Strange Days and Zombie Chickens...

Hello Lovelies!

I hope today finds you all doing well. I've been busy as usual over here in the Mill Tower my Pretties. First, I got the most hilarious blog award ever today from my friend over at The Clay Muse. The Zombie Chicken Award is awarded to "bloggers who regularly produce content so remarkable their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to read their inspiring words." Hahaha. Oh my goodness that's rich. I love it. Thank you Clay Muse!

I have listed some new photos in the shop that are taking it back to the darker side of Stapelia folks. I've played the bright, carnival, cartoonish bit for awhile and now, it's back to graveyards and fortune telling magicians. The three photos below are entitled Dinoil, Ask Alexander and Beckoning. I hope you like them. They're really beautiful in person.

And, I have found a wonderful shop on Etsy that I wanted to share with all of you. The Handsome Panda has the most covetable little charms featuring vintage figures and animals and whatnots. This one is a particular favorite, called Meditating Gnomie... needless to say. Love it!

I would like to wrap up with another vintage movie review. We're going to do Sci Fi (I use this term loosely) this go around. If you haven't seen Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy with Jane Fonda, you need to go out and see it once you finish this paragraph. This movie is one of the best corny sci fi sex flicks I've ever seen. Wonderful costumes, plenty of sexual puns, and a blind angel with a gun up his loin cloth, this movie rates 5 corn cobs out of 5 folks. Check it out!

Until next time: unpleasant dreams!

Spring has sprung...

Hello Lovelies~

Well, it was a gorgeous Saturday here in Maine that got pretty close to 80, so really, I can't complain. Also, I just got the wonderful news that I have been invited to be a part of the Sylvia Kania Gallery art co-op I mentioned in my last post!!! I'm very excited. This is a really neat and dynamic group of artists with a ton of good work. I'm flattered to be accepted. Speaking of which, here is Clyde, the second painting in the Bonny, Clyde & The Reaper series. Only one more to go...

Today I took a trip to a favorite local antique mall to scope out the cool junk. Now, I am a collector of many things and one of the things I love is antique barware; stemware, highball glasses, stirrers, books, etc... Cocktails used to be such an art form and I love to see all the accessories they used to use to create them and bar books are a hoot and usually have really nice artwork inside. So, today my score was a nice martini pitcher and the large owl glasses below which just happened to match the two smaller ones I already had! And I thought I'd throw in another pic of a special piece I got for Christmas. This is rare antique ceremonial Shriner's champagne glass. Shriners and champagne, two of my favorite things!

  

I've discovered another artist I'd like to share. When I saw Travis Lampe's work I admired his paintings of course, but the sense of humor both he and his paintings have cracked me up. Most of his creations feature things crying and he has a series of successful vinyl toys called Teardrips that I'm coveting. The two below are some favorites; the unicorn with the gut and the broken rainbow and the man doing a trust fall with a hot dog... priceless.

And did you Lovelies read about the poor 5-month pregnant woman who, in an attempt to escape from an attacking black bear, ran out into the middle of the road and got hit by a car? Luckily, she and the baby are okay. But come on, talk about bad luck. Is this real life?

Until next time: unpleasant dreams.

Dark Musings...

Hello Lovelies!

Well, as usual, the business first and then we can play. I need to mention a couple of fellow artisans and bloggers who lately have mentioned or featured me in their blogs. First, an absolute favorite of mine, Cabin & Cub has given me the Kreative Blogger award! If you're unfamiliar with her work, this collage is entitled Dancing Donkey:

And Stella over at Laundry (a wonderful blog), did a little feature on The Stapelia Company after she saw one of my items on Etsy. Thank you Stella! 

As some of you may or may not know, I have a pretty important meeting tomorrow with a gallery in the area to show some of my work and hopefully (fingers crossed), get accepted into their art collective. I am doing a series of 3 paintings just for the meeting. It will be entitled Bonny, Clyde & The Reaper. Here is the first, Bonny, which is a totally new style I'm playing with. How do you like it? Wish me luck gang!

  

I have discovered (or rather rediscovered), another very talented artist on Etsy who also happens to be a fellow team member on Cabinet of Curiosities. Liza Corbett's work is dark and detailed and absolutely delicious. The piece with the hearts below, entitled Margot II - The Nest is really so great I can't say anymore.

