PEX Summer Festival, The Summer Dragon, and the Russian Roulette Variety Show!

Took a little break from painting this past month to focus on some other projects, including helping my husband create a 21+ foot long performance "Chinese" inspired dragon, which I am in the middle of working on as I type. (I'm the textile manager, design consultant, and slave labor.)

His psychedelic beast will debut tomorrow evening at the opening ceremony at PEX Summer Festival 2011.

I'll also be performing with The Russian Roulette Variety Show with The Penny Treats and Lux Arati, my bellydance and fire troupe. Here are some photos from our dress rehearsal, courtesy of the fabulous Will Connelly.

A shot of Lux Arati from the first dress rehearsal of Russian Roulette Variety Show.
Photo by Will Connelly.

Anyway, we are closing in on 24 hours away from our debut performance at PEX Summer Fest, and I've spent the past two weeks crafting costumes, rehearsing & practicing my butt off, helping Alex develop his dragon and a whole slew of other related crap. Lux Arati is also hosting 2 bellydance related workshops, one on how to craft your own bellydance bra, and the other an Intro to Bellydance class. I proposed the workshop idea - specifically the bellydance bra crafting one, because I have no qualifications to teach a dance class, but I sure can make costumes.

This is my third year (and the third year of) PEX Summer Fest, and I'm always blown away by the art, music, installations and performances - it's a shit ton of creative minds coming together to make a really amazing event. (Changed some of my friends lives - for real!)

I'll leave you with a stellar video of PEX Summer Festival from 2010 that my dear friend Bill Kennedy put together from camera stills. I'm in it, near the end, you'll see me crawling all over the HoneyTrap sculpture. Enjoy!

Haunted

Kristin and I posing for the camera during our show.
(Photo by Will Connelly Photography, 2011)

It was Monday morning after "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" that I woke up realizing that even though it was all DONE - I had little to no sense of relief.

Yes, the show looked beautiful. Yes, the event was awesome. I got a ton of great feedback about what a fun night it was, what a great party it was, how beautiful the show was, our pieces looked great together, our collaborative painting was successful - even the vibe of the entire party was praised. (There was a very small moment of weird drama, but I'm over that already. Not worth mentioning.) It was, hands down, the most ridiculous thing I've had to work that hard to organize in awhile (possibly ever?) and even though I woke up Monday morning feeling great about that - it was quite difficult to let those positive feelings linger for very long. I had a dress rehearsal I wasn't prepared for in a week, the season for my theater bartending job was coming to an end, I was still totally dirt poor (didn't sell any paintings off the wall, though I did have some folks interested in prints - unfortunately "interest" doesn't equal immediate payment, since I definitely still have to work for it) and a jagged, pointy wave of stress and worry had monsoon-ed out my happy art parade.

Shit.

And then of course, a few days later I get my letter of rejection from the Mural Arts Program - for a lousy summer internship, for Christ's sake. I attempted to apply to be one of their artists back in January, and despite filling out and thinking I submitted the form twice online, it managed to never go through. Since they review their artist applications only once a year (in mid-January, and of course didn't respond to my "Did that go through?" email until mid-February), I was for some reason convinced that the internship would be no problem. Of course I'll get it, I thought. Why wouldn't I?

Welcome to the real world, Xtina!

So I've felt like a complete idiot a couple times in the past few weeks. Between letters of employment rejection based on the one talent and skill I know I possess and then working my ass off for this show that was completely unprofitable - it's been a little difficult to look on the bright side. "Midnight..." was still an amazing night - and I will have a bunch of pictures soon to share with you - but damn, it was a little disappointing. I felt like I was putting in all this effort, and trying SO hard to make this happen - and I did it, and it happened, and it was like a slowly deflating balloon instead of a piñata full of candy. (Funny, I wasn't the only one to feel like this, either.) I have since sucked it up and moved on, and I will no doubt continue to paint and continue to promote myself as an artist, and try and make this art thing work. Besides performing, which I am relatively new at, so to speak - this is the only freaking thing I know I can do well. And maybe it's NOT a full time job, although with the right market and the right product it sure as fucking well can be - but yea. I got a bit of a slap in the face that Monday morning, and as of today (crossing fingers everything continues to go well) I now have another low paying service industry job. Good-ie.

But you know what? These moments of weakness are not going to destroy me. There are things in my brain that I see and experience in a visual, tactile way - an interpretation of a dream world, my dream world - that need to be expressed somehow. On a canvas, still images or moving picture, limbs poised oh-so-perfectly from a body, a carefully crafted (or duct-taped) costume for a performance. It's beyond me, it's something pulsing in my veins, something running through my neurological wiring. This is all I can do. This is what I do.

