Late Night Drive-In: Midnight Special (2016)

The star power alone behind this movie is worth the watch. A boy with special abilities goes on the run with his father for a specific purpose while being pursued by a religious group and the FBI. This is a very restrained and tense film that lulls you into a sense of safety and is laced with very realistic and slightly creepy reveals, showing that nothing and no one is safe. The score is minimal, the shots linger on the expressions and intentions of each character. The dialogue is few and well chosen, as well. I enjoy a sci-fi movie that is not afraid to be quiet. So many sci-fi movies just overwhelm you with explosions, outlandish set pieces, and gobs of exposition, but this all about the attempted calm and the drama is often happening internally. Sans spoilers, the ending is beautifully designed and will leave you wanting more. My criticism is that it is at times too minimal and lacks a little warmth, but it’s nice to see a movie with some negative space.

Popcorn perks:
-Adam Driver’s NSA communications analyst character is everything
-The white room interrogation scene
-”Is it too much to ask you to punch me in the face?”

Classic Car Watch: ‘72 Chevrolet Chevelle

DIY Projects: Let's Sew an Octopus Adorabilis

One of my many hobbies that I cranked to eleven during the pandemic was sewing. I have rudimentary knowledge, my mom gave me some lessons and I used to sew Barbie clothes by hand when I was in grade school and even high school for 4-H. My aunt is a professional seamstress in Texas and she sends me the most amazing remnants from her jobs (shout out to you Aunt Cyndi) and sometimes I get a print that is so bizarre that I’m like, what on earth will I make with this. Well, this Christmas I decided to make a stuffed animal for my dear friend’s daughter. I asked what her favorite animals were and she gave me a short list. When I looked up Octopus Adorabilis (scientifically known as Opisthoteuthis californiana - Look them up, your day will be made) I knew exactly what to do. You don’t often find them in plush form, so I went for it and pulled out my flaming pink upholstery fabric and orange leopard print.

Leopard print makes for good suckers.

I made the pattern from scratch and sewed the head and base separately, the little top fins, eyes, and attachment of head to base was hand sewn. This was a challenge because I forgot how much poly you have to stuff in these things to make sure they stay firm and not floppy. I wanted this thing to hold up to a lot of hugs.

The finished product.

I was so pleased with the finished product. It turned out large and substantial and is currently making a habitat in a little girl’s bedroom. She was named Adora, I’m told, and I couldn’t be more delighted. I may try some more experimental stuffed animals as I have a gargantuan bag of poly left over! What strange animal would you like to see made into a plush?

Writing Journey: 25 Queries and Counting

A journey that thousands are currently on, but seldom people see, is the writer’s journey. One of my many passions is storytelling, and over the past twelve years, the thing I love to do that takes hours and hours and hours of my time, few people see. It’s kinda like being pregnant forever and eventually when you do give birth, it’s to full grown people with dramatic arcs inhabiting a world that only existed in your brain for the past decade. My first book “Gypsy Giver and the Thief” was a self-published children’s book that I’m immensely proud of and terrible at marketing. It has sold only around 40-50 copies, maybe, I make $0 on it, but it’s exactly the book I wanted to make. In a stroke of naivete, I thought, I need more experience writing. I’ll write a novel. Twelve years and countless drafts later, I finally have a finished manuscript and am up to 25 queries sent to agents (10 rejections so far, woohoo!) I also have other novels started and in progress and a cache of short stories, too. Still, I’m not great with grammar, commas are still a mystery, and I will never stop learning. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. For all of you aspiring writers out there, I feel your pain and your joy and drop me a line if you want to talk shop or if you’re as naive about publishing as me. I’ve had some amazing cheerleaders out there who have given me so much encouragement (I’m looking at you Towery and Hwang) so, I’m happy to break out the pompoms and cheerlead you on as well.

Now Playing: Super 8 (2011) Ten Years Strong

This summer marks the tenth anniversary of this Spielberg/J.J. Abrams gem. It made it onto my Saturday watchlist while doing business this afternoon. Nothing draws me to a movie more than one that is artistically inspiring and makes me want to make movies. It’s hard not to fall in love with this ragtag group of small town kids who have no other care in the world than making a zombie movie with their Super 8 camera. I wish my friends and I had been this ambitious. But these friends are dealing with family trauma and grief, not to mention the presence of something from another world wreaking havoc on their small town in Ohio, circa 1979. The cinematography by Larry Fong is gorgeous, with that signature Abrams light flare, but the blue and yellow combination in some of the shots just hits my eyes the right way. One of my favorite moments is during the credits when you get to see all of the shots the kids were working on come together into its finished form. This film was a definite inspiration for the show Stranger Things and many others I’m sure.

