August Giveaway for both melissanannenart and goodmarvin!

Here's the deal.  I need help promoting my shop and building up my network of peeps who like photographic prints and cute little purses and bags...so I'm hosting a giveaway for the month of August for both etsy shops.  (Sorry, no plushpootie giveaway as of yet - though, maybe I will do one in the fall.)

Let's get to the good part.  The prizes!  For melissanannenart I will be giving away:
This 8"x10" photograph:

More details on this photograph can be found on my site if you click this link: http://www.etsy.com/listing/50849129/bogo-magical-enchanted-redwood-forest

For goodmarvin I will be giving away:

The Sexy Librarian Clutch in Champagne and Gold Leaves

More photos and info on this purse if you click this link to the shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/52568364/sexy-librarian-clutch-in-champagne-and

3 Ways to Enter:

1.  Become a fan of my facebook page and post a comment on this blogpost with your facebook username so I can enter you into the contest.  Already a fan?  Lucky you, you've automatically been entered once already.

Links for facebook fan pages:

http://www.facebook.com/melissanannenart

http://www.facebook.com/pages/goodmarvin/89401387117

2. Go to my etsy shop (goodmarvin for the goodmarvin contest and melissanannenart for the melissanannenart contest) and leave a comment on this post telling me which item in the shop is your favorite.

Links to shops:

http://www.goodmarvin.etsy.com

http://www.melissanannenart.etsy.com

3. Suggest my fan page to a friend who is not already a fan and leave me a comment here with their username so when they add me, you will be entered into the contest again.  You can do this an unlimited number of times - so the more friends of yours who fan my page, the more chances you get to win.  Just make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry to be counted.

How the Winner is Chosen

The contest runs from Aug. 3 to Sunday, Aug. 15th at midnight EST.  Every time you enter you will be assigned a number for each entry.  At the end of the contest, a number will be chosen by the random number generator on random.org based on the total number of entries.  So, the more times you enter the contest, the better your chances are of winning. 

On Monday, Aug. 16th, I will post the winner of each giveaway on this blog and in the announcements section of each etsy shop.  You will have 48hrs. to email me at goodmarvin1227@gmail.com to claim your prize and give me your shipping info.  After that time, another winner will be chosen at random.

Questions? 

Email me at goodmarvin1227@gmail.com for any questions regarding the contest rules.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY SALE UNTIL JULY 31ST!

 I am hosting a sale in both of my etsy shops from now until the end of the month.  In melissanannenart.etsy.com  you will find buy one get one free on all prints in the shop.  In goodmarvin, I have a special section devoted to 25% off items and I also am running a buy two or more items and get free shipping on all items in the store (except custom orders.)  Now is a great time to stock up on gifts for the holidays (almost all of my scarves are 25% off)!
Check it out....

My favorite new sewing tool

Just thought I'd share about how awesome my new thread snips are.  They're made by Fiskars and cost $5.99 at Target.  They are perfect for cutting off those little tiny threads without damaging the rest of your work.  The best 6 bucks I've ever spent...

New Home Studio!

For the past few months, my good friend from grad school has been busy converting our front porch into a small home studio for me.  He finally finished it last weekend, my husband and I painted it, and I moved from my Port Richmond studio to my brand new home studio.  It is still being gradually organized and moved into and I've been documenting my progress as new things get added.

prior to the move-in, my cat Mr. Stevens checks out his new lounging spot

opposite end of the room

Slowly moving stuff in...

my somewhat hideous Ikea bookcase getting stuffed with fabric

detail of my quilter's cotton

sewing table (I'm dreaming of shelves on the side wall for all of my notions)

More images to come as I add shelves, curtains, and set-up my printing station for melissanannenart.etsy.com....

Flirt Show Opening at the Sweatshop

For the last two years I've been creating all of my larger artworks in a community studio with 6 other artists out in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia.  Last summer, we got our stuff together and made a gallery out of this extra storage space we had and started showing work.  For the month of June a fellow artist friend and former grad colleague and I put together a show of recent work we entitled Flirt.

Shawn Beeks

My friend, Shawn Beeks, created beautiful, delicately rendered watercolor and pencil paintings of a series of possible imagined cosmetic surgeries.  The first, pictured here, is his version of what permanently upwards tilting breasts would look like.

Natural, by Shawn Beeks

Self-Medicated Relief, by Shawn Beeks

Long-Term Upper Fullness, by Shawn Beeks

Cleavage Gap, by Shawn Beeks

Hyper Medial Cleavage, by Shawn Beeks

My latest work was inspired by research I did about Victorian sexual mores.  I found out that Freud had come up with seven deviant sexual species during the Victorian era - the prostitute, the primitive, the homosexual, the child masturbator, the hysteric, the nymphomaniac, and the pervert.  I chose to reinterpret 4 of the 7 sexual species through the use of chairs.

