Mary Curtin

Maledictions

2011-11-14T10:02:00.001-08:00

Here are the pieces which were in the REVENGE OF...FREEKY FRIGHT NIGHTS show at the Fourth Wall Project. I know Halloween has been over for a while but hopefully you can still enjoy them!

Country lane

2011-09-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

A many faced woman in a quaint country village off to do something sinister, probably...

Illustration Friday: Disguise

2011-08-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday topic of the week: disguise.

UFOs and sky cottages

2011-08-13T13:29:00.001-07:00

Just a few things I did for fun and to get back into using my markers.

Back to my favirote standby

2011-08-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

It's been a while so I'm just posting a little something from one of my favorite subjects: Bear+Mountain

Floating Tigers

2011-06-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

This started out as a brief for my university class last fall, I really liked the original pencil drawing so I decided to color and just spruce it up to put on the blog. We were given a theme and had to go around The British Museum to find/draw related things and combine them in a single drawing. Mine was resisting authority figures so I made up this image from what I drew at the museum.

Grizzlybear Woman

2011-06-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

For a while I have been messing around with drawings for a Native American myth about a woman who marries a grizzly bear. Her father has the bear slaughtered and in her grief she takes a piece of his skin and gains the power to turn into a bear. She ravages her village and kills everyone but her little brother and sister, Okinai and Sinopa, and her six brothers who are away on the war path.

When the six brothers return Sinopa tells them what has happened and of their sister's plot to kill them all. The brothers told her to collect prickly pears and cover the area in front of their lodge with them, leaving only a small path for her and her brother to escape by during the night. As they were escaping the Grizzlybear Woman heard and rushed out side after them, treading on the prickly pears. Roaring with pain and anger, she assumed her bear shape and rushed at her brothers.

But Okinai rose to the occasion. He shot an arrow into the air, and so far as it flew the brothers and sister found themselves just that distance in front their sister behind them. As the Grizzlybear Woman gained on them Okinai waved a magic feather and thick underbrush rose in her path. But, again, she followed them and Okinai caused a lake to spring up before her.

She continued to pursue them and this time Okinai raised a great tree which they all climbed to escape. The Grizzlybear Woman, however dragged four of the brothers from the tree. When Okinai shot an arrow into the air his little sister sailed into the sky. Six times more he shot an arrow, and each time a brother went up, Okinai himself following them with his last arrow.

Thus the orphans became stars; and one can see that they took the same position in the sky as they had occupied in the tree, the small star at one side of the bunch is Sinopa, while the four who huddle together at the bottom are those who had been dragged from the branches by the Grizzlybear Woman.

I unfortunately don't know what group of Native Americans this story is from or what constellation the orphans formed, but I really like the story anyway so I'm going to keep doing drawings for it. Hope you enjoy them.

Peacocks!

2011-06-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

A bunch of peacock drawn for thank you cards I gave my family for their support during my graduation.

Illustration Friday: Bicycle

2011-04-23T08:55:00.001-07:00

Here is another piece for Illustration Friday, the topic is Bicycle. So here is a sasquatch enjoying a ride on an old fashion bike through some wheel-plants.

Illustration Friday: Stir

2011-03-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since my last Illustration Friday submission but here is one for this weeks topic: stir. Its just some creepy hands stirring some funky blue stuff.

Cups

2011-02-08T12:13:00.001-08:00

Here are a few cups I did fairly quickly in photoshop and a new banner too! At school I've been busy making a really awesome book of the signs of the zodiac, so soon I'll be able to post some pictures of that.

Shape Thing

2011-01-25T09:13:00.001-08:00

It's like a cat, covered in petals, exploding with geometric shapes.

Illustration Friday: Dusty

2011-01-24T16:37:00.000-08:00

Dust Bunnies in their natural habitat.

Illustration Friday: Chicken

2011-01-19T17:20:00.001-08:00

My first illustration for Illustration Friday, done in markers and pen ... poor chicken

Bears. Mountains.

2010-12-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

I had a short obsession with drawing rocks, grass and bear things. Aided by the awesome markers my parents sent me for a early Christmas present I did a ton of these drawings of bear things on mountains.

MEAT hunter

2010-11-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

Something quick I finished inbetween class work and getting use to London life.

2010-09-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

Some ladies with fancy outfits. or feathers. or i don't know, just patterns that look nice. These where drawn out in my sketch book and colored in Photoshop.

Little Drawings

2010-07-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

For these I took drawings out of my sketchbook and painting a them a little.

Wigs

2010-05-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice little series of wigs.

2010-04-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

Get your freak on! A show in which i have a piece! The opening reception is tonight but there will be second opening next Friday, the seventh of May. Visit www.space242.com to RSVP to attend the opening!

