Untitled

uncovered this old sketchbook drawing. still like it

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:41:00 -0700

uncovered this old sketchbook drawing. still like it

new things in may

Fri, 11 May 2012 19:07:00 -0700

new things in may

BSDyAy!

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:43:00 -0800

Friends & Friends!

I’m pleased to be on BSDA (http://www.buysomedamnart.com/) this morning! This is a brand new enterprise from the wonderful curatorial-eye that created ArtHound (http://arthound.net/). You can be introduced to new artists and buy one-of-a-kind works — every single week.

get them while they’re hot!

This week meet Sara! (my interview):

Where are you from and where do you currently live?

Originally from deep in the heart (crotch area) of Texas - San Antonio, but now I live and work in Los Angeles, California. Both are underdog cities (which I like).

Tell us a bit about this series.

It all started around the simple concept of “masks”, but as I started working on it, I kept on drawing these saltimbanque (Picasso) like characters. so, these circus performers kept reappearing and I finally stopped fighting it, and let them in.

Who are the boys and girls in your portraits? are the drawings based on actual people?

This question made me smile. When I was a kid, my sister always asked me the same thing! They’re never anybody in particular. Just drawings I draw. Informed by everything i see, but conceived from my own brain.
I think it’s funny how no one asks this about someone’s drawing of a tree, “is this a tree you know?”.
Somehow, people want to attach a particular person to a drawing of a human image, but it’s the same thing you know, people and trees. You see so many in your lifetime, you know the willows from the oaks and you can recall them on command.

Any thoughts on our youth-obsessed culture?

I turned 30 this year and live in Los Angeles. It’s sometimes a frightening place - with so many people trying to run away from their aging selves (either in the way they dress, or injectables, etc). But it’s only frightening because they don’t realize it’s a facade they’re trying to hold on too so desperately.

On the other hand, some people wear that mask with such joy de vivre and good humour because they know and you know - it’s a mask. I think this is the secret, to why male transvestites seem to enjoy their sense of being a woman more than women do! We (women) just (falsely) take that mask for the real thing.

The truth is, no one really has a good idea of what they look like to other people (much less, to themselves) you can get a glimpse of people’s true selves every now and then when you encounter someone for the first time. But the shocking truth of that initial impression usually washes away quickly, after you start conversing with them, and all their self-monitoring and affectation distorts that first impression.

I think maybe our culture would be healthier if we all could stop trying to control our image so fervently. It’s so painful, to anyone with any sensitivity, to watch someone struggle to maintain a mask. Or maybe, if you do wear one - do so with a wink to the absurdity of it.

The yellow hue of the paper gives the drawings a unique look. why this particular kind of paper?

It’s a thin Japanse cotton paper. I like it because it’s so sensitive to every medium. Working on it with wet-media creates an impression on it, like a dried leaf from a tree. I like the materiality of it.

Can you name a few artist crushes?

Matisse for his reductionism
Jean Cocteau for his simplicity
Marie Laurencin for her femininity

What can’t you live without?

This is prob cheese, but other art & art makers that have come before me.

I know for certain, i would not have made it out of my teens, if it weren’t for other works of art, music, and literature that came and held my hand, like a guide, during those wilderness years. I think, during your dark hours it’s hard to feel like anything you do, matters at all. So it comes as strange consolation that the things, that really live and sing for me, have no utility. They don’t create food, or clothe, or shelter people. They just sing, and consequently, it’s precisely that uselessness that creates context and gives purpose to my existence.

30 60 90

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:27:00 -0700

i feel obliged to talk to my mom fairly often.
sometimes it’s a chore to get myself to talk, sometimes it all flows very easy.
and sometimes i’m struck still by her well-chosen words.

a few days ago, me and her were discussing my grandpa escamilla, who turned 90 this year.
i asked how his spirits were. my grandma died fairly recently, and as hard as it is for me to imagine being 90, it’s even harder to imagine being there without anyone by your side.

after listening to what i had to say, my mom said simply, “if you’re alone, you have to make friends with your solitude”

this made sense to me, as someone who highly values their alone time.
but when i thought about the negative idea of alone-ness, i realized i’m most frustrated when it disturbingly is able to find me even when i’m with someone i love. it’s probably a childish thought, but somehow i grew into an adult believing, that with your other was the one place alone-ness could be banished.

and surely, what right does it have to seep into the corners of the ficticious world created between our two minds?

but alone-ness pursues through life. and sometimes it’s a respite. and sometimes it leaves you locked in a glass coffin - able to see the world around you, but left enclosed with only the ability to react inwardly to yourself, and to see these reactions and your reactions to these reactions over and over cascading down, separated and reflecting all the faces and edges of its glass container.

i’m still.
the words come out of my mom so easily at 60-something, that i think, “maybe at 90 you’ll know every corner of your solitude”.
certainly, there is a other in the place where you think you’re alone.

make friends with your solitude wherever it finds you.

summer vacation

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:17:00 -0700

traveled back to texas this summer where the streets are filled with ipads

never had the chance to play with one up until then, so of course i had to do some drawings.
here’s two - my mater and fater

… i think they have a cocteau-y feel
anyway. hope you like them.

a bean, a zine, a time machine

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:53:00 -0700

Ms. Yasmine Tashk, invited me to participate in the 4th issue of her france based zine, KSAT
(still don’t know what the letters stand for). anyway.

this issue is a music themed one - involving musicians and artists in collaboration.
I got to choose a song (from a number of diff. bands) and based my contribution off of the music I found inspiring.

