Old Things & A Raccoon on a Leash...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope this week finds you all doing well out there! Things here have been so busy, I'm not blogging until Thursday! I have a ton to share as usual.

To start, I have a ton of photo shoots coming up that I can't wait to share with you. Client work, personal projects. It's turned into a very busy summer. Over the weekend, I was invited to a "Man Camp Carnival." What is that? Oh, it's a thing put on by an awesome friend of mine complete with a popcorn machine, cotton candy, fries and a ton of bouncy houses! He does it all just for fun and it was amazing. Here are some shots from that day. He even had temporary tattoos made!

I also recently went to the Brimfield Antique Show as I mentioned in my last post. I love going. The great finds, the people watching, the fair food, all add up to a very good time and this year was no exception. I saw a woman with a baby pet raccoon on a leash. That was an unexpected moment. And I found some things for STAG as well as myself, including some old board games (which I've never really collected, but now I might), great pieces of paper ephemera, suspenders, ties, coats, and even an old Boy Scout sleeping bag in fairly good condition. I've actually never seen one intact before, so I'll be offering that for sale to the BSA collectors out there. It has a great liner with Boy Scouts doing all sorts of camping things like building fires, pitching tents, tying knots... etc. Good stuff. Here are some pictures from the trip!

That shrunken head decal was pretty much amazing...

I found a complete 1949 game of CLUE for $1! Amazing.

Vintage wool men's bathing suit...

I found an amazing photo series recently that I wanted to share with you. Anthony Kurtz does some amazing work just in general, but his No Man's Job series is just stunning. The colors, the lighting the angles, all perfect. I really love it all. Take a look at a couple examples below and visit the link above to see more!

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Dark Playland...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope all is well out there in the world for you! Things here are busy as usual, but so much to share. First, I took a spin down to Old Orchard Beach to people watch and see the rides and to take some pictures. It's neat to live so close to such a big tourist attraction. A ton of vacationers from Quebec, Canada stay down there so it's chock full of craziness. Take a peek at my latest shots, more here.

I also turned some of those shots into my Welcome Swami gif. He reminds me of the Zoltar machine from Big. It's creepy, he kind of squeaks as he moves. It kind of looks like he'd climb down from there and eat small children and kittens at night to be honest. Regardless, he lives on my blog now and you may use him too. Enjoy!

Speaking of creepy, I recently read an article about Baron Georg Haas' dog collection at Castle Bitov. I say collection, because the 51 dogs are stuffed. You heard me. Apparently, Baron Haas was an animal lover who had his favorites taxidermied upon their deaths. The Baron has been dead for many years, but his dogs are still cared for and remain in pristine condition. They're the big attraction at Castle Bitov, in fact. That's taking eccentricity to a whole new level, folks.

And going to the other end of the scale, we have these adorable and highly styled kids, featured on the Marie Claire Italy site. The sets, the clothes, the children themselves? Amazing work here. I don't know how the photographer got them to look so mature (and plotting), but he did it in spades. The little girl in blue is my favorite.

Exciting new work coming next week, standby!

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Candy Apple Darkness...

Hello Lovelies!

Well, fall is in full swing, and the wind definitely has a bite to it. I hope this Monday finds you all doing well out there.

I have finally completed the Zom-B-Vex series! With 15 pieces in all, it is my largest (and most popular) series so far. And, due to a number of requests, I have decided to offer a 15 month calendar featuring each piece. I will list this calendar in the coming weeks. It would make a perfect holiday gift for those who like to laugh... and/or kill zombies. Take a look at some of the final pieces!

I posted few weeks back that I sent a Halloween illustration to my sister in Oregon. Well, she's framed the piece and she sent me a pic to share with all of you. I love seeing my pieces framed in their new homes, so if you ever buy a piece I'd love to see what you do with it!

Well, fall means fair season and I look forward every year to one fair in particular up here. The Fryeburg Fair has been around for years and it really offers the full fair experience. (And by fair experience, I mean crowds, food, rides, cheap souvenirs, livestock, music and freaks. And by freaks, I don't mean of the sideshow variety...) I was not disappointed this year on any score. It was a beautiful fall day and I took tons of photos. I will be posting most of them on my Flickr page this week, but here are a few good ones.

