on the drawing board: last peek?

As followers of my blog already know, I am preparing for a solo exhibit in July (100 days away!). So some of the pieces I have been working on, I haven't released. I am saving them to debut with the show. This is probably going to be one of those pieces so this is probably the last peek until then.

"Where the Wild Things Are" - Trailer

Portia De Rossi 'Apologizes'

My Work & Playlist Top 10

1. "The Fear" - Lily Allen
   
2. "I Owe You a Love Song" - Shiny Toy Guns
   
3. "I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris" - Morrissey
   
4. "Feel the Love" - Cut Copy
   
5. "If This Isn’t Love" - Jennifer Hudson
   
6. "Something Special" - The Tough Alliance
   
7. "Be Mine!" - Robyn
   
8. "Science of Love" - Donna Summer
   
9. "Another Yesterday" - Madison Park
   
10. "Freaking Out" - September
    

Weekly Poll: why the baggie swimwear?

For fun I am turning the tables on those who dis' the style of male swimsuit known best as 'the speedo'.   Typically it's straight men AND women who have issues with this simple, sleek and practical apparel. 

What about that other style of swimwear?

Why do guys wear those baggie swimsuits that are basically shorts, sometimes called boardies?  They're not really sexy, they leave a weird tan line and when it comes to swimming they drag and are all drippy afterwards.  And if you've ever worn one into a jacuzzi the bubbles make them puff up like your wearing a parachute.

Why do you think the wear them?

The poll is in the side bar --->  Oh and pardon my grammar, that's supposed to be 'Why do they wear' not 'where'.

In last weeks visitors poll I asked what is your favorite season.  While Spring and Summer originally lead in the voting, in the last couple of days fans of Autumn pushed it to the top.

Autumn is perhaps my second favorite, it's been years but it's still difficult to separtate what I like about fall from that dreadful 'back to school' feeling that goes along with it.

Poll Results:

38 % Autumn

25% Spring

25% Summer

9% Winter

on the drawing board: color scribbles

I realized that when I take an in progress pic it's always after I have blended the pastels that I've applied.  It just never seems appropriate to stop at that point and assess things.  It's like tasting a recipe after putting in only the first ingredient. 

Well this is what it looks like after applying the first batch of colors.  After this I would blend them together.  Next I'd add and blend in more colors to get all the variations.

Pet Shop Boys - "Love Etc."

New Work: Leap of Faith

Doesn’t true faith necessitate a risk with a consequence? Faith is having trust and confidence in something or someone, even oneself. The diver who leaps off a 100 foot cliff into the ocean below doesn’t do so foolishly without preparation; simply believing that a supreme being will guide him and protect him during his decent.  Instead he has faith in himself, in his own abilities and the skills he’s learned.

Leap of Faith is on consignment at the Lyman-Eyer gallery. While available for purchase, it will remain with the gallery through the end of my upcoming show, The Breathtaking Blue, this July. In addition to the original, limited edition Gallery and Studio prints as well as open edition Portfolio prints are available for purchase. The Day of Issue Sale is on through Midnight ET tomorrow. 

Special Nude Variant Print

The first time I "finished" Leap of Faith the diver was nude. But that is not how I had orignially imagined the piece, and that's what I ultimately needed to see. But before I put pastel to thetask of drawning on a swimsuit, I decided to scan the work first. Because of that, I am able to offer a very unique print of Leap of Faith (nude variant).  

Only 25 copies of this special  (13" x 19") print are available.  Visit www.breyette.com.

on the drawing board: happy face

Here's my what I've got going on right now. I'm really happy with how the face is coming along, a bit more tweaking but I like the structure and basic expression.

My Work and Playlist Top 10

#4 "I Owe You A Love Song" Shiny Toy Guns	#6 "Something Special" The Tough Alliance

1. "The Fear" - Lily Allen
   
2. "Feel the Love" - Cut Copy 
   
3. "I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris" - Morrissey
   
4. "I Owe You a Love Song" - Shiny Toy Guns
   
5. "White Horse (Whelan & Di Scala Remix)" - Sarah McLeod
   
6. "Something Special" - The Tough Alliance
   
7. "If This Isn’t Love" - Jennifer Hudson
   
8. "Be Mine!" - Robyn
   
9. "Science of Love" - Donna Summer
   
10. "Tomorrow" - Ladytron
    

on the drawing board: facial expressions

I've just started a new work that I want to make provocative and playful.  This sneak peek shows just the face I have on my outline.  I already know that I want to change his expression slightly and make him smiling a bit.

Summer is Coming

Aussiebum

Lily Allen - "The Fear"

Let's stimulate ourselves!

Economy, stimulus, bailout, stock market.  It’s all you hear and on everyone’s minds.  Some people have been greatly effected because they are now unemployed, others have seen the value of investments decline; others have cut back spending due to fear.

As a self employed artist I have been affected too.  I see first hand the cyclical effect of job cuts and spending cuts.  The less people buy, more jobs get cut, resulting in even more people buying less and so on.   So what breaks this cycle?  What can be done? What can I do, what can we do?

While the congress and the President handle the big stuff with the stimulus package, and news pundits yap about it, I realize we shouldn’t just sit and wait for it to start working while shaking an angry fist at bailout bonuses. We can and should do our part and help ourselves.  

I believe in the concept of the stimulus package.  The basic idea is that the government spends money on projects, since big companies aren’t spending (either they don’t have the money to spend or don’t want to).  These projects (whether it’s highway repair, education, improving national parks) will create jobs directly and indirectly.  This puts people back to work, which gives them money to spend, thus putting more people to work and so forth.  

