Ima Drink Bacardi Like It's Ma Birfday

I'm going to go ahead and post these birthday pics even though the camera didn't come out until MANY drinks were had. Prolly not the smartest move, but I'm pretty ok with joking on myself, so it's cool. Also, ***Disclaimer*** this was the first day of NYC house sitting, so you have to throw me a bone for travel tiredness.*** That's all. 

It was also Melissa's birthday. We're b-day twinsies.

P.s. Don't buy this shirt. It's from H&M (I'm on a budget, whatever)and those sequins will slice your arms off. I mean, I didn't feel it/notice until the next day, but still...

This is the part where I was all, "WAIT. DON'T take my picture until I put lipstick on." And then I forgot I was getting my picture taken and texted somebody.

With Christopher, his eyes are focussed. Mine are not.

With Don and Matthew

I am only showing you this photo as a LIFE LESSON to NEVER press your arm against your body when you are having your photo taken. EVER.

Virginia and Don are cutie pants.

With Kat, again, the whole eye focus thing.

gorge dot com

Stop laughing at me.

THE END

Do You Want To Be Famous? Bonnie Lane

Bonny Lane and her hubby Tom were two of the awesome people who I met while at the Vermont Studio Center. They are a hard working Australian artist duo that has been traveling the states making art like crazy and winning over new friends everywhere they go.

I was lucky enough to have Bonnie take some time out of her FULL schedule to answer some interview questions. Here goes!

painting by Erin Fitzpatrick

Fitz: Where are you from?

Bonnie Lane:I was born in Melbourne Australia. I have been in the US for about 9 months now and recently moved to Los Angeles.

F: You are in the process of doing a residency circuit. How do you like traveling from place to place, and making art in this environment?

B: It took a little bit of adjusting to get used to this lifestyle, always being on the move, setting up and packing up in short timeframes, adjusting to new environments all the time. But now I have gotten so used to it that I love it and don’t stress about things like how I am going to get to the next place or where I am staying etc. I love setting up a new studio every month or so, it is a really good way to sort out what you are doing in your work. Also having deadlines is great for actually finishing things, which can be very tedious. Overall it has been the best introduction to America and has allowed me to see so much of the country while meeting plenty of artists along the way.

F: What are you looking forward to right now?

B: I am really looking forward to starting a residency at RAID Projects in Los Angeles next week. I can’t wait to get stuck into this city and have a studio again. I am excited about doing a residency right in a big city, as most of the others have been quite rural. I often need a lot of ‘things’ for my work so it will be so much easier to get these in LA.

F: What/who inspired you to make video as your art form?

B:I think it was probably Bruce Nauman who first inspired me to start playing around with video art. I was experimenting with cameras for about a year before I actually made a video piece. Since then I have fallen in love with the medium.

F: Do you want to be famous?

B:I definitely want to be successful as an artist, meaning that I am able to live as a full time artist and able to make work all the time. I love making art and being successful professionally means that I will be able to make more and more of it. I think if I wanted to be ‘famous’ I would have chosen a different career...

F: What do you daydream about?

B: Being a ‘normal’ person with a normal life! Sometimes I just fantasise about how lovely it would be to get paid at the end of every week, take the weekends off and not have to be worried about what position I will be in the next week, month, year. But in reality I wouldn’t want to swap this life for anything.

Bonnie and Pam at VSC

 

F: Where is your favorite place in the world?

B: At the moment I am a bit obsessed with Los Angeles but I don’t know if I have found my favorite place yet. I love lots of different places for completely different reasons and am looking forward to seeing many more.

F: If I gave you a million dollars right now, how would you spend it?

B: I would probably invest most of it in making some HUGE artworks. That would be really great. Other than that I would love to buy a house somewhere, and keep on traveling.

F: What are 3 things you always travel with?

B: Sketch book, laptop and my camera.

Photo by Bonnie of her glitter covered objects

F:. You seem to always be covered in glitter. Tell me about that.

