New Work! Continuing on the Labors

I'm finally finished with The Labors of Hercules Series! YAY!!! Now here comes the important part YOU ALL have to come join me for the "Nailed" opening at BWAC this Saturday (May 8th) at 1pm. 499 Van Brunt Street (right near Fairway by the Water Taxi in Redhook Bklyn)

You'll get to see the Labors Series, some black and white photographs as well as some other works on wood that were hand picked by the BWAC curators. I was initially only supposed to get one panel but they liked my work so much they asked me to bring in a variety of other work and now I definitely have 3 panels and possibly one more.

I'm really excited, and I worked my butt of the past couple of weeks preparing for it, so without delay here's a preview of the new works that'll be up in BWAC's "Nailed" show:

This is titled "The Return of Persephone: The Advent of Spring" This is not a Labor of Hercules but is in the same vein as the Labors series as well as the "Fall of Icarus," being that this too is a Greco-Roman myth. Oil an Shellac on Wood, 4x4.

"The Girdle of Hippolyta" The ninth Labor. Gesso and Oil on Wood, 4x6.

"The Nemean Lion II" The first Labor. Oil and Shellac on Wood, 8x10.

"The Cattle of Geryon" The tenth Labor. Oil and Shellac on Panel, 5x5

The whole wall, 2nd floor on the right hand side.

Finishing up the Labors Series for BWAC

I have off work tomorrow, and I’ve promised myself to work on a couple of things. As some may know, my dad and I are in the process of building an art studio space in the basement (where the darkroom used to be) so I can finally have a place to work. It’s almost done, I still need to transfer a lot of stuff from my room and give the new space a quick clean but I’m going to try to accomplish this in the morning.

There is another reason I’m anxious to start working again. I’ve joined BWAC (finally) and am going to be featured in their show in May. I’ve decided I’d like to display my Hercules series, which as of yet is still incomplete. So I have to get my arse in gear to finish off the series. I have an idea or two for the remaining 2 paintings. I’d also like to make a Nemian Lion II because I am no longer in possession of the first one. So that brings up the total to 3 paintings I have to finish before the second week of May. I think I can do it; I tend to work better under a deadline anyway.

I also plan on making a book for a special lady I know who gave me an awesome gift the other day. I think it’s going to be classic cinema themed basic sketchbook/notebook. The cool idea I had was that it would have random interwoven images of such classy folks as Lauren Bacall, Bela Lugosi and Gregory Peck. I’m not exactly sure how I’ll go about making this, but I’ll figure it out. Is it too much to put in a few Cinema quotes as well? Is that lame and dorky?

So looks like I’ll be a busy lady. My family’s also plans on taking a vacation in Barcelona for two weeks in the middle/end of May. I’m super psyched about that. I’m second guessing purchasing a scanner and might opt for giving my self a camera for my birthday. I can’t do much with a new scanner in Barcelona and all my film cameras are either busted or too archaic to use for tourist-ing. So hopefully I’ll have lots of new work to show everyone in the next month or so, painting, photo and book stuff!

Here are some random images, figure drawings and sketches from MICA years past and of course my Lauren Bacall woodblock print from LaG.

The Labors of Hercules

These images are from my series “The Labors of Hercules” which was also a part of my Senior Thesis. This series basically took similar ideas from the “Family/preservation of Heritage series” (tradition, cultural values, etc.) and made them more focused on cultural identity as opposed to personal identity. The pieces depict the individual labors in a very simple way, the slaying of the creatures or the action of the labor is not shown directly but I wanted the observer to understand as much of the myth as possible without the paintings being overly explicit or literal. The order of the images is actually backwards because the Lion is supposed to be first and Cerberus is last.

Cerberus- Spray paint and acrylic on panel.
The Cretan Bull- Gesso and pencil on wood.
The Stymphalian Birds- Oil, tin foil and shellac on wood.
The Golden Hind- Spray paint, pencil, acrylic and shellac on wood.
The Nemean Lion- Oil and shellac on wood.

On a different note, I'm trying to figure out why my default language/type on this blog is Hindi...
व्त्फ़? = WTF?