Futuristicky

Recent robot painting: You got super-served.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:17:00 +0000

This one makes me happy, because it turned out just like what I had in mind.

Recent robot paintings: Kitchen bots

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:14:00 +0000

"I like to mix things up."

"I am making you a treat"
(note: he is an ice-cream machine, not a toaster)

Recent robot painting: My head is full of teen TV.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:11:00 +0000

Yes, I do realize that my depiction of teen TV looks more like a middle-aged couple. What can I say? People aren't my strong point.

New robot painting: Instead of a brain, I have teddy bears.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:21:00 +0000

My friend's son had a nightmare recently about a scary purple robot. So I made a little painting to show him that in reality, purple robots are no threat.

Purple robots don't want to hurt you. They wouldn't even know HOW to hurt you. Instead of brains, their heads are squished full of teddy bears, so basically all they know how to do is look cute. And hug. And hold your balloon.

New robot painting: I grew you a four-leaf clover.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:16:00 +0000

This weekend, I'm painting robots like I used to... on postcard sized bits of Bristol paper.

Lovebot + Me = Love.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:53:00 +0000

I painted the little robot that was used for the Compatomatic Lovebot 3000, The N's new compatibility tester game. The people who built the game made him animate, and I think it's so cool to see one of my robots in motion! I'm also glad that he and I turned out to be compatible -- it would've been sad if he secretly hated me.

Old robot painting: Space Parade

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:36:00 +0000

My artist friend Kelly Newcomer just asked me for a scan of this painting that we made together several years ago, and I realized I'd never scanned it or posted it here.

So here it is:

The one in the pretty green jumpsuit is supposed to be me. I know it looks dangerous that we're standing up in a moving rocket, and you're probably like, "Ladies, please sit down and put some seat belts on!" But remember -- we're in a parade, so that ship is probably moving VERY slowly. And I like to think it's hovering about a foot above the ground, so that if we started to lose our balance, we could just jump out and be fine.

Springtime robot painting: I think it's too warm for this jacket.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:28:00 +0000

If I had a little robot, I would knit him a zip-up sweater with bear ears. Even if he never got cold, the squashy sweater would make his square-shaped metal body a lot more huggable. (This painting was a gift for a friend. I hope someday, she will have a baby, and I will knit that baby a sweater with bear ears. Note to self: learn how to knit bear-eared baby sweaters.)

Newish robot painting: My only purpose is to hug you.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:23:00 +0000

He looks kind of stressed out, but it's only because he's trying SO HARD to hug that little kitty, and his stretchy arms don't quite reach far enough. (He was a gift for a cat-hugging friend/coworker.)

I have robots on my fingernails

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:11:00 +0000

And when I play guitar, they look like a rockin' little robot army.

New robot painting: He's better at Scrabble than I am.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:46:00 +0000

Here's a robot painting I made for a friend/coworker who is crazy-good at Scrabble. I am a tiny bit jealous, because his first name is a legitimate Scrabble word and mine is not.

New robot painting: When you are not around, I video chat myself

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:19:00 +0000

I made this one for a friend/coworker who once video chatted me while briefly experimenting with ichat's roller coaster background.

I think the robot is hanging out in a 1970's basement (with wood paneling and squashy green carpet), which I know doesn't make a lot of sense in the context of video chat. But whatevs. That's where he is.

New robot painting: I know I don't belong here, but I don't know where to go.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:13:00 +0000

New robot painting: I am trying to stay grounded.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:47:00 +0000

I'm not posting everything I paint, because some of them feel too personal. But here's one new one. This little guy is NOT a prisoner or anything like that -- the chains are by choice, because he's feeling very floaty and disconnected, and he wants to feel attached to something.

(it's clickable, because the chains are hard to see in the small one.)

New robot painting: I think I'm getting the wrong signal

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:48:00 +0000

I don't have access to my scanner or my usual paints, but I'm painting robots anyway.

New robot painting: When I hide behind the chicken pile, nobody can tell that I'm sad.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:59:00 +0000

I'm not sure exactly why, but earlier tonight, I realized I wanted to make a painting of a robot peeking out from behind a pile of chicken.

It's on a 3" by 3.25" piece of a cardboard Fresh Direct box, even though I have plenty of actual painting surfaces I could've used. I guess I wasn't sure if I would like it. I do.

p.s. I've promised a bunch of people robot paintings, and I completely intend to make all of those paintings in the very near future. I don't know why I keep painting random stuff instead of working on the ones I owe people.

