Celebrating the economic downturn, I'm inviting everyone to RKO Video and South Philly Comics for the opening of Gods & Monsters, a collection of my work from University of the Arts. In addition to the drawings and paintings on display, I will will also have skateboards, shirts, and pins. No prints will be for sale, with the exception of the Kids series, because I don't believe in them. If you like the art enough, you'll buy it. Besides, I'm making it all very affordable. Hope to see you there.

Google It

For anyone interested in juvenile criminal justice in the cyber age, look into the Victoria Lindsay case from 2008 that took place in Polk County, Florida. I spent eight months researching the criminals and victims of cyber-bullying and found that youth of tomorrow will no doubt resemble the paranoid science-fiction of today. The motives involved in cyber crime usually include, a desire of fame and mastery, both of which contributed to the downfall of Lindsay. Posted are images from my Masters Thesis Exhibition at University of the Arts from December 2008. If you think I'm crazy for believing our lives will be handed over to machines, google it. 

With the economy in the crapper, I've been searching for some older work to post related to my thoughts about capitalism. I found a few that I produced onto skateboards in the 1990's under raped inc. Luckily, I also found my noted for this graphic as well. "Always keep the originals of your artwork. Always make a copy. Always send the copy to production in case something goes wrong. The climb of the cooperate ladder created many problems, most difficult being the loss of the original artwork that I foolishly sent to the printer where it was misplaced. In hindsight, it would have been worthwhile to redraw the bodies entirely, but as luck would have it I only mailed the background stock market numbers. If I had the chance to do this over again, I would have drawn the bodies directly onto the newspaper. At this point (2000), raped inc. was losing it's fire, and rather than make a meaningless graphic, I decided to end it after 12 boards and five years. I had grown tired of debating with people about how irresponsible I was for using the word raped for "commercial profit and other nonsense." Besides, I had said everything I wanted to with raped inc. and wanted to do something different. The inspiration for the composition of bodies came from Gericaut's The Raft of Medusa, 1819.

Slapstik of the Living Dead

After thirteen years of making skateboards, three of those years devoted to skateboards with zombies, I've decided to move on. I've haven't moved away from skateboards, but I am moving towards illustrating Mother Goose fairy tales, Greek Mythology, and the Brothers Grimm. See here are the remaining Slapstik of the Living Dead products left in stock. I've got a few Slit Throat shirts, about 4 Living Dead Television decks, and 1o Jesus Zombie decks. 5 of the Jesus decks are available signed. Everything else only gets touched by me. Sorry. Otherwise the Jesus decks wouldn't be special. If you like it, let me know. If you don't, wait until I do mythology. 

My second year of grad school at University of the Arts I took a course focusing on diaspora . The class was a once in a lifetime experience...to say the least. As an African American artist, I've never felt pressured to make "black" art, until this class. There have been times when my decisions and interest were questioned by others as unfamiliar to "black" behavior, but anything I've done was a reflection of myself. Not an attempt to be black, white, popular, or different. If anything, I've been consistently honest with my art. This body of work is called skin. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Stephanie Dorfman

Now that I'm done with school I can finally concentrate on painting for fun, and money. Painting my friends seemed like a good starting place, for fun, which will hopefully lead to painting strangers, for money. The work shown at my MFA thesis exhibition got me an extension on the watercolors to be shown at the Urban Outfitters space at the Naval Yard in Philadelphia, Pa. Hopefully things will continue to grow.

Stephanie Dorfman watercolor on paper 8"x9"

raped inc. skateboards

In  1996 I decided to ignore the better marketing judgement of my peers and started raped inc. skateboards.  For the next five years I rarely held back my opinions on politics, social issues, free market capitalism, and religion.  Above are the majority of the stickers made between 1996 and 2001.  The only one that's missing from my collection says "raped inc. not sold here" which were generally placed on the windows and doors of skateshops that declined to sell my products.  I'll post the board graphics soon to give you a better idea why the company wasn't received well.