KATIE HALL ILLUSTRATION

2011-12-14T19:52:00.000-08:00

2011-12-14T18:16:00.000-08:00

2011-12-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

2011-09-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

busker from europe trip

2011-09-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

2011-08-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

2011-08-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web." -- Pablo Picasso

2011-06-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

2011-06-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

2011-06-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

"Art is the definition of sanity. It is the definition of self-realization."

- Louise Bourgeois

2011-06-14T21:19:00.001-07:00

2011-06-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

I accept Time absolutely.
It alone is without flaw,
It alone rounds and completes all,
That mystic baffling wonder.

-Walt Whitman

2011-05-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is one of first experiments with using encaustic mediums. I used beeswax mixed with damar resin and then red, green, blue, yellow and white encaustic paints, also pencil. It was really fun mixing the colored wax on the hotplate. Each stroke of the brush is a bit tedious as the wax cools very quickly. So you have to be pretty deliberate with your mark making. There can't be too much hesitation as to where your brush will go and if it will be the right color. I like the inconsistency of it. In some ways, it could be argued to be a bit stifling but I think I feel a lot of freedom in the fact that it somewhat takes the pressure off right/wrong, more rigid ways looking at the act of painting. It is difficult and you have to kind of back off sometimes and let it do it's thing a little and just be there.

This was taken just using my Iphone. I hope to get a better image up soon.

Tom Cruise and fungus

2011-05-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

This was inspired by a friend's drawing that I liked(http://www.jheuer.com) I didn't plan on doing a drawing like this but I was listening to NPR and heard the word fungi, which was pronounced fun(ji). This annoyed me because I always pronounce it fun(gi)and sometimes word pronunciations just annoy me. This one stuck out and kept saying fungi in my head and then I pictured a fun guy, and of course no one is as fun and fungi-like as Tom Cruise, so there we are. That was the glorious conception.

2011-05-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

My short time in Africa was an extremely meaningful experience to me on many different levels. The pictures I took do not capture it as I'd like but I do plan to do a series of sketches and paintings from the reference and from memory. My mom and I were there in Senegal to visit my sister in her small village she is working in for the Peace Corps. When we both returned from the trip and were back home, we were still sort of mesmerized by all we had been exposed to and learned from the travel. We talked about how our society is focused around "what you do" and the focus is based less on "who you are". In our culture for the most part, if you have that part of your life set into place, the career or the achievements, then you have it made. You are "okay". You are defined. You have an identity. It wasn't like that in Africa at all. They all did the same chores everyday together. They worked all day to prepare food, garden, clean. Life is simpler. The people of the village do not compare their lives or life accomplishments to other's lives. Everyone just lives. My mom and I were talking about how it's not as much appreciated in our Western culture, to worry about how you treat people each day but more about all that you do in a day. This is so ingrained in our fast-paced, "time is money" system. Needless to say, being aware of this difference was quite refreshing.

2011-05-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

2011-05-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

2011-04-09T12:53:00.000-07:00

2011-03-30T21:35:00.001-07:00

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.

Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

-lyrics from Anthem by Leonard Cohen

2011-03-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

2011-03-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

2011-03-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

2011-03-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

2011-03-10T08:23:00.001-08:00

"The artist expresses things grownups are afraid to admit." - Louise Bourgeois

2011-01-26T10:33:00.000-08:00

"All I can do will only ever be a faint image of what I see and my success will always be less than my failure or perhaps equal to my failure. I don't know if I work in order to do something, or in order to know why I can't do what I want to do." -Alberto Giacometti

I did these little paintings in the dark one night at one of my last studio hangout sessions a while ago. It was an odd night. They were mostly musicians, artists, happy, lively and all I wanted to do was crudely draw them on the floor. Since I made these, the people I drew have all changed in a lot of ways, to me, a haunting reminder of the transient nature of things. That's what I like about making art because it has in it the energy of that unique moment in time that will never be again. I put these up on here to help me think more about why I make art in the first place. I think looking at those moments make me sad because the moment has sort of died but in this new moment I'm experiencing now when I look at them, it's still real and alive in a different way, I suppose.

2011-01-07T08:17:00.000-08:00

Bleary Eyed, Half awake.
I look for those who mean to sleep.

Push Push, Move Along,
Come on New York, Sing your Song.

Bound to ground. Hold steady your chain.

They know where we're going,
but they won't play our game.

2010-12-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

"What I am seeking is not the real and not the unreal but rather the unconscious, the mystery of the instinctive in the human race" - Amedeo Modigliani

2010-10-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

"While I drew, and wept along with the terrified children I was drawing, I really felt the burden I am bearing. I felt that I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate. It is my duty to voice the sufferings of humankind, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain-high. This is my task, but it is not an easy one to fulfill." -Kathe Kollwitz 1920

2010-10-12T10:38:00.000-07:00

A man should learn to detect...that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within...Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; and they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

2010-09-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn

2010-09-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

"Most of my conscious efforts have ended in embarrassing failure..." Ingmar Bergman

Brooklyn

2010-09-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

2010-09-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

new york

2010-09-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

2010-09-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Barnabus Browning
Was scared of drowning,
So he never would swim
Or get into a boat
Or take a bath
Or cross a moat.
He was just sad day and night
With his door locked tight
And the windows nailed down,
Shaking with fear
That a wave might appear,
And cried so many tears
That they filled up the room
And he drowned.

