my workdesk:
This is a stack of uninventoried sketches. That's right, friends. I draw. A lot.

I have time for more art before I hit the Javitz Center in a month. So tonight, and tomorrow night, and maybe (but hopefully not) the next night, we inventory!


It's totally a kiss with a fist.

Oh man! How I love it!

Things I Throw Myself into Tuesday

Today I'm prepping art for NYC's Art to Support the Art of Japan gallery fundraiser. We're each In the process of making art in our style (think Baby Mermaids) that is rooted in some aspect of Japan's rich artistic history. I'm going Kokeshi and Cherry Blossoms on electric girl-jam guitar.

While prepping for this latest event in the life of me, a friend shared this beauty of a jem of something beauteous.

True, it is not the greatest narrative and yes, it starts to bore (like into my soul) me after a while, but man that first two minutes sure are fun! It's pretty and violent and just what it should be until the fox arrives. WTF fox?! At any rate I dote on black and white with a tid bit of color and I ache for beautiful animation and live film Watch it and marvel at the artsy.