Sketchy, Sketchy

Here's to the end of another sketchbook! It takes me about a year to fill a sketchbook (11x14), and I'm almost done with number 14. When I was younger, I never could fill one completely, I would always move onto a different one. I felt like I had to draw complete illustrations or else I would ruin the book. Not anymore, boy!


I cover the black faux leather with fabric that inspires me. I started doing this years ago - the first fabric I used was a skirt I had bought from Clothestime (all you old girls remember) that was right next door to the Target I worked at. I think I was about 20 years old.



A sketch for the piece that turned out to be "My Pain" - one of my most favorite pieces from my Run Rabbit, Run show.



This is the inside covers, plenty of Farrah, some Dexter, Dave Cooper, Daniel Peacock, Camille Rose Garcia, Scott Saw and me.



A Freaky Weirdo



A little Flap Jack Sketch from my favorite boy in the world.



A Halloween Girl sketch.



Some Bearded Cherries!



A sketch for Alice In Wonderland inspired something or other.



And the Rabbit.



A Flower!



A Circus inspired sketchy girl with the Alphabet floating out of her hair.



And another Circus girl sketch for the books! With a stalker like girl in a clown mask. I am in limbo right now with my work, getting geared up to start on my next solo show for 2010. So sketching helps work it all out, the more I sketch, the clearer my thoughts are in begining work for a large series. Hmmmm....

What's in your sketchbooks?

Lucky Me Saturday

Comic Con was a whirlwind Saturday, but sooo much fun!! I started off at the Baby Tattoo Booth where I got to hang out with Miss Mindy and Jeffrey Scott for a bit.



Here you can see Jeffrey and Mindy and the crowd of Comic Con goers. It was PACKED to the GILLS!! Everyone we met was super sweet and we even got to visit with Gris Grimly's wife and friends (no Gris cuz he's a celebrity!). So good to visit with Travis Louie during his signing and I even got to meet Mark Ryden. Thee Mark Ryden. Whaaa?




Here's myself with Miss Mindy, thee cutest and most wonderful little doll around! We were so happy to see eachother AND she gave me a tee shirt!! She's the greatest, as you've heard me say before. But it's true, I love her.



And look at her cute head, she had a bird and flower in her hair! She said that the bird was yelling at her earlier, but I think it was whispering sweet nothings...I would if I were in her hair.



So I made my way over to Hi Fructose at about 4, where Attaboy, Scott Musgrove, Edwin Ushiro and Luke Chueh were signing for all the art lovers in the crowd. I plopped down and stayed there til almost closing - 3 hours! The crowd was great, each and everyone of them was super nice and patient! I had the honor of drawing next to Edwin who blew my mind with his sketches for people!! He's so talented!! I'm so sad I didn't whip out my camera more, here's a shot of JULIE WEST and me, I've never had the pleasure of meeting her, but I've been a fan for years!! I also got to meet Kelly Vivanco who gave me a take out box full of delicious chocolate chip cookies (that I ate almost all gone!), Christina Conway whom I've been in contact with for at least 2 years and these two:



Here's the folks from GELASKINS!!! I was sooo excited to meet Drew and Brian and they were awesome fun! It's sooo nice to put faces to names that you've been dealing with over several years! I wish I had more time to talk to all these people, but like I said, it was a whirlwind! As I was making my way thru the crowd upon leaving, I spotted only two celebrities, Jeff Conway from GREASE and Thomas Jane from the HBO series HUNG. I didn't stop to meet either, I had only eaten two granola bars and a mini Baby Ruth all day, so I was exhausted. What a Day!

*Special thanks to Bob Self at Baby Tattoo for having me all the time, at his events and shindigs, and for being so weird, fun and supportive, and for supplying the sandwiches. Thanks to Attaboy and Annie Owens at Hi Fructose for your support and fun and for that magazine you created (sarcasm). Thanks to Mark Murphy and Planet Illogica people, I'm sad that I didn't get a chance to see the show, but I'm sure it ruled to no end! Thanks to Mike and Phillip at Van Eaton Gallery for showing my work at your booth that kicks butt EVERY year. And thanks to everyone in the crowds for being so nice and encouraging to all of us art geeks! Without ALL of you people, I'd just be alone in my room drawing. So Thank YOU!!

The Winner Of The Print Giveaway...

Thank you to the people who have entered to win the print giveaway. I truly enjoyed reading about the little things that make your days happy! Good things happen (almost) everyday, we just need to take the time to realize and acknowledge them, instead of taking them for granted, right?

And so, here I've chosen a winner at random with the comments that were left for me, THE WINNER IS...MISSA from THRIFT CANDY!! Missa, if you could please contact me thru email and claim your prize it'll be on it's way soon!

Thank you all for playing, and thank you for visiting my blog often, you really make me happy!

Sing A Song Of Six Pence

I was asked to do an interview recently with DISKURSDISKO, an online source for art/pop culture/fun!! Check it out as they have many interviews with such different artists and talented creative people.