Other popcorn perks:
-ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down” and The Knack’s “My Sharona”
-Charles and Joe’s messy rooms filled with lots of Easter Egg posters, monster toys, and model making kits
-Kids running free but making it home by dinner

Classic Car Watch:
-1968 Yellow Buick Skylark

If you were going to make a movie with your friends, what genre would you choose?

Sneak Peek: Tiny Dragons

Full step-by-step post to come, but I had to share this sneak peek of one of my latest resin projects: a series of paperweights and other artful little items that involve dioramas. As a kid, I was enchanted by anything that resembled a tiny world, which I think is common. Kids have this innate desire to create tiny worlds within bigger ones, probably as a means of feeling some sense of safety or control in an otherwise uncontrollable real world. Yes, I still have my collection of Polly Pockets. #notsorry

I found all sorts of tchotchkes while sorting things in my studio and am just starting to put them in resin. Some of which are these cool 1 inch dragons that are begging to be given homes. Fingers crossed the process works! What’s your favorite tiny world?

Artists Gotta Eat: California Roll Bowl

I like to get creative with my food, but I’m no chef. My cooking style is most similar to an episode of Chopped with very low stakes. If I lose, there’s always Ramen.

CALIFORNIA ROLL BOWL

Jasmine Rice (chilled)
Sliced English Cucumber
Diced Avocado
Low Fat Mayo
Siracha
Tuna (or some other chilled seafood)
Soy sauce

Layer a bowl with rice, then cucumber, avocado, and tuna. Mix some mayo with a few squirts of siracha (to your desired level of hotness. Then use like salad dressing. I keep the soy sauce in a little bowl near by to dip bites into or just dab a little over the bowl. This is a great fresh summer lunch or dinner. Works great with crab or leftover salmon.

DIY Projects: Revisiting Resin

Back in my Blick days, I had to make some resin gems for an example project, but never really took it any further than that. So when I was given an Amazon gift card, I did what any sane COVID-era hermit would do, blow it on another hobby. I’d seen some cool and inspiring pieces on Pinterest and Instagram, which my brain interprets as “hey, I can do that!” I started with a sweet paperweight and some scrap jewelry chain.

I used Dr. Resin brand resin, which was the 16oz $14.99 kit from Amazon along with a $14.99 Silicone Casting Molds Set. I had some Pearl Ex powder and glitter in my cache of art supplies. Heated up my resin in a plastic bag in water in a mini crock pot. Make sure you wear gloves, have good ventilation, and mix in very small batches. A heat gun or lighter can help get rid of bubbles.

I’m gonna look so baller at the arcade tonight.

The giddy 80s child inside me was dancing around when I removed these pieces from the molds. They set in 24hrs and were fully cured in 72hrs. The little metal moons are from a nail art kit. Can’t wait to make these into earrings and other jewelry. OTHER TIPS: Stir the resin with the hardener for a full 7 minutes. Use scotch tape to get dust particles out of silicone molds. Don’t mix the powders in the molds just mix and pour from the silicone mixing cups. Also don’t scrape the the mixing cups, there’s a chance that some didn’t mix in the corners.

Painting Process: Star Wars at The Palace

I used to work for an art supply company and after we would shoot photographs of paint squirts or blobs on a canvas for catalog covers, the canvas was chucked into what we affectionately called The Cage. In between designing catalogs, it was often my job to tidy up The Cage, and got to take home the “junk” canvas for my own projects. This one had a nice big pink swipe on it! I sketched out my idea in marker on the canvas.

This is after about an hour’s worth of work. I try to work in hour increments, a habit I started during the pandemic. The photo I worked from was one I took after seeing Star Wars IX at our little local theater, it has one screen and shows one movie a week and only costs about $5. I have a lot of fond memories there.

Started blocking in color. I work in a limited palette. Honestly you don’t need a ton of colors to achieve richness and depth. Also I have a rule when painting, I don’t use black out of the tube. If I want an area to be “black” I have to make it. It adds a layer of interest when you’re mixing Prussian Blue and Burnt Umber together, you can control the temperature of the black. Black out of the tube is often very stark, and it works with the flow of the painting if you build it from the raw materials of the other colors.

I’m pretty down and dirty with my painting set up. I used a sheet of plastic as my palette, only 2-4 brushes, and a teeny jar of spirits to clean the brushes when absolutely necessary.

Lights! Sometimes all you need are some well placed blobs. It’s a balancing act to figure out which areas you want to be painterly and the areas you want to be finite and exacting. I’m not great at perspective, so the marquee was a big “hold my breath on all the straight lines” area.

