20 posts tagged “portraits”
Made a new little painting, all within 3 hours. This was due to an overall cluster-fuck of coffee, candy, steak, seltzer water and who knows what else...
1. waste of time
2. super expensive conferences and seminars
3. they hate mannerists
4. they bow to the altar of Sergent, hence why all the work looks the same.
5. member work featured -- simply hideous.
6. the president calling me to tell me the Smithsonian will sue me for my show title, despite not knowing the the hell she was talking about or having done any research on the matter. Not to mention she sounded like an overall moron (other countries have portrait galleries too besides the US-- duh!) and if that's whose in charge I want no part in it.
7. did I mention it wasted my time?
8. a hideous newsletter that my husband would throw out because he couldn't stand the art in it. Having it sit on the coffee table was offensive to his eyesight.
9. did I mention it all looked the same? Cheeseball is what it was.
10. south western inspired art or portraits of children with ugly toothy grins in predictable poses - 'nuff said.
11. I SO didn't fit in with the whole thing.
Mrs. Turner, 11x14" oil on canvas
It recently started with a nice write-up on Creep Machine and just kept rolling after that...
CreepMachine.com
Juxtapoz.com
PinkBlog.it
Sweet.
So my usual "save some endangered art" Monday is a little different today. This week I'm offering a variety of prints from my punk/goth/Elizabethan/mannerist series for $3.00 a pop. And since I have 3 of each image available, you can grab more than one if you want, so they don't get lonely. These were a test run of prints from a while back, the image size is only 7 inches high on 8.5x11 inch paper, and the actual paintings have changed a bit since these were made -- I have a habit of going back and "adjusting" my artwork. Guess that sorta makes them collector items, right?
For the cheapskates out there, this week it is $3 instead of $1 for a variety of reasons: these are heavy stock glossy prints that come all fancy in a plastic pouch, hence they cost more to mail, but mostly because stamps and envelopes cost this girl money if you can feel me. But hey, it is still cheaper than a large coffee concoction at Starbucks.
So hit me up as to your choice(s): arabella@elephantstonerecords.com
Thanks everyone!
Cordeleia of Kronin (1440 - 1504)
A carnival
performer since childhood, she was raised in a nomadic tribe known as
Brothers of the Serpent -- infamous for gambling, grave robbing, and
juggling. It was during her acrobatic horse riding at a festival that
she caught the eye of a wealthy architect and was sold to him by her
uncles. She had a small career as a courtesan to wealthy, but
politically unimportant men. While drunk on ginger ale at a ball, she
began to strip her clothes, and perform her acrobatic routine for the
guests. She was an overnight success; invited to perform in most
affluent homes of the day. She was no longer dependant on wealthy
partners, but became trapped into supporting relatives who squandered
her fortune. When her youth faded, she went back to her horse routine
performing for carnivals.
11x14" oil on canvas. She'll be for sale at Anxiety Gallery in Madison, WI for the "Tattoo Show" with a book signing by Mitch O'Connell.
My newest gal. I don't know what happened, but layers of different pink colors just kept getting laid down until it became outrageous...
Lady Delphine of Dogole (1596 - unknown )
Charming, delicate and imaginative, she was described by her brother, a
prominent Earl, as the richest and stupidest girl to ever hail from
Dogole. When the nuns gave up on her convent education and sent her
home, she stopped in a port town to shop and see the 'pretty ships'. It
was there that she met a pirate captain; not realizing she had been
kidnapped she then married him at sea and unwittingly, funded his crew
for years after being told they were freedom fighters. After the death
of her husband, she gained control of his fleet only to lose it in a
South Pacific storm during her expedition to find Candy Apple Island.
It is believed the sea chanty 'Ditzy Dame of Dogole' was inspired by
her.
I've also added the short biographies finally to the newer portraits on my website a while back: www.ArabellaProffer.com family trees and all that will come eventually...eventually.
Bitter-Girl reminded me of what a strange night Friday was. Getting a few back-handed compliments about the show from a guy that looked homeless, and some dude making a big production of how the gallery was making money off him because he dropped a dollar in the donation jar and he knows how much a case of Black Label costs and we should be thankful. Class-ay!
