It's a Wrap!

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are all well out there. A lot to share as usual. To start, I have finished and posted my entire Clue series (including some fun candids) on Flickr and of course, Facebook. All of the shots are now available as fine art prints in my shop as well. More importantly, I am in the process of designing a small fine art book of the entire series that I plan to make available via Blurb when it's complete if you're interested in the entire set plus some history and candids. I will announce that when it's up and ready. I have gotten very positive feedback on this series so far. Thank you again to everyone who helped.

As I mentioned last post, I made my annual trek to the Brimfield Antique Show this past weekend. It was a blast as always. The weather was perfect and I found some great items both for the house and for future shoots. I am also planning a new little venture in the coming months, and you may see some of these items there soon! The rest of the haul can be seen here.

This was actually a late birthday gift from my parents. They know I love Shriner stuff. All hand-lettered and amazing...

This beautiful, strange and sultry painting was $12! I love her.

Some beautiful vintage formal vests and a tie. These will be used in shoots. They're coming back into vogue and you can't find them anywhere anymore.

Swim trunks, also for a shoot.

Speaking of vintage goodness, have you heard of Nadine Boughton? She calls herself a photographer, but her most recent work is actually collage. She combines pulp adventure covers with Better Homes and Gardens and various other idyllic living magazines to create funny and fresh imagery. Each one makes me laugh a little on the inside. Check them out!

I'd like to wrap up by showing off two photos I found at Brimfield. This first one reminded me so much of Alfred Hitchcock standing among cherry blossoms I had to look twice. Yes, it's somewhat out of focus, but I still adore it.

The second photo has a funny story behind it. My Sweetie and I were looking through a booth, and she picked up a mirror with a nude girl on the back of it. The man running the booth said: "Oh, you girls like interesting stuff, huh? Check this pile out." He handed us a stack of great vintage pin-ups and risque items (all harmless and quite funny by today's standards). My eyes lit up when I saw this snapshot taken of a canvas sign on a tent for a carnival burlesque show! I scored it for $1 and a little piece of history is mine.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Snow White Reloaded...

Hello Lovelies!

As usual, I have much to share so I'll just jump right in and get started. First, I showed you a teaser last week of a shoot I did using a glittery apple. Well, that is done and I have named it Snow White Reloaded. The client wanted a sexy, sultry modern Snow White in an urban landscape. I think we nailed it, don't you? See the rest here.

For the first shot, I painted the little cartoon birds by hand and added them in later. (I will basically do anything I can to make a shot unique, is my point.) :)

What else? Oh, I did my big Clue (Cluedo for you European folks) shoot over the weekend! What a great time. I shot at a great venue, the Portland Maine Masonic Temple courtesy of Blue Elephant. There were so many people and so many details to keep track of, and yet, I had such a great group, we got some stellar shots. I think you will enjoy them for sure. Until then, here are just some of the amazing details in the building itself. Perfect Clue venue, isn't it?

And I have a winner for my Gather the Clues challenge on Facebook! Andrew Levy gathered all of the clues I left on Twitter over the last week and posted them in order on my Facebook wall today. He will receive one professionally printed Clue print of his choice when those are complete and listed in my store! Congrats, Andrew!

What else? Oh! As you all know, I am a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan and one of my favorites by him is Rear Window. (While I of course adore The Birds and Psycho, there's something about Jimmy Stewart being stuck in that wheelchair while witnessing all sorts of nefarious deeds that makes things tense and wonderful.) So, imagine my surprise when I saw this amazing time lapse creation by Jeff Desom on The Black Harbor that uses After Effects to stitch together the entire movie into one huge piece of film! Check it out:


 And let's wrap up with a recommendation. As you know, I frequent the thrift stores for props, clothes and the occasional LP for my growing collection. Last week, I came across a small stack of Rusty Warren records. Heard of her? She was a comedienne in the 60's who did cutting edge stand-up routines about sex and men and women, sort of the precursor to a ton of stuff we see today. And it's still funny stuff. Well, I just found out that the stack of records I rescued for $5 is worth close to $200! They're rare apparently. So, if you see any by her, snap them up and put them on Ebay. I have these, plus a couple more in my collection. (Aren't those covers amazing?)

