Kristy Heilenday

el topo

2012-01-17T18:21:00.001-08:00

2012-01-17T16:19:00.001-08:00

tiny tim

2012-01-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

some sketch

2012-01-17T16:17:00.001-08:00

snow bunny

2011-12-28T18:45:00.001-08:00

more on that

2011-12-28T18:44:00.000-08:00

I have an art opening!

2011-12-20T16:28:00.000-08:00

My work will be featured at Black Hand Coffee Company in January. The opening party is Jan. 5, 6-9 pm.
Come out and see some of my art stuffs, drink some tasty booze and homemade Sangria... bonus points if you bring food!

More info and RSVP here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/322463211112240/

edgar allan poe

2011-12-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

+ Miami Vice?

li'l drawering

2011-12-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

mustaches

2011-12-03T11:18:00.001-08:00

Frank N. Stein

2011-12-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

aka Wrinkles aka Wiggles aka Baby

craft + design show, artists dinner invitation

2011-11-22T12:49:00.000-08:00

illustration for nyc based beer/alcohol zine, maximum cock&tail

2011-11-17T15:17:00.000-08:00

you're weird

2011-11-13T10:18:00.001-08:00

donated to Art180's Art Karma

2011-11-13T10:16:00.000-08:00

Poor quality photo, unfortunately it's all I managed to take before I dropped off the donation. The auction is Dec. 1. More info and tickets available here: http://art180.org/events.shtml

MY REAL JOB IS HAPPENING : Craft + Design Show, Nov. 19, 20

2011-11-09T15:14:00.000-08:00

Come out to see the fruits of my out-of-studio labor next weekend at the Science Museum of Virginia! I've been coordinating this show - a huge fund-raising event for the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, now in it's 47th year - for several months now... hard to believe it's finally upon us! We'll be hosting 60 artists in a variety of media. I'm excited about the artwork we'll be bringing in; can't wait to see familiar faces and meet the new ones!
Come to get inspired, come to talk to artists, to see their work, to SHOP, or just to support your great community arts organization! Oh, or just to see me running around like a crazy person.

hint: Bring a student ID if ya have one and get a few bucks off admission.

Hope to see you all there!

skulls and figures

2011-11-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

Supersketches

2011-10-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

Quirk Gallery hosted Supersketch, their first live drawing event. My first time participating in such an event. I'd say it went well. No tears, plus I sold this fox drawing to a pretty lady!

This was a lesser successful, misguided drawing that made a few people uncomfortable (nipples--nooo!!) So I gave my model a shame-shawl (who is NOT me, by the way... sorry I obsessively give people my hair cut and color, even when it's not what the actual model has in any way. I'm working on it.)

Supersketch 10/19, 6-9 PM at Quirk Gallery

2011-10-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

I'm participating in Quirk's "Supersketch" event next Wednesday, Oct. 19. I'll be doing a drawing (or two) and at the end of the night whatever I've made will be available for sale. Should be fun!
facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=278902908805658

2011-10-12T17:31:00.003-07:00

COME OUT!

2011-09-14T17:53:00.001-07:00

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195652753836518

cartoon kristy!

2011-08-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

call for entries flyer

2011-07-19T15:20:00.000-07:00

had to bang this thing out real quick, last thing before leaving work for a week. HELLO VEGAS! may redo it upon returning buttttt hey it works!

day's design

2011-07-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

lady version

dude version

portrait sketch in oil #2

2011-07-18T11:38:00.001-07:00

heroes

2011-07-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

tonal portrait sketch in oil

2011-07-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

from life, about 2 hour sitting.

visarts open figure drawing

2011-07-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

underdone overkill aftermath

2011-07-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

2011 craft + design, call for emerging artists

2011-06-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

Apply (free) for the 2011 Craft + Design Show! New Emerging Artist section! Lots of promo for this show, good sales, discounted booth prices for emerging artists. Over 3,000 attended last year's show.

Check out visarts.org/craft-design for more information or contact me at kristyheilenday@visarts.org.

Also, if anyone's looking to bolster their design portfolio, get at me to do some poster design work asap. I'd love to do all the design but I don't really have the time to make anything decent (see above) :/

Thanks!

oh ship!

2011-06-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

oil and acrylic, 24" x 30"

Just handed off this guy to a lovely home last night. (Which means I have more free studio time, and tonsss of shoes to buy, so if anyone is interested in commissioning some new artwork... please let me know!)

