POSTMODERN Mythopoeia

Site Redesign

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:01:52 GMT

I bleached my site because my gothy roots were showing too much.

Exhibition: Cuchifritos "Works on Paper"

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:44:12 GMT

Five prints of my pieces will be showing at Cuchifritos Gallery from Saturday, March 8th to Saturday, March 15th.

Cuchifritos Gallery/Project Space
120 Essex Street
New York, NY 10002

Saturday, March 8th
12:30pm - 5:30pm

Between Delancey and Rivington inside the Essex Street Market, South end. Closed Sundays.

I'll be at the benefit opening from 12:30pm - 3pm because I have previous engagements scheduled for later in that day. I hope to see you there. :)

Pepper Project: Capsicum

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:12:26 GMT

Created as a submission for the Pepper Project.

I wanted to do something a little different, but I hope the 100 peppers and 1 pepper blossom I included makes up for the departure from the typical Pepper style.

Capsicum

London Calling

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:12:19 GMT

I've been a Sandman fan since I was 11, and always thought Daniel should have gotten more love since he's the actual Dream now.

Death & Dream

I designed their clothing to pay homage to little revelatory symbols about their characters.. Such as how the "Death" card in the Vertigo Tarot was holding a blue rose, and Daniel was often pictured with poppies (symbolic of dreams for its narcotic nature). This also obviously includes the ankh sigils, Daniel's emerald (as opposed to Morpheus' ruby), and the ruby sleeve design I always loved from his original costume. Toss in a dash of Visual Kei/Gothic Lolita (especially because I love those cute little EGL tophats) inspiration, and here we are. I've got tons of love for the classic 80's punk look, but I figure they'd want to update their wardrobes a bit since then.

Set in London because the Death film will be, and I always loved the view of the Houses of Parliament across the Thames.

The Parting of Ways

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:03:19 GMT

Four of my paintings (The Angelic Destruction series and Elemental Sins: Ira) just arrived in California, now owned by a talented musician who founded a famous rock band.

Those paintings were done from a very cathartic time in my life and meant a lot to me. I suppose though, that it'll be more comforting knowing that he will take care of them as a supportive friend.

He also now owns the portrait I did of him and had framed.. I'm very happy with the framing work that Nancy from Da Vinci Artist Supply did (I highly recommend her), and wanted to share it.

She suggested the frame, which was reminiscent of studded leather that's so prominent in rock/goth culture.. The black on it was also distressed to show hints of red underneath that picked up the red in the portrait. I found it very fitting.

Upcoming Important Dates

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 19:10:06 GMT

Convention Exhibition

New York Anime Festival
When: December 7th - 9th
Where: Jacob Javits Center, NYC

Out of Town

England: December 15th - 23rd
Michigan: December 23rd - 30th

"If I was beautiful like you..."

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 09:38:54 GMT

Designer Genes
(Oh-ho, I'm so pun-ny.)

The possibility of genetic engineering producing artificially generic supermodel-esque people.

Publication Updates

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:21:43 GMT

CMYK 38 is on newsstands now, featuring two of my pieces. One of them even made it onto their featured works webpage.

Also Artist's Interpretation 2, featuring "The Fountain" on the cover, is now available for purchase at ComiXpress.

Ballpoint pen on Bond paper.

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 03:05:45 GMT

I've been doing art lately, guys. Don't worry. I'm just contractually obligated not to post them yet. Also explodingsuns and I are actually doing a collabo combining his exquisite writing skills with my fantastic art...ing... skills. :)

In the meantime, here are some life drawings from my Sunday Adventures with the Divine D. Yee (e_apollo).

Tripnotica 07.25.07

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:18:04 GMT

The Tripnotica exhibition was a blast! Again, thank you to all of my guests for showing up and supporting me. I truly appreciate it! It was also great to meet some lovely people from Auralgasms (hailing from yours truly's home town of Detroit. Yes! The musical scene isn't just Eminem and Kid Rock after all!) and to be introduced to their impeccable taste in music. Here are a few photos from the event..

