Coming from Studio Mab in November

The Fairytale Collection

“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”

-Oscar Wilde

There is no reason to not wear beautiful art. There is no reason to not love beautiful stories. There is a fairytale in all of us.

There is no reason your neck can't be a gallery.

Each piece is unique. There will only be one. In most cases each piece involves vintage charms and one of a kind findings that can not be reproduced.

The Fairytale Collection includes pieces inspired by the stories of

Hansel and Gretel

Goldilocks

Little Red Riding Hood

Alice in Wonderland

The Wizard of Oz

Beauty and the Beast

Snow White

The Frog Princess

The Little Mermaid

Cinderella

Rapunzel

Sleeping Beauty

The Princess and the Pea

Jack and the Beanstalk

Peter and the Wolf

and others

These pieces and more will be available on http://www.etsy.com/shop/mabgraves 11-13-2010

Coming from Studio Mab in November

The Fairytale Collection

“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”

-Oscar Wilde

There is no reason to not wear beautiful art. There is no reason to not love beautiful stories. There is a fairytale in all of us.

There is no reason your neck can't be a gallery.

Each piece is unique. There will only be one. In most cases each piece involves vintage charms and one of a kind findings that can not be reproduced.

The Fairytale Collection includes pieces inspired by the stories of

Hansel and Gretel

Goldilocks

Little Red Riding Hood

Alice in Wonderland

The Wizard of Oz

Beauty and the Beast

Snow White

The Frog Princess

The Little Mermaid

Cinderella

Rapunzel

Sleeping Beauty

The Princess and the Pea

Jack and the Beanstalk

Peter and the Wolf

and others

These pieces and more will be available on http://www.etsy.com/shop/mabgraves 11-13-2010

These Walls of my Soul...

The strangest feeling. This Limbo lostness. My walls are empty.

For the past 7 moths, the walls of my studio have been filling floor to ceiling with my soul.

I come home every night and paint. Six, ten, twelve hours.

Time is meaningless when it is meaningless.

Last week, we emptied my walls to take all my work to a studio to be photographed.

Call it preoccupation, call it denial, but I had not even contemplated the fact that when I took these paintings down from my walls, they would not be coming back.

I have been living these beautiful months, in a cave of the creatures and faces of my mind.

And they were there. Every time I looked up or turned my head.

Watching me.

Waiting in a cacophony of anticipation for the birth of my next creation.

My new silence echoes.

Let's Start a Revolution.

Okay. I think you are smart. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.

I think you may even be a bit brilliant.

I don't think you really need to see blood, or knives, or penises to get the message.

For centuries, good art has always been a bit shocking. Even the Great Masters got the ol' eyebrow from time to time.

The problem? As our society becomes more and more desensitized, our art becomes more and more vulgar. While it may be amusing now and then, so often beauty is replaced by creepiness and that's a hard thing to have living on your wall. And face it; if we continue to include organs, fetuses, and killer Barbies in our art, eventually no one will take us seriously.

Let's start a revolution.

Let's make things beautiful. Let's keep it subtle. Adopt irony. Let's make it about the mood, not the blood. I think we would be surprised at how many people still get the message.

For me? The greatest compliment is when someone comes up to me and tells me there is something slightly creepy about my painting but they just can't put their finger on it. My job is done.

From the desk of Mab....

Harlow and the Raven King

So delayed in updating my posts! Painting 10 hours a day, plus working my lovely day job in children's books.

Here's some snapshots from a couple paintings for my upcoming show, a fairytale series titled "The Adventures of Harlow and the Raven King". It will be this September at Harrison Gallery.

More info and pics to come!

Random Acts of Mabness

Lilith in the Dark Garden

Lilith was created for a show curated by New York artist Richard Saja called Replanting the Garden. All works for the show were directly inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights.

I had an utter blast painting her, and spent two weeks drinking red wine and painting myself into nightly oblivion. I love working on all-consuming pieces like that and suffer severe postpartum painting depression when my work is done. There's always a sense of loss and lostness, when your work is no longer your little, beautiful secret and you have to let it go out into the world. Sharing can be tough.

The show was very successful (Thank you, Richard!) and packed despite stormy winds and rain.

New works now up on http://mabgraves.com/

The Münchhausen Madness

Oh, Münchhausen.

