Frightened Rabbit: A Tribute

Dear Lads of Frightened Rabbit,

I have been one of your biggest fans since I first heard your music over three years ago. Since then I have been at all of your shows in New York City, I even met your frontman Scott Hutchinson at one of them, the only one I went to by myself. I have traveled across the ocean to your home country Scotland, and can't understand why you ever left it, even for tours. I have taken photo upon photo of you, and lest they be in vain, since I refuse to Facebook, I used them as imagery for my artwork. I did this for years, with passion, without permission. As you are now basically celebrities, since you've blown up at Lollapalooza and been on American television, anyway, I have no way of reaching you. So just consider this me clearing my conscious. Here is my ode, my sonnet, my thanks, to you, Frightened Rabbit. Your songs have gotten me through a lot and your shows have left me with some of the best tonitis I've ever had, your image has even inspired my art. Thank you for influencing my life in the most positive of ways, I'll always think of you fondly and smile for that.
Never change.

With love always,

Alexa Strautmanis

All of the images posted below are mine, taken by me, 

with the exception of the album artwork, courtesy of Google. Thanks Google.

Sing The Greys

 First FR show ever. 

Bowery Ballroom

Feb 1st 2009

The beginning of an era.

Live album. A must have, post-concert.

Second FR concert, 

sorta secret acoustic show 

the very next night.

Up close,

 but not personal.

Okay, a little personal.
Technically because it was after midnight,
this photo was taken 3 years ago today.

The Midnight Organ Fight

Hands down,

one of the best albums of the decade.

The DECADE.

Go get it.

First FR paintings, from photos taken at Le Poisson Rouge show.

June, 2009

First trip to Scotland and the United Kingdom in general.

4/28/2010

Webster Hall

Paintings from a photo from that show.

School of Visual Art BFA Senior Show Part 1

The Winter of Mixed Drinks

Indeed.

October 30, 2010

Terminal 5

 SVA Senior BFA Show this past December, 2011

Had a fantastic turnout.

Keep doing what you do best, boys.

I can't wait to hear more. 

Come back to NYC soon!

Open Studios 2011

Thank you to all who came to open studios! It was a fabulous night and our hard work really paid off. Good job everyone, we did it! Here are just a few photos of my studio, taken on my phone, to keep up with the theme of my iPhone screen proportioned work. Each of my paintings are 2x3 because I figure so many people look at their phones all day, get all their information from this scale, why not just put my art in the same format? Also aware of the holiday season, I consciously chose red and green, and used colored bulbs to enhance and fill in the negative spaces. Let me know what you think!

SVA BFA Senior Show

Thank you to all who came and showed face at my open studios on Monday night. It was a really fun night, so much so that all 8 bottles of my three buck chuck were imbibed before the night was through. Good effort, everyone! All of the work was very impressive, I will have more pictures coming soon, but for now, here are the highlights of my studio specifically. Take a look at what you missed if you couldn't make it.

Sorry for the glare, people, we were responsible for our own lighting.

It did look very nice at the opening, but it was not lit for photo taking.

You get the general idea.

These are six prints of digital photos taken by yours truly,

at that amazing MUSE concert, at Nassau Coliseum in October.

20' matted frames surround a 5'x3.5' print. I'm a fan :-D

These are the same two, along with others,

featured in the Apostle Studio show in November.

This is the layout of of studio (bear in mind, everybody, this is the same space that I painted and worked in all term long. I had a week to turn it from a studio into a gallery. Two coats of the wrong color white paint and three track lights later, and viola!)

I realize that compared to that of my neighbors, my name was obnoxiously huge. That is because, folks, all of the modestly sized letters were purchased, leaving only the big ones at the art supply store near the school. But you know what? That kind of worked out, because it had a connection with my work, the small and large letters next to each other were easily relatable to the small photos and large paintings.

A Word From the Artist:

Without going into so much as a thesis or even a statement, I would like to briefly explain my work. I chose the two extreme mediums of large oil paintings and small digital prints to explore the spectrum of being a spectator.

With an entire laser show shrunk down to mere inches, you feel like you can hold it in your hand, and look at it the way kids look at ladybugs up close, examining it carefully, in a way you never would or could before.

The large paintings, of intimate and random scenes of cables on stage, are equally fascinating, in the way that when seeing a performance, it is not usually where your eye is drawn, and it is in this neglected space, which is contrarily completely visible on stage, that I find beauty.

Trying not to state the obvious too much, light plays an enormous part of this subject. Contemporary colored lights, only able to be seen since the invention of LED, fuel the work, which would not exist without it. Also, painting things already under a spotlight command the eye to draw shapes and forms out of the surrounding darkness. A new age, musical, chiaroscuro.

Hope everyone had as good a time as I did!

SVA Open Studios 2011

BFA OPEN STUDIOS

5-9pm, Monday, April 25th

355 West 16th Street

(between 8th and 9th aves)

I hope those of you who are around can make it to my senior show, we've all been working very hard toward this night. The fruit of our long labors will be on display, free and open to the public, refreshments will be served, and it is always a blast, if I do say so myself. Good times are to be had, people! The only catch is- you gotta come!

Here is a small tidbit of what you'll see.

Reminiscent of this post from a while ago, I've put it to good use.

The fine print: Here is a link to the School of Visual Arts Website about this show. To get to the studios you can take the A,C,E or L train to 14th street, 8th avenue. Walk two block north to 16th and walk west to 355. The building has huge flags, you cannot miss it.

This building.

A small detail of one of my paintings.

You'll have to attend to see the whole thing!

Don't forget check back soon for photos of the event!

See you there!