November 8th, 2010

Dead of the Night

dead of the night evite, jillian mcdonald

October 23rd, 2010

Zombies! Drew University - Reception Nov 12

On Tuesday my solo show, Zombies!, curated by Lee Arnold opens in New Jersey and includes 3 videos, 2 drawings, and 2 lenticular photographs featuring, you guessed it, zombies!

A reception will be held Friday, Nov 12 at Drew University’s Korn Gallery, following a zombie makeup workshop and campus zombie sneak attack!

Read the exhibition essay by Kimberly Rhodes (pdf, 1.7 MB).

October 20th, 2010

Actors and Make-up Artists Needed for Performance Nov 13

Zombies, Victims, Make-up artists needed. No experience necessary (will train).

“Dead of the Night is a re-imagining of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) in the gallery space, where audience members are inserted into the narrative as the horror unfolds. Surrounded by menacing zombies and set within the context of a rural farmhouse, visitors attempt to evade the ghouls unyielding thirst for human flesh.”

zombies needed

October 8th, 2010

More Prairie Horrors

Photos below by Scott Wachal, U of M Fine Arts students and zombie extraordinaire (he’s the one who fully plunged into Lake Winnipeg…in…October).

prairie horror

prairie horror

prairie horror
Fred, dancing before the farmer attack scene.

prairie horror

prairie horror
This is not a wedding shoot.

prairie horror

prairie horror

prairie horror

October 7th, 2010

Home Home on the Range…

Last week I was in Winnipeg, my hometown, thanks to Cliff Eyland and Sigrid Dahle of Gallery One One One and The University of Manitoba. In half a week, I shot a new video titled A Prairie Horror, featuring the talents of various Winnipeg folks. These production photos are by Derek Brueckner, my fabulous Sunday assistant:

prairie horror

prairie horror

prairie horror

prairie horror

June 3rd, 2010

13 Drawings

happy birthday to me

I finished my Body Count Drawings, featuring slasher films, and the images are up! This detail is from Happy Birthday to Me (1981) - I saw the film in the mid-80s and this image freaked me out.

May 10th, 2010

Channeling all things “Zombie”

ribbon

May, according to the Zombie Research Society, is zombie awareness month. It’s already the 10th, so if you’re behind I recommend sleeping with one eye open - starting now. Wear your grey ribbon (perhaps you have one you can recycle from other awarenesses such as Diabetes, Brain Cancer, and others).

Secondly, there is a band from Paris called Zombie Zombie - it’s trance music - get it?

And visit the blog for an upcoming DIY (as yet untitled) apocalyptic zombie film combining narrative fiction and contextual zombie-expert interviews… by Michael Frank of Rochester, NY. I met Michael in January in frozen Buffalo, NY and look forward to his feature.

And last but not least, this Studio 360 clip on zombies was sent to me from Sam Zimmerman in NYC:

May 10th, 2010

Body Count Drawing #7

Wildflowers are in their late spring phase. Yesterday I saw white-fringed phacelia, trout lily, flame azalia, wild iris, wild violet, pink lady slipper, and trilium. Also louse wort and squaw root which are cruel names for flowers. The squaw root is not a beauty:

squaw root

Meanwhile, I’ve been drawing unpleasant things.
Below are some details of Body Count Drawing 7: “The House on Sorority Row”

body count drawing, jillian mcdonald, house on sorority row

body count drawing, jillian mcdonald, house on sorority row

body count drawing, jillian mcdonald, house on sorority row

body count drawing, jillian mcdonald, house on sorority row

April 20th, 2010

Weird and Wonderful

basketcase

Last night I watched Basketcase (1982) courtesy of a friend’s video collection, and was reminded of both Jan Švankmajer’s Little Otik (2000) - which has higher production values but is just as strange a story, and Jeffrey Sconce’s article “Trashing the Academy: Taste, Excess, and an Emerging Politics of Cinematic Style”. I highly recommend all three.

The “monster” in the basket is not very scary, although he’s terribly violent, and his stop motion rampage is pretty wonderful. Check out the terrible lighting - including telephone wire shadows cast across faces, the bad hair pieces, and the non-stellar acting.

April 13th, 2010

Body Count Drawings

Now that spring has sprung, my mind has turned to new tricks and slasher films: there are new signs of life (such as pollen) bursting out everywhere and most slashers strike in warm weather. For these reasons I don’t plan to set foot outdoors until late fall, so I’ve plenty of time to teach myself new skillz including drawing! Though not exactly new, drawing is a skill I’ve forgotten to exercise for approximately 15 years. It’s probably like riding a bicycle, but the last time I tried that I fell flat on my face, scared the crap out of myself, and left the bike equipment where it lay.

Here is a sneak peek of details from the first of my drawings, in progress, titled Body Count, Friday the 13th.

body count drawing 1

body count drawing 1

body count drawing 1

body count drawing 1

body count drawing 1

body count drawing 1

For those who are curious there are 11 deaths (athough 3 took place in the past and it is revealed that 1 of the “dead” may in fact be “undead”).