Art-o-mat pins complete just in time for a Coney Island visit

Sunday was my deadline. That's how I work. I give myself deadlines so things get done. My husband calls me "The Responsible Artist." I like this title.

My deadline of completing my pins to go in the Art-o-Mat machines (See earlier post) was eminent. I told myself Saturday night that I had to get up early and go for my run then get my pins boxed and ready to ship out.

7:45- I'm up!

8:00- Coffee down. No breakfast- it'll slosh around in my belly when I run which makes me not feel so good.

8:30- Out the door. Wow. It's pretty hot out here even for this Southen Belle.

10:00- I'm back. Jump in the shower.

10:30 Time to get busy...

I have all the pins made. The steps are on the blog from X-XX-XX. But that is only the beginning. Each Art-O-Mat needs to be a nice little package. That way when people purchase one they are happy with the whole experience.

A Tiffany & Co. bag with Tiffany pins ready for packing

1. I need to trim out all the wraps for the boxes. I chose to use the brown pasteboard boxes instead of white slick boxes. I want the purchaser to feel they are opening an old treasure they found in a circus travel chest. My design for the wrap is circus tent stripes but instead of the typical red and white I've used shades of purple. The type is done in my favorite face- ROSEWOOD.

Wraps ready for the trimming

2. The boxes must be folded first so that I can wrap the stickers around.

3. The labels must be adhered to the boxes. So I make myself a little spray booth out of an old box. I probably shouldn't be spraying this adhesive in the apartment but- oh well! I'll just hold my breath and hope the puppies don't breathe in too much.

Paste board boxes ready to fold

Folded and ready to wrap!

4. I have decided to attach each pin to a nice piece of tulle. Not the old yucky stiff stuff but some nice soft tulle. Using my black and lavender color scheme. This will help pad the box as well as adding another layer of PRETTY. Also in each box I add my business card to lure people to my blog and ETSY store.

Layers of pins and tulle

5. After closing each and every lid one last step is to wrap the box in clear cellophane.  This aids in the dispensing of the box of treasure.

Small wall of Art-O-Mat boxes

6. Last I pack it all up to ship off to AIC World Headquarters in Winston-Salem.

Bye Bye!

From there the pieces will be sent out to Art-O-Mat machines across the country. I'll post on here when I hear where they are so that you can go get a little treasure for yourself!


1:40- Gotta take out the pups. Pack my cooler. Grab my parasol, camera, 100SPF, beach towel and subway card. Time to hit the tracks!

Elvira and her teeth

Monster looking for rats at the park

2:40- I've found the perfect spot. I get off at the NY Aquarium one stop before Coney Island Stillwell Ave. and find a place there. It seems just a smidge less crowded than right in the middle of it all. It still has a nice view of the Parachute Jump.

Beach photo with Diana camera

Me at Coney taken with Lee's (my husband) Holga camera

Swimsuit: Betsey Johnson, vintage glasses:Kill Devil Hill in Brooklyn

5:30- Well it's either hit the Freak Bar, Ruby's or take a few pics. I think I'll opt for the pics today. I wander through Luna Park with my Diana Camera ready to go. I take a few photos of some kiddie rides. Who knows- they could show up in paintings later!

Here a few pics taken...

This guy told me that I have a lot of tattoos. I think he'd give me a run for my money.

6:00- Time to head on back. Today was a good day.

On a side note- My jewelry has gone international. I sent a pair of earrings out to the UK! Woo hoo!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/78029460/miniature-cotton-candy-earrings-pink?ref=pr_shop

Diana Dreamy Photography

Once upon a time I really enjoyed photography...
Then the computer and digital camera came along.


For the last however many years I have viewed photography as a burden. I still have enjoyed documenting the things that I do and see. But more often than not I find myself dreading looking through the disk of hundreds of images and trying to decide what is print worthy. 


So I get everything organized and ready to print then lo and behold- I’m outta ink. Ugggh.


This warrants a trip to the local Staples or Office Depot. Here in the city that has "everything" neither of these places are convenient to me. So a special trip has to be planned and an after work run or workout will be missed. Or perhaps I'll ruin a Saturday running around to see who has my ink in stock.


