Market Research In Progress

Exploring a new venture at the intersection of Henna, costumes and self-expression.

If you have a few minutes, I'd love to hear your opinion - it will help me test my hypothesis and revise my planning phase!

Thank you to all who have already (and those will soon) participate. It is making a big difference!

MX

Link to survey (...and feel free to pass it on to anyone):
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ve7As6rV4HtCRy_AuYb9gCurE2eabGsQBCo2GWRixSE/viewform

Why Burning Man needs more than S.T.E.P., it needs a Kickstarter model.

Dear BORG,

As your apology letters pour out regularly, I'm at once relieved & surprised that the hubris which created this mess has been acknowledged at all, yet not one bit convinced that such hubris will not prevail again - for all the claims that you are now "listening." Not listening is a harder habit to break than you know.

Then there's still the faulty logical thinking and looking ahead that led to this fiasco... Can I assume the same minds are STILL in charge of the "final fix" decision being hatched now?

So, I can go on STEP and get or give up a ticket...so what? Individual ticket transfers won't do enough for theme camps until, in many ways, it's too late. Camps need assurances of large blocks of tickets, and soon, if they are going to start planning. Without it, they either won't be going or will be bringing a much smaller game. Boy, all those newbies are gonna have SO MUCH FUN this year with nothing to see, do, climb on or dance to!

Oooh! Wait, are you thinking ultra-meta? Interesting...sacrifice all the fun this year...get a bunch of would-be burners to bugger off after attending the horrible, boring, dusty burn with NO theme camps this year...scare the crap out of any future ticket speculators (scalpers)...and then get the event back on track to a manageable number next year. That would be kind of awesome, actually (sad as it would make me since this will be my last year for a while) if only I believed it was brilliant premeditation rather than accidental fiasco. Hey - maybe you can "spin" it that way anyway when it all goes down the toilet.

What you need here, though I'd be shocked if you could pull it off in time to make a difference, is a Kickstarter model on your STEP site - and if you've thought ahead and already built this, I take it all back.

The Kickstarter ticket-distribution model is just this:

Let's say you have an extra ticket or two to pass on (and by some miracle don't know some friend who needs one). You go on Kickstarter-STEP and in addition to being able to sell to an individual buyer, you can browse about the different theme camps which are in need of blocks of tickets. You pick the one you most want to see there, and PLEDGE them your ticket. If they get enough pledges to fill their stated quota, they get/buy them all. If they don't within a stated amount of time, they get none and YOU still have your ticket to sell to someone else if you like, just like on Kickstarter.

There are many complications to this. How do you validate a ticket-pledger has a real ticket or will hold to the pledge? I wouldn't trust you to build it and it's revoltingly complex compared to the first-come-first-served sales. But then, you honestly wouldn't expect there to be a simple solution to the mess you made, would you?

Margeaux

Leather Jewelry now on Etsy in the "madebyMX" STORE!

http://www.etsy.com/people/madebyMX?ref=ls_profile

Theme Camp [Persian Excursion] Backdrop

We needed a new backdrop for our theme camp tent this year, owing to a new structure housing it. Turns out Montana Paints makes an awesome line of spray acrylic paint - plus a dozen different nozzle tips that let you have fatter or thinner spray.

So I got to experiment on my BIGGEST canvas ever (actually a very heavy duty white cloth)!!!

Here it is on the floor, plus what I used for inspiration - I will have better pictures after the burn when I can get shots of it hanging up.

Art Car [Kwishee-Mahee] is coming together..

First light-up of the car - sound has been tested...this is going to look mighty awesome on the playa at night.

Playa Earring-Wear!!

We had such a good time at our fundraiser brunch for the Kwishee-Mahee Art Car selling my earrings, that I got inspired to get wilder with them. I didn't think there would be much market for them, but all of the tame ones stayed on the shelf, while the long, dangly ones LEAPT off them!

This latest pair I made last night I think is going to look very good on the playa (or in the club).

I still have stock if you want a pair, and fundraising pricing will hold through August 19th (50% or more off boutique retail). All proceeds go to funding our Cuttlefish Art Car.

I'm planning to bring my remaining stock to BM for photo-shoots on the playa! I want to see how awesome these look all dusty...

Learning to Frame My Own Work

I have been learning how to make my own float frames for my work. I wanted them to be more professionally presented and "pop" more.

This simple float frame was easy to do with the right tools and patience. I'm hoping to do more "in bulk" since the main time-sink is the setup (and waiting for glue, paint, varnish layers to dry). Doing more frames at once would be more efficient - and let's face it, I'd rather be painting!

;)

No, It's Not Black Henna, It's Jagua!

My yearly Burning Man shipment of fresh, finely sifted powdered henna came in the other day, and with it my first bottle of a new (to me) product called Jagua, which can be applied in a *similar* way to henna - though I found working with it to be a bit different it is still applied with the same little henna-bottle and tips.

Jagua is a safe dye - it is not the dangerous "black henna" we are warned of - which is a black hair dye which should NEVER be put on the skin.

It's from a South American plant, and while expensive, a little seems to go a long way.

This is the design with the gel all peeled and washed off, about 12 hours after applying it in a thin layer. It seems to stain very well even in small amounts so no need to go thick. At first the design looked dark because the gel remained on the skin and the gel itself is a dark indigo color. Later the gel (maybe 30 min after it dried) turned slightly greenish and started peeling off. Underneath was the faintest greeny stain - very pale. It darkened just slightly over the next few hours I was awake and then I went to bed.

NOTE - I think you can peel all the Jagua off once it dries - at least before bed. Though most of the design had peeled away on it's own, what remained DID transfer to other body parts. I think moisture re-awakened the staining capacity of the dried gel here.

When I woke up, the design was DARK. As dark as a real tattoo - darker even than the tattoo my fiance has which is 8 years old, and definitely darker than the gel itself.

I am very excited because I decided to try the Jagua as a way to mock-up additional tattoos he wants me to design, and I thought I might have to go over the design more than once to get a good dark color, but one seemed to be enough.

Now we'll just see how long it lasts and how it fades...

Neither Here Nor There

The Salt Ponds will once again be on exhibit - this time at the "Neither Here Nor There" Juried Exhibition. More details about which submission(s) were accepted coming soon.

http://www.ucira.ucsb.edu/neither-here-nor-there-national-juried-exhibition/

National Juried Exhibition Presented by ArtSpan and Kearny Street Workshop August 4-20, 2011 At ARC Gallery, San Francisco

Where are you from? Where are you going? The theme “neither here nor there” calls for work exploring conditions caught between two locations and/or two states of being. This show touches upon notions of transnationalism, cultural fluidity, hybrid selves and spaces. That is to say, where we are now.

“NEITHER HERE NOR THERE” OPENING RECEPTION August 4, 2011 VIP Preview 5:00-6:00 pm Public Reception 6:00-9:00 pm

JURORS Emily Sano, former Asian Art Museum Director

Larry Ellison private collection Curator and John Zarobell, SFMOMA Assistant Curator

"I can't believe you really bathed me."

"I can't believe you really bathed me."
Oil on canvas
12" x 12"
(A commentary on feline bewilderment with human behavior.)

Oh my! This guy was just so cute and forlorn (as any dripping wet cat has the right to be) that I had to paint him. Plus, I had so much fun painting my Aunt's cat, Muffin, and then another cat for a client...that I just had to keep going.

I really do best love the expressions on some of these put-upon cats. The cat portrait for the client was dignified, but Muffin was also captured post-bath and ALSO not very excited about the fact.




I do not officially endorse soaking a cat just to send me adorable shots of forlorn or pissed-off kitty faces...but I won't turn them down either!

Here seen more close-up...I might do a bunch of these and print a set of greeting cards and this would be a good composition for something along those lines.

My first oil painting

So...I've been wanting to try oils for a while since sometimes acrylic dries too quickly to be able to blend and build like I want (especially that one day painting a wedding scene in full sun).

Unwilling to deal with solvents though, I was given a set of these new water-soluble oils, which use no solvents and will thin and clean up with water.

I've had these paints since Christmas, folks, and only picked them up 2 days ago.

What prompted this? Painter's block. Usually ideas pour forth, but not lately, and when I've forced myself to paint (just get back on the horse, right?) the resulting half-finished works have been...miserable.

But...I thought...since I can't paint I might as well just play around with this new-fangled toy...see how they work.

So there I go, working on another one of my car-taken snapshots, this time coming off the Bay Bridge and gazing at my beloved San Francisco with Sutro tower silhouetted against the fading sky.

I won't say the painting process wasn't hard...it was and I had to push through some rough bits and hating my progress. Not because the paint was difficult to work with but just simply because of the blocked creativity I was going through. I have to say though that being able to continue to blend, correct, adjust, try new things and not have my paint dry on me was probably the only reason I made it through to the other side - with, finally, a newly completed painting.

Coming home...

This is a sight that my Mom is more familiar with, having commuted to the East Bay for many years, but I rarely pass over the San Mateo - Hayward bridge anymore, although I grew up not far from it...

On this day I was driving home from an all day meeting and I was so, so tempted pass on the chance to snap some pictures, give into exhaustion and simply drive home. I'm glad I didn't though as this little acrylic is really starting to grow on me.

I've been spending more time on the road at sunset in the last 6 months and when I started snapping pictures I thought it was all in vain - my phone would never pick up the detail I needed to paint from.

Turns out that removing some detail created an opening for me to be more creative and make the painting be what I wanted and not merely a replica of the photograph.


"Coming home..."
Acrylic on canvas board.
9" x 12"
2011

Kitty-Portrait

Gargoyle

Congratulations! It's a....baby gargoyle?!

Must be Gargoyle breeding season, as I found myself another baby goyl...
Named him GoBee and I think he'll be an excellent addition to the collection. Can't wait to mold and cast him!

Baby Snufflepog Gargoyle

Don't let his cute face fool you! Snufflepogs are valiant and cunning defenders of their homes. The large nose detects the slightest whiff of malintent, and as they gain their adult growth, their knobbly spine becomes a razor sharp menace to any who enter with ill-will.

Gargoyle, first attempt

Salt Ponds VII - just getting started

I think this is the first of the series to have a HORIZON LINE in it.

Carmel Wedding, final cut