Defenestrate, Delusional, Deranged

Five Ways to Exit a Window (Defenestrate, Deranged, Delusional)
photo collage, acrylic, ink on paper
7"x11"

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Once upon a time, a man lost his mind.
He threw himself out a window because he thought he could fly.

That's pretty much the story behind this one. I imagined someone being really disillusioned and just losing it; the illustration literally expresses his "downward spiral". Although the act itself is pretty violent, I was fascinated by the different ways that the human body could fall through the air. It's so unnatural for us to not be on the ground, and to see a person above your head free falling 10 feet above you is just not a normal sight. Gravity is crazy. Someone please give that word to me when I ask for G!

:)

Give me a word or phrase that starts with the letter E.

In other news. Paintbyword.com and the two-day illustrations will be on hold for a couple days while I make my way down to LA this weekend to handle apartment stuff..My lease is ending in that grimey place, thank the lawd. Come Tuesday I'll be cranking the art out like crazy. Also after Tuesday I'll start working on a cooler layout for this blog, this thang is soooo temp, something I put up just to get started. But I can't stand looking at it any longer.

Dookie Booty

Does anyone remember that song? hah. That word just happened to come out of my mouth earlier. Anyway I'm sorry for lagging on the updates -- I've been wanting to update everyday but summer school is kicking my ass. I thought I was done with all my GE requirements a looong time ago, and it turns out I still had two more classes to take care of. Dammit. After tomorrow though, I'll be done with my last final and it will be allllll goood. Well, until summer's over. :( Then I go back to LA and tough it out for about two more quarters. Damn. I'm about to be a graduated woman!! Oh how I wish I could ride on my parent's dime without any real responsibilites for a few more years. Maximize the fun times. T-t-totally duuude ('party like a rockstarrr').

Anyway. I picked my next bunch of words: Defenestrate, Deranged, Delusional. Mmm sounds fun right? I'm excited to get it done. You'll probably see it up sometime tomorrow.

Thanks to Kimmy, one of my favorite girls Fong, and to Fatherg for the words. Love love love.

donkey, dirty dreams, dirty dancing, delusional , determine, deranged, derogatory, desire, duh, dubious, ditzy, dirty, dang, damp, dipstick , delusion, damn dummy, detoured, diabolical, diffract, dookie, destroy, deploy, depart, design, desire, desprate, desert, door, drag, designate, delicious, device, disc, disaster, dodge, derail, decide, detective, despair, data, disable, direct, devotion, diary, diamond, diameter, different, digital, diffuse, diet , dehydration, debussy, dayglo drama, dandelion decay, dilapidated, dexterity, disillusion, disenchantment, durability, defenestrate, delinquent, desperate, denial, defenseless, depressed, doh!, distressed, dependent, distinguished

My word power is becoming so much more..powerful.

In other news. Something amazing I stumbled upon today. WALLSPANKERS. It's an international sticker swap/graffiti community that drops an E-zine four times a year. The idea is to print out the e-zine onto sheets of Avery sticker paper, and just slap the damn thing all over town. You'll be helping to spread art to places that wouldn't normally be reached. And even if you don't go that far as to print the stickers, the zine is still fun to look at.

Control

Constant Control
Digital illustration

This time I used two words: "constant" and "control". At first glance it may look more like 'Chaos'. That's because when I thought of 'control', I thought of my fear for the lack of it. I'm the kind of person that needs to have everything in control, and in every sense of the word--physically, mentally, emotionally. I need to have everything laid out, planned out, and writing to-do lists are a constant habit. My mind goes everywhere at once; drugs scare me, not just because of their physical effects, but under the influence I might just lose my mind. (I know. I'm nuts, hah.) Rational thinking keeps me in constant control, and I truly envy and admire free-spirited people who don't feel limited by social constructs and convention.

The image is a photo collage of security cameras, which are meant to keep everything in control. They function to watch over specific areas, to avoid problems and tresspassers. Being under constant surveillance (or constantly surveying) could create much more anxiety than comfort, like their functions would suggest.


Thanks to Christina and my cousin Eric for giving me the word. :)

Other words I got:


caboose
craving
constant
celibate
clue
collaborate
convinct
cauliflower
cube
cranberry
cake
crunchy
crusty
crazy
creativity
chuck norris
cataclysm
cremation
compassion
culminate
catalyst
catharsis
courage
catastrophy
capillaries (i really wanted to do this one too, I think I will later)
callous
clever
charming
communicate
cronic
crypt
creep
control
carnival
collide
crave
carved
cavern


Give me a word that starts with the letter D.



