Gearing Up For a Bad Mu'Fuckin' art Party (Sweet Cosmic Shitsmear!)

Life is back in its regular old swing and I've been going back and forth between busting ass to get ready for this upcoming show and getting my ass busted by a few unfinished pieces. The rigid perfectionist in me always emerges before I show a new body. I've repainted nearly the whole house in a palate more suitable to my new work. One room I've repainted three times.

This piece has been kicking the piss out of me for nine months. I can't even guess how many hundreds of hours I've spent on this fucker. After putting in another ten hour session today, I feel pretty confident I'll have it finished and up by the end of the weekend. This particular style is impossible to accurately capture on camera because it moves depending on how the light is hitting it.

I'll be honest with you, the thing makes me throw up a little bit. Here are some detail shots.

The thing is... this painting has been an honest process. It doesn't matter that the final product is a big ol' rainbow shitsmear. It's really not about looking good.

Now let's talk COSMIC shitsmear.

There will be a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius on August 16th at 9:11PM. Being an Aquarius myself, this event will have a powerful and very real electromagnetic influence. Traditionally a lunar eclipse is said to signify crisis. What astrologers mean by "crisis" is the ultimate closure and destruction of current systems. A Full Moon Lunar eclipse signifies a metaphysical death: the ending of a cycle, a breakthrough to wider and wiser perspective. This type of thing can be painful, but I'm not scared. I've felt this coming and I'm ready to break through. I chose to have my Art Party on this date as a way of telling the Forces that Be, "BRING IT ON, MU'FUCKAZ!!" I got my spurs on. I think I'm ready for this ride. Look for me screaming in terror and loving every minute of it.

It's a powerful moon, this cycle, I can feel it. Lars took this photo last night through Ms. Chang's dirty windshield as we were heading out to see a show. I've never seen the moon quite this color. Pictures never really do it justice unless you have a moon-lens, but you can definitely feel something different with this exceptionally red moon. I think it's gonna be good.

I don't know what I'll be doing next but I feel like I'll soon have the answer.

Do you want to see my corny side?

Lars will be the first to tell you that I'm by no means a pack-rat. (In fact one might say that I thrive on getting rid of stuff.) I moved out of my parents house when I was fifteen and all I've kept are a few pieces of jewelry, my guitar and my old love letters. (Sometimes I laugh at myself for keeping them, but I just can't bring myself to destroy the words of my brilliant and freakishly eloquent ex-lovers.) Ironically, I felt the same wave of sentimentality today when I went to drop our Ween ticket stubs and wristbands into the trash. My corniness surprised me, but after a bit of rearranging I fit them in with my letters and felt quite happy the thing that finally filled my chest was my own love having taken me around the world.

More soon. Hope to see you at my Art Show/Party. If you need more info, visit the "Shows" section of the website, or shoot me an email at: sufficientmusician@hotmail.com

All the sweet lovin',
your numba' one intergalactic butt-mother (and tiny dancer) thea

Posted on 9 Aug 2008, 20:52
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Good-bye La Cucaracha, te amo con todo mi corazon

This last thursday I left for Brooklyn, NY on my final journey to see Ween on this tour. We stayed with the only two people on the planet who fully understand my need for dancing, DP action and spandex. They were ready, waiting and worried "sick" by the time we arrived.

DP!!

Cynthia wanted to see my nuditard, lewditard and various other spandex atrocities. Spandex, a toothbrush and a tiny sombrero were all I packed. It was OK. We don't need much.

Look at my precious pet Libra's. Behold the gorgeousness. Libra = Mucho bueno, oh sweet lovers- you're all i need.

And these tights.... i definitely need these, too. Cynthia saw them and knew they were my soulmate. They were four whole dollars but she said I deserved them. This woman spoils me rotten.

I can't survive without my BFF, Diamond. Obviously.

I spent most of the day of the show getting Cynthia ready with one-armed and plyo pushups. She needs to know it's safe to break furniture on me if she has the urge. Whatever it takes to keep the ladies happy.

The day went by pretty fast, because we were supposed to be down to the park by 4 to see if Greg and Pat could spare us the crowd. They couldn't exactly, due to a number of factors, but i was still happy to be there before the rush. If I get to a place first and keep my eyes forward, I'm usually OK, although on this day i regretted not heavily sedating myself.

Once the gates opened i bee-lined for the front. I just wanted to stand, breathe and hold my place. The size of the venue was overwhelming. When i had talked to Greg and Pat a week earlier they'd already sold 5,000 tickets. I'm not sure what the final count ended up being, but it was massive. I said hi to some of the guys briefly, but stayed where I was. I just wanted to face the ending, feel where I was and then get the fuck out of there. I saw Chip beforehand, who was sweet enough to come down and grab a little gift I made Davey.

The crowd came in slowly and I was happy to be padded by friends.

I don't know why crowds give me so much anxiety, but they do. Usually there's just so much energy I get overwhelmed. This night was particularly charged. There was so much in the air I could barely move. I felt dizzy. Diamond gave me a place to sit.

Always one of my favorite faces to see...

The show started. It felt different this time. It WAS different. Death, birth, heartbreak and transcendence. I felt stuck between the pain and beauty of the experience.

This has meant so much. I've met some of the most beautiful, special people...

I found my compass and remembered to trust it. Not enough to be truly fearless, yet, but enough to be truly fierce.