We as consumers and workers need to employ that concept and stimulate ourselves (get your mind out of the gutter).  The basis of the economy isn’t investing in or the value of stocks, it’s the manufacturing, selling and buying of goods and services.  Investing is fine if you want to grow your money, but it is, when you get right down to it, gambling.  Right now we all need to invest in then basic economy first.  We need to stop listening to those TV financial advisors who tell us to stop buying and cut out all unnecessary spending.  That may help the individual in the short term, but for the big picture that’s just going to hurt more businesses, put more people out of work and keep the downward spiral going until those who are currently employed get pink slips too.  I’m not advocating spending money you don’t have, but if you can still afford your afternoon latté, go for it.  You get to treat yourself, at the same time you’re paying it forward.  You’re investing in the economy and adding to your own job security. In economic terms it's called consumer confidence, but right now we need to take a little consumer leap of faith.

So I’ll go out and buy that latté and if enough of us do that, that coffee shop owner can rehire that manager.  Then this spring that manager can buy those shrubs and flowers for his yard, which will keep the owner of the garden center in business so he can treat himself to those Michael Breyette print’s he’s been drooling over. So you see, on the surface that cup of coffee may seem a wasteful indulgence, but that’s what we need to do.  Think about how your own actions come back to hurt or help you.

We have hope, now we need to add action to our hope.

This Week's Poll

Spring will be upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere in just a couple of days, so I was wondering what's your favorite season? Is it, the fresh rebirth of Spring, the long warm days of Summer,the colorful, crisp, coziness of Autumn or the quiet solitude and perhaps snowy activities of winter?

Cast your vote in the sidebar -->

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's a beautiful sunny day here, and it's St. Patrick's day too!  So I'm in a happy-go-lucky mood.  First, here's a toast to those fighting Irish hunks, cheers! And second, I'm offering free shipping* today on prints of 'Patrick', or any other prints!  

*Free shipping offer is for orders that include at least 1 print, going to anywhere in the U.S. placed through my website, www.breyette.com, until midnight tomorrow (March 18 2009).

Weekly Poll Results

Turns out most of us like adventure when it comes to our skivvies, at least once in a while.

When asked to describe their underwear drawer most visitors said it was 90% tame and 10% wild.



Here is the full breakdown

90% tame, 10% wild - 27%
Adventurous - 24%
Classic Contemporary Style - 14%
Same as it was 10 years ago - 9%
Fashionistas Paradise - 7%
Bargain Bin - 7%
Clone Factory (all the same) - 7%
Empty - 1% (I guess some guys go commando 24/7)

Jon Stewart calls out CNBC, Cramer, over misleading

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart puts the spotlight on the news networks, especially the financial news channels like CNBC, for not fully reporting the wheeling and dealing that caused the financial crisis.

on the drawing board: jump off a cliff

Sometimes it's important (and fun) to see things from another point of view, literally. When contemplating my diver, I got the notion of looking from above. This way, the sea becomes as dominant as the figure. The ocean was my starting point to begin with and I really wanted it to be a major feature of the piece.

on the drawing board: birds eye view

Here's a peak at what's currently on my drawing board.  As I continue to create pieces around the theme of my next show, which is 'blue', I am repeatedly drawn to water.  Though, that's nothing new for me.  So what better way to illustrate it than diving in to the breathtaking blue?

New Work & Award Winner: Beau

Like with numerous other species, are males actually the more beautiful sex? Are men peacocks? Despite the fact that our society usually celebrates the aesthetics of the female form over the male, why is it the norm that women wear makeup and perform a myriad of other rituals to look prettier?  If men did the same would they be considered equally beautiful or maybe they don’t because it is just not necessary.  It was this question that lead me to a series of works I’m calling Natural Beauties.  It also opened up the fun idea of very masculine looking men doing typically feminine things.

My first Natural Beauty is “Beau”.

The original is on consigment at the Lyman-Eyer Gallery. While available for purchase, it will remain with the gallery through the end of my upcoming show, the Breathtaking Blue, this July. In addition to the original, limited edition Gallery and Studio prints as well as open edition Portfolio prints are available for purchase on my website: www.breyette.com. The Day of Issue Price only lasts through March 11th at midnight. 

….and “Beau” was selected yesterday by the Erotic Signature jurors as the winner in the Fine Art category in their 3rd annual worldwide competition.

It will appear in the “The World’s Greatest Erotic Art of Today Vol. 3” alongside the other category winners, and the top 200 selected entries.  Two of my other recent works, “Dream of the Dolphin” and “Farmhand” were among the top 200 and will also be published in the book.

Congratulations to my friend fellow artist Marc DeBauch and everyone else who won a place in the book.

You can join me and be part of the Erotic Signature Community at www.eroticsignature.com.

Weekly Poll

Mens underwear have come a long way in the last few decades. There are thousands of colors and designs, and hundreds of brands with a new one seemingly popping up every month.

So this week, I pose the question: What does your underwear drawer look like?

The poll is in the sidebar.

Weekly Poll Results

48 % said that it doesn't matter to them if a gay porn actor claims he's straight, but a rather close 40% said you're less interested in them if they do. The remaining 12% answered that it actually makes them more turned on.

Personally I go along with those who say they lose interest. I think I am just distracted thinking they are lying. Most guys in porn can't act to save their lives and they want me to believe that when they are having sex with another guy they're just 'acting', not enjoying it in the least, I don't buy it.

Art of the Month: Franco

Climbing from the pool, he pauses as your eyes meet. Perhaps he will get out and join you. Or maybe he is waiting for you to get a little wet?

Each month I feature one of my pieces as the Art of the Month. For February it's "Franco". All prints of this work are 15% off if ordered from my website.

Oysters & Chocolate

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