Mardi Gras, Babies, PJs and Valentines...

I took Friday off "sick"...by the end of it I was pretty sick, so my moral compass still points, er, in the good direction...ANYWAY, I was called in by Walt of Production Solutions (an old friend from Baltimore, who has moved to Florida, but occasionally needs my mad painting skilz for one of his events) to help paint faces on his "wizard of Oz" characters that will be on the proscenium for the Mardi Gras event held every year at the Marriott in DC...( an event that I normally am pushing debutantes around at, but not this year) That was all I was told at the beginning of the day. So when I arrived, there were some really misshapen Styrofoam bodies with Styrofoam wig heads attached...I was to make them look like the Oz characters...Not only paint, but also dress! Below are my results for the two witches.Glenda and the Wicked Witch of the West, Styrofoam dummies
Painting and dressing for Mardi Gras Party

Here is a picture of the ballroom on Friday, before the dinner, which is not the "main event" that happens on Saturday...Ballroom of the indoor Mardi Gras at the Marriott in DC

I was also able to catch up with old friends...Deb and I recreated these "Rex" characters for the giant hanging centerpiece for the main event...I though I would never see him again!Me and one of the 2005 Mardi Gras "Rex" Paper Mache Statues

Walt and Pat and everyone working on the project had been up for 36 hours when I got to the hotel, I put in 12 hours and they were still going when I left...I talked briefly to Walt yesterday, and he sounded rough, but alive...

On Saturday KT and I went to New Jersey to Ethan and Liz's baby shower. On the way we found a flea market and I couldn't resist snapping a shot of KT with one of those big cowboys...KT with new friend, Cowtown NJ

In the evening, we drove back to Rockville for Chris and Elizabeth's Pajama party. I was pretty wiped out by this time, so I kept a low profile, but there are photos (which I will mercifully not post here) of much nakedness and hula-hooping...

A bit hung over on Sunday, I helped move the Hexagon set forward by a few yards. This next week is going to be the crucial one, where we paint the freak banners...and load into the theater starts tomorrow!

My Corcoran Monday started off pretty good. The 14 paintings assignment was to paint the interior of the room, paying attention to the tones from inside to outside. Some of the examples were people like Matisse. I chose a corner of the room and wound up with a "ashcan school-esque" painting. There was a group discussion about the Gopnick piece about the Corcoran on Sunday, which evolved into a "is painting dead" conversation. In the end, Steven commented that my painting was like an allegory for the death of painting...all the tools, alone, in a handmade environment, old and quaint. I think its interesting that the conversation helped to subconsciously inform the painting...narrative will always creep into the work, whether you like it or not...14 Paintings in 14 weeks, week 3
Interior spaces, Oil on Canvas

I am not posting a picture of the Academic portrait painting because it was such a bad drawing. I got a really bad angle on the model, and I couldn't get the figure to fit into my canvas...it is really rare for me to have such a hard time with a model, but she is in such a funny pose from my angle, I had to start over twice! the worst part is that she is going to be the 7 week pose, so I will be forced to paint this funny pose for almost two months!

bar...as a way of introducing characters to the paintings...but not in the entirely "shag" sort of way, but more as emotional stand ins...The Astronaut for We had a snow day on Tuesday, and I spent it being slobbolicious...(with the blog I can actually count when I was slobbolicious last...its been a while) But I did get motivated enough to paint a quick sketch. Its an idea I have been kicking around. I have a "slapdash" way of painting when I don't care about the final product that sometimes has more life to it than the plodding way I have to make the cut paper pieces. So I decided to paint an astronaut and a sloth bear at a tikimanliness and yet venerability, the sloth bear for social awkwardness and being strong/cuddly...for example...I don't know if the tiki folks will be able to penetrate that deep into the pictures but I think that they might open me up for new directions for the work...Astronaut and Sloth Bear at the Tiki Bar
Oil on Board, 11X14

I applied and received confirmation (in about one hour) to be in the WPA/C 9x10 Show
Which is kinda a crap shoot, since its basically two walls in a new gallery, but I don't know when the show will be, and I wont know until a week or so beforehand...so I'll keep you folks updated when I get my dates! (oh, and I heard Art-o-Matic will happen in April!)

Lastly, I took KT to the Burlesque-a-pades at the Birchmere. That show gets better every year. Korn Mo was fantastic, and the MC, Murry Hill was a riot! Trixie and Monkey were in with the Pontani sisters, and you can see how much of a pro the two of them are when they are working with topflight folks like the folks at the Burlesque-a-pades. This also gave me a chance to check out the sight lines for my upcoming design for Lobsterboy's Ship of Fools in April...