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.

Butter is good for you

This is the end of this sketchbook. It is for sale on my website. Butter is good for you if you don't eat it with a fork.

Hve a good weekend. Hopefully I'll have some thing interesting to say next week.

Marvelous Catered Bathing Suits

Most of my art relies on random choices of images and words. Even though they seem random I think there is always a subconscious reason for why I choose the words and images I do. Usually I figure it out later.

Is that too art-speak? For some reasion I find that artist statementy art-speaky stuff really off-putting and bull-shitty. You know, where people describe their art as so meaningful and important like "my art comes from the passionate troubled visions while representing the dichotomy of commercialism vs. human tragedy and the existential crisis of the domain of man." (I just made that up, but hey if it were someone's real statement I might actually want to see the art ha ha). I don't know why that annoys me so.

Even if you aren't one of those blowhard types, writing about art always comes off as a little pompous.

I love sandwich

Today I went swimming in the morning and then rode my bike to the studio and now I feel too tired to do my painting for the day. I WILL do it, I'm just spending a lot of time staring at the paper with nothing on it. Staring. Staring.

This triathlon is kicking me butt. I really do love sandwiches. It might be my favorite food. Random topic switch. OK gotta get the energy up to paint and then ride home.

I deserve Ice Cream

Here is a little series of pages of varying sizes. I really like this artbook I made. It was for sale, but nobody wanted it. Wah.

I used someone's old recipe cards. Recipe cards are great. When I go to estate sales there is always a box full of recipe cards with stains and fading and hand written notes. I find them comforting. My mom kept her recipes in this looseleaf notebook type thing. It is filled with cutouts, handwritten recipes. Looking at it reminds me of home and growing up. I am glad I have it.

There is history in a family's recipes. I am always glad to take them home from an estate sale, give them a new home.

Non-specific anxiety

Experiencing non-specific anxiety right now. I do this on occasion. I think it has to do with the triathlon. It could also be that I haven't eaten that much today and drank two 20 ounce Diet Cokes. I quit for a while but have gone back. Need to quit again. I am all or nothing when it comes to DC. It is a problem.

I am so green

Hey I rode my dang bike to the studio today! This is a big giant feat for a person who drives to the CVS 3 blocks away from my house. Not looking forward to riding home though. There is a huge hill I must conquer. It was super fun going down though. Yeehaw!

There is allergy stuff in the air cause I cain't shtop sneezin!

ArT art aRT art ART.

If you are in Chicago Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson are speaking at The Museum of Contemporary Art and at Quimby's books.

Don't eat that

Don't have much to say today. It probably would be better if you didn't eat that. Gotta go and do my painting for the day. I am finally caught up on that. Then I am digging into my super big paintings. I am not teaching a class this summer so I am going to use the time to get gritty with the whole big ass painting thing. Ya dig?