some arts.

I am trying to post more art up, as I do it, so heres some art from today/this week. This is a flyer I just finished for a really awesome sounding show in Phoenix. I employed new photoshop skills I just learned

Today I started a portrait drawing class at The Educational Alliance, a Jewish community center on the Lower East Side. The teacher had us do a series of short, 2-8 minute portraits of him, and then loaded them on a class blog, from which i stole these pictures:












Then we had to do a 5 minute self portrait from memory. here's the class with ours.


looking forward to making/posting more. paintings posted soon.
<3

on voting:

Its hard not to scoff when they talk about hope and freedom
Its hard to want to participate in a government you fundamentally don't have any faith in,
its hard to put trust in a voting system that election after election has proven to be at best, unreliable, and at worst, utterly corrupt,
and its hard to overlook how vastly insignificant your one little vote is,

but SEVEN YEARS of pointless war, hundreds of thousands of people dead for no reason, the most inane, backwards and racist education policies imaginable, the fanatical restrictions on science and choice, billions upon billions of OUR dollars wasted, and further permitted corporate destruction of our natural habitat has proven to me that voting is worth doing anyway, because the difference between the lesser of two evils might just mean the difference between living and dying for more real actual people then there are endangered species to kill, fetuses to save, jobs to outsource, or inner-city children to forsake, or any of the other shenanigans these liars, gluttons and thieves might try to pull, given the power to do so. But the power will be given to one of them, no matter what we do right now.

This is not a surrender, not a compromise, voting is only the smallest of actions of self defense one can take.
in conclusion,
I'm rooting for Obama.

Happy New Year to all

Well, I am back in New York after a long vacation in California for the holidays.
I travelled back with my dearest friend Andrea who is now on a train going north to her new home in Montreal. We pulled her two giant suitcases through the streets of Manhatten during the first minutes of sunrise this morning and discussed the lovely phonetic quality of the sound "Monreal" just as we had of the sound "Hallelujah" a few hours before as we lay in my bed, both of us unable to sleep. So she is off and I am here at an internet station at Kinko's on 7th ave, waiting for the hours to pass before I have to go to work just a few blocks over. Presently there is a homeless man washing himself in the drinking fountain in the corner. He wished me good health and advised me of a drug store down the block because of my coughing. New York has been nothing but courteous and accomodating on all fronts in the two days I have been back. Despite my rather horrendous cough, the disaster in my room I left for myself to come home to, the fact that my two dear china-town turtles died, and the fact that I have so far only been able to sleep every other night, I have been surprisingly productive and in good spirits because of it. Even the wheather has been delightful. Hopefully the impending 8 hour work shift standing around trying to get charitable donations out of strangers in on the street (yes, that is what im doing now
) wont crush my momentum.
So its 2008 and the theme of this year so far has been "Kidnapping."
More on that soon, as I am hungry and feel like taking a walk before work, and as writing more on my blog is a goal of mine for the new year.

Hope you all are doing well.
all my best, Maggie

taxi driver

today i was paid to drive a new york city taxi from long island city, queens to times square in manhatten and back. i got honked at so much and so many people tried hail me to get into my car. more on all this later.

drawing strangers.

Today, after Andrea and I were kicked out of the subway for attempting to (me) draw people and (her) do spoken word (I think it was actually because we were sitting and had a hat out), I decided to sit in Union Square with a sign that said "Free Portraits, 5 minutes, Donations Accepted" and some sharpies and highlighters. My new job doesnt start until next week and I feel so out of practice when it comes to figure drawing, i figured I would see if I could get some practice in and make a few bucks. I drew about 12 people. They were slow coming at first but by the end i had a huge crowed of teenagers around me, and I would have drawn them all, but by then it was so cold I could hardly move my hands. I felt like I could feel myself slowly getting better as the say went on. My favorite drawing that came out was of this tough-looking deaf guy with a mustache and a NYC beanie and no neck. He read my sign and pointed to himself with his eyebrows up. When he sat down he frowned and kept his chin high. I tried to make him look powerful and put blue highlighter lines coming out from all sides of him and he seemed delighted with it. i got both a thumbs up and a high five. In the end, I made about 5 dollars, and got a free hip hop cd, and a free hair cutting/coloring coupon from some students at the fancy haircutting school, which is nice because i was just thinking that I could use a good haircut.
(these were some of the drawing of andrea (which some bum told me looked exactly like steven tyler), and unsuspecting people sitting on benches i did in the down time early on. by the end of the day, i was banging out psychadelic masterpeices in five minutes flat, honest.)





