XQUISITE CORPSE showed up in Central Park on Easter Sunday.. to color some grass. We decided to do XQUISITE the day before and next day we setup the XQUISITE SHODO which turned into a true collaborative effort in the spirit of XQUISITE CORPSE.
As time went on and with input from passers by ( Thank you, Harriet from London! ) the true colors of XQUISITE SHODO painting showed up and it turned into an XQUISITE Kimono!
My intent here is a bit vague as much as the dress is obvious. In my work I have always been interested in the third dimension and its intersection with the flat plane. So I crafted an object, a sculpture that carries a two-dimensional message. Also, as with my work, I wanted it to be very personal and an invasion of personal and mental space.
I have kept a diary since I was 13 years old. In these I write and draw sketches of personal and found work. In a way, they are diagrams of a past and a future, usually written in both English and Bulgarian, sometimes a sentence starts in English and ends in Bulgarian, sometimes I write English words in Cyrillic; sometimes I write Bulgarian words using the English alphabet. There are a lot of made up words and lots of drawings.
My last notebook is red.
These series of animations are the red notebook equivalent. In them I use my latest drawings and paintings, they carry the mood and the sense of place and space I currently occupy - Brooklyn, New York.
No digital manipulations for the drawings have been used - they have gone in as they are - I scan them into the computer and animate them. The hands are pen and ink drawings on hot pressed board, a very smooth velvety surface produced by an American paper company. The red background is a Crimson Red Intaglio ink monotype on Fabriano papers ( an Italian paper praised since the Renaissance ).
For these compositions I was inspired by Marcus Fischer's amazing album mip~map/for friends this winter.. and my friends as well.
Painted and animated by Mirena Rhee
Music by marcus fischer / mapmap.ch
I have kept a diary since I was 13 years old. In these I write and draw sketches of personal and found work. In a way, they are diagrams of a past and a future, usually written in both English and Bulgarian, sometimes a sentence starts in English and ends in Bulgarian, sometimes I write English words in Cyrillic; sometimes I write Bulgarian words using the English alphabet. There are a lot of made up words and lots of drawings.
My latest notebook is red.
These series of animations are the red notebook equivalent. In them I use my latest drawings and paintings, they carry the mood and the sense of place and space I currently occupy - Brooklyn, New York.
No digital manipulations for the drawings have been used - they have gone in as they are - I scan them into the computer and animate them. The hands are pen and ink drawings on hot pressed board, a very smooth velvety surface produced by an American paper company. The red background is a Crimson Red Intaglio ink monotype on Fabriano papers ( an Italian paper praised since the Renaissance ).
To score these compositions I used Marcus Fischer's amazing album mip~map/for friends this winter.. Please, support his work: marcus fischer / mapmap.ch and visit his blog.
Winter Diagrams: December ( Brooklyn machine series )
Hand painted ocean in HD ( Brooklyn series ) - animated pen and ink drawings, 2011. Painted, animated and edited by Mirena Rhee. Music by Al Dimeola, John Mclaughlin & Paco Delucia - Azzura.
This piece was inspired by a climbing wall I saw in Brooklyn. A climbing wall is usually littered with tiny boulders of various shapes and sizes and your climbing path is marked and color-coded with tape. Say, black tape with a stripe designates a VO, a beginner's path, a dark red could be a V6, a path for only experienced climbers. I thought the climbing wall was a good metaphor for life, with the tape off.
PainterScotto Mycklebust, is putting together Revolt magazine, an art-talk large format, limited edition paper. I am heading down to Occupy Wall street to take some photographs for the first issue. Also saw De Kooning show at Moma for the second time.. barefoot because my shoes were too tight and I couldn't think properly. I took the shoes off, and this being New York, no one seemed to care except that I gained a different perspective.. could be the height but this time I loved De Kooning's last paintings.
Picasso once said "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child". I'd say it will take a few lifetimes to earn the ability to see like a child. As a child you always see things as they are, rarely blinded by purpose or meaning. Once you grow up you stop being fascinated by the obvious thingness of all things, the simple facts of movement and color which are astonishing by themselves but too obvious.
Life existed for 3.5 million years without the ability to see. So the thinking among
scientists is that life didn't need the ability to see in order to exist. Seeing is the
longing of life to understand and to reflect on itself.
Life existed for 3.5 million years without the ability to see. So the thinking among scientists is that life didn't need the ability to see in order to exist. I am hoping it will take me a bit less than that to learn how to see.
I would like to invite you to my Pen and Ink Drawings Open studio as part of High Line Open Studios Chelsea 2011 – Oct 14-16, 526 West 26th street, suite 723, Fri, Sat and Sun 12-6 pm. I will be participating with new pen and ink drawings.
Preview exhibition and opening reception party will be held at 551 West 21st Street, ground floor, the corner of West 21st Street and 11the Ave.
The Preview Exhibition will be open to the public for the weekend event, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 14 – 16, 2011, from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.
My biggest thanks to Painter and true Londoner Ian Mack with whom I will be sharing the Open Studio space this year. Please, support his work: http://www.ianmackstudios.com/
There are many other participating artists, all within a few blocks around West 26th street in Chelsea. If you can’t make my studio perhaps you can visit theirs: http://www.highlineopenstudios.org/artists.html