I think I weirded out some guys when they went into a discussion about Harry Potter (they said I should take JK's place in fiction since she's done with the Potter books) so I of course told them all about the Alan Rickman as Snape fan art, which then led to the art Star Trek fans do that is also of a sexual nature. Remember the scene in the documentary "Trekkies" when Brent Spiner pulls out some fan art of his character Data getting it on with Tasha Yar? I find it fascinating, sorry if it is inappropriate cocktail conversation.
But the funniest part was the dead silence both myself and pal Shannon created in a conversation by waiving our "History Dork!" flags. When discussing these fake histories of my portraits, we got into some of the horrible and weird deaths of royalty that have really happened. Such as, getting a hot poker up the butt, dying from a monkey bite, and exploding in a casket during a funeral procession. While one person found it funny, and we thought it awesome, I think the rest of the group just didn't know what to say -- let alone was wondering how the conversation turned to bizarre horrible deaths of aristocrats.
Hey, I thought it was pertinent to the topic at hand; I've modeled all my bios for my paintings of anything I've read about royalty, aristocrats, social elites and so forth, and if there is one thing I've learned it is that nothing is ever all well and good for these people. Monkey bites, disease, infidelity, hunting accidents, assassinations, amputations, insanity, poisoning, illegitimate children up the wazoo, murder, bankruptcy, becoming a recluse, being married to a homosexual or lesbian, having a daughter that is a obsessed with Hilter, having an angry mob fuck up your property....you get the idea. But they had some really nice clothes, and some fabulous homes now didn't they?
If you taught kids in history classes more about the weird and gruesome stuff, maybe they'd be more interested, and people like me wouldn't get strange "neeeeeerd!" looks for bringing it up. Well I'm sorry, go ahead then and turn around, continue talking about your i-pods or whatever.
Well I must have a had fun, because my memory is really foggy. I'm just trying to remember what I was supposed to do with all these business cards. Eh. It'll come back to me.
My brother drove up all the way from N. Carolina! As well as several friends who drove a long ass time to make it out, very nice. And although I had to compete with a baseball game, we were lucky to have a huge TV in the gallery lobby to appease the art-sports fans. My invite should have said "we got the game!" but no matter, we'll be having a closing reception Friday the 2nd for your viewing pleasure if you missed last night. This time I think I'll lay off the champagne -- that stuff is like yummy boozey soda pop to me.
It was funny, at first I wasn't sure I would do full on biographies for my portraits. I like it when people can make up their own stories as it would seem more fun and less confining, right? Well the bios were the biggest hit. People kept grabbing copies and were running around trying to match up which was related to which, they held on to them a keepsakes and all wondered where the heck I came up with this crap? A few people told me it made the exhibit more fun and involved. Neat!
Here's some photos I took with my crappy camera at the beginning of the night, more on the way from other photographers that came...
as far as I know at this point, my next Cleveland exhibit will be on view during this years Bazaar Bizarre. But if you are in Dallas or Atlanta later this month, I'll have a few things going on. Check the site for details.
Guess what tonight is? My showy-poo!
After almost two years, an impaled right hand (that I stupidly kept painting with), a herniated disk in my back and tons of costume and peerage research -- this thing is done baby. Over 30 works on display, and it looks pretty cool I think. I'll continue this series for sure, but I'm just glad to have this particular bulk out of the way.
I'm still cracking up about the president of the Portrait Society of America calling to tell me I will probably get sued by the National Portrait Gallery in DC for my show title because of copyright infringement. I asked how on earth they could hold the copyright for all National Portrait Galleries in the world? She kept saying they didn't, so therefore, I told her I can't be sued. I don't think she was understanding anything I said about it, or understood the question in the first place. Being that mine is a fake country anyways it wouldn't matter. Besides, first thing I think of is the National Portrait Gallery in London, not the one in DC. So I called them up, and a lawyer, they both assured me as long as my show title didn't have "Smithsonian" in it, I'm clear. How nice the PSA did their research before calling and stressing me out. I don't think I'll be renewing my membership to be honest. They seem to hate mannerism and never bothered publishing the exhibit in the newsletter, for fear of being sued too I'm sure. But I thought it would be really cool if they did sue me over a stupid art show title.
So if you are in the Cleveland area, you can come and drink and look and buy and all that stuff. It'll be a good party if anything else...
Three more portraits are now available as digital prints through my website: http://www.arabellaproffer.com/arabella/sale.html
$25.00 each, which includes shipping.
