Invitation

This is an invitation for the opening reception for my show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery on January 4th. Woohoo. If you are in the Los Angeles area, please come by and say hello.

I'll be the one hanging out being internally neurotic and trying not to care if people like my art or not and acting all cool and stuff. You know, it is possible to be confident and nervous at the same time. I don't think you are supposed to admit this. You are supposed to act like you know whats going on. Do you dig what I am saying?

Anyway, the reception's at La Luz are very laid back, so bring your friends. Oh yes, feel free to buy some art too. That is a good thing to do. It will make you a better person.

Sneak Peak

Right now I am writing you from Pittsburgh, PA! I am cold and wimpy and full of bad-for-you food. My stomach hurts. This morning we had sticky buns made by Amish peeps. YUMMY. I am here visiting my family for the holidays.

So here is a sneak peak of one o' the big paintings (5 feet by 4 feet, dang!) I did for my show at La Luz de Jesus on January 4th. It is called "Lemon Fresh Pretty." It has changed a bunch from the earlier picture I took (see below). It is inspired by all the ads we see during our lives informing us of the bad smells we make, our lack of prettiness, that we are too fat, and all our flaws that will cause others to like us less. Who knew? The good news is there are many products that will save us from an empty life of likelessness! YAY.

Actually I shouldn't be too hard on the advertising industry. I like to have fresh breath and white teeth and to smell good and I truly appreciate this in others. Without advertising, I do believe we would all be hairy and smelly people with rotting teeth. ANYWAY.... The photo isn't that great, not sure why, because I had it professionally shot. You can't really see the details and the color is off. I guess you'll have to come see it in person!! Anyway blah blah blah. I'll be blah blah blahing about my show for the next week so watch out.

OK one more thing. Check out this blog. She wrote the nicest things about my art that I have ever had anyone say about it before. It made my day.

Imitation Snakeskin Superstore

Down to my last week for working on my show. Stressing out. Working on a show is amazing and terrible at the same time. I feel like a crazy person every day. If you could be inside my head you'd be nauseous. The show is called "Imitation Snakeskin Superstore" and it is about trying to fit in and being cranky. I also extended my one-a-day paintings for the month of December for this show. You can see these at freedomwig.com.

Here is an in-progress picture of another piece I am working on called "Comfort and Support." It will look a lot different in the end. I don't want to give too much away. It is 3 feet by 4 feet on canvas.

You are invited to the opening on January 4, 2008. Groovy! Don't forget to sign up for my mailing list. You'll get a preview.

Anyway gotta stop and get back to work. I am off to Philly and Pittsburgh for the holidays next week. There is no time to lose.

Freedomwig Part Deux

Hey Peeps wanted to let you know I will be starting my one-a-days up again especially for La Luz de Jesus Gallery on December 1st. I'll be posting brand new one-a-days on Freedomwig.com. They will be available for purchase (and will be on display) at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in January 2008. So check it out on Saturday.

Also here is a picture of one of my paintings I am working on for the show in the very beginning stages of development. This one is 5 feet by 4 feet. This show is going to be a mixture of big, medium and small paintings on wood, canvas and paper.

Sign up for my art waiting list here. Enter your email address, submit and then arrow down and check the box with my name. Thanks!!!

Collab!!!

These pictures are some new art I did with Esther Pearl Watson for a show this weekend curated by Mark Murphy at the Robert Berman Gallery. It opens Saturday. They are 24 x 24, mixed media on paper. Collaborating is awesome when it works!! SMF (so much fun).

YAY ART! Come check out the show and buy one of these strange and fabu pieces of art. They look better in person. My camera work isn't the best. Here is a link for more info.

Also make sure you get to La Luz de Jesus Gallery to see Mark Todd's show before it comes down in two weeks. It is pretty dang awesome too. Mark is married to Esther and I share a studio with both of them.

I am a nerd

The reason I am a nerd is that I am posting this picture of Pasadena City Hall. Today when I went to the bank, for some reason I stopped and looked around and was struck by how pretty Pasadena is and what an ideal place it is to live (except for the frickin expensive home prices). I love Pasadena. I can't believe I live here. So after depositing my moola, I took a minute and stood around watching Pasadenans go about their business in this pretty little city and it made me dang happy. If that isn't nerdy I don't know what is. It is even more nerdy that I am sharing this. Blogging is nerdy very nerdy.

To change the subject, here is a bit of art news. Tomorrow is the last day of one-painting-a-day for a whole frickin year! I can't believe I did 365 different arts. Check it out. Buy one for a holiday present for someone. That will make you a cool person. Ha ha ha.

Lobsterland

Hey peeps. I'll probably do more on my blog after the 31st. I am thinking of documenting the process of getting ready for a gallery show. I have one coming up in January.

