SANITY RALLY IN DC!

Yesterday I attended Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Sanity Rally in our nation's capital. It was wonderful fun to participate in something socially conscious that had sense of humor and was positive and upbeat, and I had no excuse not to go, since the sainted Arianna Huffington paid to bus New Yorkers down to DC and back for the event, and I even won a contest and was given an official Huffington Post Flipcam to document the event as a citizen journalist.

For my sign I considered doing Blame Canada! or something to honor the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but ultimately decided to make a simple picket that says DON'T PANIC in all caps helvetica, with a small towel stapled to it.Thats a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference, which I admit is really letting my dork flag fly, and most people didn't get it, even though there were others with similar signs. Like this guy:



There were a lot of awesome signs, a lot of really funny ones, and a lot of people went very meta with their signs.
For me, I did my sign because I think the message Don't Panic is an important one. We as a nation collectively consented to terrible things during the Bush years because we were afraid, and if the Sarah Palins and Glenn Becks of the world have their way we will all stay afraid and be their sheeple.

The new is in. CBS has reported that there were approximately 215,000 people at the rally (which is twice as many normal people as Glenn Beck had nutbags at his rally)
This is the video of us stepping out into the massive crowds on the national mall



and here is a vid I made of some funny people selling Obama condoms



And all in all, I think the rally was big fun. I don't know if it will make a difference in the way our slimy politicians talk or in the way our media covers them, but I'm sane enough not to get too bent out of shape over it.

some naked dood

I had thought that the still life of the week could become a regular thing here at the A.E.Kierenblog, but wednesday night when I showed up to painting studio, there were no bell peppers, and no bananas. Instead we had some naked dude.
Had I known we would be painting a figure, I probably wouldn't have toned my canvas bright turquoise blue. Erik Olsen used to tone his canvases in pthalo blues and he always made it work, but every time I ever tried it it ended in disaster. So I figured, what better opportunity to try to make it work than a dull, compulsory still life. Flesh tones over blue are especially hard to mix and layer, but I'm rather satisfied with it this time. The composition is unfortunate, but I'm pleased with the flesh.
Now what to do with the damn thing?

p.s. I usually link to people in my posts, but it would seem that Erik Olson doesn't have a website, which is very stranger for a professional of his distinction

before I ruin it . . .

are these rats not nice? they are part of an in-progress project and I thought they had turned out rather well, so I considered it wise to scan them in, lest I ruin them as the project progresses (which happens to the best of us sometimes)

something I didn't know

I just found out, not 30 seconds ago, that one of my new classmates in the MFA illustration program, Joanna d'Avillez, who I have mentioned previously on this blog, has a very funny and successful web show.

I give you Delusional Downtown Divas. Go watch them all.

Swann's Way (episode 2, season 2) from Lena Dunham on Vimeo.

the things you would never guess . . .

a tad obsessive, no?

Carl Titolo teaches art in much the same way that Pai Mei taught The Bride how to punch her way out of a coffin in Kill Bill.
Though with less beatings.
He wishes us to draw extremely boring objects, from every conceivable angle, at different sizes, in different media, repeatedly again and again and again.
I guess this is supposed to turn us into super-artists.
This week it is hats. I am drawing my plaid flatcap. And a lot of it.

digital doodles

hey team,
this week for Richmond's class we had to make digital illustrations using masks and then we had to print the projects on any two different types of paper, to compare color and resolution of the physical art.
The theme was transportation, so naturally, I did a pair of turban-clad witches in a boat.
I dedicate these illustrations to Krystal Koch, and I hope she likes them.

a humble page from the sketchbook

I doodled this in creative writing the other day. At the time, I had a song stuck in my head, as I often do.
This time it was one of my favorites, Cosmia, by Joanna Newsom
I always thought the title referred to a flower, but actually, cosmia is a genus of moth. That certainly explains the lyric "around the porchlight, we've all been circling"