I chose, The Debutante Hour - Sunday in the Trailer
I didn’t know much about them, but I liked the sound and lyrics.
and I knew I chose the right band, cause i also loved their piece in the zine as well!
I posted both of our contributions (below).
but you can show your support for the entire project by purchasing it, here: http://ksat.fr/accueil.html

the greatest suicide note ever penned.

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:53:00 -0700

i don’t have any plans, per se… but just in case i accidently choke on a frito lay and die, please allow me to save face and say it was on purpose. furthermore, let this drawing serve as my official suicide note, if i should ever perish under any mysterious yet slightly humorous circumstances.
you can never be too prepared.

it's Danish!

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:22:00 -0700

i’ve been under a strange spell for the last 6 months and haven’t refused anything that has come my way.
one of those things was this -

several months ago, some danes saw my work, liked it, and asked permission to use one of my pieces in a textbook for dutch children in the netherlands. so, of course i agreed.

but it’s strange though, right?
the internet is a weird bridge..

i got a copy of the textbook in the mail, couple weeks back.
i can’t read it. but it seems interesting… and hopefully educational?

the very latest in old news

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 11:52:00 -0700

this came out a year ago (i know). but i hate tootin’ my own horn - plus, posting it here, counts as life maintenance so i wanted to get around to it, y’know.. never.

on a positive note. if you like art made out of paper, bound into a book made out of the same stuff, you’ll never find a finer publication.

besides, yours truly in here, there’s plenty of other talented artists to see.
especially (the cover artist) ana serrano.com who i might add, is a personal friend and a wonderful human being through and through, she is.
connie wong is another artist to look out for. hard to believe, she may be even more charming in person than her art even (which is pretty damn charming)

you can check us all out in your local grocer’s freezer (bookstore)

words are porous, and so are you

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:08:00 -0700

language is so precise
it’s like a sliver sharp knife
cutting reality up into little fragments we can play with

but it divides with a bias
and the parts tossed out in the scrapheap
are just as worthy of our attention

chi wah wah

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:59:00 -0800

the lady living in the front house has a shit ton of dogs
it’s possible she might be an animal hoarder
the sheer amount of chihuahua on the lawn boggles the mind

this will be waiting for my landlord:

supposing he makes it through the chihuahua gauntlet…

You're alive! and you're a terrible shot

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:06:00 -0800

remember me?

i’m the blogging equivalent of that really bad friend who never calls
(in addition to actually being that bad friend who never calls)

hopefully i’m here to stay. i got rid of shitty typepad and the ghost domain name - where i tried to pretend i wasn’t using a blog template. I did all this cause i wanted something more direct & simple, and let’s be honest, i could use the extra $11.99 a year. it’s godaddy, not gosugardaddy after all.

in the process of switching over, i lost all my comments. it’s regrettable. but not THAT regrettable. so, audience (read: family & random internet creeps) feel free to re-comment on any of those old posts. i wouldn’t begrudge the RIC’s that. they are my base.

so anyway. i don’t want to sit here all day talking shop. i’ve got some doozies for you.

the first one being a graphic design proposal for the Mass Transit Authority of the city of New York.
you didn’t know i was a designer?
well read, weep and repeat.

original design

inspiration

nothing except pure cold speed, dynamism & efficiency

action shot

that’s it. i’m wiped.

line and form

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:55:00 -0700

pictures of things to come

life is good in the greenhouse

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:54:00 -0700

don't aggregate, participate!

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:53:00 -0700

even though i frequent sites and blogs that gather content from across the internet, in general i’m against this trend of blogs becoming a compost of reposts and images gathered and culled from elsewhere in the interland. If you’re a thinking feeling person with a unique perspective, why not provide new creative content? and Furthermore, there’s so much crap floating around, what’s the use of having your own little plot of land if you’re just gonna use it as a billboard anyway?

i almost buy my own shit until i run across little sites like this: http://evencleveland.blogspot.com/

a beautiful little bloggy with a literary bent. makes me feel like i’m sitting down with a friend who has something cool to show me.

just so i’m not a total hypocrite…

maskies

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:53:00 -0700

I recently got the opportunity to make these huge masks for a Target commercial that just started airing May 2nd. if you don’t own a tv, you can still check out the spot here:

swimmy swim

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:50:00 -0700

some proper pics of the sculptures in the october 09 show

\/ | \/ | /-\ |\| /-\

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:46:00 -0700

me and some friends from work got together for a jam and fortunately, had the presence of mind to record what followed. also. thought i’d post this while i’m on a music post spurt.

this was recorded at the V I V I A N A house. anyway, here it is

Viviana

credits are as follows:

vocals - di stefano, bass - geisel, drums - mortensen, phonorgan - bustamante, kimball entertainer - combes, roland keyboard - ragle, percussion - escamilla & greene

erg

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:43:00 -0700

efforts and experimentations over the winter 010

Erg

featuring of course; escamilla, ragle, and geisel

friend of the month club

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:42:00 -0800

here are some homemade calendars that are pretty much useless but don’t they look cute?

it seems i don’t even have 12 friends to fill a whole year, so i’m thinking the rest of the months will be little kitties i’ve known