Anyway here is a book cover I did. I got it in the mail yesterday. I pretty much forgot about it because I did this illustration so long ago.

I truly love painting and eating lobsters. OK gotta run and teach a class!

Newsletter

Here is my latest newsletter. I haven't put much up lately because I have been super busy doing jobs, teaching, training for another triathlon and working on artwork for my show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in January. Woohoo. Crazy. I am tried.

YAY. I have 21 days left on my freedomwig! It has been great, but I need a dang break. Can't believe at the end I'll have done 365 pieces o' art in one year. Hootenanny.

Hey original art makes a good holiday present, right? Check it out and spread the word. In addition to the new work I am doing, some of the one-a-days will be in the La Luz show so if there is a piece you dig let me know now.

I will start up on Freedomwig again in February 2008 and doing one painting a week. Discipline is good. Later.

36 days to go

Only have 36 more paintings to go on my one painting a day thing on freedomwig.com. Woohoo! It has been HARD. Here are a bunch of images that people bought and got framed. I am about to ship them out.

On November 1, 2007 my focus will be on my La Luz de Jesus show in January. Nothing new will be for sale until after the show. Then on February 1, 2008, I will start doing a painting a week and showing the process on this blog.

Neglected

Have been working on so many different things and travelling around that I have neglected my sketchbooks and this blog. School starts this week too so now teaching is added to my to do list. Busy is good I guess. I do tend to take on too much. I'll be trying to say no to stuff from now on. The "super busy" cause me angst at times.

Anyway blah blah blah. I was going through my old art recently and found this job I did for L.A. Weekly. It cracked me up. I wish I had more jobs like this.

Also thanks for all the words of encouragement. You peeps are excellent. I can totally handle rejection, or people not getting it, just thought it might be interesting to show that all jobs don't go perfectly. My skin has become nice and thick from being an artist. Yeehaw!

I don't like your art

It would be excellent to have such pure confidence in your work that when someone criticizes, you take it or leave it and move on. A million people can enjoy and appreciate and get my art, but it is the one that doesn't that sticks in your craw and annoys and plants the seeds of doubt. I hang on to it. I know I'll drop the feeling eventually but I wish I could do it faster.

The client I did the art for below HATED it. It probably was a communication breakdown due the language barrier, but it is still bugging me that they didn't love it. 90% of the time I get a good response, nothing like this.

Something good will come of this experience though. It has taught me that I need to trust my instincts more; I know what jobs I will do well at and what jobs are not going to work. I need to turn down those that don't feel right. Turning down jobs is hard though. I have been lucky. Most of the jobs I get the art director leaves me alone and trusts my ideas. They hire me for my smart aleckyness and unpolished style. This job gave such detailed specific art-directed instructions, I should have said no to the job. They had a very specific vision and I guess my vision didn't match.

Every artist has these moments. You can't get it right 100% of the time. It would be nice to be loved and praised all the time but it ain't gonna happen. I won't let this get me down for too long. I am almost over it already.

jobs n' portraits

Here is a job I just did for a French ad agency. A little different. The concept wasn't mine though. Can't take credit for that. It was an enjoyable experience even though there was a language barrier.

A while ago I got the idea to do portraits of people I meet thru this blog, then it kinda got sidetracked. I figured the best way to get this going is to do the portraits in the one-a-day. The first one I did was on August 24. The person sent me some funny stuff including Charlie's Angels trading cards and a high school picture of herself. I combined the two.

Hopefully the people who sent me stuff won't expect a beautiful likeness. I am trying to change it up a bit, plus I don't do beautiful even if you are are super perfect, you won't come out that way in my pictures. Look for more in the next few weeks. FREEDOMWIG

Well I am pretty busy this week too. Trying to finish up a comission and a bunch o' jobs. It is nice to be busy. Things is good.

MUST SEE

Everyone in Los Angeles should go see this show. The Arts in Latin America at LACMA. I saw it in Philadelphia and plan on going again here in Los Angeles. I NEVER go to see exhibits twice, but this is exceptionally good. I am also one to get museum fatigue really fast. I usually book thru exhibits but this one made me stop and slow down. Do it!

groovy party

Hey our studio party was super fun. I had a great time and met a ton of new people. I love having parties here because every party is so different. There are a few of our regular friends who show up each time and then there are always crazy new people coming around. It is a good thing. This party was exceptional, at least for me.

It was really nice because there were a bunch of people who appreciated my beaver art. It is excellent when people get you.

Here are a few pictures. They don't really represent the party. I was too busy chatting people up to take good pics. The bottom picture shows Seonna Hong. She is one of our new studio mates. She cool. Do you like the nice picture of moi with my friend Steve? I need to take normal pictures on occasion. I am always a spaz. I can look perty if I want to.

