THE LEXICON

Catch up Blog: Dragontime, Maira Kalman, and Mail Art

2012-02-21T22:19:00.000-08:00

I've been spending lots of time in the studio the past few weeks listening to Agent to the Stars (aliens get a Hollywood agent to help introduce them to humans) and the Hunger Games (may the odds be EVER in your favor). I'm happy to announce that I'm busy working on the album artwork for Kephera Moon's awesome solo project, Dragontime. Working with Kephera has been really fun, and I can't wait to post pictures of the finished work soon!

Earlier this month, I met a lifelong hero, Maira Kalman! She and Daniel Handler were interviewed for City Arts and Lectures about their new book, Why We Broke Up, and signed books afterward. There's something so satisfying about having your favorite people team up to make work, and I'm glad they did it again. Listening to Maira talk about painting during the interview made me tear up, and I was pretty fangirl-awkward while she signed my book, but then, what can you say to someone whose paintings you loved since you were a kid? Sigh.

Here's a pic of my signed copy of Why We Broke Up!

Since the beginning of the year, I have been involved with a mail art club started by Vanessa Woods. I occasionally trade mail art with a few friends here and there as we are able to produce it, but in this case it has been nice to have the organization of a group with deadlines. I viewed the first round as a chance to just make something fun that I felt like making that day, without second guessing the project. I picked a shape that I thought would be fun to cut out ten times and not have to be too perfect, and then took the text for each piece randomly from a podcast I was listening to while I worked.

Here's a few pics:

Fake Out (luck)

The whole collection -- believe it or not, these are Prussian blue in color, not black.

Ready to mail out -- I mailed a bit too early (we all mail at once) and learned later I didn't put enough postage on these, oops.

And here's my collection of mail art loot I got in return!

From top to bottom, left to right: Betsy Barnum, Melissa Wyss, Moshe Quinn, Taylor Vogland Dreiling, Vanessa Woods, Brad Ryder, Jana Rumberger, Susannah Eloyse Prinz

Aorta and Oregon

2012-01-10T01:13:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I'm excited that I got to kick off 2012 with some blog love from Aorta. I'm looking forward to the year ahead and all the projects I have in the works right now.

I'm back in SF after a great holiday trip back home to Oregon. While I was there I got in lots of winter beach time, including a tidepool trip during minus tide. I also got caught up on my sister's most recent awesome art projects, and spent a lot of time painting at my mom's kitchen table hiding out while a few storms blew through.

I wish I could have spent a little more time in Portland too -- it was a really quick trip through the city, and it would have been fun to do more while I was there. Before flying out, I had just enough time to see the Big 200 show at The People's Art of Portland gallery where Skylaar has some work, and also caught up with the curator, Chris Haberman, an old friend from Portland State painting days. It was really cool to see all the work he has been doing with the gallery and all the artists involved.

Here's a few more pics, all beach related except for the kitchen table studio!

Get your holiday teeth, tentacles, and fish heads next weekend!

2011-12-04T01:33:00.000-08:00

I finished some small paintings for the LAB postcard show and will be dropping them off tomorrow.

Details about the show are here .

Roly poly fisheads

2011-11-23T20:24:00.001-08:00

Stuff in progress for the lab postcard show

Art Larking interview and pics from the Red Poppy show

2011-11-10T15:26:00.000-08:00

Rae Rubio over at Art Larking interviewed me in October (and was very patient awaiting my responses as I recovered from the Shark Flu) and that post went up on Sunday! And yes, I did quote Rose Tyler.

Here it is: http://blog.artlarking.com/2011/11/06/artist-interview-featured-with-alexis-amann/

Also, my show at Red Poppy Art House came down on Sunday -- here are a few images of the work when it was still installed:

Thanks to Red Poppy and Marisa Aragona! <3

Paint

2011-10-16T18:25:00.001-07:00