The Dead Queen

So, I finished a couple of things in December but they were all presents. One was a painted recipe box for my mother which actually came out better than I thought it would but someone accidentally erased all of my pictures so I can't show you that.

Every year for Christmas my brother gives me a gift card to the place where I buy paint. I used to use them because they carried the Pelican Plaka paint I like but they seem to be phasing it out. Luckily their general selection is pretty great and I make an order every January to restock things I've used up or to try new stuff. In order to really get a grip on what I needed I looked through everything I had to see what colors were lacking and to throw out stuff that was too dried out to use.

I find that really pleasing to look at.

I ended up buying a few metallics (seems like I buy a new gold every year) and some new white and black to test out, as well as a new ceramic palette to hopefully curb my compulsion to mix paint on any surface I can find (note all the jar tops in the picture). Exciting, I know. On a slightly related note, how cool are impossible colors?!

I got to do another art trade which I love. I traded the urn painting I did for this amazing hand of glory necklace (top) from Amanda Moore aka Adelina Mictlan:

The original hand drawing was also by my buddy Patt Whelan aka Patt Attack.

I had my eye on this thing for so long since I love anything related to the hand of glory and I love big weird jewelry. Amanda's stuff is really well done with a nice heavy style and she uses a lot of interesting etching methods to make the more graphic pieces. I've also got one of these finger pendants coming my way as part of the trade and we're chatting about some kind of collaboration AND she'll be making some small bat pendants for the bat show. Neat!

This weekend I finally got to work on a new painting for a Feb. group show and got everything drawn, inked, and ready to paint. The pencils:
and inked:

Also working on my piece for the bat show. I'll say it involves a secular icon, bones and an attempt to cast faux rock crystal pieces in resin for the frame. Excited to get to work and plan the show a bit more.