Pandora's Box

Mari's studio rocks! Seriously. If you haven't checked out her work yet, you must do so. I'll throw her link out there again - Mari Naomi. Not only are the walls adorned with her colorful, creative, amusing, thought-provoking pieces, but I got a sneak preview of what's to come. And this grrrl has got it going on! I don't want to give anything away, but I was blown away by her brilliance with this new series. I'm sure some of these will show up on her website before too long - if they're not there already.

But let me back-track... Mari invited me to her studio and told me to bring some canvas and I could paint with her in her new digs. First off, her studio is in such a prime location - smack dab in the middle of the city, amongst all the action. We watched tranny prostitutes cruise the strip for johns and an androgynous person with scraggly blonde hair squatting to relieve him/herself behind a car on the curb. Mari told the story of when she watched a super butch woman arguing with one of the trannies over who was more woman - the yelling match ended in a dance-off. I couldn't believe it. Her telling of the story, in particular, made it sound like the beginnings of a campy musical of the Rocky Horror ilk. And what a view. Mari's studio is on the corner of the building and the walls on both sides facing out are windows - floor to ceiling, corner-to-corner. She certainly scored on this studio space.

So I picked up canvas, paint and snacks on my way over. The night before, I panicked, "I better have a sketch ready or I will seriously have a block if I have to stare at a blank canvas." I decided to do a logo for this blog. You can probably guess the theme - skateboard and nursing. I left the painting in Mari's studio to dry. And it still needs some finishing touches. But hopefully, I'll eventually get it ready enough to post on this page somewhere. But if nothing else, I had a grand time, basking in the inspiration of Mari's work and entertaining myself by setting paintbrush to canvas.