Bright Spring Days...

Hello Lovelies!

It has been awhile since my last post. Life has been very busy, almost too busy to take time to share it with you lovely readers out there. So let's play a bit of catch-up, shall we?

Let's start with some business news. I have released the entire first part of my Modern America Series! It took almost a year to shoot and complete the first 7 shots in this series. I am very happy with how the series is going so far. I'm planning to do 5 more to finish this work off. I am actually opening these last shots up to my followers for suggestions. I will be asking for ideas over on my Facebook page in the coming weeks, so follow along for that. A few of my favorite pieces in the series are below, and you may view all 7 over at my Behance site. This is some of my best work to date as an artistic photographer: I'm very proud of it. A big thank you to all of my models, assistants and hair and makeup people for helping me realize my vision. I hope you like it!

I have also been listing and selling things like crazy over at STAG as usual. A ton of great items in the shop and more to come very soon, including the amazing buffalo plaid vest, women's Russian jacket with gold buttons and an amazing vintage Windmill brand stadium style overcoat for the ladies, all shown below! Stop by frequently, new things are listed almost weekly...

And the final bit of business news is in the area of illustration. I was recently hired to do the design work for the Old Port Festival Weekend here in Portland, Maine. It's the biggest music/vendor/arts festival in the state of Maine and this year they're extending it to an entire weekend, so I was delighted to be asked to do it! I'll pass along more official site/poster information as I get it, but here are some of the sketches and then the final work. I am happy with how it came out...

I mention life has been busy, and boy, it sure has. A lot of great things are happening and the weather is getting warmer and spring is here in Maine! Here are just a few of the beautiful things I've seen, done and enjoyed since my last post...

And finally, today is my birthday! As with most people, birthdays are a fun time of reflection for me. I like to take the opportunity at least once a year to stop for a moment and really appreciate all of the wonderful things that have happened over the last year. I have so much to be grateful for: amazing friends, a studio, the ability and opportunity to make art and get paid to do it on occasion, a life right near the ocean that is so beautiful in a community of kind, caring people. I co-celebrated my birthday yesterday with my dear friend Timothy and I realized I'm a very, very lucky girl. I hope the next year is as good as the last...

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Sweet Babies & Bright Colors...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are all well out there this week, as usual! I am busy as per usual over here with a ton of things to share. To start, I recently photographed an absolutely beautiful newborn baby girl and unlike most very wee babies who sleep through shoots, she was awake the entire time. Which presented its challenges, but they were far outweighed by her awake and alert little face. (People who follow my work on Facebook seemed surprised to find I can do traditional portraiture too. You learn something new every day, huh? Ha!) Here are just a couple from the shoot. Her Mom and Dad were delighted, so of course, so am I.

What else? Oh! A friend turned me on to an amazing blog that features Autochrome photography of Paris from 1890-1930 and here's the best part... it's in full color! That's right, the technology of photography itself had only just been invented and yet, color had already been introduced. And what beautiful photography it is too. My favorites are below, and the rest can be found here. Amazing, truly, amazing.

And so as not to dwell too long on photography, I have also discovered an amazing painter and portrait artist who I want to share: Gottfried Helnwein. When I first happened upon his work, I thought it was photography. But no. These are photo-realistic works in acrylic and watercolor(?!?!!) and to make it even more amazing (is it possible? No. Okay, I guess so), the scale of these pieces is huge. I've posted a couple of pieces below, and also a process shot so you can see how big these are. I just... before I got into photography, I was a pencil portrait artist at 1/1 scale. This is just mind-blowing to me... Enjoy.

Compared to all the greatness above, my weekend was pretty tame! But we had a pretty clear couple of days, so I ventured out to the abandoned beaches of Old Orchard Beach (a sea of tanning oil-slathered tourists in the summer) and took some pictures. Man was it cold. And while I was out there, someone in one of the beach houses had a radio on full-volume, so this radio talk show was blaring and reverberating off all that loneliness. It was eerie. And then I found these boots. I think they're men's, but I do not care. They are worn and comfortable and have a non-slip sole. (I guess I found the one advantage to having skis for feet!) Love them.

Let's wrap up with some great typography that was in a recent issue of GQ. (I know, I know, with Beyonce right there, it's like, who notices the typography? The answer: This girl does.) What a great color scheme and mix of vintage and new typefaces (some from House Industries, my favorite type design house... *drool*) and the layout and breathing room in the design is pitch-perfect. I am in love...

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

A Little R & R

Hello Lovelies!

I was on vacation last week and took a ton of pics and did some really fun stuff with a friend who was visiting. Here are some random shots from the week:

And, I discovered some great things while I was out and about. First, if you're local to Portland, you may have heard of the International Cryptozoology Museum. Well, I went there with my friend and did the tour and it was fascinating. In addition, there is a great book store attached that's well organized and had a ton of stuff that was right down my alley, including 2 Ray Bradbury books I didn't have! Both the museum and the bookstore are worth a trip.

I also did a bit of junking and found this really fun scarf that has good luck charms all over it. I'm probably not going to use it, but it may show up in a future shoot, so keep your peepers peeled.

Speaking of shoots, I am working on my big annual photography project and it's going wonderfully so far. Those of you who have followed for awhile may remember my Cigar, Creeper & Dark Circus and Sideshow Series and my Zom-B-Vex Series last year. This year's project is the biggest and the best so far and I'm keeping it under wraps until I release the whole thing October 1st. But, I will give you a hint, it sort of involves this:

I will give more hints as we go along and maybe do some other fun promo stuff. The shot above is from a great Galactically Hot Women of Star Trek Flickr stream that you Kiddies may enjoy. So many neat characters from that show.

And let's wrap up with a movie recommendation. This one is not for the faint of heart (or those who hate clowns/marionettes). Dead Silence is a surprisingly good thriller that I just bought because I liked it so much. The plot is good and has some twists, the characters are terrifying and the mood is dark and creepy. All these things equal at least 4 corn cobs out of 5 on my scale for this one. Check it out and don't watch it alone...

...and don't scream.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams.