Poppy Z. Brite's Blog, page 26

Swirly Eye Motif Treasure Box

For the holidays, I decided to veer back in a crafty direction. This is an 8 1/4" x 8" x 2" wooden treasure box decorated in acrylic paints and glass tiles. I had no idea how to price it, so bidding starts at $10. Please click on the auction link for more views.

More Jewels

More pieces I have cherished but will not be wearing again.


Gorgeous Gothic/Victorian spider brooch


Silver brooch of Marie Laveau's tomb by acclaimed New Orleans designer Ruby Ann Tobar-Blanco


Hello Kitty multicolored crystal pendant necklace

Whinge

In a very low phase. I feel like a failure in life, always hurting, frequently depressed, pulled in a hundred directions and letting down everyone I care about. I'm going to lose my house to foreclosure -- I accepted that months ago and am more or less at peace with it -- but now I can't even come up with the rent for the apartment we've been living in. I bust my ass and bust my ass and BUST my ass, and there's still never enough. Phone is turned off, can't do laundry, can't buy art supplies, couldn't afford enough gas to get to the art store anyway. Electricity will be shut off soon. And almost everyone I know is in the same sinking boat. What's it all good for? Why do we bother?

How To Make A Not-Painting

1. Spray-paint your canvas flat black.

2. Paint a creepy red ghost face on it.

3. Google "Transsexuals are ... " and see all the awful results that come up.

4. Write them around the creepy face in different scripts.

5. Stare at the thing for a while. Get increasingly pissed off.

6. Decide you are a joke as a painter. Wonder how you're going to pay the rent. Panic.

7. Hyperventilate.

8. Start painting over the creepy face and words. When you've covered about half of it, stop and think, "Ooo, it looks kinda cool that way."

9. Decide you don't really want to look at those words for even one more second.

10. Spray-paint your canvas flat black.

(Repeat as needed)

"The Stranger Is The Shadow Self" & "Santa Muerte No. 4"

Inspired by some of Grey's work, I decided to try painting on this photograph I took, which was already creepy and looked like a ghost photograph. I really like the result.

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"The Stranger Is The Shadow Self (Spirit Photography 4)," 11" x 14", photograph, acrylic paint, and pencil on canvas, $100 or best offer



"Santa Muerte No. 4," 9" x 12", acrylic on canvas, $45 or best offer

Badges and Who Dats

More baubles for sale, long cherished but due for good new homes:



Vintage 1980s pin badges - Robert Fripp and Brian Eno

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Vintage 1980s pin badges - Duran Duran



Black and gold fleur de lis necklace/earrings set (GEAUX SAINTS!)

Beautiful Jewels

... for auction on eBay! I have cherished most of these pieces, but won't be wearing them again and would like to see them go to good homes. More coming.

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Mexican Day of the Dead silver pin - skeleton lady walking skeleton dog



Silver and garnet "Bleeding Heart" earrings from acclaimed New Orleans jewelry designer Mignon Faget



Silver tulip pendant, also from Mignon Faget

Available Artwork

For those sensible enough to stay home and shop online on Black Friday, I thought I'd do a roundup of the artwork I currently have available for sale. Please visit my eBay store for details on any of these pieces.


PRINTS


Portrait of Nothing from Lost Souls (edition of 50, signed/numbered)


"Self-Portrait: Ass and Torchiere" (edition of 100, signed/numbered)

ORIGINAL PAINTINGS


"Buried Alive"


"Winter Is Coming"


"Drowning Without You"


"Some Nights"


"Cold War Kid"


"Free In The Ghost World (For Neil and Wanda)"


"Oscar Wilde, Red"

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"In The Storm"


Please remember that I am happy to entertain all offers, even if they seem terribly lowball to you. (Winter isn't the only thing coming; rent day is too.) I'm still taking commissions; contact me at funkyegret (at) yahoo. More new work coming soon!

"Oscar Wilde, Red" & "In The Storm"

"Oscar Wilde, Red," acrylic paint and ink on canvas, 12" x 12", $85 or best offer

Inspired by Grey, I've been adding found objects (often jewels) to some of my canvases. I found a lovely peacock charm, which gave me the idea to do a portrait of Oscar Wilde. When I finished the painting, I liked the result, but the peacock just didn't look right on it. So maybe I'll do another Oscar soon. The quote on this one reads, "It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inarticulate manner that they hurt one by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style." Don't we know it, Oscar. Visiting his grave is about the last thing I remember in Paris (November 2000, I think) before collapsing with the plague.



"In The Storm," acrylic paint and vintage glass Mardi Gras beads on canvas, 12" x 16", $100 or best offer

The jewels actually made it onto this one. Bit of Wizard of Oz inspiration here. And some old storm baggage, of course.

Free In The Ghost World (For Neil and Wanda)

"Free In The Ghost World (For Neil and Wanda)," acrylic on canvas, 12" x 16", $100 or best offer

So I felt like doing a cemetery painting, and I'd been thinking about getting Grey to read Sandman, which led me to recall the nattering nabobs of negativity who called Neil Gaiman and/or his work transphobic, and of course I don't agree with that at all, so I decided my happy ghost was going to be Wanda, the trans woman from A Game of You. And here's the painting.