First Friday art show next week!

I wish I could tell you I'd gotten a chance to paint this week, but I haven't. It's fine - some great things in the works. I will have some of my work hanging in a show for First Friday next week (March 4th) at a little coffeeshop down the street from me called The Lola Bean in Fishtown. (Working on trying to get music as well!) I've spent most of my week 1) being sick, and 2) designing a new business card, flyers for the show, updating my website and facebook page about it and figuring out my rehearsal schedules and meeting times for all the other fun stuff I do. And of course, some *real* work that sort of pays the bills. But that's boring.

I have been absolutely losing myself in designing all these things - I'm pretty fluent in Photoshop and Illustrator (though I only really use the former) and have graphic design training, so even though it sometimes is a struggle I try and design as much of my own stuff as I can.

My new business card design (front and back)

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the results. The left/front card is part of my "A Night in Wyman Park"/super expensive painting. Super expensive because it's my favorite. (Prints are available!) I've been using it for most of my promo graphics since November - I guess I feel like it represents my work the best at the moment. I have a feeling my commissioned Merkaba painting is going to be similarly regarded.

I recently got some scans done of some of my smaller paintings, so I could make prints, as well as a few other things, like this photograph from, say, 2003?



I'm wearing a wig in this photo (over my then very-short dreads), but due to my new haircut I kind of look closer to this "character" than I ever have in real life. I went through a long period of characters in my work - paintings of them, photographs, then onto costumes and my fashion shows. This one was called "Lucila."

Anyway, if you live in Philly, come out to my First Friday show next week. Hopefully I'll have some new stuff up and of course, there will be free wine and snacks. But buy some coffee maybe, because The Lola Bean is run by really cool people and they need support, too.