RAW Artist show = Contest!

Hey all.  So I'm in charge of selling 20 tickets to the art extravaganza that's coming up on Thursday, February 16th.  I'll be showing some new paintings, selling some ties, and generally hanging out at 103 Harriet which is the main single floor of 1015 (you know, the big nightclub where the Handmade Ho Down was?)

ANYWAY, so I need to sell these tickets by Sunday at midnight (PST), and since I feel a little bit weird asking you to pay to come see my art (granted, there's gonna be music and DJ's and dancing and tons of great paintings and photographs and body painting and other stuff), I've decided that I want to make it worth your while ON TOP of just checking out a really cool event.

So.  I'm holding a raffle for everyone who buys a $10 ticket.  Note: buying ahead of time not only qualifies you for the contest, but also saves you $5 if you decide later to buy at the door.  Hell, you don't even have to go to the event (although I'd love to see you) if you don't want to.  If you want, you can also donate your spot back to me and I can offer it to people who would want to go but can't afford it.  Whatever, anyway, here's the deets.

1.  Buy your ticket to the event HERE by Sunday, February 11th by 11:59pm, PST. Make sure my name is in the drop-down field that says "Support your artist."

2.  Email me your receipt, or a screencap of your check out page, whatever.  Basically prove to me you bought a ticket within the time frame.  You can send proof over to: risk [at] rickkitagawa.com

3.  I'll enter your name into a raffle for one of the following prizes:

•  A copy of "The Journal of Dr. Marcus Igiatu," a book that I wrote, illustrated, bound by hand, and hand-silkscreened.  There are only about 8 of these, and I usually sell them for around $400.
• A 28+ color silkscreen print titled "Bullies" that has three monster children looking creepy.
• "Hydra" painting from the Bestiarum vocabulum show last march, a big-ass painting of snake-tacular proportions
• A custom printed tie for you.  You can see all the designs and tie colors at http://www.monkeyandseal.com/ties.html
• 3 "Fantasies Shattered" prints.
• 3 "Sad Panda" prints.
• 9 "Jackalope" prints
• And if none of the previously created work interests you, I'm also offering to create a digital illustration of whatever you want.  You basically get to be the art director, and I'm your illustrator and I'll print you a 9"x12" copy.  

4.  If you notice, there are 20 different items up for raffle, and I need to sell 20 tickets, so as long as you crazy rabid fans out there don't buy ten tickets each, the chance of winning something is pretty high. 

5.  Also, the way I'm running the raffle is that the 1st person picked gets their choice of prizes.  I know in contests sometimes I personally want 3rd place rather than 1st or 2nd, so this way being the first picked person gets their top choice.

Cool.  That's it.  I'll do the drawing on Friday the 17th, and will notify winners via email.

Thanks everyone!  So go buy your ticket(s) NOW!  Oh yeah, if you want to see some shots of the prizes:

 page excerpts from the book

 "Bullies" the big-ass silkscreen print

 The Jackalope print

 The Sad Panda print

Hydra painting

"Fantasies Shattered" print

New art, stickers

So I finally updated the painting section on www.rickkitagawa.com to include the Alone in the Dark series (thus far) and added some flavor text.  Cool.

This was a painting I did while hanging out at Artspan.  Acrylic on canvas.  The original concept was that he was going to be some creature that sort of fades up into the sky, but I ended up really wanted to paint the background blue, then went with the complementary contrast color scheme and did orange.  So now, he's just a burning mummy sort of "fading up" into the sky, but only via flames, and less ethereal planeshifting.

Also, I have stickers!  They're 2.75" x 2.75".  You can pick them up (for free) at Big Umbrella Studios, or paypal me $1 (or more if you want) and I'll send you a few.    You can also send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Rick Kitagawa c/o Big Umbrella Studios, Attn: Create or Die,  906.5 Divisadero St., San Francisco, CA 94115.  Cool.

The Witch

Did this painting on the A-frame sign that we use for Big Umbrella in honor of the Witches of Wonder show that opened Friday night and runs through November 11th.  Eve has two great paintings in it, and there is a lot of other cool work too!

alive-est

I most recently felt the most alive when I was at our gallery show The Undiscovered.  I was at a tiny little gallery/smoke shop in the mission and was surrounded by friends and supporters.  There wasn't really any smell, besides wood and maybe a little bit of sweat, but I was constantly talking with friends about my work and just hanging out and happy that people were deeply pondering the Secret of Deadbrook.


