So, in a burst of inspiration, (and in a complete departure from my previous two concepts!) I finally came up with this finalized painting for the Beautiful Grim breast cancer charity art auction that harkens back to my bubble girl paintings: explorations of otherworldly environments where symbolic elements such as oxygen and water compete for sustenance.

The deadline is TODAY and I finally got the whole thing finished and turned in. Whew! It was getting down to the last minute there!

Adorned with a melting crown of textured coral that threatens to drip and tragically melt everything along with it, stands my "Beautiful Grim," a remarkably strong and beautiful woman who has learned to breathe underwater against all odds in order to survive. Wearing a glass explorer's bubble, her face is defiantly immersed in an oceanic microcosm full of fish.

Just realized this is the first OIL PAINTING that I’ve completed in 2010, as well as the first oil on canvas I’ve painted in about 8 months! (which is quite shocking for me as I’ve been paining in oils obsessively through the last decade and beyond.) Ever since my trip to Iceland 8 months ago, I have been experimenting with painting primarily in watercolors. Hadn’t realized it had been so long since I’d painted in oil!

Labels: beautiful grim

This painting deals more with the internal self, and the body's symbolic mysteries and organics under the skin...

I’m a participating artist in the upcoming Beautiful Grim charity art show that will be held in San Francisco this spring to benefit cancer. I’ll need to turn in a digital image of my final painting in just 3 weeks, so I am currently visually brainstorming ideas. This watercolor represents one of my first ideas: a brilliant spark of warmth and light in the midst of a canopy of towering walls that encircle everything. I’m not sure if I’ll continue with this theme, but will probably be doing some more watercolor studies over the next week before beginning on the final art. Check out the website to find out more about this show: http://beautifulgrim.org

Lights was so much fun last night! She’s a bundle of pop goodness, and she has a very cute personality—very cool in concert. Anyway she sounded great, and looked awesome playing her keytar and pink keyboard. For her final encore song, she played this acoustic version of “February Air":

My Halloween illustration this year (see post below) was completely inspired by our halloween personas created for the Muse Halloween Costume Ball at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The ball was filled with elaborate, creative, clever costumes. My personal faves were a beekeeper with bees affixed to the outside of his bee suit, a venus fly trap whose plant parts encircled his head, Rainbow Brite, Clark Griswald with a squirrel on his back from Christmas Vacation, Green Lantern, Moses and the Golden Calf, and space travelers with full sized astronaut bubbles...I need to get one of those next year so I can recreate one of my paintings and have my floating goldfish inside around my face! Anyway, it was a blast!

Spent a perfect Sunday afternoon in the park at the impromptu Vampire Weekend concert today. It was amazing!

Happy Halloween!