Petra Szilagyi

  • Blog
  • Work
    • Psi Zine Vietnam
    • God Boxes 2020
    • Solar Coochie 2020
    • Prayer Room 2019
    • Chick House 2019
    • Billboards 2017
    • Tapestries
    • Pax the Bench 2014-2017
    • Drawings and Paintings 2015-2017
    • Drag Me to Heaven 2015
    • Orris Butter 2014-15
    • Gifs 2013
    • Lagos, Nigeria 2010
  • About
  • Blog
  • Work
    • Psi Zine Vietnam
    • God Boxes 2020
    • Solar Coochie 2020
    • Prayer Room 2019
    • Chick House 2019
    • Billboards 2017
    • Tapestries
    • Pax the Bench 2014-2017
    • Drawings and Paintings 2015-2017
    • Drag Me to Heaven 2015
    • Orris Butter 2014-15
    • Gifs 2013
    • Lagos, Nigeria 2010
  • About

Sketches

3/1/2014

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Sweet sleep
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Hibernation is heavy on me like a sand blanket in a sensory room. I've never actually been under a sand blanket in a sensory room, Ruby told me about the one at North Adams regional psychic ward when I visited her there, next to us was a woman strapped to a bed singing 'My Way'.

A friend goes off to jail this week for a crime he committed in a past life. I imagine he's gonna be hanging out all day drawing, reading books, eating snacks, meeting cool people, finding god, is gonna emerge a changed man like Malcolm X- although my friend doesn't need any readjusting on the path to righteousness. I'm jealous, I could use a vacation. Plus he'll be forced to quit smoking.



'Winter as incarceration' is one weak metaphor at play here. I wish I were in New Mexico. Love and prayers to Vitamin D, and maybe they'll let him out of his vacation early.

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Smize

2/24/2014

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#iwokeuplikethis

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Winter part 2 

2/23/2014

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Here are some low quality photos of quick sketches I've done recently. I'm trying to quit smoking again, waiting for the obsession to be lifted...any day now. Below that is a video still from a photo project I'm working on with Mistina Hanscom. That's me in the photo, the still is courtesy of Bob Menefee, who has been video recording our antics. I'll get into more about the project soon. It's called 'Drag Me to Heaven,' and that is indeed myself in the photo. Below that is a video of the lenticular version the floral GIF from my last post. This video is from the Love Haven show at Trolley Square that I was lucky to be a part of.  
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winter part 1 

2/23/2014

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I'm very behind. These days the bulk of my energy goes toward warding off the antagonism of meanie 10 year olds. Here are a couple GIFs I made back in November that are now lenticular prints. 
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Sketches

1/10/2014

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Some sketches here and there.

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Cats and IPhones

1/1/2014

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A friend has a couple cats and a boyfriend she really loves. Boyfriend lives in another state, and is hard to shop for, so she has a grand idea: "Hey! I'll have some paintings made of the cats for ______, it'll be the greatest, least expected holiday gift!" She comes to me to paint her cats, then I have a grand idea: "Hey! Let's put your hand photographing the cats in there so it's a double portrait, two for one! Plus, Iphones are the new cats, right?" 
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Siamese and Iphone, Petra Szilagyi 2013
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Cat in box and Iphone, Petra Szilagyi 2013
Cats are what smart phones are for. 
Questions, comments, complaints? Philosophical musings on the relationship between the representation of cats and digital technology? Feel free to leave them below. 
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More sketches

12/21/2013

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Still working on those commissions. They'll be done within the next 100 hours and then I'll post them. Until then, here are some more sketches I made while avoiding eye contact with others.

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Sketches

12/14/2013

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Got a couple commissions. Those are hard. When I set out to draw or paint something specific, I realize that it's actually very hard to make art. It'll be a week before those are done. Here are some unrelated sketches I've made in that past couple days.

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I Am Divine

11/26/2013

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Just saw the new documentary about Divine: life changing. Not only was she talented and audacious, but she had a good heart. Truly humbling, god bless her.  Check it out here: http://www.divinemovie.com/

Also, I had my first solo art show recently. It's up until December 4th at Lipgloss Crisis, 756 Chapel Street New Haven, CT. More about that another time. Made some very cool new prints for the show, will post photos and videos and have them in the shop soon.