It was nice doing a non-figural painting, probably the first time since the still-lifes I had to do in school. It did not suck! Well, other than working in a 95 degree studio, at least. But that part isn't over yet. Eff Richmond summers.

Here are a couple progress shots:

Also... check out a brief online artist interview featuring yours truly:
http://arthash.blogspot.com/2011/06/artist-interview-kristy-heilenday.html

much needed figure practice

2011-05-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ouch. (Don't get me wrong, it was fun doing it. Just the results were painful). Hopefully this is the start of a more consistent study of the figure. Need to look back at anatomy references... especially hands--ugh. My figures are very uninformed as of now, but hopefully I'll see some progress soon (or even a de-evolution, back to my days under Albert's instruction) now that I have a nice and willing model, as well as access to weekly drawing sessions.

Had a conversation last night about my artwork, and how it's only part of the balance of my life. I'm not devoted wholly enough (what with my full-time job, decent social life, and desire to occasionally just "chill") to get to the point where I'm actually producing the amount or quality of work that I can myself respect. Strange realization.

Do any artists like their work, though? Isn't that what "keeps you going" or something? Or is it ultimately futile-- if you can't fully commit at least, are you doomed to mediocrity? A constantly shifting but lateral movement?

I think a lot of artists hear way too much positive reinforcement, despite lack of real talent or skill. Because, sadly, there will always be someone (whether it be a nice friend or family member or an uninformed stranger) that will like or see merit in awful art, and serve to reassure these people that the fruits of their so-called creativity actually amount to anything worthwhile. So I'm sometimes wary of these words. Of course, when coming from people/artists that I really respect, they do hold great value to me. Even if it's only said because they like me as a person. FINE I'll take it!

At the end of the day I'm not sure which kind of acceptance I'd even care to achieve. Pleasing myself or my following? I just want to look at and smear around pretty colors, and look at naked people and bridges and sunsets, and hopefully that desire will someday get me to the point where I can go abroad and travel with and for my art. And maybe one day I'll be free of sin, too. HA

So, yeah... Onward!

or something like that.

But perhaps there is no need for progress to achieve happiness. Hard work, friendship, and the flow of time should cover all my bases. Right?

::End of transmission::

stopping point

2011-05-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

Familiar faces are impossible to get right. I have to essentially just give up and call it a night, instead of endlessly tweaking tiny details (that were likely just drawn poorly in original drawing). WHATEVER.... this was a good night.

weird progress

2011-05-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

coming soon......

2011-05-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

So, last minute of course, I submitted a few pieces to the Richmond Illustrator's Club Juried Show. This is the piece they chose (at least I think it is... I titled my work as I submitted it, and then promptly forgot, but this sounds about right). Stoked! I'm a lazy exhibitor. Need to work on that.
Anyway, the show opens June 3rd from 7-10pm at Ghostprint Gallery in Richmond, VA, and runs until June 25th. The preview opening is Thursday, June 2nd from 6-8pm. I hope to see everyone, ever, there.

Oh yeah, I have another piece in a show right now actually. But it's in the Dominion Gallery of the Visual Arts Center, so it feels less like recognition of talent and more like half-ass cheating. It's a screen print I made in a screen printing (go figure) class last fall. No image of the work to smear here, never scanned that one in. But here's the poster I made for the show!

The opening is this Friday, May 6th from 6-9 PM. Will be up until the end of the month. I work until 7pm so I'll be here just about that long. Enough time to soak up whatever validation I can muster from the masses. They'll be doing a drawing for a gift certificate for a printmaking workshop. Cash bar. Woop!

while waiting for things to dry...

2011-04-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

acrylic on paper, 22"x26"

new chair, affectionately

2011-04-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

space vs time

2011-04-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

blend of some digital space drawing + my photography. model: my roommate, evan

Sketchbooks!!

2011-04-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

I'm giving a talk next Monday, to an art foundation class, and again the following Tuesday at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, for Art & Coffee. Both will be focused on sketchbooks and my experience, process, inspirations, etc.

I asked my sister Katie to bring up a box of my sketchbooks that I brought home last time I moved, and sat down last night to look through them all. They span from just prior to my freshman year at VCU, to... now. Drawings, text, class notes, ramblings, photos; it's all there.

