“Love that Ginger has tan lines, an impish note to an already playful image. Just to further solidify Samaras’ pop culture street cred, she’s seen Star Wars 73 times! As a kid, she adored TV, and the characters she met in television land stuck around and populated her imagination.” -Angela Carone, Culture Lust.
In order to be an effective popagandist, one must be leaps ahead of the rest. Ron English knows how to set the pace: his iconic Abraham Obama image took the country by storm, and now follows the documentary. The film Abraham Obama premiers in New York on May 14th, an event anticipated by a special print release using never before seen technology. Ron’s hand-printed silkscreen 3D lenticular prints are a breakthrough in printmaking, explained by Ron in this video from Jetset Graffiti.
Here are the stats:
Artist: Ron English
Title: Abraham Obama Lenticular Mixed Media Print
Size: 24″ x 36″
Description: Hand Printed Mixed Media Lenticular Movie Poster for “Abraham Obama: A Film By Kevin Chapados” A copy of the film DVD is included with each print.
Edition: 7 Unique Colors, 10 Red White and Blue, 30 Silver Text, 157 Gold Text
There is only one blinged-out red squirrel in the woodz, and he’s getting all the girls. Isabel Samaras was fortunate enough to catch a photo shoot with the playa, and the resulting portrait will be on display this Saturday with “Into the Woodz.” If the original is beyond your reach, Isabel has provided a porcelain alternative: collector’s plates. “Nutz (Sciurus Vulgaris)” is 10″ high: signed and numbered, edition of 100. We agree with the creator herself: they are cool as all hell.
Brown bags are dirty. We don’t care if Bloomingdales has attempted to glorify this American staple with designer prestige: paper bags are for 40 oz of beer and pack lunches. Oh, and for Dustin Olson‘s harem of women. If you’ve ever heard a joke about paper bags, Dustin has probably titled on of his paintings after it. His works are well articulated oil-on-canvas with a light motif that stings. Don’t miss his new works at Gallery Three this Saturday.
Isabel Samaras is a devious lady. She entices viewers with cuddly, dookie chain bearing woodland creatures or classical portraits of pop culture monsters. One might chuckle at the immediate irony presented, but upon deeper contemplation, Isabel poses heavy questions. Why is Goldylocks in the woods and not with her wealthy prince? How is it possible that Frankenstein and his bride are living happily ever after?
The satire penetrates to the bone, dissecting American folklore and Disney traditions to address their unforgivable flaws. This witty artist knows what a spoonful of sugar can do, and we are eating it up. Isabel expands on monsterized art dealers, the varnish high, and the insidious side of Bambi. -Shooting Gallery staff
Shooting Gallery: How do you “use yourself” as a model?
Isabel Samaras: I buy myself dinner, get myself drunk and have my way with myself. Then I usually put on a costume as close to what I’m trying to paint as possible (sometimes this involves renting things like big red capes, etc) and cajole Marcos into taking some snaps with my big honking camera: that classic “It’ll only take a minute!” that turns into an hour.
That porcupine costume was *really* hot and uncomfortable.
Beyond the lovely musings of your blog, do you write much?
When I’m not painting like mad I actually write a lot. I used to publish a lot of fiction on the web under an assortment of pseudonyms.
Writing is definitely my guilty pleasure, and what I would do more of if I were for some reason unable to paint.
What’s so great about chocolate?
It’s sexy, it smells great and tastes yummy. As an added bonus, it’s full of flavonoids and antioxidants: how many bad habits are actually good for you? And did I mention it tastes good?
(I was going to try to make some kind of connection between artists who used to enjoy absinthe and say the Green Fairy was their muse, but it just doesn’t sound as good to say I’m inspired by the Brown Fairy.)
Are there any “crutches” or “gimmicks” in your recent work?
If there are I haven’t found them yet. I do try to knock those out when I realize I’m doing them: I’m way more interested in growing and changing as an artist than just treading water. I feel myself getting more seduced by the actual paint and it’s movement on the wood, being less constrained by visual “facts.” We’ll see where that goes.
If little girls knew there was an option to “stay in the woodz,” would Disney go out of business?
They don’t need to go out of business; they just need to stop trying to control us. They hire educators and researchers to try to figure out how to create “emotional hooks” in children. I love Bambi but the stuff they’re doing right now is really insidious.
Entertaining kids is fine; trying to commodify them by using child psychologists to turn them into brand-stamped consumers is totally evil.
How did Squirrel hustle Run DMC’s dookie?
He’s a playa.
What’s coming out of that ghetto blaster?
I was thinking about Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two” and “Joy and Pain.”
Why is On Tender Hooks the most fabulous of fabulous?
Oh man how can I answer that without sounding like a total fat-head? I shelled out big fees to museums for the right to reproduce some classic old master paintings because I wanted to be able to talk about where some of these images came from, their history, and why I chose them.
