Clint Carney live painting at the first Art Autopsy at Hyaena Gallery

Last night Hyaena Gallery in Burbank hosted its first Art Autopsy. Conceived as a monthly interactive live art experience, Art Autopsy features Hyaena artists creating art in the gallery.  Free and open to anyone, Art Autopsy offers a fantastic opportunity to observe artists at work and talk to them about what they’re doing.

The atmosphere was so casual and everyone involved was approachable and happy to discuss their process and mediums.  Sick dark artist and musician (of System Syn, God Module, & Imperative Reaction) Clint Carney serves as informal host. He set up his easel and acrylic paints in the back corner of the gallery and proceeded to paint a demonic compost of agonized faces and animal forms.

On the left you see Clint's painting in process and on the right the finished painting.

Clint was joined by sculptor Matt Levin, who creates gnarly and grotesque polymer clay sculptures using Super Sculpy.  Artists Clint Carney and Jason McCormack were picking his brain for techniques.  Matt builds the clay around a wire and tin foil armature and works it with tools until baking it in the oven at a low temperature (never higher than 225 degrees).  Because the clay is so sticky, with an almost chewing gum-like consistency, he can’t touch it directly when he gets to the detailed stage.  Instead he has to use small metal tools to carve out the texture he wants.

Matt showed me the original sketch he did for this piece, and it looked like a blobby caterpillar contorting.  It’s evolved into a more veiny, almost human form and it will continue to change as he decides how he wants the face to look.  It was fascinating to see how meticulous and detail-oriented he is.  He spent the whole evening working over the lower part.

Matt Levin works on his sculpture across from Jason McCormack.

This is one of Matt Levin's finished sculptures, Photophobia, available from Hyaena Gallery for $850

Across from Matt Levin, Jason McCormack dashed off this fantastic emaciated zombie drawing in ink on watercolor paper.  I haven’t really watched an artist dipping a brush in ink to draw before and I really liked the quality of the lines.

Jason McCormack doing an ink drawing on watercolor paper.

I was surprised to see Jason take out a toothbrush and dip it in ink to create the stippled background texture. I love the vacant eyes in this drawing!

Clint's System Syn bandmate, Atom Strange, working on his second painting. He's starting with acrylics on canvas and I really admired the fact that he's not intimidated to be working alongside more practiced artists. I like the ghostly forms coming out of the fire. It's a cool concept.

DW Frydendall drawing portraits of comic book characters for the Hyaena Gallery Art Vending Machine

Across from Atom Strange, DW Frydendall set to drawing small pieces for Hyaena Gallery’s Art Vending Machine.  What is an Art Vending Machine? you ask, well it’s a vending machine stuffed with little tubes of art by fantastic Hyaena artists.  Each tube is only $5 and might have a drawing, tiny painting, a Hyaena gift certificate, or knowing Bill, something disturbingly sinister.  It’s a lot of fun to open one of those tubes and an unbelievable opportunity to score an original piece of art.

I enjoyed watching DW Frydendall work because he whips up these comic book characters without any reference in front of him.  He looks off into space every so often and then puts his head back down to the paper and Batman appears.  Not being much of a comic book fan (I’m a girly girl, I don’t like comics, I do like dead babies), I requested a dead baby for his final drawing.

DW Frydendall's dead baby drawing. awwww...

DW Frydendall and Dahlia Jane

Besides the artists working in the gallery, the event also drew a great crowd of other artists looking to soak up tips and inspiration as well as art fans such as myself.  Conversation turned to weird Americana destinations along Route 66, TV and movies and DW Frydendall’s African execution axe.  It was a fun social event and I recommend it to anyone in the LA area looking to meet other dark art enthusiasts.  The next Art Autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday March 14. Visit Hyaena Gallery’s website for more information.

Here is a link to Clint Carney’s website.  To see more of Matt Levin’s work, click on his website. And DW Frydendall’s website is here.  Jason McCormack posted on his blog, The Real Zombie Muse, about the experience of creating art alongside the other artists.

Plague Rat Dahlia Jane in front of the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles

Tight-laced Corsets, delicate ruffles, striped stockings, glinting crystals, sugar dusted cookies, Suffer the teddy bear, blinding rage, lust for blood, sexual deviance, and mental illness all take center stage in Emilie Autumn’s dreamy concert.

I attended the Los Angeles stop of Emilie’s Fight Like a Girl (FLAG) tour at the El Rey Theater on February 4, 2012.  In many ways watching her show was more like watching a musical than a concert.  The unique blend of vaudeville, burlesque, cabaret and electronic industrial melodies, as well as her superb sense of story elevates Emilie’s shows to thrilling spectacle.

