Local Artists

I went to this event called SWAN day last night. Support Women Artists Now, that is. And I met some of the coolest people! So let me introduce a few of them to you.

First a wonderful visual artist  named Kae Ashtin. Her work is very collage based and is so completely raw, emotionally. My favorite painting, which is not currently up on her site, was a collaged background made out of newspapers with a woman holding herself painted in bold thick strokes of black. It was captivating. 

Her site is: http://www.kaeashtin.com/

Next are two jewelry artists named Suzanne Haugh and Correy Harris whose work is altered art. Lots of lovely beading in ring, earring, and necklace form. My favorite of their wares, however, were the bottle cap pendents. They take old bottle caps, beer caps generally, and punch out pictures from old magazines and tarot cards. They glue them in,  fill them with a clear epoxy, and add a loop for the chain to go through. Each and ever one of those cap pendants was so cool! Although their store is a little under construction right now you should totally keep an eye out for their work. http://www.etsy.com/people/suzecorreycreations 

This whole evening would not have been possible without the hard work of the artist Jennifer Hill of the absolutely amazing band "Jennifer Hill and Co." Indie rock band with a totally unique sound. And they were fantastic live. I definably can't wait to see more of their performances. Check the out at their website:

 http://www.jenniferhillandco.com/

And absolutely fan them on facebook :)

Two ladies who also gave amazing performances last night were the burlesque dancers Lilly LaVamp and Nikki LeVillian. Fantastic performances, stunning costumes.

There were a ton of great bands and just as many great visual artists there last night, I can't wait until next year's SWAN day! 

twitter

I'm now on twitter! Follow Jeanette_art to learn more about my work for the film I'm working on, "Diamond Ruff!"

Artist a day

Julie Levesque

Newton, MA

http://www.julielevesque.com/

http://www.julielevesque.com/images/synthetic%20geneology.jpg

from a scenic designer stand point I find her work to be totally inspirational.

Painting with Nail Polish

I have been working on painting a guitar for almost two years now. (Sorry it's taking so long Stefano).

First I was so afraid of messing it up that I just left it alone. I did some research at guitar shops to find out if painting it, or wood burning, or spray painting it would effect the sound. The answer was always yes. So I decided on wood burning. Did my sketch a dozen times, used chalk to sketch it on the guitar and held my breath as I went in to do the deed. A few hours later, suffering from the fumes of burnt polyurethane and only two leg outlines in I gave up. My next attempt I decided to go ahead and paint the darn thing. Sanded a little off the top, wiped off the dust, held my breath and started. And I hated the way the acrylic paint was looking. So I wandered around my house and had a wonderful, potentially foolish idea came to me... Nail polish. I started painting in the design tiny stroke by stroke and it turned out beautiful! The key to working with nail polish is patience. each layer has to dry for an hour before the next one can go on. So it's taken forever to do this painting, but it's totally been worth it. Now All I have to do is take pictures and mail it to NYC. I would go myself, but I just can't spare a whole day to deliver it myself.

Wonderful trick to get around big budget items

Scale models and a green screen! Brilliant!!

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=18820

The police cars are tiny fakes, and then the background and actress were composited together later :)

It looks like the hand is the thing that was added, right? wrong. the car and the hand are in front of a composited background. Technology will always amaze me.

Hello again!

Hello once again from the abyss of production week :)

Into the woods has now gone up, come down, and been packed away. Whoosh! what a crazy two weeks :)

I've been so lucky this time though, I didn't have to go it alone and it went so incredibly well. Mary, Matt, and Marti all worked with me to rock this design out. and I'm proud to say we rocked it while only spending a third of the whole budget!

With super talent friends like these, I can make anything happen :)

Next up pics!