Wow it’s been 6 years!!!

Glad to be back here! I want to talk about art, or course. Esp. since Diana Zlotnick, my main collector for sixteen years, has passed. As of June 22 it will have been one year. She was a dear friend, many happy memories with her going to galleries and museums together, and did her best to promote my work over the years sadly though it never worked – I don’t have an MFA, I’m not young and male, and because of my health complications I’m unable to do the meet and greets in the evenings that are a requirement for success in the art world. However she did her best and I cherish her for that.

I bet you might be wondering what happened to her collection of between 1200 to approximately 2000 pieces. Peter Frank recommended that a foundation be set up so that the collection would be historically remembered and honored and kept together, famous and not-so-famous artists included which is what Diana would have preferred I’m certain. Channa Horowitz is a great example of someone who she championed for years and who didn’t become “famous” until the last year of her life. (Channa was in the auction and her pieces went for a lot). In fact she even told me once that if I did not become famous she would be furious about it, I’m not making that up. She told me that shortly after I met her and it shocked me at the time and it still kind of blows my mind.

But no. She left it to her daughter to be in charge and to do what she wanted. And her daughter did exactly that held an auction and purportedly all of the pieces that were sold totaled up around 2 million and change worth of sales. I’m guessing it might be a lot more than that though I only know this through hearsay.

I’m doing a new piece in honor of Diana. I haven’t laid the composition and completely yet but it’s getting there. I’m excited because it’s a color I’ve never used before that I really like. The most recent piece I did is to honor both of my parents who are now gone and here it is. My new collector wants to get it back lit as his next purchase.

They’ve made a lot of changes at WordPress since I’d last been on so forgive me if I mumble in terms of format as I get back to my blog. I know it’s been a long time hopefully some of you who followed me in the past will catch this and comment. Take care and I promise to come back on a more regular basis.

Ugh…

It’s going to be difficult not to make comments about politics, suffice to say I’m completely disheartened and massively bummed. Those of you with a more liberal bent know exactly what I’m referring to.

Aside from the temporary relief of laugh out loud moments watching SNL (believe it or not, Alec Baldwin made a pass at me in a Whole Foods market in 2005) I’m incredibly depressed. Being on disability and relying on Medicare and SS puts me and millions like me in a very vulnerable place.

On a lighter note – I’ve sold two more pieces to my main collector, Diana Zlotnick. She bought two of the one below, one as a gift and one for  herself.

She also got this one…

 

This guy nails how I feel:

 

It’s been really tough…

Coping since my dad passed. It’s been a little over two years now, and from what I understand the first four years are the roughest. I “talk” to him in my head often, usually when I’m listening to music at night, which is a daily ritual and helps distract from my pain (new readers might not know, I have Ehlers Danlos syndrome & fibromyalgia, both which cause pain).  Don’t think I’ve mentioned that dad and I discovered that we both had the exact same long-term reoccurring dream? Where we’re up on a cliff alongside the ocean, with a thin strip of land with rocks on it below, and we jump off and float down like a feather, flapping our “wings” so we land on the soft sand and not in the water or on a rock. Is that uncanny or what?

So this former book snob (I want to provide the images, not have someone else force them on me) now is a huge movie fan. Some of my all-time favorites are High Fidelity, Princess Bride, Being John Malcovich, Little Miss Sunshine….this list is pretty long.

So my artwork has been suffering due to said depression. I know (too) many people who said they were actually glad when their parents passed, which I find terribly sad. I am working on a new piece, but it’s slow going. (sigh)

I visited my main collector today, Diana Zlotnick. It’s always a pleasure to walk into her mini-museum house. She has fourteen of my pieces, including the latest one. I’m working on a new one that is almost done, but I don’t want to post it until it is finalized, as it were.

p.s. I’ve been enjoying the weekend-only vegan omelets at Suncafe in Studio City. I pay a dollar extra to get the caesar salad, so much better than their mixed greens. Yum, highly recommended and topped with avocado slices!

I’m dedicating myself to blog more often!

Yes I miss doing this – I went through a funk after my dad passed but I’m slowly coming up for air, as it were. He visits me often in my dreams, so he’s never really gone.

