11×19″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on paper
♦ Available through “JEST in Time: Phylogenesis of Clowns” Group Show at Distinction Gallery Escondido, CA, August 14, 2010.
All pieces will be auctioned off starting at $100. All profits to benefit ArtHatch. $5 donation for entry.
16×20″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on paper
♦Available $500.00 for inquires call 5037962733 or Email info@compoundgallery.com at Compound Gallery July 1st – August 1st
♦Showing at the “Pedal Power” Group Show Curated by Matt Wagner at Compound Gallery July 1st – August 1st 2010
11×14″ Graphite on paper
Model: Vicky Taylor
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
11×14″ Graphite and color pencil on paper
Model: Vicky Taylor
♦Available at The Echo, Monterey, CA TBA
♦Shown at the “Fables and Follies” group show curated by Creep Machine at The Alternative Cafe June 11th 2010
♦Available at The Echo, Monterey, CA TBA
15×20″ Graphite & color pencil on paper
♦SOLD
♦In the collection of Nicole Bruckman Los Angeles, CA
♦Shown at theGallery Meltdown June 12th -July 10th 2010
Notes:
Part of a dog themed group show, proceeds go to the Downtown Dog Rescue.
12×17″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on paper
♦SOLD
Notes:
Beautiful Grim is an art auction that is designed to help the fight against cancer by donating the proceeds to help a young woman who is battling breast cancer at the age of 25. On November 3rd, 2009, she had a bilateral mastectomy after going through 16 weeks of chemotherapy. As you can imagine it has been hard for her, not only mentally and physically, but financially. The remaining funds will go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, chosen by the contributing artists. Over 200 artists from across the world have banded together to help bring this idea to fruition. Professionals from the top of their field hail from industry giants like Pixar, Disney, Blizzard, Dreamworks, EA, Rockstar, Bioware, Blue Sky, Blur, and Massive Black to name a few. The theme for the event is “Beautiful Grim,” a concept that has been left open to the artists’ interpretation. Be sure to visit the official site, beautifulgrim.org, for more information.
6×8″ graphite, color pencil & acrylic on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
10×10″ Graphite & color pencil on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
16×20″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on board
♦Featured on the “Small Wall” at The Hive Gallery & Studios Los Angeles, CA February 2010
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
This series of drawings are depictions of eating disorders as Goddesses, this one is the Goddess of all disordered eating.
Custom Framed, created by Rick Hilgner, Apricot Mantle and Jessica Ward
10×10″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on board
♦SOLD
♦Featured on the “Small Wall” at The Hive Gallery & Studios Los Angeles, CA February 2010
Notes:
This series of drawings are depictions of eating disorders as Goddesses, this one is the Goddess Anorexia Nervosa.
9×14″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on board
♦Featured on the “Small Wall” at The Hive Gallery & Studios Los Angeles, CA February 2010
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
This series of drawings are depictions of eating disorders as Goddesses, this one is the Goddess of Bulimia Nervosa.
9×12″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on board
♦Featured on the “Small Wall” at The Hive Gallery & Studios Los Angeles, CA February 2010
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
This series of drawings are depictions of eating disorders as Goddesses, this one is the Goddess of Binge Eating Disorder.
11×14″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on board
♦Featured on the “Small Wall” at The Hive Gallery & Studios Los Angeles, CA February 2010
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
This series of drawings are depictions of eating disorders as Goddesses, this one is the Goddess of Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
6×8″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on board
♦SOLD
♦Featured on the “Small Wall” at The Hive Gallery & Studios Los Angeles, CA February 2010
Notes:
This series of drawings are depictions of eating disorders as Goddesses, this one is the Goddess of Compulsive Overeating.
4×6″
Graphite on paper
♦SOLD
♦In the collection of Shawn Batten-Lukather
♦Shown in “Everything but the Kitsch N’ Sync” at La Luz de Jesus Gallery Hollywood CA, March 2010
Notes:
Preoccupation with one’s own body.
8×10″ Graphite and color pencil on paper
♦SOLD
♦In the collection of Shawn Batten-Lukather
♦Shown in “Everything but the Kitsch N’ Sync” at La Luz de Jesus Gallery Hollywood CA, March 2010
Notes:
“Cattus Praecipio of Nex” is Latin for the cat warns of death. The cats in my drawings usually represent a protector or witness. However when in skeleton form they serve as a memento mori. Reminding one of their own mortality. Many women come very close to death while suffering from Anorexia.
