Dismantled.

All images via www.ffffound.com, they save more than I ever could.

Inspiration: Julia Pott's Heart and Art Donation

I was fortunate to meet the wonderful, lovely and talented Ms. Julia Pott while she was living/working in New York City this past spring. Julia is such an inspirational artist and person, I'm so lucky to have spent time with her while she was here. She's constantly busy with new drawings, new branding ideas, and new animation projects, I sometimes wonder when she sleeps! She is truly focused on her craft and her career is taking off quickly because of her extreme passion. Just when I think this little cupcake couldn't get any sweeter she is now working with the Kyrie Foundation donating artwork to pediatric brain cancer research. They are having an auction in November in Kansas City to raise money towards their $50,000 research grant. Any and all artists are invited to donate their artwork, seems like such a small token for such an amazing cause don't you think?

Here's some of Julia's Work for your viewing enjoyment! It's so adorable and amazing!
Julia's Etsy Shop
Julia's Website
and her amazing boyfriend Robin Bushell also a great animator!

Thoughts from a Hotel Room...

I will never love you more than the drummer of flaming lips
I will never love you more than Woody Allen movies
I will never love you more than the White album of the Beatles
I will never love you more than God only knows

I will never love you more than DVD night with my girlfriends
when we talk about stupid things like feelings and men
I will never love you more than my boyfriend when I was 14
Even if he's now an asshole, I will never love you more

And you say, you love me more than everything
And compared to me everything is nothing...

I will never love you more than meeting Paul McCartney
And we asked him to play a song on my Ukulele
I will never love you more than Scandinavian Tour
Which was more than paradise we shall remember it too

I will never love you more than dancing to Phil Spector
I will never love you more than my casio tone keyboard
I will never love you more than Daniel Johnston himself
For me he's more than God, I will never love you more

And you say, you love me more than everything
And compared to me everything is nothing

Ohh this is sweet, I just wonder what it means

You say you love me more, than all the girls you have before
Even more than music, even more than yourself
Even more than everything, but it's just a lie
So I will never love you more, than anything

I will never love you more than singing in the shower
I will never love you more than my Mac computer
I will never love you more than having a daughter
I will never love you more than peanut butter

I will never love you more than kisses all day
I will never love you more than cuddles all night
I will never love you more than kissing girls lips when they're really pretty

I will never love you more
I will never love you more

-Soko

Found Art: Christa Palazzolo

I stumbled upon Christa Palazzolo's work the other day and I was attracted immediately. She's an artist working in Austin, TX, who has a illustration driven approach to painting that's become rather popular over the past few years, with a photo realism quality to it. If I were a betting woman, I'd say one of her immediate influences is Wayne Thiebaud. He has similar ideaology behind his work as Christa, "Currently focused on using portraiture as a vehicle of mockery,isolation, discomfort, and objectification, she strives to confront formal aspects of painting with a contemporary voice and commentary." (taken from her artist statement).

Let's do a little comparison shall we...

Thiebaud's "Bikini" is about subtle objectification while Palazzolo's "Christa Lee" is much more blatent. "Bikini" is brilliant in that the woman is confronting the audience, wearing something that is so specifically meant for women it's undeniable objectification and her stance is not meant to provide sexual context. He's playing with the role of woman, much like a viewer at the zoo, you are seeing this woman as a object, a bikini's purpose is to cover female parts but leave as little to the imagination as possible. It's a clinical and factual interruptation.
"Christa Lee" has similar much more apparent forms of objectification, her battered face and bra worn on the outside of clothes is a forced role, her heels are too big, she's trying to fit into the role that has been assigned to her, a much more personal look into the idea of being a woman.
The thing I find most interesting about the two pieces is the idea of objectification coming from a male artist vs. a female artist.

Wayne Thiebaud's "Bikini" vs. Christa Palazzolo's "Christa Lee"

Inspiration: Pablo Neruda Poetry

Love Sonnet VII

Come with me, I said, and no one knew
where, or how my pain throbbed,
no carnations or barcaroles for me,
only a wound that love had opened.

I said it again: Come with me, as if I were dying,
and no one saw the moon that bled in my mouth
or the blood that rose into silence.
O Love, now we can forget the star that has such thorns!

That is why, when I heard your voice repeat
Come with me, it was as if you had let loose
the grief, the love, the fury of a cork-trapped wine

that geysers flooding from deep in its vault;
in my mouth I felt the taste of fire again,
of blood and carnations, of rock & scald.

-Pablo Neruda

You swallowed everything

I'm going through a lot of changes lately and the shift is welcome. Everytime my heart feels empty my soul feels full. It's like electricity pumping through me, pain awakens buried ambition. Back to my paintings, my ink, my pencils. I've missed them.
When I feel like this I like to look browse images of my favorite artists, muscians, objects and document them, they set the mood of my life.
This is the best way I can explain how I'm feeling.