There’s even a cool lift-the-flap “dissection” of a painting, where you can see the sketch, the under painting, and the finished piece. I really wanted to show all the things I always wondered about other artists: what does their studio look like? Where do they throw their brushes? What’s it all about?
Is it hard to continually evolve as an artist and still cater to the audience’s expectations?
I sort of gave up on catering to expectations; I think that’s really dangerous. I could probably keep painting naked Catwoman and just laugh all the way to the bank but it’s not where my head is at right now.
I would hope that my audience would come along for the ride but if they don’t, maybe it opens the door to people who couldn’t respond to the previous work (poor Luddites raised without TVs, etc).
Do you get a feeling of closure by rewriting fairy tales into “happier endings”?
Oh absolutely, though it never really ends. I did the whole Red Riding Hood thing as a love story, but sometimes I think I’d like to paint her as an avenging spirit of the forest, a total badass wearing wolf-fur and packing heat. (A very different kind of happy ending.)
Favorite SF hangout?
Valencia Street. Belgian frites and mussels at Frjtz, sneak over to Tartine on Guerrero for some sweet treats, hit the pirate supply store at 826 Valencia for a glass eye, grab some cool animal bones at Paxton Gate, it’s just endless. Stay long enough and you’re ready to eat again. Head over to Mission Street and grab a taco at La Taqueria. Then it’s almost time for drinks…
What is so satisfying about painting drapery?
So much of what I do is about tiny little brush movements, itty-bitty things that are very controlled. Fabric is more about free-play, letting things blend and curve and sway and fold together. It’s the cut-loose-and-have-fun part.
In a lot of these forest pieces I treated the redwood trees like the fabric; I wanted them to be luxurious and almost liquid, soft, not craggy and snaggly. They are the velvet curtains in these paintings.
Most inspiring contemporary artists?
I have to say the Todd Schorr piece at that big show in Laguna Beach totally blew me away. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. And I loved the Olafur Eliasson show at SFMOMA, and Mike Mignola’s comic art always pleases.
What’s your apartment like?
It’s kind of like a house. There’s a modest little house up front, kind of “60s meets mid-century mix-up” with a big tree branch nailed to a plank of wood on the bar counter that gets decorated all year round (right now it’s full or origami monsters and little rubber creatures). Lotsa orange (my favorite color).
Behind the house there’s a big studio that’s just a total jumble of stuff: rubber heart in a jar, a couple of skulls, some monkey teeth, old Batman and Catwoman collectibles, you know, the usual.
What’s next on the map for Isabel vacations?
I’m heading to a houseboat as soon as the show is over to decompress for a few days (and detox from all this damn varnish!). But I really want to go to Spain. And Hawaii. And back to Italy. Over to Iceland. Down to Austin. Up to Portland. Heck, throw a dart in a map, I’m there.
Look out for Isabel Samaras at The Shooting Gallery with “Into the Woodz” opening May 9th, 2025.
If you find yourself sleepless in Seattle next weekend, Roq La Rue Gallery will tuck you in with some not-so-sweet lullabies. Their group show,”Lush Life,” opens May 8th featuring Travis Louie, Chris Sorren, Mia, and more. If Cyclops-meets-Eraserhead doesn’t spell out “sweet dreams” for you, brushing up on David Lynch might be a good pretext to this exhibition.
Juxtapoz senses a change in atmosphere as the opening for “Into the Woodz” approaches. They popped the 20 questions with Miss Isabel- lo and behold, the woman can write!
What’s your biggest non-green inspired indulgence?
I consume mass quantities of ultra-dark chocolate made from cacao pods collected by slave monkeys. And it’s gooooood.
What is the single most important thing you did to breakthrough as a career artist?
Painted the stuff I’d been thinking about my whole life.
Can’t stand:
Hate mongering Fox “News.” I wont even dignify them with names (you know who you are you lily liver’d pack of lying weasels).
Read 20 questions with Isabel Samaras at Juxtapoz
New York is difficult to fence in. It’s offensively arrogant and perplexingly tolerant. Erotically alluring and nauseating repulsive. An oxygen tank for thoughts, and quicksand for illusions. Sentimental Samaritan and merciless lyncher. Empty talk at predictable receptions, and genuine interest in unlikely situations. Voluptuous muse, and flat canvas. Cool business card, target oriented CV, brief acquaintance, entertaining fuck, miserable marriage, harmonic partnership and lifelong friendship. -V1 Gallery
Copenhagen is about to get a dose of NYC, and all the mind-blowing artists that come with the beloved city. “The New Yorkers” opens May 1st at V1 Gallery, showcasing works by Erik Foss (“DRAW Show” curator), KAWS, Barbara Kruger, Futura, and many more.