The finished project! If you think drawing letters is difficult, try oil painting on a diagonal. But, it was a fun challenge, and I like to think I improved a canvas that was left for garbage. This painting is going in my private collection, can’t sell this one quite yet.

Meteorite Jewelry: Wearable space fragments

I’ve made jewelry since high school. My mom and I would sell it at the local Riverfront Market during the summer months and it was so much fun. I still have thousands of beads, bits, and bobs in my studio, so every now and again I sit down and tinker with ideas. Years ago, I was captivated by a local curiosities shop that sold bits of campo del cielo meteorite from Argentina. I’ve since ordered more and made different types of jewelry out of them. There’s something so cool about holding a weighty iron space rock in your hands (though technically every rock is a space because we are on a rock floating through space). If you fancy these, they are available in my Etsy shop.

“Clever girl.”

White Leather Purse Makeover

Back when I used to work for Blick Art Materials, I would get tapped to try new products. Even though I mainly produced catalog, ad, and email designs, once in a while they needed to feature something new for photography or social media. These Angelus Leather Dyes are so fun (and messy) to play with. I scored this little plain white leather purse from a local thrift store for a few dollars.

I picked a design that would be striking with high contrast, but also that would only use maybe 2 or 3 colors. I drew out the design with a light colored pencil or skinny marker. It was going to get covered up so it didn’t need to be very dark.

Do as I say, don’t do as I do, ha ha! I highly recommend putting plastic a sheet down on your work surface. Wear an apron and gloves—this stuff stains! It’s designed to dye animal skin (use real leather not pleather) so it will stain your skin for some time. It works a lot like ink or watercolor. It can be diluted with the neutral clear color they sell in the shop. This stuff will not wash off, crack, or peel—it’s a stain. I recommend getting some leather scraps to practice on.

Here’s the finished product! I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I look forward to experimenting further with the Angelus dyes. So many colors, so many possibilities. I only used the purple and red colors on this particular purse.

Mermista Costume DIY Step by Step

When I got the idea for “A Frosta Christmas Special” I quickly knew I had to add another character. Mermista played a role in the original He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special. Plus I grew up with the doll and she didn’t require as many costume pieces as the other characters. I start with a drawing. I’m a firm believer in if I can draw it I can do it.

Details of the Mermista costume parts.

My first illustration of the idea for Mermista’s costume.

Princess Mermista of the Mer Kingdom or Salineas…but she sounds suspiciously French.

You don’t need a lot of money or expensive materials to make a quality costume. The wig I ordered from eBay for $11. The bracers were made from watercolor paper that I glued together and covered with foam. I attach the foam with Elmer’s spray adhesive and coated with Weldbond glue. Then painted with acrylic and pearlized paint. The final coats I sponge on since I don’t own an airbrush.

I use a heat gun, thick craft foam, and a dress form to create the base.

Sketching with pencil.

Adding thin foam bits and plastic bobs with spray adhesive and super glue.

Cut away the excess foam.

Bracers ready to be primed! Looks like Mardi Gras.

Primed and ready for pearlizing! Mermista is taking shape.

In both the cartoon and on the doll, Mermista had a necklace. It’s no water-squirting fish, but I thought vintage plastic pearls and a teardrop crystal would do the job admirably. I used to make jewelry so it’s a delight to put a handful of the thousands of beads I own to use.

I cut apart a crushed velvet secondhand sweatshirt and traced an old swimsuit to make the bodysuit. There seems to be a shortage of fabric in our area so you have to make do. The skirt I made from chiffon, which is a nightmare to work with ha ha!

The belt was also layers of foam and glue and attaches with leather laces. One of the hardest parts to decipher is how the armor attaches to the fabric. I used metal snaps for this particular costume and the bracers slip on, so they are each one solid piece.

Bucket List: Koalas!

Koalas have been my favorite animal ever since I was little. My family still recalls the tiny stuffed koala I used to carry around, and loved to the point of becoming a flattened, plush pancake with eyes. This year I was able to bring a lifelong dream to fruition and hold one for real!! While I was in Brisbane, Australia, I stayed only a mile from the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, so naturally I visited three days in a row. The sanctuary was incredible, and to me it was a literal slice of heaven. Dozens of koalas lazing about, eating from gum trees and feeding their babies right in front of me!!  

For a small fee you can hold one and get a professional photo and the proceeds go to keeping the koalas safe, as their habitats are disappearing and disease damages their numbers. Things they don’t tell you: koalas are way heavier than you think, their fur is course, and their scent is somewhere between a eucalyptus candle and a skunk. We all have our moments that we look back on when we get down, swamped with work, or stressed out, and I will forever have this moment to get me through. I thank God for creating such amazing creatures to bring a smile to our faces.