With her colorful and plaintive voice, Emilie slices her veins open and bleeds all over the stage.  Her emotions carry the show, which to quote from her new song “Girls! Girls! Girls!” becomes “a portrait of insanity, approached with pure humanity.”  The cell block number from her stint in a mental hospital is tattooed on her bare right arm.  Emilie’s audience embraces her because she is authentic.   She incorporates vaudevillian form to satirize the injustices society still places on women, the mentally ill, and especially mentally ill women.

The FLAG tour picks up where Asylum and the Opheliac album left off.  Emilie and her companions are imprisoned for the good of misguided society, and must adapt to survive.

Emilie Autumn silhouetted behind the clock with Naughty Veronica, the Blessed Countess and Captain Maggot draped on the rails

I was deep in the Asylum from the moment the lights went down, the red velvet curtain rose and a large clock prop with a silhouetted rat was revealed onstage.  Spending most of the show in a sparkly corset and wild, white mohawk, Emilie was attended by her marvelous and scrappy Bloody Crumpets, Captain Maggot, The Blessed Contessa and Naughty Veronica.

Most of the songs performed are unreleased cuts from the upcoming Fight Like a Girl album.  While I do prefer being familiar with songs before I go to a concert, it was exciting hearing all of her new material for the first time.

Setlist:

1. Best Safety Lies in Fear
2. 4 O’Clock
3. Dr. Stockhill/Opheliac Hidden Track (Speech Intro)
4. Fight Like a Girl
5. Time for Tea
6. The Art of Suicide
7. Take the Pill

(video I took below)

1. How to Break a Heart (Poem)
2. Liar
3. God Help Me
4. Dominant/Veronica’s Feather Dance
5. Girls! Girls! Girls!
6. Rat Game
7. Gears (Sound Effect)
8. We Want Them Young

(video I took below)

1. Gaslight
2. I Know Where You Sleep

(video I took below)

1. Let the Record Show
2. One Foot
3. Thank God I’m Pretty (Encore)

Each number was well choreographed.  The Bloody Countess did some gorgeous aerial work in front of a wheel chair bound Emilie in the dark and dramatic “Take the Pill”.  ”Girls! Girls! Girls!” featured my favorite choreography as Emilie appeared as a boy advertising the delightfully nutty Girls who mimed hanging themselves and other lewd antics.

I want to be a Bloody Crumpet.  Not only do they get to wear adorable Victorian-inspired outfits and cavort onstage.  But they’re also given license to be wildly naughty.  During “God Help Me” the Bloody Crumpets brought out tea implements and proceeded to generously include the audience by tossing out deliberately licked pink sugar-dusted heart cookies and dumping tea pot water upon their heads.  And Captain Maggot plunged into the audience for some crowd surfing.  Veronica indulged in corrupting not one, but two female audience members when she brought them up for the Rat Game (a girl on girl kissing game).  Picking one whose homemade glittered sign read, “Veronica!!! Be My First Lady Kiss” and another who asked her to be her Valentine, Veronica slyly planted devilish smooches on both their lips.

Emilie’s own story is one of abject despair.  A survivor of abuse, rape, a suicide attempt and genuine artistic/meaning-of-life angst, she conquers demons everyday.  I found myself strangely comforted when her main set ended with the new song “One Foot in Front of the Other.”  It’s a survival anthem for wayward girls everywhere asking, “How do we move beyond all of this misery?” and responding, “One foot in front of the other foot.”  It’s not overdone or melodramatic.  It simply offers solace for those dealing with similar feelings of hopelessness.

Emilie Autumn teaching Veronica to kiss in preparation for the Rat Game

I loved this show and cannot wait for Emilie’s new album Fight Like a Girl.  Meanwhile I’ve been replaying Opheliac on a near constant loop all week.

Visit my Youtube channel to see more videos from the show including Fight Like a Girl, Time for Tea and Let the Record Show.  Sorry there’s some sound distortion, but the picture quality is very good. For more information about Emilie Autumn, visit her website.  And Gothic Charm School has a delightful interview with Emilie discussing the FLAG tour here.

Are you an Emilie Autumn fan?  Have you seen her live and if so, what did you think of the show?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, no it was just Freakshow Wrestling, an insane, nonstop parade of comedy show meets sideshow meets wrestling.  Freakshow Wrestling had me laughing, shaking my head and cringing all evening.

Dr. Paul Koudounaris invited me and once I heard there was something called Freakshow Wrestling, I knew I had to go.  So I found myself waiting in line outside a shady warehouse in Sun Valley, California last Saturday night.  Everyone in line stepped aside for a man with long hair, dark messy face paint, a multi-hued ensemble including a yellow tie, tattoo sleeves, and mismatched striped socks.  He disappeared for a few moments, came back and said, “I did not just pee in that alley” and reentered the building.

