Korean Buffaloe

Don't be jealous....

2009-12-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

Drawing, drawing, drawing.....

2009-05-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

A few sketches from recent life drawing sessions... Nothing epic or even finished on these pages, but there they are anyway! I hope you're feeling better, Rebecca! :) We start sculpting soooooon....

Back from San Francisco

2009-05-05T23:47:00.000-07:00

Rebecca and I just took a fantastic trip to SF to see a Jacob Collins show and it was so worth the trip! I finally finished an old sketchbook and broke out the new one my friend gave me for my birthday... last August. Ok, so I need to draw more... I know! :)

We snatched up all the postcards and magazines and stuff we could find. Here's the drawing one you missed, Rebecca (in case you didn't get a snapshot of it) ;) Yeah yeah I know it's crap quality... my scanner's not working... bleh.

A Buffaloe Made Me Do Eet

2009-04-27T00:35:00.000-07:00

Since I'm being pressured by a large wooly plains roaming mammal to post some recent work, I guess I will do so ^^

Just a couple of the drawings that I posted over on Mirrorbooks, the top is a master study and the lower leg draw-ering is from a photo. More photos to come...maybe! :)

After a break that was much too long....

2009-04-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Finally... another update! After getting off track for a bit I'm finally ready to dive in and MAKE stuff! I just got done with an art filled weekend, starting with a free drawing session at the LAAFA which was a lot of fun.... a friend is in town so we decided to go draw! Lots of gesture (which I suck at, so I need the practice...) Then we went to Gallery Nucleus for the Street Fighter tribute show and picked up the drawing books we'd ordered last time this particular friend was in town. So I drew some more this morning after being inspired by the new books, and now I'm posting a model I've been working on in my spare time:

Ok, your turn, Rebecca! No more slacking for us......

Zzzzzz....

2009-01-25T16:58:00.000-08:00

Dragging myself out of bed so early is never fun, especially when it's so I can take Jim to the airport, but there are advantages to being up before the sun...

NC 2008 Set VII

2009-01-06T10:21:00.001-08:00

NC 2008 Set VII.

NC 2008 Set VI

2009-01-06T10:15:00.001-08:00

NC 2008 Set V.

NC 2008 Set V

2009-01-06T10:11:00.001-08:00

NC 2008 Set V.

NC 2008 Set IV

2009-01-06T10:07:00.001-08:00

NC 2008 Set III

2009-01-06T10:03:00.001-08:00

NC 2008 Set II

2009-01-06T10:00:00.001-08:00

NC 2008 Set II.

NC 2008 Set I

2009-01-06T09:54:00.001-08:00

Pictures from NC Christmas 2008.

Work of My Students - Otis College of Art - Fall 2008

2008-12-11T23:15:00.001-08:00

Above is an example of the work of one of my students from my Fall 2008 Life Drawing Class at Otis College of Art in LA. I've linked more examples >>>here<<<. I had a great group of students, and I'm really proud of their progress.

Recommended Camera Sigh Drool

2008-12-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

$246.95 on Amazon.com. Just letting Santa know.

405 Accident = Smoke Reference

2008-12-09T05:02:00.001-08:00

Fortunately no one was injured in this accident on the 405 freeway during my morning commute. We were stopped for about half an hour, waiting for the fire truck to arrive. There was a giant fireball which was pretty impressive. The white smoke resulted from the firefighters' dousing of the car that had caught on fire. Cool smoke + no injuries = win.

Leo Carillo Landscape Painting

2008-12-07T22:01:00.001-08:00

Melissa, we will definitely have to go back here, it's a beautiful painting spot and we missed you.

<3

2008-12-05T19:50:00.001-08:00

Homework

2008-12-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

Because teachers love homework... (I'm lookin at YOU, Rebecca!) we've decided to try to follow a weekly topic. Well, two to be exact... a figurative topic and an environmental one. In honor of heading to LACMA this weekend, we're basing them both on the Vanity Fair exhibit. Wish us luck!

Aaaaaand GO!

Warning!!

2008-12-03T22:31:00.000-08:00

*** WARNING*** crappy environment sketch coming...... :p Man, I better put up some more figurative stuff just to save face! Don't say I didn't warn you....

