Something Beautiful

An Artist Statement (of sorts)

People sometimes ask me “why don’t your girls smile? Are they sad about something?”.

This often puzzles me. 

As a pop surrealist painter, to me my little girls are not “girls”. They are my Waifs. To me they are Symbols of the innocence and fragility we have all had a connection to at one point or another. 

       Some of us lost it gradually, naturally, some of us gave it away willingly, and some of us had it stolen away, but we all remember a time when we were so small and the world was alive with strangeness and wonder. With the confusion of unknowing, and with the bliss of innocence. My girls symbolize this, and their somber little faces and alien proportions cry out to the viewers “it is gone, it is gone!” Their faces Know what we now know.

 It’s beautiful and sad, but beautiful. It’s something we all share.

As an artist, my driving goal is: in everything I do to Simply Create Beauty and to Tell a Story. I love to connect with people through my images. That Connection is my driving force in creation.

    I want to touch you. I want to give you a moment, maybe just a millisecond scrolling through a feed or turning a page - a moment of prettiness.

 A moment of strange lovely.

  I am not trying to shock you. 

No blood and guts. No organs or religious symbols. 

I’m not going to smash something in your face and say “Look at this! Understand it!” I want my work to be something we share. Something for both of us. 

Whether you see a somber little girl sad about something, or a symbol of innocence riding a dinosaur, whatever our shared truth it’s something we have together.

Something Beautiful. 

Some Days Are Just Like That....

Do you ever have one of those days?

I was having one today.

I got up this morning and couldn't find my "list book". 
    My list book is a little pocket-sized reporter style lined Moleskine notebook in which I make lists and lists of all the things I need to do - today, this week, this month, this quarter... it's the ONLY way in hell I can keep all my spinning plates balanced. 
And I couldn't find my damn book. 
I searched e v e r y w h e r e. Everywhere. The cars, the roof, under the cat. Every conceivable and inconceivable place that it could possibly be hiding.
No book.
Finally (and this is early afternoon by now mind you) I decided that there was nothing for it but to drive all the way across town and buy a new one. 
Do I have a dozen blank little notebooks hiding all over the studio? 
Absolutely.  
Are they pocket-sized reporter style lined Moleskine notebook? 
No. They. Are. Not.
With illogical tears welling up in my eyes I drove. 
I KNEW the exact style of the book should not in any way matter. I knew this completely. But that sensory issue, slightly OCD little girl inside of me simply could not cope. 
I got out of the car at the bookstore and realized I was wearing two different shoes. 
With a mis-match-shoed walk of shame, I scurried into the shop, found my book, bought it and instantly - a flood of relief filled me. I had my book. The world was right. It was 2pm, and I had wasted a ton of my day and hadn't gotten a damn thing done yet, but that didn't matter. 

I don't know why some days I can keep one million things together smooth and cool and some days - that little girl who just need her book - HER book- takes over.  
I guess every now and then you just have to give the illogical a little rein and give yourself a break.
Some days are just like that.

Curiouser and Curiouser......

So my new show Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass is just a few weeks away, so I thought this would be a good place to post all the details!

Here's all the important (and not so important) info:

Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass 

will open

September 5th 2014

6-10 pm

at

Monster Gallery 

1702 English Ave

Indianapolis, IN 46201

There will be a closing reception on September 26th from 7-9

If you are interested in an online collectors preview of Alice please send your email address to:

darcydangeragent@gmail.com

The preview will be available to all inquiries September 4, 2014 9pm EST

An email with a private link will be sent.

PLEASE NOTE: Not all of the Alice pieces will be available in the online collectors preview - there will be some pieces that will be available at the public opening on September 5th first - then will be available later online.  

Here are some places where you can see sneak peeks!
Mab's Instagram
Mab's Facebook Page

Okay - On to the fun stuff! The night of the opening:

• The first 100 gallery attendees will receive an exclusive Alice pin

• There will be signed Limited Edition prints given away every hour

• There *just* may be some special prizes given randomly to people who come in costume

 (if I can get them finished in time!)

