I used to be anti-Instagram. Mostly because everyone else was using it and I can get all "well if everyone likes something I'm going to hate it". I make my life difficult sometimes.  But I also didn't like it because I LOVE Hipstamatic and viewed Instagram as some sort of rival app. Again, I make life difficult.

But I finally came to my senses and realized instagram is a really cool social media app for sharing photos and seeing what others are up too. To me it sort of completes the twitter short-140 character update idea; with Instagram you get one photo showing someone's life at that moment.  Very cool.

I mostly share photos of what I'm working on or photos of me harassing my cats.

You should follow me. :) My username is staunchstudio.

Happy Easter everyone and enjoy your holiday weekend!

That's what the cashier at Goodwill said to me when I checked out. The other books were around a dollar so I guess she thought the extra .97 cents would shock me or something.  Actually I was shocked that I got all 4 of these books so cheaply!

I love old books. The smell, the formality of language is different, and I always wonder who owned these books before me.  What were they like, why did they buy this book? Especially the one below, The Conquest of Disease by Thurman Rice.

The Governor's Daughter is described as an "engaging and exciting story about the lovely, spirited daughter of the Royal Governor of New York Colony who undertook a daring venture to aid her country - and who lost her heart to a man as bold and proud as she!" I do not read love stories but the cover got me I have to admit it.

And then there's Theodor Storm's Imensee. It's in German and I don't speak German but I'm 95% German so I bought it. What? ;)

What a random selection! I don't know how I'm going to incorporate them into my artwork but they were bought with the purpose of making art so I'm sure I'll figure something out.  Any suggestions? Of course I won't be touching the German book because one of my many ancestors named Johannes or Wilhelm will probably haunt me in my dreams if I scribble over the German written word. :) 

I've been wanting to make a zine for awhile but didn't know how to go about it until I read online about a mini zine, basically a cleverly folded piece of paper. This video shows you how to fold the paper:

But what to put in it? I remembered back in high school how I'd photocopy images of paintings and pin the photocopies on my walls at home. Weird I know but I thought I'd do something similar for this zine, so I made some mini paintings and photocopied them. 

I'm also very proud of the image on the cover, it's from an old photo I found that belonged to my grandmother. :) I made 50 copies so if you'd like one please send me your name and address to my email staunch@staunchstudio.com.  This first volume is free because my folding skills were not up to par and also I learned some things along the way that will make my second volume better. 

Have you made any zines and what were your experiences?

I decided to call the painting "Instantly New".  I've become obsessed with sanding away everything on a painting right now. 

This movie has been on my too-watch list for awhile, but I never got around to seeing it.  Well, I finally watched it and I was blown away.  In a nutshell the story revolves around the “love” triangle of the 3 main characters-Vicky the ballerina, Boris the ballet impresario, and Julian the music composer and eventually Vicky’s betrothed.  The story is also about the choice between the love for another person and the love for one’s art, in this case Vicky’s love for her dancing.   Eventually Vicky must choose.  I put love in quotation marks because this triangle isn’t about the obvious love you’re thinking of. Or is it?  And that’s part of the genius of this film-it’s like a dream world and you’re never quite sure where the characters stand in relation to each other.  And by the way, at least watch this film just for the Technicolor which is amazing and also adds to the otherworldly feeling.

My favorite scenes are the backstage/rehearsal scenes where the dancers practice, stagehands work on sets, and musicians tune their instruments.  I want to live in that backstage.  Of course I don’t believe for a second every backstage is as emotional as the one is this movie but still, I want to be in that nurturing, artistic environment.

Honestly, I can’t completely explain the effect The Red Shoes has on me, I just want to keep typing the words “it’s effing amazing” over and over, but I will say that this film makes me want to be the best artist I can be.  And probably all of the paintings I do in the future will be inspired in some way by The Red Shoes. Like the painting below, Torment, which is directly inspired by Vicky’s inner turmoil. 

Seriously, I recommend everyone whether you’re an artist or not to watch this film.  It’s that effing amazing.

"Self", 2011

I drew this on my iPod the other day and immediately loved it, maybe because it looked like someone else drew it. That’s always a bonus in my mind. ;) The website for this app has an online gallery where you can upload your drawing and display it to the world so I did and immediately regretted it when I saw it amongst the other drawings.  Compared to everyone else’s drawings mine looked so simple, easy, and amateurish even.  Yet when I looked at it by itself again, I re-fell in love.  It’s just so cool!

In the book Art and Fear which I’m still reading (I don’t like reading so it takes me forever to finish a book) the authors talk about this idea of having a “magic” required to make art and if you see an artist who has a coherent and purposeful range of pieces while your art is all over the place, that artist has the magic and you don’t.  But as the authors’ state: “Whatever they have is something needed to do their work-it wouldn’t help you in your work even if you had it.  Their magic is theirs.  You don’t lack it.  You don’t need it.  It has nothing to do with you.  Period.”

This describes my problem with the drawing.  On it’s own, it rocks. Compared to others in the gallery, it lost it’s magic.  So I have to stop comparing.  Hahaha, like that will happen but I can learn to accept my art is not like other people’s art and leave it at that.

How do you get over the comparison problem?

This collage was inspired by the smokey, film noir classic “Gilda” starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford.  My barcode collages (like this one) are simple linear pieces and I usually don’t have a plan when I’m picking the papers out-I just go with what I’m feeling at the time.  And this time I was feeling like a femme fatale.

Seriously, who else could pull this off?  The second outfit really inspired the painting below, I love the fuchsia/raspberry pinks paired with dark blue and a touch of mint green.  Of course I had to name this painting after it's namesake, I'd love Lapo to see this. Hmmm.......

And the painting is available here :)