Purr...

...Ms. Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, is very content with herself after a hard night's work collecting some shiny, sparkly baubles. Not to mention getting home safe to her kittens after a run-in with a nasty Bat. ;)

Meow!

This is the sketch for my new Catwoman piece, which will be completed by this weekend, and you can grab (but not steal!) your very own print of it at KING CON Brooklyn! Hope to see you there, hepcats and cool kittens!

Zodiac Series: Taurus

Taurus is the second of the Sun Signs and it's the first associated with the element Earth. You are a Taurus if your birthday falls between April 20th to May 21st. Those born under the sign are generally described as being determined, slow, sensual, stubborn, romantic, artistic, loyal, materialistic, practical, and most importantly: appreciators of beauty, taste and touch. Taurus is also associated with the Emerald. Being a Taurus myself, I can say I definitely buy into the description...both the good and bad qualities, of course!

This is just the first of a complete series of Zodiac paintings that will be available for purchase soon as greeting cards. So, what's your sign?

Vive la France!Charles-François Lebœuf, Eurydice Mourante

Pierre Legros, L'Automne

View of the cat at my feet, cafe on the Mediterranean.

View of Notre Dame from the banks of the Seine.

I've been a little absent from the interwebs of late, but for a very good reason: I just went on an amazing trip to France with my husband! A friend of ours currently has an address in the City of Lights and she and her boyfriend generously offered us an air-mattress, maps, milk & cookies and their company during our visit. Of course, when traveling things don't always go according to plan, which is part of the adventure. My husband and I had grand plans for doing lots of artwork on this trip. We packed sketchbooks, pencil cases, new watercolor moleskin pads, palettes and brushes. And...we barely used any of it! It was our first trip to Europe, and we definitely underestimated how tiring it would be.

After some delays (thanks, American Airlines!) we got to Paris, and got settled in at my friends' place (i.e. took up all the space in their studio apartment). We toured the city by boat ride on the Seine, saw the Eiffel Tower up close, went to the Louvre, spent a day at Versailles, wandered the Marais and visited Notre Dame over four days. Then we took a three hour train ride to Marseille, where we stayed at a little B & B on the outskirts of the city. We took it easy the first day there; then we went into the city and trekked up to the highest point (another Notre Dame) for a 360º view; the next day we hiked the calanques (large limestone fjord-like cliffs) and took a dip in the Mediterranean; then we trained it back to Paris. In Paris once again we went to the Musée d'Orsay, the Louvre a second time (to sketch, finally!), saw Les Halles, did some shopping, went to Montmartre and saw Sacre Couer, grabbed macarons at the oldest Ladurée, strolled the Marais again, had a picnic on the Seine, went to a British pub and saw a real, live French bar fight, all in another four days in Paris.

In conclusion, unseasoned travelers that we are, we had a lot to learn about traveling Europe, and learn we did! For example:

• every French girl owns at least one striped shirt and loves wearing it.
• everyone does walk around carrying baguettes.
• men do say "ooh-la-la" on the street.
• most Parisiennes do have an effortless sense of style...
• and even their graffiti is neat.
• an urban public transport system actually can run on time! (and now a big F-U to the MTA)
• yes, you actually do need to make reservations for dinner before your trip...every interesting restaurant is booked every night...
• however, standard brasseries and bistros may not be exciting, but they know how to cook food well.
• unsurprisingly, New York is considered very cool...
• surprisingly, comic books and super-heroes are, too.
• the French love terrible pop music.
• everyone is friendly and helpful, as long as you are polite, too...weird, huh?

Now, back to Brooklyn living, which really is pretty cool.

Zodiac Series

One of my next projects will be a series of Zodiac pin-ups, done as vignette-style paintings. I'm doing this project for a few reasons: I love drawing and painting sexy girls with a twist, I get a kick out of the Zodiac and horoscopes (maybe because, as any of my friends or family could tell you, I am *slightly* bull-headed and I just so happen to be a Taurus) and it requires research on animals, nature and fashion.

Sounds good until I start my next musician/band illustration...will it be Peaches, of Montreal, Die Antwoord...or perhaps something a little more classic, like Springsteen, Bowie or the Clash? I dunno, but in the meantime, check your horoscope!

The Dead Weather

I am happy to finally present my illustration of Jack White & Allison Mosshart, aka "Baby Ruthless" of the Dead Weather. This was a ton of fun to work on, since it was inspired by an awesome, hard-rocking band and two performers with tons of stage presence and charisma. I've had the pleasure of seeing the Dead Weather twice now, recently right in my backyard of Prospect Park, and they don't disappoint.

The Crucible

Recently (okay, over 6 months ago) I did a project for SparkNotes, which is kind of like the Cliff's Notes I remember, but more hip, and I was just informed that the project is now live on the website! SparkNotes is so hip, in fact, that they are now creating Video SparkNotes, to make studying "faster, prettier and sound-ier". I was asked to create illustrations for the Video SparkNote for Arthur Miller's classic play The Crucible. It was a lot of fun to work on, even if I had more than a thousand things going on at the time. I hope to work on more Video SparkNotes in the future– you know, to help the kids with the "book-learnin".

Check out the video here, and take a look at my 5 favorite pieces out of the 30 illustrations that I did below:

Sneak Peak! The Dead Weather

This piece has been a long time coming, but it got put on hold for a bit with summer traveling, etc. I've still got a little more to go, but I'm really psyched about this one so I thought I'd share a sneak peak with you. It's an illustration of Jack White and Allison Mosshart of the Dead Weather, who my husband and I have seen live twice, recently in Prospect Park. Rock 'n' Roll!

Leeloo

Wow! I haven't blogged in a while. That's pretty lame, but what isn't lame is randomly happening upon a decent movie on TV, especially when you only get 12 channels! I happened upon The Fifth Element on TV the other day and I was psyched. It's such a fun sci-fi/action movie, and it's really visually interesting. So of course, I had to draw Leeloo, the beautiful and kooky "perfect being" (played by Milla Jovovich) that Bruce Willis' character can't help but fall in love with.

The funny thing is, the movie did predict some future (albeit only about 10 years into the future) fashion trends, such as gold lame leggings, neon colors, and crop tops— all of which have been coming back into fashion to some degree lately...for better or worse.

Shop Your Closet! Special Guest Edition!It's another edition of "Shop Your Closet", and it's a special guest edition, featuring my buddy Anna. We recently got together for our friends Rob & Michelle's going away send-off, and I decided to wear an item I've never worn before, even though I've had it for a couple of years!

It's a super-cute Mexican dress that I got at, of all places, Disney World. It's bright red with white flower embroidery, but worn by itself it's a little but too "abuela" for going out to a hip bar, so I put one of my many American Apparel jersey scarves to use and wrapped it around my hips to add a little more shape to the dress. The bright turquoise scarf looked killer against the red and white of the dress. And I had the perfect necklace to match– a really cool turquoise resin "invisible" necklace my hubby Tom had gotten me as a Valentine's Day gift from the MoMA store. Add casual leather flip-flops and I was ready for margaritas outside.

My friend Anna works in the fashion industry, and she's always looking cute. That night was the first time I saw her new bleach-blond 'do, and it looked great with her cropped cut. I'm sure some details of her outfit are off, but from what I remember she had on a cute strapless maxi dress in an orangey-red with an off-white pattern. She wore a white crochet vest over the dress and a brown belt cinching the vest at the waist. The new 'do and the breezy summery outfit Anna had on were also perfect for drinking outside on a hot summer night, and saying farewell to good friends.

So if you have something in your closet you've never worn– get it on! You just might get a few compliments.