11×14″ Graphite & color pencil on paper
♦SOLD
♦In the collection of Dan Barry Austin, TX
16×20″ Graphite and color pencil on board, Custom framed
♦Shown in “Alice in Wonderland” at The Hive Gallery & Studios Los Angeles, CA March 2010
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
Caterpillars are eating machines. Binge eating is a pattern of disordered eating which consists of episodes of uncontrollable eating. Right from birth the caterpillar seeks out food and feeds for a large part of their lives. In parallel, Binge eaters eat rapidly and until they are uncomfortably full. Large amounts of food are consumed by both the caterpillar and binger, even when not physically hungry. Bingers eat alone out of embarrassment at the quantity of food being eaten, caterpillars often eat at night to avoid detection form predators.
8×10″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on paper
♦SOLD
♦In the collection of Kelly Thompson Los Angeles, CA
♦Shown in “Six Legged Freaks” at Cactus Gallery, Eagle Rock, CA April 2010
4×4″
Graphite and colored pencil on paper
♦Shown in “Six Legged Freaks” at Cactus Gallery, Eagle Rock, CA April 2010
♦Available at Cactus Gallery for inquires please E-mail: semastroianni70@yahoo.com or call: 323.256.6117
Notes:
I have always found moths to be beautiful and relaxing even though I have a slight phobia towards all other bugs. Moths are often viewed as a pests, some symbols associated with the moth are eating, ugliness, negativity and death. I view moths as a symbol of eating fetishes. Moths have unique feeding habits that may seem frightening to some. In fact, many full grown moths do not eat at all nor do they have mouths.
5×7″ Graphite and color pencil on paper
♦Shown in “B3 Video Game Themed Group Show” June 5th – 26th at The Hive Gallery, Los Angeles CA.
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
Inspired by Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly for “B3 Video Game Themed Show” at the Hive Gallery.
6×6″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on board
♦Shown at The Hive Gallery & Studios May 2010
♦In the collection of Buddy Nestor Delanco, NJ
6×6″ Graphite & color pencil on board
♦Shown at The Hive Gallery & Studios May 2010
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
8×10″ Grpahite on paper
♦Shown in “Everything but the Kitsch N’ Sync” at La Luz de Jesus Gallery Hollywood CA, March 2010
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
When the Mirror Lies.
11×14 Graphite and color pencil on paper
♦SOLD
♦In the collection of Joe Almeida Studio City, CA
♦Shown in “Tarot Hive” at The Hive Gallery & Studios in Los Angeles, CA October 2009.
8×10″ Graphite & color pencil on paper.
♦Shown in the “Denizens of Hiveland” The Hive Gallery & Studios, Los Angeles, CA April 2010
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
My avatar, as part of the five year Anniversary group themed “Denizens of Hiveland” show.
Avatar name: Cheveux the Coiffure Arachnid
Hiveland Region: Dark Lands
Hive Land Attributes:
Honey Power (HP) = Hit points 20
Dance Moves (DM) = Charisma 20
Pollen Processing (PP) = Wisdom 20
Wing Potential (WP) = Dexterity 20
Sting Power (SP) = Strength 10
Exoskeleton (EX) = Armor Strength 10
Summary:
A solitaire spider like creature that inhabits the Dark Lands of Hiveland. Very alluring and beautiful she will beckon you in into her lair deep within the honey comb pits. Very quickly she will attack with her many agile legs and wrap you into a hair cocoon. Many brave warriors have become a meal when venturing into her hair nest.
9×7″ Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
This piece is about a Symbiotic relationship. A long term interaction between different biological species a cat and a human. I wanted to convey a maternal and intimate feel to it.
5×7″
Graphite & mixed media on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
“We turn skeletons into goddesses and look to them as though they might teach us how not to need.” – Marya Hornbacher, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia 1998
5×7″ Graphite & mixed media on paper
♦In the collection of Liliana Feliciano Silver Lake, CA
♦SOLD
♦Displayed in the group show at the Hive Gallery & Studios in Los Angeles, CA August 2009
Notes:
Regressive fantasies. Regression is a form of retreat, going back to a time when the person felt safer and where the stresses in question were not known, or where an all-powerful parent would take them away.
4×6″ Graphite & mixed media on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
8×8″
Graphite & mixed media on paper
Framed
♦Shown in “Bee-rotica 2? themed group show at The Hive Gallery & Studios in Los Angeles July 2009.
