My fun find of the week is My MiMi, a toy designer and illustrator, mimi, who had started her own small company and is now selling her products worldwide. she is definitely living a dream and i fell in love with her products instantaneously!


Check out these cuuuuuuuuute pillows!
















check her out at http://www.mymimi.com

i can't believe it is the 5th of November. Where the hell did 2009 go? and I have to admit, it has and still is very crazy. The energy swirling this year has both been blessed with triumph as well as socked with heartache. How many celebrities died this year? How many couples broke up? How many beautiful babies were born this year? How many unions have been made?


I'd like to say that i have done a lot this year. I have. But at the same time, I haven't done much as well. I had this weird artist block for a good number of months. I started questioning the skills. I guess I got too comfy at the day job, and so focused with painting that i let the other skill slip just a tad. I thought the years meant that you build your arsenal of knowledge.


well, it is. and the one hump i had to get over is fear and all of its different forms, which includes insecurity.


there is something unnerving about always showing the tickings of your heart. when you are an artist, ideally you write, compose, paint, draw, design, what is inside of you. it's not all about pleasing the masses or making a dollar. sure i would love to live off my art but at the same time, how much of your process, your life experiences, your joy as well as your healing can even have a monetary value? it's all balance i guess.


well, in case you are wondering, i am painting still.. and i am designing again. and i am expressing positive emotions such as love, determination, and compassion. trying to put the warrior in me aside.. not in the back burner, but next to me so that we can make more beautiful magic.

Aesop Rock is down with Jeremy Fish

dopeness

"These sneakers are so dang girly, instead of insoles, they have sanitary pads."- Manila Ryce






a friend of mine gave me three Nike sneakers to freak - one being his, one being his friend's, and one being for my self. he also lent me paint to paint the sneakers how ever way i want to paint them.



and how it often happens, i froze.



i work well under pressure. often times TOO well. to the point that the only way i can get shit done is to light a fire underneath my ass fueled by stress and catalyzed by procrastination.



but as i was thinking (and affirming) to myself last night, time is too damn precious and valuable to be procrastinating and sit in a pool of fear. i can't say i am scared of a lot of things, but the one thing that scares me is not being able to do all the things i want to do with this life. i don't want to wait around. i don't want to have the attitude that i deserve something and that it should be handed down to me. i don't want to keep saying "tomorrow." i don't make excuses and i don't take them either.


but like art making, and writing, and working out, and with everything, it is all a process... and i need to learn how to love it.

Three Apples Crunch...

i absolutely had a grand ole time at Sunday brunch with the girls at Royal T. I still have tons of photos to post up but I had to put this one up. KayaBear and I were ecstatic to be there. Knife-weilding Malcolm, ehhh, not so much.. in fact, he told me in the car:

"auntie alfie, thomas the train HATES hello kitty."

wooooo,was he mad at being there. but when the waffles came out, he surrendered to the sugary goodness, enough to surpass the fact that they were hello kitty shaped.

just tell him he's a godzilla eating a plate of decapitated hello kitties. he was fine with that.

happy 35th bday, HK!

You Want to Be Starting Something" Group Artshow at Beatrock Long Beach

Michael Jackson's passing has affected most of us in different levels and angles. One friend put it eloquently, "Despite of the last crazy 15 years of his life, his music has been with me through out my life. There was a Michael Jackson song in every milestone of my life."


I too found that true. Though he never saw this side of the television reflection, I saw him grow up, get married, get divorce, have children, battle trouble, gather himself to prepare for the biggest comeback, only to leave this realm in a grand exit, synonymous to the energy he graced the stage. We will always remember where we were when we found out the news.


It is only fitting that we paid tribute to our icon. Regardless how we felt about him towards the end, we all felt something for him. So with that, Beatrock held a King of Pop themed art show

Jerrell Conner- Prints Available (Small for $25, Large for $50. Printed on watercolor paper and each numbered, signed, and customized.)


Manila Ryce, Original, Framed Watercolor on Paper


Mike Virata, Acrylic on Canvas, Not for Sale (this baby belongs to me!)


