Cecilia Granata

THIS WAS FUN

2012-01-21T01:41:00.000-08:00

drawing process

2012-01-20T14:37:00.000-08:00

I was drawing a poster for a Guttermouth+Grizzly Motor OIl show in march but then Guttermouth canceled the tour, so fuck off my poster. I still liked the idea so i kept playing with it while in bed with a close friend of cholera, it's a full disaster here. Also, i will save the ink drawing and make it a tattoo flash that you might see at some point. From start to finish, here it goes: sketched and inked on crappy transparent paper. just because it was the first and only piece of paper i found (it wouldn't lay down properly, kept folding, goddamn). poorly threw some black and greys with tombo markers. photographed and imported into photoshop for colors. tranfered over the picture of a happy family (they are just pretending). added a touch of social criticism to the recipe. buon appetito

from A as A...... to O as Owl

2012-01-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

some not necessarily recent tattoos.

old fashion

2011-12-09T03:54:00.001-08:00

ciao, this is a old illustration i did for Vegan Treats Bakery a while ago...they printed it on cute pink t-shirts. and then there is a picture of the cute t-shirt spread over my cute broccoli carpet.

2011-11-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

oh wow it's full winter and i haven't updated once in months.
some new tats, i know this blog is boring.

so good!

2011-09-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

good reason to be italian.

summer update

2011-09-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

summer is over, i need a vacation.

(some of the pics are insanely bad, i'll try to get better one soon)

2011-06-26T07:03:00.001-07:00

i guess it's time to update. i wish i kept better constance and consistency on this blogflow, but i do get lazy. i get to tattoo the most random variety of subjects and styles. let's go out and play now!

catch up

2011-03-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

finding the time to update few new works...

the first is a painting I did for a female tattoo artists show....title of the show is Le Sante Peccatrici (the saint sinners), took place in Milan last week and will be now moved to Mondo Bizzarro, a gallery in Rome. If you have a chance go check it out, the opening is march 26th. http://www.mondobizzarrogallery.com/home.asp
A female Saint was assigned to each artist, my homegirl was Saint Anna, mother of the Virgin. Just like her daughter, she was blessed by the marvels of a divine pregnancy. Therefore became responsible for the breeding of what soon became the biggest mistake in human culture, Christianity, without even the benefits of an orgasm.

The rest is ink on skin and pretty much self explanatory.

APOLOGIES

2011-02-20T07:53:00.000-08:00

so I definitely understand my blog is unbearably boring and stiff.
Here are some relatively new pictures of various forms of art I produced, from now on, im gonna try be more consistent and expand the area of interest to different topics. gonna make it a deal of using my camera more and let the world participate of my story, whether it does or does not care.
working on re-styling the blog itself, gotta make it rad for the fragile eyes of the post-modern viewer.

from below:

1: 2: cd cover artwork for Grizzly Motor Oil, check them on myspace, they are just as ignorant as I dig.
3: rejected logo for a brewery in Milan, they thought it was too hardcore, i think Milan sucks hardcore.
4: Sip, Portland finally printed out t-shirts!
5 and so on.: fresh or semi fresh tattoos. I PROMISE i will try my best to get better pictures and make my career appearing professional.

On the last note, come to the Saint Sinners opening. Follow the link.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Le-Sante-Peccatrici/161972293846219

"like a miracle or a curse"
love
C.

when it colds it's my heart that shivers

2010-12-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

I LOVE WINTER!

alice in wondeland, keeps going!

2010-11-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

of Stoner Rock

2010-11-07T01:49:00.000-07:00

a poster i just did for Veracrash winter tour

malleus malleficarum

2010-11-07T01:26:00.000-07:00

i've been in quite a romantic mood lately, which in my case translates to sitting alone in complaint. it's one Thought, it occupies my insides and invites me to expose the pain. So I paint, i draw, I sink spokes deep down into soft textures, but i never cry, witches don't cry. women love to burst into tears for a Nothing, but witches don't cry, and that's a sign to recognize them, if you are in the mood for fire.

I am so cold.

double-heads fun

2010-10-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

i think you should get these.

DAMN TIME!

2010-10-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

It is about damn time for a new post.
As the fall looms on a heart that speaks tongues absurd to mosts, I find relief in the thickness of my white sheets shadow. Welcome lonesome pity, "hello darkness my old friend".
Im switching from complaint to chocolate chip muffins here, come join me.

2010-09-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

haven't been updating in a while. and i've also been pretty lazy on the verbal articulation level on here. i beg your forgiveness, will try to force myself upon a lexical improvement.for now, just a few more tattoos. im practicing with better frequency now, learning a bunch of new tricks, hopefully soon my technical skills will increase to a secure confidence.
you can now find me at Primordial Pain, Viale Abruzzi 13, Milano, come get tattooed! <3

under the skin some shapes

2010-07-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

a few more tattoos from the last days. getting better, come give me your most precious body parts.

grizzly motor oil

2010-07-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

Bi-color logo for Grizzly Motor Oil. Flip it uspidedown for a surprise. Designed for t-shirt, I also have a fully colored version that i can't find anymore. Will post it when becomes available.