  

And let me leave you with the usual humor/movie review/random observation. I just read an article about a woman whose underwire in her bra blocked a bullet and saved her life. Is this real life folks? Yep. She was shot through the window of her house and the bullet bounced off of her underwire and didn't even break the skin. Talk about Wonder Bra, huh?

Until next time: unpleasant dreams.

Mechanical Eye...

Hello Lovelies!

Well, I hope this weekend was good for all of you. We had some beautiful and chilly early spring weather up here in Maine so life is good. 

I have been working on some new photos that I just listed in the shops today. There is a lot of fodder for some moody and somewhat haunting imagery in Maine with all the mill towns and old signage. Here are a couple of new ones taken in Lewiston.

I'm starting to gear up for the Old Port Festival in June. It will be my first street festival selling my wares and I'm scared and excited. I'm partnering up with a wonderful local jeweler Meghan Donahue who is graciously showing me the ropes. I just ordered some promo stickers for the show to pass out. They go with the rest of my marketing materials and I think people will like them and want to stick them everywhere. (Except on public property of course.) Take a peek:

I have discovered yet another wonderful photographer who creates miniature worlds with little plastic figures. The Plastic Life series by photographer Vincent Bousserez is so wonderful it makes me wish I'd thought to do that. Here are just a few examples:

 

And let me wrap up with a little movie review. You all may not know this, but I am a corny horror/sci movie buff. (Yes, it's ridiculous.) In light of this fact, I'm going to periodically review (I use this term loosely) corny flicks you need to see. House of Wax with Vincent Price is fantastic and the awesome idea of making waxworks from the dead overshadows the lack of a plot, total implausibility of the entire premise, and the "3-D-a-rama" effect that they tout that is virtually non-existent. (This doesn't however keep them from showing fight scenes and rubber ball paddling [you have to see it to know to what I am referring] from bizarre angles to show this "3-D"effect off. And I swear in one scene... one of the heads looks like Jim Belushi. Very strange and wonderful. I give this one 4 corn cobs. Check it out.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams.

It's all about you...

Hello Lovelies!

I want to start off with a small piece of business, I have been Indie Spotted again! Looks like Hookah made the cut which was very nice.

And now I'm dedicating the rest of this post to other artists whose work I think deserves a little attention. I've mentioned before that I'm part of the Cabinet of Curiosities team on Etsy chock- full of artisans who create some pretty unique things from soap to jewelry to artwork all with a little bit of a dark side. Many don't know about this team so Covetables #2 displays only Cabinet items so you can get a little taste of the darkness...

1. penandpaper

2. bloodmilk

3. imogenefroward

4. gloilocksandbody (wonderful soap that's beautiful AND has some unusual scents)

5. twigsandheather

6. thecuriousnomad

7. swanbones

8. thunderwing

9. tartx

I was wandering around the Internet today doing a little research on albinism for a possible project and I stumbled across a man after my own heart. Matt Hoyle is a photographer whose collection entitled Barnumville features real sideshow performers who still perform at the few remaining venues in the U.S. all beautifully photographed in black and white. Go take a peek under the tent folks...

And I discovered another little gem of a website called Letter Pressed, I'm sure some of you have seen it. But there's an off-shoot with limited edition letter pressed art that is wonderful. Here are some samples:

   

Okay, enough playing around, off to do some new work. 

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Mission Accomplished...

Hello Lovelies!

A whole lot to cover... first of all, the Alice in Wonderland series is finally complete and the final piece entitled Mad as a Hatter is listed in both shops. I'm really happy with how it came out (and yes, those are skulls in the vase):

MAJOR BLOG FOLLOWER DISCOUNT: I have decided to give you loyal followers a break on the whole set. From April 13-20th, if you buy the set (it has its own listing), mention "BLOG" at check out, and I will reduce the price down to $55 for all 4. 

The Cabinet of Curiosities Team on Etsy (of which I am a member) has a Facebook fan page now. (For those not familiar with the COC Team, it's comprised of  "purveyors of wonderful, whimsical, odd and obsure delights" that really can't be found anywhere else.) Stop by the page and become a fan to keep up with all the wonderful doings of the Cabinet.

This past week I was featured in an Alice in Wonderland themed treasury. It sure is a handsome group of items (especially that leather rabbit mask that I'm now coveting).

Small world story for you folks. Last week, I found a wonderful web gallery of affordable and top-knotch original art called Enormous Tiny Art. I was so impressed I tweeted the link to let people know about this great discovery. Last weekend, I went down to Portsmouth for my birthday and I wandered into a gallery and things looked familiar and darned if it wasn't the actual gallery itself! I didn't even know it was that close. After seeing all these great pieces up close, I fell in love even more. Stop by folks.