A recent dream involved my entire family at our home (where I was born, not literally but the only home I ever knew in Garden (Garbage) Grove. I was born in a hospital that Disney later tore down for their theme park.

The colors in the house were all warm with ambient light. I asked my older brother Gene then my younger brother Jeff if they had Dad’s cell#. They said no they didn’t but mom would. When I asked her she said “sure I have it,” and gave it to me.

I called Dad and was he ever excited! He had very important news for ‘both’ of my selves (yes, there were two of me, but I called myself by another name – an old friend of mine that I’ve known since the 4th grade (for privacy reasons I won’t reveal her name). And of course I can’t remember the message/news.

On another note, I’ve sold four pieces recently to my favorite collector. She now owns fourteen pieces. I deliver the last piece to her (below) next Friday…

 

Here’s to you, Dad. I love you so much. It was difficult to go through the 2nd fathers day without you, but thank you for visiting me in my dreams so much.

Think he was 18 or 19 here.

I’ve been spending my time reading some amazing books lately. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is so good I read it twice in a row! (First on my kindle and then on books on CD). Then re-“reading” (again books on CD) 1Q84 by Murakami. Highly recommended, the latter for sure on books on CD as the readers are excellent, rare to find.

Ta ta for now. Getting ready soon to go have my favorite tortilla/black bean soup and salad at a local restaurant, where I am now reading the Time Traveler’s Wife whilst listening to my mp3 player.

New musical finds:

Wax Tailor

Parov Stelar

Father John Misty

back again soon…

 

 

Finally finished the honorarium for my father

It took me five months and 22 days to finish the piece that’s in honor of my father, who passed September 12, 2014.

It was emotionally as well as technically challenging, for I used the gradient tool for the first time ever. Not anything I’ll ever do again, but it worked for this piece.

A Korean friend occasionally names pieces using either the Korean or Chinese language, hence the title means “Pacific Ocean” in I’m not sure which language (will have to ask him next time we speak).

My dad’s ashes were spread at Dana Point per his wishes. I wish I could have known and asked him why he chose this location; perhaps my mom knows. But bringing it up would be tricky, she’s still emotionally “raw,” as are the rest of us.

Taypyungjung, 2015

Please visit http://MelissaAnnLambert.com to view full size!!!

The inevitable…

It was such an odd turn of events. First, I got my first solo show. At the Los Angeles Ctr. for Digital Art.  The opening was going to be tough for me to make due to my disability.

I visited my dad in the hospital Wednesday. I told him that it would be tough to go to own opening because pain levels get pretty severe starting at 3 o’clock every day. He gave me a very stern look and said “You go girl,” as in ‘you better haul your ass over there no matter what.’

So I did. I actually did somewhat okay, although I suffered for the next two days.  Luckily I had a friend to help me out in terms of the bus, because I have a fear of driving after dark now.  The opening was artwalk Thursday in downtown Los Angeles.

My family was active planning where dad would go to convalesce,  no one could have imagined it would all happen so quickly.

So Wednesday I saw him, Thursday I went to my opening, and Friday, he passed. I was the only family member not there.

This piece is a work in progress dedicated to him.

Taypyungjung, 2015

2014 has certainly been a very trying year…and also a wonderful one

What a mixed bag life has to offer!

1st, I’m blown away that this year I’ve had a total of 14 exhibitions including 2 solo shows back to back. I’m really shocked when I think about it, but in a good way, of course.

And then… My father passed away. the parent that I’m closest to, repeating a pattern as my mother was closest to her father as well. There’s a song on my CD player right now that is appropriate

My father’s been gone since September 12, I’m really glad it wasn’t on the 11th.  I wasn’t there; although I knew he was dying, I had my 1st solo show the night before he passed. I visited him in the hospital on Wednesday (he passed on Friday) and he had said, upon learning about my solo show, “you go girl” – as in I better get to the opening, even though he knows it’s hard – my pain starts in around 3 o’clock every day. So he knew that it would be difficult for me to go to my own opening, but of course I had to go – especially now that he had wished me to do so.

Also, when my mother learned that I had no sales from my last solo show (for my 1st for that matter) she called me a “failed artist.” When I visited her last weekend I reminded her that van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime, and I’ve sold close to 30 pieces. Plus I have three pieces in the permanent collection of a museum. So I’m not gonna let what she said get to me.