There is a Facebook Events page for the opening - there for any updates or changes:
Alice in Wonderland - Mab Graves Facebook Event Page

I am SO excited (and freakin nervous!) for this show and I hope to meet some of you there!

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble...

I am painting full time right now on my Fall solo show (Alice in Wonderland!) so I won't have many original pieces available until then. I'll try to be better about posting updates and sneak peeks in the meantime!

Those can always be seen on my Instagram feed ^_^

Until then, here's my schedule:

UPCOMING 2014 SCHEDULE 

March 1st – “This is Not a Love Song” – Dax Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA

March 7th – “Beta Cell Bash” (group show) – New Day Gallery, Indianapolis, IN

March 29th – “Celebration of Nature” (group show) – Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA

April 12th – “Universe: The Art of Existence” (group show) – Modern Eden Gallery,  San Francisco, CA

April 22nd “Romantic Heroines” (group show) – Junie Moon – Tokyo Japan

May – “Art Deck” – (group show) ArtDeckCo  – Portland, OR

June – “Wilderness” (group show) Auguste Clown Gallery – Victoria, Australia

September 5th – “Alice in Wonderland” (solo show) – Monster Gallery – Indianapolis, IN

A Tale of Two Girls

I am so excited to announce officially - that Mab Studios is growing!

My one-girl shop has just become a Two Girl shop.

Three years ago I met a lady named Darcy Danger.  My life has not been the same since. 

You know how sometimes you meet someone and - it's just right? That's what happened.

Darcy has been an encourager, cheerleader, advice giver, sounding board and dear friend ever since. 

This Summer I was having a REALLY hard time even pretending to remotely keep up (preparing for 7 events this Fall!) - when she offered the perfect solution: Darcy is my new Agent and Manager.

Darcy's history in sales, management, marketing and customer relations matched with her bubbly personality, minute attention to the small stuff and her overwhelming passion for Art made it ridiculous that we had not thought of it sooner.

So what’s new?

The Mab Shops have moved to New Jersey! 

Almost all the shipping will be coming out of Danger Studios in NJ this year. Also,  Darcy is helping me keep up with my emails (left to my own, I get to answer emails once every 4-8 days! I really needed help there >_<) so you will be hearing back from us MUCH sooner than ever before!

What’s the Same?

Everything! It’s all just better.

Everything is still produced 100% by me, I'm just not spending 10 hours a week packing and shipping! 

What's Better?

Everything. Now I can streamline my studio life and spend more time doing what my soul desperately craves - painting. I will be able to create more original works, more cameos and sculpture and branch out into trying new things I've only been able to sigh about. 

If you are bopping around my Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/mabgraves) feel free to send Darcy a note to say hello or ask her any questions! Trust me - she's amazing.

 Here is a shot of Danger Studios where the Waifs now await!

 This is the magical Darcy Danger at the Pretending to be Human opening at Monster Gallery October 2013 (dressed as my amazing Tattooed Lady!)

 Darcy and Mab

Special Summer Giveaway

As a special Thank You to all my amazing fans and friends, August 4th -11th I am doing a special Summer Giveaway!
Here's all you have to do:
1. Go to my Facebook or Instagram pages (or both to get entered twice!)
https://www.facebook.com/mab.graves?fref=ts
http://instagram.com/mabgraves
2. Click on this pic
3. Share it
4. Like my Pages And just wait! Next Sunday (the 11th, I will be blindfolded and choose 8 winners (and will post them online!) 

You can win:
~ An original Supergirl hand-painted cameo necklace
~ An original "Wolfboy" ATC illustration
~ An original miniature "Frankenstein in a Bottle" pendant necklace
~ An Exclusive mini print of my sold-out piece "The Forest" (the only one like it!)
or 
~ 1 of 4 Exclusive "Goldfish Girl" mini prints (never available for purchase!)

