Street Art and Chicago

I've actually been wanting to make a post like this for a long time. I initially got the idea from walking around my old neighborhood in Wicker Park and glimpsing all of the strange street art and graffiti on the sides of buildings. Alas, that neighborhood got really gentrified and I moved out and forgot about them. Fast forward five years and I'm spending nearly everyday in Pilsen at my boyfriend's house. This neighborhood is a hotbed of art and culture, from the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, to the building -side murals, and galleries full with Day of The Dead figurines. I feel as though I'm always immersed in interesting things when I'm strolling around. Below are some photos I've snapped of memorable Street Art pieces. Feel free to leave a comment on what you think. 

Creepy Pikachu....spotted this while walking Long 18th street.

Strange bionic woman giving a flower to a girl. This was posted on a pole outside of the Damen pink line stop.

This Gem of an image was actually found in Ukranian Village on the side of a restaurant. No doubt, this was a commission piece from a paid artist. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a photo with both Michael Jackson and Prince!

My boyfriend with Frank Sinatra and Mick Jagger, there were a lot of other strange celebrity pairings painted on this wall.

Also spotted in Ukranian Village.

This is actually from the inside of a bar that I went to Saturday night. I'm pretty sure it's Billie Holiday. The bar itself was really strange and we didn't stay very long. I felt like I had been transported to a John Hughes movie or some other rich kids vs. poor kids scenario.

Spotted at a bar called the flat iron in wicker Park. This is a close up of her face but the full sized image reveals she's some kinds of zombie Virgin Mary.

The final two images were seen near the Western pink line stop.

I love this drawing style and is gentleman's mustache.

It's been a while

I've decided that I need to commit myself to posting on a regular basis. I'm currently in a dry spell in which I've been working a really difficult, frustrating job, and not making things and I feel as though if I don't commit myself to producing more work, including updating my blog and website, then I might implode or drown. I've always been the type of person who's really hard on themselves and can't deal with difficult situations just by simply 'talking' through them...though that sometimes does help. I've usually had to write about it, mull it over, make something, and then do some crazy ritual dance around a fire to get all the negativity feelings out. 

For the longest time, I felt that life after college would be easy as pie. I absolutely HATE doing homework so I figured that would definitely  be the bright side to post -graduate life...and it is...coupled with the fact that I don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn and trek down to school every single goddamn day. The down side is, however, that I'm less emerged in art and academia all time and I  don't have access to all the sweet art-making facilities located at my school anymore. I also find myself less in the mood to make things after working at my exhausting and frustrating job. But, it just means that I have to try harder, right? Inspiration isn't easy to acquire all the time and art isn't 'easy' to make. With the everyday frustrations of being an adult and not having a release for that, I find myself becoming really bitter, having a really negative internal monologue and getting really jealous of my other artist friend's successes. In an attempt to alleviate this, I'm going to commit myself to at the very least ONE post a week. Happy reading!

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

I am so so so excited about this movie. Written and starring Terence Nance, it's about a young man that navigates live action and animated landscapes to understand himself after a young woman stands him up.

I personally love dream landscape movies like this and I'm so excited by the lovely afro action going on in the film! Trailer posted below...look out for the yummy stop motion animation sequence.

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty • Teaser from Terence Nance • Terence Etc. on Vimeo.

Feeling Broochy...

I just finished the school Holiday Art Sale at school and it was pretty successful. I decided to sell lots of left over inventory but didn't manage to clear out all of it. None the less, making pretty things and having people express appreciation for them always make me smile.

I sold my usual etched metal jewelry but decided to try my hand at some silkscreen panels and those sold fairly well. Now, I'm thinking of expanding my horizons and selling some fun brooches!! I found all of these lovely ones while perusing the Internet at my boring office job today. Enjoy!