 Editioned lenticular prints by me make great holiday gifts, plus you're supporting an artist so it's like that catalogue Heifer where you buy people the gift of an animal that's in turn given to someone in need, but in this case, while you still get to end (my) hunger, you actually get to keep the animal. By animal, I mean my art. If you were planning on buying something from Heifer though, I don't want to dissuade you. It's a good deal. I'll survive; I have an extra kidney.  
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This is one of the new prints, it's pretty special. For sale soon in my shop! Photo: Jane Herships
For Glenn the Divine:
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Requisite Celebrity Portraits

10/26/2013

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Isabella Blow, Petra Szilagyi 2013
I grew up in Hollywood, couple blocks north of the pink sidewalks with star shaped placards for mostly a bunch of people no one remembers. Yet still, it drew tourists, crackheads, homeless teenagers and prostitutes of ambiguous gender orientation from all corners of the globe. Walking to the bus stop, I had to navigate throngs of people delighted to see Jimi Hendrix, Fred Estaire or Red Skelton's name in bronze, embedded in a pink sidewalk.
 People would get really excited, as if they were seeing 'whomever' themselves. They'd take photos, make crayon rubbings, call home, leave flowers. It was like a pink and gold cemetery, lined with 24 hour tattoo, wizardofoz/elvis/marylinmonroe, exotic dancewear concession stands. The good old days, that was back in my day 10 years ago. It doesn't look like that anymore, thank you Disney for your thorough gentrification efforts.
 Back then I hid my backpack under my jacket and appropriated a limp so that I'd be noticed as a potentially violent hunchback and people would drop their crayon rubbings and clear a path. This also helped assert my  position as even more frightening than the people with large bits of pointy pottery implanted in their skin. You know you're tough when Constructs of Ritual Evolution looking people clear a path for you. 

My upbringing might also explain some unusual college behavior: high on...'life' (I'm a grade school teacher now, you see), I'd paint on a mustache and wave my fists at a panel in the sky of dead great minds: Nietzsche, Van Gogh, DaVinci, Foucault, Warhol, Gandhi, Jesus, Duchamp, Sly Stone (even though he's still kinda around). 'Let me into your goddamn club,' I'd say. This was no doubt some obsession with fame carried on from the land of my childhood, maybe a touch of narcissism and gender confusion as well.  
Speaking of gender confusion, very briefly, I dropped the ball on exploring ideas about gender a couple posts back with the drawings of supermodels and drag queens. About half a year ago I decided I wanted to try being a girl. So, I bought pink nail polish, took ballet lessons and decorated my wall with pictures of pink fluffy poodles. I was not being ironic, this was quite in earnest. Only looking back does it feel strange. I'm still kind into it. Any similar experiences? More recently I've started looking at the female identity as it relates to the symbol Yin: cold, calm dark, wet, mysterious. Can talk about that another time. 

Anyhow, yeah so I decided to get back to my roots and pay homage to some famous people. It seems to be the thing to do now and forever. Maybe because it associates their Brand with my Brand, or because it'll make them more likely to visit me in a dream. Or because it's what people are most likely to buy...people love portraits of famous people (these are all for sale!). 
I wish I had more to say about the cult of celebrity, but currently I'm pretty preoccupied with the people I actually know. Luckily there are many books by distinguished academics and Lady Gaga albums about the cult of celebrity so you don't have to take my word for it anyhow.   

ALSO, I now have a shop. Please check it out and consider buying a piece, there are only a couple of each left. And if you want any of these, message my with a price offer and we'll go from there.

Much love 

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Eek A Mouse, Petra Szilagyi 2013
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Daphne Guinness, Petra Szilagyi 2013
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Leigh Bowery, Petra Szilagyi 2013
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David Bowie (Aladdin Sane), Petra Szilagyi 2013
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Papa Koonst (Jeff Koons), Petra Szilagyi 2013
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