 Original Supergirl Cameo

Original Wolfboy ATC illustration

Miniature original Frankenstein in a Bottle

Exclusive mini-print of The Forest

Exclusive Goldfish Girl ATC print

Something Wicked This Way Comes...

I finally have my schedule for the fall up!

This Fall is going to be a bit of madness for me so I am going to be rather absent for the next couple months while I paint my little hands off!

Here's the line up:

Mab Grave 2013 Fall Schedule

August 17^th – Curiosities – Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco CA

September 7^th – Tales of the Sea - Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco CA

September 21^st – Mab Graves Solo – Runaways – Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra CA

October 4^th – Banned Book Cover show – Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, Indianapolis, IN

October 13^th – Blythecon 2013 – New York, NY

October 25^th – Mab Graves Solo – Pretending to be Human – Monster Gallery, Indianapolis, IN

November 16^th – Fonzo Show – Dragatomi, Sacramento CA

November 20^th – Mab Graves “Little Lost Girls” Paper Doll Book Launch (online)
December 6th  - Grey Gardens - group show - Harrison Center Gallery, Indianapolis, IN
December 14th - Wanderlust - group show - Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco CA

 Sneak Peek of my painting for the "Tales of the Sea" show at Modern Eden Gallery

In Adoration of Alice..

"I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir, because I'm not myself you see."

-Alice

For some reason, I just can't stop being inspired by Alice.
Every time I pull out my old copy of Carroll's masterpiece, those old bizarre black and white illustrations get right into my brain and I have to sit down yet again, to pay homage to Alice immortal.  I have painted her nearly 20 times and I still can't get over her. I was going trough my archives and I decided I wanted to do a little post - in Adoration of Alice - with all of my Alice pieces in one place ^_^

So here they are.

<3 

Mab

 Alice Falling - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice Croquet - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice Drink Me- original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice at the Hatter's Table - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice and the Shower of Cards - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Painting the Roses Red - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice Madness - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice in the Garden of Live Flowers - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice and the Caterpillar - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice and the Pig Baby - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice Reads - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice Tea Party - original cameo by Mab Graves

The Cheshire Cat - original cameo by Mab Graves

Alice Grows - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice Landed (through the Looking Glass) - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice and the Cheshire Cat - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum - original cameo by Mab Graves

  The Queen of Hearts - original cameo by Mab Graves

We Are All Mad Here - original cameo by Mab Graves

 Alice in Wonderland - original cameo by Mab Graves

Alice - original cameo by Mab Graves

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mabgraves

All images copyright of Mab Graves. Please do not take without asking!

Thank you.

On the Trials and Tribulations of Gallery Adventures

The Night Flight of Peter Pan and Wendy - by Mab Graves

Dearly Beloved: Mab Speaks.

So as an artist, when you show in a gallery there are pretty much 3 things you will hear quite often.

 In my time of both showing at and attending openings I have heard these same three things over and over, and I really feel like they need to be addressed.

Gallery etiquette and conversation is something that mostly has to be experienced and learned, and I meet so many young artists I want to pull aside and say “Oh don’t say that!”

So here we go. ^_^

Question: “How long did it take you to make this”

        It really drives me crazy when I hear an artist say “It took me like, 15 minutes!”……

Okay let’s break it down. Firstly: If said piece did indeed take you 15 minutes, please immediately remove it from the wall and hide it someplace secret. There is no possible way that a 15 minute piece is any good at all. 

Nope – don’t try to argue with me. Take it down.

That’s out of the way. So now: when I person asks me how long a piece took to create, my answer is always:

“My entire life”.

There is really no more correct response than that. Every piece I create is a culmination of my whole life’s experiences and mistakes. While each one of my pieces takes anywhere from dozens to hundreds of hours to create there is SO much more that goes into it and the value of your piece should never be gauged by something as silly as the amount of hours taken to execute it.

