Balancing Acts

How typical am I right now? A new cafe opened down the street from my house two weekends ago, so this morning I dragged myself here with my computer and notebook to enjoy a cup of coffee and free wi-fi in the hopes I would be less distracted and get more done. So far, it's going well. I feel comfortable here, probably because not only do I know the guy who opened Buzz Cafe, my co-worker Rachel is now employed here as well as Cafe La Maude. So far - excellent coffee, great looking menu, tasty treats, and a nice atmosphere. And this neighborhood desperately needs businesses like this, so if you live around here please come and support it.

I'm happy to report that I will be performing once again this year at PEX's annual Valentines Day bash, Heartburn 6. ("Dr. Carlos Allende's Lost Caravan of Love" - the rest of the official title.) The party is going to be once again at an ultra-secret location somewhere in Center City in Philadelphia, on Friday February 10th. I am also one of the few lucky artists asked to display work in the official gallery space at the party. I'll be spinning fire as part of my bellydance brigade, Lux Arati, as well as performing inside. I'm still working on what I'll be doing for the inside portion - it will likely include my fabulous red feather fans. This also means that I will be planning for at least three costume changes - outdoor fire performance, indoor burlesque/bellydance performance, and just something else to wear for the rest of the night.

I will also be performing again at this years Addy Awards here in Philadelphia! That was the best paying gig of my performance career, so I am definitely psyched to be part of the show again. Hopefully this year it will not be pouring down rain and we can really show off what we do for these folks.

I feel like I just started working on real art again (meaning paintings) after spending the month before and 2 weeks after the holidays working on gifts for my family. (Not to mention friends... you guys are going to have to wait.) It's been a slow process, unfortunately, and I'm thankful to be busy enough that my time for all of my activities is limited. What with work, rehearsals, my art and god forbid I relax once in awhile... it's no wonder I only manage to post in my blog once or twice a month. Happiness is often a delicate balancing act, I suppose, where we try and survive with some kind of job while still trying to focus on and dedicate time to the things we love until we can find a way for them to sustain us.

Luckily, there are some interesting projects in the works right now, and now that I've finally recovered from terrible cubicle depression and moved on to a happier place I think I can work on adjusting my jobs so I spend more time making art and performing and less time behind a counter (and running up and down stairs a million times a day and serving food.)

The Honeycomb Merkaba on my easel in my "studio space",
aka the corner of the kitchen.

This is the latest masterpiece, a still-in-progress (but nearing a finished state!) commission which I'm calling "The Honeycomb Merkaba." So, so many colored triangles. I've added things, taken them away, adjusted colors of teeny little parts ever so slightly over and over again... it's been a year now, and my thankfully patient patrons will be receiving their finished original Xtina painting in the near future. This, actually, is one of my "jobs", considering I need to finish this to get paid. I've already devoted so much time to working on this - it is definitely my "baby" and it may be hard to see it go. (Though it is going to friends and I will probably be able to see it whenever I want.) If I sold this to anyone else, I would probably charge 3 times the amount I'm doing it for, and that was actually a conscious decision. We still need to get paid for what we do, but friends get discounts (especially these friends.) Hey, at least I'm not giving away my art all the time anymore. I should have at least tried to take decent photos of everything first. :)

Gotta love a blurry self-portrait every now and again.

Speaking of self-portraits, it's probably about that time again. Every year or so I try and paint one, so in 20 years maybe, I can put them all on the same wall next to one another and examine how I aged, how I perceived my own self image over time, how I reflected what was going on in my life through my work... a retrospective. I should probably worry about that later, but it is time to investigate some new images for this years painting.

Hello please. Attempting to channel some cheesy pop gestures,
all I get is bellydance hands and a creepy stare.

The photo above is from when I was messing around trying to photograph myself with this awesome vintage feather hat (that belonged to my grandmother), that my mom sent me for Christmas this year. Don't ask me what my hand is doing. I'm not sure what effect, exactly, I was going for but obviously it didn't work.

Puerto Rico, #1 (working title)
oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

The first painting in a series inspired by my "honeymoon" trip to Puerto Rico a few years ago. I took many pictures. It's not quite finished yet, but getting there. It's oil and only about 18"x 24", and this one in particular got started one of the days I needed to take a break from the Honeycomb piece. Similar colors, as you may notice - and the exact opposite style of painting. I needed something freeing and loose to paint to recover after making myself insane with fine lines and near perfect symmetry.

Tree of Life
acrylic on wood, 19" x 11.5"

And speaking of perfect symmetry, this is a newer acrylic painting on wood that I created in the same color harmonies as the sought-after "A Night in Wyman Park (Bamboo)" painting. Much smaller, much more affordable. Love it? Want it? Make me an offer.

Until I get some better photos of new work and get through this week (and weekend - Heartburn is almost here!) this post will have to do. Springtime is coming, and that means more fire, more festivals, and hopefully another art show, if I can manage to find a good space that wants to hang my work. ( Please, send any my way if you have a tip. ) In the meantime, we will work on our balancing acts and ultimate goal of making art, our home, our life that much better.

Performance/Art and the Penny Treats!