Aww. Hugs. <3
(Photo by Will Connelly Photography, 2011)

I'll post more pictures from the fabulous Will Connelly as soon as I get them on a disk. Thank you Will, Joe Zang, Kristin, and all the musicians and performers that came out for Midnight and helped make it happen. Even though this blog entry was all about *me* and *my feelings* (tough shit- it's my blog, bitches) - the show itself was really about everyone that was involved. We all came together and put forth amazing efforts, and created a really fun night with a great vibe, great art, and great talent of all kinds. These are my friends, and I love them. So more pictures of that event soon.

In the meantime, please enjoy this shot of my friend Sarah's new tattoo, which I helped design. Another friend of mine was responsible for the actual tattoo and reworking the design slightly to better fit her body. Besides my own, this is (I believe) the first artwork of my own that is now a tattoo on someone's skin. Enjoy!

New ink on Sarah G. Designed by me! Who's next??

Crunch time

Hello, everyone.

Apologies, apologies, for the lack of posts. This next post was supposed to be part of a special project, but I lost time for it in lieu of the show happening this Friday and instead need to plug that a bit and worry about the project later.

Sunburned, sweaty, and stressed out - I returned today from Ocean City, Maryland, where my in-laws have a condo right by the beach. I had so much to do I brought work with me, so I was sewing costumes sitting underneath an umbrella on the sand. (Poor me, right?) I looked at my calendar when I got home today and nearly had a panic attack. Paintings I wanted to finish will not be finished - choreography and music for performances are not done, etc., etc. Flyers are not distributed as widely as they should have been - but 76 people have RSVPed on the Facebook event page, and there might even be 3 out of town dudes sleeping over at my house! (That was sarcasm, that last part.) And of course, I think the only full meal I ate today was breakfast.

As much as I would love to stop time for 24 hours, let the world pause while I continue to work on this show and various upcoming performances (The Penny Treats will be showcasing a piece at Ruba the night before, on June 2nd, and everything else I'm involved with is being feverishly worked on for PEX Summer Festival) - this kind of thing doesn't happen, and the show will go on. It will be a great night, regardless.

SO MANY PEOPLE IGNORED MY EMAILS! That's right. Unless you're one of the people who I talk to everyday or have otherwise confirmed your presence either performing or playing music - you suck. Totally. Just email me back and say, hey, no thanks. I hate it, hate it hate it when people blatantly ignore emails or phone calls. When I worked as the assistant manager at Plaza Art Supplies in Towson - my manager was extremely anal, especially about responding to emails, among other things. Even if it was only an "Okay, thanks.- Christina" or whatever it was - and it kind of rubbed off. I know everyone gets backed up with that shit - but come on. JUST RESPOND. Thanks.

(In addition, I would like to publicly wonder why the hell The Penny Treats have had to resort to mixing our own music in Garage Band? I know 8 million DJ's. This is ridiculous.)

Below is what I do have. Hope you like it.

Here is the lineup for music on Friday night (in not the right order, yet):

Big Jawn (DJ set)
Mia Dangerfield (DJ set)
Histrionica (live dance music)
Gina Ferrera (live DJ set & live music)
Manon (spinning grunge, 90's rock, alternative)

And here are some of the confirmed performers:

Jenna (bellydance fusion & Sufi spinning routine)
Plum Dragoness (spoken word w. pre recorded instrumental)
Liana Luv, Halo Hooper, Jexi Icon, Lady J, members of The Russian Roulette Variety Show, Scorch, and The Penny Treats (fire performances, outside)

And here is the final back of the flyer, for your viewing pleasure.

Get your asses there, or else I will be convinced you do not give a flying shit. :) Thanks! Bye! <3

In progress paintings

Finally! (You exclaim.) A post with actual PICTURES and ARTWORK. Jesus.

(Speaking of Jesus... if you haven't heard that this Saturday, May 21st, is officially the date of "The Rapture"... google it. It's hilarious. And I'm going to be in Boston at a lesbian wedding. Can't freakin' wait. )

Apologies for the shitty and/or dark photos. I promise I will fix them later, but have more pressing issues at the moment.

The package has officially been mailed as preparation for the interactive blog post. I have to wait until they actually get it, like next week, so this works out as I intended. I know you all are just shaking in your seats... quivering, eagerly anticipating what on earth I am talking about.

Soon, my pets. Soon.

Enjoy!

Some of my work on the wall behind my studio space.

Detail shot of the "Honeycomb Merkaba" painting.

Another detail shot of "Honeycomb Merkaba"

Palette and some sketches for "Honeycomb Merkaba"

Integrating Balance

The idea of "integrating balance" has been on my mind as of late. It started with a barrage of pointless Facebook posts from friends - there was such contrast between certain types of people. Some of them were lofty and spiritual, like a quote from an inspirational book, an announcement, a generalized special message to their internet acquaintances. "Dear Internet Friends and Followers, I hope you found the following quote/message/wise observation as meaningful as I did. Your welcome."

