Marlen Muccio - Painter

In visiting Orlando's Gallery Q for an exhibition I discovered this fine artist's work. Marlen Muccio was born and raised in Peru where she began painting and drawing as a child. She later trained under Chilean master, Jaime Ferrer, for four years to learn the subtleties of painting with oils.

In 2001 she studied with Jay DePalma to refine her pencil work, and worked on her portrait skills in oil with Argentine artist and teacher J.M. Garcia-Segovia. In 2002 she explored her interest in realism by drawing from live models with Cuban-American art historian, Leony Fernandez.

Today she shares her passion for creating art by teaching youngsters to paint and draw.

Her work is just delghtful and I hope to see more good work from her in local galleries in the future.

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

I am not sure I'll have the opportunity to post again before Santa arrives, so I am wishing everyone a very happy holiday weekend. My husband and I will be headed to my mom's family in the Catskills on Christmas Eve, and then to his family's home on Christmas day...then the following week, up north to my sister's for a holiday cousins reunion, and the next day to my dad's where we celebrate Christmas a week late (back down to the Catskills.) Phewf, I'm already tired.

I hope that all of you have a few moments amidst the hustle and bustle to experience the magical, wondrous spirit of the season. That is my holiday wish for all of you (and me too!)

I leave you all with a picture of my darling Max, who posed for me in front of the fireplace last week...

Malaysian Airline Steward & Hostess Scandal

This video captured by a MAS (Malaysian Airlines System) cabin crew who screwed several MAS air hostesses, on a regular basis. He got bored just screwing them, so he added some excitement by videotaping them. This happened in 1999, and is the beginning of a non-stop series of video cam scandals to rock the country.

CLICK HERE TO ENJOY IT

Pahur - Body Painter

Pashur is incredible at what he does. I had the pleasure of meeting him and seeing him work live at a large art event called nude nite in Orlando several years ago. It is amazing how quickly he paints his models to look so perfect.

Pashur lives off his art full time, creating experiences for live events, and teaching workshops all over the U.S. His skill with an airbrush is undeniable, as is his love of the female form.

He has won several awards including his self-proclaimed "cool award". I can attest to this though, having gotten to know him over the years.

"So why do I do what I do? The artist in me wanted to create unique works of art involving the beauty of the human form thus I chose body painting. My artwork comes alive on canvas that is alive. My art lives and breathes..literally. How many artists can truly say that? They say watching paint dry is dull, however with a human being as your canvas it takes a whole new turn."

He has more information and a slew of images to see on his website.

Chris Macan - Photographer

Chris is a photographer in Havertown, Pennsylvania who specializes in figure studies. His work is fun and beautiful. He does some black and white, infrared, and is a fine artist and curator as well. Please visit his model mayhem page.

This and that...

With the support and encouragement of my creative coach, and my amazing friend Debbie, I completed one of my big intentions for 2006 - I wanted to write and submit an article to one of my favorite art-related magazines. Until I hear from them, I will not name which one, but even if the article is not published, I am really glad that I wrote it. For me, the worst thing is for the new year to roll around and to look at my intentions for the year and realized that I did not make steps to achieve them. I have no control over the outcome, but if I don't show up and do the work, it won't ever happen!! I am also busy planning my first classes for 2007. I work at three venues, and it's a constant challenge to come up with new ideas every quarter, but I love the give and take of teaching and spending creative energy with like-minded individuals.
The photo that accompanies this post is a project that I completed at Art Connection, during our holiday ATC/little fat book party. It's a house with transparency pockets to display ATC or LFB pages. My favorite part is the pom pom fringe. It's one of my latest favorite embellishments. Although my usual color palette gravitates toward earth tones, my mood has been very pink & orange lately, so this house reflects a new direction for me and my art. I hope to post again this week, but if not, I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season.

Jeffrey Scott - Multi-talented Manipulator

I first encountered Jeffrey's work last year in NYC flipping through some art magazine. His work immediately struck me. When it comes to art, I am relatively easy to please, but difficult to blow away. Jeffrey's work rocks my world in a way unlike many artists ever have. I love to see digital art that is well done, and of course have a fondness for figurative work. Digital has certainly grown up, and Jeffrey is on the forefront of photo manipulation (which he actually thinks of more as photo sculpting).

He started sculpting when he was young, later discovering painting and finally photography in 2002. He began using techniques learned in other disciplines and applied them to his photo manipulation work. He feels with his new work he is expressing himself as he has always wanted but been unable: "...I discovered that through digital manipulation of all of these photographic elements, I didn't have to compromise anymore. Now I can illustrate EXACTLY what is in my head."

Jeffrey's work can be beautiful and disturbing. He explores dark themes with much of his work, and confronts the viewer with images that may create discomfort or shock. However, much of his work is simply beautiful and indescribable by words. In me, his work provokes thought and inspires my imagination.

His main work explores the human female figure. "There is nothing more astoundingly beautiful than the female form. If we look at the thought of God as an artist... God made all of these things-the land, the oceans, the trees, the animals, man... then woman... Something that contained all of the beauties and elements of the creations before it. There has been nothing new since then... Now to mix that exquisite beauty and architecture with something man made and frightening, or disturbing, as you put it, creates an incredible contrast to me." The man has a way with words as well as art.

So go see more of Jeffrey's work on his myspace page, his website, and his onemodelplace profile. And you can pre-order his book in hardcover on his website or softcover from Amazon.com. I just ordered mine.