I don't think I have the right software.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:55:00 +0000

Another robot painting. It's about how the world feels sometimes, especially around the holidays.

This one is 8x10, so I made it clickable.

The scan looks sort of blurry, even when I view it at full size in Photoshop. I think my scanner is dying a very slow death. It's probably almost 10 years old, and it's incompatible with Windows Vista. I sometimes have to restart the computer more than once to get it to scan. Maybe if I end up trying to sell a few paintings at some point, that could pay for a new scanner... but my paintings are so personal. I'm not sure how I'd feel about a little bit of Lisa-sadness hanging on some stranger's wall.

I feel tiny.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 04:56:00 +0000

Another robot painting. This one's on a little 3" piece of a Fresh Direct box, and at actual size it was too hard to see, so this is an enlargement.

Argh. Maybe it's still too hard to see. But I guess that's sort of appropriate.

I haven't painted on random pieces of cardboard in a long time, but I realized the other day that my tiny robot blender (at the bottom of this page) is still one of my favorite paintings ever.

Robot babies like to swing.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:23:00 +0000

Another little robot painting. This one's a gift for a coworker, and again, it represents real people. (It's clickable so you can get a better look at the robot baby.)

Before this week, I don't think I'd ever painted a robot with facial hair, and now I've painted two.

p.s. If you think the robot baby is weird looking, you are WRONG. Mine is infinitely cuter than this real-world robot baby.

I wish you weren't so far away.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:19:00 +0000

A new robot painting. It's about a long-distance relationship.

Whenever I try to paint robots that resemble actual people, they end up looking nothing like the real people. This is actually NOT a painting of an eight year old girl robot and a Mexican robot, even if that's how it looks:

While I'm on the subject of eight year old girls, a little Indian girl on my subway the other day (who could've been 8 or 12 -- I'm bad at guessing kids' ages) blew me away with her sense of style. She looked futuristicky in the best possible way, and I will probably wish for quite a while that I'd taken a photo. She had short black hair that came to about her chin, and a dark plaid coat that looked expensive. I couldn't really see her shirt, but she was wearing slim silver pants or leggings with a great pair of black boots that might've been Diesel. (Not this pair, but hers had a similar feel.)

She was holding a black crocheted hat in her hand, and she had chunky arm warmers scrunched up around her wrists. Based on how completely amazing she looked, I'm fairly certain that I'm going to start knitting again this week. I want arm warmers exactly like hers. I've never quite realized it before, but I think my entire aim style-wise is to look like an eight year old girl from the future. I feel so lucky that I got to see one on my train.

Spazzy bowling robot

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 04:05:00 +0000

This is the birthday card I made for my friend Lisa. I made it earlier today, before I went to the bowling alley, but I think it's a relatively accurate representation of what happened once I got there.

I'm starting to notice that anytime I draw things freehand, they end up looking kind of wonky. This little painting isn't quite as crooked as the blob in a mobile home, though. Maybe I just see life from a weird angle?

Stop throwing rocks at my heart.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:13:00 +0000

A new robot painting. When I saw him in my head, I didn't realize he would turn out looking like something out of an emo web comic.

I like him, but the emo-ness kind of bugs me (mostly because that wasn't what I wanted). Next time I'll use brighter colors.

[A follow up thought: I just put him next to the huggy bat painting I made last week. Both robots look a bit traumatized, but I think the bright colors make the huggy bat feel infinitely more optimistic.]

I want our paths to cross.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:42:00 +0000

Another robot painting. This one is a bit bigger than usual (12"x12"), and it's hard to see on this page, so I made it clickable. One thing I really appreciate about tiny paintings is that they always fit on my scanner. This one didn't. I scanned it in chunks and pieced them together, so the large version has visible seams.

This isn't quite the whole thing, but it's most of it. (I think the bottom inch or so is missing.)

I thought I might feel better in a tree.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:37:00 +0000

Another robot painting.

I have invisible wings.

noreply@blogger.com (lisa) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 21:57:00 +0000

I made a new robot painting. I think if a robot (or a person) had invisible bat wings, it would probably feel really neat to hug that robot (or person), because during the hug, the robot/person's wings would wrap all the way around you. I bet that would feel really warm and safe.