One of the streetscapes I've been working on. Still in progress, but it's close to being done.

Hello, vast sea of internet readers. (Joke. I kid.) It's been a little too long since I've posted any pictures of my work, but I have a REALLY good reason. And now I have a few, just from finally being able to paint today following a week of chaos.

Want to see my reason? You can, a little later. (I'll post the video at the end of this post, along with a disclaimer and apology to my parents.) This past weekend was one of my favorite burner parties of the year - PEX's Heartburn. Set in a secret warehouse location, the party spans multiple massive floors, and more decorated rooms than I cared to count. DJ's, bands, art (I had a painting in the gallery this time), performances of all kinds, lasers, projections, and hundreds of happy partygoers all dressed up dancing the night away. And it's always a costume party. (It's my favorite way to celebrate a Hallmark holiday that otherwise means nothing in the dead of winter.)

My friend and I were invited to perform our burlesque act that we did as a part of Scorch this summer, for PEX Summer Festival and the Philly Fringe. Unfortunately our act involved fire, which was prohibited inside the venue. Unfortunately the fire part of our act took up about half of the performance, so we didn't think we'd be able to do it. Somehow by last Monday we were convinced that we should, and we should spent as much time as possible between then and that Saturday night coming up with a new second half of the routine. SO - needless to say, I didn't have a lot of free time last week for anything art related. The performance was fantastic, and it will certainly not be the last time you see us perform burlesque. We're adopting the name "The Penny Treats", graphics and logo forthcoming. (Penn Treaty is a park/area of Philly right near where both of us live.)

Anyway, today is literally the first day in a long time that I've had a chance to paint, and I've been itching to work on my commissioned piece and finish a couple other things up. It's not 100% confirmed, but I will probably have my work (some of it at least) hanging up in a local coffee shop called The Lola Bean for the month of March. I responded to an art inquiry and the woman immediately contacted me and said she loved my paintings and to see if I could do something that soon. As it is, the majority of my work is ready to hang from the last show, and although the First Friday opening will probably not be as big of a to do as the one at Grindstone, whatever. Maybe I'll sell something! (Mental note/list: Need more business cards. And flyers this time. And money to pay for that shit. Sigh.)

Here is a somewhat crappy shot of the commissioned painting I'm working on. Sorry - the glare just wouldn't go away, it's the afternoon. Please keep in mind I am still in the very beginning stages - I only just started to actually oil paint on top of the drawings within the last 2 sessions I've spent working on it.

Commissioned piece featuring merkaba, in progress.

It's slowly coming together. Even though I've planned out and gridded out a large part of the space, I want there to be much more and I'm not too sure what exactly that "more" is going to be of. I trust my process enough that I know it will come to me, organically, as the painting progresses, but I think it's because I'm so excited every time I work on this one that I find myself constantly thinking about it, imagining pieces, drawing and re-drawing sketches. I want to include an element of something natural, like vines perhaps, to contrast the sharp edges of the hexagons... and then I thought of including a red feather, because the painting is for my burlesque partner and her fiancé. (Newly engaged, congratulations lovelies!) I also want to somehow incorporate some kind of fractal design that is reminiscent of a plant or vine, but in addition to some kind of actual nature or plant life, not instead of. And the colors - just starting to figure out what is working and what isn't. Colors are often the one thing that I don't plan, but in this case I was given a vague idea of the palette that they wanted - however I didn't include color in most of my sketches so far.

Since there are so many lines, I've taken to using paint markers to draw them out before I paint. I learned (from a mistake) that paint markers and sharpies tend to show through a moderate to thin layer of oil paint, so in this piece I'm using that mistake to my advantage. I can hopefully avoid having to paint lots of thin, precise lines by letting the paint marker show through as much as I want - and so far I'm hoping it will become a subtle accent and not as obvious and bright as in the photograph above.

The first picture up top that I posted is another painting that I've been working on and sort of put on hold for the commissioned piece. It's a tiny streetscape and it's not done yet, but I'm hoping to be able to hang it up in the coffeeshop in March (because it's kind of a boring painting, and I'll make it kind of inexpensive comparatively, and maybe it'll sell.)

SO - now the moment you've all been waiting for! My burlesque show from Heartburn -we are The Penny Treats and the song is a remix of "Do Right"- (the Amy Irving/Jessica Rabbit version, the Gramaphondzie remix, and the Peggy Lee version all smashed together courtesy of Kezner, a DJ friend of mine who's too busy being married and having babies to play music right now. That's okay Kez, I love you anyway.)

Oh right - and before you watch...

DISCLAIMER: Please do not post this on Facebook or anywhere else on the internet without the express permission of myself and Lady J.

APOLOGY: Dear Mom & Dad - in case you haven't heard, I've been incorporating a little burlesque into my performance career. That said, please be aware that you will see some skin at the end of the video. BUT - it's ok, my nipples are covered, and it's tasteful. It could be worse - I could be a stripper - and I promise it will stay in the vein of burlesque and fire, and will not get trashy. Anyway, I'm sorry, but you're probably going to have to get used to it - and as you'll be able to hear, the crowd freakin' loves us! Lots of love, Xtina.