Hello friends,
I just put up a few original paintings at my etsy store, Burgerfoot Botique. Check ‘em out!
I also have a ton of handmade notebooks for sale in the Mission at Needles and Pens on 16th St in San Francisco. This is a rad little shop which features handmade goodies, self-published authors and artists, and neat gifts for your loved ones. Support your local artists!
After months of hard work, my new blog, Killer Creatives, is now up and running. Check it out at killercreatives.com
I’d like to thank everyone involved in the early development of this project, especially the first artists who let me pick their brains about their careers and aspirations. You guys are freaking awesome. This is the beginning of something I hope will inspire and galvanize creative people all over the globe.
If you know any extraordinary creatives with inspiring stories who would like to be featured on Killer Creatives, drop me a line at alisa@killercreatives.com
Thanks!
– Alisa
It’s hard to be a young creative person in a society that puts celebrity, money and marketing ahead of true talent and imagination. From childhood we’re encouraged to dream big — but once we graduate college, debt and unemployment await us. The economy has taken such a turn that only established artists and writers are able to make a living on account of their consistent fanbases. Art dealers and publishers aren’t necessarily looking for the next hot talent because taking on new blood is too risky during these hard times.
I’m working on a website to promote aspiring talent and their work. I interview both struggling and flourishing stand-out artists and explore their journeys. My goal is to encourage striving creatives with stories of success while giving them proper recognition and providing ideas to stay creative, productive and inspired.
If you are seriously pursuing a creative career and are a downright BAD-ASS, I’m looking for you. Fine artists, writers, musicians, singers, photographers, filmmakers, actors, teachers, music producers, dancers, designers, chefs, entrepreneurs – you name it.
If you are interested in being part of my project, please email me at alisadamaso@gmail.com.
I’d also appreciate it if you forwarded this message on to anyone you think might want to be involved in this. It would be a great contribution to my cause.
Thanks!
Last night I attempted to take on my current journal, which I haven’t worked on in months before last week. My latest pages consist of drawings, found items and photos I took during Ryan’s and my trip to Portland for New Year’s Eve. I put on a Basquiat documentary that was in my Netflix queue, but instead of being the background movie, it became a catalyst for me to paint again.
I’d found a big hardcover book called Native Nations a couple of years ago at a garage sale in my neighborhood before my house got foreclosed. It’s a black and white photo book that features tribes and indigenous cultures around the world over the history of photographic portraiture. It became my reference material, and while painting, when the Basquiat doc ended, I put on another documentary called Art & Copy, about the world of advertising, which was very interesting and compelling. Anywho, here is what came out after 3 and a half hours –
I’ll probably sell ‘em, since I can barely keep up with my bills. If you’re interested, hit me up!
More awesome burger art! This one’s by E.W. Thomason, who absolutely rules. Thanks to my partner-in-crime, Ryan, for finding this for me <3
It’s so bad-ass, it’s smoking a cigarette. Looks delicious, no?
"Remedy" by E.W. Thomason
For Memorial Day weekend, my parents and I rented an awesome Dodge Caravan and drove up to Vallejo to visit my eldest brother Erick, my sister-in-law Lillie, their husky-malamute Oso and our beloved Cooper, whom we put under their care since our house was foreclosed and we moved into our apartment that doesn’t allow pets.
Erick had a small gallery show with two other Vallejo artists, classic African-American cartoonist Goodie Goudeau and hip-hop comic artist Age Scott. It was held at the Umpqua Bank, which does annual community events.
Goodie was awarded with a plaque of appreciation by the city of Vallejo for his decades of influential work and also sat with attendees to draw caricatures. Age had work displayed and sold his comic booklets. Erick sold prints, sketch booklets and character trading cards, gave out D.Bot stickers and had his work on display.
Erick’s vivid character paintings were super popular. It was so awesome to see my brother’s work on a wall. He’s been doing gallery showings for years, but this is the first time I’ve finally had the chance to attend one. I’m so stoked to see my big bro doing what he loves!
When I was a kid, Erick was already in high school. We’re 7 years apart, so his interest in art made a very big impression on me at a young age. I’d see him tracing or drawing comics and cartoons, emulating his favorite artists and also getting a feel for his own work. He drew recognizable characters and then later created his own. Erick used tons of mediums, including graphite and airbrush, and then later acrylic and watercolor. Years later, when I entered high school and he was leaving home for college, he gave me his big old tackle box full of acrylic paints and brushes. I “played” with them until I got more serious about painting during my junior and senior years. Today, I continue to paint and draw for enjoyment and Erick and I love discussing artists and comics and using different mediums. He’s probably the biggest influence on my becoming an artist.
