Lorraine Martin was born and raised in Venice Beach and moved north to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. After graduating with a degree in painting and printmaking, she gained employment at the U.C.S.F. Medical Center as a morgue rat in response to her unrelenting interest in the absurdity and complexity of the human body and more specifically, the internal organs.
Under the official title of “Laboratory Technician”, Lorraine prepared corpses for embalming, re-assembled dissected bodies, bottled organs, etc. She was so fascinated by this line of work in fact, that she enrolled in Mortuary School. Unfortunately, she was soon dreadfully disappointed when she came to realize that the discipline had less to do with embalming and reconstruction than with casket sales. She promptly moved back to Los Angeles to pursue the art of special effects make-up.
Lorraine excelled immediately in this area and has been working in the industry ever since. But after years of painting faces, bodies and prosthetics for everyone else, she felt the need to return to painting her own images. What you see here is a small collection of “Bits in Pieces” she has worked on in the times in between.
- J. Michael O’Brien |
Daniel Wheeler is a Los Angeles native, working professionally as an art handler. His current interest is to work with croquille, ink, and watercolors. He attended art school in Savannah, Georgia, where he studied sculpture, then returned to Los Angeles to pursue an interest in make up and special effects. After working in the film industry, be began showing his own work in 2002.
The Yankee drawings continue with the idea of his last show, an exploration of the Seven Deadly Sins. This series began as an idea of cowboy boogeymen, emphasizing the grotesque in human form and the effects of overindulgence and violence. The characters are meant to display an unconsciousness of the self and the lack of consequence from violent behavior. |
