Ava Bunny

Was reading an article this morning about the challenges female artist face mid-career. The article was written by Anna Louie Sussman. She was saying in the past five years she's noticed a strange, recurring phenomenon: Works by young artists, often barely out of grad school, commanded similar or higher prices than pieces by accomplished mid-career artists. All I could think was great as if selling my freaking art isn't hard enough, this is now what I have to look forward to !. About Five years ago I did started noticing an odd trend with female artist myself. I kept seeing all these women in their 20's and 30's posing half naked next to their artwork. It was being done so much I pointed it out to a few male friends of mine who happen to be artist and some laughed and said I should give it a try. I have never really been one to take pictures much, let alone half naked ones just to push my art.  Funny story: one of my guy friends did start posing half n...

I was obsessed with two things last year, the Chelsea hotel, and Anonymous! If you follow my work you probably saw a lot of nods to the Anonymous group in so much of my art last season as well as the hotel Chelsea. The funny thing is I grew up in Manhattan in the Lower eastside not far from the hotel Chelsea and the hotel never held any interest to me till I saw a show a called celebrity ghost stories. One of the episodes had Michael Imperioli from the sopranos on and he spok e about when he living at the hotel and how it was haunted. Forget about it!, that was all I needed to hear was that it had ghost!! After hearing that I started researching the hotel. Shortly after that I started making my mixed media pieces showcasing the hotel. A lot of people are skeptical about ghost and some don't even believe in them.   I would probably be a skeptic if I hadn't had a couple of ghostly encounters when I was a child. I've never really had any as an adult. I was around 8 when th...

This is my new mixed media piece I call it Donations. It was created out of the frustration I feel with the art world. Here you have the quintessential depiction of the starving artist right? Paint brush in hand standing on the street corner working for donations. But the truth is the days of the starving artist are gone for the most part. Or should I say the respect for the starving artist and their wallet is gone!.  Everywhere I look there's someone trying to fleece my pockets as an artist. I'm promised that I can be a hopeful and apply for art space in a residency for a mere $900 a month,lol.Years ago when I worked mostly in paint I wanted to get studio space here in New York. There was this one place I wanted to get into so bad, It offered studio space in little historic 19th century cottages. They were highly coveted and rarely became available, but when they did they would set you back $600 a month. Which I didn't really think was all that bad considering the his...

H ow do we measure the amount of what something is worth ? What if it's value is love. …. I created this little painting a few months ago and mailed it to a friend. I then asked them to ship it back because I didn't feel like it was fully finished. My friend sent it back using UPS and it was lost for the last three weeks. I had to call the people over at UPS and open a case. The lady on the phone asked me the value of the painting. I struggled to come of with a monetary amount.  It's a simple painting, painted with simple materials, in two simple colors. But how it makes me feel is by no means simple to put in to words or price.   When I first started out painting I struggled with how to price my art. Mostly because my work was the very opposite of this little painting. Instead of my work being simple it was over the top and took me months, upon months to create. At first I wanted to charge a lot because I associated that with being a big time artist. I think on s...

Once in a blue moon I go through my old photo albums and look at some of the first paintings I ever made. This one happened to be one of my favorites. It was quite big, much bigger then you see in this photo. This piece was 24x42 When I took the picture I stupidly took it in sections, so you don't see the serving wench to the left of the dragon. The dragon himself was cutoff and there were two acrobats above on the top that are cutoff. You can see part of the boot of one of them in the upper right corner. When I took a picture of this the flash created a light orb on the photo.You can see it on the table right under the pixie. That orb isn't on the actually piece.  I was a very ambitious painter when I first started out. Everything I did had to big and over the top!. This piece was done in oils. I only worked in oils back then and it took me over a month to paint. This piece sat in a few coffee houses and then at the Ward Nasse gallery here in NYC before I gave it to my bes...

This card was a bit of a challenge, only 75 more to go! When you start reading about the cards you really start to fall in love with them. Each meaning for each card is so meaningful and personal.  I am really enjoying making these.   Daily Tarot Girl says The High Priestess card is one of the more mystifying cards of the Major Arcana, full of secrets and mysteries as she beckons you to explore the unknown depths of your soul. Basically what I took away from the meaning of the card is you need to essentially chillout and reflect. And that is exactly what my girl is doing while she smokes her hookah.  When I first thought of making this deck I knew I'd need a theme.  I looked all over the internet and noticed not one person has ever done a Blythe themed deck. So I am so happy to be the first to do one. I hope to be able to have a Blythe doll in most of the cards but some will just be teddy bears or something else. I really didn't know how I would do at being ...