I recently came across a reprinted edition of the 1785 title "The Surprising Adventures of Baron Münchhausen" 1785, by Rudolf Erich Raspe. So wonderful. After about 5 minutes of perusing, I realized two things;

#1. That this was the one of the most ridiculous and fantastical characters I had ever come across. And

#2. That I absolutely must paint him now, now.

So I did. And here he is (first image below). I also included a few of the fantastic illustrations I discovered in my research that inspired the begeezee outta me!

The Baron Münchhausen Escapes Captivity - by Mab Graves

The Baron Charms the Sultan

The Baron Rides a Cannon Ball

Oh, that nose...

Ghosts in my Paint

PAINTING PROCESS

My painting process? I have none. Only twice ever have I sat down with a sketch and said "I'm going to paint this!". It just never works out that way. My paintings are mostly all completely doodles. I just start freehand in paint. No pencils no plans.

I begin ramdomly with an ear, or a shoe and just travel on from there.

They usually turning out to be not at all what I thought they were going to be.

Kind of like children.

Quite often they will at one time or another have creatures and companions that disappear before it's finished. They are hiding in the canvas. I have ghosts in my paint.

A friend once told me I should try stopping once every hour, and take a picture. Then I could play all the shots together and see the evolution.

I'll have to try that on a big piece sometime.

Gray Flowered Wallpaper and Latex Masks

the Super Show

Here are a couple of my latest projects. (above) is a new piece I just finish for my upcoming Super Show. A show devoted to household portraits of Superchildren. From back in the day when gray flowered wallpaper and latex masks were just how they did it. Coming this Fall.

Also, (below) a little Marie Antoinette illustration I just finished for the lovely Erin Huber's upcoming Marie Antoinette party

Marie (bluehaired)

Anonymous Birth

One question I get asked a lot when people see the paintings I'm working on is "Who is she"?. When my darling (Larry) photographs my pieces he'll sit down at his computer to work on the files, and he'll ask "What's her name?"

I never know. My paintings are not my creations. They just Are. They are alive, somewhere inside of me but they are not mine.

They are anonymous births.

Their eyes have stories and histories, but I don't know them. I don't feel that I need to. They are my darling strangers.

I keep a list in my sketchbook of names that I love. Names I find beautiful, or funny or just names that capture me. When I get asked those questions, I'll look in my sketchbook and read down the list and pick a name. One that fits. I never name them till I have to. She's mine, and my soul knows her. I won't attach words to her until someone needs them.

I will spend days and weeks and months on her until she is finished, and then someone will ask me a question. "What is the story behind Camilla?".

I have no idea who they are talking about.

From the Desk of Mab

-The Masochistic Cupcake-

One of my favorite places to go for an inspirational shot in the vein, is a little independent children's bookstore on the 56th and Illinois strip. It's called Kids Ink, and it's nestled right in the corner with the Flying Cupcake.

So. Here's what I do: I start at the corner and get a cup of coffee (black) walk down to the Cupcake shop and get an carrot cake confection (topped with pink icing and a tiny, plastic ballerina) then unleash myself in the bookstore. First stop? The fairy tale section. I always end up sitting on the floor in a corner with a big stack of the latest. My favorite illustrators?

• Gennady Spirin (props to the tops!)
• Adam Rex
• Laurel Long
• K.Y. Craft
• J.Otto Seibold
• Dave McKean
• Dan Yaccarino
• Olga & Andrej Dugina
• Iassen Ghiuselev

CHECK THEM OUT. These talented masterminds rule my universe.

SO. On my last visit, I came across a new picture book called "Cupcake" by Charise Mericle Harper. It's a story about a plain white cupcake whose only desire is to be eaten. Of course all the other cupcakes on the plate have sprinkles so they all get eaten first.

SPOILER ALERT! The cupcake gets eaten in the end.

Anyway, that's when I discovered that cupcakes can be really creepy and masochistic.

I also decided that I should paint a cupcake.

Here's what I did tonight:

Great Aunt Hilda Raver

(on my mother's side)

What can I say? It runs in the family.

I'm New Here.

Welcome to my blog. I'm new here.

Here's some stuff about me:

When I grow up, I want to be either Miss Marple or Tyler Durden. Can't really decide.

On the one hand, you've got a lot of tea, knitting and crime solving, and on the other you have a toothspitting revolutionary. It's a tough call.

I'm not too concerned yet. I've got time.