yo

new half tats

2010-06-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

we semi/finished the pirate skull (gonna add some arabesque in the hat + maybe some blood squirting from the neck), and we started this beautiful skeleton with roses. I didn't even get to finish the outline because i suddenly realize both me and her were way too tired to keep going without messing up. we'll finish it next week. pretty stoked on it.
"Ouvert dessous de nos yeux tes mains plein des fleurs et de morts"

this is old

2010-06-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

hey so these are some old graphics that i never posted. they were done for Sip Portland. My friend Brian has a vegan smoothie cart in PDX and he asked me for some t-shirt design. I don't think he ever used them but here they are.
If you are ever around portland, OR, stop by Brian, say hi and get your Tropical Green up! Milkshakes for Terrorists, I think it's hilarious.

spring update

2010-05-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

hey hey
it's been interesting on a mental level. I'll post some more about these complex Philo/Psycho concerns later on.
For now: here are some pics of recent tattoos i've done + some sillly flash.
Im gonna tattoo the Love All Serve All mantra in Script in the shape of a swastika on my beautiful Amiciclista (bike buddy) Ale next week.
Im also getting myself a tribute tattoo to my dog, Tommaso.
The tattoos were all mega fun..Alessia got a butterfly during the one week she jumped in Milan and back to NY. Gianluca got a Pirate Skull, we are still working on it, need to put in the hat and skull color + some details. Elia got a book with alphabet cubes spelling Blah, which is what he does in his radio program on Gwendaline Radio...he blahs a lot.
A glove holding bloody love letters that I tattooed on my own leg last week. Still have to color the glove and the envelopes.

What else: im working on a Vegan Recipes Book, it's gonna be fully illustrated and well articulated in delight.

That's it for now.

new tatsss

2010-05-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

today i tattooed my first sailor jerry design and i was very excited about it. I am happy about the way it came out, I think I did a very delicate job with the lines and shading. I previously tattooed a rose on the other forearm of Francesco, and they look very nicely together. Francesco is super nice and always a pleasure to work with, he's super chilled and trusts me completely. He works in the Fruits&Vegetables market and brought me a huge basket of asparagus and strawberries as a tip! AWESOME, uh?
The other one is the linework for the victorian bunny riding a bike on my dear friend Meaghan. We'll finish it up in June when she'll bless the Italian shores with her lovely presence.
More to come soon!

tats on the way

2010-04-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

here are some flash. they need few corrections and then will be ready for skin transfer in the next weeks, i'll post pictures of the final result as soon as it gets done.
plus, a black rose i did few weeks ago, the picture doesn't really do it justice, it actually came out pretty cute.
boring post, i am aware, so what?

double slaughter

2010-03-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

This was done done in the name of what I called Real and later on still called Real, only to realize no matter how I called it, it was nothing but a One Way Lie.
Never trust an ex vegan by the way.

Pencil + Ink + Emotional Wreckage on paper.

(NO) FUN

2010-02-19T04:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of the ispo 2010 in munich. Chiara and I worked as tattooers at the Warriors booth. We were mega busy all the time, lots of people actually agreed to get a free Warriors logo tattoo, including some of the security dudes and a 50 years random woman who was walking by. She said she was trying to give meaning to her life and has been experiencing different things she thought she would never do. She said she went skydiving last month; apparently this month's Life-purpose Jolly was a free bat tattoo.
I got to tattoo some of the best european skateboarders and I managed to stab the cutest one (rob smith, in the pics. he got the tat on the arm joint, so it flaps when he moves the arm) with the tattoo machine, when his friend crashed drunk over the table while i was working. The ispo was giving away tons of free beers so there was a time around 5pm when everyone was absolutely wasted and impossible to deal with. We had to create human barriers around the tattoo table to avoid crashes and heavy cursing from my mouth.
Due to the high level of alcoholic intake, everyone who got tattooed was bleeding like a motherfucker, while everyone else was just bleeding from various skateboarding accidents. Why does everything I do for fun involve cuts and bruises? Is my life wrong?

warriors skateboards

2010-02-03T02:52:00.001-08:00

Pics and interview of the Warriors team on Bastard's zine.
I've done 2 deck design for them, check them out. These guys rule AND you will find me teaming up with them in Munich February 7/10 for the ISPO. I will be at their stand, dressed up as a pirate, tattooing their bat logo on random fools. Come get some, or not.
www.warriorsskateboards.com

: )

illustration

2010-01-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

i like suitcases

NEBULA-VERACRASH-LOUDNINE

2010-01-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

Semantically quoting Gustave Courbet.

New Painting: A Portrait

2010-01-13T05:58:00.000-08:00

Here's my newest work of paint, I was commissioned a portrait. When I told my friend Ashley she said it was a very unusual commission, but apparently in Italy it's pretty common to have paintings/drawings describing you/your family/ancestors.
So anyway, my roommate's mom, after giving her body in my hands for tattoo practices, she also asked me to basically trade 2 months worth of rent for a painting of her. Trade mega rules.
She wanted it "cecilia's style" but without the creepy/skull-like things. She agreed for the weird twist though. I asked topics she liked and/or liked to see painted with her, and we came up with reading books quietly and country flowers. She posed, I made the flowers into her, inspired by the Anatomy Atlas by Taschen Editions that I've been consulting obsessively.
((if any of you out there, ever wants to give me a present, go here http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/classics/all/00307/facts.atlas_of_anatomy.htm and buy or shoplift it for me))
G. wanted the book to be H.Roth "call it sleep" so i researched the first publication of the novel and echoed the cover's design. I added some tattoo-derived decorations (art nouveau marvels) around the head, crowns of rays and pearls...
Even though you are never supposed to sign a painting, like buddhist artists teach, I signed inside a coffeecup stamp that i bought in portland, OR, just because i tough it was cute and fun.
I also like that i don't have to worry about rent for the next 2 months.