And since we're talking about words here, please go visit my homegirl Chris's site here. She has some beautiful poetry on there, and if you have any sort of talent with the written word than you should consider submitting something over to her now!

Bothered

Bothered
acrylic and spraypaint on paper
7.5"x11"

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Maybe it's just my dirty mind, but as soon as I saw the word, I immediately thought of the phrase "hot and bothered". I thought of a fidgety, anxious girl overcome by desire, and topped off with messy sex hair. Rawr!!. Through the texture I wanted to show her literally melting into the page.

Here's how I first sketched it out in my sketchbook:

Shane

Meet my girlfriend Shane. :) Random post, but I looove Kate Moennig aka Shane on the L Word. That is all.

B is for Biiitch PLEASE

The word I chose: Bothered

Other words that were sent to me:
blackout, bewildered, Benediction, Benumb, Bewitched, basilisk, burlesque, bothered, bombast, brightness, bridge, burn, burst, bliss, boundaries, belief, beauty, blank , bella, BYAH!!, Blatant, barbaric, beautiful, bachelor, bored, bachata, blue, bleach, blonde, belle, blood, bondage, bond, bald, bull, breach, breed, banshee, blasphemy, bigotry, building, belong, be, bright, bond, bridge, blow, bring, beast, breeze, barnacle, bane, blanket, baffoon, baboon, bengay, banal, body, bulb, bandaid, broken, blast, belate, beget, baggage, brain, beside, bed, breast , brand, broke, broom, band, blend, bravery, bigotry, blasphemy, bliss, balance, blessing, blood, barbarism, belief, (to) be/being, betrayal, brutality, bomb, bible, breath, bizzare, baby, blight, beauty, blow, bird, bona fide(s), bride, barren, beatnik, bum, brother, brotherhood, blue, bust, blunder, boldness, battered, bipolar, bruise, bad, business, brazenness, bellicism, blank, blemish, broken, breakdown, blurry, blot, black, bereavement, blaze, bounce, bestiality, buried, band, beacon, bogus, bondage, bitch

Holy sheeeet. I got so many words this time. I decided that as a thank you, I'm sending a small something to whoever sent me the chosen word. Soo thanks Tania.

And to all you other creative people reading: if you want to get in on this, make a small piece based on the word BOTHERED and I'll post it up on here. Just send to me before Thursday at 11 am PST.

In other news. July 27 marks an important day this month: The Simpsons movie comes out. And Daft Punk will touch down from space at Berkeley's Greek Theatre. Heeyylllllllll yes. I plan on watching the movie, then turning into a robot at the concert later that night.

Last week I went to visit the Kwik-E-Mart over in Mountain View, a 7-11 turned into a Kwik-E-Mart as part of a Simpson's movie promo. I tasted the Squishee, which tasted like super artificial cake-flavored ice. Yum. We went there at 11pm, so by the time we got in there were no more Buzz colas, no more pink donuts, no more Krusty-O's. I would say the only good moment was pulling into the parking lot
and seeing the Kwik-E-Mart facade. I'm not sure what I should've expected going in, but the inside was kind of a let down. Even more of a let down when we headed to the laser tag place down the street that we spotted earlier in the night (they still exist?! that's what i was thinking too) and they told us the last game of the night started 5 minutes before. Boo.

Ambiguity

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Ambiguity
Acrylic and spraypaint on paper

She could either be a woman covered in a veil, or simply the wrinkled form on your bedsheets. Veils are meant to hide, to cover, and they literally make things unclear...

The Process

The beginning washes. Doesn't look so great.


Now that's more like it. :)


Blowdry that baby


Making the first markings with colored pencil


Just shadows


She slowly emerges


And there you have it.



Give me a word that starts with the letter B.

Dirrrtty Harry!

Ambiguity? I'm working on it. As for right now though, I happened upon these pictures of our beloved Harry Pawtuhh, or should I say Daniel Radcliffe, and they're quite disturbing. The first two are pictures from Details magazine. Photo #1 is adorable but the second one needs to go...He bears a striking resemblence to Southpark's Mr. Slave. Yuck. He's in the play Equus which is currently running in London, where he *gasps* smokes, and *gaspgasp* appears naked (with a horse, huh?) and has simulated sex on stage. ohemgee WTF. My image of Harry Potter is forever destroyed. Oh by the way, go see the new Harry Potter movie its amazing! Hah.

