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Featured Artist ||| Margarita Surnaite (Vilnius, Lithuania) 

This week’s featured artist is Margarita Surnaite who is a Lithuanian artist studying illustration at Vilnius Academy of Arts. She creates colorful digital and traditional illustrations that range from playful to dark and eerie. Her work has dreamlike quality since it is often based on the visions that she has while daydreaming or right before falling asleep.

Her earlier art was influenced by pop surrealism movement; especially by artists like Mark Ryden and Ray Ceasar. Margarita is interested in children’s book illustration and character design. She is inspired by music, animation, comics, and observing people and nature.

She is working on finishing a picture book for her BA thesis. She also started a sketch blog on Tumblr to house her daily sketches, doodles, drawings, etc.. Margarita currently resides in Vilnius, however, she will soon be moving to Cambridge, UK, for her master’s studies in Children’s Book Illustration.

To read more & see more visit Margarita Surnaite’s website, Facebook page, and blog.

Kelly Rose Dancer is a pet portrait artist by day and a fine artists/puppeteer by night. We first fell in love with her Meme Cat portrait series and are thrilled to be the very first to share her newest series. Her newest collection of work, ”Pet-rifying Cults”, was inspired by Kelly’s interest in cult films and includes some of her favorite characters.

You can catch Kelly Rose Dancer at the Oakland Internet Cat Festival on May 11. You can also see more of her work, or commission her to draw your lovely furry friends through her website or on Facebook. 

Did you guess all the characters? Left to right: Big Lebowski, Barbarella,  Clockwork Orange, Bladerunner, Death Race 2000, Eraserhead, Gray Gardens, Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill!, Rocky Horror Picture Show, & Pink Flamingos

Featured Artist ||| Jennifer Lewis (Boston, MA) 

This week’s Featured Artist is Jennifer Lewis from Boston; the starting place of Paint Pens in Purses, our most beloved art collective. We are pleased to share you some images from Jennifer Lewis’ Cats at Work series. This particular series, which was inspired by old World War II propaganda posters, is both adorable and thoughtful. To check out more work visit Jenifer Lewis’ website or on her Etsy page. There were some buttons on there that I am already eyeing, so you better hurry. 

Bio:

I grew up in a small town in Maine, where I read a lot and spent numerous days in the woods chasing the animals.

Looking at the little things and observing the details has always been of great joy to me. Early on I was influenced by the detailed works of Hieronymus Bosch, Bruegel, and Lisbeth Zwerger. My influences grew to include numerous comic book artists, Mark Ryden and James Jean.

Visual storytelling became a big part of my art. Following my influences I set out to become an illustrator. In 2000 I graduated from the Rhode Island School of design, with a BFA in Illustration.

Currently I reside in Boston where I show my work at numerous galleries and cafes and continue cultivating my freelance career. I spend my days painting, baking, drinking coffee, arranging my loft and feeding my two cats.

My love of the arts continues to evolve and grow. Just recently I started attending Graphic Design classes at Mass Art and have big plans for the future.

You an find my work at the Made In Fort point store or Etsy and I also participate in the Fort Point open Studios.

Cats At Work Series

This series evolved from my love of old World War II movies and posters. I really enjoy the old propaganda poster aesthetic, simple with hand painted imagery. There is something quaint and unsettling about looking at the classic images of the 40’s from our modern viewpoint, I highly recommend  the movie “Fido” to illustrate this example.

My favorite images from this time period are the depictions of the factory girls. These women, like Rosie the Riviter started to support themselves and their families after the men went to war. I imagine these kittens like Rosie the Riviter, being all self sufficient with a great sense of pride in their work. Whenever I look at these paintings I always hear the Flogging Molly “Factory Girls” song in my head.

Featured Artist ||| Tofusquirrel (Boston, MA) ||| Illustrator

Tofusquirrel is this week’s Featured Artist and long-time friend of Paint Pens in Purses. We are very pleased to have her ice cream creatures flying ALL the way here from freezing Boston, Massachusetts to come chill with us in San Francisco for the “Ice Cream Girl” show at D-Structure NEXT Friday!

