I painted this last week from my model John, it consists of ten or more poses done in one night with acrylic on an old wooden shelf. I had planned on making it a backdrop to a glass piece my dad salvaged for me but after painting it, it didn’t seem to make sense to use it like that. I went to an event over the weekend and displayed my work while bands played in a very fancy barn. This painting sold to a man who really “gets” it and needs it to hang in his room.
Last night I hosted the BYOG show, it was an amazing night. The crowd was small but the people there made the evening perfect. Artists new to me joined in. I feel like I made great connects with these “new” artists and we plan to do more things together. Bobby Rantz is a scratch board artist, I can’t describe how powerful his work is but my heart was touched by his work. Musicians were excited to share their music, I even played and sang a little (without having a heart attack from fear). Blaze played his heart out and his friends were some of the most supportive people I’ve ever met. Authors read deeply personal stories, excerpts and poems. I’m doing some illustrations for Fox Dunham, he is a cancer survivor, sometimes I feel like my drawings can’t do his stories justice but listening to him read out loud inspires me further. Jason Kaminski read an excerpt from his book dealing with addiction and life sorrows. I got some negative feedback from some show attendees because I invited him to read. I’m not exactly sure what people don’t like about him. Personally I have had hard feelings towards the guy for breaking my ribs in a mosh pit many years ago, but I’m over that now. I figure he’s an artist and has something that needs to be let out. My shows are for people like him.
While I was by my table running the millionaire’s auction, a young woman stared for a long time at my painting Into the Ocean. Tears filled her eyes, I walked around the table and talked to her about what this meant to her. I knew there has been a loss of life and could see she was grieving. This painted reminded her of God and her lost friend and his brothers and also the different ways in which you can appreciate the sea. We hugged and I removed the painting (which had no bids) from the auction and gave it her. I think it was meant for her.
There were so many people there who made the show amazing, I’m so thankful to have found this community of artists and art lovers.
Bring your own acoustic guitar, your favorite songs and campfire stories to this group art show. Two stages will be set up for group jam sessions as local artists and authors display and sell their work.
Artists include: Amy Rims, Bobbi Shaw, Chelsea Allen, Josh Seachrist, Sumerlyn Witsen, Anthony T Forbes, Bobby Rantz, John DiGiovanni, Alexander Kachenko and Jay Reimers.
Authors: Jason Kaminski and Fox Dunham
Musicians include: YOU
Admission is free and all ages are welcome.Door open at 7PM to the upstairs Ballroom of the Third and Walnut 43 w 3rd street Lansdale.
This is from my January 2013 Fun A Day collage project.
In school, I was never much into gym class, I wasn’t great with team sports. In high school, we got to choose from various activities. I choose tennis and got paired with a boy I kind of knew. He made gym fun, with his hand stands and juggling our tennis rackets. I looked at his photo in the year book a lot. 14 years later, I was able to turn right to his year book photo to make this collage. I’m happy to still know him and happier still that he is always supportive of my work.
This is my acrylic re paint of Manet’s guitarist.
It’s 24 X 22 hand stretched canvas. I’ve spent 6 hours on this so far. I probably won’t work on it again since I’m still finishing up some illustrations of a horror anthology and some more biblical illustrations. This painting will serve as the flier to the next show I’m hosting themed around guitar playing around a campfire. It’s going to be a great time, I have a few artists signed up, a good group of musicians and even some writers who will read some scary stories. What is a campfire without story telling?
Fun A Day was an amazing time. This was my second year in hosting shows. I’ve learned a lot from the past shows and from the various artists and musicians I have worked with. This year I’ve enlisted more helpers who for some reason don’t seem to crave recognition. With help I was able to complete and hang over 300 hand made flags, create over 31 collages, get everything set up in a snowstorm and have a crowd of people come and enjoy themselves, with few exceptions. Thank you to everyone involved. Please take a look at the videos from the show too at the end of the article. You can skip over my dorky section and check out some of the talented people there.
There was a time where I would like to look through other family’s windows and see them sitting around a table, playing in a family room or washing dishes in the sink. I would image I lived there and life was perfect because in my mind I was the only one who ever had a rough family life. One day I met a woman who said to me “look at how young you look, you came up easy.”
I am hosting Lansdale’s Fun A Day show again this year. Fun A Day is an international event in which artists create something everyday for the month then get together and display their creations. Today is the 14th day of January, which means I have 14 collages completed and various other things for the show to create a fun atmosphere. I decided to make more photo collages similar to the ones I made for my dad for Christmas. A few days ago, I hit a slump in which I wanted to give up on the collages but I kept at it and I’m liking them. I’ve had a few other artists come join me in my studio and that has helped keep my motivation up, I also have a new model that really enjoy working with. I have lots of work that I have posted on this blog yet (hopefully I get to that soon). Here are the first 13 days of collages.
Today’s collage is still laying flat to dry. This is a pretty difficult project, I get kind of emotional looking at old photos and thinking about mortality. So a few of the collages are not what I set out to make but they were much needed comic relief for myself. The point of this is to have fun and enjoy our work. My studio is a mess with so many projects going on. Schwa is working on his projects in here too behind the sheets. We are learning how to share materials, it’s fun having artistic partners to work with.
David Gerbstadt designed the flier for the show. Check him out if you get a chance, he’s a pretty cool guy .
I hope to see you at the show Friday February 8th at The Third and Walnut upstairs ballroom 43 W 3rd st Lansdale PA 7pm.
I have a photo album in my closet of old family photos that I put together when my grammy died. It’s hard to look through the albums but I hate to have them not looked at. My dad asked me to save some photos for him but he has a difficult time with them, so I made up these for him. I haven’t given them to him yet but I think he will like them.
This first one highlights alcoholism and bizarre furniture. My grammy is the little girl on the right in the photo behind the couch. 
Alcohol is highlighted in this one too. My dad is the boy going down the slide in the photo.
This one is about death.
This one contains my favorite photo of my poppop. He is a sour man but hilarious.
I have recently begun reading the bible with the intention to illustrate important parts. I have completed illustrations of the creation story from the book of Genesis.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, c“Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky” And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day.
9 And God said, g“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth,4 and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, h“Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants5 yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
And God said “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days, and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day.
I’m still working on the second day but I’m very pleased with the overall feeling of wetness. It has a few more layers to go. Day Three is still in my mind but Day Four asked to be painted first. I have a show at St Luke’s 1946 Welsh Rd, Philadelphia, PA 19115 On November 3rd 7-10pm. I’m challenging myself to get at least through the first 6 days of Genesis before the show. I have so many ideas for the stories I’ve read. It’s a really strange and exciting book to read.
20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds7 fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, n“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
rmale and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, s“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. tYou shall have them for food. 30 And uto every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 vAnd God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” src=”http://amyrims.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/alltheworld.jpg” height=”581″ width=”750″ />
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
