Corpse Flower

+Click image to enlarge.

I love carnivorous plants. Particularly of fascination to me is the stinky Corpse Flower. One recently bloomed here in Southern California at the Huntington gardens and, of course, I was out of town when it happened.

I chose a Venus-inspired portrait for the figure.

The painting will be available at the group show at Jonathan Levine gallery on August 5th.

Corpse Flower
11 x 14 inches
Oil on Wood


+Click image to enlarge.

Beach Blanket Bingo @ Jonathan Levine 8/5

I have a painting in the upcoming group show at Jonathan Levine Gallery.

Beach Blanket Bingo - A Summer Mixer
Group exhibition featuring work by over 30 artists
Aug 5 thru Aug 22, 2009
Opening Reception - Wednesday, August 5th 6-8pm

Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10011

Ana Bagayan
Glenn Barr
Ray Caesar
Dave Cooper
Xiaoqing Ding
Meredith Dittmar
David Ellis
Ron English
Natalia Fabia
Korin Faught
AJ Fosik
Andrew Foster
Rick Froberg
Matt Haber
Logan Hicks
Seonna Hong
Alex Hornest (Onesto)
Rich Jabocs
Anthony Lister
Jack Long
Cleon Paterson
Scott Radke
Erik Mark Sandberg
SKINNER
ELBOW-TOE
TURF ONE
Nicola Verlato
Adam Wallacavge
Martin Wittfooth
Dan Witz

John Purlia's Collection

Sour Harvest just did an interview with collector John Purlia and posted pictures of his collection hanging on the walls of his home. I must say this is the most creative way my work has been displayed :)


The Irrationality And Inevitability Of Being A Puppet, 2004

You can see all of John's collection as well as his photography at his website.

New Print

Print will be available Thursday, August 13th.



Silence
Edition of 50
Image size is 15 x 20 inches with 1 inch white border
Archival pigment inks on 308 gsm Hahnemuhle paper
$75 + shipping

I will be giving two prints away to two randomly selected people that donate to Lunch Bunch. The selected people will be announced on July 25th and will receive the print shortly after.

Venus

*Update - Sold

Venus and her Fly Trap
Graphite on Rives BFK
5.5 x 7.5 inches

Available at my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6501951


+Click to Enlarge

Insights

I answered some questions for the Insights section of the CommArts website. My answers are kinda silly, but check it out here. Ara will be on it next week too!

Flashback

Today, I was thinking about the evolution of my shows, and where I want to go from here. In the past year my paint goal has been to learn to paint things outside of my comfort zone. I'm still using the similar themes and subjects, but my paintings are large scale (up to 30x40") and stylistically less exaggerated than the previous years in terms of facial features, animals, colors, landscaping, etc. I'm only on the third painting for my show at Roq la Rue in October, so we will see how the pieces unfold in the next few months.

The following images are the the paintings I chose to represent each show from the past five years.


Esther from my 'Orphan' show at Billy Shire Fine Arts, March 2009 (Not to be confused with the upcoming movie entitled Orphan starring a character named Esther.) This show was portrait-based because I wanted to focus on painting the face, which I felt was a weak area for me. This was also the first time I tried painting large, and loved it.


From my 'Mother' show at Billy Shire Fine Arts, April 2008. This show focused on animals and a more desaturated color palette than the previous years.


From my 'There, There' show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, September 2006. The theme I chose for this show was healing.


From my 'Clubhouse Machination' show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, April 2006. I was freshly out of school and the imagery was based on the Soviet-influenced school books I had when I was going to school in Armenia in 1990. I also exhibited some illustration work.

Feed My Pets!

These are just too adorable!

Process

It's been a while since I posted a process animation. Most of my paintings lately have been too large to scan during the painting stage. However, I was able to fit the majority of this painting into my scanner. You can see the Dali skull on the moth change between image two and three. There was just too much detail to fit into a quarter of an inch so I painted a more realistic skull.

This painting will be in the Crazy for Cult show at Gallery 1988 on July 16th.


Click image to enlarge.

And the full image:


Click image to enlarge.

Silence
Inspired by the Silence of the Lambs movie poster.
18 x 24 inches
Oil on Wood

Starlet

Here is my painting for the Monster? show opening this Saturday. It is based on how people with deformities in the 'freak show' days were referred to as monsters. Her name is Starlet.

Starlet
9x13 inches,
Oil on Wood
She is framed in an oval black moulding.


Click image to enlarge.

Monster?
Curated by Travis Louie

Copro Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Complex
2525 Michigan Ave. T5, Santa Monica , CA 90404
Ph: 310/829-2156
web site: www.CoproGallery.com

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 11th, 8:00–11:30 p.m.

Artists
Audrey Kawasaki, Isabel Samaras, Ana Bagayan, Tiffany Liu, Ron English, Jessica Joslin, Vincent DiFate, Miles Teves, Chris Ryniak, Amanda Visell, Dan May, Brian Despain, Kris Kuksi, Chet Zar, James Zar, Mari Inukai, Nouar, Dan Quintana, Brom, Dave Chung, Vince Natale, Mark Garro, Kirk Reinert, Mark Elliott, Attaboy, Annie Owens, Vince Nguyen, Peter Nguyen, Robert Mackenzie, Mike Lee, Willie Real, Amy Botello, Donato Giancola, Davey Wong, Fred Harper,Molly Crabapple, Jason D'Aquino, Francesco LoCastro, Ekundayo, Deseo, Tristan Elwell, Stephen Hickman, Steven Ellis, Mark Texeira, Bob Eggleton, Clayton Stillwell, Bob Lizarraga, Bill Basso, Lola, Dave DeVries, Dice Tsutsumi, Steven Dailey, Tim O'Brien, Tessar Lo, Stephen Price, Jordu Schell, XNO, Genevieve Zacconi, Justin DeGarmo & others

Photo by Ara Devejian