By fineDollyLolly



By Ribizla



By IndianBlue



By murmurfremo



This one is totally my fave:
Jayne Mansfield Brooch By ultravioletglam

I just like the idea of brooches because it gives you the excuse to wear elaborate art pieces on your clothes. Plus, what a dashing and gentlemanly way to spice things up! I hope you all enjoy eating tomorrow.

Misfits - (SPOILERS!)

Just got out of work. Totally fatigued...totally bored...totally need to type so let's talk about: MISFITS!!

- SPOILERS BELOW-

I learned about this show from perusing some of my favorite tumblr blogs. The plot seemed cool especially since I'm waaaay into supernatural tv shows, so I thought I'd give it a try. The premise: five kids from a community service program get struck by lightning in the middle of a freak electrical which gives them super powers. The superpowers they have aren't necessarily usual, yes there is a girl who can read minds (Kelly) and a boy who can rewind time (Curtis) but there's also a girl (Alisha) who sends people into passionate sexual rages after coming in contact with her skin.

Touching Alisha's (Antonia Thomas) skin with your bare hands will send you into a violent sexual frenzy!

You should be forewarned that this TV show is of the Skins variety, meaning it's rather raunchy with lots of foul language and graphic sex, which I wouldn't mind so much if I felt like the show was a bit more honest. I don't know how to quite explain it...but I feel a lot of these emotions don't quite ring true. Though there are some characters that you consistently feel sorry for (Simon) the episodes aren't particularly heartfelt (like Buffy for example), which could be fine depending on what you're into.

PROS:

• Yummy British accents!

• Alisha and Simon are adorable! I'm also really impressed by the character growth of Alisha. She started out as such a miserable, selfish, shallow person but has grown into a very mature and kind character. I'm glad that her relationship with Curtis is no longer. With both of them being very popular and well-liked in their schools, I felt like them pairing up was rather obvious and easy.
  
  
  Hardcore Simon from the future - Delicious!
  

• As the seasons progress you come to find out that many other people were affected by the storm and have developed some sort of abnormality as a result. The most ridiculous being a man who can control dairy products.

Cons:

• The character Nathan (Robert Sheehan) is the most annoying son of a bitch on television! I don't find him funny at all and often role my eyes every time the camera cuts to him. In fact, if he were to just disappear from the show and NEVER come back, I wouldn't bat an eyelash... and another thing: WHY IS HE ALWAYS PICKING ON SIMON???
  
  
  

Nathan (Robert Sheehan) The most annoying character on television.

• Kelly's cockney accent is waaay too thick. Most of the time beyond recognition. I find myself having to rewind her speaking parts just so I can make out her sentences. Her power (telepathy) is pretty useful though. Though I'd imagine knowing exactly what everyone thought about you all the time could be kind of a bummer.

• The body count is ridiculously high and at times is gratuitous. Seriously,why so many murders? And no one's suspicious of the fact that TWO of their community service supervisors have gone missing??!!

Final Verdict: Watch this if your favorite supernatural TV show is on hiatus and all the house work is done. Or watch it for the amazing soundtrack and the Alisha/Simon progression.


I found all of the episodes uploaded on youtube. Hulu has it as well but I was having an incredibly difficulty loading it.

Happy Wednesday!

A New Update

The semester is over and I'm left to process and contemplate the upcoming summer and my final year. One thing I tried this semester (and simultaneously loved and hated) was Stop Motion Animation. Below is one of the many short films I shot during the semeser during the course of my intro class. The main character is named Mr. Monkey and is my second favorite puppet creation (the first i will debut at a later date.) But for now feast your eyes on A Monkey and His Objects.

Ring Around The Rosey

I love this music video in spite of myself. I'm kind of a prude so the subject matter makes me blush, but honestly I can see myself listening to this song if I needed a little pick me up.




I'm loving the outfits with the Marie Antoinette style wigs...and some of the improvised dance moves make me giggle. I'm curious about the little girls in the intro, though. Because if I was a parent, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't allow my little girl to be in a video such as this. Thoughts?