When did you feel most alive recently? Where were you? What did you smell? What sights and sounds did you experience? Capture that moment on paper and recall that feeling. Then, when it’s time to create something, read your own words to reclaim a sense of being to motivate you to complete a task at hand.
(Author: Sam Davidson)

New painting: Spirit of the Lawn

Inspired a bit by the Totoro Forest Project book (although not referenced at all), I recently did this little piece as part of the Spirits Within series.

The spirit of the lawn loves barefoot children, sunshine, and fertilizer (a big distinction, however, is to be made between fertilizer and a dog pooping on it).  Oftentimes, the spirt of the lawn gets lonely and if it is not cared for, will depart from your grass and your lawn will soon wither and become infested with bleak weeds.

10 min fig. study + new cute monster

Did a quick 10 min. figure study, instead of painting (like my old Academy instructors would prefer I do), I actually did the line sketch with black acrylic, then did some fills, hit a few highlights, and washed in a quick background.  Eh, cool.

I also did this new little cute monster thing.  I think his name is "Stabby."  He's not quite sure what to do with the knife, but I'm sure he'll figure something out. 

I find myself rapidly doing more and more of these cutesy little blog creatures, as opposed to my more nightmarish beasts or the horrific portraits.  Hmm, we'll see where this is all going.

Art stuff, gallery ownership, monsters, etc.

 So here's the awning for the gallery space that I now co-own.  Yay!  You can find out more info at www.bigumbrellastudios.com.

Our last show "A House of Cards" had these four paintings of mine up, all monsters inspired by the four suits of a deck of cards.

 Clubs

 Hearts

 Diamonds

 Spades

Sorry for the crappy quality, took 'em with my phone right before the opening.

Many apologies for completely falling off the blogging bandwagon.  Between getting this gallery up and running, trying to get our workshop program off and running, work (at PS and printing shirts), and just trying to paint, I've been crazy swamped.  Also, my dad ended up getting some of his kidney removed due to kidney cancer, so I spent a few days visiting him in the hospital.  Fortunately, the hospital was 6 blocks away from our apt., so the walk there was quick and painless.

Now I'm taking City College classes to help defer my huge mountain of private loans.  The classes are way more chill than any I've ever taken at Academy.  Much less emphasis on classical realism, and so far no homework.  I ended up joining in during the third week of class and pretty much caught up completely in one day.  Nice.

It's really a cool environment for experimentation and just trying out new stuff.  I must admit, I'm already loving it (just not loving getting up early, but whatevs).

Anyway, happy 2011 and hopefully I'll be able to post here weekly or so.  As always, you can keep up more frequently MWF (or thereabouts) at the Monkey + Seal blog.   

11/22/10-12/02/10

Gads, I've been so wrapped up in painting I completely forgot to upload stuff. Guh.  Anyway, here's all the stuff I've been working on the past 10 days.

 This was done for the Monkey + Seal blog.  I am vegan, after all., but Tofurky is pretty damn tasty.

These next few pieces are new paintings I"ll be showing at the Chillin Productions Holiday show and at Big Umbrella's group show on December 9th.

Last but not least, these are digitally inked line drawings for the Monkey + Seal 2010 holiday cards.  I'm working on getting the final card colored and to the press so hopefully we can sell them at the Bazaar Bizarre Holiday Show on the 11th and 12th at Fort Mason.  

The drawings below will be digitally moved around, resized, colored, and etc. all before it goes to press.  Yay!

07/06/10

Admittedly, this was not done today, but I figured I'd post this little poorly-shot photo of part of this piece for the show.  It's title is "Inner Demons I."   The painting is actually a bit longer, with better cropping, but I was in a hurry to snap this photo before I had to run to the gallery to hang my stuff.  Once again, it'll be part of my contribution to the Hyphen Magazine x Paper Hat Productions Alien/ation show at Space gallery.  The show is on July 10th, and I'll be live paintings, so I really hope you show up and say hi!  Really, I like meeting people, so say hi!

