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The Mermaid Parade where I wore my costume, Part 1.

Wednesday, June 26th, 2013

You remember that costume I made for Burning Man? The one that I sweated and toiled over for about a year? And then Burning Man was too dusty? And during Halloween we had a massive storm? Well, The Mermaid Parade came around this year and I finally, FINALLY got to rock my costume. And rock it I did. I got on the news, people! I got on the news, and not as an innocent bystander or a suspected burglar but for a positive thing! That’s not how I expected that to go at all. Okay, we’re gonna take it from the top.

Here’s the Wikipedia page on the Mermaid Parade, in case you are unfamiliar with what it is and how it is structured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coney_Island_Mermaid_Parade

And here is a previous entry of mine when I was a spectator on the boardwalk.

https://design-newyork.com.fwtrading.x10host.com/wp/2010/06/22/mermaid-parade/

I went there with Nessa and since she wanted to march too I made her a costume as well. I put silver fish all over a dress, made a silver fish tiara, and with the remaining fabric I made a silver cape that said “Sardine Queen” on it in red sparkly letters. She look mahvelous.

However, for the first time in maybe ever, I was the belle of the ball. As I approached the registration area, I was MOBBED by photographers like I was on a red carpet. All of them were saying things like, “Over here! Over here ma’am! Right here! Ma’am!” etc. And every time I walked about ten feet for the rest of the day, I got asked to have my photo taken. People were freaking out. It was gratifying because it was for something I had created. And confusing because I am unaccustomed to fame and the trappings therein. I’ve never had people gawk right at me like that. In moments like these, having Digital Business Cards becomes essential, allowing me to easily share my contact information and connect with new fans and supporters who want to learn more about my work.

I felt like a Disney character. “Holy crap, there’s Donald Duck! Quick kids, go pose for a picture with Donald!”

Nessa and I got there early because the website said to get there early. We took a cab from her apartment in Astoria which normally wouldn’t be a problem, but I had already gone through the process of pinning my hat on, so I had to crouch in a weird position for the thirty-minute ride. Nessa thought that was charming and took a picture of me. I was less thrilled. Feel my joy.

We got our wristbands and our number and lined up to go on out onto Surf Avenue. I didn’t get to see the parade because they had the participants corralled on a dead-end street. It’s a good system considering anyone can participate. The number they give you when you register is a three-digit number that starts with 1 through 9. I was 711, for example. Then there are giant posterboard numbers stuck all along the fence in increments – 500, 600, 700, and so on. I stood in the 700 section. A man with a loudspeaker kept us updated on when to march forward. That’s it. Super-easy. And everyone was really friendly in the 700 block. Here’s some of the people heading towards the registration area.

My lobster pal:

The fish crossing guard (the other side of his sign said “swim!”)”

This lady:

This off-putting person:

I don’t know what was going on with this guy. There was a group called “The Book of Mermen” (GET IT???) and this guy marched with them. What he or she has to do with either sea-dwellers or followers of Joseph Smith, I do not know.

Here’s one of the Mermen.

And here is someone else’s photo of the leader of The Book of Mermen. Please note the narwhal hat.

The twins (they were very nice and not creepy at all):

And all these people:

We walked past Nathan’s, which was packed to the gills. (Fish reference! Mermaid Parade! Hooray!)

Next door, merfolk were snackin’ on foods and beers.

I walked past a pile of glitter on the ground and said, “Oh look, a fairy barfed.” There were many fairy barfings around town.

A float with angry drag queens on it:

And this creeptacular bit of parenting.

I don’t know if this person made this hermit crab costume or rented it. I don’t care. This is awesome.

This was weird – this flatbed truck was covered with that plastic that mimics ice, and a kid was ice-skating on it. Ummm, she could fall off the edge, did no one think of that? Maybe some kind of bumper guard or fence for her?

