Painting Monkey

We'll soon be heading to Hilton Head where I will become a painting monkey.

I'll chained up in the out-building of Cathryn's organic FroYo shop.

Cathryn and Wendy will occasionally toss me some fruit to eat and to paint.

People can look in and see the monkey in a cage furiously painting mangoes, guava, bananas and passion fruit. (Or so my imagination will have it!)

If I'm good they will take me for a trip to the fabled Monkey Island, I can't wait!

Ruby

Cathryn, the chef who is opening the high-end organic yogurt shop, and for whom I will soon be painting mangoes and guava fruit, is Ruby's personal chef.

So who is this Ruby, anyway?

I don't watch T.V., so I don't know. Let's find out... shall we?

That's cool! Wendy says Ruby is an extremely nice person, dig it!

Heads up!

Heads up for my first "working vacation" as a painter!

Shawnee and I are going to Hilton Head next week where I'll be painting mangoes and exotic fruit paintings in oil for Cathyrn's swank new yogurt shop.

Yum!

We'll be staying with Lady Layton in her new houseboat! Yip! Yip!

Going Warrior

It has occurred to me that I am probably in the prime of my life, so the time is now to go warrior-style!

The way I see it, I really have nothing to loose.

Though I may not always paint my tongue blue and carry a cheap plastic sword,

In my mind, I'm going Warrior.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The Girl on a Motorcycle

Last night I watched this smokin' hot 60's flick called "The Girl on a Motorcycle", starring Marianne Faithfull. I highly recommend this film.

Marianne Faithfull's outfit alone is worth the watch, but this movie has a great soundtrack, beautiful cinematography, and fantastic motorcycle scenes.

You might want to add just a touch of Marianne into your life, I'm just sayin'.

The soundtrack rules, I downloaded it today and you can buy it off ITunes!

The soundtrack is by Les Reed, who also wrote "It's Not unusual", "Daughter of Darkness","Delilah", and "What's New Pussycat", for Tom Jones.

He also wrote a lot of other hits like "There's a kind of hush", "The green, green grass of home" and countless other songs. Wow, who knew?

My day in paint

I started out my day painting this...

I was thinking about all the people crossing the border into the U.S. and how hard this must be. People just trying to find a better life, just as we would do if we were in their shoes.

This made me feel sad and grateful at the same time.

I then decided to change subjects and for no apparent reason, painted these legs.

I looked at the legs for a while, and decided it needed a torso, so I went into town and bought another canvas. I started off painting a made-up torso, but decided I should paint a real one.

Since I was the only model available, I took off my clothes and got into the paint.

I was thinking that in order to get to any new place in art, we have to be willing to expose ourselves, which I mean figuratively, but took literally. Otherwise we are just rehashing what's already been done.

Not that I'm doing anything new, but my only hope to get to a place where my work is truly unique is to learn more about who and what I am.

These are the kinds of things I'm thinking about, and this is my day in paint.

Border Bedazzling Investigation

Gretchen here, reporting live from the Arizona/Mexico Border wall.

We're scouting out the wall from the Mexican side, to see about the possibility of "Border Bedazzling".

Apparently, Mexico doesn't really care about the border wall. In fact I think they rather resent it. Imagine that!

It serves as a good place to advertise, but that's about it, as far as we can see from here.

We try preliminary test on the wall to for future "Border Bedazzling".

All clear. No problems. All systems go!

As we are about to return into the U.S., our true identity is revealed by two gentlemen passing by. Not only do they know our names, but they know we are "Border Bedazzlers"!

(Apparently they read Facebook).

Bill and his friend take us back to their Headquarters, "The Migrant Center and Resource Center".

I've heard about this place, but never been there.

This center is completely run by volunteers. The center provides critical aid to migrants in need of food, clothing, shelter, showers, medical referrals, help with transportation, and a place to sleep. How cool is that?

Here's a family who has just been brought back to Mexico by Border Patrol after who-knows how-many days out in the desert.

They seem really nice to me!