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

It's Raining Pom-Poms...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are all doing well out there! So much to share this week, as usual. To start, I shot an amazing engagement session last weekend and I wanted to share some of the finished shots with you. We shot out at an abandoned boys camp and braved bats, ticks and spiders to get these amazing shots. More can be seen on my Flickr page. Thank you to all the amazing people who helped and to Erik and Sarah for letting me play! If you're local to Maine and want a beautiful (and fun) session of your own, contact me!

I also just wrapped a shot for another client that I'll give you a hint about. Yeah, that's an apple with black glitter on it. What do you think we were shooting? Any idea? I should be posting those final images next week!

And, I have an amazing shoot coming up this weekend that's the biggest one I've ever done! We are shooting a Clue-inspired shoot in a great old building in the area, complete with butler, victim and of course, all the usual suspects. In fact, I am posting an image clue a day for the next week on my Twitter page. Gather all 7 clues and be the first person to name them all in order on my Facebook wall and you win the Clue print of your choice once I post them for sale in my shop. Make sense? 7 clues via Twitter, post them first in order on my Facebook wall next Monday, get a print. And for my blog followers, here is the first one I posted today! (That's the Colonel Mustard shirt getting dyed by yours truly... I have the orange thumbs to prove it!)

All these shoots have me trolling the Goodwill stores for pieces and I found a couple of items I had to buy for future shoots, or I may sell them. A vintage Pendleton men's shirt with a nice, bright plaid on it and I bright red wool men's vest. You never know what you'll find!

Have you heard of Christina Ung? She's an illustrator with a sort of James Jean style who makes slightly unsettling but always beautiful and delicate work. She ran a promo recently where she'd send you an art postcard signed if you sent her $1 shipping. Well, I did it because I loved the image and sure enough, I got it the other day! Take a look at her portfolio... good stuff.

Until next time... unpleasant dreams.

Little Engagement in the Woods...

Hello Lovelies!

I hope you are all well out there this week. I have a lot to share as usual. To start, I shot an amazing engagement session yesterday out in the woods by a lake and the crew and myself braved bats, spiders and ticks to get some amazing shots. I will be sharing those photos next week, I promise. Also, I am getting ready to shoot an amazing conceptual project at the end of the month and I shared a tiny hint on my Facebook wall last week so I'll pass it along to you Lovelies as well. Below is a hat I designed and made expressly for the shoot. It will be worn by Ms. Peacock. Can you guess what I'm shooting???

It was also my birthday this past weekend and I had a wonderful time celebrating with my friends and loved ones. The images below give you just a glimpse. A little hibachi dinner action with plenty of saki squirted into open mouths and a wonderful art doll from my very good friend Bridget over at InventingTrees (a doll who needs a name now that he's keeping my other art dolls company in my studio, any thoughts???). I wrapped it all up with a little gift to myself; a new record: Sleepwalk Guitars Dan & Dale play Thunderball. It's a great mix of tropical and jazz guitar mixed with some steel guitar for flavor. But really, it was the album cover that reeled me in... what's with the girl in the scuba outfit? I just don't know...

What else? Oh! I found an amazing site I wanted to share: Dear Photograph. Heard of it? It's such a great site and such a unique idea. Basically, people pick a photo that means something to them, and then they hold that photo in front of the location where it was taken, in some cases, many, many, years later. What you get is the past juxtapositioned on the present and the captions are also fascinating. Here are some examples, but check out the rest.

And I want to wrap up with some cute, twisted art for those of you out there who love things that are cute, but twisted. Artist Kristin Tercek has an entire line of paintings called Cuddly Rigor Mortis that convey everything from lychee zombies to oranges juicing themselves to death to skunks that emit noxious fumes. But their huge heads, big eyes and small bodies make them adorable. Twisted, isn't it?

 Until next time: unpleasant dreams.