Vacation!

I am off to sunny California tomorrow for a driving vacation.  I will fly to San Diego and then drive all the way up to Calistoga, visiting family, friends in L.A., seeing the PCH coast line, Hurst Castle, Monterey Bay, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Napa.  I should be back around the first of February.   See you all then.

Ciao,
Milo

The "Vicflorians" are here!

  A while back, I started a series of manipulated images from the 19th century.  I have been collecting Victorian cabinet cards for a while, and I wanted to use them in a different way in my work.  Many artists have used the old photos and inserted animal heads over the old people heads (including myself).  But I felt there was something richer and more interesting I could do.  I wanted to have rich colors and floral patterns as well, and many of my old cards were from Hong Kong or Japan.
  So I came up with the "Vicflorians".  A new way of looking at old portrait photography.  The flowers are more ambiguous than using animal heads; you can read anything into them, and they seem less kitchy.
  I made a larger series of these and mounted many of them onto cut cardboard to look like the original cabinet cards.  They sold well at a few art shows, so I decided to make prints and sell them in my Etsy store.

  It always helps me to try and come up with a story or a background for my characters; it gives me a context and often leads to a better illustration, so here is a little bit about the Vicflorians.

  In my mind, they are a silent and well mannered race of beings.  Although they are quite formal, with impeccable manners, they can be very warm and outgoing.  Of course, they are lovers of tea, and love to picnic outdoors.  Vicflorians are fond of floral patterns and rich colors.  Their skins are quite fragile and as a consequence, they tend to wear a lot of cloths to cover up their delicate skins.  It is not uncommon to see Vicflorian women covered from the neck on down; gloves, long skirts and carrying parasols to protect them from the bright sun.  Vicflorian women are very fashionable, and are always dressed in the height of fashion.  The women are very fond of little beetles that they carry around as pets.  The beetles are usually large horned beetles or other bright, jewel toned insects.  They keep them on little gold or silver leashes (they are quite tame and gentle).

  Here are some of the new prints available now in my Etsy store.  There are also two more images in this series, the Flower Geishas, listed earlier in my blog.

                         This first gentleman is wearing a dapper outfit with a waistcoat and ascot.

                 This lovely young woman is dressed for a walk in the park.  Note her little pet horned beetle on the golden leash.

                                            Here is a gentleman dressed in his parson's outfit.

               This is one of my favorites.  I found this old photo while exploring some of the old antique stores of Hong Kong.  I love the pink and lime green backdrop; a very traditional Chinese color combination that works really well with her wonderful silk robes.

All are available for sell in my Etsy shop; http://www.etsy.com/shop/BarkingMadArts

I would love to hear what people think.  Please drop me a comment.

Victorian Psycho Killers

   For those of you who enjoy Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper, or Professor Moriarty, this might be just your cup of tea.  Using old cabinet cards, I have created the "Victorian Psycho Killers".  Hurrah!
    
This first one is Professor Sebaceous, "Let's have a drink, shall we?"  I love the poison green of his eyes.

This next one is the good Reverend Slicer, "Let us pray..." He believes in the authority of the Word (his).

                                     This fine woman is Madame Ripgutt, "Here Kitty, Kitty..."

             This striking young woman is known as Miss Shearing, "Would you like a close shave?"

                                   And finally, this lad is young master Quietus, "Want to play?"

  I am not sure if these would sell very well in my Etsy store.  They do seem to do fairly well at outdoor art fairs, and I do have really interesting conversations with the people who buy them.  What do you think?

Art Movie #2- Seraphine

  This week's artist movie is the French film "Seraphine".  Yolande Moreau plays the tragic French painter Seraphine; a cleaning woman and laundress who secretly paints in the evenings after she is done cleaning the homes of her clients.  A sad movie about lonely and disturbed woman who is a great natural painter.  She secretly paints in her attic apartment in a small village during the German occupation of France, during WWII, while living hand to mouth doing whatever she could to earn money.  The actress, whom some might remember from her role as the landlady in the film "Amelie", does a fantastic job playing this powerful and disturbed woman.  All of Seraphine's paintings are based on  nature and are really quite fantastical.  She makes her paints from various things that she can find; pigs blood, crushed herbs, melted wax from the church altars.  She is poor and often goes hungry in order to buy art supplies.  Her art is energetic and bold in color and natural composition.  This woman, like Vincent Van Gogh, was driven and obsessed by her work, while the community around her scoffed at her vision and, at best ignored her obvious talent.  She was religiously obsessed from her upbringing by catholic nuns, but she had a very sweet demeanor.  Seraphine is discovered by a famous German art dealer near the end of her life and begins to gather notice from the art world.  By the time she is finally recognized for her work, she is suffering religious delusions and is put into a sanitorium.
  It is an inspirational tale and really quite sad.  This is a very quiet and emotional movie; I highly recommend it.

Vacation

Dear All,
  I am off to the relatives for the Holidays.  I will return on December 29th.  Happy Holidays all!
Ciao,
Milo

Quotes

Here are 4 of my favorite quotes:

"I'm nobody, who are you?"  -Emily Dickenson-


"He would make a lovely corpse."  -Charles Dickens-


"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all."  -Oscar Wilde-


"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."  -Edgar Allen Poe-


What are some of your favorite quotes?


Ciao,
Milo

Flower Geishas

  Here's a treat!  These are two images I made several years ago.  I sold a few prints of these two lovelies (at art shows), and then I filed them away and forgot about them.  I "re-discovered" these while going through some old files in my computer the other day, and I thought I would share them here on my blog.  I invented a series of flower-headed Victorian photos and that I called the "Vicflorians", and these were part of that series.
  The original images are taken from two old Japanese postcards depicting Geishas in hand-colored old sepia photos.  I added more colors and placed the flowers into the photos (instead of heads), and then I added lots of distressing and age marks.  I always felt that these were very sweet.
  These images are NOT for sale in my Etsy site now.   I am not sure if anyone would like these or if I should offer them for sale.  What do people think?
  They are now for sell in my Etsy shop;  http://www.etsy.com/shop/BarkingMadArts   Please enjoy!