It’s been a busy week but I have finished my piece for the Herzenbrecher exhibition at Strychnin Gallery Berlin, my Mum will be here so I am extra excited! Gene made this awesome video of me making the artwork, ‘ave a look:

Charlie and the Apple: Herzenbrecher Exhibition Berlin from Lily Mae Martin on Vimeo.

Each artist in this exhibition was given a heart made by the New English. It looked like this:

I have never used paints for porcelain that has already been glazed so I did a few tests using Marabu porcelain painters and markers. Here is what they looked like:

This is the outcome, he’s titled “Charlie and the Apple”

Opening on the 16th of March 2012, a partial amount of all sales will be given as a donation to “Ein Herz für Kinder”.

A special thank you to my dear friend Mijo for letting me use his music for the video. You can hear more of his tunes here: Mijo Biscan

Here are some paintings I have been working on this week.

Christian, 1 & 2 layers, oil on canvas.

Elena, 1 & 2 layers, oil on canvas.

Lucy, 1 & 2 layers, oil on canvas.

Last week I was interviewed by Platinum Cheese‘s Stephanie Chefas for Hi-Fructose magazine, you can read it here: Interview
I was asked some insightful questions and I am really proud of the whole outcome, thank you Stephanie!!

This is the flyer for the group show I have a piece in, opening on February the 25th at Cella Gallery in North Hollywood, titled Femme Fatale, curated by Nicole Bruckman & Stephanie Chefas, the image on the flyer is by artist Gail Potocki, who is just fucking amazing. Her website is here: Gail Potocki
The artist line up for the show is as follows:
Aaron Nagel, Apricot Mantle, Anna Chung, Aunia Kahn, Casey Weldon, Cate Rangel, Charles Ketcham, Chris Peters, Christopher Umana, Cristina Natsuko Paulos, Crystal Chan, David Bray, Dave MacDowell, Delphia, Douglas Alvarez, Edith Lebeau, Gail Potocki (shown above), Jason Rudulph Pena, JAW Cooper, Jeff Ramirez, Jessica Ward, JoKa, Jose Carabes, Ken Garduno, Korin Faught, Kris Moore, L.Croskey, Lily Mae Martin, Linnea Strid, Morgan Slade, Nicole Bruckman, Nom Kinnear King, Paul Chatem, Roman Cho, Sara Haase, Sarah Folkman, Stella Im Hultberg, Ted von Heiland and THH70.

The piece I am showing is “I am, I am, I am”.

‘Femme Fatale’ opens Saturday, February 25th from 7-11pm, at Cella Gallery. To request a VIP preview, please email stephanie@platinumcheese.com.

Saturday, February 25th 7-11pm
Cella Gallery
11135 Weddington St.
North Hollywood, CA 91601

Here are a few new paintings that I haven’t had a chance to digitalize- until today!

Alice is 100 x 80cm oil on canvas, like the Magdalena painting I did a few months back- I’m really into the hair.

Lilly- warm

Lilly- cold

These are little paintings, 50 x 40cm, oil on canvas. I did these in a matter of hours, they are more immediate than any of my other paintings, sort of letting loose and making impressions rather than building up layers and layers and refining everything. I really enjoyed these and hope to do a few more like this using some other amazing ladies I know.

Here is another smaller painting I started today- Christian, 50 x 40cm, oil on canvas. Off to a really good start with this one, successful undercoats always make me feel happy.

I painted very briefly the other day, I am working on a large one that I am still unsure about, and this one. I snapped this as I really enjoy paintings at this stage, I may play around with this sort of layering in future.

I did this last night in about 10 minutes. It’s for Berlin Domestic but I think she’s sweet and thought I’d post it here too.

I’m really sick of this weather, please be spring soon- even though the ice is pretty- go away.

Well it seems I have unraveled somewhat over the last week. That’s ok, but I have to do something about it. My new years resolution was to get on top of my stress and depression, I’m inspired to do so all the more because of a few people I know who share their experiences with me and work so hard to keep a lid on it.

So I’ve been looking at everything in my life and thinking about what I do with my time, what gives me satisfaction, what stresses me out too much and I think I have a plan.

I like painting- well, I love it- but I have been pushing myself so much too hard to try and meet a deadline that a) doesn’t suit me b) is unrealistic. So I am stepping back. I’m also going to paint how I feel rather than what I think people expect, as I am slowly discovering that these expectations are all in my head. My painting seems to want to take a more impressionistic style, giving me more freedom to explore the medium, so I’m going with it.

Berlin Domestic makes me very happy. I can’t do it day to day as I originally thought I might, for a number of reasons- I still have some dark days where I can just manage bare minimums done, some nights we get no sleep, I have nothing to say to anyone, and that’s all ok. I love the freedom I have with the drawings and it has given me a voice that is actually being heard. Here are a few sketches from it recently:

This is from the post Tampons and scars are not friends, you can read it here: CLICK ME

A short and sweet entry- Window, Large Tree, you can read it here: CLICK ME

A sketch I did of my husband that day before his Birthday. This Lovely Man, you can read it here: CLICK ME

I also got inspired the other day by reading Nicola Streeten’s Billy Me & You, A memoir of grief and recovery.

It’s about the grieving process her and her husband went through after the death of their two year old son.

I think it is really amazing and inspiring that this graphic novel gave her a place to explore her feelings and communicate so many things that really do not get spoken about nor dealt with honestly enough. Even though it is an experience that I have never been through, there was also a lot in this that I could relate to which I found confronting, surprising and comforting!
Writing a graphic novel is something I have always wanted to do, and last year I made several scripts and drawings that I have now abandoned, but this has made me decide to give it another go.