Galapagos Art Space - Williamsburg, Brooklyn
("Lilith" and "Endymion" on the wall)

"The Fountain" and "Ares"

"The Fountain" and "Ares"

Mudville

Elizabeth Harper & The Matinee

The incomparable Natalie walker

Otakon Reminder

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:02:20 GMT

Here is the Otakon 2007 Artist Alley map. You can find me at table J-9 all this weekend (Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd). Come and visit. :)

Recognition and Exhibition

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:30:57 GMT

Two of my pieces, "Endymion" and "Goddess of Dreams", have been selected for publication in CMYK Magazine's Summer-Fall 2007 issue coming out in August. I am absolutely honored, because they were apparently chosen by an illustrator I greatly admire -- John Hendrix.

Also -- I will be exhibiting a few pieces at the next Tripnotica NYC event held in the Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Here is the flyer announcing the event:

Live music, live art. What more can you ask for? The musical selection is all trip-hop/downtempo/chillout -- with artists I absolutely adore, like Natalie Walker! I am quite excited to be shown at this event.

I know I'll see Karyn (belladonnastrap) there.. Who else is going?

AnimeNext

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:51:43 GMT

I will be exhibiting at AnimeNext this weekend. Be sure to drop by and say hi!

DeviantArt Features

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:48:50 GMT

"The Fountain" was recently honored on the following DeviantArt features:

- May Best Of Visual Art
- 5/16/07 Wednesday's Wall of Wow's

"Forsake of Winter", Redux

Mon, 28 May 2007 03:31:28 GMT

I posted this a few years ago when the "Anywhere But Home" DVD came out, but I recently put it on YouTube since it's just more convenient to have all my video clips in one place on the internet.

I actually did meet up with Terry at another concert after this DVD was released and playfully chided him about accusing my print of coming from Wal-Mart. He swore he was joking. I guess I'll let him off the hook this time.

In between various jobs, it's difficult to find the time to work on my personal art rather than commission work. But I'll have some more up soon-ish, I promise. Social life be damned! It's been work-work-work-Michael-work for me every day lately.. If only I didn't have to sleep.

Prints Available

Thu, 10 May 2007 12:25:33 GMT

Prints of "The Fountain" are now available to own.

The Fountain

	Small Print - $8
	Large Poster - $20

The Fountain

Wed, 09 May 2007 01:46:03 GMT

Inspired by Darren Aronofsky's film.

The Fountain

"Now the Serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, 'Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every Tree of the garden?'" - Genesis 3:1

"Noli me tangere." - John 20:17

News

Thu, 03 May 2007 12:21:46 GMT

Ares was "Chosen" to appear on American Illustration 26's "disTRIBUTE".

Also, this is sort of old news but Lilith, Magdalena, and Ares appear on the pages of "Artist's Interpretation 01" -- an illustration magazine that can be purchased at Forbidden Planet... if there are still copies left. Last I checked, they were running low.

Sorry for lack of updates, I've had very little free time lately. I hope to have new pieces up soon!

Webdesign: Forbidden Planet

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:02:45 GMT

Not exactly pertaining to illustration, but I redesigned Forbidden Planet's website. Click on the thumbnail to view.

The overall shape is partially inspired by the shape of a word balloon (I had to include some element of comics in it, of course), and the "futuristic" grey is influenced by a near-future renovation of the store which will involve stainless steel register "Pods".

I've had a few requests to do freelance webdesign, but I just don't want to pursue that field.. I'd much rather be painting.

On Beauty

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 01:35:43 GMT

"Pearls Before Breakfast"

An experiment in which Joshua Bell busks incognito in a subway station, and a philosophical critique on the average person's reception of beauty.

A very fascinating read.

Convention Dates

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:26:49 GMT

Hi everyone. I've been absent for the past few weeks due to my visit to England unfortunately and unprecidentedly coinciding with my building closing and subsequent move to Brooklyn. (I live in the Bensonhurst area now.)

Fortunately, my fiancé has been endlessly patient with helping me to move, build furniture, and various necessities during his holiday here and I am very grateful. However, there is still much unpacking left to do.

As a small update though, I'll announce the conventions that I plan on exhibiting at this year.

