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.

Squid & Octopi, Oh My!

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are all well out there. I have been busy, busy over here as usual. To start, I just did a really different portrait shoot for a contest that I entered. The contest asked you to push the envelope of traditional portraiture. I think I did it with these, don't you? The rest are on my Flickr stream here. And thank you to my little model for braving the seagulls for me. You'll be seeing more of her in my Christmas imagery.

What else? Oh! Two exciting things over at my shop. First of all, I'm doing some house cleaning and I have moved some of my older work, and all of my cards to a Soon to be Discontinued section and I have discounted those prices 50%! Great prints and cards at lower prices for your holiday shopping.

Secondly, I am having a 12 SALES OF CHRISTMAS promo for my Facebook fans only. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next month, I will feature an item or items and give you a promo code for 20% off until the next sale day. I started today and all lockets are on sale until Wednesday! Go like the page and get the deals.

I have some amazing new work I'll be posting very soon, but until then, I thought I'd share this great little painting I found recently and hung up in my office. It was $5 because the frame was loose! Totally worth it. I love the Wuthering Heights feel of those cliffs and that tree. Great stuff.

And on the cephalopod theme, my Sweetie had a birthday yesterday and I decided to make it really special. So, I booked a tattoo session for her and let her pick out any image she wanted. She happened to pick out The Creature From the Black Lagoon which her amazing tattoo artist then combined with a squid in a fight to the death. This tattoo is amazing and she's delighted. Check it out:

And then, keeping with the theme, Bridget, a very good friend of ours, artist and owner of Inventing Trees, decided to part with one of her favorite pieces so I could give it to my Sweetheart for her birthday. This piece is huge and vibrant and so well done. We are delighted to have it in our home and it already has a special place. Her work is amazing.

I will leave you with this amazing photo to make your week a little brighter; a wee octopus. Adorable, isn't it?

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...