The Primitive, by Melissa Nannen

faux fur, fabric, tree branches and found chair

Child Masturbator - Cookie Monster Model, by Melissa Nannen

A note about this piece.  I found out that during the Victorian era, parents were very concerned about their children fondling themselves innocently because they thought it would lead to vice, so they would have repeat offenders wear these rather uncomfortable chastity belts, pictured below.

The Cure for Syphilis, the Virgin Prostitute by Melissa Nannen

It also was apparently encouraged for wealthier men to seek satisfaction for their sexual desires outside of the home and leave sex with their wives for the purpose of procreation only.  So, it wasn't uncommon for Victorian men to seek prostitutes which of course, led to a widespread syphilis epidemic.  It was thought one could be cured of syphilis by sleeping with a virgin prostitute, which is one of the reasons why there were so many young, teenage prostitutes.  Gross.

Lie Down Dear, You're Feeling Hysterical by Melissa Nannen

mobile of hunky people for they hysteric to focus on

Sadly, this is a piece not well translated into photography.  Inside the chair was a massage pad, so the viewer could remove their shoes, place on the provided flip-flops, lay down and relax to a vibrating massage while gazing at the hunk of their choice.

the pregnant artist enjoys her own massage chaise lounge

Shawn Beeks and other friends at the opening

hanging out in the hallway by the food...

Well, the show is over and down and the pictures are finally up...oops.  I think I was supposed to do that in a different order.

A lot can happen in 6 months....

So I know I took a long break from blogging and I told you some of the reasons.  The one I was holding back should be evident from the picture below.  I'm pregnant!  

So, I've understandably been a little absent.  The first trimester combined with teaching a new Sculpture studio class as well as my Art Appreciation class at my college made for a pretty tired and unproductive Melissa in her etsy shops.  I'm now 20 weeks and only working for the shops, so that means more blogging and more making!
  In any case, it's a girl and she's due on Nov. 3.  I hope to get a lot of purses made and photos printed in preparation for her arrival so I will still be able to participate in all of the holiday selling hubbub.

And one day soon, I will share pics with you from my latest art opening, called Flirt which opened a few weeks ago in my community studio.

See you then.

The TTV effect

     One of the reasons photography ceased being my media of choice was the move into the digital age.  I loved darkrooms - the smell of fixer, the excitement of pulling your first print from a new roll, and the ability to mess around with chemicals to get great effects.  I loved not knowing whether or not a photo was going to come out - I loved happy accidents.  I frequently shot with plastic cameras and handmade pinhole cameras, simply because of their unpredictability.  By the time the digital age superseded film I no longer had access to a darkroom and I could neither afford great digital equipment nor did it hold the same luster for me that film had.  So I became a painter.  And then I went to grad school and became a sculptor.  While that's another story entirely, I will continue with my original thread.
     When digital photography became more affordable, I, like anyone else, was lured in by its ability to save me both money and give me instant gratification.  I also loved the LCD screens on the back of the cameras - backlit photos look sexy and appealing - sometimes in a way that isn't replicated in print.  Yet, I couldn't find myself as in love with digital as I was with the techniques of film.  Photoshop is wonderful, but I spend enough of my life staring at a computer screen - I don't want to endlessly edit photos to get them to look like I shot them with film and crappy plastic cameras.
     When I started looking into the possibility of opening up yet another etsy shop for my art, I kept running across photos on etsy made with TTV.  What the hell is that?  Apparently, it stands for Through The Viewfinder - meaning you've taken your primary camera (most likely digital) and shot it through the viewfinder of another camera (most likely an old reflex camera with a fairly large viewing screen.)  The result is wonderful vignetting, soft focus and a dusty, worn-around-the-edges look, reminiscent of vintage photos.  Instantly, I am in love.  While doing more research on how to create a TTV contraption, however, I discover a very easy Photoshop method to convert straight photos into TTV photos!  Because I have now become completely spoiled by the digital age and am no longer patient enough to tinker endlessly away until I get the right shot with a TTV contraption.  (I actually made one with my old Hasselblad and it wasn't terrible, but this is far easier and then I don't have to worry about dropping my very heavy Hasselblad while trying to make a photo.)


So, long story short - here are the results of my efforts.  The photos with vertical and horizontal lines and a bulls-eye in the center were made with the Hasselblad TTV contraption.  The others were night photographs I shot in New Orleans and are relatively unmanipulated digitally with the exception of a TTV speckle pattern layer I've added.  Enjoy.