I am almost caught up posting all my one-a-days. After that I'll start getting some more art-related stuff on this.

for the la peoples

L.A. Juice

Almost caught up. This vacation did wonders for my mentalness. When you don't expand your world regularly your perspective becomes small. Mine was getting L.A. heavy. I needed to inject some NYC, Philly and Joisey into my mind to balance it out. Don't get me wrong, not dissing L.A. this place is excellent, in fact, some of the New York people I came across could REALLY use a little L.A. juice.

As for the pics, the head is for a job I was doing. I hope it works out. Don't want to jinx it cause it is perfect for me. The other picture is of Charlie kickin it at the beach. He is a freakin great kid. Kinda makes me want to have my own. Kinda.

Also if you are going to Comic-Con look for Mark Todd and Esther Watson, Tara McPherson, Jeff Soto, Bob Dob and Mark Murphy at their booths. I might go, but haven't decided yet, not sure if I can handle being touched my smelly people in costumes that don't breath. It gets kinda hairy and crowded, you dig?

Vacation = jobs

If you ever have a slow month just go away on vacation and the work will pile on in! A horse fly just bit me TWICE on one leg. Itchy.

Wildwood, NJ is my new favorite place.

I love the beach

Today is my last day at the beach. I spent the early part of my week working on an exciting job. Had a difficult time finding a place to scan and ship but luckily I worked it out. Cape May doesn't take kindly to peeps who WORK on vacation. They might ban me.

It would be nice to live at the beach though. Although I live in L.A. and hardly ever go. Had to come across the country to beach it. OK enough I am off for one more day of sun and sand. Have tons of work to do when I get back. Look at freedomwig.com next week to see the one-a-days from the past two and half weeks!

yeehaw!

Melting

Right now I am sweating in Philadelphia. I don't have any pictures or anything to show but this weekend I will. How did I grow up in Philly without air conditioning!!? Cally has spoiled me. I walked around NYC on Monday in pants and turned into a jello sweat blob. OK enough about the weather. Weather talk is boring. But...DRY HEAT is easier REALLY!

Yesterday my pop took me to the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. It is beautiful inside with all kinds of design and architecture books available to members. The main room is fantastic. I wish it was my art studio. High ceilings, bookshelves, huge windows. Inspiring! They have an exhibit about architecture "down the shore" in the front room.

I forget about history while living in California. California has a don't-look-back attitude. This can be good and energizing, but sometimes you must consider the past. It is good that I come back here several times a year to keep me on my toes and connected to my past.

out o' town

Yay vacation sort of. I am about to go out of town for 2 1/2 weeks. Part of it will be vacation, part not. I'll be in NYC July 5-10 to plan the Illustration Conference. I am on the board this time. Yeehaw! Then I go to Philly for a few days to visit my family and friends. Then it's on to Cape May NJ for a real vacation. (Although I'll be doing my one-a-days and if work comes in I will probably do it.)

So anyway this is the last post until I get back. I could write stuff while I am away but there won't be pictures. That is boring so probably won't be doing this.

As for these pictures, the top is another view of my studio space. Messy still. The other picture is of Eric Skotnes (hope that is how its spelled) doing a new mural on the outside of our studio. Last week the studio got tagged by some gang from 18th street. I hate taggers that just scribble their name. At least do something artistic. You dig?

collaboration

Since I was talking about collaboration with Esther I thought I'd show you some stuff we did for the McSweeny's book. The night we did these we got a bottle of wine, gathered up paper and stuff and spread them out on the studio floor and just went with it. These pictures are now travelling around Italy in a show sponsored by the Associazione Culturale Teatrio. The next show is in Naples from August 2 to September 20 at the Castel de Lovo.

Sometimes collaborating works and some times it doesn't. A long time ago I did a collaboration with Jeff Soto for the first Broken Wrist Project book and it just flopped. We did it separately and they killed it. I hope I am remembering that correctly. I am starting to doubt myself. Oh well.

martharich.com ALL NEW!

Hey I totally redid my website! Please go to martharich.com and check it out. I can now update it more easily.

As for these pictures, the top one is of Esther P. Watson at their home studio. She uses that big huge jar of white to paint with! Wha wha WHAAA? We were collaborating the other night. You can see the results at freedomwig.com. We collaborated in the past on the McSweeny's book "Dear New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is." The work we did for that ended up in American Illustration 25 too. It was a fruitful collaboration. Esther is wack!

The middle picture is a bunch of my one-a-day paintings hanging on a wall together. Crazy. Annie from Billy Shire Fine Arts came by the studio to look at our work. She rocks.

