Cristine Cambrea Art

Tuesday February 14th was my 31st Birthday. It was mellow just spent it with my husband and my son Kaleb. Drew had been away for 10 days on a business trip so just to have him home was a great gift. We left Vermont on a trip to Indiana and I started writing this blog in a hotel room in a little town called Rensellear. It’s a lot like where I live but flat.

I came out here to meet Michel Leah AKA the Raw Artist. She and her husband Scott are so nice. They showed us around their beautiful home and the new studio/ gallery they are making. If you haven’t seen her work you can check it out at www.therawartist.com She leant me a piece of her work to draw on tonight and I am returning it to her tomorrow. The painting below is a photo of the collaboration.

I love the hotel art contrast in the background of this photo!

Some Close Ups!!!

I LOVE Shell’s work and see so much in it and it is an honor to have my hand on it as well. We will also be interviewing her for my film tomorrow. She has purchased a few pieces of my art and part of the film will be interviews with buyers who have purchased multiple pieces and why. When we leave here we will be heading for Indianapolis I am going to try to check out IMA (Indianapolis Museum of Art) this part of trip though is really Drew’s business- so I’ll have to see if I can pull him away for half a day to do this. There is a trade show in Indy he needs to attend- you know get on the mic and do his Drew Stone thing. My hubby is a real eccentric- I tried to warn Shell before they met and I’m glad I did. I think my new rule is before anyone meets him I will throw out the warning to them -this way they will be a little prepared for what to expect. They seemed to handle it well! I read her blog and had a good laugh!! Oh and one of the biggest highlights -Shelly gave me –YES gave me some prints- she says they are bad prints (you know off color etc.) but I LOVE LOVE them- I felt like a little girl on xmas morning, I can’t wait to frame them and hang the up. So I have 2 nights left in hotels and am looking forward to spending those 2 nights working so I’ll post those completed pieces when I get home. Unfortunately as I was getting ready to meet Shelly I realized some of my supplies were missing. I probably left them on the plane! What a bummer but like everything in life it happened for a reason. We drove 45 minutes to the nearest art supply store and they were having a big sale on canvas so I stocked up on as much as I could fit into my suitcase. I also found some new liquitex supplies that I haven’t seen before- so I’m looking forward to seeing what they do and PLAYING!!!

OK I’m home now and had a full day of painting I was so inspired this weekend and have tons of new ideas. Meeting Shelly and her husband was so incredible. They are a great team! Their new studio is any artists dream! HUGE windows lots of light, and lots of room. Shelly wants all her visitors to do a piece on her wall and I was the first.

Window Art

when she asked of course my first instinct was to go to the window. My love hate relationship with windows!!! One day I will explain!

It was a little strange to mark up these bright white newly painted walls but I did my thing. I framed the window with my lines and on the bottom left corner did a small drawing-

I left one of my little spirit people there to watch over them!!! I can’t wait to visit again and do some more work together. I never did get to that gallery and aside from the collaboration piece I never painted. We were just so busy I did manage to do 4 black and white drawings. I called the collection “4 men” here is a link http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7392566953&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

We never did get to the IMA and all those canvases I bought -well my bag was over weight so I ended up having to pay extra for the extra 10 pounds it gained on my trip! Oh Well!! and lets see what else- oh I found the missing supplies- they were on my bed!

I will be finishing a piece tonight on wood. I am into wood again so there will be more coming soon. As for some other news look for my NEW links page coming soon. I have multiple artists and companies that I will be exchanging links with and the artist’s I am exchanging with are worth checking out.
Well back to work I go!!

