Thursday, September 03, 2009

Girls, Girls, Girls (and Halloween)

Scott and I just wrapped up an art show. It was called "Art Remains" and it was a complete and utter failure. It's as if there wasn't art on the walls at all. I think it was the venue, personally. Just not a coffee shop people hang out in to consider ink and paint, arranged to form discernable shapes. Also, the staff was unhelpful enough that I will avoid said location from here on in, at least until those slack-jawed yokels go back to school and the place is re-staffed.

And is it too much to ask that the woman behind the counter shave her omnipresent and disturbingly prominant mustache? Is she aware of it? Is it something you bring up while ordering hot chocolate? And how would you broach such a topic? "Ma'am, are you going for a traditional handlebar or something more exotic?" That seems too severe.

Anyway. The point is, Art Remains underperformed. It's time to take a break from dinosaurs, folks. Bizarrely, nobody responds to them. A new subject is required. And, in fact, it will be required very quickly--we have been invited to partake in a Halloween-themed art show in...get this...an actual studio. The catch? We'll be in London for the better part of the month, so all of our contributions have to be out the door by the 15th. Well, I'm going to take the plunge. Scott still hasn't made up his mind, but I'm sure he can get one good piece ready by then.


For me, I can work on some art I've always meant to experiment with but haven't had the time or an excuse to do so. One of those subjects is pin-up girls. You see the first draft of one of a trio of pin-up girls I'm going to draw in Halloween garb. This particular vixen will be a succubus (plural, "succubi;" masculine, "incubus"). She'll have wings and horns and some kind of clothing (I haven't decided). She will also be in color, alongside two other gals: a harpy and Medusa. My reference for the succubus is Shannon Stewart, a.k.a. Ms. June 2000 (that's her centerfold). The face is my own design, with different bits taken from different Frank Cho faces, and I moved her inward angle of her back up. It looked somehow wrong in the centerfold.

I can't decide whether to make her wings outstretched or folded back. Outstretched would require a very long piece of paper, but it might make for a cool effect. And what should she be wearing? What do succubi wear?

The other two pieces will be Great Lord Cthulhu and...something else. I haven't decided. So that's what happin'in' kiddies.

4 comments:

Glendon Mellow said...

I know what you mean about lack of interest in all things fossil related. As I head back to school this fall for the first time in 12 years, I have to wonder whether the fine art world has the same mistrust and disinterest of science as before.

To bad about the show. Of course there'll be highs and lows, and nice to see you moving forward as always, Zach.

Nick said...

Maybe it's the way the material is presented.

Dicing with Dragons said...

"Maybe it's the way the material is presented."

Possibly. The bakery cafe is more a cafeteria atmosphere than a coffee-shop or the like. It's not necessarily conducive to viewing art.

Mad Marley Grey said...

It's going around, too. I've spent the past few summers as an instructor at my barn's day camp. We have a more-or-less standard set of lessons that we give once the kids are done riding - breeds, health, things like that. Usually the repeat instructors take the same lectures every year, but sometimes it just depends on who's there to be grabbed when the class starts.

So I got the 'History of the Horse' clipboard pushed into my hand for a couple of this year's sessions (which was not a problem, because I'm the resident paleontology fangirl - I'm more surprised that it hasn't happened before now). I figured the best way to snag the attention of a dozen little kids would be to use, "So! Who likes dinosaurs?" as a jumping-off point, and go on from there to explain how mass extinctions give rise to new critters, age of mammals, here come horses, blah blah blah. Because what elementary-school kid doesn't like dinosaurs, right?

These, apparently. ~_~ (And it wasn't just one group, either, nor did there seem to be any divide between the boys and the girls. They just...didn't care about dinosaurs. It was kind of shocking.)