I told the oversized clown handling tickets that I was “just one,” but that my friend was already inside so I wasn’t sure I needed a seat.  He replied, “I find it hard to believe you have any friends.” Ouch.  Semi-witness to an act of public indecency and dissed by a clown.  The evening was already living up to its weird expectations.

The makeshift arena with its random assortment of chairs and benches surrounding a wrestling ring was packed.

I’ve never been to a live wrestling event, so I can’t be sure, but I don’t think they usually go like this.  A magician followed up a fire illusion with a bout in the ring.  An extra curvy lady had dollar bills stapled to her bare ass cheek.  Two elaborately costumed and noisy rock bands traded insults.  And a black Santa and an overweight Jesus pummeled each other.

Here is a video of the Ghost of MachoMan and Mathimatico Dos facing off in a  Last Man Dancing challenge (Ghost of MachoMan does an awesome impression of old-school wrestlers’ voices):

Clownvis treated us to a surprisingly straight version of Viva Las Vegas

The girl fight was one of the most realistic looking of the evening. They were out for blood.

Two bands, RoseMary’s Billy Goat and Radioactive Chicken Heads, goaded each other in a bizarro battle of the bands.  I preferred RoseMary’s Billy Goat who had a song with the chorus, “damn that girl’s got hobbit feet” (how can you not love that?) and a fiery guitar.  Here’s a video of RoseMary’s Billy Goat:

Radioactive Chicken Heads

As part of their battle of the bands, Radioactive Chicken Heads unleashed their Bad Bunny and RoseMary's Billy Goat let out the drunken Werewolf to duke it out in the ring. Both were hugely unwieldy. I got hit in the arm by a beer can being chucked at the ring as silver bullets for the werewolf, which I think were supposed to give him more strength. Bad Bunny was given carrots. I think the Werewolf won.

Santa crushing Jesus in a match refereed by Satan of course. Jesus promised to tell his daddy when Satan awarded Santa with the win.

And then Zach Galifanakis, the One Man Wolfpack, and Carlos showed up.

The loveliest freaks of all, Dr. Paul Koudounaris and Dahlia Jane

The show was about two hours and at $10 a person, a huge value in terms of entertainment bang for your buck.  Thank you so much to Dr. Paul Koudounaris for inviting me! The next Freakshow Wrestling is coming up in Sun Valley, CA on Saturday, February 25, 2012. See their Facebook page for more information.

Yaaaah! Bill Shafer took this photo of Dahlia Jane talking to Tatomir (Christopher Ulrich is on the right signing show posters). We did not edit this photo at all and I am not wearing any contacts. The camera captured my demonic essence all on its own. Freaky!

Years ago, a passport mixup led artist Christopher Ulrich to spend four days in a jail in Taipei.  Deprived of natural light and air, Christopher spent a lot of his time drawing and was able to barter the drawings to the guards for contact with the embassy.  His art helped free him from the darkness in more ways than one.    Art’s ability to release its creators from darkness is one of its greatest powers.  All of the artists exhibiting in Hyaena Gallery’s current group show, Noir, which opened Saturday November 19, clearly grapple with shades of darkness.  Each piece, whether it was explicitly about dreams like Jeremy Cross’ A Hobo’s Death Dream, or not, shares a nightmarish quality.  The art becomes an outlet for haunting imagery.

And goth bless Hyaena for providing an arena for these visual exorcisms.  I feel so at home amongst the dreamy skeletons and monsters conjured up by the black theme and their creators.  While I didn’t meet any new artists, I did get to catch up with many of the usual suspects including artists Tatomir, Spinestealer, Clint Carney, Christopher Ulrich and Ron Whipple.

It's You and Me Pal by Bruce Eichelberger features intricate pyrography (burn marks) on a gourd. Pictures do not do this mind-blowing piece justice. Inside the gourd, which has a surface covered with dark scenes and thorny branches, you can glimpse the carved figures of a martyred Christ figure and a demon figure. This piece belongs in a museum.

Clockwise From Top: Private Hell by Christine Blue Ashton, It's You and Me Pal by Bruce Eichelberger, and Untitled 1 by Christopher Ulrich. Christopher offered up four graphite and charcoal drawings from his archives for this show. Untitled 1, with it's crawling, eyeless figure, was my favorite and the one that best embodied the Noir theme. Though he's shaped like a well formed man, his face has the helpless quality of a frustrated baby. He doesn't even have eye sockets and must eternally suffer in a state of darkness. I feel a mixture of revulsion and pity for this figure.

Spinestealer looking darkly divine

Unravelling by Spinestealer I love the effect of the darkened fingertips which seem to be dragging through the text and the weird circumstance of the shortened middle finger.

Tatomir and Clint Carney

Supremacy, a concept for the supreme being of the universe, is a collaboration between artists Tatomir and Dean Fleming. Tatomir first drew the image, and Dean painted his interpretation. If this is our maker, I'm not sure I want to meet him. His sideways mouth is especially frightening.

