Sunday, October 29, 2023

Eilish!

 

Billie Eilish
I painted Billie Eilish today. There is context as to why, but I leave it at mentioning that her song Happier Than Ever, performed on SNL right before her twentieth birthday in 2021, is actually pretty bloody awesome. I made some alterations to my Carla Bley painting from last week too.
Carla Bley


Sunday, October 22, 2023

IM: Carla Bley

Carla Bley, oil on canvas, 2023
Carla Bley died less than a week ago. Several websites I frequent, because of a similarity of musical preferences, dedicated space in her memory. I had never really listened to her music because, one day, maybe thirty years ago, I decided I didn't like it. I was so wrong, then. I might have been a bit of a misogynist, then too. I painted her right away, the first oil for the Top 100 2023. I have now rejected the plan to make a stencil print in an edition of five for all 100, yet I still like the stencil and I have not totally abandoned the concept. I did trace the Bley painting and cut a stencil. These are charming things and I will do something with these at some point.
Thus far the stencils have worked better integrated into larger wholes, than as individual prints. Below the stencil for Mary Sivurapik was used on a pillar outside my studio. The stencil print of Sivurapik, an Inuit throat singer, is below that one.
Mary Sivurapik, stencil print, 12 x 18 inches
The stencil I cut for Sun Ra also looks better in a large mural created in the classroom with a couple of students then it does as a print.
Sun Ra
"239" Sun Ra inserted in collaborative mural, stencils and spray paint on wall