through the owl eye lens

1. Tim Burton. LACMA. Killsonic top left

2. Halloween. I think I'm going to a Masquerade Ball top right

3. Dia de Los Muertos headdresses 2nd row left

4. Thrifting on Sherman Way. Ornate mirror $7.00 2nd row right

5. Neon rainbow colored Gaff tape 3rd row left

6. Posing for the new Canon Cinema Camera 3rd row right

7. José hanging my art show 4th row left

8. Labeling my works 4th row right

9. The Athletic Club 5th row left

10. Bryan Spencer Diaz Diaz 5th row right

11. Exploring Pasadena bottom row left

12. Dulce de Leche bottom row right

Wrapped

Have I told you what a creative gift wrapper I am?

I usually spend little to no money on wrapping gifts!

On Saturday, I went to my friends (we've been best friends since we were 5, 

but have only seen each other once within the past 7 years) Bridal Shower. 

I've never been to a Bridal Shower before and had no idea what to get her. 

For her engagement party I drew her a little family portrait, and for her 
wedding I'm making her something super awesome (at least I think it is)

I wanted to get her something she could use for her new life, something 
that wasn't handmade by me (I almost never buy "real" gifts). I settled 

on a gift card to one of the places she was registered. The salesman gave me 

a boring blank white card with the information about how much was on 
the card, and who it was from. I ended up coving the gift card with 
watercolor paper and drawing a flower on it with India Ink. I also got her 
a little tin of "wedding tea" (how cool is that?) which I wrapped in a 
brown paper Trader Joe's bag and placed on top of the glass bowl. 
This is my absolute favorite wrapping job yet! 

Sunday Night Drawing Challenge

I found this fun little drawing game through Danny Brito, 
which he found through Ambrid.The premise behind the challenge 
is to incorporate two or more item from a list of twelve subjects.
 I really love the idea and will try and keep up each week. This is my sketch.
I chose the words Crown, Sisters, and Hide.

I really like how this one turned out. I'm especially fascinated with the 

weird creepy demon creature I came up with. Quite unusual for me. 

Tapir Deer

Remember this sketch? This is the painting it became.
I can't seem to find all of my progress shots, But this is the final result.
It was the last painting I completed for my show. My plan is to post all the pieces 
I made (the ones I haven't shared here) and then update my store 
with all the artwork that wasn't sold. 
This will happen sometime within the next two weeks.
 I will also have a small selection of new prints available :) 

November Giveaway

This giveaway will be open until the last day of November

and you will win a signed print of this painting.

to enter, answer the question below

in the form of a comment. 

What is your favorite Thanksgiving treat?

My favorite Thanksgiving treat has always been my aunt Jill's pumpkin bread.

But after she described the Halloween bark she'll be making on thursday

 I might change it. I'll let you know ;)

The Swamp Monster hosts...

a Variety Show?

Next wednesday, We (Dulce de Leche)

will be playing a show with our friends Sunrise Owl.

This will be our last gig with Bryan because in January

He's going to India for however long his heart allows :(

Aside from us, there will be comedians, other bands,

and artwork! The event invitation says that it costs $10.00

But if you RSVP with them it will only cost you $5.00.

you can do that if you email this guy, swampcontact@gmail.com 

p.s. I made this flyer real quick on my ipad because the one on the 

event page was kind of lame :/ plus, I liked the idea of a fuzzy mossy

swamp monster. He's nice. But might bite you if you make him angry.

So don't make him angry. You'll get poisoned and die.

Opening night

Here are some photographs Esau Rosales

captured of my art show opening.

José shot some video and hopefully

he'll put it together soon, so I can show you.

 Cucumber spiced water

 last minute stoke of genius added an hour to our set up time.

But I think the handmade cupcake toppers of my art work was worth it.

 Treats and Sweets

 my mom (left) couldn't have done it without her or José.

 Shadows of my dad and me.

 Art patron.

 I just liked the way this one looked.

Me (left) talking with Bo (my grandpa) and PK 

I think I had to take Jose's nephew and his cousin

for a tour up the stairway and read them 

all the names of my paintings. Like three times.

The sixth time they asked, I finally had to turn them down.

I also promise to post pictures

of some of the artwork I

haven't shown on 

my blog yet.

November WIP

I've been thinking a lot about what my next move 

is going to be. There are two projects I really want to finish

before the end of December. One is top secret, 

and the other will be revealed in the next week or so.

Dulce de Leche has been rehearsing for a gig we have next wednesday.

I'll post details in a bit.

Sketches of November

I've finished both the paintings for November and December,

and I'll be posting the November Giveaway quite soon.

Here is the "dead layer".

oops...

The winner of my October giveaway was Kim.

I completely forgot to announce it :/

But to be fair, Kim already received her prize, and 

everyone else entered in the giveaway

knew she won because my mom told them.

In other news, my art show couldn't have gone better!

I'll go into more detail once I sort through the photos Esau and José captured.

I also promise to show you some last minute art I made for my show.

all in good time my friends. Fine. can't wait?

Here's a peek.

KILLSONIC's big adventure

As I told you weeks ago (before I was caught up in a tumult of chaos),

KILLSONIC was invited to play the closing reception

of Tim Burton's exhibit at LACMA. It was awesome.

 Number one, we were able to see the exhibit. for free. yay!

Number two, we got to play a pretty huge sold out event hosted by KROQ.

Number three, I think it was one of our best shows. energy wise.

Number four, They had gift bags filled with candy :) mmmmm.

Here are some of my favorite photographs taken by Esau Rosales.

(p.s. He would probably kill me for using some of his "un-edited"

pictures on my blog...so, sorry Esau).

 This is my favorite photo of the bunch.

Erica just looks so classic and ghostly.

 Me, applying the carpet skeleton cutout on to Luis' eye.

From the moment we got to LACMA I was cutting and 

gluing these onto everyones eye. It took FOREVER.

Thankfully, Taryn was there to do the make-up part.

 green room snacks.

 Christian (left) and Angel (right)

 Second favorite photo. Bryan, me, and José

 walking.

 Is that a real security guard? or a costume? (far left)

 playing.

 Andy Ben looks sooooo intense! 

 Love the composition of this one. 

 We (the drum section) had so much room to play around in (a very rare situation)

 I think the make-up came out pretty great for all the drama that surrounded it. 

The  black tulle was a nice complement.

 PrincessFrank. Profiled.

 We all died in the end. well, at least for a full five minutes.

On the rooftop. From left to right,

AK, me, José, Bryan and Andy.