xmas

2009-12-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

i made this drawing as a present for my roomate. it's all pink! bad pic, bad cropping, bad angle

alligator tat

2009-12-27T04:42:00.000-08:00

here is the crocodile tattoo i did this morning on my dear Marco. He showed up at my house at 4am after his show, asked me to feed him pasta, then passed out in a split second while i was completely awake, and finally woke up at 9am to get tattooed before departure.
He wanted a silly crocodile tattoo with sunglasses, as a tribute to the tour he just finished with Crocodiles around USA, Europe and Mexico. Originally he wanted the alligator to be wearing a sombrero and have a slice of pizza but eventually we only kept the sunglasses. I drew a bunch of flash for him but he kept saying he wanted something more stupid! I ended up stealing a crocodile from the simpson. I think it came out cute!

hey you the rock steady crew

2009-12-11T13:52:00.000-08:00

today i tattooed this on my sweet roommate/best friend Fede; we decided the subject last night and i sketched it out . then i woke her up, fed her soy yogurt with cereals and made her lay on the kitchen table for 3 hours. awesome. everyone says it feels b-boy style heheh- this is the best tattoo i've done so far, im very excited. more coming, yo!

more tattoos

2009-11-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

script + psychomystical solid geometry

NY Press -cover-

2009-10-25T05:44:00.000-07:00

they used this old illustration i had on my website, for this week's NY Press cover.
this was originally an illustration for the month of december, and that explains the christmas tattoos + star on shirt + candy cane vein shot.
i think it's for an article about heroin but i have no idea what it says about it.

all i see is tattooed

2009-10-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

YANTRA RULES!!!
grazie, leo

OH: and please, notice the physical condition he showed up to get tattooed. stabbed and bruised all over. i love my friends, they are all weird.

As Klimt beheaded

2009-10-10T00:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a new small painting, it was done for a show in Philly (this december..i'll keep you posted). The theme for such show is La Petite Mort, the Small Death, the french metaphor for Orgasm. The ideas of love and death have always been associated and the all thing charmes me. I keep saying that I don't want to paint bloody, straight forward, cruent pictures anymore but I seem not to be able to, yet. I need to get over it though, I want to be more subtle, delicate and pretty. I am too simple minded I guess. I will switch to flowers soon.
I am not sure what to write, since this picture really appears easy on a reading level. There is the beautiful beheading, often used as a device to represent the abandonement of rationality and the embrace of instincs (think of how Klimt "beheaded" his women through golden elaborate necklaces; the art purpose needs no justification because there is no reason for it to exist but pleasure); a bed of teeth, as they recurr in psychology as an oniric symbol for the same concept. In italian we also say "via il dente via il dolore" (remove the tooth, remove the pain) and I thought it conformed to the idea of painful pleasure. The woman holds a book, meaning that all this speech about leaving rational interpretation apart fails anyway, because it is the very product of an intellectual formula anyways. The book represents a mantid (known for beheading her partner after copulation), a scapegoat (a hint of anti-religion, because anything concening sex calls for it), and some random nonsense, because all this words and pictures at the end go back to mean nothing.
Her tattoo says Post-Romantica, it's self explanatory.
Acrylic on wood, thats it.

ART SHOW!!!!!! you go!!!!!

2009-07-09T22:13:00.001-07:00

tattz

2009-07-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

some more tattoo pics (terrible pics, to be accurate). i inked these a while ago but i have no photos of the newer ones. the lighthouse looks MUCH better in real life than in this shaky pic. the storming brains photo is awful, i beg your forgiveness.
the tattoo flash is about post-modernism. idols have fallen, values have been reversed, the reference is gone, time for a DIY attitude.
hire me to damage you forever.

tattoo pics -in the making-

2009-05-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

tattoo #4
tattoo #5
photos from the tattoo session. i tattooed a lovely Never Again on my friend fede. she is beautiful. we did this small cursive lettering on her hips, she was chilled the all time and said i have a nice hand : )
i'll have to go back on the grey under-shadows..i was bit shy because i was not entirely sure how to mix black with water...other than that, i think it came out nice. it has good meaning too for her so i hope it will work out!
the next one was on her friend Davide who came all the way from Torino to get tattooed by me without knowing him..how cute! he was very brave too and asked me one of the flash i drew...an evil light bulb (you know, like hairy and stuff..) with the words Mala Idea...ON HIS CHEST!!! whoa
he sat down quiet and occasionally stared at my boobs while i tattooed him. he said he liked it too ; )
it was kind of a hard one because i didn't really know how to shade the inside of the bulb but i guess i'll just go back to it later and finish it up.
more coming soon

when dreams come true

2009-05-15T04:48:00.001-07:00

so, yeah i started tattooing! i love it. the very first tattoo i made (in 10 years...i actually tattooed 2 friends 11 years ago but i guess it doesn't count) is the butterfly on my thigh. it needs to be colored..in a couple of weeks. i used 2 different needles. i took it straight it from a photo of a butterfly and transfered it on my skin so there is that natural irregularity on one wing that needs to be fixed as well, making it simmetrical. I actually drew a much better butterfly later that night so i'll get that tattooed underneath soon. i guess i was a bit impulsive and neurotic about grab the first piece of body and practice.
then i tattooed the severed tentacle on my friend. the pic is bad, i'll post better soon.
the next day i tattooed Piu' bici on my left foot. yoga helped me out a lot on this one. i was in a weird uncomfortable pose with no choices of angles for me to work from. I love yoga.
the tattoo means "more bikes" in italian. i will tattoo "meno cravatte" on the other foot next time. It means "less ties". i also have a cute drawing of a shirt collar to put above. adorable.
then there is a photo of me at the end of the first day.
tattooing is fun. im looking for people to experiment on, do you wanna play? write me.