Comment: “I love your work”

*Queue awkward moment noise*

        No, this is actually a very sweet - if not well thought out - comment to make.

The reason this isn’t a good thing to say? There is really only one possible answer: “Thank you” followed immediately by staring at shoes and pretending to need more wine.

There is no where to go from there.

It’s a conversation kamikaze.

I have had shows where someone will come up to me and (very sweetly) say that, then look at me hopefully as if waiting to see pearls of wisdom fall or a witty comment from my lips.

I am a pretty dreadful conversationalist, and painfully shy in public so I usually end up mumbling some gibberish that needs to be repeated multiple times in order to eventually be translated into “umthankyousoverymuch”

Now, often openings are so busy that there is really no time for anything other than a quick comment and handshake –but if you are in a situation where the gallery is quiet and you would like to have an actual conversation with the artist, here are a few brilliant things I have heard that ended up striking interesting conversations and even friendships:

 “I really love the darkness and depth of your pieces. They actually make me taste grey”

 “What in the world possessed you to paint this”

 “ When I walked into the gallery and saw this piece, I went from drunk to sober” (this guy wins the award! – and I let him name the price on the piece ^_^)

Mainly – give your artist something to grab onto. A springboard for somewhere to take the conversation.

Eavesdropping over-hearing comment: “His work is overpriced”

    Whoa! Okay, so maybe I am not the biggest fan of this particular show, but it is never –ever- okay to comment on how another artist prices his pieces.

Party foul.

As artists, we each have our own market and collectorship and some are much higher than others. You obviously have no idea.

Maybe I would never buy a piece from this guy, but there is no way I am ever going to publicly comment on the pricing of his work.

Hopefully he is being honest (and not ridiculous) in his pricing but as artists we need to stick together and uphold the belief that what we create has a valid, valuable and important place in our history and generation.

Keep those comments to your mind ^_^

Art is struggling right now. Our generation can’t imagine spending $400 on an original piece of art when they can get a print from Target for $10. They don’t comprehend the honor and thrill of owing an original piece. It is up to us to change the mindset. It is our duty to support one another and struggle to keep creation alive.

Okay, so those are the main ones I have heard that I felt really needed to be talked about but I want to hear from you, Are there other tragic art mis-steps that you have encountered?

Let’s hear it.

Auditory Inspiration

Freaks Alive - On the Inside - from the Carnival Collection by Mab Graves

Detail of The Cabinet of Curiosities - from the Carnival Collection by Mab Graves

Freaks - from the Carnival Collection by Mab Graves

Detail of the Albino Girl on Freaks - from the Carnival Collection by Mab Graves

Te Knife Thrower's Assistant - from the Carnival Collection by Mab Graves

The Amazing Tattooed Lady - from the Carnival Collection by Mab Graves

Dearly Beloved,

I often get asked where I get my inspiration. What I surround myself with. What kind of music I love and like to listen to when I paint.

Well, on the subject of music and auditory inspiration - I am the only artist I have ever heard say this - but I don't really like music. I mean I LIKE music alright, but I never work to it. It's too repetitive and chaotic. It's too controlling and emotional.

I prefer to listen to audio books actually. When I paint, I try as hard as I can to distract my conscious mind and let my subconscious auto pilot take over. Books are a great way to really engage and follow a plot or story line. They take over. You are the character. The story kidnaps you.

Music is a very "self" media. It's all about feelings or memories. I have some very dark places that I don't care to dwell on. They are done and it's over and I don't want that darkness to creep into my work. There is most certainly an "offness" in all my pieces, but it’s a personal commandment for me that I don't dabble in the self-pityingly morbid.

More than anything, I just get bored of hearing a pop star sing about herself. More than one song and I'm done. Let’s go somewhere. Let’s have an adventure.