A is for Allison

Lalalala why am I not asleep? Everyone needs to watch Age of Love. That show is heyllla ridiculous. And that one chick Mary needs to stop crying already. I was obsessed with Flavor of Love. Still have yet to see Rock of Love. Yeah. I watch bad reality TV. But it's sooo bad it's delicious.

This is a small piece I did a few months ago. Purple Majesty - acrylic, spraypaint, ink.

So today I begin my Paintbyword project. How this will work:

1.) I will ask people to send me a word or phrase that begins with a certain letter

2.) Choose the one that strikes me the most

3.) Make a small piece of art (in any medium) based on my interpretation of that word

4.) Post the art up on here 2-3 days later, and include an explanation on the concept behind it.

5.) Keep doing the damn thing till I can't no mo'

I'm encouraging everyone to make art based on the same word that I choose. It's a good exercise to keep getting the art out, and if you send me your work in time, I'll post it up on here. I think it'd be cool to see everyone's different interpretations..

So naturally I begin at the beginning of the alphabet. I asked people on Myspace to send me any word or phrase that starts with the letter A. I got:

awe
achieve
aardvark
allure
anonymity
angel eyes
amazing grace
aphrodisiac
apologize
anger
apparatus
air
ambiguity
ability
abnormal
abstain
aching
alabama

The word I chose: Ambiguity

Here I goooooo

Quick update:

Non-registered viewers are now allowed to leave comments. :)

The City -- and why it's not for sale.

Skittle Joe's Goodtime Headquarters: The City. 9"x12" (my smallest piece). Acrylic, paint marker, colored pencil.

I'm really happy that this has become my most popular piece. There have been some people that have wanted to buy the original and I had to tell them it wasn't for sale. So instead, I offered it as a print.

The reason why I can't let it go is because it's such a personal piece. I posted the back story on deviantart.com and so I'll just copy and paste it here:

This is a self portrait of myself, dedicated to my late brother, Romeo, who was killed in a car accident at the age of 21 when I was 13. When I was young, around 9 years old, and my brother would come home from hanging out with his friends, curious me would ask "where were you?! Where did you go?" He would joke and say "Somewhere over the rainbow." I really thought he was serious, and he even promised he would take me there some day. As a kid I always imagined what that place 'over the rainbow' looked like, and I couldn't wait until the day I could finally see it for myself. This painting is a representation of that place that still resides in me.


If you'd like to order a high quality digital print, the dimensions are a huge poster-size 33"x44" and are $50 each + $10 shipping.

You can click the 'Buy Now' button to order.

Why I love/hate "street art"/low-brow

I absolutely love underground art. I was infatuated when I was a kid, and I still have drawings from when I was 5 when I tried to imitate graff block letters. Oh underground art. I love the colors, the vibrance, the grit, and the idea of pushing the institutional envelope, how underground art is changing the way fine art does business. But there's something, or well, some things that have been bugging me recently as I've been hitting up the LA and SF art show circuit.. And I was reminded of this when I read Jeff Soto's post on fecalface. One is the issue of creativity.

I'm really determined on making it in this industry, but I get discouraged when I walk into what I think is going to be a tight show and am let down by the multiple pieces of art that look strangely familiar--people are literally biting off other people's shit! And I wonder, really?, do I really have to make my work look like other people's in order to take mine to the top? But not only that, I'm talking about artists incorporating specific styles and artistic elements so that their work could qualify under the 'low-brow' category. At times I find myself making art based on this LIST of criteria, yet I don't want to have to follow any set of rules. It's frustrating, damnit.

What styles or elements am I talking about? Well...
-Robots
-Cutesy characters
-Blob monsters
-Hot chicks with long hair
-Thick lines, arrows
-Paint drips
-Stuff that looks incomplete/sketchbook style

And don't get me wrong. There are tons of artists that I really really like that use these types elements and their work is siiick. But when there's such a big repeat of the same kind of stuff, it's when I think that this genre is becoming a bit too faddish, like all-over print hoodies or emo kids with tight jeans. Who wants art with an expiration date?

Even more, where the art becomes a fad it loses meaning. I feel like a lot of the big art out there nowadays is either: cold, detached, humorous, ironic, or simply pretty. Where's the depth? Some art looks like it's ironic for the pure sake of being ironic. And of course your art show won't attract any attention unless it has an ambiguous name like "Hamburger Potato Face" or "Sandwich Memoirs"...hm, maybe I'm just hungry.