more on the skin surface

2009-05-06T05:27:00.000-07:00

another flash sheet, im starting tattooing my own legs this weekend and wanted to go for something black&grey to start easy.
i'll do some of these designs.
bikes, yoga, activists, misfortune tellers and love stories told by dead men.

COX 18!!

2009-04-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

a poster i did for a benefit show at cox18. cox18 is an historical squat in the navigli area, milan. it always hosted amazing punk, rock'n'roll, funk and jazz shows, movie nights, art and comics happenings, lectures and shit, together with a splendid library on political issues, donated by primo moroni at his trespass. intellectuals such philp dick and hakim bey had events there.
this winter the police shut it down in one day, everyone in milan gathered and started a strong protest that went on in the streets until the squatters...took it back!
the major had plans to make that area a fancy clean boring area for people to spend money in useless shit but apparently it didn't work out. RESIST!
my friends veracrash and fuckvegas are playing, will be fun. the skeleton in the picture is our beloved mayor, miss letizia moratti shitface. she has orange hair, for real.

"The dirts gonna be your dessert
My cum be your life source
And the only way to get it
Is to suck or fuck
Or be poor and devoid
And masturbate me, masturbate me
YOU'VE GOT TO SUCK, LETIZA SUCK"

my art show

2009-04-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

a bad case of feminine mystique.

2009-04-10T04:49:00.000-07:00

here is a new painting. I understand, it's weird and different from what i usually make. but hey, what can i do?
the very first intent was to remember and recycle some of amelia's (RIP) attitude and ideas. in our first year of college she started this huge collage of porno images and then painted over it. there was some concept about feminism about the porno thing, and i though she was a genius. then she kept overpainting it and got angry and abandoned it. and i though she was funny.
i always liked that porno collage idea and wanted to replicate it. i figured out what i wanted to paint over, before i started it, so i wouldn't get angry and abandon it as well.
Im not sure I really want to talk about what's going on, because the main thing was the amelia's tribute.
i'll just say what's in there and you decide what it means.
There is a young lady nervously stretching her shirt. she has her period and I know exactly why she does so, but i won't tell you.
she is holding an evil iron, because sometimes it happens and it's hard to deal with it.
there is a burning suburban house.
there are chemtrails in the sky. I know my friend L. will complain or at least make some sort of philosophical or socio-political observation here, but he won't get me in trouble. honestly, the matter is simple. whether chemtrails are a legitimate concern or not, whether it's poison to make us bleed or herbal essences to please our senses, these trails of clouds are up in the sky now and if they are there, they can also be in my painting, because it's the only place where I can decide if I want chemtrails or not. apparently, i do.
there are porno girls sucking and licking and taking a range of bright pink cocks.
there are some dracula stamps.
maybe i'll write more about this when i figure out what the fuck i was thinking, other than Amelia.

VERACRASH

2009-03-12T17:10:00.001-07:00

ok this is funny. but only if you are italian. you can otherwise still enjoy the pink dildos. it's a random graphic for friends band, veracrash. their debut album is comin out soon and it's titled 11:11. ok so, here is the fun: the italian translation for -failure- is -fallimento- if you cut the word in 2 you have two other words (it's not meant to be that way though...it's not a composed word such as runaway). the two words you obtain are -falli- which means phalluses, and -mento- which means chin.
so i drew 4 phalluses and one chin and we noticed the phalluses also looked like 11 11, so i added the dots and now we have a double word game. i love enigmatic. go listen to veracrash now.