speaking of drawing, yersderday, i finally went to the Society of Illustrators jazz and figure drawing session I have been bookmarking for months that was in this classy old building on the upper east side with free coffee and a bar and these beautiful burlesque nude models doing 10-20 minute poses for three hours. And because it was through the society of illustrators so most people there were professionals and really really skilled, so it was good to watch them work. oh, did i mention the live blues singer and backing band? incredible.

also, we are trying to learn french. if anyone knows a good way to make that happen faster, let me know!

an elegy for midge.

for all of you that knew and loved the great midge, our little old pug who was blind and deaf (not to mention courageous) and had only one eye, i am very sorry to announce that she passed away today.

I loved Midge because she defied all laws of nature. We think she was born sometime circa 1994, and while her early years remain a mystery, and we have no idea what happened to her right eye, she came into our life via the guy that runs the gun shop/pug rescue center in Livermore in sometime in 2004 and she spent most of her days foraging for food in our living room with her heightened sense of smell (it really was her only sense that functioned) and sitting on the couch making fun pig noises while my mom knit and watched Law and Order. She was loved by all who met her and leaves behind a lifetime of memories that will no sooner fade from our minds then her pee stains from my parents carpet.

Im pretty upset about this, I think we all are. She was a warm and fuzzy little bitch with a heart of gold and was unlike any other dog on earth.

RIP Arrow Midgery Lucky Princess Muldoon c.1994 - 10/18/2007
Lil dog, I dont think we could forgert you if we tried.

Rooftop show, The Opera House, 9/9/07

So this here is a photo journal of the amazing show that happened on my roof on 9/9/07. its also a little bit of me showing off my digs here in brooklyn, The Opera House:
heres my flyer:


this is my living room/kitchen/hallway and Tory of Cartoon Monster.

the show begins on my roof, with The Blanket Truth. check out the skyline, the projects, and old glory in the backround:


this is the Blanket Truth, from Seattle/T.O. with Hoshwa on drums:


Rebecca and Josh as Watercolor Paintings, strait outta Thousand Oaks/Isla Vista, CA:


next was Cartoon Monster of Portland OR, playing behind a barbeque:


This is the Peach Colored Jog Smugglers, from all over CA, specifically "the Chad Shack" note that the boy on the end is not in fact playing air guitar, but rather, the spoons.


more of that fine spoon action:



this is madame flodd: two amazing girls, from Eugene, OR playing klezmer/gypsie music on a fiddle and accordian



they also brought the dance party:


this is Brooklyn's own The Lil Hospital, playing a killer set in my living room. about ten seconds after this picture was taken 'The Man' made us stop the music and break up the party. Boo Man. regaudless they were great.


afterwards everyone hung out in the courtyard of my building and had a fine time:


that night nine extra people slept in my tiny house. my four roomates are pretty amazing to put up with me, at the time of this show id only lived here a month. here we are hanging out with my new york bff, and fifth roommate, vinyl the dog


she got a little vicious... check out those beautiful teeth!


and then in the morning we went to the soul food buffet down the street (its 4.59 a POUND! for good food) and then we took this picture and said goodbye!


and that was it! hooray. it was pretty much the best night ever. hooray music, friends, and brooklyn.