Aidger34, Mixed Media on Canvas, "You Ain't Shit If You Haven't Died in the 09"


My Submission, "I'm Asking Her To Change Her Ways."


Stuter, Mixed Media


Timoi, Michael's Gift


Feliciart, Portrait, Canvas Print, $500


Arty Perez, Watercolor on Paper, framed, $150


Arty Perez, Watercolor on Paper, Framed, $150


Arty Perez, Watercolor on Paper, Framed, $250


In typical stuter fashion; all last minute. lol


Animator/Illustrator/Artist Anthony Montemar and a really really cool shirt


Anthony being stalked by Nic Cowan, Animator/Artist/Designer


Manila Ryce, David Araquel, and Matt Nailit


Noel and DJ Phatrick


at the end of the night, Nina gets tired and she becomes my legwarmer


Rising Suns, Josh and Jay Jimenez... a force to look out for


Lainey and Dave of Beatrock. oh and Brodee too =)


Jerrell Conner enjoying a plate of the Park's FInest


vennie of beatrock and me.. thank you for letting me curate another show =)


yet another lovely show at beatrock.

Lomography Part 2:

i just got word from the West Coast Regional Manager of Lomography that they are FINALLY going to be opening a Los Angeles store. i am soooo happy!

this year, i have learned the concept of detachment. i have lost a harddrive. i have accidently reformatted a card and lost pictures in my memory card. i have been tested in the idea of trying to keep to remember the memories with other ways such as writing about them, or drawing the visuals.

but let's face it, the bottom line is that i WISH i had a copy of them, and better yet, i wish i had a print out of them.

and that is what the hidden beauty behind shooting with film: you are forced to develop the film in order to see the imagery. you actually have a hard copy of the picture; something tangible in between your fingers; a memory with atoms for a person to keep for a moment time. not just a bunch of nothingness forming a jpg that is passed along computer to computer.

here are some more pics i took with my Lomo Fisheye. the model is nina m., 4 years old, having fun with my animal masks.







I can't wait for the store to open in LA in December. In a city sprawl expanding wider than the eye can see, resides some of the most creative souls in the city of Lost Angels. One more outlet IS needed.

in pursuit of happiness

i realize that it's the little things. it's being able to share a laughter with out typing "LOL" and really hearing bellies fill with air, exhaling in a fit of giggles.

that happiness is being able to make eye contacting and utilizing muscles in the neck for you to look forward, and not bent down on it's pivot, eyes strained at, thumbs punching delayed thoughts, with words precipitated to it's basic form to initiate a pseudo real time conversation.

and to share moments like these:


Adam's Going Away Party

our friend adam has been signed up for adventure: he's been hired as their head special effects guy for Lost and has re-located to Hawaii til they close out the season.

i hate goodbyes, but booooooy, do i love see-ya-laters!


Rani D.'s night "Soul in the Park" at Footsie's


On Figueroa and 28th Street



We are a motley crew of sorts



maya and adam


pic by maya


what? water can pass for vodka tonics


the boys didn't understand why i took a pic of their bottom half... it was an interesting shot =)


patrick is not a believer but soon he and others will be glad that someone had a camera


good luck, adam!!!!

Detail of collab with my 4 year old godson, malcolm.

you try.

you try to romanticize the a painting session with a young child, thinking how you can paint in harmony, bouncing off energy, and just bonding with the child.

instead the conversation goes something like this:
me: MALCOLM! you painted over my bunny rabbit. why did you do that?

malcolm: why are you throwing a tantrum, auntie alfie?

me: uhhhh. no. i don't throw tantrums. now kids like you, you throw tantrums.

malcolm: no, you were throwing a tantrum. i thought you like painting with me, auntie alfie. i thought that's what you want.

grrrrrrr.

Approach each job like it's a thankless job, and then do just do it. And if they do say "thank you" recognize it and say you're welcome. You shouldn't be doing things for the glory anyways.

Find solace in the idea that not everybody can stare into the light for too long. For those who do recognize it, they shine with you.