Studio Birthday! Gallery Nite

My comrades at Drippy Lip Productions celebrated our Studios birthday with a kick ass party at our NEW headquarters! Despite the blizzard, we had an amazing turn out, a great show and several gallons of sherbet punch. Take a peek!

Our patrons enjoyed a time machine/photo booth, an eclectic exhibition, live tunes by The Aches, poetry readings and CAKE! I was beaming for everyone who contributed to the project--what an awesome moment to realize all the coolest cats you know are your friends. :}

We've got a few new projects in the works that I CANNOT WAIT to share with you! Comics, talking trees, and the robot apocalypse...

What have you been creating? What new plans are you hatching?

Introducing: Season of The Witch!

Hello, My Pretties! Welcome to Season of The Witch: a special series of posts for October celebrating my soul purpose for existing: Halloween! We'll cover the marvelous, the macabre, the magical and most importantly--the hand made. We'll kick things off with a collection of my favorite witchy inspired finds on Wanelo!

If these tickle your fall fancy, View the entire collection here!

Girl Power Picnic: Words and Pictures

Hello Chickadee's! This weekend I had the pleasure of hostessing a Girl Power Picnic and it was a total BLAST. What is a Girl Power Picnic? You invite all the cool broads you know and get them together in a yard to meet, network, exchange contact information, eat sandwiches and drink outside. Add tunes and a liberal dosage of ice cream sandwiches and you got yourself a PARTY. :) Here are a few peeks from the shindig!


I started by cleaning up the back lot of my apartment building--it was more shabby than chic with yucky lawn furniture and a substantial cigarette butt cemetery.













It took nicely to me spending a gorgeous summery afternoon planting flowers, tying garlands and turning the laundry line into a fort. :)

All the girls brought something to pass--we needed a bigger table! There was a smorgasbord of omnivore, veggie and vegan treats. I was quite proud of the mountain of beers we amassed.

We lounged around on the grass, discussed our projects, laughed a lot, sipped on spiked lemonade long after the sun went down and made some new kick ass friends!

What were you up to this weekend, cupcakes?

Down The Rabbit Hole: Gallery Success Story

Hello Darlings!*
No, I haven't fallen down a rabbit hole--in fact something much stranger. The last few weeks have been...interesting, to say the least: dealing with confidant turned relentless stalker, stepping away from a scam, salvaging a gallery event gone awry, evenings of "Bettie Paige" martinis, wandering around the city at night, meeting a pin up model, some good old fashioned HooDoo, participating in a pagan dance party dressed as a vampire, singing for strangers, planning a new shebang and coping with a little heartache.

But, I have returned to the blogosphere with new experiences: some good, some bad, and some too weird to even begin to explain. But enough of that business! Here's a few peeky peeks into what kind of shenanigans has been going on in and around Apartment #5!

My big sister Anna and I all dolled up for A Glamorous Gallery Night. Last weekend was A Glamorous Gallery Night and The Famous Graves' debut performance as a jazz combo--which couldn't have gone better! The crowd responded beautifully and we've never played better. The event was well attended, everyone was VERY glamorous, the artists found it to be a positive experience and most importantly--we ran out of beer! :) Thank you to all you lovlies who helped me wishcast for the success of the event! My dearest friend Miss Kelly standing next to her beautiful work! Since I've been consumed by event planning and all the other BS that inevitably follows I haven't had much opportunity to make new work. I am SO excited--itching in fact--to get my roots back in my studio floor and paste under my fingernails! I'm working on the begining stages of a new goddess painting--Bast!

I've also been snapping pictures around town for a new artist book I'm working on that consists of stinky-stained-dumpster-doomed-matresses. Once it is bound in its tufted cover, it should be delightfully icky.

Needless to say the last weeks--heck, MONTHS have been both immensly draining and yet somehow enlightening. The learning curve has been steep. So what now?

Recoup.

I plan on doing so with copious amounts of real food, dream journaling, paint therapy and flitting about the blogosphere catching up with my cyber muses! Now I am dieing to know--what has your rabbit hole been like?

Until next time--

Much Joy and Merry Making!

