Lola and Lexi ditch Biology, and never return to the Eleanor Roosevelt School for Wayward Girls

After two months of pretty much solid work, my new stop motion animation is finally complete! As I detailed in my long ago prior post, this particular project was fraught with damning sabotage from Forces of the Universe that apparently are not fond of my work. Bad, evil, unsophisticated Forces!

At some point I’m hoping to blog a “how I did it” post to pass along some tips to aspiring stop motion animators, but for now I just want to share the video, as well as the final version of the photo that provided the basis for the piece.

First, the photo:

Lola and Lexi ditch Biology, and never return to the Eleanor Roosevelt School for Wayward Girls

Yep, there it is, featuring at its center The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Sex, published in 1950 and obtained on loan from my good friend, artist Nicole Waszak. In the background are a pair of vintage record covers: Perry Como Sings Hits From Broadway Shows on the left, and Hymns by the Hour of Charm All Girl Orchestra on the right. The Hour of Charm cover was pretty rough, requiring hours of retouching to eliminate dozens of unsightly brown blotches marring the matronly complexions of all those “charming” girls. The photo is divided into two halves, vices and virtues, with three bathing beauties emerging from a pool in the center to worship at the base of the imposing tome.

Lots of other things going on in the photo, of course, and I’m sure you can imagine what might happen next in this visual tale of warring morals, but wouldn’t you rather see (yes, actually see!) what happened to all the characters before I snapped this photo? Where did they all come from, and how did they arrive at the places where you see them in the photo? Who wouldn’t want to see that?!?

Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret… I didn’t actually create this photo. True! Back in the early days of October I was suffering through a frustrating bout of Photographer’s Block. Every morning I’d walk into my studio and stare into an empty light tent. I’d flip through my albums, and glance furtively at my bookcase full of toys.

Nothing.

I was totally blocked and had no idea what I wanted to create. I pleaded with my delegation of plastic presidents. They stared back, blank and unwavering, as if I were a long ago cast ballot. I was disregarded by my zoo of miniature wildlife, mocked by a denizen of devils, and completely ignored by my family of usually dependable kewpies.

Oh, I was all ready to take a photo, that’s for damn sure! My camera stood firm atop a sturdy tripod, trained on the inside of the frustratingly empty light tent where I usually assemble my three dimensional creations. All around were floodlights waiting to illuminate whatever wondrous scene that might spill from the deep, confusing puzzle of my imagination.

Again, nothing.

Well, as luck would have it, one night…

I suppose I left the camera switched ON in misguided anticipation that I might come up with a good idea and didn’t want my creative flow to be interrupted by the inconvenience of flicking the switch from OFF to ON. Or maybe I didn’t turn the camera on at all. Given what was to come, how could such a small detail raise any surprise at all? In any case, the next morning I opened the door to my studio carrying a hot cup of coffee—caffeine to prime the pump and whip those lazy synapses into shape!

There, inside the light tent, was the completed scene you see above. It was like the cobbler and his ever helpful elves! I didn’t question this miracle at all. How could I?!?! My work was done! It was THERE! And I liked it. All I had to do was snap the shutter as if I were taking a picture of a boring sunset falling into a hungry black sea.

Of course, before I could take a picture of what I had found filling the tent, I first had to replace the camera battery. It was dead. And I had to replace the SD card. It was full. And did I mention that of my three floodlights, two were burned out and one had shattered in a frightening scatter of jagged glass?

I turned to my shelf of toys, but not a one offered an explanation, and those positioned inside the light tent played their roles in conspiratorial silence. Quite baffling!

Ah, but I did have a full SD card!

I tucked the card in a pocket and bolted from the studio, crossing the patio to my house in three bounding leaps. I flew up the stairs to my office and jammed the SD card into the reader connected to my iMac.

There were 4,588 photos impossibly stored on this single card. I loaded them into the computer, and this is what I found…

Sometimes, you just get lucky.

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May Sale Going On Now!

Mother puts a little something "extra" in the morning oatmeal to get her family off to a fantastic day!