The other kind, of course, was a much more light-hearted, potentially silly, potentially stupid, sometimes funny, usually dumb - "Heyyyy people, some of you know me in real life, most of you I wouldn't recognize if I passed you oh the street but I JUST DID THIS and it was SO RIDICULOUS, OMG."

I rarely care to read any of the above extremes. They irritate me, and they always come from the same people. I started wondering why this bothered me, and wrote an entire blog post in my secret blog about balance. (It's not, obviously, very secret, I just don't advertise it much.) The lofty, spiritual status posters - drew me to start pondering the balance of light vs dark (and good vs evil), and then I started thinking about it in the context of yin and yang, and then I started thinking about the properties of that corresponding symbol and how it translates, quite literally, into a visual, colorful and meaningful symbol.

And finally, this research and intensive thought processes eventually led me to apply this to my biggest, baddest (as in bad-ass) current painting - the Honeycomb Merkaba - which I believe I've now been working on since January.


The very shape that is the central geometry of the painting is the merkaba - two interpenetrating tetrahedrons, that are together in this 3-dimensional shape, symbolizing balance, protection, and healing. The tetrahedron that points up ("to heaven") is the "male" and the one pointing down ("to the earth plane") is referred to as "female." In Taoism, yin (according to Wikipedia, literally the "shady place" or "north slope") is the dark area, the female energy, and the yang (literally the "sunny place" or "south slope") is the light area, the male energy.


The traditional yin-yang symbol only makes me think of early 90's new age, hippie revival decor and bad tattoos of the same era, so I have no desire to literally replicate that symbol in any of my work - but the tree image above (thanks, google image search), has a much more attractive interpretation of the same idea.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out a way to integrate the idea of this kind of balance within that particular painting. I've set a goal for myself to have it done to a "hang-able" status by the time of the show, June 3rd. It may not be 100% done, but as close as I can get.

In the meantime I'm continuing to work on a couple other new paintings which I hope to have done for the show. Between my rehearsals for PEXfest performances, working to try and finish all these paintings, and creating the flyer for the show I have the next few weeks completely filled up. I've been neglecting my blog-letter project, but I'm going to try and take the necessary pictures today and get it sent out asap. It's almost been too long to have it relevant, and the subject matter (my not having enough $$ to pay for this ridiculous gallery to show my work) is annoying enough that I've been putting the project off. But I PROMISE - next blog entry, you will see the results from said project. And I will require my readers help and participation to make it work.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Reminds me of spring time.
"Vajrasattva (Buddha with flowers)" / 18" x 24"
acrylic, gouache, spray paint on canvas © 2010

The last trees, bare naked only a couple short months ago, lose their blossoms in favor of new green leaves - late Spring is here, (I think - I get my seasons confused, we don't really have them in Florida, you see...) the planning stages for the entire summer are officially in full effect.

I freaked the other night at 3:30 am when I realized - "Shit, it's May."

Which meant that I now have one month only before the show at O'Reillys, and two months before PEX Summer Festival. All of my efforts, creative and otherwise, are going toward both of these events. I have set a couple personal goals for myself - to finish a number of paintings, and also attempt a collaborative piece within the theme of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Haunted Beauties and the Psychedelic Supernatural." On top of that, learning choreography for my bellydance/fire troupe (still without an official name), and developing choreography for the next piece from The Penny Treats. In addition, since I have little/no funds for either of these, I'm working on writing a grant to include our major prop for The Penny Treats, helping Alex with his grant project (which is going to be SO cool... but I can't tell you about it yet...), making and modifying costumes for both pieces, and developing a workshop sponsored by the bellydance troupe for PEX. Create/finish a flyer for "Midnight...", and start to barrage the internet and appropriate local avenues for both the art show, the workshop, and the PEX fest show. (Whew. Hey at least I'm not painting a mural on top of that?? Actually, I'm just being facetious. I'd freaking love to paint a mural, anytime, anywhere, for potentially minute amounts of cash.)

In addition to all this - working on a tattoo design for a friend inspired by the imagery below. It's basically the hamsa (the hand), with the figure in the center of the design with colored circles to correspond to the placement of the chakras. I'm also adding in a mandala-esque circular design around the entire thing, with the chakras and their symbols above the top half of the circle, and underneath the hamsa there will be a moth orchid. It's for a good friend, so I'm not charging her for the design, but we're trading services in the form of a photoshoot for myself and for The Penny Treats.


This weekend I'll be working with Kristin (seaofdoom.blogspot.com) to create a collaborative painting based on our theme. We're both skilled artists, and friends, although we've never attempted anything like this together. Let's hope it works out and looks great - although we'll probably hang it up regardless.

Gettin it on

Rough flyer design for the First Friday show. Just emailed DJ's - performers are next. Maybe when I get home from work. (It's proving to be a very long day.)