I watched these guys who mean so much to me play one last time. I was a grain of sand on their beach- one of the few closer to the shore, constantly thrown by the tide blanched by the sun and illuminated by the moon. I felt my insignificance and wondered if I could someday do something as beautiful for the world as what Ween has done for me.

It seems silly to think I could be that special, but I can't help but grow toward this strange dream.

No one... not even I can possibly understand what this has meant. It's brought me home. I am in love with Ween because they have shown a light that brought me back to myself. This light has allowed me to unboard doors and windows in my soul that I thought were locked forever. I am smiling at the parts of myself that used to make me cringe, endeared at my own embarrassment and foolishness. This has made me softer, wiser, slower and more accepting.

I love you, beautiful masterpiece. I will cherish these treasures forever. You have made me love what I used to fight in myself.

This journey has been sublime- at times too beautiful to close my eyes- at others, too paralyzing to open them. The whole thing has stretched me in every direction. I've been in a nine month-long parade of comedy and terror- blindly and wholly loving this light that has both drawn me out into the world and lead me deep into myself.

The show ended and I went back to say hi to the guys. I met some of their friends and families and had one last smoke of the tour with Kirk. He has certainly been one of the most special and unexpected gifts I'll take away from this journey.

After the smoke, it was time to leave. I wanted to go be in a quiet space, away from people and this strange and almost suffocating charge in the air. We went back to Cynthia and Diamond's place and resumed the party, along with the search for a four man tandem bike to ride to Coney Island the next day.

I passed out earlier than usual after a Ween show. Normally it's days before I really sleep. This night I was out around two or three. Unfortunately I was rudely awaken by Diamond's other BFF, Senor Jorge McTaco who came to the open window by the couch and yowled in my face until I finally rose to find his cat food. By the time i found it I was up and ready for coffee. Lamely enough, it wasn't even the food the cat wanted, but Diamonds tender touch.

Being that i was awake i decided to climb into bed with Diamond and Cynthia and meow until someone made ME breakfast.

It worked. I got all kinds of fruit, avocado, stir-fried spicy veggies and an egg over a spelt muffin and french pressed coffee. (OMG, CYNTHIA AND BFF, I LOVE YOU GUYS.) I also needed some dairy-Prozac.

Sadly, we never found an available four-person tandem with the stacking formation we were picturing, so Coney Island was a bust. I guess the upside is that I am now drawing up models for a sweet bike and will be welding us a four-man bike to ride cross country on by next year. Bueno. Someone will pay us to do it...

Suddenly we felt a jam session coming on. We knew it was gonna get serious and that we'd need to fuel the passion, so Diamond made us cupcakes.

Cynthia played the shit out of those fuckers. That was pretty much the beginning of our new band, Cupcake Butt. We know it's a lame name but we didn't want to waste our creative energies on a title.

I'm not gonna lie, we sounded pretty good. The neighbors were hanging out to listen. In reality, I'm pretty sure it was all Cynthia. Who can resist a hot girl with a banana-raca? Certainly not me.

Lord Jesus, i am so sexy. It's no wonder wherever I go people are humping my leg and treating me like Prince.

Cynthia and Diamond such good hosts. Tthey stayed on the floor so we could have the couch.

All I had to do was smoke the MOST and perform tricks in my nuditard at Cynthia's every beck and call.

Later into the day Diamond broke a string and it was pretty much over for Cupcake Butt. We had new strings, but who are we to fight nature? Besides, putting a new string on would kinda contradict our whole motto: "Close is good enough."

(We were gonna use this as a poster, but since the band is through it's pretty much pointless now.)

What do you do when all else fails? You have a dance party, obviously.

And Diamond, being the sensitive Pisces of the group realized our need for brownies and made a batch. (It's what you do when the cupcakes are all gone.)

I frosted them bitches.

And yes, we danced into the night. People think that artists are always on drugs.... I beg to differ. We're just undervalued by society and can't afford anything but, expensive coffee (in the cheapest bag), inflatable microphones and drugs. I'm rebellious even for an artist, having had my savings uselessly sewn into a money boa.

Maybe we just come with a childlike sense of wonder that allows us to appreciate the simpler things in life, like cake batter, shiny underwear and tiny sombreros.

I don't know what else to say. I don't know how to end this story. I just woke up on Sunday to the sound of thunder and knew it was time to get ready to go. I was bummed to leave Cynthia and Diamond, but I know I just have to keep truckin' along. I don't even know where I'm going, just that this drive is important.

Diamond could feel my sadness so he presented me with some gold crotch.

It did make me feel a little better.

Our flight home was delayed over three hours due to electrical storms. You could feel the charge in the air. A different type of charge then I'd felt at the Ween show, but definitely a presence.

We got in after midnight. I was worried about how we'd get home cause we'd blown the rest of our money on a cab to Newark. Fortunately, Jake Jake napped in the cell phone waiting lot through our delays. Jake Jake, you're the best child EVER. I stood on the curb waiting for him after hearing his sweet voice on the other end of the phone. Lars snapped a picture of me, and when I looked at him inquisitively, said- "You look how you feel right now."

So this is it. Thank you to my patrons and collectors who have been patient, even endeared by my sudden change in direction. I'll be resuming my outstanding commissions, although at this time I am no longer accepting commissioned artwork.

Please keep checking back here, I'll be updating frequently and hope to have a good deal of exciting posts in the near future, including my art party on August 16th. If you'd like to come, please send me your address.

Hope to see you soon.
Love,
Thea

Posted on 21 Feb 2009, 17:58
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