Hiatus Ended

Oh, hi. I really SUCK at blogging!

Summer has come and gone and I spent most of my time working, traveling, and partying on my roof. Fall is my favorite time of the year. Halloween is around the corner, which means in the weeks building up to it the world gets to up it's creep factor quite a bit. Which, of course, is something I am into.

I am starting a new series in which I will use 70s and 80s horror movie soundtracks as my creative vehicle. I want to listen to one specific song that moves me and re-imagine what this movie might be about. Just another excuse for me to delve into darker realms, I suppose.

Kicking my ass into gear and getting these going was not an issue after Xtina and I decided to plan a group art show with a Halloween theme. The opening will be the first Friday in October, which is the 7th. Yet again, we will be gracing O'Reilly's Pub with our artwork, and welcoming submissions from other Philadelphia artists. The response and interest we've gotten from people has been very encouraging which just means that this show is bound to rock.

Anyway, just a sneak peek of my first painting 'Ave Satani,' which is the theme song to The Omen. I think I will probably do 3 paintings revolving around this song and it's obvious satanic themes.



I find myself mixing the most vile, pukey, pastel-ish colors and somehow making them work. It gets worse in the next painting to come, which I will gladly post once it's completed.

Finally

I know I've been MIA as of late, but for good cause:






I've been getting prints made, designing a business card (see below- I am proud), framing pieces and creating a ton of new paintings (one being a collaboration between Xtina and I) all while working full time in our busiest season. But, I have learned that I can do this- and that I have the drive to really accomplish and create. It feels pretty great.

I could not ask for a better partner in crime than Ms. Xtina Carbone, either. She's one of my oldest friends and an artist I admire and respect. Our styles are complimentary but almost complete opposites. Her paintings are lush and brilliantly colorful. They're totally organic, even when they are mapped out using rigid geometric shapes they seem to be representing complex cellular structures. Xtina creates compositions full of life- plants, flowers, figures, and deities. Pretty funny next to mine, when the best I come up with are starkly bare trees reminiscent of winter months. She is also an amazing designer (see the flier at the top of the page, that is her baby). It is an honor to show with her.

As promised, a view of my business card. I feel so official. It's been a long time coming!

Show Time

It's one of those beautiful spring days where you're just on the cusp of warmth. I've got a kind of fuck yeah feel good vibe going on.

I've got some shows coming up, which is exciting because I haven't shown my work in awhile. Part of the reason was that I wanted to build up a new body of work that had a consistant theme, which I think is finally coming to fruition. BUT... I'm not showing that here right now. Right now I'd like to back it up a bit and catch you up on some of my flyer design work.

As I've mentioned before, I LOVE designing show flyers. Right after I graduated from college I got a freelance gig to do show flyers for the Ottobar, a music venue in Baltimore. Their deal was that I printed flyers for them, and in order to make money, I came to the shows and set up shop to sell them. Unfortunately, I was competing with the bands merch and the draw of a shot and a beer, so I had to sell these prints at an EXTREMELY low price. The upside of this was that I got to hang out with a bunch of bands, some of whom were legends to me. Anyway, onto the work.


This was my first show flyer design ever. Dactyl's merch table was right next to mine, and they kept me entertained and laughing the whole nite. A good group of dudes. A couple years later I did another poster for them, which I will get to later.

I was really into hand drawn text- all of the text in the posters I did for the Ottobar are hand drawn.




When I researched for this poster, I found that the word "bardo" translates to being in an intermediate state. I chose this to base the illustration on.



Did you know that a pelican mother will cut herself and feed her babies her own blood in order to keep them alive? Well, they do. BAM! Illustrated.



I was SO PSYCHED to do the flyer for this show. This was an epic nite. The Ottobar smelled SO BAD, it was amazing. All the bands were super nice, and I got to hang out with the Subhumans while 1905 played their set. Word.

I was influenced by, uhhh, Satan, for this one.




I did this poster as a rush job for Noel from Dactyl. I had literally JUST moved into a new apartment, so I quickly set up my studio and got it done. I had free reign to design what I wanted, so I went with what I know, which is chicks with epic hair and wolves. The venue name was later added on by Noel.



This is next design was really intended for a t-shirt, but I decided to color it for shits and giggles. Colors courtesy of Black Flag. Talk Me Off became Ratheater, and then half of Rathealer moved to NOLA and all are working on new projects. A solid bunch of people. <3



And to finish it out- here is the first poster I did for R5. I always know an illustration is going well when I feel evil doing it. I felt totally possessed doing this.