The other picture is of me in my Roy Roger's Family Restaurant uniform from when I was 16. OY I look like a middle aged lady who can kick ass. I don't know why I put this up. It kills me! What was I thinking? So frickin' hot.

Messy studio BEFORE

Here are some pictures of my studio in disarray. I am in the process of cleaning and thought if I posted these online it would motivate me to get crackin. Cause it is so embarrassing how messy it has gotten. I usually have a pretty organized studio but I have been so busy lately that it got away from me.

You can even see the beginnings of my 5 x 4 paintings. The I hate P-Ple part won't be on the final version. I was just having a crappy day yesterday. It made me feel better to write that down. I don't really hate people. Just some of the time. I'll post the after pictures the end of the week!

scary doll

No art pics today. Estate sales are a great place for inspiration. They are addictive. Sometimes you hit the jackpot and find all kinds of excellent stuff like this scary doll who comes to life at night and tries to stab you and sometimes all you find are old Herb Alpert records and thighmasters. I have already changed the cover of Special Hostess. Just an FYI.

Special Hostess / Portrait Project

Howdy! This is the last page from this sketchbook. Alot of the stuff in it was about not fitting in. I was feeling like I wasn't fitting in so I came up with some clubs that I could join and the big boob club is one of them. Yes this is too much info, I am sure, but I am feeling chatty right now. The Diet Coke has kicked in.


























I will probably do more india ink stuff in the future, but right now I am starting a whole NEW sketchbook. I have art ADD. The cover is the bottom picture. It is called special hostess. So I think everything in it will stem from hostessness.

For those of you who sent pictures to me for the portrait project they will start showing up here. YAY!!! It is another cookbook. 8.5 x 9 inches and there are 427 pages to fill. I can't wait.

Today I also started on my big painting. Finally! OK so I gotta get off the computer and work.

hospital shows make me cry

Here are some new pages from my random sketchbook. OK I sent out a newsletter email today. It makes me feel so bad when someone unsubscribes. I have only had 3 people unsubscribe but I take it personally. So lame.

Too Dang Tired

Now that I got some sleep, here are some new drawrings. The first one is a self portrait based on my senior high school picture. The other one is a random drawing. As you can tell I often focus on beauty and all the crap we do to make ourselves look younger and prettier. Annoying, but I do it. We are all vain. The photo is of me after the sprint triathlon, lookin sweaty n' ragged. I am glad I did it. It was super hard, but I am hooked and plan on doing another one, maybe in October. CRAZY. I need to go faster.

I love to draw

Drawing with India Ink and a brush is one of my favorite things to do. Here are some from my sketchbook. You'd think now that I am not posting 5 days a week I'd have more to say.

My triathlon is this Sunday. Wish me luck. Yikes!

Hey Update Crazy

I have decided to post on the blog only once or twice a week now. It is too much to think new stuff everyday plus doing the one-a-day paintings (on which I am behind again). I am FRIED. Yeeeehaw and crazeeee!

No art today just pics!

Hello! Wednesday night a bunch of us went to the preview of Tim Biskup's new work at Billy Shire Fine Arts. The show was cool and different, very raw. I like to see artists changing it up and he definitely has. Check it out if you can.

After the preview, there was an after party at some bar on Hollywood Boulevard. These are pics from that. We got a wacky and took a bunch of pictures of us punching each other. It was funny...really! I guess you had to be there. I have a weird sense of humor. So do my friends. They are the BEST!

The top pics is one of the few "nice" ones. That's Frieda Gossett Jr. Clayton the 3rd on the left, Aaron Smith in the middle and me on the right. I actually wore a dress and got gussied up. I needed a little girly girlness as I am usually in paint covered jeans and tee looking the slob. My friend Arlene Guerra styled me. She is a stylist and is staying with me while looking for a place to live in L.A. She moved here from NYC. She also makes really cool jewelry.

The middle pic is of Frieda gouging out Mark Todd's eyes. Hilarious right? And the bottom is Esther Pearl Watson socking Gary Baseman in the jaw. Classic! I have a ton more, but I think it would best to stop now so you don't think I am too much of a freak.

I am Lucky

Esther Pearl Watson is cracking herself up in the studio right now. She must be working on a new Unlovable, the very funny comic she draws and writes. She totally laughs at her own jokes all the time. Hey if you can't crack yourself up then why would anyone else think it was funny? Check out Unlovable in BUST Magazine every month. Heck yeah.

Stop Talking

Don't feel like writing anything today. Am stressed out. Yeehaw!

Dear God Don't Be Ugly

This is a new sketchbook. It is all just India Ink w/brush drawings. Some of these were in Graphic Magazine #10. This is one of my favorite books.