Recent Illustrations

2010-04-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

With these painting I am trying to branch out doing more and different subject matter. Firstly I painted this cafe, trying to create an inviting interior.
This is called "Sea Sick Seas", it's a illustration about how the oceans, and especial coral reefs and the animals in them, are in danger from temperature change and disease .

Illustration show

2010-03-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

Illustration show I'm very excited to be in! Opening reception is Tuesday the 23rd, visit www.gloveboxboston.com for more info. Please stop by if you can. Thanks!

2010-03-12T10:51:00.000-08:00

These are from my Intaglio II class. "Dog in Sky" is pretty big, 24in x 18in, Based on doodles i was doing, therefor i tried to keep it sketchy and scribbley. "Infantin Margarite Teresa" was a 3 color plate print.It was based on one of the portraits of the Infantin Margarite Teresa done by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez. Lastly "Hairy Lady", I was just continuing my train of thought from the summer.

Natural history class

2010-03-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

These are a few sketches/paintings i did last semester for my natural history class. The class was for drawing natural thing; plants, fungi, dead plants, dead animals, stuffed dead animals.

2009-09-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

A few small things i did over the summer. There are is the Hairy Girl, all there paintings are of the same girl, only at different ages. And then there is a woman with wings

2009-05-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

This one is my most recent painting , It was for an assignment i which i had to contact a few working illustrators, interview them, and create a illustration based on a illustration assignment they once had to do. From the people i contacted i chose to illustrate an article about cancer. I also keep all of their styles in mind while i created this piece. So thank you Ruth Monro, Yoko Furusho, Denise Gallagher, and Eric Sandberg for helping me out!

Stencils

2009-05-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is a stencil/painting made in my experimental illustration class last semester. So, it's made of 4 different stencils that are then painted in to make this picture.

Computerized

2009-05-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

These are some things i did in my Photoshop class. I don't usually like using a computer to paint with, but these are some thing that i have tried.

The top most one was done on Illustrator and the one below it was done on Photoshop.

Anyway the last one is my Mom's Birthday present, a baby moose with huge antlers.

Old Stuff and Screen Printing

2009-05-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

Ok I'm going back in time now, these are some old stuff from my freshman year and the following summer. One is a holly alien baby, and the second is a baby with an octopus pacifier, pretty self explanatory.

The other three are some of the good screen prints I got when I was teaching my self how to do it last summer. They were meant to be a series of five, but the other two would not develop on the screen correctly. Basically they were meant to show the progression of a girl and a wolf into a wolfgirl, but since the one of them fussing into wolfgirl didn't work out it's pretty impossible to tell they are a story, but i still like them individually.

Printmaking

2009-05-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is the most recent print I made, so thats all of my this semester's printmaking work. It was based on an old photo of an oprea singer in Austria in the 1930's.

2009-05-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm finally starting to put up some work on this thing, eventually I'll get more uploaded. This is the work from my Intaglio I class, These were fun to do and I liked printmaking so I'm going to keep taking classes. Here is an artist statement that i made about these pieces when i entered them into a exhibition at my school ( I think I was the only one to submit so there probably won't be a show, but i still like the statement i made for them)

Names create a link which allows connections to be made to previously existing objects and ideas. In order for a newly existing entity to have sense and purpose, they are named according to type and could include a particular trait which the name giver wishes the entity to aspire to. When naming children, the sex of the child would be considered, along with what the parents believe the child’s temperament should reflect. In my etchings, I put the children into settings of their own descriptions. The strange places the children are incorporated into are warped metaphors of their name-sakes, transmuted by the child’s real personality and will. For example, Hulda means “sweet” and “loveable” but the twisted and stunted looking setting suggests the child is either smothered by or is smothering the idea that she is a delicate and feminine creature. On the other hand, Farahilde is more confident in her atmosphere of adventure, although the faulty reality shows that she has no idea what the truth of traveling and battle encompass. In my series of etchings, I hoped to develop the realm of naming by combining the child and the name into a bizarre visual representation, surpassing what neither the child nor the name could be on its own.

Hulda, derived from archaic Swedish huld meaning “sweet, lovable”.
Hulda is surrounded by voluptuous nature and lace and dots.

Andor, from the Old Norse name Arnþórr, derived from the element arn "eagle" combined with the name of the Norse god Þórr.
Andor is surrounded a noble mount, billowing clouds of the heavens, and his own illustrious feathers.

Farahilde, Germanic compound name composed of the elements fara meaning “traveling” and hild meaning “battle”. Farahilde is surrounded by mysterious vegetation, sharp and ominous objects, and is set on a dusty path equipped with a pointed weapon.

Krasimir means "beautiful peace" from the Slavic elements kras "beauty" and mir "peace". Krasimir is surrounded by vast and splendid expanses of flowers, seated in his special cushioned seat, holding a bouquet of flowers.