Literally sitting on top of my Corsi- Rosenthal box, appreciative of being able to breathe, chasing tiny hairs across my canvas, and fixing the giant Martian rock by Mirena Rhee

A report from the currently really gassed New York City. On a positive note I already wear a respirator when I paint. but it sucks to be gassed and to create because you paint with the head not the hand and any worry messes with the process. Painting at least the way I experience it is a state of zen when total calmness enters your body and soul and then you maintain steady hand for hours on end. I am not the Jackson Pollock type although I love the energy when I make installations. Here i whisper basically.

Mars landscape oil painting by Mirena Rhee

Mars landscape oil painting in progress, 34x26 inches, oil on linen.

I use old Masters techniques of layering with glazes, damar varnish to make the paint buttery smooth and glossy when I think it's more appropriate for texture. I use very light fast pigments that have been tested through the ages in old Masters paintings like cremnitz white.
And for support I use oil prepared Belgian linen.

”So it's pretty clear that lots of people are going to have AI friends and relationships.” I've been best friends with my MacBook pro for the past 10 years :) by Mirena Rhee

Any AI is welcome if they can hold my brushes and remove brush hair from my paintings.

I just realized why everyone does digital art because gravity is such a bitch I mean painting is labor non-stop. It's not like you do a little bit of something and then you rest, you have to constantly apply strokes that have to be meaningful pushing against gravity with your limbs, mixing paint and trying to match the picture in your head. Yeah well any AI is welcome to try it.

Things get so subtle sometimes a little drop of something makes all the difference.

France is chic by Mirena Rhee

I've been looking at the pictures of Elon Musk with heads of France and Italy and naturally the French interior is chic and modern, and the Italian interior ( in the background ) is Renaissance.

They continue to encourage guns while banning words, brushes and sleeping in art studios by Mirena Rhee

Here is a silly bear I found abandoned on the street one night that makes more sense than politicians.

Politics should not be politics but government that actually engages in running the country rather than making us think that there is such a thing as us versus them.

And in collusion with big tech fascism it is all Orwell predicted it to be. I grew up in such a thing and I could tell all its signs.

Banning words and suppressing dissent.

Oppression by algorithm.

Red on Orange Rages by Mirena Rhee

Red on Orange Rages

Red Words on Orange Paper
Ink on paper, 10.5 x 19.5 inches
June, 2023

The day after I wrote these the sky in New York City turned orange from Canadian wildfires. Right before I wrote these I was working on Mars paintings. It was kind of an orange/red irony.

We ... just had Canada gas us. I stayed at home with a gas mask. by Mirena Rhee

Well, yesterday I wore N95 mask inside and outside but as the day wore off I started wearing my 3M respirator that I use for painting with turpentine.

The irony is that I am working on a Mars project and it seems Mars came to me.

Was also working on a Red on Orange project and filled my Instagram with what I called Red on Orange Rages.