If you've made it this far, I owe you a high five. Now, go outside and play.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Alright children, let's pack up and go to +Church+. It's time for worship.

Oh, in case you're not informed, +Church+ is musician Evan Wall's killer solo project. I've known Evan since the awkward years of middle school. And now we're awkward adults. I kid, I kid.

I've been fortunate enough to design a number of images for +Church+ these past couple of years. It's been really rewarding to see how both Evan's and my own work evolves and progresses as time goes on. I have never considered myself a collaborative artist (cause I'm basically a control freak), but I pretty much look at all the work I've done for Evan as a collaboration. He always brings great ideas to the table, and they're dark enough to keep me interested. Goth thoughts, ha.



This is the design for Evan's demo. He came over and helped me screen print these in my then-studio, which was a cruddy old basement. Working class!



The casket design was used for t-shirts initially, but was later integrated into part of the album design for "I did a horrible thing to meet you."


A couple weeks ago, Evan came to me asking to design a show flyer for him. This time he gave me carte blanche to go wild and do whatever I wanted. First off, let me just say that I LOVE designing show flyers. The myriad of ways in which you can approach it are sometimes daunting. This time, I opted for a more narrative approach. I have an obsession with strange urban myths and legends and the like, but I will save those for another entry. The urban legend I chose to illustrate is The Bunnyman Bridge of Fairfax County, VA. Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Man

I even used a photo of the actual bridge as part of my illustration:



Linework is painted with Speedball Black India Ink, color is digital:



GO TO THIS SHOW. If there's one thing I am sure of, +Church+ puts on a fantastic live show. Evan might even throw in some Sabbath covers for ya.


Check +Church+ out here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Church/116899541678411

The Wolf.

Wild Animal.

I've always been drawn to the visceral. Tearing, clawing, teething. When I was young and very drunk, oftentimes walking over stranger's cars and smashing bottles in the street, I would tell myself that I was a wild animal. I felt free and wild and unstoppable, and hey, I was never brought back to reality those nights by the cops. Ok, well, I was ONCE. That hardly counts.

I still feel the need to let out the wild animal, to truly be mad in the best sense of the word. To let loose and let myself behave savagely, as if acting out instinct rather than learned obedience and feigned good manners. Only now, I'm older, and not quite as drunk, and have no intention of walking on cars.

Instead, now I want to dance wildly, listen to loud savage music, paint all of my walls, and drive a muscle car as fast as humanly possible. I want to spend days in the sun sweating. I want to travel and get tattooed. I, for sure, do not want to work in an office. The realization that I've been living a life primarily led by responsibility is something I've been getting... used to. In some ways it's great (awesome relationships with stable humans) and in other ways totally stifling (WORK). I've been trying to think of ways to make my life my own again.

In the past couple of years I've found myself drawn to the wolf. I painted it on my living room wall, without drawing an outline (and it looks fucking awesome). I've even commissioned a friend to draw a wolf portrait that will be suitable to be tattooed on my thigh. I'm obsessed.



I've been doing some research, and found that the wolf symbolizes "free will, the ability to escape." But also, as pack hunters, they rely on their relationships for strength, as well. I am liking this.

Inspiration.

Today would have been Kurt Cobain's 44th birthday.



I feel pretty lucky having grown up experiencing grunge music. It felt like I had a choice. I could choose to listen to smarmy, overly romantic pop music or embrace the visceral sound of grunge music. The choice was obvious. Facing my impending teen years, I took a turn towards rock and roll.

Turn back the clocks to a time when MTV actually played music videos. I remember wanting to dress like the cheerleaders in the Smells Like Teen Spirit video like... every day of my life. I loved the weird, dark worlds of Nirvana and Soundgarden and Guns n Roses (don't even get me started on the November Rain video). It finally felt ok to have these strange, sometimes dark thoughts, which is great, because I know that when I was a kid, I wasn't sure if that was wrong or not.

Mr. Cobain, thanks for being my gateway drug.

Greetings

So I'm just going to put this out there: the name for this blog came to me in a dream. I know that sounds kind of douchey, but it really is true. It was a couple years back, and I awoke mid dream knowing that I had to wake up Joe, my boyfriend, and tell him something. It was desperate, it was important, it was... "Sea of Doom."

After completing this monumental task, I apparently immediately fell back to sleep. That term, even though uttered in my dream state, has stayed with me. And, as a reward for its staying power, I give it to the all mighty blog.

Anyway, I have some free beer to drink, so I'm gonna leave it at that. In the meantime, have fun looking at this luscious warrior babe. Hello and Goodbye.

More to come.