♦Published in the book “Max and the Siamese Twins” by Max Stout 2009
♦Shown in the “Feminality Art Show” at Art Basel Miami, Florida December 2009
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
5×7″ Graphite on paper
♦Featured on the Girls Drawing Girls online gallery 2009
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
It’s never good enough.
5×5″ Graphite & mixed media on paper
♦Displayed in the group show at The Hive Gallery & Studios in Los Angeles, CA September 2009
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
The apple is a very rich symbol with ties to temptation, immortality and youth. In this picture however the apple is represented as a core. The forbidden fruit has been eaten, representing an unnatural relationship with food and health.
5×5″ Graphite and color pencil on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
The neck separates the head (cognition) from the body (drives and needs) long neck is desire for more separation.
5×5″
Graphite & mixed on paper
Model: Llana Barron
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
Obsession with an empty stomach.
2×3″ Graphite on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
5×7″
Graphite & mixed media on embossed paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
5×5″
graphite and color pencil on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
last one of the small pink series. Force Fed is about the struggle with feelings of guilt, disgust, and depression from binge eating. The desparation to stop, but feeling like you can’t.
4×6″ Grpahite and color pencil on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
This piece is about cronic back pain.
5×7?
Graphite & mixed on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
In a Freudian view, regressive behaviors, like an
oral fixation, can lead to increase over-eating, being overly talkative, smoking addictions and alcoholism.
5×7″
Graphite & mixed media on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
Inspired by the HTP test used in child psychology.
6×8″
Graphite & mixed media on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Collaboration with Apricot Mantle. My half on the left, graphite, color pencil and acrylic. His half on the right, color pencil. Custom toy adorned with Swarovski crystals and gold leaf.
♦Shown in “Price-Less/King Bee Toy” at The Hive Gallery & Studios Los Angeles CA, December 2009
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Can in the front:
“amputé dessiné par contorsion”
Graphite on paper
6×8?
Can on the right:
“Hair Mastication”
Graphite on paper
6×8″
Can on left:
“Feline Cannibalism”
Graphite on paper
6×8?
♦Shown at Crewest Gallery “CANceptual [v.3]” Los Angeles, CA May 2009
♦These original pieces are available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Buy a Print!
Graphite pencil & water color on a porcelain skull made by Gregg Stone
♦Shown in “Top of the Dome VI” Los Angeles CA, November 2009
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
Celebrating Dia De Los Muertos
Graphite pencil on a porcelain skull made by Gregg Stone
♦Shown at Crewest Gallery “Top of the Dome V” Los Angeles CA, 2008
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
10×10″ Graphite, color pencil and water color on paper
♦SOLD
♦Shown at Stoked Mentoring’s fundraiser auction, “Stoked Sessions I Love LA” show at Upper Playground Los Angeles, CA May 2009
6×8″ Graphite & color pencil on paper
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
For a contest held by Arc Light Theater of Hollywood “Where the Wild things are” Click here!
40 x 32? Graphite, color pencil and chalk pastel on on archival board
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
The Enabler is about bulimia specifically. The girl with the long neck is depicted as how she feels on the inside, like a monster. She is ashamed to have even her cat witness her grotesque behavior. The girl on the bottom embodies the sometimes friend that accompanies you on your journey through bulimia, an enabler. Allot of times girls will enable each others eating disorders, often creating pacts. The girl sitting on the head captures the empty feelings which often follows a purge. To further emphasize the detachment of body and mind, she is sitting on her head, which is a common feeling in eating disordered people. The reason why I chose a Japanese girl is because Japan and America have statistically the highest amount of eating disorders in the world.
Just click on the image to view the piece in detail using my new Flash Zoom!
Zoom View
32 x 40″ Graphite, color pencil and water color
on archival board
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
Self Erosion is a look inside a twisted since of logic. A quote from Mary Hornbacher’s book Wasted: a Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia says it best: “And so I went through the looking glass, stepped into the netherworld, where up is down and food is greed, where convex mirrors cover the walls, where death is honor and flesh is weak. It is ever so easy to go. Harder to find your way back.”
In the trees there are tools and symbols that are often used to help on your journey like rubber bands, tooth brushes, crackers and lemons. She is waiting so long that hair has covered the ground. She is waiting for that goal that number that will make her perfect and complete. The trees are barren and empty like the figure, so empty hair is coming out of her mouth.
32 x 40″ Graphite, color pencil and water color
on archival board
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
No matter what, the baggage your burden, it’s dead weight you must lug everywhere. The city scape gives a feeling of it all being on public display. What is in the bag? vomit, shit, waste. You can try to evacuate it from your body but you can’t escape the emotional toll it takes on you in return.