All this is too much like work.


Well I have decided to travel back in time. Back to the 1960s in fact. When people used film!


I headed to the local Lomo Store only a few blocks from my home. I’d been in here many times before but since I was so down on photography I’d just look around with not much interest. This time would be different- I was ready to purchase!


Money in hand I walked in knowing I wanted a Diana F+.

Original Diana F

Me being me- I wanted the most pretty one they had. The Diana was originally a most unusual blue and black. But that just wouldn’t do.  Normally I would go for pink and if they would have had a nice creamy pale shade of pink, I probably would have fell victim to it’s charm. The only pink one was a hot pink and black combo.

Mighty cute, but it just wouldn’t go with many of my outfits. There for the solid white won out. For a mere two hundred and some odd dollars I bought the whole kit and kaboodle. I got close-up lenses, zoom lenses, some fancy little thing that does some double exposure thingy (I’ve yet to try this), it has a flash, it has a fish eye lens and it even came with a cute little squirrel carry pack. But what it DID NOT HAVE was a nice strap. SO I hit up ETSY right away. I found the nicest little pink and white strap to deck out my Diana with- from Sassy Straps.

My first shoot with my new set-up was a big one- The Coney Island Mermaid Parade (see previous blog) I must say I was a little nervous. Weird. I only had 12 frames to shoot. What would be worthy? What if I miss the shot? What if I don’t know what I’m doing and all images are ruined? 


Finally a few hours into our adventure I pulled out the Diana. At first I was rather hesitant but after my first click I was hooked. I still wanted to look at the back of the camera to see what image I had captured obviously that is not how film works.

I must say when you only have a few frames you tend to actually think about your photo composition and lighting a bit more- just like the good old days.


My twelve shots went by fast but carefully.


The very next weekend held another special occasion- The Governor’s Island 1920s Lawn Party (see earlier blog) It was a beautiful day and the people were beautiful as well. I pointed and CLICKED a few times still being a tad on the cautious side.


Twenty four CLICKS complete and I was headed back to the Lomo store to drop off my film for development. In a world of instant gratification I was actually enjoying the wait... the anticipation... what will my prints look like?!

My Lomo store NYC

Two days later back to Lomo I go, I snatch up my box of prints, disk and negatives and head to Washington Square Park. There is no way I can wait to get them home. Opening the pack I smell the sweet smell of photo prints. Yummmmm. Dreamy image after dreamy image lay out in front of me. Soft. Surreal. Dramatic. Oh joy! This is just what I was hoping for.


Now mind you, not every image is a masterful work of art, in fact several were nightmares altogether. I learned some lessons with these first few rolls. Diana likes the sun, if she is using the flash she better be close to her subject and sometimes what Diana thinks she sees isn’t always what is captured. This is also the beauty of the images.

Mermaid Parade (unedited) 

Oh and another thing I like that I kinda forgot about... real photo prints have no dot pattern and that makes them quite lovely.

Bethesda Fountain Central Park (unedited)

1920s Party (unedited)

With Diana as my new friend, I look forward to doing some more shoots and sharing them here.

Heavy Rebel and old friends

Every July 4th I get giddy with anticipation of our annual trip home. Home meaning Winston-Salem, NC. After all I lived there for over 30 years of my life.


The July 4th weekend marks the time to celebrate Heavy Rebel Weekend.  And you just can't get more American than that. Hot rods, pin ups, tattoos and music!


My favorite day is Saturday. That is the car show and mud wrestling day. And no I didn't jump in the mud pit, maybe next year.


Here I am with my good friend David Hunter's 1957 Chevy truck. I was quite impressed with it!

Little did I think my dad would show up. And there I was with my tattoos just all out there for him to see. My dad IS NOT A FAN. He didn't say a word and we all had a great time looking at all the cars.

While having a little break from my art work and jewelry making. I did manage to visit a few old friends...


I am a self taught artist and sometimes I look back on my old works and think "uggggh that looks horrible, what was I doing?"


Who knows maybe by looking back I'll come up with something amazing and new!


This is probably the earliest piece that I ran across on my trip. I would guess I did this piece 8 or so years ago. I was into purple shadows! I silver leafed the frame myself too. I may revisit that technique.