With Prismacolors, pens and paper; Tofusquirrel can create magic. You will also never meet someone more excited to watch the Planet Earth documentaries. Tofusquirrel loves animals, bugs, and all creatures times a zillion. True story. 

Tofusquirrel has been displayed at galleries, store fronts, New England Comics during Free Comic Book Day, The New York Comic Con, The Boston Comic Con, The Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo, and the world famous Art Basel Miami. Tofusquirrel has done art events for companies such as Apple, ADIDAS, Converse, Karmaloop, and Wizard Sleeve Toys. She has also had billboards and wall murals advertising Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer in cities across America.

In 2009, Tofusquirrel was flown to LA to do live painting along with Tara McPherson at the Hive Gallery during the very first Feminality show, all female art, hosted by Wizard Sleeve Toys. In 2011, Tofusquirrel’s work was displayed in Tara McPherson’s Tiny Trifecta art show, also the grand opening of the Cotton Candy Machine art boutique in NY. Dozens of low brow/pop surrealism artists were also in the show. Fans camped out in front of the boutique the night before, and the event was filmed by MTV.

Tofusquirrel has been published in LA Weekly, The Boston Phoenix, ColorInkBook Volume 11, The Boston Metro, The Boston Herald, The Weekly Dig, WIRED.com, STUFF Magazine, The FAT CHUNK robot anthology, MTV.com, I Luv Halloween 3, Juxtapoz.com, and more. She was featured in the Best of Boston 2008 and 2010 issues of the Boston Phoenix Newspaper, highlighting her gig posters and Paint Pens in Purses (an urban female art collective). In 2010, FuelTV flew to Boston to film Tofusquirrel and her work. The Tofusquirrel segment aired internationally during Mountain Dew’s Green Label Experience Action Sport Championships. Her artwork was also shown during the championship commercials. In 2011, she illustrated an octopus for the cover of “The Best of” issue of the Phoenix for Boston, Providence, and Portland. In 2012, she won the 1st place award for illustration at the New England Newspaper & Press Association Awards (weekly newspapers, circulation more than 6,000), for the Phoenix’s “Best of 2011″ octopus cover illustration.

At the event we will have Tofusquirrel pieces for sale, however, if you a.) can’t wait, b.) you need to get something N-O-W, or c.) you can’t attend the show, then you can purchase her work here.  

if you have a sec. add our page to stay in the loop. 

Meet MAIL ORDER BRIDES/M.O.B. (San Francisco, CA) |||

I came across Jenifer Wolford’s work through Sketch Tuesdays in San Franciso and discovered one of her many projects called Mail Order Brides/ M.O.B.. Here is an excerpt from her page about the project.

‘For over 15 years, Reanne “Immaculata” Estrada,Eliza “Neneng” Barrios, and Jenifer “Baby” Wolford have worked collaboratively as Mail Order Brides/M.O.B., a trio of Filipina American artists engaged in an ongoing conversation with culture, race and gender. While other mail order brides are conventionally perceived as ideal obedient domestics, it has not escaped this trio’s attention that, acronymically speaking, “Mail Order Brides” abbreviates down to a more sinister sequence of initials that informs the darker subtext of their operations.

They have taken matters into their own well-manicured hands, using their innate graciousness, guile, and great fashion sense to gently pry open the eyes of the closed-minded. They have enforced this enlightenment through a cornucopia of clever creations, including karaoke videos, museum makeovers, photographic psychodramas, parade performances, public service posters, and professional bridesmaid services.

M.O.B. “hits” have included the De Young Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure (San Francisco, CA), the Green Papaya Art Projects (Manila, Philippines) and the Luggage Store Gallery as part of ArtPad SF in May, to name a few.

Their video screenings include the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the San Francisco International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the New York Mix Festival and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.

They are committed to making the world a more delicious and harmonious place.’

For more info and images visit the website!