Into the Woodz

What other brand would Goldy buy but "Just Right"?

So a couple people have pointed out to me that I’ve neglected to post any real concrete info about my upcoming show — d’oh!  Blame it on the paint fumes, I’ve been so ding dang busy doing the paintings I forgot to crow about it a bit.

Before I digress (as is inevitable), mark your calendars, gentle readers! The big opening which is also the launch party for my book is Saturday, May 9th, at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco.

When I started working on the paintings for this show I was thinking about the Princess culture being sold to little girls – how your highest aspiration is to be rescued, married off and whisked away to a far off castle.  But what happened to the girl who didn’t hook up with a Prince, who stayed in the woods?  I wanted to explore that story so for this show I picked Goldilocks, and as I so often do I created my own version of a happier ending — that the moment when she and Baby Bear lay eyes on each other it was love at first sight.  (Goldy has definitely gone to the bears.) In my imagination the girl who stayed in the woods got to find herself after she got lost — she didn’t trade her identity in for a tiara, and she found true love (because love conquers all, even inter-species romance).

But then *I* didn’t come out of the woods either — I found myself there too.  The forest that is seen in the distant background of the earlier pieces became the setting for the rest of the paintings — I wanted to know who else lived in there.  And it turns out it’s very Woodland Fabulous, inhabited by blinged-out critters with gold dookie ropes, boomin’ boom boxes and shiny afro pics.

You’ll have to come to the show to see the whole gang, but here are a few detail shots as a sneak peek.

Details of a few of the new paintings...

These pieces continue in the vein of exploring fairy tales that I tapped into a few years ago when I started wondering what happened to Red Riding Hood (another girl who never left the woods.)  There are foggy distant blurry trees and tiny hairs and claws and lots of lush, lush color in sexy “smells so good it must be bad for you” oil paint on wood panels.

May 9^th, come and see ‘em all, pick up a copy of the brand new book and get it signed!

“Into The Woodz”

New paintings by Isabel Samaras

Opening and book launch party

Saturday, May 9^th, 7-9pm

The Shooting Gallery

839 Larkin Street

San Francisco, CA