Fear by Shell Silverstein

2010-09-07T23:03:00.001-07:00

“Anyone could ramble on and leave big spaces between the words, but the trick was to come up with convincing arguments to prove the necessity of talking.”

– June 21, 1942 from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

2010-09-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

This is a recent commission I created for a bride and groom and they're wedding party. The style was inspired by scenic Maxfield Parrish paintings, Where the wild things, and Peter Pan.

2010-09-05T23:31:00.000-07:00

2010-09-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

2010-08-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

"I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum. I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all, and an art given the chance of having a starting point at zero. I am for an art that embroils itself with everyday crap and still comes out on top. I am for an art that imitates the human, that is comic, if necessary, or violent, or whatever is necessary. I am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid like life itself" - Elizabeth Murray

2010-08-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

2010-08-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

2010-08-02T12:59:00.001-07:00

I should be thankful I am employed and, yes I am, but it's damn near impossible, not to let the staggering emptiness of a job, which requires one to simply stand, smile, and stare at (for the most part) wealthy, spoiled, pretentious folks eating their delectable dinners with complete denial of the world around them, absolutely drive that one out of their head and to the nearest looney bin. It does, although, allow for the mind to wonder but not always to interesting curious places, sometimes places that no mind would want another mind to have to endure. With that being said, I stand and stand and think and think, and the uttering suffering of it all has brought me back around to, you guessed it, these little drawings I post. I've been posting them lately and I have to say, I really like them. I like that they are dumb and are nothing. I use whatever materials I can scavenge around the podium at my hostess perch, little writing pads, post-its to draw on, bic pens, colored pens, sharpies, highlighters, white out, tape, etc. Not only is the time passed at a more frequent pace, but my mind is rescued from the utter depths of what I imagine purgatory to be. I simply draw. I'm not really thinking. I'm letting whatever the pen demands and I just follow along. It's interesting for me to look at the collection of drawings at the end of the shift and often notice how some of the gut wrenching emotions I experienced throughout the night, do seem to read onto the paper. In the past, I've said and really tried to believe how art can be therapeutic in the process alone, but, honestly I never really understood it until the drawings started popping out and I could breathe again. In terms of form, the drawings are simply made but have somewhat allowed me to look into myself, (as I am apparently soul searching), in a more complex way, revealing certain symbols and subconscious images that I am trying to relate to consciously. I don't normally write on this blog and I feel a bit strange about it, as if I'm just talking out loud to myself in a crazy sort of way, which I probably am, but I really just felt like explaining, which I don't normally feel like doing. So I followed along with the rarity of the moment, despite my inescapable run-on sentences and overall ill-fated attempt to write well. thanks for listening?

2010-08-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

2010-08-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

2010-08-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

2010-07-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

"Of comedy, one could say that the mask signifies art and behind it, hides man." Paul Klee

2010-06-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

My work will be displayed over the next few months in the exhibit, "Found on Governor's Island" at you guessed it, Governor's Island. Come check it out! There will be a small opening July 4th throughout the day as well as a closing show on August 1. Otherwise, the works are up for viewing on the amazing Pallet City Project all summer!

Go out and Play
Found wood cabinet, acrylic paint, oil paint, found sheet metal, wire

There are nearly 8 million people that live in New York City all working hard, pursuing dreams or simply just getting by. It is easy to get caught up in the rush and chaos that comes from living in such a populated and competitive environment. Governor’s Island is a part of this city and only a short ferry ride from Manhattan, and yet it has this way of transporting New Yorkers almost to another world. It is definitely an island of escape from the hustle and bustle, which quickly becomes simply a distant view across the water.

For this Brooklyn Utopias show, I am using found materials to show how I see Governor’s Island as this escape to a more care-free world. This world is somewhat utopian in that people are less concerned with the daily grind and more creative, fun, and almost childlike when they are experiencing the island. Sometimes, I think there is a need in us all to run away to “Never-Never Land” and leave grown up reality behind for a while. As kids, we drew with crayons and played, made messes. As adults, we're trained this is not okay anymore but what I’m trying to say, with this piece, is that it is, and I think Governor's Island is promoting the same idea, that playing is okay and even important for us as a community to connect with each other.