So, I have found yet another very creative photographer out here. Oliver Scott's work spans several different subject areas, including still life, cinematic, and people. But one of my favorite series of his, mixes books and 3-dimension elements and cut paper to create photo illustrations. Sort of like Thomas Allen's work. Hard to explain, but some examples are below. Neat stuff.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Macabit...

Hello Lovelies!

Things are busy as usual here my friends. I have just completed another piece in the Cigar, Creeper & Dark Circus and Sideshow series entitled: Macabit the Sideshow Barker. A little bit of trivia for you faithful followers out there, Macabit is actually French Victorian slang for the bodies they found floating in rivers. A bit morbid, yes, but the name is beautiful if you don't know that and he's a little scandalous so it works out. More to come very soon with this series...

I have also recently procured a pair of lamps that are pretty much awesome. The detail? The great figural quality and the jewels? Needless to say... They are going to need a whole lot of work to get them to their former glory, but I'm just the woman for the job. I'll keep you apprised of my progress on them. It should be fun!

And random, I found this picture the other day and I thought it was really neat and needed to be shared. Those swim caps? The colors? I love everything about this shot. Perhaps it should be replicated with a Polaroid camera? Only time will tell...

I recently found a wonderful site for a design company and I thought I would share. Angel Bomb has some great work, they combine both design and letterpress capabilities and I'm a sucker for their letterpress in particular... see some of their work below.

I also found a wonderful artist that I wanted to share. Miss Mindy's work is a combination of Glen Barr and cartoon imagery and features little ladies and mermaids and whimsy carnival and I love it. All of it. It's cute and mischievous. Check it out.

Oh! I am so excited, this Thursday, I have tickets to see Garrison Keillor here in town for a sold out show. I grew up listening to Lake Wobegon and Prairie Home Companion and I am also a huge dork so basically I'm in bliss. I'll let you know how it is.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Flower Clowns...

Hello Lovelies!

As usual, a lot is going on this week at the Mill. First, I thought I would show you some initial sketches of the new stickers I will be using for my packaging. I decided to combine bunnies with clowns to create a bright new design. One boy and one girl. I'll show the finished ones off next week. If you place an order, you may see them in person very soon!

I have added some new work to the shop this week entitled the Flower Clown Series. The first of the series entitled Chester is below. They combine vintage portraits I've collected over the years with floral photography that I've taken... with of course a dark twist as usual. These would make perfect Valentine's Day gifts for that art lover.

And those of you who follow my circus series, I am doing a photo shoot next week and I should have someone new to show you next post!

I mentioned last week my greatest junk find of all time and I told you I'd post it this week. Well, here it is as promised. I found this huge mantle on Craig's List of all things and it was in pretty rough shape when I picked it up. Almost a year later, I finally finished refinishing the entire thing and we have it in our living room. It is over 6 feet long, it has speaker boxes and space for record storage and a mini bar with a light. Solid oak. Grand total: $60. Crazy, huh?!

I have featured the work of Mike Shine on here before. He takes creepy worn carnival-inspired art to a whole new level and I love his color pallet. Well, he has a new show up folks called The Mike Shine Show and if the pictures below are any indication... it's fantastic. I love those wooden milk bottles!

On the carnival theme, I stumbled across an amazing carnival themed wedding on the blog Once Wed (which is a beautiful blog by the way). Some pics are below, but the barn? The cake topper? The yellow and white bunting? Not to mention the invitations. This looks like it was so much fun. The pictures are amazing, click on the link.

Let's wrap up with a funny news story, shall we? Did you read about the German teenagers who (during school?!?!) drank hot sauce that was literally 200 times hotter than Tabasco sauce?This of course, put them all in the hospital. YIKES. Ouch. And, as I'm typing this, I don't know if I'm more amazed that there's an actual scale for hotness (the Scoville Scale), or that Tabasco is in the Google dictionary... huh.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...