Art is supposed to be an avenue of expression, but what good is it when you're limited to the confines of a category, or the edges of a four-sided square?

That's part of the reason why I started this blog. Paintbywords is my new summer project, and my motivation to keep producing new work. I want to explore other areas of style and concepts and totally disregard any previous notions of what I think/thought art is supposed to look like, and just do the damn thing. My next post will describe in detail what the project involves so keep your eyes peeled..



And just so I don't leave you without any visual stimulation (since your eyes probably hurt from reading so damn hard), here's a piece I did two months ago for some music industry party:


And this is something small I also did a few months ago. It still needs a lot of work. I did it quickly, so I'm not sure if I like it.

Karaoke on drugs

Whoaa. I need to find this place. Painted mural karaoke rooms. Me, the bf, and some friends were supposed to go to some karaoke place in Berkeley last night but we were all pooped from day-long beer/food/bounce house madness (see previous post) and ended up napping for the longest time. I would've woken my ass up sooner if I knew the place looked anything like these rooms.

This was found from http://www.twiistup.com/blog.

Drama means nipples allowed

Oh man. I loved this. They Call me Drama


My buddy Chris had his 22nd birthday this weekend.. complete with a Purple Dragon bounce house, Betty Crocker funfetti cake, and goodie bags! I'm stealing his idea. Man. I outdid myself on the funfetti cake for sure. I want a Funfetti cake at my wedding.

Ok. On with the show. Here's another recent piece I did. The Conception of Bliss, 2'x4', acrylic, spraypaint, colored pencil on wood. I tried to make it my default on Myspace but it was taken down within minutes. Why? 'Pornography' isn't allowed on Myspace, apparently. For godsakes she doesn't even have nipples. And of course everyones knows, nipples = naked.

Bjork

This is also pretty old news, I apologize. It's just my way of making up for these past months that I was MIA. Anyway. I was in a Bjork poster contest on Imeem.com and... I won! :) The contest was to create a poster for her concert at the Shoreline amphitheatre. The winner won two tickets to the show, hotel stay, and two free flight vouchers. The awesome thing about it is that I only needed one of the flight vouchers since I was flying alone, so I'm trying to decide where to go with the other one. Any ideas? Also, 2,000 copies of the winning design were printed as limited edition concert posters. They are printed on high quality acid-free archival paper. I still have about 10 left, and since they were sent directly to me from Live Nation, I didn't have to tackle any crazy concert people to get them, meaning that they are still in mint condition. If you want one, they are $30, + $10 for shipping. Click the Buy Now button (I will take the button down if I run out of posters).

Re:mission

This is kind of old news, but I had a piece in the Re:Mission show at Thinkspace in LA. The proceeds of the show went to the Children's Hospital of LA. The title is "To the Rescue" and is 24"x24". It's mixed media on wood. More specifically: acrylic paint, latex paint, colored pencil, paint marker, spraypaint, and epoxy resin on wood. The original price is $500, but is being sold at a discount for $300. If you want it, contact Dzuy at dzuydoan@gmail.com.

Courtesy of Dzuy there were lots and lots and lots of pictures from that night. http://picasaweb.google.com/dzuydoan/ReMission2007_06_02



Me and Dzuy at the Re:mission show.

welcome

..to my brand spankin new blog and my first real post. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Allison. I'm 21. I'm an artist and a designer, I work in both traditional and digital mediums. Living in L.A. as a UCLA student (but at the moment I'm in the Bay Area for summer vacay and loving it). I'm Filipino American. Short as hell. Used to be a dancer. One of the ways I make money is through my stereotypical Los Angeles occupation--showbiz. I practice lucid dreaming. I love life. I love reading. I love history. I love Wikipedia. Whether or not Michael Jackson touched those boys, I'd rather not know because he is my numero uno favorite pop star, ha. If you had to ask, Bay Area vs. Los Angeles? Bay Area fasho. I like to chill very hard. I'm a snack person and I get excited at places like 7-11 and AM PM. I've been bit by a snake. I once had my neck/collarbone area pierced. I'm deaf in my right ear. I have psychic tendencies.

I made this blog to share art updates, sell work, show new pieces, and anything I damn well feel like posting. A lot of people have asked about when I'm going to update my site next, if I have any new artwork, etc., and making this blog is a way to get updates up a lot more frequently. Regular portfolio sites can be so static and only change once in a while when there's new art. Anyway. Thanks for checking this out and I hope that I can quench your blog-hungry thirsts in the future.