Valley of the Dolls

Today I came across Barbie's tribute to The Birds  through their limited edition Tippi Hedron doll.

Excitedly I showed this to my friend's little brother, Henry, who, at the mere age of 19 is one of the coolest kids I've ever met.  Like me, he's into classic films, photoshop, and subliminal messages in Disney films (he once wrote a paper where he cited my rantings on the subject as one of his sources).  When he saw the Tippi doll, he responded with a link to probably the most extensive collection of

re-fabbed (with an emphasis on fab!) dolls based on Hollywood figures.

Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady

This is the work of Juan Albuerne .  He repaints and restyles dolls to make these amazing creations.

Grace Kelly in Rear Window

Liza in Caberet

Pay attention kids... art doesn't have to be painting on canvas or sculpting with clay... if only I could figure out a way to teach Barbie remodeling in the high school.

Halloween

I know Halloween has passed, but this post must be written!  Halloween has to be the artist's favorite holiday.  When else can you show off your superior carving skills to all of your neighbors? (the fact that you own a lino cutter probably helps, of course.)  

I was so excited to carve my pumpkin this year that I did it a week early and she never made it to Halloween.  I say she because my pumpkin was the ghost of Marilyn Monroe.  And because none of my neighbors got to meet her in her glowing glory, bur rather the molding corpse still sitting on my porch, I decided to post the photo I took the first night of her existence.

I tried teaching a stencil project to my studio A class.  Didn't come out exactly as I'd like, but I don't think they really understood the use of a stencil... perhaps if they thought about pumpkins, they would have a better idea of how positive and negative space have to work together for a stencil to work.  I plan on showing them some images from the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze in Hudson Valley:

So it's been how long?

I haven't actually posted anything in quite a few months.  Thats mostly because I'm a new teacher and I have no time what so ever.  In the interlude, I graduated from grad school, got certified, worked at a summer camp, and actually got a job.  The job thing is most significant, I suppose, because between hiring freezes in New York City and budget cuts everywhere, openings for art teachers are few and far between. 

It was a rocky start... very stressful... never sure if I'm doing the right thing.  However, I'm getting used to it.  I think this can be a good year.  I've been told that teaching is miserable until your 2nd year... or 3rd year... depends on who you ask.  I've been told by an experienced teacher that they didn't have their first good day until April of their first year.  

However, a sign that I'm moving in the right direction is that rather than vegging out on the couch and watching tv for the entire weekend, I actually broke out the markers and pens and started working on my own art.  I needed to just do something fun... unimportant... and, of course, focused on classic Hollywood men.  The result: A little 3x5 black book filled with portraits and classic scenes.  Here are a few samples:

I'm hoping I'll start posting more often.  Ciao for now... 

photoshop tutorial: wall

photoshop tutorial: landscapes

Intro to photoshop: Original Image

Class Work

During my free periods I work on either demos or my own art.  The kids like to see what I'm doing and hopefully it inspires them, either in content or medium, or to just keep working.  When I can't think of something to draw, I just scour facebook.  Thanks to Jamie Drye for his photo... that he doesn't know I borrowed... though I'd be happy to give him a copy.

marker, pen, dr. martin's dyes, and colored pencils on illustration board