Now I'm off to prepare myself for tomorrows INSANE events!! Hope to see some of yous there!! (Drive safe!)

Hi Fructose Print Giveaway At Comic Con!

Yeehaw!! The freaky folks over at Hi Fructose Magazine will be giving everyone a run for their money at Comic Con this year! To all those who spend $25 or more at their booth 4939 will be recipients of all the artist's prints exclusively at the Hi Fructose table! Whaaaaa? Yes. READ IT AND WEEP! I will be signing there Saturday from 4-5 so please stop by and tell me a story!!



Just SOME of the prints available this year, crazy. Don't miss out!!

Happy Birthday Mar!!

It's another birthday!! This time it's my oldest sister Marli! (She won't kill me as much!) Anyway, Marli is a very special girl, and I wanted to dedicate this post to her. She means the world to us as she is the oldest, and she's our Marli. I remember my mom always telling us that when we were little, Marli took care of us like she was the momma duck and we were her babies. Looking both ways as she had us all cross the street safely, looking after us out in the yard, changing our dirty dieties... she was very dutiful and sweet, so happy, just being, and I hope she's even happier now. She deserves 100% of the very best, she's thee nicest person in the world - and that's a fact.



Here she is on her fourth birthday, happy happy happy!! And gimme a break, like she's not the cutest little thing you've ever seen! Just perfect!



This was a Halloween costume (made by our mom of course) I think I remember Marli hated because she had to wear her hair a certain way. I think she looks so cute.



This was us four, so happy together in the 70's. What more could we want? That's me, my brother Shad, Tifi and Marli on top, then Shad, Tifi, Marli and Me (on my 3rd birthday) on the bottom. I love Marli's nightie in the bottom picture, it's so ridiculous! Give it to me.



It doesn't hurt that she's as pretty as pretty gets, right? She's unbelievable and I don't think she knows it.

When I think of Marli when we were little, I remember her watching as much television as she possibly could, Love Boat, Laverne and Shirley, Facts of Life, Welcome Back Kotter (even the stupid game shows that I hated) and she was as happy and peaceful as can be. I looked up to her and thought she was just like the pretty girls she watched on tv - even prettier, but she was MY sister and I was so proud. We're blessed to have our Marli, and I love her more than words can say. So Happy Birthday Mar!!!

(are you gonna kill me?)

Print Giveaway!!!

In celebrating Comic Con and 100 posts, I'm doing another Giveaway!! This time the prize will go to ONE lucky winner, they will receive one of the Artist Proofs from the Be Be Prints I will have available exclusively at Comic Con! Alls you gotta do is be a follower of this blog, and leave me a comment here on this post telling me one good thing that happened to you (the day you write the comment). You can leave as many as you would like, I will be drawing numbers again to pick a winner - so the more you post, the more chances you have of winning! Sound good??? Yip Yip!! I will be chosing the winning number Next Tuesday Morning, so you have a week!! Good Luck!!

Planet Illogica Comic Con '09

EEEPS! I've been working with a team of greats recently, for Planet Illogica. Planet Illogica is a group of artists and visionaries who have gathered together in hopes of infusing art and inspiration into a wider audiences lives. Mark Murphy {whom I've talked about before} is one of three brilliant minds that have schemed this up, along with Tonny Sorensen and Ken Goldstein. These guys have been working hard, uniting their ideas and artists, creating unique apparel with each of us, and putting together what will be an awesome display and event at Comic Con this year. Here are my two pieces that will be featured with Planet Illogica, I am super proud to be among such talent and creative minds!

"Cherry Circus Series: Myrna" acrylic and ink on wood round (the first of this series)

My inspiration for these "Runaways" was initially from a Tim Walker photo set that I had a glimpse of recently. He had these huge hat boxes in a display window in the background of his featured girl. I went nuts when I saw all the faces on the hat boxes and wanted to make my own. So I set out to make about 12 different sizes, of girls that were mistreated in what was called the Cherry Circus. They've run away together and are hiding in the woods - unable to live among normal people, unable to travel with the Circus any longer. So they're kind of in limbo there in the woods together...Happier than they've ever been in their miserable lives! So that's a good thing.

"Midnight Sweet Tooth" acrylic and ink on wood panel.

This is tied into the circus feel of the Cherry Circus Series, here are two performers who have developed a steady craving for blood and meat. They're hiding away from the eyes of their fellow performers in the middle of the night, devouring and consuming mass amounts of meat. You can see their next victim who they've tricked into joining them with large peanuts and a tiny circus tent. I usually wouldn't be this cruel in showing such a literal doomed fate, but I love the naive little elephant, innocent and lured - overshadowed by their evil dark bloody habit. In real life, I would never let this happen - just for the record!!

If you find yourself at Comic Con on Friday, please stop by the event, ooooh and aaaah yourself into oblivion, and have a great time!!

Special Comic Con Exclusive!

