Bright Balloons & Warm Nights...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope this week finds you all doing well out there! I have so many things to share and I can't wait to get started.

First, I am working on a ton of photo projects behind the scenes that I will be releasing very soon. Some client work, some artistic work, the big secret project I've been alluding to for months. Patience Pets, patience!

Meanwhile, I was recently asked to do a painting for a very special girl's birthday. She actually has several pieces of my work and apparently likes what I do, which is great. I haven't painted in years. (I've put all my creative energy into photography, a medium I find much more gratifying executionally.) It was odd sketching something out and getting the brushes going. But soon I was creating the crazy for which I'm known. Hahaha. This one is a doozy. I will reveal shots of that painting next post (can't spoil the surprise for the birthday girl, can I?).

I had an entire day free this past weekend (an occurrence so rare, I honestly can't remember the last time it happened) and it just so happened that the Great Falls Balloon Festival was happening a short distance north of me, so I decided to go! I met a friend and we had such fun. The day was beautiful, the balloons went up without incident and most importantly, there was fried dough and I got some. Mmm. So good. So not good for you. Oh well. Anyway, here are some shots from the day. I think the most memorable moment was that one-man balloon below. When that balloon got high enough for the crowd to see that it was being flown by one man on what basically amounted to a lawn chair, there was a collective gasp and I felt my heart go into my stomach a little bit. But he seemed happy... Jeez.

I also started a great book over the weekend that I highly recommend: Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Heard of it? No? Well, it's fascinating so far and it's not even that long. I was sucked right in and I'll probably read it in a week or so. If you like fiction, do it. You won't regret it. I took it to one of our local parks that's old, and beautiful and serene with big trees and silence and it was sort of the best afternoon ever.

And let me wrap up by turning you onto an alternative modeling agency out of Berlin that I found recently via Pinterest. We Are Unlike You is absolutely amazing to me. These people are beautiful and unique and I love that they have an agency that represents their looks. I think the U.S. needs something like this, don't you? Just look at these wonderful people...

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Dark Lakes... Hidden Depths

Hello Lovelies!

For those of you in the U.S., I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I spent the weekend with friends at the lake cooking out, having laughs, going out in the boat. It was a beautiful hot weekend and it made me realize why I love living in Maine all over again. I got some nice shots which I'll post next week for you Lovelies.

My weekend was like this, only no one ended up eaten...

I am starting a couple of little projects this week to keep things fresh. First, I will be listing some very small original paintings in the shop, more about that next post, but you'll want to check them out because they're going to be affordable and I rarely list original work in my store. I also may add more lockets to the shop. I'm down to one right now, and I think it offers something completely different for my Lovelies who like pretty things. Stay tuned.

I have found another wonderful artist that I want to share. Lesley Reppeteaux's work is dark and creepy and also beautiful and graceful. The eyes especially are haunting; they're empty, yet convey emotion somehow. She has work in several shows right now, and I would love to see some of her pieces in person. Amazing stuff.

And have you seen the work of Femke Hiemstra? Another amazing artist who combines pop culture references with Mark Ryden-esque characters and paints on found objects; tins, books, signs. Her work is beautiful, detailed and wonderful. Take a look.

It's been awhile since I've posted some Covetables. (Items that I'm coveting in various stores on Etsy.) So, here is a fresh one for you. I decided to list an item I love from the most recent 8 stores I've hearted. Go check them out, they're pretty neat.

1.) curster

2.) enamorphoto

3.) kengarduno

4.) touristrevolution

5.) kecky

6.) helllllen

7.) flightpathdesigns

8.) inaluxe

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Dark Harlequins

Hello Lovelies~

I hope all is well in your worlds. Things are busy as usual in the Mill. I just wrapped up 4 paintings for a new show at my gallery entitled the Dark Harlequin series. This is the first series I've done where I've painted on found objects. In this case, I took some lithos from the 60's and embellished them with darkness. Take a look (more images here).

I will finally be wrapping up the Cigar, Creeper & Dark Circus and Sideshow series with a final piece in the next couple of weeks. Once that piece goes up, I will also be listing the entire set of prints for one price if you've been watching the series and like the whole thing, so keep your peepers peeled for that.

Oh! And I promised to show you all my cool art find from Brimfield in this week's post. Here she is. It's a large stencil art vampiress that I plan to hang in our guest room to freak out visitors... hehehe. I love the colors and the execution and I'm lucky to have it.

I found another great illustrator on Etsy, but his portfolio is even better. Ken Garduno's work is by turns dark, cartoonish and sexy. Look at the two illustrations below, very neat work. Oh, here is his shop.

And in anticipation of my new photo series that I will reveal soon, I wanted to share the work of Joshua Hoffine who also does very dark photography. (My new series won't be this dark... yikes.) One of the most interesting things for me about Josh's work, is he explains his process on his blog and it's fascinating to see how he does his shots. Plus, his work is effective in that it makes my skin crawl. I think that's the point?

Until next time... unpleasant dreams.

Fairs and Dark Affairs...

