It’s Fall, It’s Progress!

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September 23rd marks the Autumnal Equinox, and SparkleBlob will go into OVERDRIVE for our most ambitious annual projects of the year!

When the clock strikes MIDNIGHT on October 1st, we will be launching GOTHTOBER for our 16th year! Our annual countdown calendar shall display the workings of 31 different artists, each new day revealing a different artist! What’s in there? Your guess is as good as ours! The theme this year is “Casino” and artists may follow the theme, or simply pick something “Halloweeny” for their piece.  At this point in our illustrious Gothtober career, we’ve got over 300 tiny films and projects in our archive. The original architecture for the majority of the calendars has been Flash, which will be officially DEAD in 2020. Thus, one of our plans is to build a comprehensive archive of all these amazing works that have been made for us over the years. www.gothtober.com 

December Preparation Abounds! Also, in the works, here’s a photo of myself (JP) with Jason Myers, the SparkleBlob Holiday Show Music Supervisor. We’re gearing up for our holiday show, Jason and I are writing a BRAND NEW HOME MADE HOLIDAY TUNE that we can’t WAIT to debut this December! It’s always lots of fun to visit Jason’s studio, it’s got a mess of stringed instruments hung on racks, and his desk and keyboard are covered with odds and ends, making me feel less terrible about all MY papers and odds and ends all over MY desk, lol. We both have messy studios, which, history reports, points to a more creative mindset. We’re making it work for us! This marks our first song-writing collaboration together, I wrote the lyrics, and Jason’s composing the tune, it’s called “Holidays in Your Face” which also might be the title of this year’s holiday puppet show, stay tuned!

~JP SparkleBlob
Executive Director

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SparkleBlob’s 2018 Recep (So Far!)

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Haven’t posted in awhile, WHY? It’s been a wonderfully busy year, there’s barely enough time to type!

Here’s what we’ve done so far:

March: Handed out 600 Super Sloppy Chili Dogs to Runners at the 7th Los Angeles Marathon

April:  Ran a Shrink Ray at Yuri’s Night underneath Space Shuttle Endeavor, and made beautiful little centerpieces for the VIP Section and also manned the VIP section

Later April: Daytime Crafts at the Women X Women event with the LGBT Center at Barnsdall Park

June: Colored/Decorated hygiene kits for the homeless with the Organization Down But Not Out, they were given to folks in DTLA.

Later June: Hosted an outdoor Poster Painting Party with City of West Hollywood at the LA Dyke March

4th of July: Lead a Postcard Jam Rally writing our representatives with Project Q

All Year Long: CraftNight every Wednesday, teaching arts and crafts to the masses, now in it’s 16th year! We’ve been having some earlier workshops before the crafts, we had the Red Cross come talk with us about disaster preparedness, had therapists from the LGBT Center come in and talk about self care during these turbulent times, and we’ve been collaborating with martial arts expert, Cory Klink, teaching self defense.

We’re quite pleased that we’ve cleverly tricked over 1000 Angelenos into crafting, cheering, handing out chili dogs, painting, dancing, writing postcards, writing letters, attending self defense classes, helping the homeless, using a shrink ray, coloring, marching in parades, being together, connecting with each other, and creating beautiful artistic chaos. Our lives are designed for contribution, therefore, we’re not sitting on our laurels one BIT. What’s coming up for the rest of the year? Oh… you’ll see (evil arty laughter here…)

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Welcome to a Brand New Year!

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What shall unfold in the year 2018? It’s hard to tell, last year was a doozy, there was no telling what would happen next. That’s kind of always how it is, but last year was… extra. It was extra in a way that was unpleasant, and mighty incomprehensible. So therefore, SparkleBlob is going to be “extra” this year, but in a GOOD way, performing our artistic mission in ways that will bolster our ever-percolating sparkle.

Off to a good start is our weekly program, CraftNight, beginning January 10th with an evening of sign painting, and then we’re hosting “Resistance – How to be an Activist Without Losing Your Mind” hosted by Linda Santiman, LMFT, LGBT Affirmative Therapist and Lauren Costine, PhD educator, activist, administrator, and author.

Last year (good riddance) marked an unrelenting and unprecedented assault on the First Amendment. We’re making sure that everyone knows the joys and rights of free speech in the good ol’ USA, and we’re going to have fun doing it. We’ve got paints, cardboard, brushes and all the materials, as well as handouts and tips for continued civic activism in an age of ramped-up shenanigans.

More info on FaceBook

Future “Winter Session” CraftNights will feature snow-themed crafts, and our monthly life-drawing session collaboration with Dr. Sketchys of Los Angeles!

We are here to share with you the miraculous gifts of your city, of it’s experiences and happenings, its messages and treasures. It can’t happen without you, in fact, you’re the integral ingredient of the whole thing, it’s how we open our hearts to each other and share our spirit. Peace, grace and beauty are worth working for, we have the facts and information to build, keep and preserve it together.

I’m not an optimist, but if I don’t look on the bright side, if I don’t have faith in human beings and the good that we’re capable of, what kind is that? What am I doing, walking around, being all arty? Who do I think I am?!? It’s actually who I have to be, since the alternative is bleak. I could just give up and eat all the cheetos, eventually expiring to the gloaming of the uncaring borg. That’s terrible and boring and doesn’t help anyone! I’d rather make art, and I’d rather do it with you. We are all connected, let’s keep doing that, better and better, every day.

Julianna Parr, Executive Director

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