Philly Urban Arts Circle Fundraiser

Inner City elementary art teacher Gabrielle Boyce was allotted $0.50 per student for the entire school year. No, that wasn't a typo, $0.50 for the entire student per year; doing the math, a youngster couldn't even make a piece of macaroni art on that budget. In the past Ms. Boyce has raised funds before to supplement her already ailing budget of her art classes at Sharswood Elementary School, but at no time as today has her budget been so meager.

What's this: I hear here you say, "that's horrible" and "I want to help." Well here's your chance: this year on Friday, Oct. 1st, Gabrielle Boyce will be hosting a fundraiser at Red Hook Coffee & Tea. There will goodies to bid on from local shops and restaurants in a silent auction and art to purchase off of the walls. If you're a Philadelphia native, you can stop by and pick something up for a good cause. If you're a local artist, you can donate a piece of art, whether an original or a high quality reproduction. Not in the area, but want to help-out anyway? There is an address above where you can send a donation- a donation of any size would go a long way to help this underfunded arts program.

Local Artists: Contact me at ryanfriant@gmail.com and I will reply with submission form and further details. You may drop-off your work 9am-8pm, Tuesday-Thursday and at 9am on Friday to the lobby of:

The Market St. Design Center
2400 Market St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103

The Market St. Design Center is near 30th St. Station and has a mural of a whale on the side of it. 9AM FRIDAY WILL BE THE ABSOLUTE LAST TIME TO DROP-OFF WORK. Images do not need to be framed, but should be display ready (i.e. some means to hang the work) and the art should be fairly easy to install. All unsold works will be returned to their creators. Thank you so much if you are able to participate!!

Madame Marie D'Sangre

Madame Marie D'Sangre is a sophisticated mosquito, she enjoys sipping her favorite drink, Mary's Blood, on warm summer evenings.

She was created with sculpey, fabric, acrylic paints and other found objects and was photographed by the artist. She is currently on display at Jinxed, Philadelphia, PA.

Delightful Pets

Here's a piece I did for my recent show at Jinxed in Philadelphia, PA. It was a part of a series of fantasy creatures I had conceptualized. I'm also going to repurpose it for an Illustration Friday challenge, "Cage"- shhh, don't tell anyone.

Holiday Craftiness: Penelope Penguin

I made this little penguin stuffed animal for my niece Kayla for Christmas and I thought I would share it. The whole thing took about 6 hours from designing her, to making the pattern, to the finished penguin and was completely hand-sewn. As a side note, Kayla was very happy with her present.

Hellboy 15th Anniversary Group Show

Last Friday, Dec. 4th, I had the pleasure of showing in the Autumn Society's Hellboy group show. It was a fun night and I would like to thank everyone for their hard work in organizing the show. I decided to make my own rendition of Hellboy's gilled side-kick Abe Sapian. The piece is titled "Two Lost Souls Swimming in a Fishbowl". I liked the basic design of the character and I enjoy his quirks, Abe's love of classical music for one. Along with the finished illustration, I've included some work in progress shots and detail shots.

-Poster by Peter Wonsowski & Justin Grey

-Basic sketch and color study. I couldn't find the right object to make the phonograph have that nice arcing fluted shape. This is the down-side to working with found object elements, you have to find the parts of things to use them. As I was working in time constraints, I had to settle for a smaller cone shape. The composition has also changed somewhat from the sketch to the finish.

-On the right of this photo is a kind of "visual shopping list" comprised of collected reference and I also attached a couple of swatches of fabric that I knew I was going to use to make the main figure, Abe Sapian.

-This is a detail of the phonograph in the shot. I wanted to include it because it is out of focus in the finished illustration and I like the way it turned-out. It's constructed from a ring box, armature wire, K&S aluminum pipe, the top of a cone incense burner, a washer and a couple of nails.

Internet Marketing, The Sh**head Edition

Why is it that companies/independent entrepreneurs can only muster forum posts and blog comments that if not blatantly spam, smell like and look like it?  Like when someone posts a reply to your blog, but it actually has absolutely nothing to do with the original post.  Here's a tip, a hint of sincerity goes a long way, and if you actually had anything truly insightful to say, people would back-track to your blog or business venture.

I love seeing the posts on Linked in and the like where the discussion topic is "Hire me....blah, blah".  Here is a two part question:  what part of that actually constitutes a discussion and second, why should they hire you?  Apparently you have nothing to contribute to the group you belong to, what does that say about your abilities to contribute to that prospective employer that your poorly marketing to/spamming?

There is no formula to making it in business and especially not in this creative field, but I can note one truism, the people who have made it worked hard and have done so sincerely.  Bobby Chiu of Imaginism Studios, pioneer of the global phenomenon of subway sketching, has said, "...the best things have come from the things that I wanted to do, not for the money, but just because I wanted to do them."  For my own piece, I'd say that just doing quality work and getting it out to your market are the key ingredients to success.  A little networking never hurt, but all the same, if you cannot generate any interest in your work after taking care of the producing and marketing aspect, you may have to answer some hard, honest questions to yourself.

Stonehenge Was Nearly Trampled by a Dwarf!!

  I'm currently in an online group show dedicated to Spinal Tap, entitled "Smell the Glove", hosted by Phone Booth Gallery.  I love the "Stonehenge was nearly trampled by a dwarf!" line, it never fails to make me laugh, and did a piece inspired by it.  I decided to make the dwarf's costume a hybrid of a druid and jestor's clothing.