All Things Medical Illustration

I drool. It’s a visual treat just being LACMA, and today I felt like I had the place to myself. I mean it was deserted.  Never again will I second guess going on a weekend. I was afraid to park my lone car on the street. Where was everyone today?

The Meléndez show (no photos allowed) was amazing, the paintings sparkling and plump. I found myself viewing everything from 8-10 feet away to enjoy each whole picture at once. There was so much to look at, but actually very few surprises up close. I expected to see unusual colors, optical blends, visual tricks… but everything was perfect, traditionally blended, and smooth smooth smooth. There were a few spots where the pottery showed small raised blobs of clay, which any other painter would have mimicked with raised globs of paint. Meléndez painted these so smoothly that I had to walk back and forth across the painting, searching for the point where the paint came off the canvas.  Not a ripple for days.

There were a few visual anomalies that could have found a home in a Dali painting: a smart, plump sweet pea almost bouncing off the ground, and garlic cloves too graceful to be real. A funny mix of hyper- and surrealism cut these bits off from the rest and gave them a quality all their own.

My real show stopper for the day, though, was turning a few corners from the end of the exhibit and finding myself face to face with the Lansdowne Artemis, a marble I had seen before but which just punched me in the stomach today. I was alone with this for ages, looking and looking and  looking from every angle. My picture doesn’t nearly do it justice. Maybe I can sneak in a tripod next trip!

I finally collected myself and decided to move on, and then I turned the corner to see this–

Another Lansdowne, Athena of Velletri. In person, she was not as striking as Artemis, but she had the hands down lighting advantage. There she sat, basking in afternoon sun. The whole gallery came to life.

Dear anyone who might still be out there,

I’ve done a terrible job keeping this blog up to date.  Let’s have a fresh start and get to know each other again.  I’ll try harder to embrace my inner social media self, and you just check in once in awhile.  If the mood strikes, comment on posts, or contact me about contributing your own.

Big announcement for the week: I finally got the new version of bajemastudios.com (my medical illustration studio website) up and running!  So happy with a new design and some fresh portfolio pieces.  Stop by and check it out if you haven’t been there yet.

I’m looking forward to lots of art and some out-of-studio experiences this weekend.  First up, the Spanish still life exhibition at LACMA, http://www.lacma.org/art/ExhibMelendez.asp.  Next Beyond Eden Art Fair at Barnsdall http://www.beyondedenartfair.com.  Serious excitement about what I’ll see and high hopes for some sun on my face!

A few shots from Santa Barbara at Thanksgiving. Experimenting with different techniques for shooting in that tricky low-low light. I really like the graininess and the mostly grayscale effect of the first shots.

The big fires didn’t touch us, but we did get a good view of the Malibu smoke from Adelaide, the street behind our apartment. These sunset shots are extra red and smoky. Shot 10/21.

This cool gem is available online as Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography, a presentation by Slate Magazine. This is the first presidential graphic biography I’ve seen, so it’s hard to compare, but Ronnie looks ookily superheroish. The story wanes sentimental, but it doesn’t matter– could there be a more fun way to read (revisionist) history?! My best props to Slate for making this entire project available online. I was a big fan of the illustrated 9/11 Report, also available on Slate.