-

2008-12-03T17:47:00.001-08:00

Just a bit more experimentation. I like that the top one looks like a monkey warrior.

Edit - just some more gestures from imagination.

I am totally up for movie night! ^^

Movie Night!

2008-12-03T14:28:00.000-08:00

Ok so your post about the Rape of Europa reminded me... I have that on my instant viewing queue in Netflix and now we can watch it through the XBox 360 on a nice big screen ;) Sooo we should have movie night! There are several cool art documentaries we can check out too.....

Yeah, yeah I'll post my crappy sketch... you're right ... it's all about the process! But I ... uh... have to go home to get it.... yeah.. that's it!

Oh and thank you, thank you.... I'm now a famous Nobel Prize winning author. Well, thanks to Rebecca's mad Photoshop skillz ;)

A Gift for the Buffaloe ^^

2008-12-03T14:12:00.001-08:00

Miscellany Variations

2008-12-03T13:22:00.001-08:00

Some miscellaneous variations - go nuts with the Rorschach interpretations.

The Rape of Europa - Art Documentary on PBS

2008-12-03T11:03:00.000-08:00

I caught this documentary out of the corner of my eye last night on PBS - really fascinating stuff, I wish I had been watching more closely. Here is the website for the award winning documentary about the stolen artwork of WWII:

>>>http://www.rapeofeuropa.com/<<<

"The Rape of Europa tells the epic story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures during the Third Reich and the Second World War.

In a journey through seven countries, the film takes the audience into the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe. For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. But young art professionals as well as ordinary heroes, from truck drivers to department store clerks, fought back with an extraordinary effort to safeguard, rescue and return the millions of lost, hidden and stolen treasures.

The Rape of Europa begins and ends with the story of artist Gustav Klimt’s famed Gold Portrait, stolen from Viennese Jews in 1938 and now the most expensive painting ever sold.

Today, more than sixty years later, the legacy of this tragic history continues to play out as families of looted collectors recover major works of art, conservators repair battle damage, and nations fight over the fate of ill-gotten spoils of war.

Joan Allen narrates this breathtaking chronicle about the battle over the very survival of centuries of western culture."

Sketch from Imagination

2008-12-03T01:24:00.000-08:00

Edit - some photoshopping just to generate some ideas.

I have a weird confession for someone who's an artist: I've always hated sketchbooks. I know. It's bizarre. But for some reason, I've just always hated them, preferring to work large on the standard 18" x 24" format for a drawing pad. Vilppu though has said that the masters never worked very large for their initial sketches, and this sentiment has been running through my mind for ages. It's true that when I work large for initial ideas, I just run out of steam, or the idea gets lost in the details. So I decided to try to ideate some figurative works by working small in an 8" x 10" sketchbook. I must be the weirdest artist in the world to hate sketchbooks, but there you go.

Anyway - this is not much, just something from imagination. I spent part of the day at Otis drawing (students were having their finals today, so I just sat in the back and attempted to get back into the groove). I've got a few ideas about where to go with this...I think the next step will be hiring models for some sessions once I know exactly what I want.

I'll post up some of the drawings from this semester at Otis once I get proper pictures taken.

All San Francisco Pictures

2008-12-02T21:59:00.001-08:00

There are a ton more San Francisco photos here:

>>>http://rebeccakimmel.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=90<<<

By subject, they are (the link takes you to the starting page of the album, the pictures carry forward sequentially):

Jung Park Presentation

2008-12-02T21:47:00.001-08:00

So tonight at Otis, Jung Park gave a presentation on his work. What an incredible concept artist. Check out his work here:

>>>Jung Park's Blog<<<

Dreams of London Town

2008-12-02T08:31:00.000-08:00

So I was contacted by a gallery in London, and they are interested in exhibiting my work. This is really exciting + scary! It seems they may be interested in showing existing work that I did for my graduate thesis show back in 2007, but may also be interested in representing me long term. This would be all sorts of awesomeness. This has given me a kick in the pants in the direction of creating more digital artwork. I'd like to do some experimental stuff and combine traditional stuff and photo collage in there as well - not totally sure yet. They were interested originally in some of the pieces I had created as a grad student, examples of which are above. I'm thinking of using that as a starting point, but hiring some models to get the ideas flowing for some new pieces. We'll see how this goes...