Top row from left: General Principles by Donnie Green, Supremacy by Dean Fleming, Dead Head by JoKa. Bottom row from left: Spider by Larkin, Supremacy by Tatomir, 3 Knocks by Delphia.

Artists Christopher Ulrich and Big Tasty

Immaculate Conception by David Richardson is a one of a kind cast resin sculpture featuring a tower of bird skulls and ribcages that gives me goosebumps.

Clockwise from Top: Untitled 2 by Christopher Ulrich, Daydream from a Deathbed by Clint Carney, Number of the Beast by James Bonner, The Process of Subjugation II by Lou Rusconi and Hobo Death Dream by Jeremy Cross.

Dahlia Jane and Christopher Ulrich

To see more of Noir, visit Hyaena Gallery through November 30 or look on their website.

Dahlia Jane with one of her favorite people, artist Krystopher Sapp

With a rich history of showcasing the best in fringe and lowbrow art, Los Angeles art gallery La Luz de Jesus has been celebrating their 25th anniversary for the last two months.  Each month’s show has featured more than a hundred new pieces by well-known luminaries in the Southern California art scene.  Thursday November 3, I was fortunate enough to be included in the La Luz de Jesus 25 part 2 preview opening for artists and press. While artists including Mark Ryden, Wayne Martin Belger, The Pizz, and Krystopher Sapp passed around the companion book, La Luz de Jesus 25: The Little Gallery That Could, for signatures, I collected photographs and felt starstruck.

The lovely Jennifer Jelenski in front of her gorgeously vibrant painting, Bat Form 5

From left: Collaboration by Max Grundy, Double Barrel by Damian Fulton, And That is That Only by Bari Kumar, Crown of Flowers by Jeff Soto and Why Me? by Freddy Corbin.

I really like the sad ghosts that almost look like wings, the burlap mask and the messy lipstick in Haunted Florida by Jessicka Addams

Bad Luck by Christopher Ulrich

Mosque by Al Farrow took my breath away. Composed of tank-killer missiles, bullets, brass, steel, and trigger, it's imposing and chilling.

Gallery owner Billy Shire

Artist Mark Ryden

Artists Van Saro (left) and Wayne Martin Belger (middle)

José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros stands in front of his irreverent take on Snow White, After Loving.

Trinity by Rob Reger

Artist Daniel Elson waits for Gallery Director Matt Kennedy to sign his book

From Left: Beloved by Marion Peck, Earth & Water by Heather Watts (top middle), Charley by Gin Stevens and Collector of the Dead by Jasmine Worth

Artist The Pizz

Benevolent by Steven Daily

Artists Steven Daily and Krystopher Sapp

Happy Birthday La Luz de Jesus and congratulations to all the artists involved in both shows! You can see Part 2 in the gallery through November 27. Visit the La Luz de Jesus website for more information or to see previews.

Hope, Megan and Dahlia ready for Burlesque

By Halloween night, Megan, Hope and I had been wicked geishas at Miss Kitty’s Electrosex party, posed as Victorian Mourners at Heritage Village, visited the Tim Burton special exhibit at the LACMA Muse Ball, screamed until our throats were raw at Universal Halloween Horror Nights and even snuck in some Los Angeles sight-seeing and random shenanigans.  But we weren’t done celebrating my favorite holiday of the year yet.  For our final night out we chose to go to 3Clubs in Hollywood to the Monday Night Trick or Tease Halloween Burlesque Party.

While a lot of time and care went into our costumes for Friday and Saturday night, by Monday night, we had sort of run out of steam and threw hot looks together on a shopping expedition Monday afternoon to Santee Alley in downtown LA where we splurged on corsets.

Monday Night Tease is a weekly burlesque review.  For Halloween, performers including Lili Vonschtuff, April Showers, Anastasia Von Teaserhausen, Vixen Magdalene, Dizzy Von Damn!, Tasseled Squirrel, Miss Angie Cakes, Glama Sutra and Wolfgang Wolfwhistle drew inspiration from classic horror and pop culture references such as Elvira, Jurassic Park and True Blood.  The numbers were really creative and entertaining.

Photography of the performers is prohibited, and while I may have been granted an exception if I’d bothered to ask, I’d been carefully photographing almost every moment of the weekend up until that point.  And for Halloween night, I just wanted to enjoy the moment.

Dahlia and Megan

The host of the evening, Dr. Zombie

The Tulsa Skull Swingers played a fun set and I liked their skull masks and sexy sparkling skeleton go go dancers on stage.  See the video clip below.

A delightful squid costume entered in the costume contest

Hope

Trick or Tease was the perfect end to our Halloweekend 2011 extravaganza!  I want to thank Megan and Hope for coming out from the East Coast to party.  The weekend wouldn’t have been nearly as epic without them.