leftovers.

for the halloween party this year, i made a small batch of zombie fingers and strung them onto a hemp thread. the stubs glow in the dark as though infected and glowing with Solanum, the virus responsible for reanimation. the blood splatters are coated in a glaze to appear still wet. life-size and cast from my own fingers, i only have two left. i will offer one each, for free, to the first two people to show interest! email me at erin@erinruiz.com, or leave a comment on my blog and i'll get back to you.
game on!

ETA: all zombie fingers are accounted for. thanks to all for playing!

hallowe'en.

it's nearing the end of my favorite month and the house is all decked out with pumpkin guts, skulls, and candles. halloween is, in my opinion, the most interesting of holidays. i squeal with delight when i start seeing fake blood, plastic machetes and swords, orange lights and horror movies on sale in the stores. i, no doubt, disappointed my mother many a time because i never took as much an interest in some of the kinder holidays, more specifically her favorite: christmas.
she once asked me why i would never draw her a nice Victorian house. i told her, matter-of-factly, that the only way i was going to draw her a "nice Victorian house" was if it was being besieged by a horde of the living dead. she never brought it up again.
i was a big comic fan, and among my favorite was "tales from the crypt." whenever moms would take us to the Paperback Place to purchase secondhand romance novels, she allowed my sister and i to get one comic each. beth would pick up a "bugs bunny" or "the who cares bears" without fail. i'd chose a "tales from the crypt" or a spiderman. now, i only have one "tales from the crypt" comic left in my collection; its pages folded and cover worn. thumbing through it after rediscovering it after the move, i wondered two things:
one, how the hell did i convince my mother to buy me this fantastic piece of morbid horror? and two, where are the others??
if you had access to HBO cable back in the early nineties, you remember the tv show with the crypt keeper. though, i'm not sure how many of you will remember the "crypt keeper" released a few songs like "deck the halls with parts of charlie" or "the crypt jam"?
if you want to deck out your computer desktop with silver screen era monster awesomeness, go here.
(last year i created a batch of dismembered toes with toe tags as party favors for some of my favorite people. this year will be no different. for now, it will remain a secret, but i will be sure to post photos of this year's eerie creations soon.)
in other creative news, i just ran across these embroidered texts and thought it such a clever idea.

fifty people.

and where would you choose to wake up tomorrow?

Fifty People, One Question: London from Fifty People, One Question on Vimeo.

in the works.

for those of you who have noticed a problem with the store link off my website, milquetoastpress.com is no longer. this summer, we took on a business advisor and we are currently changing things up a bit. what this means: the new website is now under mqpclothing.com. most of our designs are being retired or redesigned to make room for new apparel. what you'll find at mqpclothing is a working site, and one that is subject to change as i work with our tech guy and tweak the site store to reflect our style. you can still purchase shirts directly through me- i believe the new site is still in progress at the moment- or we have some designs we printed up for the Slings & Arrows show at the Visual Arts Collective available. i don't run as much of the business as i used to. we have allotted different positions to others within the business to cover things that cut into my design time. what i no longer do? build and update the site, 50% of the printing, schedule meetings and boring business stuffs. what i do now besides have my hands in everything? oversee site building and design, 50% of printing, attend meetings, and all shirt design work. with my hands free of the technical and business side, i am able to concentrate on fashion trends, yay! and new ideas, as well as following them through from concept to shirt printed.

i'm currently working hard on some fresh designs for release very soon. we were hoping to get this up and running by october, but i've been far too busy to get everything up to speed on my end. i'll keep you updated as i change out old links and the new line is released. i might post some sneak peeks at the new designs before the launch. we'll see.

almost there..

just picked up the postcards for Slings & Arrows from sam at the Visual Arts Collective and they look pretty sweet. (big thanks to them for helping by getting those printed!)
started on the last few paintings i intend to have finished up for the show, and also completed the twins' painting "It's Not That I Haven't Thought About It" today as well.

photo is kinda shite, so come check it out at the show. there's some nice detail in their hair. once the show is up and running, i'll post detail shots/scans.
with every new painting i complete, it usually ends up becoming my favorite. i have a special fondness for my creepy, little twins. it shall be a sad day when and if we ever part ways. i'm hoping the next one will knock it from its esteemed position in my heart.
i'll leave this with another mini-mugshot. this one's james hanley for passing worthless checks. photo is to size.

slings and arrows!

i'm spending most of my days preparing for my first technical solo show coming up next month at the Visual Arts Collective. the theme is Slings & Arrows, a collection of mugshots and mishaps, insults and injuries, wounds and weapons. it'll be the first time i'm responsible for filling up a whole gallery by myself and the thought is quite daunting. (and i've got a lot to live up to with the showing of ben wilson and erin cunningham's excellent show "Hello Friend" that is still running through the end of the month at the VAC. do check it out.) luckily, i enjoy a challenge and have a strict schedule of energy drinks, bathroom breaks, and five-hour naps. throw in some beer for those late painting nights, and i feel quite blessed for such an easy lifestyle. (also amazed to find out that i have to be pretttty drunk to affect my painting skillz.) i really do have the best job.
but on those days off, i do have to battle this little distraction:



every now and then i get an ambitious idea for a painting that i end up needing photo reference for. i basically force my sister- on her visits to bring me food- to pose for these reference shots. this photo sums up how she feels about this:



Andie's telling me it's time for her evening stroll to smell fire hydrants and pee in the neighbor's yards. i'll leave you with some progress shots of one of the paintings i finished last weekend and one of the mini-mugshot paintings i'll have there.

geekcore.

the art i've got up at the Lisk Gallery downtown has been extended for another month, so if you missed the chance to see any of it, rest easy. it'll be up until the end of may. i've got [high] hopes to finish up some new stuff and drop it off, but it's gonna be a busy month so we'll just play it by ear.
(i've since picked up the remnants of art i had hanging up at the Basement Gallery back in January&February. some of the pieces sold, but if you're interested in purchasing any of the art i've got left from that show for cheaper(buy it directly from me, the gallery commission isn't necessary)have a look on my flickr page and drop me a note inquiring about any pieces you may be interested in.)
as for future news, i've got another show at the Visual Arts Collective tentatively in the works for what's looking to be August & September. i've plans to work on some larger scale paintings for this one, but as sketches and themes are still being worked out, we'll see what happens and evolves. i'll attach photos of progress as we get closer to this date.
for now, it's monday and i can't think of anything better than working from home, energy drinks, and good music.

codependency & other human weaknesses.

'bout time for another update, right?
i'm currently on break from a spat of art in preparation for my next showing at Lisk Gallery in downtown Boise. it'll open First Thursday next month (that's April 2nd, kids).
the loose theme for this show at Lisk is "codependency and other human weaknesses" with a focus on mug shots of various no-name criminals from the early to mid 1900s. the new pieces have allowed me to work in a new media that i'm growing quite taken with. the mugs are time-consuming, but i feel these forgotten people deserve a resurrection. i'm fascinated by their forgotten lives. each mug is painstakingly rendered with a small exacto blade onto a masonite board. i've worked scratchboard before, but it's never been something i put into any of my shows. i like that i can get minute detail out of the blade. i can never get that small with a pencil. i've thrown in some hand-rendered typography to boot.
there will also be smaller works of various things i've been working on in the past month. so do come check it out.