32 x 40″ Graphite, color pencil and water color
on archival board
Custom framed by a Master carpenter Douglas-fir wood, stained pale pink
♦Shown at Supreme Trading/False Aristocracy’s “To Make a Nightmare” & “The Nightmare: Masquerade”August – September 2008 Brooklyn, NY
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
40 x 32″ Graphite, color pencil and water color
on archival board
Custom framed by a Master carpenter Douglas-fir wood, stained pale pink
♦Shown in a Duo at Dalessio Gallery in Los Angeles, CA August-September 2008
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
Cat Ride is about regressive behavior. The background is intended to look like a child’s coloring book. Regression involves taking the position of a child in some problematic situation, rather than acting in a more adult way.
32 x 40″ Graphite, color pencil, chalk pastel and water color
on archival board
Custom framed, by a master carpenter Douglas-fir wood, stained pale pink
♦Shown in a Duo at Dalessio Gallery in Los Angeles, CA August-September 2008
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
Cupcakes is about feeling humiliated and ashamed.
40 x 32″ Graphite, color pencil and water color
on archival board
Custom framed by a Master carpenter Douglas-fir wood, stained pale pink
♦Shown in a Duo at Dalessio Gallery in Los Angeles, CA August-September 2008
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
Notes:
Amputated limbs and hair cuts/loss are my symbols for a loss of control. Hair is valued as a means of protection, camouflage, power, virility. For example in the story of Samson and Delilah, Delilah cut Samson’s long hair he lost his power. With an eating disorder, a person feels they can at least gain some control in their lives by controlling what they eat. But they are actually being controlled by the disorder, not the other way around. You find your life has been wrapped around food, body image, and you are actually a prisoner to your disorder.
40 x 32″ Graphite, color pencil and water color
on archival board
♦Shown in a Duo at Dalessio Gallery in Los Angeles, CA August-September 2008
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
40 x 32 Graphite, color pencil and water color
on archival board
♦Shown in a Duo at Dalessio Gallery in Los Angeles, CA August-September 2008
♦The original piece is available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
“The Bully” 12×12″
Graphite on embossed paper
“Holes” 12×12″
Graphite on embossed paper
Collection of 4×6″ drawings done in graphite or ink on paper 2005-2006
From left to right:
“Monster” “Wishes” “I’m only seven” “Weighing” “Scale” “Watcher” “Twisted” “Thinking of you” “Voices” “Worm”
♦All of these original pieces are available to be purchased, please contact me for pricing.
“The Contortionist”
“The Escape Artist”
“The Sword Eater”
“The Fat Lady”
“The Human Skeleton”
“The Siamese Twins”
“The Half Woman”
“Spiral of Rituals” Senior Thesis
Installation of free standing cut-outs, life size graphite drawings on paper 2005
Artist Statement for “Spiral of Rituals” Installation 2005
This body of work is a series of life-sized drawings. They are done on paper with graphite pencils, which are then turned into cutouts that are freestanding from the wall. The subjects are mannequin like, abject women who are drawn as if they are monsters or freaks being displayed on a stage or in a circus sideshow. There is a voyeuristic element to the work because they are torturing themselves on display and we are allowed to watch. The figures are watching the viewers watch them and therefore are in control of the situations they have placed themselves in. At the same time there are no sexual organs on the female creatures and there are allusions to self-inflicted eating disorders as well. These are two different ideas merged together to address the issue of often hidden neuroses.
Distorted and contorted bodies are an important part of my work. They represent the internal struggle that is twisting and pulling in impossible directions. The drawings are a way of visually representing the sense of an uncomfortable and disturbing presence. Eating disorders and the women who house them are similar to how the world perceives and often times idolizes freaks. We are surrounded by images everywhere of idealized females totally devoid of any humanity, and they are fetishized. I place symbols in my drawings that embellish these themes of fetishes with eating and the body, like hair. Obsession surrounds the simple task of eating, how much is eaten, digestion, and how the intake is purged. The purging process becomes a fascination with many gratifications.
My work deals with the abject body, female figures that are grotesque or incomplete. My skills with the pencil draw the viewer in through technical virtuosity. I seduce the viewer to examine the work, and upon further inspection they realize that they are looking at something disturbing. I hope to evoke a negative aesthetic response from people. To achieve this goal I render images that create connection and rejection, repulsion and attraction.