Call for Holiday Vendors...

Holiday Marketplace Bazaar

This is an initial call for vendors for our Holiday Marketplace Bazaar to be held Saturday, December 5th and Sunday, December 6th in a loft in Downtown Los Angeles.

If you would like to take part or get more information, please post here.

Spaces are very limited for this bazaar, so get your name in early for consideration.  We have a large email/marketing list and do art shows twice yearly in this loft.

We will be emailing out more details soon...Happy Holidays!

xxx
Raven

Pretty Things...Photographer Mike Pedersen

Images of downtown Los Angeles...

The latest works in black, white and sepia by photographer Mike Pedersen.

click images to enlarge...

"Los Angeles Theatre"



"6th Street"

"6:15 am"

"6:15 pm"

...For more photography & information on Mike Pedersen

Brewery Artwalk - April 18th & 19th

The next artwalk is approaching quickly and we are working away to make this our best show so far...so please excuse my not blogging every day until then.

If you'll be in Los Angeles on April 18th & 19th, stop by to see me and Mikiep in our studio.

I'm finishing up some new paintings {not yet in my shop} and I'll also have my yummy soy candles, greeting cards, magnet sets and more for you to enjoy!

NOTE: As my soy candle scents are all limited editions, many of the scents you know and love are on their last run, which means, once they sell out, they will no longer be available. So, stop by Artwalk and stock up.
I'll also have lots of Artwalk Only shopping specials you won't want to miss!

Mikie is working on new fine art photography pieces of the urban landscape for this new show entitled "6:15". Of course, he'll have his other fine art pieces from past shows there too!

E-mail reminders are being sent out now, so if you didn't receive one or are not yet on our mailing list, be sure to email our reps: SerpentineRepublic@yahoo.com with your info.

We hope to see you at the show!

xxx
Raven

Brewery Artwalk Spring 2009 Dates

It's that time again...the dates for the Spring Brewery Artwalk {in downtown Los Angeles} have been announced and we're working away on all new lovelies for you to see!


So, if you'll be in Los Angeles on April 18th & 19th, stop by to see me and Mikiep ...and don't be shy, come up and say "Hello!" to us. :)

I'm working on all new art pieces and hope to have about 5 or so new paintings as well as my yummy soy candles, greeting cards, magnet sets and more!

NOTE: As my soy candle scents are all limited editions, many of the scents you know and love are on their last run, which means, once they sell out, they will no longer be available. So, stop by Artwalk and stock up.
I'll also have lots of Springtime shopping specials you won't want to miss!

Mikie is working on new fine art photography pieces of the urban landscape. Of course, he'll have some of his other pieces there too!

More updates as the show draws near as well as some email updates. So, if you're not yet on our mailing list, be sure to email SerpentineRepublic@yahoo.com with your info.

xxx
Raven

An Evening of Art...

★ ★ Come out this Saturday, January 24th to meet me and Mikiep! ★ ★

You can see our original art at the Fine Art Show & Sale happening tomorrow at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Art Park!

See all of the art HERE and the flyer below for details...

click to enlarge...

We hope to see you there!

Brewery Artwalk Spring Dates Announced!

Mark your calendars!

The dates for the next Brewery Artwalk have been announced and YOU are invited!

This Spring, the Brewery Artwalk will be held Saturday, April 5th & Sunday, April 6th in downtown Los Angeles. The Brewery Artwalk is a twice yearly event where you can visit the working studios of resident artists...and me and Mikiep will be there!

If you'd like to come and want to be on our guest list, please comment here or convo me with your regular email and I will make sure you get an invite and give you further details.

◦ ○ ● Carnivale ● ○ ◦

I've got BIG plans for my exhibit at this show! My exhibit will be entitled "Carnivale" ...and it will be full of all the weird and wunderful things that have been spinning around in my head for the past several months:
Siamese twins, oddly shaped women and lots more to be seen at the freak show, so stay tuned!

I've been working on new paintings and have started some new sculpture pieces as well.
Here's a sneak peek of just some of my art in the works:




Candles, bath salts and lots of other goodies of mine will also be at the show as always. I am trying to also have my new line of candles ready, but as of right now, I can't promise that they will be finished and perfected.

Not much time and still lots to do!

And, for those of you who can't make it to the show, some of my new work will be posted in my shoppe.

◦ ○ ● ◦ ● ○ ◦

Mikiep will be showing his new illustrations and black and white photography. You can check out his past works at mikiep.com.

Hopefully, we'll get to meet even MORE of you Pretties... Will we see you there?

xxx
Raven

Cuties...Pick One!

This cute little card will be listed in my shop on Wednesday by noon PST...still plenty of time for you to purchase before the big day!

I just finished it and I'm sooo very happy at how it turned out! I even have orders on it already! YAY!!

(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸ ◦ ¸.•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)

The Front features 3 little cuties and asks you to pick one of the following:

• Panda, who offers a "big bear hug"
• Bunny, who offers a "sweet bunny snuggle" ....and
• Monkey, who offers some "hot monkey love"

The inside reads...well, you have to check it out in my shop to see the surprise message inside. I think you'll realllllly like it. :)

xxx
Raven

DPT Spotlight: Dave Lefner

I'm gonna let you in on a secret....His name is Dave Lefner.