Bill and his friend tell us that any kind of energy we can bring this way is a good thing, and that they think bedazzling the border wall would be terrific!

The Migrant Resource Center is in need of donations of food, clothing, money and time.

We'll be seeing more of these guys for sure!

Since we can't get rid of the wall anytime soon, it would make an excellent canvas for endless painting projects, by as many different artists as we can invite!

Imagine the wall going from this....

to this!

Looks like we've got some bedazzling to do!

Re-Opening Re-Party a success!

My Re-Opening was a huge success! I sold a slew of paintings, not sure how many just yet but lots!

The Border Bedazzlers are off to a great start!

Denise made this killer Bedazzled Border wall necklace, and glasses to go with the look.

She is awesome!

Sally is now the proud owner of "Paintsuit", which is perfect.

It's about politics, dancing and energy, the stuff Sally is made of!

Seth was feeling the energy of "Paintsuit" and he and Sylvia got their groove on.

Ed

Many thanks to Ed and Kelly for providing me with such a great studio!

Kelly

This is the most successful show I have ever had by far.

I'm feeling really happy, grateful, and oh, tired!

I will leave you with some MJ.

Thank you all for your support and love.

I love you right back!

Don't stop till you get enough!

Re_Opening re-Party today at Sam Poe Gallery, noon to 3!
This event unofficially kicks off "Border Bedazzlers"....I can't wait!

Song for Janimal

Save your receipts for gems, jewels and rhinestone stud setters, and send them to:
The Honorable Jan Brewer
Governor of Arizona
1700 West Washington
Phoenix, Arizona 85007...

Border Bedazzlers!

Join the Border Bedazzlers today!

If you want a t-shirt of this, in black, let me know the size and you'll get it on Sunday!

20 bucks.

Wet Paintsuit

Here's one of the new paintings that will be shown at my "Re-opening" this Sunday.

It's currently called "WET PAINTSUIT".

It's about confusion.

It's about 56 layers of paint thick.

It's about energy.

Painting it was like frosting a cake.

The paintsuit references the secret pantsuit society.

To the oil spill, to Janimal, and to all the beauty of the world...

Let's dance this mess around.

Illusion "Re-opening"

Your invited to the "Illusion of Glamour " re-opening party this Sunday at Sam Poe Gallery.

Noon-till 3. Mimosas, baby!

Here's some brain-candy for ya...

Song for the fishes

Today's painting is called "Song for the fishes".

There's a whole lot of hopelessness surrounding the Gulf oil spill, and a whole lot of sorrow.

Not fun to talk about, so I painted this instead.

If it looks familiar, it was another painting last week, and now it's submerged.

This painting would look good with that fish tank application, I'll have to try that.

On a happier note, Jan Brewer is spending 10 million dollars on a "Border Enhancement Program"*. I wrote her and told her I have lots of decorative enhancement ideas.

Rhinestone studding the wall comes to mind.

Perhaps she'll choose me to be on her enhancement committee... if so, I'll need your help bedazzling!

*Oh darn, I misread, it's actually a "Border Security Enhancement Program", I guess she's thinking about bedazzled uniforms... well, I can work with that!

The Go-Gettem Girls

I'll admit, I'm a post-show zombie with nothing better to do than drop " awesome" ideas on Jan Brewer on her Facebook page. This is such a guilty pleasure!

Here's an idea I'm gonna lay on Janimal today, as soon as she posts on Facebook.

It will go something like this...

"Jan, here's an idea for a commercial for you to suggest to Sarah just as soon as she announces that she's chosen you for her running mate in the 2012 Presidential election.

Imagine, you and Sarah, dressed in red, white and blue fitted leather motorcycle suits, hoping onto your motorcycles to protect our borders.

(Your allowed to ramble on on Jan's site, as no-one pays attention anyway... kinda like this blog!)

"Meet the Go-Gettem Girls. They're tough, they're fearless, and they won't take "No" for an answer!"

(vroom, vroom, peel out)

" See, the Go-Gettem Girls take on Washington D.C., and the men who "think" they're in charge".

(Brawl scene with Barrack Obama).

