New print, no show for me

So this little cuties is available on my site's store here (aka www.monkeyandseal.com) for a whopping $13. Not too bad for a 3-color serigraph on cardstock.

Two new prints will be hitting the store soon, a 3-color squid, and a 1-color "fornicate your couch" homage to Dave Chappelle.

In other, more lame-ass news, I didn't get into the Spring Show, period. It does make me feel a little bit better that the rumor is that since they're so limited on space, they were really biased against large pieces (while most of the pieces that might have gotten in were pretty large). Even so, I just have to keep on doing what I'm doing, and even though I won't be in the Spring Show, such is the life of an artist.

On the other hand, Eve did get accepted into the Spring Show for Illustration! She submitted 4 pieces, and we're not sure how many will get hung, but even though I'm bummed about my own situation, I'm super excited that her stuff will be in the show! Woot!

Anyhoo, even though I have class tomorrow and Friday, I don't have any finals due (I finished them early to submit to the show). Well, even though I didn't make it, at least now I'm pretty much done with the semester. So now I'm taking a nice break and playing some Settler of Catan online. My handle is Little Yeti, so if you see me, join up on a game!

Drama hog

So for kicks I decided to go and randomly re-read an old blog post from my other, now dead to the world blog.

I won't say what I wrote, nor when it was, but I can say this : god damn I am such a dramatic stage-hog. I can say that I have (I hope) most definitely grown up a lot in the past 4 years since writing that post. Who knew so much could happen?

New portfolio site! In other news, epic fail.

Self-portrait: Pastel

Seascape - Oil on canvas - 16" x 20"

So the good news is that thanks to the awesomeness of "monkeyboy" from the Airtight interactive forums, I managed to work out most of the kinks from my personal site and it's up and running. Now it's just some design issues (uh, the header a bit big, anyone?) but at least it's functional.

www.rickkitagawa.com. Come check it out!

In other, lamer news, I submitted 5 pieces to the Spring Show for fine art and got a total of 0 of them in. Sigh. I was most disappointed that none of my silkscreen pieces got in, but I have to admit they're more pizazz rather than super technical printing, so if that's what I'm being judged on, then so it goes. It just means I have to get better at printing while keeping the looseness that I like. Anyhoo, I'll try and photograph all my submissions this weekend and get 'em up here and in my store soon.

Judging for the Illustration portion of the show is today and this weekend, so it's my last shot to getting in this year. Cross your fingers.

So I thought about it this morning, and as much as it eats shit that I didn't get in this year, I realized that in the end, it's not about the Spring Show. I asked myself "would you still go to art school even if they didn't have a show? Would you still go to art school if you knew you weren't going to get in next year?" I would, and even though I still damn well want to get into the show next year, it's really about learning. I have the rest of my life to get into shows and craps (it would be nice if it happened right away), so I should just focus on getting better.

I'm still going to try and sell the crap out of my artwork, but such is life.

Also, so I fell short of the $600 in 10 days goal, but I did manage to get a graphic design gig that made about half of that. So who knows, maybe this whole "setting goals" thing works.

Art on sale, finals madness

So I finally put some paintings and prints up on our Etsy site at www.monkeyandseal.com. Huzzah! I'll be posting some more affordable art up very soon, as I just did a large 3-color edition of a jackalope and some quick monster paintings on paper that will go up as soon as they're scanned/photographed.

Anyway, I just had a 22-hour day yesterday, 15 of those either screenprinting or painting, then another 8 of those doing an illustration and a wedding invitation design. When these roughs are finalized, I'll post more.

So this swine flu thing is just stupid, btw. People die of the regular flu everyday. No biggie, and when you can report the individual cases on a daily basis, IT IS NOT A PANDEMIC!

I want to start coughing on the bus and then muttering "..hmm, that chorizo I just ate isn't sitting well..."

Anyway, time to do some painting, then I have a meeting with a wedding client. Yosh!

Crazy plan

So I've decided that within 10 days I will have made at least $600 from selling my art. This is a declaration.

I've never sold any paintings nor do I know how I shall make this $600, but my bank account will be $600 larger come May 4th, 2009, and that will be from my art. Fuck yeah.

PS - If anyone wants to buy things they've seen on the blog, let me know, as I'm selling it all.

Art Dump

Syrup, ink and watercolor on illustration board
Wave, watercolor and ink on illustration board

sexy?, ink and watercolor on illustration board


alleyway, ink and watercolor on illustration board

Kappa, acrylic on illustration board

Woot Vermont and Iowa!

In case you haven't heard, Iowa and Vermont are making California look like old-timey jackasses by LEGALIZING GAY MARRIAGE! Fuck YES!

Anyhoo, in spite of the awesome frickin' amazing news that has me jumping around my apartment, on my butty Jess' blog, I found a poster...apparently I'm a bit lost.


Anyhoo, so I finished a series of Wanted posters for the crypids the Chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, and the Mothman for my screenprinting class. 19 runs with 3 emulsion wash-outs = 47 hours of time in the silkscreen studio.

So I'm now taking Silkscreen 2 next semester, and I think I may have found my little niche. I've tried fighting the fact that I'm a fine artist, and a fine artist printmaker at that, but alas, what are you gonna do?

Anyway, for anyone that's interested (and I doubt that's very many people), my class schedule for next Fall looks like this:
-Illustration 3
-Silkscreen 2
-Mixed Media Drawing and Painting
-Fine Art Portfolio and Professional Practices.

Uber. Also, the Bad Date Zine Issue 2 is nearly ready to go to press, and I'm currently working on finally getting my own personal website up and running. Huzzah! Now, off to work on my next 2 silkscreen projects...