Ninja November 30th, 2009
Brooklyn-based writer Craig Damrauer serves up little bits of New Math every Monday morning. His pony equation made my grouchy Monday morning mood vanish. ^_____^
Purchasing links
+ New Math Modern Art shirt, $20.00
+ New Math Pirate shirt, $20.00
+ New Math: Equations for Living (book)
Ninja August 6th, 2009
Guitar goddess/song bird, Kaki King, presents The Exhibition: a one night exhibit of guitars turned into pieces of artwork inspired by a Kaki King song title. The highlight of the evening will occur around 9:00 pm when Kaki puts on a solo performance of several songs, then plays the song Playing With Pink Noise with pink paint covering her hands on her iconic blue guitar. That guitar and several others will be auctioned off to benefit VH1’s Save the Music foundation.
Where
The Littlefield
622 Degraw Street between 3rd and 4th Avenue in the Gowanus
Brooklyn, New York 11217 (map)
718) 855-3388
When
Friday, August 7, 2009
One night only!
Doors open at 7:00 PM
Cost
Free admission
All ages welcome
Here’s a sneak peak at some of the guitars on display:
Sad American
Reni Papananias
Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be A Bad Person?
Vincent Hui
I Need A Girl Who Knows A Map
Kate Havnevik
Can the Gwot Save Us
Morgan Grenier
Here’s my contribution:
I Never Said I Love You
Detail
All my process photos and comments can be viewed here.
Come out and say hi! I’ll be the one with the pink streaks. ^___^
Big smiles,
Ninja
PS. Correction: looks like Magic Hat won’t be there after all, so no free beer. But hey, it’s a free Kaki show with some amazing art—that should be enough reason to come out and join us. ~__^
Related links
+ To see more, become a fan of Kaki King Guitar Art on Facebook
+ Kaki King SPIN interview
Album purchasing links
+Mexican Teenagers
+ Dreaming of Revenge
+ Until We Felt Red
+ Legs to Make Us Longer
Ninja July 29th, 2009
Really digging the rhythmic, swirling compositions of Brooklyn-based illustrator/designer, Sougwen Chung. Sougwen can be found hard at work at the design shop, Cuban Council.
Afterthoughts
Fleurette-de-lis A
Fleurette-de-lis B
Fleurette-de-lis C
Fleurette-de-lis D
SepalCure
Spectral Sound
Spectral Sound
You can check out her drawing process here:
Related link
+ See more at Sougwen Chung’s drawing blog
Purchasing link
+ Buy Sougwen Chung’s prints
Ninja July 21st, 2009
Wohoo, I’m done!
Detail
Thanks for giving me much love as I continue to do my art! The past few weeks have been spent burning the midnight oil to prepare for this show (it’s my first group show). I’m so excited, and I would love to see you there.
Where
The Littlefield
622 Degraw Street between 3rd and 4th Avenue in the Gowanus
Brooklyn, New York 11217 (map)
718) 855-3388
When
Friday, August 7, 2009
One night only!
Doors open at 7:00 PM
Cost
Free admission
It’s been such an honor to collaborate with one of my heroes, the talented musician, Kaki King! She invited me and 15 other artists to create visual representations of her music from some busted guitars. Here’s a glimpse into some of the artists’ creative processes:
Ahuvati
Night After Sidewalk by China Morobosa
Open Mouth
Pull Me Out Alive by Andrea Arceneaux
Sad American by Reni Papananias
So Much for So Little by Katherine Guillen
I can’t wait to see them all in person!
Also that night, Kaki will perform a special rendition of Pink Noise with paint on her fingers. Her resulting performance painting piece will then be auctioned off for charity.
Magic Hat Brewery is sponsoring the event so there will be plenty of free swill for those of you inclined.
Big smiles,
Ninja
PS Much thanks and love to my wonderful friend, Tony Bologna Yang, for shooting the finished piece and to my lovely model, Tanya Dakin.
Related links
+ To see more, become a fan of Kaki King Guitar Art on Facebook
+ Kaki King SPIN interview
Album purchasing links
+Mexican Teenagers
+ Dreaming of Revenge
+ Until We Felt Red
+ Legs to Make Us Longer
Ninja July 17th, 2009
Apologies for the long absence! I’m sad to say that my laptop still hasn’t been fixed. T_____T Some of my more techy friends will take a look at it over the weekend, and hopefully I’ll be up and running soon (and posting more regularly). Much thanks for your continued patience and love!
As promised, here’s my latest step in my Kaki King guitar project process. I lost a lot of process photos when my hard drive died, but imagine if you will layers and layers of paint built up into an awful mess, uneven eyebrows, and off-center lips. The (gasp) puffy cheeks and washed out skin tone stage can be seen below.
I have the bad habit of overthinking/overworking a painting, hating it, sanding it all off, and starting fresh. It’s a crazy and nerve-wrecking part that has insidiously crept into my process.
After a bit of sanding and sighing, it became this (above). The guitar is so close to being finished. Just a few more sleepless nights of tweaks and installing hanging hardware, and it’ll be show-ready.
As always, thanks for stopping by and checking in!
Much love and happy painting,
Ninja
Ninja July 8th, 2009
Hallo again! Thanks for popping in. ^____^
First, let me start off with a small apology. I won’t be able to post as regularly on the interwebs because my Powerbook is ill once more. While trying to shut down, it made 3 piercing screams while the pinwheel of death spun wildly. And today, it just wasn’t having it at all. I turned it on and nothing. Penguin suspects that it may have suffered a head crash.
But my lack of technological comforts has made for some good painting progress. Oh dear, it took me 6 hours to get from here:
to there:
I added more warm tones (to make the shadows richer) and fly-away strands of hair (hair that is too perfect looks fake).
Her lips are looking a little too done up, so I will revert to a paler shade in the next round.
detail
Oh, happy painting,
Ninja
Ninja July 6th, 2009
Yawn & happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful, restful weekend. And for those of you in the States, a lovely Independence Day.
I did a lot of painting of my weekend—yay! Here’s where I left off on my Kaki King guitar project.
Previously, her neck was too thick. There was more neck on the left than on the right, so I extended her hair to cover that part up.
I have the tendency to obsess and overwork when I paint—apply paint, hate it, sand off, repaint.
Later, I took a break and sketched this giraffe-icorn for Penguin, too.
Happy painting,
Ninja
Ninja July 3rd, 2009
Photo by Sun Times
Brooklyn musical duo Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino met at Pratt Institute and have been playing peppy, poppy tunes since.
Matt and Kim live and play together in Daylight.
For Lessons Learned, the couple walk and strip their way through Times Square.
Head boppin’ fun,
Ninja
Purchasing link
+ Matt and Kim—Grand
Ninja July 2nd, 2009
Hallo, hallo you lovely folks! Thank you so much for all your encouragement and little love notes as I nervously go through prepping for this show. You have no idea how much it means to me.
For her hair, I layered burnt siena, raw siena, and raw umber acrylic paint around thin strips of ochre underpainting.
Here’s where I left off at 3 AM. Seemed like a good stopping point. Stay tuned for more obsessively detailed hair painting. ~__^
Much love back atcha,
Ninja
Ninja July 1st, 2009
Thanks for joining me as I go about my painting process and prepare for my first group show.
Fixed the crooked jawline and added some tone with light acrylic washes.
Evened out the eye levels. Then I built up and layered the shadows with thin acrylic glazes.
Next step: hair! I can’t wait. ^______^
Happy painting,
Ninja
Limited edition lithograph prints. Signed + numbered.