07/04/10

Crappy photo of the final piece.  Inner Demons V - 25.5" x 26.5" - Acrylic on reclaimed IKEA table piece.

It'll be shown now through July 10th at Space gallery.  Check out the closing night party!  More details at www.paperhatproductions.com

07/03/10

Ug, sorry I was late again today.  Lame.

Anyway, the above left sketch is something I whipped out in my sketchbook as a quick basic sketch for one of my paintings.  The one on the right is a 5-min digital paint, so you can see basically what's going on. 

Since we hang for our Alien/ation show tomorrow, I'll do my best to take some pics of the finished piece for tomorrow or the next day.

5/07/10

This first speed paint was done as a sort of inspirational take on our seemingly insurmountable goals.  I  used it as the image for today's blog post over at Monkey + Seal about getting off your ass and doing some work.

The below are done with acrylic washes on paper (watercolor isn't always permanent enough for my liking) with ink on top, with more acrylic on top of that (sometimes).  I'm trying out this new, quick, very raw style, and I'm liking it a lot.  For shits and giggles and hopefully some cash, I'm going to start selling these bad boys - original art for $22 ($20 + 2 shpping).  

#1. Ogre Grin

#2 - Bacon Demon

#3 Beheaded

#4 Brain Stew

Please buy my shit.  And by "shit," I mean "totally awesome artwork.  Thanks.

nosferatu

Long time, no post. Busy with the gallery show that's coming up on FRIDAY!!!! Check it out here and RSVP on the FB event page here.

PS - If you're seriously interested in buying the art, show up early at 7pm for the Artists' Reception. We've already got a few inquiries, and buyers will be there to check it out, so if you don't want to miss out, show up early, grab a drink and a price sheet, and shop away!

Diptych which also is going on my new business cards

Title says it all, really. In other news, I'm also working on rebranding my entire site, re-inventing Little Yeti, writing an eBook and a graphic novel, and putting together a gallery show. Sounds about right to kick off a new year.

Woo!

See this painting? It (among others) is now SOLD, baby!

So tonight Eve and I met with a couple who just moved into a new place and wanted some wall candy. Through friend of a friend, the guy heard about us and wanted to buy some art...and he did!

As embarrassingly noobish as this may sound, it's nice to finally have someone buy your art who doesn't already know you.

Hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?

So last night I had a dream about working at Paper Source and having someone buy a shit-ton of ribbon and gift cards, and I was struggling to find the right gift cards under the heaps of ribbon. What a fucking nightmare that was. I've been thinking, is PS the new TR for me? I hope not, for my sanity's sake.

Also: I will still be posting here, but I'll be posting at least Monday, Wednesday, and Friday over at the new blog: www.blog.monkeyandseal.com. Eve and I are getting seriously about this art biz, for reals.

Now, off to sleep. Work day 5 of 6 (in a row) incoming.

Push Up Challenge

So I've decided to take this one hundred push up challenge and just took my test today. I'm sorta weaksauce after the long lapse in physical activity, so I managed 17 before my arms failed. Since I started in the middle of the week, my workout days are going to end up being something like Thursday, Saturday, Monday. Weird.

Anyway, I also finally got some of my new mat board paintings up on the skagawa (skylar-kitagawa) website which is currently acting as Eve's fundraiser site. It's not nearly like anything I was doing before at the Academy, but that's the way things seem to be going these days.

I also made some stationery sets tonight (pirate stationery, to be exact) but I still need to photograph it and get it up on our Etsy site. It will be on sale at the SF Zine Fest (which, by the way, still has tables, so sign up now!)

New work

So while I've been working on a complete update/overhaul/redesign of www.rickkitagawa.com, I've been changing up my painting style. Long gone (for the most part) is the pursuit of classical realism.

Now, I'm painting 100% for myself, which means quicker, dirtier, more visceral, and with shitloads of poorly painted words that (in theory) add to the piece in ways that a pure image would lack. I've always been a fan of words and art (hello comics and graphic novels) and I think they can be used to tell stories that either just art or just words can tell (although in my case, I'm not sure if I'm achieving this lofty goal all the time, or just being obnoxious...either way is fine).

So I'll shut up now and just show some of the art. They're painted with acrylic paint on black mat board ~3"x4".