You haven't heard of him? You will.

Dave is a true artiste, who has resurrected and mastered the century-old technique of linoleum reduction printing made famous by Picasso. In each limited-edition linocut print he makes, Dave reinterprets the beauty, spirit and historical significance of the forgotten beauty that surrounds us.

Dave was drawn to this process because it restored the artist to the "proper role of artisan," allowing each piece to slowly reveals itself with each bold new color.









He's been featured on the Carol Duvall Show and also in the Los Angeles Times, where Richard Duardo, chairman of the Graphic Arts Council at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a master printer himself was quoted as saying,

"...few artists or printmakers still do linoleum reduction printing..."We're a dying craft. Reductive printmaking is a time consuming, tedious process. In this day and age, people don't have that much patience. Artists turn instead to large-format printers, which are glorified Xerox machines. That's why when I see somebody that has mastered this craft, I'm flabbergasted. Lefner has gone beyond being a master printmaker. He's hands down the best linocut printmaker on the West Coast."

Spotlight: Dave Lefner

* Who or what inspired you to become an artist? I was ALWAYS drawing and always received such praise for my ability that I never remember a time when I didn't consider myself an artist.... I have that 1st grade drawing on my refrigerator of me at my easel complete with beret that boldly states "Someday I will be an artist and paint a lot of pictures". I never really thought of it in terms of a profession until high school when you're forced to decide what you what to do with the rest of your life. I entered college as a declared Graphic Designer because that was the only box to check that remotely involved art.

* Describe your childhood in 2 sentences: My childhood was a wonderful, blessed, unbearably mundane, suburban life. Norman Rockwell would have been jealous- blah!







* Who inspires you in the Art Scene? Stuart Davis paintings, the graphic black and white images of the German Expressionists, woodcuts from the 1940s, the Paris art scene in the 1920s, the New York art scene in the 1950s, Picasso reduction linocut series in the1950s, interesting typefaces and fonts, the negative white space of the paper against another color.

* Who are your favourite artists? It may seem cliche, but Picasso is one of my favs just based on sheer output and influence on Art history in general. He was a machine and pushed the boundaries until there WERE no boundaries. But it’s funny how most of the artists who I respond to on a gut level, actually don’t inspire my own art at all. I love the ones who have a completely different take on Art than I do- a lot of the Abstract Expressionists; Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko. I love Jean-Michel Basquiat, because I’m jealous that he could be so free and loose, but still have intellectual and philosophical content. I like Chuck Close- he found one thing, the portrait, and did it a million different ways and kept it fresh.

* What Inspires you In Life? The Greatness of human achievement, whether it be in the form of art, literature, music, movies, architecture. Things that have stood the test of time and remain as relevant today as when they were created. As human beings, we are capable of so much- it’s sad to me how little we settle for in ourselves as well as others. Some other things that inspire my work are the graphic silhouettes of telephone and electric wires that zig-zag over our heads. They are everywhere and so crucial to life as we know it in the city, but taken for granted. Also, things like the graphic images on dollar bills, anatomical drawings from Gray’s Anatomy and just type in general, especially blown up on a huge scale. Things that we are used to seeing on a small scale, have a different feel when presented on a larger scale.


* Where do you want to travel? I desperately want to travel- especially Europe- all the places I’ve read about in the biographies of my heroes- France (for Matisse, Picasso, all those cats in the 1920s-), Spain, Italy are the top 3! Life can be so expensive. It’s hard to find the money and the time to travel the way I want!

* When did you start to notice the cityscapes of Los Angeles? Well, I suppose that it had to be in my early 20s, when I really started driving around town to go out with friends to new bars and clubs. Hollywood and its adjacent areas had a very colorful nightlife- literally. The glow of the neon and glitz was amazing. Driving down Sunset Blvd. was always such an experience, because it always looked so bright and glamourous. But you knew there were things hidden by the cover of night. Hollywood at night was too cliche. So as I drove some of those same routes in broad daylight and got the real story. An aging building in the harsh light high noon didn’t look as glamourous, but other interesting things were going on. Shadows cast off broken neon tubing, rusting architectural elements, torn advertising posters. It opened a whole world of inspiration for me.

*What sort of imagery do you try to capture with your work? Being born and raised in Los Angeles made me want to comment on and capture the uniquely-LA landscape. There is something intriguing or maybe even disturbing about the bombardment of billboards, advertising, signage, storefronts, every kind of typeface and font screaming at you, etc. New York City has that inspiring effect on me, but Los Angeles is laid out differently. People are in their cars, driving around so quickly that the urban beauty surrounding them needs to be pointed out to the average person more here. Sometimes, in our busy lives, we don’t see how beautiful the shadows cast off some broken, burnt out old neon sign can be.




Contact:
Serpentine Republic AR - 323.397.5599










Upcoming Exhibition:
Brewery Artwalk, Los Angeles, 2008

• Saturday, April 5 [11am-6pm]
  
• Sunday, April 6 [11am-6pm]
  

For appointments or more information, call or comment & someone will contact you.