I really enjoy writing, and I tend to forget faster than a fish, so I keep a written journal (ok a diary, whatever) primarily for record keeping and also for some stream of consciousness venting. But, looking through my past sketchbooks made me realize how accurate of a record-keeping device it really is. In my journal, I write down more specifics (precise dates and times and actions, like it really matters), but in my sketchbooks, I can thumb through the pages and remember exactly where I was, the events surrounding that moment, the people I was spending time with, how I felt, etc. It's much more visceral and evocative than my words. Which is why, I suppose, I was an art major, not english!

I'll continue to methodically log my day-to-day, because I feel an almost OCD compulsion to do so, but I've come to the realization that my sketchbooks are also a valuable record of my life and artistic growth. Not to mention a sanctuary for "observation, exploration, imagination, and interpretation/design" to quote the great and influential Sterling Hundley. This realization coming just in time for my lectures on the subject. I had major speech-writers block, grounded largely in nervous fear, but a teacher at visarts, Jay Sharpe, in passing gave me some really good advice the other day that made me realize I DO have a lot to say about my art and my art within sketchbooks.

So, it's not without hesitation that I broadcast this, but anyone interested is welcome and encouraged to come to my Art & Coffee lecture at Visarts April 26th, 9:30-10:30 am.

Here's the little blurb visart.org wrote on it:

April 26: Art of the Sketchbook
Explore the art of the sketchbook with local artist Kristy Heilenday as she takes you through the vast and various ways to use your sketchbook as a means of observation, exploration, and imagination. Don’t forget to bring your sketchbook!

birds of prey

2011-04-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

a couple random sketchbook pages...

2011-04-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

found!

2011-03-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

Found this figure drawing on the Communication Arts website (via googling my name, hah). It's from Albert Epshteyn's Advanced Figure Drawing class last spring. I forgot the drawing with the CA department, looks like they've made better use of it than I would've, though! Head's a bit wonky, now that I see it in a more objective manner. Oh well. Wish I could take that class again!

a reminder to all, including myself

2011-03-08T06:17:00.000-08:00

quick painting/drawing with paint

2011-03-04T14:18:00.000-08:00

some fresh produce

2011-02-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

my new studio!

2011-02-24T17:08:00.000-08:00

my poster for an upcoming show

2011-02-24T09:51:00.000-08:00

colorrrs

2011-02-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

my latest screen print

2011-02-10T20:26:00.000-08:00

in the studio....

2011-02-10T20:21:00.000-08:00

This is a collaborative piece with Tyler Newbold! If you hate this one, you should see the other one... ;)

this... wasn't planned

some work for the VACR

2011-02-05T07:48:00.000-08:00

Excited about getting to do some graphic design work for the Visual Arts Center! yayy
The RAMifications sang at the Tacit gallery open last night. Pretty sweet, I must say.
Our Open House is next weekend, and I will be here, and you will love it, if you're interested!

looks good on paper

2011-01-17T19:04:00.000-08:00

Been using a bit of printed text in the sketchbook I just finished (and sent in, to Sketchbook Project 2011), and kind of excited about the addition. The closer I get to design elements, the better I feel. hmmm.... Perhaps ambiguous image+possibly illuminating text is my substitution for the narrative/illustrative work I was formerly seeking.

Who knows. Everything changes!!

figures

2011-01-17T18:56:00.000-08:00

ahh, I've finally found it in myself to return to figure drawing. And the only painful moment was walking in late (after work) and finding an open place to sit. Drawing the figure from life doesn't fare well under hiatus! But I'll be making it a point to stay after work every Friday from now on to get some practice in.

Come join me!!

Visual Arts Center of Richmond, 1812 W. Main St

Open Figure Drawing, 6:30-9pm every Friday

$6 (free your 4th time coming)

you get it

2010-12-07T18:39:00.000-08:00

nothing to get

sweater nest

2010-12-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

Bad scan, but no time...Donation drawing for the RVyAy show tonight, gotta go try to get there now!

lil QT

2010-11-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

gouache is new and fun for me!

(private commission)

Dr. Strangelove

2010-11-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily, I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women, women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake. But I do deny them my essence.

2010-11-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

Forgive my language.

This was like, totally inspired by the 80's movie "Valley Girl" which I watched last night. Ohhh netflix.

manipulated screen print

2010-11-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

remember that screen print from below?! this is it! but drawn/painted on.

Holiday Pop Up Art Show

2010-11-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

Check me out in Toronto!!

screen print #2

2010-11-17T17:02:00.000-08:00

Total newb at this but it's soo fun, I may not stop!

digital drawing

2010-11-17T16:58:00.000-08:00

Just found! Exercises from my digital drawing class (2008)...

camera...obscure

2010-11-17T16:57:00.000-08:00

i'm a little...

2010-11-15T12:47:00.000-08:00

dames and snakes

2010-11-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

professor bird

2010-11-08T05:53:00.000-08:00

flying dreams

2010-11-08T05:51:00.001-08:00

My first lino-cut since high school. Minus the couple v-shaped cuts I now have in my left hand, it was pretty fun!

arkitektor

2010-11-01T13:48:00.001-07:00

Not drawn from life

2010-11-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

Entwining Trees

2010-10-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Animals, Hearts, and Nebulae

2010-10-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

Older, less used sketchbook

2010-10-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

some sketch

2010-10-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

note: not supposed to be me, just a likeness of my bicycle :)

City Cats

2010-09-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

pro bono/boyfriend drawing...

places on earth...

2010-09-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Submissions to the Visual Arts Center 'Luck of the Draw' (Sept. 23)

When a Stranger Calls a Friend of a Friend

2010-08-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

Today: When A Stranger Calls A Friend Of A Friend, a group show in Toronto for which I contributed a couple of illustrations.

Exhibition runs: August 17 - 31, Tues - Sat, 12 - 4pm
Reception: August 26, 7 - 10pm
Project 165
165 Augusta Ave
Toronto, ON

- Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=108728569181960&ref=ts
- Gallery site: http://methinkspresents.org/project165

folk

2010-07-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

based on a drawing in a dream I had

Urban legend about a woman's dead cat in a box that she can't seem to get rid of...

Local urban legend of the "Richmond Vampire", first seen after the 1920's Church Hill Tunnel cave-in (it was -apparently- just an injured victim who managed to escape)

Edgar Allan Poe- depicting the idea/myth that he was a drunk and subsequently died of his alcoholism

fan mail

2010-07-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Ran out of good paper the other day but fortunately had some nice envelopes... so I went with that for a while!

portraits in B minor

2010-07-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

24x24" oil painting (still working)... better photo coming soon

when the flesh hits

2010-06-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

lady love

2010-05-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

painting for a story about an invention that records physical/internal experiences...

fiction

2010-05-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

futuristic casket

Arthur C Clarke

Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein

2010-04-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids
Grimm Fairy Tale Illustrations...

hungry wolf

justice

some of today's fruit

2010-04-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

later that day, at the park...

lovely in her bones

2010-04-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

figure study with oils

mid-way through my (unintentionally) coffee-stained drawing :/

canvas-building, with a little help from Bob Seger

sktchbk

2010-04-18T15:39:00.001-07:00

stellar smoke break

2010-03-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

Final painting and sketches for Arthur C. Clarke's "Hide and Seek"...

beardsley

2010-02-25T20:45:00.000-08:00

people and monsters

2010-02-24T22:23:00.000-08:00

n00b

2010-02-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Self portrait I started today as an exercise. (in progress, don't mind the creepy neck/shoulders)

in brief

2010-02-08T20:08:00.000-08:00

a couple oil sketches from yesterday

check out my workspace...

luddites

2010-01-23T18:42:00.000-08:00

My paternal great grandparents Mr. Hogue

Tyler; conspiracy theorist
Jon; in Philadelphia watching Jersey Shore

(Let the Right One In)
Jay Frances Moritz; deer hunter

not to be creepy. Too late!

Dinner and drinks

My transmission to space!

Best podcast

other news

2009-12-16T12:46:00.000-08:00

Christmas, brought to you by Hanukkah

blow it up

2009-12-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

I've been watching X-Files again

abduction junction

2009-12-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

in xs

2009-11-27T14:36:00.000-08:00

Father Grigory

2009-11-20T01:47:00.000-08:00

Possibly the last time I'll draw Rasputin. But probably not.

Suspiria

2009-11-20T01:29:00.000-08:00

Theater poster for horror film... (Dario Argento)

the set up

2009-11-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

In no particular order...

no social heroes

2009-11-08T09:01:00.000-08:00