Apparently it’s Easter and I am sitting in my temporary studio which is really a parlour in a possibly creepy old white mansion on a very run down street. There is moss between the stone steps leading up from the street and an electric yellow forsythia just outside one window. Through another window is a tulip tree, the kind I used to call magnolia, with half-opened magenta buds. I hear fire trucks in the distance and the older gentleman owner of the house, whom I haven’t met, is singing Candle in the Wind with radio accompaniment and working in the yard which is filled with antiques - his worn t-shirt says rocket in my pocket, in red.

I’m watching slasher films from the 70s and 80s for a series of drawings I am working on.

Its all very lovely, like spring…

This will be a summer of hot-blooded romance for vampire fans everywhere.

June 10th marks the release of Eclipse, the third in the Twilight series - and those folks don’t waste any time. If the trailer is any indication there will be much pouting and much swooping over majestic Northwestern mountain scenery. Edward’s perfect vampire eyebrows once again go head to head against werewolf-next-door rivalry. How is a (mere mortal) brunette to resist?

Hot on those heels on June 13th (coincidence?) the Southeastern variety vampire shapeshifting saga True Blood, starts up for season three and if you really can’t wait you can watch the production videos, which take the bite out of pretty vampire boys William and Eric fighting over the (fake) blond living object of their undying affections.

Speaking of eclipses, Bonnie Tyler in her 1980s video Total Eclipse of the Heart, looks mighty vampirical as we storm through 2010.

And this just in via Flavorwire’s interview with Mary Gaitskill,

Why do you think vampires are so prevalent in popular literature right now? What does it say about our desires?

~I think they are perennially popular. They’re very sexual. I think people have a fear and fascination with sex as a form of devouring, especially psychic devouring. There’s also a feeling of people starving for deeper life, like blood. The feel empty and they want to find something to suck. Vampires express out need for substance, closeness, and intimacy.

Oh Nosferatu, you poor out-dated creepy monster.

In Banff today I took a pilates class, ate lunch while enjoying a jaw-dropping view, sat in the steam room, worked ever so briefly, soaked in the nearby hot springs with new friends, and ate an elk burger with pineapple. That’s what I call an artist’s retreat.

I’m in Canadia, as certain American men I know like to call my homeland. Banff to be specific, for a short artist’s residency. I pulled into the parking lot and spilled out of my car, spellbound by the full moon rising over the Rocky Mountains. When I could breathe again, I saw there were two very quiet elk a few feet away from me. I have never before seen elk, and we stood watching each other.

I was born in this province - this is the closest I’ve been to my birthplace in many years. Very nice to be home, especially after Canada won hockey gold.

The desert, the rocky coast, the snowy tundra… you can take a girl off the prairie but you can’t take the barren landscape / big sky appeal away from the girl.

-Jillian

-Jillian

Opening tonight at ASU Art Museum.

Zombies vs Vampires is a video installation featuring two videos projected on opposite walls where zombies and vampires stage a dramatic Western-style showdown at dawn in the desert, amidst photographic murals that wrap the gallery in local desert imagery: cacti, mountain, rugged terrain, contemporary ghost towns, and graveyards. This work was created with a wonderful cast of locals in Tempe, Arizona, including 50 actors, 4 videographers, 1 photographer, 10 make-up artists, and 1 sound designer.

Very special thanks to Bluemedia for their generous in-kind printing of a 100-foot wide photo mural.

~photos by Stephen Gittins

Fun shots of vampires and zombies getting me - staged before heading out for taping in the desert this weekend, photos by Steve Gittins.

Make-up artists, videographers, photographer, and actors were in top form this weekend when we filmed Zombies vs Vampires in Tempe’s Papago Park.

Both shoots went super well - with warm weather, clear skies, an almost full moon, and no police, though a few hiker families watched the zombies in action this evening from the sidelines. One park ranger came by and thought we were a church group (!?) or a band, but he liked it so John Spiak invited him to the Nov 10th opening

Now the editing begins!

-Jillian

I’m in residence at ASU Art Museum in Tempe, AZ. I’ll be working on a few different projects, the first of which starts next week. Details on how you can participate, below:

“Jillian Mcdonald, artist-in-residence at ASU Art Museum seeks participants in a video installation for her November exhibit at ASU.”

Interested parties will attend an information session and audition on October 15th at 11 a.m.; attend a rehearsal on Oct 22nd starting at 11 a.m.; and be videotaped together on the afternoon of Oct 31st in the desert. The information session, audition and rehearsal will be held in the project’s gallery at ASU Art Museum. No acting experience or knowledge of vampires and zombies necessary, however feel free to do some research online.

Zombies may also, if interested, participate in a further performance on the Light in early November. Contact Jillian Mcdonald, info below, to receive notifications.

Also seeking enthusiastic makeup artists - with or without experience. Make-up artists will come to an information meeting on Oct 15th at 2p.m., and a workshop Oct 16th or 23rd at 11a.m.. These meetings will also be held in the project’s gallery in ASU Art Museum. Make-up for the video will be done at the museum on the late morning of Oct 31st. There is no cost to participate, make-up will be provided.

Please sign up with me directly if you are interested in participating in the project (phone 917.443.8107, email jmcdonald[at]jillianmcdonald[dot]net). Feel free to send questions or concerns. Interested parties who cannot make the scheduled dates, please inquire about alternative times.

*images from Vampire Hunting, Zombie Loop, and Undead in the Night

The National Swedish TV Arts and Culture program, Kobra, featured my Undead in the Night performance in Malmö, Sweden as part of their Horror Ministry series about, yes, horror. The performance was a collaboration with Lilith Performance Studio in Malmö, Sweden and 100 non-professional actors, out in the forest in the middle of the night. It placed two undead creatures (hideous Zombies and stunning Vampires) in the same scenes along with their victims, violating the codes and boundaries of the horror genre, and creating an impossible scenario. The audience, transported 8 people at a time to an undisclosed forest location, became visitors in a living horror movie. Following a path in the dark various scenes came alive along a 3 km long horror path.

Also featured in the TV program which aired Oct 1 are Seth Grahame Smith, author of bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Max Brooks author of The Zombie Survival Guide, and Freddie Wading, lead singer in several Swedish horror-themed punk bands. Most of the interviews are in English. Check out the whole horror series which is fascinating, or just scroll in this “Zombier” episode to 20:45 for the segment on Undead in the Night, created by Ulrik Petersson.

Watch Zombier online.