There are so many of us sharing the same small city and under our harder, sometimes more jaded exteriors, we as adults, are pretty much simply excitable and vulnerable children. Opening the small door in this old found cabinet, my piece allows the viewer to enter a playful environment not completely foreign to the reality of the real world but still very much capturing a certain childlike innocence. The pillow fight paintings painted on found, rusted, sheet metal dangle down and are blown against each other when the door is opened, making the sound of chimes in the wind. This sound has always been very soothing to me and reminiscent of playing outside when I was a kid. We all had pillow fights as kids and I say why not as adults too? The more we allow ourselves to let out our frustrations and become less separated from our inner child nature, the happier us as, New Yorkers will be.

2010-05-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

"The new artist is and must at all costs be himself he must be a creator he must build foundation himself without reference to the past to tradition. Then he is a new artist." - Egon Shiele

2010-05-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

2010-05-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

Fresh Start

2010-05-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

2010-04-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

"I feel that painting and drawing are the same thing. Drawing is painting with less materials." - Henri Matisse

2010-04-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

"All the same, everybody believes that the present is something, seeks out the different elements in this situation in order to compose the truth of it, the whole of it." - from Virginia Woolf "The Moment: Summer's Night"

2010-04-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

“I used to be too subjective, and I was always tempted to find my inner self in the exterior and dissipate my imagination on other people and on life.” – oscar kokoschka

2010-03-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

"a purposeless play"

"an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".

- John Cage

2010-03-22T19:40:00.001-07:00

The Object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity. -Alberto Giacometti

2010-03-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence,
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
- a portion of Desiderata by Max Ehrmann, (a poem I'm illustrating)

2010-03-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

2010-03-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

2010-02-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

2010-02-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

"Everything we cannot understand, everything we cannot grasp, either instills fear, or as in the fantastic - inspires great feats of imagination." - William Blake

2010-02-06T09:45:00.000-08:00

Playing

Jazz

2010-02-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

a little rusty but none the less keeping at it. These are from an amazing night of live jazz at 55 Bar a few nights ago. These musicians definitely take you somewhere else and you can feel the music of past legends that have performed there, almost "soaked into the walls".

2010-02-02T22:13:00.001-08:00

"Art is not about what you say; It's about these other things that you don't say" - Cai Guo Qiang

2010-01-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

2009-12-25T08:17:00.000-08:00

"the wealth of the soul exists in images" - from the Red Book

2009-11-19T20:49:00.000-08:00

“Nothing is confused except the mind.” – Rene Magritte

2009-11-09T14:12:00.001-08:00

The aesthetic properties of art, such as line, color, form, composition, organize feelings... - (Robbins, 1994)

2009-11-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

Great turn out at Brooklyn Utopias opening Brooklyn Historical Society!!

2009-10-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the show!
http://gallery.me.com/warrenchow#100285&view=mosaic&bgcolor=black&sel=0

2009-09-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

2009-09-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn Utopias?

2009-09-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

I will be showing work at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn this Thursday for the Brooklyn Utopias? exhibit:

http://brooklynutopias.com/home.html

BROOKLYN UTOPIAS?
Artists consider differing visions of an ideal Brooklyn

Utopia: An ideal place or state, usually imaginary; any visionary system of political, social, environmental, or moral perfection

What would a “Brooklyn Utopia” look like? What is the role of artists in shaping a more ideal Brooklyn?

Brooklyn Utopias? is a series of art exhibits and public programs in Fall 2009 that engages artists, youth, and community organizations in an urgent dialogue about Brooklyn’s future:

Group exhibit at The Old Stone House
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 17, 2009, 5:30-7:30pm
Exhibition Dates: September 15-October 31, 2009
Public Hours: Saturday/Sunday 11am-4pm or by appointment
Address: 5th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Public Program: “’Do it Yourself’ Utopias:” Artists and community groups consider sustainable Brooklyn Living: Thursday, October 8, 2009, 6-8pm

self portrait in one sitting

2009-08-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Swiss Sketches

2009-08-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

Subway sketches

2009-08-01T17:50:00.001-07:00

Subway Sketches

2009-08-01T17:26:00.000-07:00

2009-08-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

2009-08-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

2009-08-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

2009-06-03T10:18:00.000-07:00

2009-05-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

2009-05-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

2009-05-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

Drawathon 2009

2009-04-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

2009-04-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

2009-04-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

2009-04-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

2009-03-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

2009-01-03T18:55:00.000-08:00

2008-12-14T20:29:00.000-08:00

New things, more to come soon!

2008-11-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

Band Poster

2008-11-07T07:54:00.001-08:00

Painting Party #1

2008-09-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

Painting Party #1

2008-09-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

2008-08-05T17:31:00.001-07:00

Night time sketching

2008-07-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

Had fun sketching out in the park the other night with my studio mate; a sketchbook, a few beers, full moon, great company, what could be better! Some of these are our combined drawings with brush.

Summer drawing practice

2008-07-20T07:04:00.001-07:00

These were mostly done on the night I lost my camera, which must be said, truly sucks, but life goes on. I went and had a few glasses of wine and drew with my friend. I guess lacking a camera means I can be drawing more instead of taking pictures.

Puerto Rican Day Parade Madness

2008-06-14T16:49:00.000-07:00