Blog love, and a big group show

I'm happy to share that I'm a featured artist this week on Artsy Shark, a great art blog. Artsy Shark does a really nice job helping artists to shine, by featuring quite a few large images and text by the artist. Here's the feature...

And, I'm one of a large group of artists helping celebrate MF Gallery's 10th anniversary at their Brooklyn, NY gallery. The show opens on June 8th. Below is more info.

Octopope in Sleeps With the Fishes!

Hello loyal blog followers, all 3 of you. I'm very happy to have a painting included in "Sleeps with the Fishes", a group show of dark nautical art at Rothick Art Haus in Anaheim. This is a show with Splendor Device, a super cool Southern California all female artist collective. The show opens this Saturday, May 11th, and runs for a month. Do check it out if you're in the area!

"Octopope" - 12" x 9" - 2013

Okay, the truth is that I've been wanting to paint an Octopus pope or priest for a long time. So I was super excited to be invited to be in this show so I could paint my scary religious mollusc!

Group show at Tasty Gallery in Seattle

I will have a  couple of new tiny paintings in a show of creature art at Tasty Gallery in Seattle. "Odd Birds" runs from May 8th - June 10th. This is the first time I've shown at this gallery that a few of my artist friends regularly show at. The new pieces are animal hybrids, something I hadn't painted in a few years, but they were requested. They were a lot of fun to do, especially as I'm working on a really somber new body of work for my solo show at Kaleid this Fall. So it was nice to get back into silly mode for a bit. Below are the paintings. If you're interested in purchasing, please contact Sheri at Tasty.

"Cat Finch" -  4 x 6 - Acrylic on wood

"Mockingcat" -  4 x 6 - Acrylic on wood

"Petroleum Paradox" group show in Fall River, MA

Hey there, my painting “American Nightmare” is in a group show, “Petroleum Paradox”, at Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, MA. This is a continuation of the same show that took place last year at Denise Bibro Fine Arts in NYC. To paraphrase juror Eleanor Heartney of Art in America, “… the thoughtful works that comprise this exhibit present questions, such as ‘How do we balance economic development, environmental protection, and geopolitical stability in an ever more precarious world? What are we willing to give up today to avoid catastrophe tomorrow? Where should we commit our resources? How should we define our social and economic priorities?’”

An online catalogue will be available on the Narrows Center website.

Here's my painting for the show, inspired by the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the destruction of indigenous peoples' land by oil companies and watching a hummer limo make a three-point turn...

"American Nightmare" - Michelle Waters - 20" x 30" acrylic on canvas

The Octopus Art Project

I'm delighted to have one of my paintings included in a wonderful coffee table art book: "Eight Arms of Inspiration - the Octopus Art Project" published by Out of Step Books. Featured in this extensive collection are: paintings, drawings, tattoos, sculptures, sketches, photographs, graffiti art, digital art, jewelry, poetry, glasswork, cloth art, pottery, bronze work, cake art, and so much more - all centered on the octopus as the inspirational and creative focus. Below is my painting that is included in the book.

"Octopussy" - Acrylic on Canvas - Michelle Waters

My latest commissions!

I've been painting for almost 30 years at this point (how did this happen?) and I've painted a lot of odd and different things. Here's a commission I just finished, and rather than explain who inspired this painting I'll leave that to the viewer's imagination. This is a portrait of the client's companion rabbit.

Here are two commissions that I finished late in 2012; the first is of the same rabbit in Victorian dress, the second is the family's female rabbit, dressed as a proper Victorian lady.

I really had a lot of fun creating all three of these paintings! And now, after painting all these rabbits, I'm on to my next subject: chickens...

SustainAbility group show in Malibu, CA

Two blog posts in one week, what's the world coming to?! I'm very happy to have a painting included in an eco art exhibit at Art for All People in Malibu (my old stomping grounds). SustainAbility opens February 4th and runs through March 20th. Art for All People is at 19562 Pacific Coast Hwy, near Las Tunas Beach. They'll be showing one of my "Homeland Security" paintings, below:

"Homeland Security 1" - 11 x 14 - acrylic on canvas

And here's the flyer for the show: