Preview for the Next Show

A detail from The Venus Trap, one of the pieces I've done for the February show at Stones 'n Stuff. Colored pencil on paper.

Drawing Group

At USM there's a figure drawing group that meets Wednesday nights, I try to get there once every few weeks. Lately I've been playing around with positive/negative reversals; drawing in the light space instead of shadows - this was a particularly successful piece.

February Show

Next planned showing will be at Stones 'n Stuff, for the month of February, 2010. It's a show with a dark Valentines Day theme, another group show. Something to liven up the darkest winter month.

Plant, Pot

A little something I did over the weekend. I had forgotten just how much I love colored pencil.

The pot itself is from a very good friend who does wonderful things with clay, Cat Dubosky, who also lives and works here in Portland.

Well-Hung

So, the hanging of the show went well. Working with other artists can get tricky sometimes; even the most laid-back artist has an ego, and different ideas about how something should look. But after getting over the initial feeling of being overwhelmed by trying to fit everything into a relatively small space, it wound up being a fairly painless experience. Looks good, even.

Even with the unfortunate rendering of gillette stadium smack in the middle of things.

It's HeeEeeEEre......

The show at Shay's is currently up and will be there until the end of October. It looks great, thanks again to the very cool people at Shay's, and of course to Joe for inviting me into the show.

I do have prints for the Horsemen pieces, if anyone is interested, shoot me an e-mail, liz@freefallon.com.

October lurks.....

So October is nigh, and the show at Shay's will be here... it's funny how the best ideas for a project always come in the last few moments before it's due. And by "funny" I mean "frustrating." Anyway, I've been working like a crazy person to get things done to my satisfaction. It'll be a relief to have it done, so I can have my life back.

Ah, who am I kidding here? The second this one is done I'll be jumping right into another project and totally immersed once more. That is my life.

Pictured here is a detail from the Death piece.

Happy Trails......

The lovely Mr. Scott up and left us for warmer climes and some job-thing, fleeing to Houston earlier this month - and we here at Free Fallon wish him the best of luck, big scary Texans and all. We are also hoping, just a little bit, that maybe a certain Yankee artist might be receiving a gift of a cowboy hat in the mail for Christmas or just whenever, because we have always secretly wanted a cowboy hat but have been to embarrassed by our New York upbringing to actually go out and purchase one.

Anyways! freefallon.com may be in and out of service in the immediate future, we expect this will be ironed out shortly.

New Prints Available & An Update

Just picked up a new batch of prints from the good folks at Bayside Printing; 8 x 10's currently available for a bunch of different pieces from both the Wizard of Oz collection and my music themed pieces from awhile back. Email me if you have any interest.



Still plugging away at the Four Horsemen series, and I'm starting to be happy with the outcome. I've re-done most of them a couple times now, and with the third version of Famine I've finally hit it. I wish I could verbalize the "ooo" factor; that point where you cross from being a nice picture to look at to something more ....interesting, and I don't know how else to say that but I'm in interesting territory, here. Can't wait to share it!

If you're interested in prints, you can check out my flickr site - there's a set specifically for pieces currently available -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizfallon/

here's a much better photo than the first one i posted. thanks to dad and his spare tripod.

Finding Horror themes in the Bible

The problem with drawing from the Bible for inspiration (well, one problem) is that it's all been done before, over and over again, by artists much greater than myself or anyone else alive today, centuries ago. So the issue is to find a way to keep it interesting. I was tasked with coming up with a few pieces for an October show, so something scary/spooky/Halloween-ish was an order. I'm tackling a four horsemen of the Apocalypse theme, a subject much covered before but still titillating enough to draw interest, I hope. First up is War, and it's been fun so far; certainly a theme still relevant today, and a theme that can be played around with a bit. I'm not going to post any images of the pieces until after the show, of course; I don't want to spoil it for those who decide to come out and see the work in person.

Upcoming Events

I'll be hanging a few pieces at Shay's Pub this coming October. Shay's is in Monument Square in Portland, and not only has excellent food but the best mixed drinks in town. Definitely worth scoping out for dinner if you haven't before. It'll be myself and two other fabulously talented individuals sharing the space for the month, and because it's October, you just know it'll be some cool stuff. At least, I certainly hope so because it just came up and presents kind of a tight dealine, but I love me some deadline! Put it on your calenders....

http://www.shaysgrillpub.com/

Worse than His Bite

I just finished this guy. The photo I took does not really do it justice, it's not so very gray. Also, it's not tilted - that's just old shaky-hands here unable to keep steady & lacking a tripod.

But other than those particular issues, I think I like this one. It's the third or fourth draft, I had to try out some different backgrounds and stuff before I settled. The first few times had an African-savannah type background; much simpler but the dark forest is kind of a character of its own in the story, so I thought that deserved some attention. Who knows, though, I may try it again.

New Website!

The website went live today, and it's an exciting new frontier for me. In the future, perhaps, some sort of ordering function on it, but that's way too much responsibility for me now. Many thanks to Scott, a true gentlemen, who did all this for a bottle of vodka, and a bunch of promises about future compensation I don't intend to keep. Kidding! Check is totally in the mail, yo!

www.freefallon.com

skin as white as snow

I've started sketching out a few drawings with a Snow White theme. Like many Grimm tales turned Disney, the original folklore is pretty horrific. It's actually a conglomeration of various stories from all over Europe; the gist is the same but the elements vary. Older stories involve our Heroin's mother, not stepmother, ordering her slain in order to consume her daughter's heart and liver. There 7 dwarfs, or thieves, or a city of fairies, even. There's a magic mirror, or a pond, or the moon. There's three attempts to kill Snow, then a death-like sleep and an obsessive royal who somehow rescues the 'tween girl, necrophiliac overtones and all.

And really, Snow herself, while beautiful, was certainly not blessed with brains of any kind. She's gullible and naive. It's the Queen herself who's got the brains and the guts, really. That's what I get from it; the really smart, strong woman, her position usurped by a dim-witted young beauty, attempts to keep her position in the only way available to her; manipulation. So the moral of the story? Hell if I know, maybe that nubile young beauty will always win against brains and experience? Maybe that the opinions women have of one another are too often determined by the opinions of the men they share in their lives...

Winston does NOT approve....

Winston, the official art critic here at FF.

He thinks my current illustration board is quite tasty, but finds my rendering of shadow and light somewhat chaotic.

A-R-T-O-C-D

I did this one years ago, this was really my first Alice piece, I think. Perhaps every Alice piece after was really just trying to get the first one right.

just a humble posting

A wee blog, just to let those fine folks (hi mom!) who care know what I'm up to these days, with the art stuff and any other stuff I might decide is worth sharing.

It is summertime in Portland, and that means it's very, very difficult to get any work done. But I'm forging ahead, working on an illustration and a collage piece at the same time. That's just how dedicated I am, to my art. And how little of a life I have.

That's all for now. I'll admit the whole blog thing seems decidedly too damaging to my street cred, which you just know is an all-consuming worry of mine. So we'll see.