Neighborhood events like this gallery show are so awesome. It’s really important for a community to give recognition to their local artists and build upon and maintain its culture. What with the public school system pulling out right-brain stimulating programs like art and music, children will need to be exposed to the Arts in other ways. This is where their local environment comes in. Without the provision of creative outlets to inspire young people to utilize their imagination and support cultural growth, I see a desolate and monochromatic future.
To see more of Erick’s work, check out his blog –
http://erickdamaso.blogspot.com/
I’ve been meaning to put up some kind of portfolio of my work, but for some reason never got around to it. I dream of one day having a legit website with sections of my creations in each medium I use — short stories, poetry, photography, paintings, journals, short films, music, etc.
But for now, here is a Tumblog of scans from my sketchbooks and journals. If you’re on Tumblr, follow me! There’s plenty more to come.
All shirts are 40% OFF!!! We’re trying to make room for the SPRING 2011 COLLECTION, so you might want to grab an out-of-print tee before they’re all gone FOREVER! All profits go to the Creative Visions Foundation. Free shipping. You can’t beat that! Purchase with Purpose now and click the link below –
My last few posts really caught the attention of the Dan Eldon folks!
Just spoke with *THE* Kathy Eldon over the phone. I am so elated! She wants me to work with her organization, the Creative Visions Foundation, which would be such an honor.
Kathy founded the Creative Visions Foundation, which is a brilliant organization that uses the arts and media to spread awareness about a multitude of important issues. I am thrilled to start working with them soon!
Please check out CVF’s website and read about what kind of projects they’re working on. Truly amazing and inspiring stuff!
Rimelis Melisch -- Team Kyle Cognito
24 Hour Comics Day
If you came by Galaxy of Comics on October 2nd to gawk at the Tralfamadorian Zoo-style glass menagerie of comic freaks in their natural habitat, creating 24 pages of an original comic book in 24 consecutive hours, none of us artists noticed. We remained deep in our respective worlds, focused, distributing pencil and ink. Only breaks were to pee, eat, stretch or get more art supplies.
I hadn’t even heard of 24 Hour Comics Day until after I put my paintings up for consignment at the store. The owner, Warren, asked me if I wanted to be one of the local artists to participate in the event. I’d never seriously attempted writing my own comic before, and it sounded super intense, but this year I’ve been all about saying Yes, so I did. And I convinced my good friends Melanie and Richie to take on this grueling task with me.
From 10am Saturday till 8am Sunday, my team and I toiled away. The whole marathon started at 8am, but I didn’t sleep well the night before, so I unintentionally grabbed a few extra Z’s while Mel and Richie grabbed some last-minute supplies before we arrived at the shop.
The following is a semi-hourly account (the best I could recall in my rather fragile psychological state following 24 consecutive waking hours inside the world of our hero, Kyle Cognito)…
10am, our first hour – The sun rises over a buttery landscape of concrete and asphalt as we arrive to the store. There are about 8 people there already. Iron Man 2 plays in the background, but I try to ignore it because I haven’t even seen it yet; reason being, no one cared enough to take me to see it in IMAX on my birthday. We’re informed only one name gets to be on the submission, so we make one up compiled of all our names — Rimelis Melisch. We then discuss our premise, storyline and color schemes — Kyle Cognito, a middle-aged construction worker who can kind of see the future, must save a girl from getting hit by a bus and by doing so prevent a huge, fiery pile-up, or give in to his need to take a huge dump. Richie does panel lay-out, I pencil out the sketches onto Bristol sheets and then I pass them over to Mel, who inks and details. We are an assembly line.
11am, 2nd Hour – Mel and I go across the street to get coffee. Pumpkin spice frappe with an extra shot of espresso. The dude who told Warren he wanted to buy my painting actually commissions me to do a zombie Batman portrait. Gives me a hundred dollars. Elation.
1pm, 4th hour – Some dude comes by the shop, interviews everyone involved for an article for his website. I convince Warren to put on the first Iron Man.
2pm, 5th hour – Mel’s parents and brother come by and bring us Chinese take-out. AWESOME.