Comic Con's almost here people!! And this time, I'm gonna be ready for it! Last year was my first time going, and I was there signing books with Baby Tattoo Books (which you've heard a lot about from me, I'm sure). Well, I was a little overwhelmed at the chaos that is Comic Con, but this year - I'm grabbing it by the horns! I've had some prints made special for the event, and I'm super excited! I will be there again at the Baby Tattoo Booth on Saturday from 12-2 signing, meeting, talking and lauphing. If you're around, come by and say hello!



The prints are 4"x6" Limited Edition, Comic Con Exclusive on acid-free heavy weight paper - ALL hand detailed and embellished with final touches, signed, numbered and packaged by yours truly! Here is the little cigar box full of the completed edition, stuffed with candies and ribbons! The first Artist Proof will be framed and available for purchase there as well and I will have them all up for sale at the booth all weekend for a steal!! There has never been a print from my book, this one's pretty special - Don't miss it!!

What A World, What A World!

I've not been home that much in the passed few days, it's been pretty wonderful! Since I work from home, I'm super glad to go ANYWHERE but here ANYTIME! I can get pretty stir crazy!


My sister and I took my little boy to the park to feed the ducks and squirrels on Thursday. It was fun, there were some baby baby ducks that were sooo cute and fluffy!



We went to the beach on Friday and I got burned something awful. Unfortunately, we went to dog beach and as I watched my husband and boy out in the water (I can't swim), people's dogs ran up onto my towels, onto my stomach, onto my stuff and I was so annoyed. I know, we shouldn't have gone to dog beach then, right? Well, we did, and that doesn't mean I want people's dogs all over my grill.

Saturday, was loooong. My friend Jennie and I went to LA to a casting call for something I'm not permitted to talk about. We stood in line for 6 hours. 6 HOURS. We got sunburned on top of our sunburns on top of our sunburns!! I don't do well out in the sun for long, I start to get sun stroke, and want to faint. We were stupid and didn't bring sun screen, food or water, so it was rough. After that, we went to the Renegade Craft Fair though, which made everything better!!




We made out like bandits, we both got these SUPER CUTE AND WONDERFUL sketch books made out of vintage books! Mine was a Little Golden Book and Jennies was even better! We were gonna go from there to eat, but it got cut short. We were exhausted, I was spent, but I came home to find a package for me from my friend Charity that blew my mind. It was chalk full of goodies including THIS:




This is one of my favoritest things painter Chet Zar has ever created. Charity gave me his original study of the piece!! I kinda felt sick when I opened this, because it's unbelievable and I've never gotten a gift like this in all my life.






She's gonna get a big Thank You in the mail as soon as I can put it all together. She's insane. I'm insane.

So finally, in my exhausted state on Sunday, I overhauled my walls. I hung some pieces of mine that I have with me, my albums, some new stuff too. Really, it all happened to make a spot for that Chet Zar piece. eeeeee!!




Here's the stairs filled with good stuff!! Bob Dob original drawings, Camille Rose Garcia show posters, Travis Lampe prints (I still need a frame for his painting..will come), some vintage odd posters and a few of my drawings and paintings.



Just two of the albums with my painting...there are a few Barbra Streisand albums and my husband hasn't said a word...shshsh.




And my bookshelf with some of me, some of T. Lampe, some of Camille and some vintage..

And now I'm off to make some things for Comic Con which is in two weeks!!! Get ready folks!@!

My Sissy's B-Day!

My sister Tifi is gonna kill me. But - she doesn't read this blog, {she said so herself} so she deserves it. Anyway, it was her birthday the other day, and I wanted to dedicate this post to her! She's the cutest little thing {as you will see}, nice and funny and ridiculous. To me, she's everything, shared in part by only a few others. When we were growing up, she and I grouped together as my oldest sister and my brother grouped together (there's four of us). So, she and I were close - dancing in the front yard to Cindy Lauper with skirts Tifi made, playing Cathy and Mini dolls and drawing haunted houses, Spook and Julie Miller stories. It was the best! Without her, I wouldn't be who I am now, and I love her very much.


Here are both my sisters on Halloween, Tifi's on the left and that's Marli on the right - both in Hand-Made costumes by my mom, that's how we did. Sooo cute!!


Here's the four of us, before we went to Disneyland!! That's my brother Shad dressed like Don Ho on the left, and the rest of us girls dressed to the nines! I wish I had Tifi's dress, as it is wonderful...Weeeee!!


So I made Tifi chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate frosting and Butter Cream with chocolate sprinkles. (she loves chocolate)


And like I said - she's the cutest thing SINCE chocolate sprinkles, right? Here she is in costume for Bastille Day as cute as can be! I love this picture.

So, Happy Birthday Bif!! Love ya HUN!! HA!

(by the way, she'll probably make me take this one down when she finds out by my other sister who DOES read this blog - Hi Mar! Ha Ha Ha!! Yer next!!)