Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Everything is A-OK

Just in case any friends are wondering if we're OK here in Houston after the flooding, I wanted to post something to let everyone know that everything is fine here on the north side of the city limits. It did rain pretty hard, but other than the power flickering, it didn't even mess up my plants. I can see from news footage that it looked pretty bad on the highways and heading downtown, earlier today, though. Any plans I had to head in that direction were immediately postponed, and it's business as usual here  -- for us, at least. Not everyone has been that fortunate, but there are some ways to help out in the communities that have been affected:

Red Cross - Gulf Coast Chapter (Houston)

Red Cross - Central Texas Chapter (Austin)

One of my favorite local charities is:
Houston Food Bank

And in Austin:
Hays Food Bank


While  we've been staying in to avoid the bad weather, I've been working on some medieval illumination-inspired art this week. This first piece already sold but a couple more have already come along in the meantime.



https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1033339863



I can't promise I'll make it through the whole alphabet any time soon but I thought these little 3 x 3 inch canvases would be perfect for illuminated letters! The first is A is for armadillo, which I don't think any medieval monks would have seen, but if they did, they might draw them something like this:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/234836579/medieval-inspired-illuminated-letter-a-3?ref=shop_home_active_1

And another colorful dragon, this time being battled by one of those rabbits with a sword you sometimes see in these drawings...


https://www.etsy.com/listing/234855890/colorful-medieval-illumination-style?ref=shop_home_active_2

These are a lot of fun, so more are coming soon!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Sci fi surrealism, rust monsters, and a few more unicorns.

Aside from working on a lot of oil paintings recently, and waiting for them to dry, I have a sort of unthemed mixed bag of things to share for the moment.


 Earlier this month I contributed a piece, "The Sea Corridor," for a greyscale art contest at Jerry's Artarama in Houston. I got a nice set of oil paints for my efforts, and the painting (18 x 24 inch on a gallery wrapped canvas) is taking up a big chunk of art closet real estate here now, in case anyone within driving distance of Houston is interested in making an offer on it. :) Blurry photo with glare courtesy of my perpetually poor lighting conditions and lack of a professional grade photo studio.


The "fish-owl" was inspired by a couple of lines in the book "Babylon" by Rene Crevel, and there are tiny little fishes budding off of the branches that were inspired by lines in "The Goose of Hermogenes" by Ithell Colquhoun, unless I'm getting my surrealist novels confused. I tried to put some of my favorite elements in this -- woods, corridors full of billowing curtains, gliding down a passageway like the famous scene in Jean Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast"...just some things that I like, blended into a sort of collage.

I also have prints available of a colorful, surrealist-inspired painting I did a few years ago and kept in my personal collection. This is a 5 x 7 print for sale but I can also make 8 x 10 (or 9 x 12, even) on request.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/232890223/colorful-surreal-psychedelic-5-x-7-art?ref=shop_home_active_11

"Beneath the Green Sky"

https://www.etsy.com/listing/232921560/fantasy-dungeon-art-8-x-10-photo-print?ref=shop_home_active_21

"The Lair of the Rust Monster"

On a completely different note, I'm slipping an 8 x 10 print of another of my "personal stash" paintings into the mix this week -- I love D&D module covers from the early 80s, which was my formative era. I liked the art more than anything else really, since I rarely got to play with other people. In fact, check back for a post about those soon. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/234191200/gothic-surreal-weird-horror-art-5-x-7?ref=shop_home_active_1

"The Shadow and the Candle"

Back to surrealism, this oil painting is also in my personal stash, just a stream-of-consciousness piece I did, of whatever came to mind at the moment that I wanted to see. Subconsciously inspired by my love of Leonora Carrington, in ways I can't quite put my finger on. I'm keeping the original of this, but 5 x 7 prints are available at the link above, and 8 x 10 can also be made on request.

Finally, I have prints up now of a couple of the unicorn paintings that I did last week.


https://www.etsy.com/listing/234149202/purple-unicorn-5-x-7-print-reproduction?ref=shop_home_active_3

"Beneath the Purple Unicorn Tree" 5 x 7 print

https://www.etsy.com/listing/234122317/purple-unicorn-pink-lava-lamp-groovy-5-x?ref=listing-shop-header-1

"Groovy Unicorn Room" 5 x 7 print

And soomehow when Easter rolled around I think I neglected to post this picture, that I did for the season. But really, aren't moonlit bunnies suitable year-round?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/225221971/gothic-purple-blue-moon-bunny-ghost?ref=shop_home_active_14

Thanks for looking, and I hope that my next update will be a little more focused, but really, what's so great about focus?

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

A dream of lavender unicorns and lava lamps

Like many 13-year-olds in 1986, I'm sure I had my share of unicorns around the house. I know they were all over my school supplies. Glowing white unicorns on a purple background simply cannot be resisted, though I think I was mainly a dragon girl. Looking over the paintings I did in my teens, I only have a couple of unicorns represented, but I have many, many dragons. Here is the best example of a unicorn painting from that time period (1989) that I have on hand:


Edited to add: Another unicorn painting from that time period, which my mom just photographed for me since it is up at her house in NJ. ^_^



I was a huge fan of the movie "Legend" which came out when I was in 7th grade, and had some of the glitteriest unicorns ever filmed, even though their horns bounced a bit. But they were pretty, especially filmed among pink flower petals and dandelion fluff. It remains one of my favorite movies from that era (and I don't like much of anything made after 1975 to begin with!...)



One thing you will never see from me are any of the tongue in cheek "unicorn poo," "unicorn fart" or "barfing unicorn" images that I know are incredible popular these days. Look, I take my unicorns seriously. I like them pretty, pastel and magical. I like them pink and purple and covered in glitter.