It's funny because when I showed these for my MFA thesis show, I think some people thought these were photographs, and not digital paintings. I'm thinking I need to combine some clearly non photographable elements in the new pieces to make it obvious that digital painting is involved.

Inspiration for Environments

2008-12-01T23:17:00.000-08:00

I'm totally up for LACMA :) And now in anticipation of doing some environments, here are some inspirational images from Project Offset, Khang Le, and Oddworld....

Vanity Fair Portrait Exhibition at LACMA - Thru March 1, 2009

2008-12-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

This is an exhibition I'd like to see before March 1 at the LACMA. Includes photos by Annie Liebovitz.

>>>LINK to the Exhibition<<<

>>>LACMA hours and directions<<<

"Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008 is the first major exhibition to bring together the magazine's historic archive of rare vintage prints with its contemporary photographs. The exhibition explores the ways in which photography and celebrity have interacted and changed, with portraits from the magazine's early period (1913–1936) displayed in conjunction with works from the contemporary Vanity Fair (1983–present). The Los Angeles presentation, which is sponsored by Burberry, will be the only U.S. stop on the exhibition's international tour. Photographers to be represented include Cecil Beaton, Harry Benson, Julian Broad, Imogen Cunningham, Annie Leibovitz, Man Ray, Mary Ellen Mark, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Edward Steichen, Mario Testino, and Bruce Weber."

Travellers

2008-11-30T22:39:00.001-08:00

>>>

San Francisco Scrapbook, Part XIV

2008-11-30T22:27:00.000-08:00

>>>

San Francisco Scrapbook, Part VIII

2008-11-30T22:17:00.000-08:00

Legion of Honor >>>

San Francisco Scrapbook, Part VII

2008-11-30T22:10:00.001-08:00

Land's End>>>

San Francisco Scrapbook, Part VI

2008-11-30T21:58:00.001-08:00

>>>

San Francisco Scrapbook, Part V

2008-11-30T21:52:00.001-08:00

Alcatraz.

San Francisco Scrapbook, Part IV

2008-11-30T21:44:00.001-08:00

San Francisco Scrapbook, Part III

2008-11-30T21:37:00.001-08:00

More San Francisco Musings...

2008-11-30T20:21:00.000-08:00

I picked up another great book while we were in SF.... All Over Coffee by Paul Madonna. This guy is an incredibly interesting artist (I am a sucker for really well done pen and ink stuff!) and he's created all these great images of San Francisco architecture and he writes these fantastic little poetic verses to accompany them. It's mostly done in a comic strip format and it's just been such a great way to sort of re-visit the past week and unwind at the same time. Anyway, you should definitely check it out! Here's a nice image from his book to show you what I'm talking about:

Beautiful!! And a good way to get me started doing some more landscape sketching or painting.... hmmmmm..... :)

San Francisco Scrapbook, Part II

2008-11-30T19:32:00.001-08:00

San Francisco Scrapbook, Part I

2008-11-30T19:20:00.001-08:00

To kick things off, here are a few of the many striking images that our week in San Francisco afforded us the opportunity to create. I'd never seen the inside of a skate egg, and never expected to see a live baby skate in development in this really artistic display, which reminded me of something out of a Joseph Cornell box. Haunting and lovely. The water is near Sausalito, where we visited a friend over Thanksgiving.

Welcome!

2008-11-30T17:38:00.001-08:00

Here's our lovely outpost on the internets to provide encouragement and generally banal entertainments for one another in an attempt to goad one another into eking out more art. LET IT BEGIN!!!!

In the beginning, there was a vacation......,

2008-11-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

So Rebecca and I decided to start this blog one night while we were running around San Francisco refueling our art tanks. We'd both been feeling a bit wiped out artistically, and in need of some fresh inspiration. A change of scenery usually does the trick for me and seems to work for my partner in crime as well! Rebecca and I thought that this blog might help us keep that momentum going... keep pushing us to make more art and take notice of everyday inspiration. And so, here we go:

This first image from my end of this project is just a doodle I did one night on our trip after I bought an especially interesting book of Mucha drawings :)

-Mel