This piece I remembered is titled "Little Black Dress" It is about being different and not worrying about it. Embrace your differences, that is what makes you- you! This was done during my fascination with nails and coffee stains.

This piece I did for my dad probably for Father's Day. My dad's hobby is flying control line planes. This piece is actually made of layers of wood for a 3D-ish effect.

Dad is the one in the back

This next piece hangs in a place of honor at my in-law's house above the mantel. I did this one during my Gustav Klimt phase. I find that I paint much better when I just do MY OWN thing. But it was a good experiment.

This one is also in the in-law's house. I actually really love this piece. It is quite large on my scale anyway. I used a lot of graffiti techniques on this one. I used super paint markers, hand made stencils along with acrylic paint all on a plywood panel.

Here is a graphite piece that I did of myself when I was a little girl. To me this has a strong Salvador Dali influence to it.

Up next we have little Opossum my friend Darren's new kitty. He has nothing to do with anything but who doesn't like a cute little kitty!?!

Well I hope you enjoyed my little tour of some of my "Old Friends." I love seeing where my paintings end up so if you have any photos of a piece of mine in your home please, please email them to me I'd love it!

Tattoos and Lawn Parties

I count the the weekend as starting on Friday. Usually I am at home working on art projects on Fridays but this past week I had to adjust my schedule a bit.


So as a treat I thought I'd celebrate National Take Your Dog to Work Day!


Monster had been before so Elvira was the lucky winner this time.


Here she is earning her keep.

After a nice day at work a good dinner was in order. So over to the West Village we go to the Spotted Pig.


I had a deviled egg that was $4.00. My southern friends probably are saying "what the heck, are you kidding?" Those of you from NY are probably thinking "That's not a bad deal." Any way it was good but not as good as my Momma's deviled eggs!


I finished up the meal with Grilled Octopus. Now my Momma does not make octopus what so ever. 


Saturday morning starts early in the O'Brien house hold. We have dogs that need walking plus we need to go on a run to work off some of the calories from the night before.


It is also O'Brien day at the tattoo parlor. I am finishing up my back. I have been working on it piece by piece for several years. First came my nautical star at top by Winston-Salem tattoo artist- Daniel Ferguson. Next was the Coney Island funny face by NY artist Chris O'Donnell.


I was happy with this situation for many years till I got the bug again. So one day I decided I needed some mermaids to complete the look. Michelle Tarantelli was the artist responsible. These were my first pieces by a female artist. She is such a dear and I had a great time getting work done by her.


Yesterday we added an old school anchor to the piece. Have a look at the "finished" work. There are a couple spots I might can fit something else. So I am living with it for a bit ; )

Moxie and Maybelle

That was the big day Saturday but Sunday is a whole new day full of adventure...

Sunday started just as early. There are dogs to walk and groceries to get. Uggggh.

But there is also a 1920s Lawn Party to attend!

I reused last week's Mermaid Parade crown 'cause I put a lot of work in that thing so why not?!!? It goes with my look.

Fashion Note: Dress- Anna Sui on sale at Anthropologie for $69

              Shoes- From local mini chain ShoeGasm around $50

              Black beads- vintage   

              Parasol- Badgley Mischka originally $120 I paid around $20 at Daffy's

We met up with some friends out on Governor's Island for a splendid afternoon. Thanks for a wonderful time Susan, J-F, Brandi, Amanda, Erin and Jeanie!

   

Lee was there looking rather spiffy as well! He picked up the shades from a dealer at the party for 10 bucks. Deal-o-the-Day!

My lovely Diana Camera made the trip with me again. I took the film to be developed today. Ahhhh the anticipation. Just like the good ol' days!

After all the dancing (just watching this time), the conversation and eating it was time to head back to the city via the Ferry. What a lovely view.

Well you would think this would be the end to a fine weekend. Ah but no! On our way to the Lomo store to have my film developed we got in the midst of the Gay Pride Parade NYC! Even though we only got to see the last bit of the parade- what a special event to have the chance to witness!

I'm off to good ol' North Carolina this week for friends, family and Heavy Rebel Weekend. SO I am sure I will have plenty to share upon my return!