3pm, 6th hour – Myly stops by with her little sister and co-worker. We have 3 completed pages and a handful in production. I try one of the free Rockstar energy drinks. It tastes like a carbonated version of my absolute un-favorite flavor, cola candy, and I chug it with dread. A few hours after this I get little heart palpitations and I decide never to do that again. Someone puts on Batman the animated series. I splooge a little.
5pm, 8th Hour – It doesn’t even feel like we’ve been working on the comic for long. Breezing by. Take a break for drinks at the bar next door. The bartendress, a Welsh woman in her 50s called Cathy, take care of us. The demographic around this hour are tired, talkative, fun grey-haired men and some of their grandkids. I order a Vodka Martini with a million olives and shots of Patron for my team.
8pm , 11th Hour – My BFF Billy comes by and hangs out for a bit. I put on Star Trek via Richie’s laptop/my Netflix account. Still drunk from earlier. More people come into the shop and we get anxious and pressured. Mel found it extremely hard to concentrate, too. This is mainly because a few mentally challenged geeks came over to do an arbitrary, useless and contrived webcast, conveniently after Warren left. It’s awkward, out of place, not at all interesting, and it makes me want to kill myself. It’s like — “Hey, what you’re doing isn’t important and you shouldn’t take it seriously, so instead, listen to us, even though all we’re talking about is boring shit nobody cares about, but we’re going to broadcast it on the web, as if we have an audience. We’re not intruding are we? Just kidding, we don’t care. You’re all wasting your time, anyway. No one’s going to publish your crap. Okay, triviaaaaa tiiiiiime! Wait, why isn’t anyone listening to us or responding to our dumb jokes? Why are you all working so hard on your comics? Anyway, guys let’s do a RAFFLE for ONE, COUNT IT, ONE ticket to the Long Beach Comic Con? Just everyone, dammit, write your name on this tear of paper please for the love of god we need to get rid of this ticket. The winner is Richie, yayyyy –”
Look, nobody cares so go away and LEAVE US ALONE TO DO OUR COMIC GOD DAMMIT YOU ARE INTRUDING ON OUR SPACE AND INTERRUPTING THE GOOD GROOVE WE HAD YOU FUCKS!
Billy leaves during the podcast: “I don’t think I can contain myself any longer. I have to leave this trainwreck.”
930pm, 12th Hour – The donated communal pizza arrives. I ignore it and scribble away. The podcast is over. Mel gets an anxiety attack because of all the horrible vibes from the freak show. We leave to get air. She ponders throwing up.
10pm, 13th hour – I go back inside, back to work, overhear what people think of all this craziness, speak to some big guy who digs my paintings. In my delirium I think I hear someone saying, “It’s alllll ego-strokin’ man, it’s allllll ego strokin’” and think he’s referring to the artists toiling away. Is this real?
11 pm, 14th hour – While randoms come and go, they comment on our comic. These positive vibes fuel us and help us make our goal. Mel sings my praises to these people and never fails to mention my paintings hanging in the back of the store. I love her.
1am, 16th Hour – We are all expected to freak out by now, but it’s been quiet and everyone’s focused, toiling away. We decide to cut 6 pages to adjust to a more realistic time frame in order to complete the story, penciling and inking. Someone brings us donuts.
3am, 18th Hour – Finally finish penciling all the panels. Join Richie and Mel with inking, background and detailing. I remember to eat.
5am, 20th Hour – I finally take advantage of the 48 percent off sale and get a Walking Dead 2011 calendar literally one minute before the sale ends. Sweet. Although, I can’t stop complaining about my back pain or carpel tunnel. I get up more frequently to stretch. Not hungry. Not sleepy. Just tired and sore. Want to go home to my bed. I can’t think about wanting to eat or rest – I just want to finish this god damn thing.
8am, 22nd hour — … and 18 pages complete! We make it just on the dot, comic inked and ready and not wanting anything to do with it anymore!
***
Got home a little after 8am and knocked the fuck out. Got up again at 5 and went to dinner at the Dresden with Julianna and Steph for JuJu’s birthday 
Although, I was a bit delirious and super irratable. More than usual… Had a Black Russian and the scallops –
– and then took a little stroll to the bookstore down the street and treated myself to these books by two of my all-time heroes –
I’ll have scans of our comic up as soon as I get them. For now, it’s time to start on my next project – Zombie Batman!