With that in mind, I've started a mini campaign of doing some unicorn paintings with simple, colorful images that appeal to that part of my brain. This first one below is already spoken for, but will be available as a print soon. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/232947131/reserved-for-megan-purple-unicorn-5-x-7?ref=shop_home_active_9

"Beneath the Purple Unicorn Tree"

And here we find one in its natural setting, among butterflies and a fairytale tower (the kind from which I can imagine a long golden braid spiraling downward):

https://www.etsy.com/listing/233231952/unicorn-fantasy-art-magic-tower-fairy?ref=shop_home_active_1

"Unicorn Tower"

Now that we're on the subject of unicorns, let's talk about lava lamps. While unicorns might call to mind an 80s girl's room or notebooks, surely lava lamps were a staple of the 70s....and also the 80s for people like me who lived (and continue to live) in a psychedelic past. I was fairly well obsessed with getting a lava lamp, but they were prohibitively expensive when I was in high school, at over $40 if you could find one. One of the first things I bought when I finally had some spending money, was a lava lamp, because I wanted to make sure to have one in my dorm room. 

One of my most-viewed items on Etsy is my lava lamp ghost painting/print, so I know that other people share this interest. In later years one of my moments of glory was managing to have something like four or five lava lamps going in my office at work. I think when I reached that pinnacle, it set the clock ticking on my workplace folding, because once your environment gets that groovy, it can't last for long...

https://www.etsy.com/listing/90103520/psychedelic-ghost-lava-lamp-gothic-art?ref=shop_home_active_9&ga_search_query=lava%2Blamp
"Spectrum of Psychedelic Spectres"

At any rate, here are six miniature paintings I've prepared on 2 x 3 inch canvas, each with its own personality and name:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/232954923/mini-blue-lava-lamp-lite-miniature-2-x-3?ref=shop_home_active_6

"Blue Goo"

https://www.etsy.com/listing/232954631/mini-green-lava-lamp-lite-2-x-3?ref=shop_home_active_7

"Emerald Ooze"

https://www.etsy.com/listing/233208076/mini-pink-purple-lava-lamp-lite-2-x-3?ref=shop_home_active_3

"Purple Pixie"

https://www.etsy.com/listing/232984150/mini-red-lava-lamp-lite-psychedelic?ref=shop_home_active_8

"Flame Phantom"

https://www.etsy.com/listing/233207152/mini-yellow-red-lava-lamp-lite-miniature?ref=shop_home_active_5

"Sunset Daydream"

https://www.etsy.com/listing/233207658/mini-blue-white-lava-lamp-lite-miniature?ref=shop_home_active_4

"Ghost Globules"

And here is the moment where it all comes together -- the culmination of everything I could have wished for, and still do -- the moment when a unicorn and a pink lava lamp collide beneath a bead curtain. I'm so thrilled by this idea that I couldn't even come up with a good title for the painting! It's dubbed "Groovy Unicorn Room" until I can come up with something better.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/233209198/purple-unicorn-pink-lava-lamp-groovy-5-x?ref=shop_home_active_2

I hope that someone's Google search for "unicorns" and "lava lamp" brought them here, because if it has, we are obviously meant to be friends. 

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Solo album - Dorothy's Ghost, and more musical news

Last month saw the long-awaited release of some early recordings of mine on the UK label Reverb Worship. These were recorded on 4-track under extremely lo-fi conditions in the late 1990s and cassettes were given to a few friends. Now available in a limited edition on cd-r, it includes color cover artwork and matching label art, and can be purchased directly from the label through their website (they accept orders via email, see below) or on eBay. I hope to get myself together technologically in the next few days to post a track or two as listen-only selections on Bandcamp. At the moment I just have some tracks from my experimental project, White Gloves & Party Manners, up there, but check back and before long I should have more...


From the Reverb Worship site:


"Over the course of time, it occurred to me that one of the artists who I really liked a lot, and I wanted to release some music by was Sarada.She has provided some rather lovely vocals to music from a variety of Timothy Renner's musical projects (Stone Breath , Breath Stone and Crow Tongue) plus her own music too.She is also a superb artist and illustrator. Having done a fair amount of "backtracking and musical digging" (more on this subject later on in the year), I eventually asked Sarada if she would be consider doing some music with me.I am delighted to say that she agreed.When the master arrived through my letterbox I was very pleased indeed. Sarada has sent me one of her earliest solo recordings which only appeared on a self released cassette which only got handed out to a small amount of family and close friends.The music on this cassette contains eight wonderful tracks which were recorded by Sarada in the corner of her living room in four track in 1998-1999.What we have here is a real slice of hazy psychedelic wyrdfolk of the very highest quality.It sounds like one of those "lost" recordings that could have been created anytime in the last thirty years or so,  and people "get all freaky" about.To compliment the music Sarada has allowed me to use one of her paintings for the cover design.As a added bonus Sarada has also done a drawing for the cd label.
This cd is available now in a hand numbered edition of 50 copies with artwork printed onto 160gsm bright white card.This cd comes with my very highest recommendation.
UK = £7.00
Europe = £9.00
USA = £10.00

Paypal to roger.linney@btinternet.com
PLEASE EMAIL BEFORE SENDING PAYMENT."


Also available on eBay.


Reviews have been posted on several sites as well:

At The Active Listener

and

In this issue of Bliss Aquamarine


http://stonebreath.bandcamp.com/album/the-shepherdess-and-the-bone-white-bird
And as a final note this week, on the Stone Breath Bandcamp page, "The Shepherdess and the Bone-White Bird" BOX SET (includes 2CDs + 5" record + booklet - lots of material not available as digital downloads) is available for 20% off. Enter this code at checkout: firewheel

Thanks for looking, and remember to check back with my bandcamp page for some new tracks in the near future!