I have been getting stuck into glitter since my time at the Vermont Studio Center. Everything I made there with glitter was basically a failure but since then I have been covering trash in glitter and loving it! I think glitter is going to continue to pop up in my works a lot now.

 

F: Who is your celebrity crush?

B: hhhmmm.... James Franco.

F: Thanks, Bonnie!

To learn more about Bonnie and her work you can "like" her on facebook, or check out her site.

Instagram!

I mean, how fun is Instagram?! I know I'm a little late on the bandwagon, but don't hate. I'm here now. If you want to follow me I am user "fitzbomb." Duh. I will most likely follow you back...unless your whole feed is screen shots of Draw With Me, or too many baby photos. That will not do. No offense to Draw With Me ;)

Now I'm going to get you caught up. 

Enjoy while I write another post.

xoxo,

-Fitz

Sitting in an almost empty bar off of the Montrose L stop, sunny day, cheap beer, great book

Shoes in the sky

Fake park

Don photographing fake park

Bahn Mis in Prospect Park

And then I walked to Pratt and finally delivered this painting to Sheila

Early happy hour at the Pine Box Rock Shop

Central Park

I was babysitting Charlie the cat. 

Getting good at the subway, if that is a thing to get good at

Cristal

Psyche, just crystal.

Cee Lo!

I wasted all of this paint 'cause I didn't really paint at all in NY.

This is not Photoshopped

"I believe in the Golden Rule...the man with the gold, rules." -Mr T

If I wrote "keep on truckin'" here, that would be so lame.

When I got back to Baltimore, this was the first thing I did.

This was from that one time last week when I decided to go on the all pizza diet. ***Disclaimer*** This means I only ate 2-3 slices a day and nothing else. I highly recommend.

***Disclaimer*** This blog post contains the most cat/pet pics that I have or will ever post. I'm not sorry.

Cris won't like this photo being on my blog, but he never reads it, so ah ha.

Because the rest of my face was looking gross, I just photographed my eyeball.

I went to this party where we all ate pork and people tried on this hat.

Lulululululululu

Cat brothers, these guys look pissed!

Diet Dr Bob = Diet Doctor Pepper

Sometimes I gotta bring this one back.

I don't think I have ever cursed on fitzbomb. I try to keep it PG-ish. You know, clients and all... BUT I carried this bag around for a day before I realized that it didn't say "Thank You."

THE END

Don't You...Forget About Me

Hey there!

Hope y'all are doing well and enjoying the spring weather that's been warming up the east coast. I got up early, but am being SO lazy about getting outside myself today. Last week (I'm still house sitting in BK) I went out so many days in a row that I really just want to stay in and chill. I did that yesterday though (didn't even step outside,) so I'll go out for a walk and see some sunlight after this post.

(drawing I did based on an ad in last month's Elle)

For the past couple of weeks I've been figuring my way around the subway, visiting NYC friends, running into Baltimore friends playing shows up here, having some drinks, reading some books, eating great food, and doing VERY LITTLE painting. 

(drawing I did based on an ad in last month's Elle)

I have to do some work tonight. And I will. 

I'm hoping to photograph some new portrait subjects while in town, and that may still happen...but I'll tell ya, it is not easy to get the interesting people during daylight hours. Between 2 and 6am, total score of great subjects, but once the sun comes up it is almost impossible to coordinate a photo shoot. I'm not complaining. When it happens it'll happen, and you'll be the first to see what comes out of it.

Until then, I'll be working on some commissions; like this one.

This painting is a part of a set of 10 paintings that I'm completing for one Baltimore family. In the next week or so, I'll have two more paintings to share from this series.

(bathroom graffiti)

In other exciting news, I have even more to share with you! I'll be bringing you photos from the POPO/WIN WIN show, my birthday (!!!), some pre-NYC activities that I've been holding out on, and I'll fill you in on what exactly I've been up to for the past few weeks. I know, you can't wait. 

TTYL,

xoxo,

-Fitz