Through May 31, three great photos will be 15% off on etsy.  To celebrate Mother’s Day on May 9, we are offering Mother puts a little something “extra” in the morning oatmeal to get her family off to a fantastic day! on sale.  She waddled around bloated and nauseous for nine months, the least you could do is show her your appreciation with this fun, lovely Limited Edition print.  Also in the month of May is International Jazz Day on the 29th.  We think Last Call at the Vinyl Alibi Jazz Club is a fantastic way of celebrating this art form we can be proud to say originated right here in the good ol’ USA.  Did you know that May is also National Photograph Month?  In honor of our anonymous little photographer in the gingham shirt, Leroy and his Singing Flamingos are invited to a rose garden soirée will also be 15% off.  Head over to etsy and check out these great deals and all of our other photos today!  Mother’s Day is a mere 6 days away, and we know you want your package delivered to mom on time.  Rumor has it moms have a knack for laying on the guilt, and we don’t want that, do we?

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And The Beat Goes On… opens at New Puppy!

Saturday night saw the opening reception for And The Beat Goes On, the music-themed group show at New Puppy Gallery in Los Angeles that includes two of my photos, plus a three dimensional installation of records, toys, and scary religious collectibles. The reception was a lot of fun, with DJs on hand to spin very, very cool music, a live band setup inside to rock out the art, and a trio of artists painting live in the middle of the gallery’s main room.

The music motif was a perfect match for my photographic creations. Records? Albums? Pop culture? The hard part was picking just two to grace the gallery walls! I went with…

Lorraine leaps upon the red carpet to get her first delicious taste of paparazzi fame at the 1959 Grammys

And…

Backstage pass in the ninth circle of Hell

The gallery ended up using “Backstage pass” as the desktop image on a send-a picture-email-from-the-show gizmo. It worked sort of like a photo booth with a touch screen and a camera, and a friendly voice that counted down to let you know when it was about to snap a picture. I was all prepared to send out photo postcards to all my friends, but went into email amnesia and could only remember my own email address. Sorry friends. Maybe next time…

Crowds were steady all evening and a lot of people dropped in to take in the show. The most exciting part for me was watching the delight in people’s eyes as they walked around my installation looking at the various vignettes I’d staged. Cameras were out in force, and I was happy to see people taking lots of photos; in a sense, having the opportunity to create their very own Wind-up Dreams.

The installation took about 5 hours or so to setup, spread across Friday night and Saturday morning. I covered most of a 6’ by 3’ table with album covers, 45s, toys, books, pennies, candles, booklets, statues, and various familiar yet perplexing objects. It was fun!!

Unfortunately, I — the supposed “professional photographer” — neglected to check the settings on my handy little Canon point’n’shoot, so my photos from the reception are less than impressive. Oh well. Here are a few I salvaged:

A view from the front taken Saturday morning after I’d finished the construction.

Detail view of a vignette on the left side.

Detail of one of the vignettes on the right side.  You’ll notice the return of the “coffee robot” from my 2007 Vinyl Mysteries show.

A view from the back of the installation shortly after the reception had started.

Another view from the back.

Detail on the left side…

Pennies! All hail the sacred kewpie head!

People crowding around and lusting over my toys.

Photo op!

I promise much better photos down the road. I’m planning on reshooting the installation with my dSLR, and taking a movie that travels all around the setup so you can see all of the vignettes.

Thanks for watching!

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The Prophecy of Unity

Frank and Betty get pinned without a care in the world

Behold!  Wind-up Dreams & Vinyl Nightmares hereby reveals the third of five prophecies from the Plastic Prophet.  In your desire for Unity, I predict you will want to bebop with your sweetheart at the local burger joint, add some rhythm and soul to your life, mourn love lost, plot your revenge, and start the search all over again. You shall click your way over to Etsy and find the answers to these mysteries and add them to your cart with the knowledge that you have fulfilled your destiny.  You shall also return at the beginning of each month through August to discover what new Prophecy I will reveal.  Thus sayeth the Plastic Prophet.

