Today in the North East it is rainy. Rain drops all over! Days like this are awesome because it makes me want to finish up some paintings. Take advantage of the gloom.
Every Time A Cruise Ships Sinks A Mermaid Get’s New Martini Glasses (unfinished) Acrylic on canvas
24″ x 36″
It’s been a month or so since I’ve been able to finish these two paintings but soon enough they will be complete! They are close to my size, about 5’2 & 4’9 painted on wood panels. I am excited to finish them! The larger one “My Life, My Lover, My Lady Is The Sea” was inspired by the song “Brandy, by The Looking Glass” (it is also my name so I guess the title of the song signs my name for me..haha)
Found some wooden planks that took a fancy to my eye. Had some beer in the fridge & a good music mix playing so I decided to spend the night painting while bopping my head to tunes. Animals & Breasts, not the most original idea but they are going to look awesome in my living room when they are completed! If you have any ideas for other animals that might look nice with breasts, write me a hollar, I am open to suggestions! (also, I am way into music mix swapping so if it’s your thing too let’s make it a swap party!)
I was just listening to the newest Radiolab episode and my hands could not seem to relax. I even managed to unintentionally organize everything on my desk in height, so after tapping my fingers on the desk to the sound of the radiator I just whipped out some paint and started to “paint doodle” I would call it. It’s a half ass painting/ not paying attention but more I posted the pic cause I wanna prove to my buddy Clint that I am in fact wearing a towel on my head because I am procrastinating going outside in the snow. It is very warm inside, just like it is in a uterus.
A good friend of mine is a pretty big fan of Tim Burton’s ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’. She asked me if I could paint her something for her newly decorated black & white bathroom and I said “why not?’ I immediately thought of that movie and imagined Jack Skellington sitting on a toilet which then converted his name in my mind to Jack Smellington. It made me giggle so I went with it! She purchased a 36″ x 24” canvas, I told her the colors I had in mind for an idea of what she was looking for and then marched to my art corner and had my way with the paint! I had in mind mixing Tim Burton’s style with a Claude Monet type brush style. The painting is about 60% finished, I am thinking of having his legs stick out of the outhouse because he is gigantic! & maybe Sally’s silhouette in there somewhere trying to get as far from the smell as possible. (hard to tell in the pic because it is a cell phone snapshot but Zero has a pin on his nose also). When this is finished (hopefully tonight) I will post a better resolution photo so detail will be visible. Woot!
This is what I have so far…
“I am the shadow on the moon at night / Filling your dreams to the brim with farts. “
Tis the season to be thoughtful. Sometimes when the holidays settle down and my brain has time to jump around through thoughts that have been pushed aside to allow the day-to-day actions to be completed & I always end up sailing deep into memory lane when I was in Uganda, Africa. To not turn this blog post into a large emotional journal entry, I will keep this simple. August-October 2010 I had a lot of money saved up from working. I refuse to use my money for pointless things that I really do not need so I decided to go to Africa. I applied to teach and live in Uganda for a month or so and I was accepted. I purchased my plane ticket and within a few months I was on a plane by myself going to a 3rd-world country where I knew not a soul. When I arrived I was escorted to a small village called Golomolo near Lake Victoria where I lived among 300 orphans in a hut without plumbing or furniture (you get used to it almost immediately). I taught art & science to the children and I fell in love with every single one of them. The emotions I experienced I can not describe in depth enough for people to understand what a beautiful experience it was, I have never cried so much in my life, and leaving was the hardest thing I ever had to accept. I write this today because I woke up today thinking about my time there and I started to tear, I really miss the connection to humanity I felt while I was in Africa.
Honestly, my first few nights in Uganda I cried almost every night. I felt guilty for taking advantage of so many things I had back home and how easy life was for me. I wanted to give every child that same life and so many times I wished to trade places. But the thing was, these children were as happy as could be! Happier than any kid I’ve ever seen in the States and then I thought “why would I want to take that away?” That is the beauty of culture. I admit, when I returned home I tried to work on some paintings I started in Africa but I got too emotional while trying to finish them so I have about 4 canvases that are not done and I wonder sometimes if maybe they are as complete as they will ever get. People ask me if I’d ever go back again and I reply, “If I could I’d be on a plane there right now to stay.”
If you’d like to see more pictures of this life-changing journey I’ve got more on Flickr
Christmas. The Season for giving. In my case, the season for creating. What I love most about this season is giving what I create. Rarely do I have a list to hand of things I want. I believe a gift should only be given if it represents the relationship between the giver and receiver. It shows you sincerely know a person. It’s why silly inside joke gifts are so precious. I have been doing this since I was born for my family and friends. I love being able to capture a moment we shared and visually present it in my own way. One time I made my mother this stop motion video for x-mas. It took a long time to make but in the end, it spoke the message I wanted to send to her and on x-mas morning when I saw tears roll from her face while watching it I said to myself “this is what Christmas is all about.” My brother is in the military and recently became a new husband. I now have a sister in law. I am painting for them a moment the three of us shared last year when were were stuck in a blizzard the day after x-mas, we took silly pictures in the streets. It’s in progress, I am going to have to paint the perfect snowflake.
Art Gift Progress! UPDATES
Currently I am working on about 5 paintings at once! Today I started my mothers gift, her sweet little spoiled boston terrier whom I love named “Yoda” aka “Little Crazy” will be greeting her in a painting this Christmas! I shall finish it pretty soon. I’m painting it on wood, I can’t wait to coat it in gloss when it is finished!
I hope you all are doing special things this holiday for the ones you love! As crappy as it can be due to angry shopping cart shoppers, there is still time to personalize your items! Eff those shoppers! Make it worth smiling for.
I am really sad that Season 2 of Boardwalk Empire has ended already! It seems like it went by too fast! But gosh, it was AMAZING! The more I thought about the show and it’s awesomeness, the more I convinced myself to do a painting in honor of the show I love so dear. I decided to go for an erie approach, much like the opening of the show should have been. I mixed my three favorite characters together ( Nucky Thompson, Jimmy Darmody & Richard Harrow) in a ghostly setting on the Boardwalk of Atlantic City, NJ with their ghost spilling out of an old whiskey bottle.
Never forget Prohibition. How could you? No one was drinking. #badjoke
Acrylic on wood. 16″ x 22″
Brandi Kerekes 