Again,  what a mixed bag life is. I learned Robin Williams have some sort of disorder that creates delusions and hallucinations, I guess that is explains a bit about why he did what he did.

I did a piece called transfiguration, right after my father passed – actually during and after the process of his death, and I know I need to work a little bit more on it before it’s something I’m happy with it.  The new piece is called Kensho. Let me know in the comments if you like it or not. It’s probably much more subtle than most of the work that I’ve done. One of my self-portraits is also become so popular that I’ve created $25 posters to have something that’s affordable for most people. That piece is called On and off with a Tendency Towards On, I’ll post that as well.

Kensho, 2014

Please visit my website http://MelissaAnnLambert.com

I know many people who have had a rough year, iif you are one of them. I wish you all the best  for a better 2015.

Melissa

First solo show!

Well I have my first solo show coming up September! Of course it’s going to be at the LA Center for digital art (LACDA), where else? It’s still the only game in town for digital artists, unless you’re someone like David Hockney.

Speaking of which, he joined FB yesterday and accepted my friend request!

On a sad note, my father got lung cancer (again) for the third time. He was first diagnosed in 2000; so fourteen years after that diagnosis is a pretty amazing run. He is in pain and I hope mom takes him in for morphine. I am hoping to see him this weekend, it will probably be the last time. He will be 88 on Friday.

Not much more for me to say, I’m still in shock.

xo

Melissa

 Disambiguation, 2014

 

 

Day in the life

I know I have people who miss my posts, some gonna go ahead and add something before I watch a movie and relax.

I visited the parental units yesterday, my mom thinks that if I have a sleek pantsuit that will help my art career. I’m not sure if it will or not, I think wearing paint splattered pants would get me further along! So we had fun being “girls” – she got me shoes, the pantsuit, two blouses and something else I’m not quite remembering at the moment.

THE ART WORLD

It’s not lost on me that a lot of people that I went to Chouinard with and who are in Diana Zlotnick’s collection are taking off with their careers while I’m just sitting here stagnant. Llyn Foulkes, Norton Wisdom, Mark Dutcher, the list just goes on and on. I’m beginning to feel the same kind of frustration that is widely known that Llyn felt until he made it in a big way recently. But hey I keep doing it because I have no choice, right?

Here’s a new one:

Kateri, 2013, 42″ x 42″ x 1/2″

Finally got the LED panel back from the gallery, I’m going to do what’s called an in situ photograph in a wealthy collectors home (the idea see how quote unquote “nice” myself with looking at their home).

This one is Photoshopped.

To be continued…

 

A new post! Will wonders ever cease?

I’ve been super busy doing art, got a show coming up August 8 where I’m gonna have my new LED panel of Covalent shown, of course it LACDA again per usual. I took the panel to a local furniture store that sells sleek modern stuff and the owner went NUTS over it! She told me to name a price and she would write a check, and then I guess she thought better and realize she needed to speak with her husband because they’ve co–own the store and she needed his buy-in as well. But it looks very likely that I’ll have some sales coming up. I want to hit up furniture stores, restaurants, hotels, jazz clubs, etc. I think I have some serious potential for actually making some money!

IT’S ABOUT TIME!!!!

The 24 in.² LED panel is super sweet. It’s got a black frame and an on-off switch with a wire which can be covered using wire covers available online and in hardware stores. I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am that there’s a strong possibility I may not be impoverished at retirement age. That’s been a real scare – being a “bag lady” at some point.

Bill and I are doing well, which is not always been the case, and it makes me happy. We’re going to go see Woody Allen’s new movie tomorrow at Universal Studios where he gets a discount because he’s working there.

On to the time of day were just want to watch a movie and relax, so I’m gonna post an image of Covalent which is in the LED panel and call it a night. But now that Bill is working more and the dictation software is working better I will definitely get back to writing more regularly, no excuses!

On a sad note, Tazzy passed at age 26, it broke my heart. She is sorely missed. After a month or so I did get a new cat, Chessy. Short for Cheshire. Here she is, on freshly warm towels from the dryer.

So as the author of Don Quixote likes to say a fond farewell for now my readers.

Covalent, 2012