the city of coffins

2009-03-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

here is a new painting. like, a real one, with lots of paint everywhere especially on my face, wood panels, new brushes etc.
it was done atomic-speed, no more than one week and it's BIG. i am proud of this so let me make myself Pretty on that.
Let's see...the first idea came while i was reading a book, the tattoo artist by Jill Ciment, and the main character draws a portrait of new york made out of coffins in the place of buildings. i though it was a very smart idea and i though someone should make that drawing for real. i eventually decided that someone was me. so drew a skyline of coffins. then i really wanted some pink ocean because i think it's awesome. and clouds because really, it often storms. not in NY, just in general. and there are a lot of chemtrails too but that's for another painting.
that put me in the unfortunate position of coming to terms with myself on how to incorporate backgrounds in the making of a picture. you can easily notice, there is NEVER a background in my pieces. always blank flat tone, maybe some wallpaper if i feel creative. truth being, i don't know where to start with backgrounds because i have no perspective skills or vague idea on how to paint a tree without drawing every single leaf. but this time i tried, it's still very simple but the real character here is the setting and i've never done anything like that before. the focus was always on the action or the character or both.
i think it came out nice as a first attempt.
i also always wanted to make a painting based on Le Citta' Invisibili (the invisible cities) by calvino. i wrote down on my notebook "Despina", which is one of the cities, while i was reading it. I was in costa rica at the time and i don't even remember which one Despina is, but i think it was a city of memories and i apparenlty liked it and wanted to retain some of it when i wrote it down, so i trusted myself and didn't go read what the city looks like. but i will. being a city of memories (i hope) it marries with the all Tattoo theme from the other book. i wanted some graphic elements and i love letters so i just wrote the name of Despina in type breezing away from the coffins. I also wrote L'Absurde L'amour but I don't remember why. It still triggers good means.
The skeleton is a self-portrait, it has my tattoos and is reading The Tattoo Artist. It's the last skeleton i paint, i promise. In the book there was also the idea of getting your own coffin tattooed etc. so i thought i would put myself in my own coffin in my own painting.
I had a lot of fun drawing and painting coffins. I love doing the wood texture and you get to experiment a lot and always have to figure out different ways to get to the same effect without being boring and repetitive. I found myself with my head facing the floor from close distance at yoga and i REALLY observed the wood texture and got ideas on how to paint the last two since i had no more ideas for it. I always had a problem with the color brown, i can't ever make it work or at least i have to struggle with it a lot. it is not an opaque color but not even vibrant so it drives me inZZZZane when i try to understand it. i mixed brown with a bunch of other colors, to make all the coffins different. some with pink, baby blue, rotted green etc.
finally, in the right bottom corner, i wrote the title in a black outlined square and stamped a weird bunny head with a stamp i got in london. i am currently into japanese prints and love those graphic solutions.

i will put it in a show at limited no art gallery in milan, opening may 5th. come and check it out in person. or not.

another painting coming soon. a tribute to amelia (RIP), you'll see. there is a lot of fun going on.
love

the last one

2009-02-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

last sheet of tattoo flash that i do for now. time for a big painting on wood, it will realize as my time vacuum-cleaner. there will be a lot of coffins in it.

tattoo machine makes me wanna cry

2009-02-11T07:55:00.001-08:00

more tattoo flash and nothing to say about it. except, i wanna start tattooing, please, someone teach me.

get inked!

2009-02-02T18:21:00.001-08:00

one more sheet of tattoo designs

we are young and good looking, happy rock'roll family

2009-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Finally something new. I've been drawing a lot of tattoo flashes, given the fact that i would LOOOOOOOVE to start learning that form of art. here is my first sheet, they are all about mind control + general collapse and they are funny because there is a bunch of written messages to be only one sheet. they probably are even controversial.
doing tattoo flashes i noticed that you can apply at least two methods. one, being very realistic about how the real tattoo would be and don't add any colors or linework that would not fit on the skin. two, be a little more free and if you'll get to do the actual tattoo, you'll figure it out at the moment, changing what doesn't look right.
I've been experiencing both the perspectives, i'll post some more later.
Other than, that, been riding my beautiful new bike, ursula, breaking bones and body parts at yoga (in a good way though), serving vegan foods in a vegan food place.
A new painting is on its way. so far, only between my eyes on the inside, but soon it will take accessible way to the out world.
love

AND VOTE FOR ME!!!!

2008-11-23T00:13:00.000-08:00

Please, do it. I submitted 5 designs for a contest. Here is one, you should flip it upside down and get the creepy surprise.

www.1800tequila.com (apologies to the straightedge)

Search alphabetically in the user gallery and find my name, Cecilia Granata (You have go move the arrow on the images to see the names). I am around page 11 of the letter C but it keeps going further.
Click on the 5 stars for each piece. You can do it everyday. Thank you.

vegan treats

2008-11-22T23:58:00.000-08:00

Hi. Winter comes on dance steps, Finger-shaped popsicles on the bike lane and a cup of hot coffee in my mind. I know we make good coffee in Italy, but all I want is a HUGE cup of american coffee to hold while I am walking.
There was a contest to design Vegan Treats T-shirts. I won it. I am so proud, can't wait to see the shirts. These are some of the designs that were not chosen. For the final one, you'll have to wait till it gets print it. Then go to the bakery and celebrate with an hydrogenated fabulous feast. Sweet tooth. Coming to new york next, week, so excited I can't hold myself together.

the things of autumn

2008-11-01T14:09:00.002-07:00

update all together so i can bother you more at once.
1- halloween kitties
2-warriors nonsense drawing
3-do it youself- cute drawing
4-last time out illo, about CMJ festival

enjoy

ciao mostro

2008-09-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

my favorite dog. he liked: asparagus, snow and snowballs, the apple's core and skin, bread always, wood sticks -the bigger the better. seriously-, a toy shaped like santa claus -he murdered the shit out of it-, cookies oh yea biscotti (both said in english or in italian), tennis balls, swimming in the sea all summer long but even the coldest winter was fine. Rest in Peace, lovely monster.

how to compromise with dignity

2008-09-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

this was an illustration i did for his week's Time Out New York. They called me up and needed the drawing for later the same day (jetlag being in the way); jewish holidays and modern ways to celebrate. The art director already had the concept planned out. How to skirt by the Jewish holidays without stepping over the line with any of the traditions. They needed a guy in a yarmulke, wearing a tallis, and playing a shofar, rocking it out like a jazz or whatever hip dude.
ok, i say. Except, i almost immediately realize, the shofar is the GODDAMN HORN OF A MURDERED ANIMAL. Oh shit. Since I cannot just draw a GODDAMN HORN OF A MURDERED ANIMAL and let it go, I had to find a solution. Solution being: I copied/pasted the PETA sticker -fake for the animals sake- over the horn.
AND, just to make sure the concept was clear, I gave the guy a patch of the J.A.V. (jewish american vegan).
Job done, everyone is happy and the message is spread.
Quickly drawn from a photo of a friend of mine while he bites his dogs ear. Substituted the dog's face with a vegan shofar. Inked with VERY cheap ink, photographed and colored in photoshop. Im pretty happy with it.