Gallery Night + New Goddess

Hello Puddings!*

Oh- so- much has been happening here at apartment #5! Here's the whirlwind tour: I've been bzzzz-buzzing around town here and there in preperation for the "Glamorous Gallery Night" event I was asked to style. It's been quite the coaster ride between venue changes, committee shifts and indecisive entertainers-- but with only 20 days to go things are looking very glamorous indeed! My partner and I have been up to our eyebrows in iridescent tulle, collapsable chandeliers, miles and miles of To Do lists and frantic inbox exchanges in an effort to throw Milwaukee one hell of a party! Here's the promo clip for the event!


The Famous Graves have also been kicked into high gear, rehearsing Billie Holliday tunes in my sweltering apartment. Things are coming together! Exciting, exciting indeed...
I've been smudging and smooshing charcoal about the studio while working on a life size self portrait-ish. I've always wanted to to a Nyx piece, I think that's the direction this work is headed. Lots of work to go yet, but fun to get grimy again...I also have plans...BIG plans for this canvas! Can't wait to show you as it progresses.


*In other News...
In the very near future, HerSpeak will be the home of Creative Gravy Meditations! Hooray! I've been tinkering with a few guided video meditations designed to get your creative juices flowing--because as you know, at HerSpeak, we're all about the juice. :)

Speaking of which, what are you doing

for your juices these days? Do tell!

Until Next Time--

Much Joy and Merry Making!

Cool Yule Recap

When I woke up Sunday morning every surface of my apartment was sticky--the sign of a good shindig! With the help of my Muffin, I've been able to get apartment #5 back into a functioning state--order has been restored to the Universe. :) Here are a couple snapshots from this weekends Cool Yule!

My mantle before and after:

I borrowed some sparkly white poinsettias from my mother, stuffed them into brandy snifters, and plugged in a few strings of white lights. I do love the icicles hanging from the antlers! It felt finished once I put some Eartha Kitt on the turn table.





My kitchen before and after:

This was fun to put together. I hung mini silver doilies and icicles from the dollar store by thread pinned to the ceiling and dressed the table with a copy of the New York Times. The beautiful pink deer was printed courtesy of my mother and put into a 75 cent Good Will frame.





My sitting area before and after: (Staring my Muffin)


I dismantled my studio (which is behind the birch tree curtain) to make for some extra seating. I covered up my book and supply shelves with some great retro plastic table cloths from my grandma's house. I had some of these metallic sequined pillows strewn about. (I also stapled together a few shag covers--No one knew the better. Take THAT, Martha!)

The Guests:


It was a swingin' time! Everyone ate, drank and was very merry. :)

Now it's back to the grindstone--one week of classes left! I'm not sure whether to say "EEP!" or "Hooray!" I'm printing away on my final book. It's slow but steady work, a few more nights of serious studio time and it will be completed. I'm still debating exactly what materials I'd like to use for the illustration cover page. I figure I will use the highly technical method of waiting until I get to it and seeing what strikes my fancy. Now I'm off to the metals lab to finish some sanding on my collar. We're supposed to be getting The Snow Storm of The Century here, I'm hoping it doesn't interfere too much with getting back and forth from the school studio!

Wishing everyone wondrous winter weather and a marvelous Monday!
Blissings~*

Cool Yule!

It's snowing a beautiful snow as we speak and it's getting me geared up for my Cool Yule! I've been planning a hip retro cocktail party and tonight is the night! I have this inexplicable adoration for all thing kitsch and corn-ball so this year I decided to expand the wardrobe protocol from "sassy retro attire" to include hideous holiday sweaters. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of puff-painted sequined monstrosities everyone came up with! I feel like it's the perfect time for a party: it's cold, everyone is getting homesick and everyone is wigged out from finals. Time for an energy shift! So, I'm up this morning to finish scrubbing, sweeping and decking the halls with shag pillows, glittered poinsettias and my favorite--my vintage tin tree. (It's just TOO funky!) It's also become an interesting experiment--I'm going to try to throw the schmatlzy-est Cheesiest shindig I can for $50. Can she do it?? Tune in next time for the exciting conclusion!! (I plan to post a series of before & after photos of how this whole wingding goes down!)

I'm off to wiggle the fingers, crack the knuckles and make a little Yule magick!
Saturday Blissings everyone!~*

Anyone up to any shenanigans or have plans this beautiful winter weekend?

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