Where Am I Moving My Blog?

From hence forth I will be blogging on my main website www.lisangart.com under "blog" or click on the link: My New Blog Thanks for all your support!

The King Of Staten Island, Judd Apatow? Just ApaWow!

The King Of Staten Island, 2020 is an American comedy-drama starring SNL cast member Pete Davidson, directed by Judd Apatow (HBO’s Crashing, another absolute favourite of mine with philosophical underpinnings on what it means to struggle and achieve as an artist) and written by Judd Apatow, Pete Davidson and Dave Sirus. Dark, funny and tender, The King of Staten Island is largely based on Pete’s real life struggles with depression and suicide after his father died a fire fighter on September 11 when he was 7. In this version, Pete plays a mid twenty something aspiring tattoo artist whose aspirations have stalled. Unable to get out from under the roof of his mother (Marisa Tomei)’s and stuck in a time capsule smoking pot with his buds on the basement couch, Pete finds everyone else around him evolving: his younger sister (Maude Apatow) is moving away to college, his mother starts dating another fireman (Bill Burr), his girlfriend (Bel Powley) becoming a city planner and wanting to make their relationship public and official, Pete just can’t seem to try nor commit to anything when everything can just go blank in a blink. Nothing resolves until Pete insults then befriends a senior fireman who once new his dad, played by a former fireman (Steve Buscemi), need I say more? 

A movie about loss, heroism, getting your act together and floundering and family. I loved every bit of this flick by Judd Apatow? Just ApaWow!

A Painter's Peony

Peony Panda acrylic on canvas 6 x 6 x 1.5 inches, 2013 In private collection.

Peonies are my favourite flower, every year I get peonies for my Birthday as they remind me of my grandma who always knew when my Birthday was coming, "when the Peonies are in bloom!" I painted this peony panda a few years ago, pandas are my favourite as they also remind me of my grandma. A deep dive into history's best peony painters inspired this post, turns out peonies have long carried much cultural wahoo!

Peony

      A fragrant flowering plant native to Asia, Europe and Western North America with about 33 known species. Purple, pink, red, white and yellow, they open in a short window of 7 to 10 days in late spring/early summer. While it takes several years to re-establish itself when moved, it blooms annually for decades once settled. Two cities in China, Luoyang and He Ze host annual peony exhibitions and state-funded peony research facilities. Today The Netherlands is the largest peony-for-cut producing country. Confucius is known to have eat nothing without its flavourful sauce and for centuries all over it has been cultivated for its medicinal properties. A remedy against stomach pains, epilepsy, jaundice, gallstones, seizures, teething pains and snake bites, the Romans treated over 20 diseases with it including warding off evil spirits, demons, witches, storms, the evil eye and bad dreams. It protected crops and was also given high titles from the "King of Flowers" to the "Prime Minister of Flowers," its petals have been used in tea, added to salads, punches and lemonades for centuries. Culturally celebrated they have been used to tell the stories of human triumph and tragedy for generations. In one Greek mythology the God of medicine was transformed into a peony flower to be saved from another's jealousy, in another they sprouted where a God's tears were shed after the loss of a loved one, these flowers have been used to represent immortality and perfection. In Chinese culture they decorated the imperial palaces to express the wealth and prosperity 2.5 century long dynasties like those commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor Qing dynasty and painted by the Italian Jesuit painter and architect Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766). The Europeans referred to them as the "rose without thorns." In Victorian times they symbolized a peaceful life, a happy marriage and good luck. In the female they have known to represent from beauty and fertility to bashfulness, shame and shyness with a story of mischievous and or timid nymphs known to hide their nakedness in-between the petals. In the male they were popularized in full body tattoos to represent ferocity and power inspired by the peony decorated warriors of the woodblock prints and paintings of Japanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) Other famous peony painters past have been the Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer and philologist, Conrad Gessner (1516-1565), the German engraver, printmaker and painter, Martin Schongauer who filled the Dominican Church in Colmar with stories of colour and tenderness and the French Modernist and Impressionists, Claude Monet (1832-1883) and his contemporary Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).

Martin Schongauer (1450-1491)

Yup Shouping, Qing Dynasty 1644-1911

Gold engraved lacquerware food tray, Song dynasty 1960-1279

The two long-tailed birds represent longevity and the peony represents prosperity.

Portrait of the Fragrant Concubine during the Qing by Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) 

     

     A mythical figure in Chinese legend based on an actual concubine from Western China who entered the imperial harem. They say she had a natural fragrant scent, maybe of peonies! and bathed in camel's book daily on her journey to the imperial court to preserve her natural fragrant scent. Homesick, the emperor did everything he could to win her heart, giving her a luxurious room and a garden and building her a a bazaar, a mosque and a miniature oasis based on her hometown. Until finally, he won her over with a jujube tree bearing golden fruit from her hometown. 