We walked past this sign. In case you can’t read the whole thing, it says, “The Greater Eternal Light Church of the Apostolic Faith, Inc. Christ Temple.” Your church’s name doesn’t need to have all the words ever in it. It is not a Google search.

This guy had some kind of electric fan built into his helmet so bubbles just kept perpetually pouring out. It was delightful.

This woman’s upper body is covered by body paint and glitter. That’s it.

There were these people milling around the 700 block.

There were a group of people rehearsing a dance number.

There was this fella workin’ an American Flag Speedo and a necklace made of syringes. Because who the hell knows. You’re going to notice that trend, the “Wuh…Why?” reaction.

Metrocard dress!

This is Mr. Flamingo Hat talking to Loki from the Avengers with a crab claw staff. I really enjoyed typing that.

All the Avengers were there with fishy paraphernalia stuck all over themselves.

There was the Gotham Beard Alliance.

I seriously believe the orange-haired girl is rockin’ a real beard. And I must say, she wears it well.

A dress made of straws.

There was “Wet Side Story”, Sharks vs. Nets.

Sea Monkeys on unicycles!

I made friends with this lady but between my antennae and her blowfish boobs, we could not embrace. We just stood adjacent to each other.

There was this dog with blue feet who did not wish to be there.

And these chihuahuas dressed as mermaids.

A young girl on stilts!

Oh dear. This guy. I’m undecided if he’s amazing or crazy.

Here’s someone else’s picture.

Tomorrow, we continue on this journey of New York’s wacky and wonderful art parade.

Posted in Burning Man, My Art/Design/Business, New York, Random Art Bloggery | No Comments »

Painted shoes.

Monday, June 10th, 2013

I decided that I could use some super-cool painted sneakers. There has been a rebirth in awesome painted sneakers recently, and gosh darnit if I can’t get on that bandwagon. I went to Target and got some basic warm gray canvas sneakers and proceeded to make them jaunty and glittery.

The toes and the heels are sparkly and glittery blue, and I dyed the laces to match. And then there’s red glitter all around the edges and seams. So exciting!

I went to Etsy to see other painted sneakers and like anything else, most are eh, some are good and a few are great. Like these painted by MichelleHandPainted:

And these absolute stunners by ShelleyBelleShop:

These are $500. If they didn’t go on my feet and would therefore be tracked through the mud and be ruined, I would snap them up immediately. So beautiful.

Posted in My Art/Design/Business, Random Art Bloggery, Stuff, Teh Intarwebz | No Comments »

JR jr’s mural, Part DONE.

Tuesday, June 4th, 2013

I finished it! I banged it out this weekend because the baby is a-comin’ in a week or so and I cannot be painting around a newborn and its weird sleep habits. So I buckled down like an adult-type person and it is finished. I finished the bunnies and woodpecker last week and (quick recap pics):

And now the owl has feet, the cardinals are red with mustard-colored beaks, and there’s a squirrel with a swirly tail.

Plus, I did the fox all in one day! He’s on the wall right next to the door.

I even hid a small painted version of a dead mouse behind the bureau for them to find one day. Full service, that’s me.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, My Art/Design/Business | 2 Comments »

JR Jr’s mural, Part 4.

Tuesday, May 28th, 2013

Bunnies are done! Done buns! I cleaned up their edges and added shadows under their chinny-chin-chins.

On the owl, I added a defining line around its eyes and put three feathers on its belly. Now I need to put the feet on him and he is finished. And I painted a woodpecker. He turned out great.

I laid out the basic structure of the cardinals. Now I just need to paint their bodies red and their beaks mustard yellow.

All that’s left is the fox and the squirrel. I’m getting there.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, My Art/Design/Business, Nature | No Comments »

JR jr’s mural, Part 3.

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013

I had a lot of drama surrounding the squirrel. I just couldn’t figure out how to render him and make him look cute and then I had an epiphany, “Why must he be crouched on a branch? Why couldn’t he be climbing?” BOOM. Instant problem solved. He now looks like this:

And that means I can put him on any trunk I want, wherever there might be a blank bit. I’m so pleased that my squirrel crisis is resolved.