"Don't mess with The Go-Gettem Girls" (They hop on motorcycles and drive away)"or they'll mess with you!"

Then I'll suggest she watches these movie clips for more ideas....

I'd like to think Janimal loves all my ideas... like starting a "Borderlands Zombie Killer Squad" and a Sarah Palin rhine-stone studded "signature" gun collection to help finance their Presidential run. Ah, but I say too much....
O.K., I need to get a life and start painting again. I'll get right on that!

Paintress Gretchen Predicts ....

I'm looking into my crystal ball right now.... and what do we have here?

Why it's our own "Janimal"Jan Brewer and Sarah Palin.

It seems they are teaming up to run for the 2012 Presidential election.

Shivers

Palin and Brewer have been doing a lot of paling around lately, and I don't think either of them do anything without an agenda in mind. I think Palin is checking out Janimal as a possible running mate.

Here's a word from Jan from her Facebook page...

"Had such a great time with Sarah Palin last night that we went to the Diamondbacks game today before she left town. It was great talking to her about my efforts here in Arizona of securing our borders, fighting ObamaCare and preserving our 2nd amendment rights."

Notice how she wisely omits the V.P. discussion they undoubtedly had.

The crystal ball darkens here..... something about Sarah Palin moving to Arizona and Bisbee's Lavender pit getting refilled with pennies.

But that doesn't make any sense.

I'm blown away!

I'm blown away that my art show, "The Illusion of Glamour" was a huge success!

The turn-out was fantastic, the community support phenomenal, and I sold 10 paintings!

This is a big news break-through in Gretchenland. After years of art shows that have been fun but financially crippling, I can't even say how great this feels to my soul!

Sam Poe Gallery is such a wonderful place to show, and Sam and Poe are the best!

The great lighting made my paintings look lush and rich.

Many thanks and gratitude to all of you showing support for me.

I love being on this planet with you all, and I'll do the best I can to give back.

I did in-fact wear a skunk on my head, at least part of the night.

The paintings seemed to sell themselves, I didn't have to stick-up too many people,

as guns and glamour seem to work together fabulously!

The kids were on the job with the hold-ups though. Everyone had a colorful "Janimal" gun on this special "Armed Forces Day".

After the show, I was packing heavy artillery on my way to Hot Licks to see two of my favorite bands. I have to say, I felt some power packing 6-8 machine guns, dressed in glitter and wearing 6 inch platforms as I walked down the street!

I spotted two guys dumping garbage in alley, and though we don't know each other, they were game to pose with me.

I arrived at Hot Licks just in time for "G-String Theory", led by Eileen Ford.

I am so excited to have such an amazing band in Bisbee! I think Bisbee is the Berlin of the Southwest, and Eileen and "G-String Theory" the house band of the coolest club in town.

She's just as good as any of my all-time favorite singers. I think Eileen is genius!

Next up was "The Mission Creeps". These guys are on fire!

I predict "The Mission Creeps" will really make it big!

Frankie Stein and James Arr are hot, hot hot!

Frankie is mesmerizing. She's extremely talented, an amazing bass player, and great fun to hang out with!

To top all, Frankie arrived with her own Scooter gang, who drove all the way from Tucson to see the show. Frankie and her gang are completely bad-ass!

But the night didn't end here, "Armed Forces Day" went out in style..."Arizona style".

There was a massive fight in Brewery Gulch of about 20 people.

This fight took 6 cruisers, 12 Border Patrol vehicles, and two I.C.E. vehicles to break up.

There were people face down in the street, handcuffed people galore, ending in some tazoring.

Ouch! All this while Sarah Palin and Jan Brewer join evil forces in Phoenix to proclaim "We are all Arizonans now". Ugh. PLEASE don't move here, Sarah!

I was stuck smack dab in all this mess for a while, and though I wanted to take pictures,

I was in a Hillary Clinton art car with 8 "machine guns" strapped to my sides, so I decided not to push my luck.

O.K., I'll put away the guns now, but I'm all fired up to get back to painting... packing a whole new kind of artillery!