(Fresh from a messy divorce) Kitty plots an ensemble for her next midnight prowl

The Allegory of Sanctimonious Regret

The Allegory of Sanctimonious Revenge

Leroy and his Singing Flamingos are invited to a rose garden soirée

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A caffeine fueled opening for Vinyl Mysteries

Vinyl Mysteries of the Caffeine Alphabet opened at the Pannikin in La Jolla this past Saturday night on one of the absolute hottest nights of the summer. In spite of the sweltering heat, I had a great time chatting with the folks who came by to see my first solo show, and I spent most of the night psychoanalyzing my own work (which is oddly therapeutic). Thank you to everyone who dropped by — especially my friends Dawn and Mike who travelled all the way from Los Angeles to provide support. Dawn was extra prepared by bringing a video camera. Early in the afternoon, before the evening reception, I took them on a rambling, stumbling tour of the exhibit, which is captured for posterity on video tape. If I get some good footage I’ll see about posting it here so that more people can laugh at my bad socks.

Amanda and Renee, the owners of the Pannikin were really great, giving me free reign of the gallery space to sort of transform their coffee shop into a retro-inspired vinyl wonderland of LP covers, tin robots and wooden blocks. You can see pictures of the framed pieces and the installation here. But just in case you don’t want to bother with a link, how about a couple of quick snapshots?

Lorraine leaps upon the red carpet to get her first delicious taste of paparazzi fame at the 1959 Grammies

Okay, this gives you a nice, general idea of how the show was setup. Oh! But first, allow me to thank my fine assistants — Lin, Jo Anna, Vince and Gunnar — all of whom helped me get everything hung on Friday night (when the temperature threatened to melt the tin from around the sturdy bodies of my robot brigade). Kudos, gold stars and much appreciated thanks for their role in making my show look really great!

On to a little “Gallery Setup Analysis,” so I can point out a few things about how the show was hung. First, in the upper right corner of the above photo you get a peek at the installation that rimmed the main room of the Pannikin (and throughout). The inside of Pannikin is an old, converted bungalow, and the main room is the original living room of the house, featuring a book rail that hangs a foot or so from the low ceiling. Normally, the rail is packed with old books, games, and assorted coffee pots and antique collectables. All the books and games were taken down so that I could line the shelves with vintage, cheesecake-ish, record albums from the 50’s and 60’s, though I chose to leave the coffee pots on one side of the gallery because I thought they complemented the installation quite well. In front of the records I set up robots and wooden blocks, which were used to spell various phrases.

Above: P-H-O-T-O  A-T-O-M-I-C  S-H-A-K-E-D-O-W-N. All told, I think there are around 300 or so blocks in the exhibit.

First up… how about those frames? As always, every piece in the show was matched with a custom frame chosen to fit the mood and style of the photo. In this case, it’s a gleaming gold frame with an inward cast to emphasize the glitz of a Hollywood awards show. Framing costs for the show set me into bankruptcy, but what price art, ya know?  Above the frame you see a pair of wooden blocks “13” which match up to the titles and prices on the art works sheet for the exhibit. We went through a lot of putty Friday night… which I hope holds up under the hot month of September! Over the weekend I stopped into the gallery a couple of times and none of the blocks had fallen off the wall and into someone’s latte, but I still took the opportunity to press them all firmly into place.

To the right of each piece we mounted the show title cards, which were custom made for the exhibit. The tags are mounted onto recordable CDs that mimic retro vinyl records — grooves and everything! (Thanks to Kristy D. for the tip on finding these specialized boutique recordable CDs.)

I prepared a set of “coffee robots” for the exhibit that were placed in various places standing guard over the artful proceedings.  Here’s a close up of the coffee robot in the above picture, along with a tower of blocks.

I liked the image of tin robots emerging from a cup of coffee beans, an element featured in the title piece for the show, and repeated with these simple miniature sculptures.

I provided pretty simple “opening reception dining fare” for all my guests — wine, water, juice and chocolate — served from atop and within vintage record players.

Yum! There were also stickers on hand with images of the featured piece — The magnificent minds of medicine gather round to examine Nastasscia from the inside out — which (in a spectacular stacked frame) was definitely the hit of the evening!

Hmmm… actually, on second thought, the most popular hit of the evening were my business cards. So good that no one could take just one. With nine different designs and each a mini work of art, most people opted for a generous collection, and I was very happy to oblige.

I hope you have a chance to visit the Pannikin to take in the show in person, sit down, have a bite to eat and enjoy their fabulous coffee. The exhibit will be up through the month of September. Have fun!!

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