Hello Lovelies-

Well, I hope this weekend found you all well and in good spirits. I was busy as usual, but before I get into all that, I want to thank my friend Valerie over at the wonderful Cabin and Cub blog for giving me the Blog Friends Award, which is described thus: "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement." Wow, I've never been called "non-self-aggrandizing" before! Very sweet. Thank you Valerie!

Moving on, I have been working like a mad-woman to get my inventory ready for the Old Port Festival this coming Sunday. This will be my first fair so I'm nervous and excited! I think I've thought of everything... hahaha. I will take some pics of the booth and put them up next week.

Despite being busy, I have put up three new art photos in the shops, they're more architectural than my work usually is, but I still went for the darkness that I think we all love at this point. They are entitled: Fried Clams, Green Dragon, and Seahorse Palace:

Oh! And haven't I found the most wonderful artist on Etsy recently! The shop is called Vintage Dreams and he's not lying... I don't know where to start with the amount of awesome this shop is, the pieces aren't cheap (because they're one of a kind art pieces), but I think they're beautiful. That Seeing Eye Camera is funny and strange and dark and so of course... I'm coveting it.

Let's finish her up with a news story, and you know it's going to be a doozy. Did you read about the squirrel that lives in a tree near a military cemetery at Port Huron, MI? Yeah, he's been making a nest out of American flags that people put on veterans' graves for awhile now. "How did anyone figure this out?" You ask. Well, the flags were being yanked off at the sticks and cemetery workers thought it was an act of vandalism... until they saw the squirrel take a flag off and carry it up to its nest. Seriously? Strange and sort of cute...

Until next time: unpleasant dreams!

Why Fish?

Hello Lovelies-

Well, first I would like to say that my blog just received the Kreativ Blogger Award from a blog called Blasphemy which was very nice. I wish I could understand how to pass these things along to others, but I get to about step 45 Appendix B and I lose interest folks. Oh, and I swapped my Maine ACEO (mentioned a few posts ago... scroll down) with this lovely and talented Etsy seller, she was happy to get it!

Last night I went out with some good friends for sushi in Portland (Maine) and it was good as always. I just don't know how they make squid taste so good, but it's like you're not even eating tentacles when you get it grilled there. Mmm. 

And speaking of fish, I wanted to show you all one of my fish tanks. I am a lover of aquariums; old books on them, pictures, city aquariums, pretty much anything dealing with them. A couple of years ago I got this little beauty off of Ebay and it didn't even hold water. But with a little love about about 3 tubes of silicone Wallah! Here she is. I have three large goldfish in there and they didn't want to sit still.

    

And following the fish theme, this is our Mahi Mahi that's in the upstairs hall. He needs a name. Suggestions? More photos of the strange and unusual stuff we have to come...

And I can't leave off without a little bit of art so I'll say this, I will post some pics of the scratchboard pieces tomorrow. I have been too busy filling orders because of the print sale (yay!) to work on them this week, but I'm putting the nose to the grindstone tomorrow.

Unpleasant dreams!

Girls who spy...

Hello Lovelies!

So I've been working on a new set of illustrations for the shop that I'm really excited about. I can't reveal anything yet because they are still in the sketch phase. But they play with the idea of female spies throughout history. (Not ACTUAL female spies, just women in period clothing because history is a bit boring to me.) The point is, they're going to be neat and I will probably post them this weekend.

I wanted to share with you kids some pics I took down by the pier near where I live. It was a beautiful day and the post with the face on it made me laugh for some reason. He looks like Redi (sp?) Kilowatt in concrete.

There's a really cool gallery in Portland called SPACE that's very progressive and they always have something neat going on. Last night, I went to an artist show-and-tell night where people had 6 minutes to talk about slides of their work. It was interesting and I saw some neat works and it made me realize most artists should get reps to do their public speaking for them while they stay in the studio. But overall, very neat. If you live near Portland, check it out.

Oh, and a random bit of strange news as usual, did you kids hear about the courthouse in Florida that is completely infested with mice? Mice, running around during trials and sleeping in peoples' purses? Literally so many, they're falling through the ceiling? The facility manager said he's "Put down a few traps" but really folks, is a few going to be enough? Sounds to me like they might want to look into a blow torch and some gasoline at this point.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams.

Delivering the Goods...

Well Hello Lovelies!

The last couple of days have been pretty busy up in the studio. First, I added the finishing touches to the clown paintings, dirtied them all up so they look old and sideshow banner-like. 

Take a look:

I will be offering prints of these clowns at my shop so fear not my Lovelies. Or, you may come by the gallery if you live in Maine and get the originals!

I'm also pulling some of my other paintings out of my shop and putting those on consignment, this will give me room to add more exciting things and it gives me a chance to offer another look at the gallery. These may look familiar if you've ever visited:

And while we're on a circus theme, this is a photo I just submitted to a photo competition recently (fingers crossed gang). This photo was styled, shot and manipulated by me and it touches on the idea of animal cruelty in the modern-day circus. Prints will be available in the shop next week.

Whew! That's all for now Pets. Though I have a bit of sad news for you, the Guinness World Record holder for the longest fingernails just lost 28 feet of nails when she was thrown from her SUV in an accident and they broke off. Luckily, she wasn't hurt, but her fingernails are another story. Needless to say... Until next time: unpleasant dreams.