NO QUESTIONS ASKED

2008-09-24T15:44:00.001-07:00

I have no explanation for this.

art science lab hours

2008-09-22T00:19:00.000-07:00

More experiments. I have a lot of free time.

it all goes back to ice cream

2008-09-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

brooklyn jewish vegan ice cream IS the best ice cream. one portion substitutes 3 meals and damages your brain forever.

more experiments

2008-09-21T08:28:00.001-07:00

Experimenting on small portraits. Paul Watson. Check out Sea Shepherds Conservation Society, all they do rules and we should all be out there. He looks kinda pissed in my drawing. It was not really my intention but I guess it still makes a lot of sense.

the sweet state of crime

2008-09-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

I locked myself in a outdoor house, meditating on good and evil; i feed myself pumpkin to welcome the autumnal romance, i experiment on photoshop with the beauty of criminal features.

I sketched this tuff lady out, inked it and threw on the computer. I was just playing around with colors, I'll work on it more, maybe think of a background, maybe work on a series of characters.

stay tuned for more and get ready for the new palette spreading outside.

praise seitan

2008-08-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

oh i just found a funny and creepy poster that i made last year. it's about seitan. it tastes good, you should try it and love it.

i do not worship satan.

in august I digest bread with sorrow spread

2008-08-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a sour sour summer. I didn't paint or draw anything at all, just busy in a full epistemological review of meanings and life choices. I hold hands with two ghosts now, I want to be happy and put value in the right places.

This piece is very old.

I'll start a new one as soon as I find an apartment with an actual table or at least 15 square inches of crap-free floor.

Roma is pretty. Talk to you soon. Love.

july

2008-07-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

It's a July Frankenstein Kitty.

long time no post

2008-07-10T01:29:00.000-07:00

hi everyone, finally something new. I've been moving crossoceans, back to the livid streets of Milan, a suitcase of paranoia with me. Experiencing the constant lack of internet of this country, only good at pizza. Two days before leaving I was called by the West Side Spirit, upper west side newspaper, to do their cover. A movie crew is apparently taking over the area, so they wanted something on the line of those fifties movie posters with the giant monster walking over the city.
in the first row there is a bunch of me, the crazy director is my roommate's body pasted over my friend james face. It was quick and fun.
Back to spaghetti, talk to you all at some point.

my mind stretches i got a sore brain

2008-06-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

uhm ok, so the painting with the donut was part of my senior portfolio and was eventually bought from a show in the lower east side. the same couple who bought it commissioned me 3 more paintings same size, same style, same theme.

For the portfolio we basically had to pick something that we care about and twist it into a cohesive body of work. My body of work was not cohesive at all, it looked more like a bride of frankenstein type of body, but I sort of had a theme: what I cared about was philosophy and food. I decided to work under a title "la pasticceria filosofica" (the philosophical bakery).

And the Good Intentions painting came. I followed the theme for the other 3 even though at that point I could barely remember what the fuck I meant. I can even remember it less NOW, so I'll just throw some threads. I am not very articulate when it comes to pretentiousness.

I was going to use some philosophical topics that I am interested in, and explain them through food (first sentence and already we are falling into nonsense) as something that should be a basic need but that in this culture became a mindless habit and a commercial vice.

For the "good intentions" I threw the concept of Homo Homini Lupus, men is a wolf among other men, the failure in the perspective of an healthy cooperation for a common wealth. A sugar coated treat, the promise of dreams for cheap, but the blades in it (the real price we pay, a planet dying, a humanity wasted in stupidity and demagogy) remind us (or they don't, since we keep swallowing the deadly crumbs) that we are consciously damaging ourselves AND each other. We all have good intentions but we speak well and roll terribly.

Easy dreams, easy satisfaction, easy rewards, our lives are cheap.

The one with the eyeball-machine was originally inspired by a flyer that someone handed to me. It claimed that god had a wonderful plan for me and it made me quite upset. Once again, taking what they feed us as sweet and growing an irresponsible optimism over it. Their lies, the soporific pills we swallow under disguise of a luscious soft serve. God is a mere machine, a troglodyte attempt to keep us sleepy and uncritical. The girl's tattoo says -mental disorder global domination- Keeping people insane through world propaganda. I actually got it tattooed myself hehehe

The next one is based on the concept of absurdity. This used to be a deeper and important concept of existentialism but today it seems to apply on a much more sleazy level. The boredom driving today's life is a byproduct of a culture that owns and produce all sorts of useless crap and find itself not knowing what to do with it. We become absurd as an economic mechanism. How squalid is that? Also, I really wanted to paint my roommate pulling her teeth off, don't ask why, I don't know, but there is something about teeth that I can't resist. If you look up on a symbols dictionary the meaning of falling teeth it sends you to the term "beheading". There is something about beheading that I can't resist too.

The girl's tattoo translates as "a vexation weights down on me". It's part of a poem called "boredom" by a romantic and pessimistic italian poet, Giacomo Leopardi.

The last one i think is also about absurdity, grinding shit that doesn't need to be grind but just enjoyed. We make everything harder and much more complicated than what it should actually be, turning life itself into meaningless. The sticker on the grinder is a quote from Camus. "cette revolte de la chair", "this rebellion of the flesh" ...his definition of absurdity. I though it made sense if I put it over the grinder, something supposed to grind flesh.

Oh, all the tattoos are Disney Characters to underline the lightness and cheapness of this very perverse system that turns down intelligence in favor of ignorance and false happiness.

Uh, I guess I AM articulate in pretentiousness.

my life is sweet as saccharine

2008-06-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

Look, I made an illustration for Post Punk Kitchen. Not that it was commissioned or anything, I just did it and sent it to them. Not that they replied or anything, I just sat in waiting mood, chewing on frustration. I like it though. Who doesn't like punKakes?

Drawn on shitty paper, inked, photographed, threw in photoshop for some color. For some reason, I always like better the ink version than the final, colored one.

fiori d'arancio

2008-06-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

It's june. Go get married in a graveyard.

stage dives make me feel more alive

2008-05-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Another Time Out job....they called me up on tuesday night and needed the final by thursday morning. I am getting pretty fast, I sketched it out in couple of hours and colored it the next afternoon. I even had time to go for a walk in the park and for my yoga class!

The commission was just about NY music shows in the summer, so of course I turned it into a HC manifesto.

Fun fact, people really DO stage diving over pool toys in Italy. I think it's annoying most of the times, but the theme was music and summer, so here we go.

Here is a dilemma: I tattooed all the people in the picture (there's also vegan tattoos! And straight edge too, under M. "suggestion"). All the tattoos are actual tattoos that I took from photos on the internet. Some of them are pieces by very good artists and original works of art, so I was struggling over the fairness of what I was doing, by incorporating them in my drawing.

I don't remember what my thread of thoughts was, but I decided it was ok to do it. Then I thought more about it and changed my mind but it was too late. I think I will not do it again, it's not about copyrights or legal shit but more about respect for other artists original ideas.

M. suggested that in my free time I start painting a bunch of tattoos and keep them for when they are needed. Good advice.

The papergrain texture in my illustrations is due to the fact that I don't have a scanner so I take photos of the drawing, import it and color it with photoshop. That's the result, I call it a "happy accident".

ok bye.

Friendship and Sisterhood

2008-05-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

The most recent illustration I did for Time Out. Sex in public places, I am not too proficient on the topic. I actually freaked out because I never do backgrounds, my subjects are usually lost in a painterly limbo with no definition. I can only draw people. And hairless cats. And parts of people or parts of hairless cats. Oh and things to eat when they are sweet and vegan. Anyway, here it was pretty much all about locations but I still managed to put as little as possible. So my friend M. from Barcelona, that I missed for about one year, just arrived and they called me for this job. We came up with a plan to get this done as fast as possible because we wanted to spend time together. Plan turns out to be: she gives me all the ideas for the six sex scenes and I draw them at the speed of sound and then we go to Atlas and get cupcakes. Honestly, the longest part in my process is to find an idea. I can spend days mumbling over the perfect sense of something and measuring the golden ratio of a concept. It's because I take everything too seriously. So it was pretty convenient to have someone smarter than me that could come up with the same result in few minutes. Thanks M., what would my life be without you? ; )

On the theme of taking everything too seriously, my other friend L. yesterday suggested me to watch the Tom Cruise video about scientology. That, he said, will teach me how wrong it is to take things too seriously and will explain me that everything is ok BUT being like Tom Cruise. I'll try that.

Also, new website coming soon, thanks to my marvelous Jaz Harold.

sunny days of decay

2008-05-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

So it's May again, already slipping between the fingers in a snap. Here are some May Frankenstein cats, enjoy your spring, while I spend my time spitting in people's eyes.

TATTOOS

2008-04-30T06:18:00.000-07:00

So uhm, I trade paintings for tattoos. Anyone interested?

EH? EH?

the endless monologue

2008-04-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some small illustrations I did for Time Out New York about a month ago. It was my

first commissioned editorial job and I kinda stressed out because I was not used to work fast

and with a deadline that cannot be broke. I sketched them out, inked, photographed (I have NOT a scanner, dammit) threw in photoshop and applied colors (after waking up my roommate

and her boyfriend at 7am to pose for me). I was a bit nervous because digital coloring is not really my thing and I felt like I hadn't enough confidence with it to feel entirely comfortable. When I paint, I know that I know how to fix something if it goes wrong, while with photoshop I had to experiment, with the pressure of a deadline. It came out nice. These were the two spots illustrations, there was also a full page one that I am not uploading for unknown reasons.

The story was about the secret identities of new yorkers, sort of a doctor jeckyll and mr. hyde kind of thing....a female lawyer that go-go dances at night, a pot-head doctor and a polite husband with an addiction for sexy massages.