Filed by Administrator at 1:40 am under Cristine Cambrea
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So the video is up- check it out! There are 2 versions the dreamy Mazzy Star version and our friend Garth Vader’s song. As you can see from the video I do my art everywhere. I am most inspired while moving- be it in a car, a bus, a train also super inspired when I’m in a new place. The change in energy inspires me to work. I believe at one time it was a defense mechanism. When I was young and in a strange, new or uncomfortable situation drawing was my way of being invisible. Like a child who covers there eyes and believes you can’t see them. It was my way of disappearing. I used this technique when at 17 I moved to NYC by myself. The subway was real scary for me and if I looked busy and drew I was able to pretend I was not surrounded by so many people. WOW actually I remember a very specific situation when I was 19 and lost -my first day in Venice Beach California. My boyfriend at the time (my hubby now) was shooting a skate film with his brother so I was hanging with his brother’s girlfriend and her friends. They got there skates on and I wasn’t into it. They tried to explain to me how to get to this parking lot the guys were shooting in and well I never found it. I was jet lagged and so so tired so I laid on the beach and fell asleep –in fetal position and when I awoke the right side of my body burnt and the sun was down. So the scenario is like this. Young girl dressed for the beach first time in Venice and lost. Oh and this is before cell phones! It’s getting later and later and darker and darker. I have no idea where I am just wondering around the board walk looking for a phone. Well as I’m walking some more I see a group of guys drinking and being loud I sit on a bench so I wouldn’t have to walk past them. I saw them see me and I was scared so I opened up my book and started drawing on top of a painting I did of mountains. I did this just to look busy and had no idea what I was doing but I knew from city living to just look busy and pay no mind to anyone and whatever you do don’t look scared and vulnerable. I didn’t realize it at the time but in that moment I had discovered the technique that would carry me until this day. Before that I would draw very detailed almost psychedelic worlds and I when I painted it was very dreamy watery paintings. That night I could care less what I was drawing -I was just trying to be calm and figure out how I was going to get back to Drew. Well this man approached me and said “you REALLY shouldn’t be out here right now” I was quiet “are you lost?” I didn’t answer him at first and then he said “are you ok?” and I said I’m waiting for my boyfriend he’s late do you know where there’s a phone? He told me he would take me to one - against my better judgment but being desperate I got into this guys very large camouflage truck that was so high off the ground he had to help me into it. He was a very large man and I was terrified. I couldn’t believe I was getting into his big truck –this is what you absolutely NEVER do and I was not naïve to the chance I was taking but what option did I have at this point- I had no idea where I was. He drove me to this liquor store and I called information and then called Drew’s brothers house collect –oh yeah I had no money on me either. Everyone was at his house waiting for the call FOR HOURS. They were all freaking out! YOU NEVER HANG OUT ON VENICE BEACH AT NIGHT BY YOURSELF!!! Well you can’t always judge a guy by his very large camo truck because he was a total gentleman he even waited until Drew picked me up before he left. Drew went inside and bought the guy a case of beer to thank him and we went home. MY FIRST DAY/NIGHT IN VENICE!! So days later I was looking through my journal and saw this very shaky drawing on top of my painting and thought it was the coolest thing so I did more and more and well if you’ve seen my gallery pages you know this is now my style. Well I just went on my first blog tangent. This really wasn’t my intention when I started writing- I think I was trying to talk about the video that is up. Oh well- I think you all will get to know how I am in just a few entries. I want to find that piece that I did that night and post it here –I would like to see it again too. I hadn’t thought about that day in years or really until now realized how important that night ended up being in my art career. By the way we ended up living on and off between Venice, NYC and the road I sat on that Venice boardwalk many days drawing and selling my work. All of the work I have from those days are not for sale but I offer prints of them. I have one called “Venice” go to the prints page and you will see it.
Oh yes I remember now I was explaining how I like to work when I’m moving /traveling and not in my every day environment. It wasn’t just fear that had me doing art in strange places it was my lifestyle. I did a lot of traveling and moving around and I guess I just got used to it and found comfort in it. See Drew and I have done a lot of traveling together. He used to manage bands and I would often find myself having to keep busy while I waited –whether it was waiting to get to the gig or waiting for them to go on. I did a lot of work in those days. Tagging along while my boyfriend managed these temper mental knuckleheads meant spending a lot of time alone and out of the way. If you want to be the only girl or person on tour that doesn’t have a job it’s best you stay out of the way -be able to make yourself available if your needed and invisible if there are confrontations or problems and believe me a bunch of musicians living together in a cramped space –there will be confrontations and many problems they’re lucky if they’re still a band by the time the tour is over. Don’t get me wrong it was awesome seeing the world behind the windows of a packed stinky RV- builds character I believe that is a big part of how I became so comfortable working while I was moving. and if it weren’t a blast traveling with Drew I wouldn’t have done it so many times. Now 10 years later Drew films these stunt guys and again we travel to different events and I spend a lot of time traveling and waiting. Haha and these stunt crews have the same dynamics as a band. Drew and I have a laugh about it often. Now though I choose to go on these runs so I can be in a different environment, be inspired by the chaos and people around me and do my work. Now it’s like oh we’re going away- cool because I know I’ll get a lot of work done. Once it was just a coping mechanism now it’s become my preferred environment to work in. In the video you will see all of this smoke and then me drawing. It was an all day motorcycle event and they were burning off their tires because I guess that’s what you do when you are done riding- no need for tires anymore right? So that’s what the smoke is from and Drew was filming it and then found me in my safe little spot, in my own world -drawing. (Is there any question why we had to find each other again after 6 years?)

Filed by Administrator at 9:49 am under Cristine Cambrea
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