{"id":2376,"date":"2011-02-21T13:23:20","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T21:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=2376"},"modified":"2012-11-20T14:16:24","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T22:16:24","slug":"shiny-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/21\/shiny-objects-2376\/","title":{"rendered":"Shiny Objects"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on February 21, 2011 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor. Reprinted with additional edits.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Alameda painter Malia Bush, left, with her \u201cSteno Monsters\u201d and \u201cTo Pluto,\u201d at right. Photo by Michael Singman-Aste<\/p><\/div>\n

A nighttime ritual when tucking in my girls was to count \u201cone, two, three, glow!\u201d Turning out the light, I would point at the glow-in-the-dark stars on their ceiling, cooing, \u201cOooh, so bright!\u201d Malia Bush\u2019s paintings are the equivalent for grownups. Adorned with glitter, rhinestones, and glow-in-the-dark paint, they cheer by day and luminesce comfortingly by night.<\/p>\n

Bubbling out in a silky froth \u2026 Fleeting every second \u2026 Shoots and Shines \u2026 Sparkle glitter in your eyes, and glow the night away. \u2013 Malia Bush<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paintings like \u201cThe Baron\u201d with its intricate, colorful swirls show the influence of Gustav Klimt. These swirls are a motif in much of Bush\u2019s work, including a series of seven panels, her glow-in-the-dark \u201cSensational Swirls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bush\u2019s solo show EVANESCENCE<\/strong> is on display at Julie\u2019s Coffee and Tea Garden in her hometown of Alameda through February 28. Except for an appearance on the public access show \u201cThis is Genius,\u201d this is the first time she has exhibited her art.<\/p>\n

A self-described \u201cfun loving creature with a love of the loud and colorful,\u201d she wore a glow-in-the-dark dress at her Halloween-themed wedding, flanked by pirate bridesmaids and robot groomsmen. At her reception at Julie\u2019s the evening of February 11, she used the same black lights which had illuminated the wedding dress to light her paintings.<\/p>\n

What is your background? Did you study art?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started out as a printmaker, studying art at DVC (Diablo Valley College). A lot of my paintings embody the printmaking element, and I consider myself a printmaker.<\/p>\n

Where do you think your love of all things shiny comes from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably my squirrel soul. My animal nature. All humans like shiny things, but I\u2019ve always loved things that are shiny and beautiful.<\/p>\n

You wrote, \u201cSteno monsters were inspired by the stenography machine, and the process of being a court reporting student.\u201d Did the machine seem like a monster to you while you were learning to use it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been kind of hard. There\u2019s a lot of tears for everybody. It\u2019s an uphill battle, always pushing yourself further. I get a lot of relaxation from painting. That\u2019s how the steno monsters began: bringing the fun into the stress.<\/p>\n

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Malia Bush, Drama Queen. Metallic acrylic, phosphorescent powder, rhinestones.<\/p><\/div>\n

What\u2019s the story behind \u201cDrama Queen?\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n

I worked on it every day for a year, for six to eight hours at time. It\u2019s from two different photographs. One is my drag queen best friend and the other is a friend from my wedding, Photoshopped together. I thought it would be funny and I was experimenting with swirls. It has more than a thousand rhinestones, Swarovski crystals. It may be the most shiny painting on the planet. It\u2019s all metallic paint and shines constantly. That\u2019s why I named the show \u201cEVANESCENCE\u201d \u2013 because it\u2019s always moving. It looks different at 4 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Baron\u201d doesn\u2019t look like you, but you go by \u201cBaron von Bluto\u201d on Myspace. Why Baron von Bluto? And is this a self-portrait?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because I met someone once and his name was Pluto and I thought that was cool and sounded like Bluto. It\u2019s random. Don\u2019t ask. (Laughs.) It is a self-portrait. I modeled for the photo and then worked from the photo. Most of the pieces I do are me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
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Malia Bush, Sensational Swirls, and other pieces. Mixed-media, black light.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Do you have any other shows lined up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I enjoyed the show for sure but, to be perfectly honest, I\u2019m enjoying the downtime after the show. There\u2019s a lot of stuff going on in my life. I am planning an amateur fashion show with all the spiral paintings. I plan to have my girlfriends with nude bodysuits on underneath, wearing the paintings. A mock fashion show.<\/p>\n

The swirls are actually my favorite. They are very beautiful and can hang in any kind of room. They are supposed to be hypnotic, and just meant to be enjoyed. They\u2019re meant for everybody and anybody. I want everybody to have them! Kids are afraid of the dark. It\u2019s made so your eyes dance around them. It\u2019s meant to carry emotion through them.<\/p>\n

Julie\u2019s Coffee & Tea Garden is located at 1223 Park Street in Alameda. Their phone number is 865-2385. Hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on February 21, 2011 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor. Reprinted with additional edits. A nighttime ritual when tucking in my girls was to count \u201cone, two, three, glow!\u201d Turning out the light, I would point at the glow-in-the-dark stars on their ceiling, cooing, \u201cOooh, so bright!\u201d Malia Bush\u2019s paintings are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[73,212,267,72],"class_list":["post-2376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-alameda","tag-julies","tag-malia-bush","tag-the-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-Ck","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2376"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376\/revisions\/2390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}