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)

Eduard Manet (1832-1883)

    Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Lisa Ng, author of this post! 2018

FAQs What Are the Best Conditions for Art Making?

Anytime is a good time for art making! but I like the early mornings best. Sunrise to 11am offers the best daylight, I can see the full spectrum then before the sun gets warmer in colour around midday. I also like the peace and quiet of this time as the rest of the world is just getting up and or heading to work, I feel so free and lucky basking in the colours with little distraction. If I'm working in the daytime however, I'll paint in the evening under lamplight. Sometimes I'll save the trickiest colour parts for daytime painting and paint the more easier to see stuff at night. To maximize my attention span I usually paint no more than 1 to 2 to at most 3 hours at a time, roughly taking a 10 minute break between 50 minute sessions. I usually start by painting to music because I love music and art is a great excuse to listen to lots of it but when the day gets lonely I'll toss on a show or a podcast. I like funny clever things so usually an hour long set from a favourite stand up comedian or a tv show with characters I like hanging out with.

I keep my studio space in my living room, I like being able to work on it every spare moment I get. I like the instant access when I get up in the morning after brushing my teeth to being able to tinker on it when I'm waiting for something to bake in the oven. My apartment is tiny but I have adapted. If I'm not eating over the kitchen sink while reflecting on my current progress, I'm eating at the tv dinner table where I keep my paints on.

Body mechanics are important which took me the first few years to learn. I spend so much time here I had to learn to sit straight to avoid back aches and neck cramps. Here I have a small foot stool I'll sit on to work at the bottom of a painting and an ergonomic computer chair that raises and lowers depending on what height I want to be working at. I can stand on the foot stool too to work on the top but often I will just flip my painting upside down and work on it while sitting. 

Sustainability was a thing so keeping production costs low was important. I used to buy palette paper but now I just use the free pizza, restaurant, condo, dentist, etc. flyers I get for free in my mailbox. I cut old clothes to use for rags for wiping down my palette knives and brushes which cuts down on the amount of paint that gets washed down the drains. I struggled with carpal tunnel a lot in my early years but now I have it fairly under control. I paint with a brace, ALWAYS. and do regular stretches and massages when I feel it creeping up again. I've been painting everyday since 2007.

Puzzle Town

Tiger Queen puzzle 11.8 x 16.9 inches 108 pieces 

Puzzles are available! With the kids bored at home I couldn’t help myself and started getting custom puzzles made. They come in a variety of sizes depending on which image you want printed, inquire at lisangart@hotmail.com for more answers. Here are 2 from a happy customer, they turned out super. All the detail make for a great puzzling exercise, plus you’re left with a pretty print to look at in the end, prices range from $60 to $120 (depending on size) 🧩 

Flamingos In The Bathroom puzzle 11.8 x 16.9 inches 108 pieces 

FAQs If You Could Put All of Life on the Cover of One Magazine, What Would it Be?

God's Key Chain, Spooky Astronauts Drawing Club, 2014

Good question! Originally thought it would take me a long time to answer but in actuality the answer came at me within minutes. If I could put all of life on the cover of one magazine, I'd put the 2014 digital drawing, "God's Key Chain" by The Spooky Astronauts Drawing Club. A decade old this year, The Spooky Astronauts Drawing Club is a drawing collective based in the Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario area. Founded by a rag tag team of old friends, although lately more like a bickering old family of misfits who just can't seem to get along except in drawing, I stumbled into the delightful mess early on in its inception. Starting with a small handful of regular contributors, the group has spiralled out like a virus with over 60 participants. Astronauts take turns drawing in pencil and after some erasing and re-drawing and sometimes squabbling, a piece is declared finished and an inker and a digital colorist takes over before the final product is posted online.

God's Key Chain to me represents all of life with so many contributors I've lost track of, naturally it contains the viewpoints and chaotic mess of many and yet densely packed all into the palm of God. Dissecting every inch poses more questions than answers but an experience to be had nonetheless!

Get in touch to obtain a print lisangart@hotmail.com or obtain one online:

https://www.saatchiart.com/print/Drawing-God-s-Keychain/794346/2507484/view

Since COVID19, The Spooky Astronauts Drawing Club are still in continual production and have begun to do their drawings together via snail mail, boldly continuing on the exciting work of imagination exploration.

To see more visit our facebook: https://m.facebook.com/spookyastronauts/