Hello,

Made with Gawker.

Does anyone else write frustrated/angry emails that you know you probably won’t send? I’ve written a few in my life, and admittedly, one today. After that, I did this painting:

You guys remember that screamo band, Grade (like, circa ’99)? I think your friend Matt was into them. Anyway, if you don’t know Grade, don’t bother, but this one came on iTunes while I was emo-painting and I was taken back to high school. YEAH MAN, LIKE, I SO IDENTIFY TO THAT.

“This is a time in my life where everything is falling apart,
and at the same time it’s all coming together.”
— Grade; A Year in the Past, Forever in the Future

New painting > PROCESS > 1, 2, 3!

My mother is one of the most talented artists I’ve ever known. When I was 7 or 8, she set me up in the basement and gave me a lesson in watercolor painting. As an Emmet Kelly collector and admirer, the subject she chose for my first painting was a hobo clown. It is still proudly on display in an overstated frame in the house I grew up in.

So did you guys hear about the stunt Fat Mike from NOFX pulled at this year’s SXSW? He played an acoustic show as this character called Cokie the Clown. If you want to peep this super controversial set, there is a video below. It’s more than a half hour investment, but if you happen to be a fan, it’s worth it. Spoiler alert: The prize at the end is where he reveals to the audience that they had taken shots of Patron cut with his urine.

Since my NOFX obsession hasn’t really subsided since I was 14, I was inspired to do a hobo clown painting V.2 which I then went ahead and made into a poster for a fun design exercise.

Here’s the show that inspired this painting:

(Thanks Ricky / theinternettoday.net for providing this video!!)

This is one hour.

Here is a watercolor I recently painted for my dear friend, Erin Davis.

About this piece: For three years in high school I lived on a cattle ranch in Sarasota, Florida. The goats were my responsibility and I have loved them since! The uncle I lived with used to call me the goat girl because I spent so much time with them. My favorites on the ranch were our Nubian milking goats, which explains the text in the painting. And animal heads on hot bodies is pretty much a recipe for cool sketches.

When I’m feeling creative, my dog is often my default subject matter. This is pretty of “low-art” of me, I know, but in this most recent painting, I want to bury the image of Ruby with tens of thousands of paint drops so she’s barely noticeable. I did a very small painting similar to this one last year (maybe 12″ x 8″)  and I loved working on it. Every single paint drop is a decision, but the joy in that process is that the consequence is indifferent once it’s placed. It’s like meditating and it gives my mind an uninterrupted chance to wander.

I wanted to do a larger version, so this piece is 47″ x 22″. The base image for the last piece was an abstraction (almost like a solar system) so I thought this time I would try incorporating an image. And hello Ruby!

Let it load & Let me explain…
Click to see!

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF J2F

*Note: the left / right arrows on your keyboard will move you to the next picture

Refer to picture # if you wanna say something. Comments are fun.

How are you? Sorry I’ve been so self absorbed lately. I made you this because I knew you’d be happy to see I’m painting still/again. It’s a painting of myself. [Get it?]

Love,
Nellie

Made some good progress on a painting I’m working on for a friend. I started adding color to it tonight and I was so excited by those jelly hues I got by mixing gloss medium and dust from these chalk pastels my sister Jaleen gave me that she had been toting around for a decade. I feel good when I’m zoning out and being productive. It’s almost done, I think.

OK. Time to recharge my circuits.