AnimeNext - July 6-8th @ Secaucus, NJ
Otakon - July 20-22nd @ Baltimore, MD
New York Anime Festival - December 7-9th @ New York, NY

I had a great time at the New York Comic Con this last weekend and still have a great deal of correspondence spawned from it to wade through amidst my settling in. I hope to get to that shortly.

Updates: They are Legion

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:53:05 GMT

I gave my site a facelift.

Oh you can bet it was difficult to restrain myself to create a minimal, frameless site. I'm kind of digging the clean lines and fonts again, I guess. Though, I still had to throw some Javascript in there because it's physically impossible for me to not have cool things that light up or move on my websites. Call it a compulsion for dynamics. You can visit it by clicking on the thumbnail below.

AliceMeichi.com

I also switched my store over to a simpler PayPal system. It was fun to use the backdoor PHP technology in the eCommerce software I installed, but I didn't have as much control over the layout as I would have liked.

Last, but not least: new artwork.

This would be a final piece for my rockstar series -- my favorite element, Quintessence/Spirit.

Yunyu
Spirit. "Am I in your troubled mind, ever ever more?"

Portrait of yunyu, a good friend of mine. Give her music a listen, especially if you love twisted fairytales, Poe, and psychosis. She's amazing. :)

And a sequel to Luna, even though I managed to kill her off in Ares. It's hard to kill gods, you know.

Endymion

Serene and silent sky
Rays of moon are dancing with the tide
A perfect sight, a world divine
And I...
The loneliest child alive
Always waiting, searching for my rhyme
I'm still alone in the dead of night
"My Selene" by Sonata Arctica

(Poor Endymion shouldn't have been standing around in the middle of I-94. He probably wouldn't be in this pickle.)

That's about it for now, lovelies. Hope you enjoy.

Spring Street Studio II

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 13:15:14 GMT

Attended another figure drawing session.. It's nice to just spend 3 hours losing yourself to visual study. Maybe one day I'll properly scan these in for personal archiving. For now, here are more digital photos.

30 minutes
ballpoint pen

20 minutes

My former professor, James McMullan, used to wax poetic about capturing the tensions and pressures in the muscle during a pose. In this pose, I think I found it mostly in the twisting and stretching of her abdomen and the flattening of the fat of her thighs. It's nice to apply his advice again after nearly three years now.

10 minutes

5 minutes per pose

The model was very pretty (e_apollo said she's half-Afghani, half-German) and at least attempted ambitious short poses, but she kept getting tired and letting her arms drop halfway through and her long poses were too similar to each other. Ah well.

Afterwards, e_apollo, Duane, and I headed over to Park Slope for Japanese tapas (♥) and the best chocolate cake in NYC. Yum.

I'm leaving for home in a few hours. :) Be back in NYC by January 2nd for more fun and mayhem.

Sping Street Studio

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:37:51 GMT

e_apollo and I decided to relive the nostalgia of our Freshman Foundation drawing class (with Brooke Larsen, ahhh the good old days) and attend a figure drawing session in SoHo yesterday.

30 minute pose, ballpoint pen

Digital photograph, because I lack the desire to scan in my huge 18x24 drawing pad.

When I was a child, I would sit in the dining room of my parents' restaurant drawing landscapes of castles, princesses, and graveyards in a BiC ballpoint pen on the back side of the paper placemats that had Chinese Zodiac sign descriptions on the front.

Occasionally Mom and Dad would complain about how much paper I went through in a day, but I would go on my merry way. Sometimes a waitress or customer would come over and critique my work, and recommend I use pencil instead of pen.

I'm rediscovering why I rebelled against the pencil, hah.

Among many reasons, it forces me to look and learn from my mistakes instead of quickly erasing it and denying it existed. (Which, I think, is a good skill to have for life in general.)

A sketch

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 00:44:26 GMT

yunyu wanted to see some of my sketches and e_apollo had been inspiring me with her uber-secret sketchbook, so here's a little something from my own.

Michael in ballpoint pen

I suppose it's about time I updated my art, even if it's slight.