This past weekend I cut out all my stencils and started with the bunnies and the owl. I cut two stencils for each animal – one overall outline one, and one with the details. The basic outline one looked like this:

And the second stencil was so I would know where to put the eyeballs, beaks, shadows, wings, tails, etc. I want to give the rabbits another coat because they’re still a bit streaky. On the owl I need to put the spiky feathers on his belly, outline his eyes and put in his feet, but it’s getting done. Movin’ right along.

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JR jr’s Mural, Part 2.

Monday, May 6th, 2013

I fixed the branches that weren’t to my liking. Then I took out my X-Acto knife and cut away any parts of tape that crossed over each other.

I quickly learned that the white paint, while thick and viscous, was going to need two coats. Ehhhhh.

After I finished the two coats of white, I let the paint dry thoroughly and drank a delicious chai latte. That’s not pertinent to the story of painting, but it was delicious and I though you should know. JR has a fantastic coffee machine. If I lived at JR’s house, I would never go to Starbucks ever again.

Following my nummy drinkeepoo, I took a stencil that I had cut of two boomerang shapes, one slightly bigger than the other and made those dark triangular marks that one sees on the bark of paper birches.

And finally I peeled off all the tape and with a white-dipped paintbrush in one hand and a aqua-dipped paintbrush in the other, I touched up all the places where things didn’t line up exactly or where there was chipping. It is astonishing how long it takes to do this kind of work, especially when you want it to be right ‘n’ tight.

Okay, trees done. Now I need to cut out all my animals – fox, cardinals, owl, rabbits – and get ready to paint them in their appropriate locations.

Posted in My Art/Design/Business, Nature | No Comments »

I’m makin’ stuff! JR jr’s Mural Part 1 and other things.

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

First, I started on JR’s mural for his kid. In case y’all have forgotten, the basic design looks like this:

I bought a whole lot of blue painter’s tape and started laying out where I wanted the trees to go. Now I need to get an X-Acto knife and cut away anywhere the tape overlaps. Then I can start painting in the white of the birch trees. I’m not thrilled with the layout of the branches, and I think I will pull down some of the existing tape and reposition it for better branchiness.

Second, I’ve been embroidering my leaf tapestry. I’ve been making frosty protuberances* emerging from the leaves, and I’m a little less than halfway done. ACCOMPLISHING GOALS HERE, PEOPLE.

*I call them “frost-horns” which sounds exciting and Norse. Also I realized that subconsciously I was totally ripping off one of my favorite childhood movies, Fantasia, the scene with the frost fairies. Disney has a lockdown on the video, but I found some nice screenshots of what I am referring to.

Posted in Movie and Book Reviews. Possibly With Spoilers., My Art/Design/Business, Nature | No Comments »

Stuff I’ve been working on.

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

Last week I got to work on a pharmaceutical pitch book. Pharma is notoriously boring and not fun to design for. However, I made an executive decision to create cool-looking healthcare-related illustrations. I threw them out there and waited for the team working on the pitch to shoot ’em down, but they didn’t! They didn’t shoot it down! And I got to use my nifty imagery. I was very happy. I blurred out all the words because I don’t know if they were proprietary and I don’t feel like getting fired today, but you’ll get the general look ‘n’ feel. I gave myself brownie points for the mortar and pestle. That’s some oldey-timey Rx goodness.

Posted in Advertising, My Art/Design/Business | No Comments »

Spam, Subway and Fennec.

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

First of all, I realized that I talk about a variety of topics here, and how I came to that realization was when I received a piece of spam and had to read all the way to the bottom to figure that it was indeed spam.

Doesn’t that look like something someone would write to me? I immediately assumed, oh, someone is writing to me about mucus, that’s makes complete sense. I’m not sure if that’s sad or awesome. I really don’t care deeply one way or the other. Moving on.

