Feeling a little bit of spring on it's way yesterday. It's making me think about yellow and black, bumblebees to be exact! Here's a little tableau of some of my bee related objects. I sometimes see myself as the Queen bee, stinging people with my tattoo needles.
02/24/2012
02/23/2012
02/19/2012
02/18/2012
Sweet Thing
All you girls who won the contest, I just wanted to let you know that I sent your packages out on wednesday. Please drop me an email or a comment when your package arrives.
02/15/2012
02/14/2012
Happy Valentine's Day
"Be All Mine" is the title of my friend's CD. We worked on this together last year, but they decided not to use it. Which one do you like better?
02/13/2012
Old Book
I've had this book for ages. I bought it mostly for the cover art by Ronald McRae. The story is light and funny about a clumbsy NY writer who finds himself Hollywood's darling. Inside in the list of other books by Carl Van Vechten, I found that he wrote The Tattooed Countess. I found a copy, but was disappointed that the cover didn't look like this one. Maybe I'll do a tribute image of how I image Ronald McRae would do.
02/12/2012
Hugo Cabret
Another magic moment on the first of January was going to see the new Scorcese film, Hugo Cabret. I was delighted to discover they had made a film from this graphic novel that I enjoyed so much. I found the book, written by Brian Selznick while searching for George Melies DVDs on Amazon. The story is based on a lot of real events and people from the era I adore in Paris "La Belle Epoque". The old Gare d'Orleans which is now the Musée d'Orsey. The huge clock that is still there. The train accident where a train crashed through the walls and landed outside the building. The sad destiny of George Melies, an artistic genius who lost everything and ended selling toys out of a stand at said station. All weaved together to tell a fictional story about romantic but demoded, abandoned marvels.
That was probably the best day of 2012 (already!) and now that I survived last thursday which will probably go down as the worst day of 2012, I think I can look forward to a mild rest of the year!
Please go see the film, it is really swell!
02/11/2012
Tattoo Furniture Part 5
Power Unit box by Don Chuck Carvalho.
See that "Done with Electricity"? That means this is a battery pack, supposedly the best, smoothest power you can use for tattooing. I used to work that way, but my unit was enormous and no good when I was moving around so much.
This was custom made for Thom Butler.
02/10/2012
Deyrolle 181 Year Old Taxidermy Store in Paris
Deyrolle 46 rue de Bac Paris 7th arrondisment
Many people are opposed to taxidermy. I feel kind of ambivalent about it. All I know is that as an artist, I find it incredibly inspiring. All the colors and expressions. The animals stand still as if to pose for my painting.
Paleontology and it's grand era are a great sorce of fascination and ideas.
Deyrolle is a beautiful shop and you just want to stay a while, maybe have a cup of tea and fill a sketchbook. If you're ever in Paris, you should go check it out.
