"I draw rotting corpses all day, I have never been happier. "

A few months ago I came across the art of Aurel Schmidt on Tiny Vices and, basically, can't get over it. Schmidt takes a simple medium: paper, pencil, maybe some pencil crayon and creates these elaborate, sickeningly detailed drawings. She shares a bit about her methods here. I dig the part where she talks about making angsty, satanic drawings as a teenager. She states, "Now I have come full circle, I draw rotting corpses all day, I have never been happier." Her pieces border an almost indistinguishable line between decadence and decay.

For example "Hair Face":




and "Weeping Woman":



Cheeks made of cigarettes? A maggoty grin? Why not? Schmidt's juxtaposition between disgust and appeal works for me. I hope she has a show in Portland soon. I'd love to examine these in person.


I sense a similar aesthetic behind the Rodarte collections. Like this from fall 2010 :

Collaboration anyone?