David Cavaliere

David spent a decade in Boston before returning to his hometown of Tampa, Florida.

He spends much of his time creating and selling plaster casts.

He also enjoys painting with oils. After an injury last year prevented him from participating in his passions for skateboarding and surfing, he spends all his time on his artistic projects.

Kiwitopia - Marvin Arevalo

Marvin's work is quite interesting. There is diversity in his style. He received his BFA in SUNY in Oswego NY, not too far from my original hometown of Rochester.

He works with several mediums and has some compelling collage works.

Samples of his work can be seen on flickr, deviantart, and myspace.

Fab Art Girl - Traditional Artist

Corbett Kimball is from Texas and does a lovely job at rendering the human form with traditional media. Her original artworks are made with oils, pastels, ink, watercolors, graphite, charcoal, mixed media, collage, and some photography. She has some delightful nude art interspersed amongst portraiture and other figurative works.

She is an artist, performer, and teacher. She specializes in portraiture, and also training models. And even more can be discovered about her and her work here.

John L. DeMike - Body Painter

The naked human body makes for a great canvas. I have experimented with this medium myself, but nothing worthy of being posted here.

John L. DeMike is from my current hometown of Orlando. Though I have never met him, I do enjoy his work. It is whimsical and fun. His website is light on backstory, but has a lot of sample images. His myspace page shows his penchant for dressing himself up for all sorts of roles in addition to showing more of his work. He has found some lovely models to create artistic nudes.

I am eager to see how his style develops over time.

Echo Chernick - Excellent Illustrator

Echo is a fantastic illustrator specializing in sexy. She is from my neck of the woods, sunny Florida. She describes her work as "...sexy art nouveau women for advertising, bookcover, interior book illustration, pin up and poster design". Since I discovered her work on myspace it has captivated me. Though not all of her art is nude, it is all fantastic.

Echo has been honored with several awards including Create magazine's Gold award. She also has an amazing client list for her illustrations.

She has several products available featuring her images here. And a more complete look at her illustrative work here.

Welcome

I am Gabriel Chapman, an artist in Orlando, Florida. I am fascinated by the human form, and specialize in figurative artography. I just decided to start a blog to catalog all things beautiful and nude. I intend to keep this blog thoughtful and tasteful. If you or a friend creates nude artistic works, please send them my way. If I like the work I will post about it and a link. Please keep it good quality, and no pornography.

How to put air in your tires...

I have a brand new Suzuki SX4, and the "check tire pressure" light keeps going on in my car. On Friday, I was going to visit my friend Debbie for an artist's date about an hour away in the country, and I didn't want to find myself broken down in the zero-degree wind chill with a flat tire, so I took the car to the Mobil station to get gas & add air to the tires. Only one tire looked really low, so after getting gas, I asked the attendant if they had an air pressure thingy. She said, "yes, it's on the air pump." Okay, so really I meant to ask, "Where is the air pump?" I found it around the side of the station and parked next to it. Believe it or not, if you're not a customer, YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR AIR. I had just purchased gas, so I knew the air would be free- lucky me - but I had to return to tell the same attendant that I needed her to turn on the air pump. She did. I returned to my car, and proceeded to do what I had seen done by various men. I detached the hose and unscrewed the valve on my tire, and connected the two. In less than a minute, my tire was almost completely flat, because in all the years of watching others use the air thingy, I had never noticed that they TURN ON THE AIR. So I was actually letting air out of my tire. Fortunately, a man waiting to ADD air to is tire came to my rescue, and I asked him to show me how it's done. I am posting these instructions for any woman who, after years of driving, still doesn't know how to do this. I think we should know some of the most basic skills if we're going to operate motor vehicles...

Let's assume that the air is free...
1. Look on the side of your tire for the number that indicates how many pounds of air your tire is supposed to have. Mine is 51 pounds. You don't want to go over this number or you can explode your tire.
2. Push the big black ON button. You'll hear a compressor turn on.
3. Remove the cap on your tire valve.
4. Press the compressor hose to the tire valve, and press the handle next to the nozzle of the hose.
5. To check the pressure, release the nozzle handle, and look at the number that pops up on the gauge. Keep checking until you have a pound or two under the maximum allowance.
6. Screw the valve cap back on your tire.
Leave with more dignity than I did on Friday.

Cleaning Catharsis

I am off this week. Taking a week in early Dec. has become my own personal holiday tradition, so that I can take my time decorating and making art before the holidays. I like to ease into the spirit of the season, which is also why I am not doing any shopping this week.

But before I could decorate, I had to clean my house - desperately. I love a clean house, but I truly hate house cleaning. I mean, I do the perfunctory vacuuming, mopping and surface dusting on a regular basis, but you know how it is when you start to really notice all the nooks and crannies - yuck! I began with my utensil drawer in the kitchen, which is a depository for every crumb and food particle that falls off my counter. That led me to every other drawer in the kitchen, and then the refrigerator, which was coated in soup spills, and contained a collection of vintage condiments - maybe I could auction them on Ebay?

Anyway, I continued this micro-cleaning from room to room & closet to closet, and endedd the day with a sense of immense satisfaction, even if it will only last a little while.

And that gives me the rest of the week to make art, plan classes, and perhaps make some gifts for friends and family. Just a note to my readers, my digital camera hub is at work, so I will post pictures of my art & class plans when I return.