It was a sad realization for a condemned bibliophile like myself when I realized that my two passions – reading and painting – directly conflicted each other. They both require your eyes and total focus. Then (sneaky me) I discovered the audio book loop-hole ^_^

When we were little, my parents read aloud to me and my sisters almost every night. We would beg to be read the same books over and over. It got to the point where they would try to play tricks on us and change what our beloved heroes said, and immediately four little pairs of eyes would fly up and four little voices would cry “No! THAT’S not what he says!”

To this day, I still just love having someone read to me.

My pieces are about stories and so that's what I immerse myself in. Crime novels, historical fiction. Mysteries, fantasy, dystopian fiction. I love it.

The books I listen to don’t really affect or influence my work. They're just an escape.

Here's a list of a few of my favorite audio books to date (listen to them over and over! The library loves me ^-^)

Lolita – Narrated by Jeremy Irons (my absolute favie!)

Blood Canticle – by Anne Rice - Narrated by David Pittu

Blackwood Farm– by Anne Rice - Narrated by David Pittu

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister – by Gregory Maguire - Narrated by Jenny Sterlin

Wicked – by Gregory Maguire - Narrated by John McDonough

Birth of Venus- by Sarah Dunant – Narrated by Jenny Sterlin

Interpretation of Murder – by Jed Rubenfeld - Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Hunger Games – by Suzanne Collins - Narrated by Carolyn McCormick

Catching Fire – by Suzanne Collins - Narrated by Carolyn McCormick

Coraline – by Neil Gaiman – Narrated by the Author

Neverwhere – by Neil Gaiman – Narrated by the Author

I LOVE the Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple murder mysteries by Agatha Christie

Xoxoxoxo

Mab

These Hands...

I'm going to tell you a secret.

Not many people outside of my family know this, but I have had pretty awful arthritis in my hands since I was fourteen. In my hands.

Painting for me is breathing. It's a heartbeat. I have no idea who on earth I will be when I can't do it any more.

This year, it has gotten worse. When it rains my joints get so bad that I can't grip. I can't pick up a glass of water or hold a fork.

It's moved up from my hands and is spreading.

There is a little clock in the back of my mind. It's counting down to a little ball of pink terror.

I know I can't do this forever. I know this. These poor little hands won't hold out.

I am so grateful for every minute that I have to paint.

Why do I tell you this?

I decide it was time to write this aloud, because even though every minute of my passion hurts me, I couldn't possibly be happier when I paint. I am complete.

A lot of us have complications. Restrictions. People who tell us that we have unrealistic career choices.

There is no dream you shouldn't follow.

Ignore the odds.

Even if you have only a few fleeting moments before it's gone

you will always be proud that you did it anyway.

We need to unite. Let's tell our stories.

Cameo Creation

I am not a jewelry wearing kind of girl. I never have been. My ears were have never been pierced. Even when I was little, Playing Pretty Pretty Princess with my sisters- I always wanted the BLACK ring.

So. Why do I paint cameos? Why do I now as an adult, make jewelry?

I wanted to find a way to paint original pieces that real people could afford.

When I started showing, I had so many sweet people love my creations, but I spend hundreds of hours on my bigger pieces. I wanted to find a way to paint my little girls (without mass producing) in a price range that anyone could reach.

I also love to take my toys with me. Everywhere. And I have imaginary friends. They come with me too.

When I paint I fall in love. I really truly do. I go to run errands and walk out the door with a painting under my arm. I strap her into the passenger seat and we would go.

Painting cameos is a happy medium.

There is an utterly magical element in wearing something with it’s own little soul and personality. I’m serious. Take it from a girl who never even wears necklaces.

When I wear one of the girls, I find myself periodically throughout the day just placing my hand over her. Just to feel her there. Just to know she’s there. It’s not like wearing a little chain and bauble that you forget. She’s the only one in the world. I feel so pretty.

That’s why I do it. Because every girl should feel that special. Like she can have something beautiful and unique to wear. Something that no other girl can have. Something real.

I’m not a jewelry wearing kind of girl. But sometimes, I make an exception.