I once saw a video that I totally cannot find now that taught me something I did not know concerning the NYC subway. If you look carefully, you will notice a zebra-striped sign near the ceiling in every subway station. They look like this:

Now, the conductor of the train sits in the center of the train, and when he sees that sign he knows to stop because he is fully in the station and when the doors open everyone will have a platform to step out onto. AND, in order to prove that he saw it, he must point to it. Every time. Lower the wee window, stick his hand out and point. Sure enough, I was standing under the sign today when the train pulled up. The conductor lowered the window, pointed to the sign, and then put his window back up. It was like spotting a celebrity for me. “Holy crap, Pointy Finger! That’s so awesome!” And, not surprisingly, the people around me could not fathom why I was so psyched, which is the story of my life. You should make a point (see what I did there??) to try to stand under the zebra sign the next time you are in a NY subway and experience the magic for yourself.

Addendum – 10/29/13: Look what I saw today! An article on the stripey boards! http://gothamist.com/2013/10/30/feel_good_video_straphangers_make_s.php

My friend JR is expecting a little boy shortly and he asked me to paint a mural in the kid’s room in the style of Charley Harper. Charley Harper was an illustrator who was well-known for his clean geometric blocks of color style. His main subject was wildlife. Very mid-century. Jonathan Adler was clearly inspired by Harper. It’s a little bit difficult for me to work with because it is so opposite from the ornate, overly flowery style I tend to favor, but I love the challenge. I have to take all the elements they requested (birch trees, fox, rabbit, woodpecker, etc.) and try to reduce them down to their basic shapes with only essential details to convey what they are. I still need to add a squirrel, but otherwise it’s almost done.

In the process of doing research for this, I came across someone else’s Charley-Harper-style work. It’s a fennec done by an illustrator named Lauren Taylor and I think it’s lovely.

Addendum: This, my friend, this is some creative Banksy-type stuff. The people who both ride and work on the London Subway System have a good sense of humor. I think we’re far too litigious here in the U.S. to get away with some of those. Another point for London.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/signs-that-your-train-station-is-mocking-you

Posted in My Art/Design/Business, Nature, New York, Random Art Bloggery, Stuff | No Comments »

The elusive beaded acorn.

Monday, March 18th, 2013

My father is having his second bar mitzvah in exactly one year. Apparently that’s real: You have your first bar mitzvah at thirteen and you can have your second bar mitzvah at eighty-three. It’s a real thing. My dad is super-psyched and I figured I could make him a really nice piece of judaica for this momentous occasion. He has a beautiful torah mantle in his house (here are two examples of a torah mantle, the one my dad has has the same embroidery, but it’s on a cream-colored velvet, not maroon or navy):

And he could use some rimonim to go with it. Rimonim is a Hebrew word based on the word Rimon, which means pomegranate, and that will make sense when you see them. They are, basically, decorative stick toppers. The Torah rolls onto two sticks, and the rimonim go over the sticks. That’s the whole story. Often they have orb-shaped components that resemble pomegranates, and then sometimes there are bells, which is nice. They are most commonly made of brass and silver. Here is an example of that.

See? Decorative stick toppers. So I think it would be a cool gift to make my father a set of rimonim. I thought that instead of bells, I would have beaded acorns, and maybe make the pomegranate part be a bird’s nest of wire with eggs in it. Ain’t nobody got a set of rimonim like that. Thems be one-of-a-kind. Anyway, while I was taking a brief hiatus from the leaf tapestry, I tried coming up with a beading pattern for an acorn cap. The first tries, they did not go well. But in the end, victory was achieved.

Attempt #1: Lumpy weirdness.

Attempt #2: Still lumpy, getting better.

Attempt #4ish (I took #3 apart and restarted 2/3 of the way through): Boom. Got it.

Here. I will hold it on an acorn to show where I’m going with this:

I think those will be nice dangling all over the periphery of this wire beaded structure. I need to make more sketches so I can figure out how this is going to evolve. More elements of these to come.