And while in Portsmouth I picked up the cutest sticker and I thought I'd share. It looks like Camilla Rose Garcia's work (which I love), but it isn't. I don't think I can bring myself to actually stick it on something... 

Until next time: unpleasant dreams

Random Friday...

Hello Lovelies!

The week is winding down and while the final Alice in Wonderland piece is not done yet (I will list it this weekend, it's looking good so far), I still wanted to share some random stuff with you all.

First of all, I found the coolest artist/illustrator and I wanted to share her work with you. Ruth Ishbel Munro is her name and drawing creepy, unsettling and beautiful art is her game. Here are just a couple of pieces entitled Plunger and Carny (you know I have a weakness for the carnival stuff folks), I'm coveting these pieces and will probably get at least one.

And I've seen a lot of blogs lately that have pictured peoples' work spaces and I love when they do this because it gives me ideas and inspiration. So I've decided to post a couple pics of some of the art that I have in my studio that inspires me and makes me laugh. The first is a pic of a watercolor I did of the Scribner pulp cover for Isaac Asimov's I, Robot a couple of years ago. These were fun and I may get back into pulp cover paintings in the future. The rest is self-explanatory except the old airbrush gun that I have on the wall. I don't do airbrush, but I looooved the graphics on this piece and the bottle has a little man with a painter's hat on... cute.

And to leave you all with a little bit of the usual life humor/tragedy. Did you read about the grandma who tried to break up a sword fight between 2 people (sword fight?!) and ended up I guess getting stabbed and died? Again, a sword fight? What is this, the 1600s? Were they dueling? So sad and unfortunate. That's why you don't sword fight folks, tip for the future.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams.

Covetables...

Hello Lovelies-

I am going to do something a little different to start here folks. I have seen so many good things on Etsy here lately that I decided to start putting them together into Covetable Collections (that's the great thing about making up a word, you can choose how it's spelled) so you too can stop by these lovely shops. Here's the first:

1. Brooklyn Rehab

2. Polstar

3. Illustratedink

4. Karingrow

5. Wondercabinet

6. Peppermintdaydreams

7. Anagrampress

8. Kgrandey

9. Williamdohman

Whew. Really? Are there that many wonderful things that I'm coveting? Wonderful things.

And speaking of wonderful things, or rather wonderland the series is coming along nicely. Here is the third piece entitled Grin. It's in the shops and I'm starting on 4. Then the GIVEAWAYS BEGIN! That's right, I'm going to do 4 giveaways of the framed original works so keep an eye out for that.

More exciting news. Looks like yours truly has been invited to be part of an art collective here in Portland! I will let you all know more as I do. It will be a way for me to display some of my original paintings, (which I've all but abandoned in favor of my online items), but it looks like I'll be busting the brushes out here soon.

And let me leave you with a "huh?!" as usual here kind readers. Did you hear about the poor Japanese pop star who was dressed as a pineapple for a new music video and while shooting was accosted by a gang and beaten up? Now... I don't know which is worse; getting beaten up, or getting beaten up while dressed up like a pineapple. Sad. Who does that?!

Until next time: unpleasant dreams!

Very Important Date...

Hello Lovelies!

So, first off, a little business. As I'd mentioned in a previous post, I was trying to secure a booth at the Old Port Festival up here in Maine in June. I have one! So, if any of you are from here, or are visiting here, check it out. There is food, live music, face painting for the kids and artisans. The Stapelia Company will be one of the few non-jewelry vendors from what I understand so stop on by.

And, I have listed the second piece in the Alice in Wonderland series entitled Very Important Date tonight folks and it's really shaping up nicely. I'm getting the hang of this 3-D work and I'm having fun with it. Here she is:

Some of you asked to see a little more of the process behind these pieces so here are some pics of Very Important Date from start to finish. (The rest is just a little fairy dust and some eye of newt to get it juuuust right.)

      

And did you kids read about the guy who got a ticket for "drunk driving his bar stool?" I thought it was a metaphor and I wondered how he'd get ticketed for just sitting there. Then I saw the picture... of his motorized bar stool. It looked like a Rascal if Denny's made one (and for those not in the US, this is a diner). Not good folks, not good at all. If only that ingenuity had been put to better use.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams.