BC Gouache

 This blog began as a venue upon which we could display our art, but it quickly spiraled into worldly observation once we started working more on writing the blog, and less on making art.  We have been continuing to make work however - soon enough you will see post after post of Holdfast's recent work with prominent OKC ceramicist Nicole Moan, but for now here are some pieces in gouache that Bellacozy has been working on, some of which are actually complete.
Gouache is an odd medium that I learned to use under trying circumstances, but now that I am experimenting with it in a more playful way, it is far less frightening.  Gouache acts like watercolor, in that you can return over and over again to pieces and tweak the water-soluble marks you have made.  However, it can also produce very flat, matte color.

Stump

Steam pot or tiny furnace

rabbit with ginko leaves

candy mushroom cloud

Love that Creep

 The #1 grand Teton supreme of creep is John Waters, and of course I say that in the most complimentary way.  We worship Waters, and have poured over his incredible, detailed, and hilarious films so many times it has made us sick.  Waters is a visionary, and a stupendous storyteller, and has a hand for the best creepiness out there, and to this day he has not been surpassed in his industry.

Creepy things are a mainstay in our lives.  We thrive on horror films, spooky tales from the medical industry, campy gore, and the like.  We consider ourselves to be fairly creepy in nature, and we find ourselves drawn to characters of the same ilk, fictional or not.

 Another classic brooder and creep fan is Harold, of the cult romance Harold and Maude.  Crashing funerals, driving a hearse and playing the banjo?  where do I sign?

Ever-appealing and highly adorable Aziz Ansari borders on creep to some extent in his humor.  His character Raaaaaaaandy is a creep with confidence, and in being so he is fucking hilarious, and curiously likeable.  Creepy can be so cute.

creep comic king Edward Gorey

 Our very, very, very favorite television show is Tim and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job, and it is creepy as they come, and all the better for it.  If you are into male teats gags, spit-up, spoiled meat and public access television to name a few, this is the show for you!

 A similar form of comedy can be found within the Lonely Island group - Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone.  There is little more humbling and appealing than a person willing to humiliate or insult themselves for the sake of a laugh.

Vincent Kartheiser

 The grandfather of creeper tales could well be pinned at Lolita.  Where there is a Lolita, there is a Creeper, and both are surprisingly mutually attracted to one another.

I love Woody Allen, and a large portion of why is that he is so very nebbish and lurking.  He recently amped up the creep by marrying his adopted daughter, Soon Ji.

Judah Freidlander in his signature look of beardy-hat-glasses, carefully cultivated creep look for the sake of comedic efficiency

Lady Gaga may be the grandmother of pop, but Groucho Marx is the grandfather of creepy comedians.  If ever there was a man to be mackin extensively on any lady around, you know it was Groucho.
If I was any closer to ya I'd be behind ya.
Do you deny it?

This creeper is my favorite, but unfortunately he gets pinned soley as the bad kind.  I LOVE Paul Reubens, regardless of what anyone has to say about him.  He is a comedic genius and I am thrilled to see his career continue to flourish, even after his tabloid hysteria.

BC/HF has a post in the works devoted entirely to how insanely attracted we are to Malcolm Macdowell's portrayal of Alexander DeLarge.  That is how much we adore this very sexy, very creepy man.

A lot of modern comedy embraces the creepy underdog, a character we love to see time and again.  Micheal Cera has holed himself up in mumbly creeperdom, along with Zach Galifinakis, Rainn Wilson, and many other hilarious and creepy individuals.

 

Jaes Franco is a very conventionally handsome actor - not something we dig here at BC/HF.  However, his portrayal of the goofy, stringy-haired Saul Silver in Rogen and Greenberg's cinematic gem Pineapple Express totally changed the way I thought about him, and he became all the more likeable when it was disclosed just how creepy he could be.

 A classic example of a loveable creeper boy is Edward Scissorhands.  It didn't take long for the pastel california community of the film to warm up to his mechanical hands and pasty visage.  Needless to say, the ladies were all over him like white on rice, or white on Johnny Depp's face, or anything on Johnny Depp's face.

 We can't leave out the movie that brought creepy into the main stream, nor the creeoiest character in said film, Richard O'Brian as Riff Raff in his own adaptation of Rocky Horror Picture show.  Don't think we don't get squealy about elbow sex.  As Eric Wareheim might say, "Damn, I wish he was MY brother."

I am not Jasmine, I am Aladdin

 Up in BC-HF we love us some Nicki Minaj.  A spangled, glamor-haired rap siren is just exactly what we need when we have low self esteem or a burning rage.  It only helps that she dresses to kill and isn't half bad with iambic pentameter.
Recently we caught a rare but beautiful incarnation of Nicki Minaj in one of the latest Lonely Island music videos, "The Creep" also featuring another of our all-time favorites, John Waters.
Nicki was spectacled and blazered, and anyone who knows us knows that glasses and nerd gear make our panties drop all to hell.  Nicki is of course no exception to this rule, and looks swell as fuck in big frames.
But there are so many variations to Minaj's appearance that it makes it nigh impossible to choose which one we like the best.  Kimono?  Erudite?  Monroe? Peacock hair?
In truth our approach to her is not unlike our approach to many other artists with diverse oeuvres.  Take Marcel Duchamp, for instance, the father of modernism.  His pieces on their own are breathtaking, make no mistake, but to see his work all together as a collection shows you how much of a genius he was.  I honestly feel as though this also applies to Minaj.  To be sure, there is a discrepancy between pop icons and dada icons, but at heart they are fairly similar.  They both succeed in funneling our society through an unique lens, and effectively root their images in our brains.

Minaj goes beyond what many female rap artists have in terms of self-definition.  We hear a lot of songs about being the princess or the queen, but minaj states that she is neither, she is the king.  It takes being a misogynist to a whole new level, and dig it we do.
"I am not Jasmine, I am Aladdin."

 Nicki's cultured cranium is not only home to a bevy of ideas, but also an infinite number of varied and striking hairstyles.  One which seems the most distinct is basically her own creation.  A veritable Nicki Minaj Swooping Bob, it is bi-level but in no way mullet-like.

 In spite of being in the throes of media saturation, Nicki has managed to continue to develop and grow rather than streamline herself.  Not only that, but her music is at once relate-able and polished.  Her seemingly favorite wordplay scheme offers a fresh and direct apporach to hip hop and rap while implementing highly visual similes.
i.e
"Overseas, church vatican"
"when I pull up, vroom, motorbike"
"blow steam, radiator"
etc.

 A significant portion of Minaj's appeal is the overwhelming sense of artistic flair.  At first some may only see wild and crazy hair and unconventionality, but Nicki continues to pull out all the stops in the aesthetic taste department.  Her style is very her - but at the same time unpredictable.  She has an undeniable knowledge of classical art and performance - evidenced in the beautiful ribbon and draped sets in her "Your Love" video.  In spite of the genre her music is lumped into, her visual appeal is highly diversified.