Show & Tell...

Hello Lovelies!

Well, it was a busy weekend for The Stapelia Company. I did the Picnic Art Show here in Portland and it was wonderful! The people were great, the work was spectacular and the people watching... well needless to say. I took some pics of the booth as promised and my booth-mate Meghan of Meghan Donahue's Jewelry and I even got into the local paper! Check it out...

Also, I am working on a few original pieces for the shop for Halloween. I am delving back into scratchboard because it's perfect for creepy Halloween work. This series will be entitled the Night Revery series. There will be 4 in all and they will come matted in mattes from The Curiosity Shoppe so basically they're going to rock. I'll keep you posted. Here are some preliminary sketches...

I am also working on 5 pieces for my gallery that will be part of the Down the Rabbit Hole exhibit for October which will of course be both Alice in Wonderland inspired and wonderful. These are in the very beginning phases so I will keep you posted my Lambs.

Speaking of wonderful, I have found a new letterpress studio that pretty much embodies my aesthetic in everything they do. I love it all. Aesthetic Apparatus does both design work via letterpress and pieces of limited edition artwork available on their site. If I had unlimited wall space and resources what wouldn't I buy from these kids? Really... Here are some examples. Check them out.

And let's wrap up with a new story, shall we? Of course we shall. Did you all read about the new drug Latisse that's supposedly able to thicken your eyelashes? Originally intended to help burn victims recover and thicken their eyelashes, this drug is now being purchased by women who feel their eyelashes are "inadequate." And speaking of facial hair, Brian Peterkin-Vertanesian recently petitioned the Guinness Book of World Records to recognize "Wally" his 6 3/8 inch eyebrows as the world's longest... Come on folks. Really? All the issues in the world and we have this? Unbelievable...

And let me say to wrap up, I just learned that Patrick Swayze has succumbed to cancer. What a damn shame. Poor thing. A great actor and a good person, he will be missed.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Lights in the Dark...

Hello Lovelies!

Well, I hope this post finds you all doing well. Things here are really busy as usual, in a good way of course. I am getting the last few things finished up for the Picnic Art Show this Saturday in Portland, Maine. I am making the booth look like a carnival tent complete with sawdust and peanuts! I've found some neat old boxes and barrels to hold everything and more surprises to come because I'll take photos of course. Come if you can!

All the preparation hasn't kept me from putting some new photography up in the shop. The 3 pieces below are entitled Neosho Nougat, Chicago Coin Carnival and Grapevine Hair respectively. Grapvine would go well with the other faces of various types I have in the shop. (Can you tell they're my favorite?) That and neon, and there's more of that on the way too! Oh, and I just started offering different print sizes for all of my photography so you can get the weirdness poster size now! ;)

And the buttons have arrived! I will post those this weekend, they're very cute.

Now on to some good discoveries for you Lambs. First, some of you may have seen the cult classic Carnival of Souls about a woman who dies in a car accident and then wanders through the whole movie as a ghost or whatever. Well, the creepiest aspect of the movie centers around a huge abandoned amusement park on the water. A little trivia for you, this park is called Saltair and it's located in Utah. Unfortunately, the websites on this park basically suck and it looks like they've restored it, but I've dug up a few good shots for you and it's still really odd and creepy in my opinion, thus, I'm passing it on to you Kids.

And speaking of creepy, how about a movie review? It's been awhile so here goes... If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing Black Xmas yet, you're really missing out folks. (The "X" is meant to differentiate it from the 1974 "classic" Black Christmas... riiight.) So, the basic plot centers around a sorority house (of course) full of moody horribly poor actors. As they guzzle booze and cat fight, the neighborhood insane asylum goes one loony short. Pour into a pan and bake folks because we all know what's coming. That's right, murder and lots of it! From suffocations to stabbings to getting baked in the oven and eaten like a gingerbread man, what this movie lacks in plot/acting/budget it makes up for in gore so of course... I'm giving it 5 full corn cobs. Check it out if you have a free night. ;) (And I'm not sure why she's missing her eyes down there, I don't think that happened in the movie...)

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Halloween Circus...

Hello Lovelies!

Prepare yourselves, this is going to be a long (but good) one. First off, I'm happy to announce that Cigar, Creeper & Dark cards are now available in the shop for Halloween or that eccentric friend. I even matted them with an old photo matte I scanned in and modified. Check them out!

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In a mere week (September 12th) I will have a booth at the 2nd Annual Picnic Art Show in Portland, Maine. I am SO excited! This will be such a talented group of people, I'm glad I was accepted. Consequently, I'm stepping it up and I'm doing a circus theme in my booth. That's right, pennants, sawdust, peanuts, the full nine yards. I even made a pair of circus pants with suspenders (not to be confused with clown pants) for the occasion! [See the pic below.] I think it will be great. Oh! And I ordered some huge photo prints [16 x 20] to display/sell at Picnic from iprintfromhome and they are beautiful, truly. They're so great, I plan to offer large format prints in my shop upon request... so FYI on that. I will take plenty of booth pics and post them here next week. Wish me luck!

On to wonderful things I've discovered. If you haven't visited the Morbid Anatomy blog you are missing out! Covering everything from tombs to medical oddities to sideshows and circuses all with beautiful pictures, articulate write-ups and links, this is the cream of the blog crop in my opinion. Check it out.

Coming from this blog, I learned about a pretty cool place that I plan to visit if I'm ever in San Francisco, CA. The Musee Mecanique is a museum that houses the world's biggest privately owned collection of coin-operated machines, music boxes and slot machines. From the homepage with that laugh that makes you want to run for the hills or punch something to the dusty apparatuses themselves... this looks like it would be a hoot to see.

Totally random, the Halloween issue of Martha Stewart Living is out and I don't know about you, but I look forward to it every year. (I know, I know, it's Martha), but the ideas get me inspired to create some creepiness and ironically (since I'm making a hearse card set this year), Martha is on the cover as a haunted equestrienne. Check it out!

And let's wrap up with some humor, shall we? Sure we shall. Did you Gentle Lambs read about Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama's wife who wrote a book claiming she has in fact been abducted by aliens and taken to Venus in a "triangular-shaped UFO"?! She also believes Tom Cruise was Japanese in a former life. All of these adventures are chronicled in her novel entitled Very Strange Things I've Encountered... Riiiiight. I don't think I need to read that book to know the ending...

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...