A newer, cuter You.

Cross your fingers for me that this painting gets into the upcoming juried exhibition "Seeing Red" at Visual Art Exchange in downtown Raleigh:

meet your replacement (a newer, cuter You) 2009, oil on printed fabric, 24"x36", by me, Diane Feissel

.

Anniversaire.

38 years ago today, I arrived. Just in time for dinner, so I'm told: 6:01pm. Never was big on mornings, so arriving in time for a meal and the rest of the evening/nighttime sounds about right.

For my birthday weekend, I indulged a painting itch: I've been wanting to try painting on mylar. Now, I had always thought mylar was a substance more of the metallic variety, like those helium balloons... but it turns out that it is actually more vellum-y, a thin, translucent plastic-y sheet with a silky smooth surface. Sounds cool, huh? SO my first attempt was just a motion sketch in oil (see below). So far? Meh - the surface isn't nearly as fun to paint on as I would have hoped... just slippery enough to make the paint slide a tad more than I'd like, but enough tooth to keep things a bit sticky. Hmm. Anyway, here's what I have so far:

R.I.P. oh strange noseless one.

Ok, all his personal peculiarities aside, it is very sad (though I guess on some level not too surprising) that Michael Jackson has passed. Talented but truly troubled, an altogether strange individual with a charmed yet deeply unfortunate childhood. Alas. In his honor, I post the following, a video of a live 100+person reenactment of the "Thriller" video in San Francisco's Dolores Park back in 2007... it's a good reminder of that which is awesome about Michael Jackson, and about San Francisco:

Monster.

Long time no blog. Sorry. Commissions and other painting projects have kept me busy.
I'll post some photos of what I've been working on soon... in the meantime, on a kind-of art-related note: we discovered recently that the NC State student responsible for the Barrel Monster on Hillsborough Street lives in our neighborhood, which may account for the weekend sighting of this couch sitting near a dumpster on the street behind ours:

Take flight.

Other than 8 million other projects including commissions, this is one thing I've been working on lately:

no longer flightless, oil on printed fabric, 20" x 20", by me, Diane Feissel.

'80s awesomeness.

John just brought this video to my attention, a great reference to Salvador Dali. "The persistence of Simon LeBon," perhaps...?

Happy Birthday Aimee!!!!

Nearing completion. I think I'm almost done, nearly, almost. Mostly. Happy birthday!! ladybug, oil on printed fabric, 16"x20", 2009, by me, Diane Feissel.

Women! Painting women!

Just a heads-up to let you all know that, along with friend and fellow painter Alia El-Bermani, I'm now helping contribute to the blog created by a friend and fellow painter Sadie Valeri. The blog, called "Women Painting Women," is exactly what it sounds like: a collection of paintings of the female figure by contemporary women artists. This has been a great project to be a part of, I've had a blast discovering the vast variety of seriously talented women there are out there. Come check it out! The address is the following: www.womenpaintingwomen.blogspot.com.

Art recommendations - Raleigh/Triangle Area.

As usual, I have some art favorites I'd like to suggest that you check out - in this particular case, the geographical focus is the Triangle area of NC: Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill. Check it out:

Tonight is First Friday, and I think I will be lazy by directing you to New Raleigh's roundup/overview of the evening's events; however, I do want to highlight two exhibits which are only touched upon in their overview: be sure to check out Daniel Allegrucci's woodcuts at Morning Times on Hargett Street, and Gretchen Morrissey's show of prints Seed + Pollen + Nectar in the lobby at Artspace on Davie Street.

Also: if you are in need of something fun to do this Sunday from 1-3 in the afternoon, come on over to check out an exhibition of recent paintings by excellent artist and fellow Bryn Mawr alum Annemarie Gugelmann at Open Eye Café in Carrboro, NC (just west of Chapel Hill). Annemarie will be exhibiting a series of paintings of San Francisco, which of course melts my little heart, left high on a hill... here's a sample of one:

From Bernal 6, 30" x 40", oil on canvas, 2009, $380 (wow!! a steal!!) by Annemarie Gugelmann.

Exhibition entitled Images of San Francisco will be at Open Eye Cafe in Carrboro from June 1 - June 31, 2009; opening reception is Sunday, June 7th between 1-3PM.

Lions and tigers and bears. Or, just lions.

Yipes - my in-laws just found this poster up in their neighborhood - actually, right next to their house - in northern California (Sonoma County):Just when you think a rogue possum or pesky raccoon is bad... thank your lucky stars you don't have a mountain lion roaming into your backyard.

Zoikes!

Birthday.

As I mentioned in this post from last year, my grandmother would have been 92 years old today. Happy Birthday, Grammie, and RIP! You were 110% awesome.

Go greyhound.

Since I've been back I've been trying to get caught up on some painting commission projects, and also another project or two for pleasure. The following is a draft of a painting I'm doing for a friend and fellow artist of her adorable greyhound Sophie:

Sophie, painting-in-progress, oil on printed fabric, 10"x10" by me, Diane Feissel.

Raleigh art goodness.

Something nice of late to distract us from the misery of limbo brought on by a sloooooww real estate market: the recent acquisition of two lovely artworks by two of Raleigh's finest artists, Rachel Herrick and Joyce Watkins King. Here they are:

Small Bombs, mixed media, 12"x12" by Rachel Herrick

Encaustic/mixed media painting, 12"x12" by Joyce Watkins King