I just finished working this morning on another piece for Time Out, coming out next week. Check it out. Is there anybody out there anyway?

a tribute to the goonies

2008-04-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

Hey here is a new piece, realized for WARRIORS SKATEBOARDS; it is currently been printed on decks that will be distributed and sold in a bunch of european countries.

I had a lot of fun doing that, I have an obsession for skeletons and I can't get over it. I am afraid I am going to be that person that only paints skeletons.

Oh well, better than being that person that only paints black squares with mysterious meaning of deep value that nobody really gets but they still shake their heads in approval.

Here what you see is what you get. It's a skeleton. He's wearing american apparel underwear. They were probably shoplifted. End of the story.

The "warriors" kids asked me to give him a collar bones tattoo in honor to the goonies, I though it was a brilliant idea.

The puddle on the floor is the logo of the company.

New York Press

2008-04-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here is an illustration I recently did for NewYorkPress. I painted it in acrylic, photographed it and sent it. The deadline was tight, couple of days but I managed to get thru without loosing my mind.

I was fueled by a shameful amount of vegan brownies from Vegan Treats.

It was actually kind of funny because after I sent the first series of sketches, the art director told me that she REALLY liked them but if I could manage to make some changes. Very specifically, she gave me a 7 points list of things to change (the last one was...to add a horse in the background! ahah), that RADICALLY twisted my entire composition, characters and whatsoever, leaving nothing of the original concept. Im not sure what she liked, but she ended up being right...this version works better than the original one.

It is based on an article written by this folk singer from brooklyn, Mishka Shubaly, about how he successfully half-baked his brain on this new prescription drug that gave him nightmares, weird visions and some sort of reality-shakes...

the descriptions of the experience was beautiful though..

Fuck drugs, keep your eyes open and your mind steady.

B-MOVIES ARE THE REASON

2008-04-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

Long time no update. Today I feel like this, feasting on the corpse of romantic literature and expressionist cinematic. Twist it into a pop nightmare, make it a technicolor wound.

I propose a toast, long live chtulhu and may the river run red.

Most likely, a corn syrup tsunami

2008-03-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

Acrylic piece. Based on Electrocute's song "sugar buzz".

Chocolate cake lollipop caramel candy drops marshmallow; strawberry wild cherry jelly belly.

The malady of possess, we swallow everything we can reach and then vomit it in cyclopean mountains of garbage.

pop regimes

2008-03-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

random old sketch

rats & sugar

2008-03-24T06:21:00.001-07:00

Soon it's going to be my birthday. All I can think of is cake and death. Another nail in the coffin, but I guess it's okay if that implies 6 inches of chocolate-flavored hydrogenated fats.

old piece, acrylic on wood

the plague the plague, it comes pink and sprinkled

"Le favole esistono!! Abbasso i guastafavole"

meat is murder!!!

2008-03-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

Also, on the easter note. Don't support the slaughter, you can have a scrumptious easter veggie feast. Let the lambs live, let respect be your drive. There is NOT a single valid reason to support the meat industry. Be kind. EAT BEANS NOT BEINGS!!!!!

Chocolate is bad too, choose the dark one please. It does taste better and it is blood and pus free.

Also, you should not celebrate easter to begin with.

"The Christian resolve to find the world evil and ugly, has made the world evil and ugly"

F. Nietzsche

THEY JUST WON'T STAY DEAD!

2008-03-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

So today is easter. The day that, according to the myth, Jesus Christ turned into a zombie and started his long lasting habit of feeding on human brains. Too bad.

To stay on the theme, here is a ooooold piece, part of a 12 months calendar. It's April but the idea was Easter. Frankenstein bunny-cat and dark chocolate egg, good package I say.

As usual, it is painted with acrylic and pencil on wood.

The all series was based on a combination between the visual content derived from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (plus the cinematographic translations of it) and the popular cheesy kittens calendar imagery. The attempt was to mix the typical cliches, month by month, with elements from the novel, in order to make a sensible dialogue between the two.

I was considering the general virus-like spread quest for cuteness (and the nauseous illusory optimism that follows) adopted by this society to protect a rotting substrate of lies, hypocrisy and fears. Dangerous attitude, it relies on ignorance and promotes it as a comfortable lifestyle.

dance today

2008-03-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

-"to hear something new is hard and painful to the ear. We hear the music of foreigners badly" I make the sounds that you can't understand-this is my critique! this is my subversion! this is my revolution! I make the sounds that you can't understand. My fingers, my voice slide into every orifice. You (I) own these words. This is friendship. That's what friends are for. I am Nietzsche!-

Orchid

Hand drawn, inked, scanned and colored in with photoshop. I also made a silkscreen version that sucks.

For the sake of intelligence

2008-03-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

GO VEGAN.

Here is a recent work. I am honestly not too happy with it, I feel it's too simple of a composition, and probably even of a concept, just all there, in your face. No brain gymnastic is required, it just goes as far as you see it. Oh well, sometimes all you need is the taste of a fist-broken mouth. And to thank Germs, "we must bleed"

I've been recently dealing with ideas that consider a craving for collapse as the only healthy attitude.

To indulge over the perspectives of a sick civilization's decline, to pray for the event that will reverse the course of misdemeanors; to resist the claims of a culture that defines itself as humanity without the basis to afford it.

we are fucked up.

HEY HEY

2008-03-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

"beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time"

"guns AND peanut butter"