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Long Lost Friend Studio is my self-publishing imprint, the studio space where we work, and a YouTube channel featuring videos about art and creativity. This blog covers everything happening with me and Long Lost Friend Studio.
It’s Alive! And Multifunctional!
Zipping through YouTube reviews of tools Michelle and I were thinking about purchasing for the shop, we noticed a lot of gear reviews on a multitool marketed towards outdoorsmen, woodworkers, plumbers, contractors, and do-it-yourselfers. Nothing about artists or craftspeople. But the tool seemed interesting enough for us to buck the system, pick one up, and see if we could make a monster.
Mother! Oh God! Blood! (A Psycho Diorama)
Were I in Norman Bates’ loafers, on the night he had to tidy up after his Mother did that awful, terrible thing to Marion Crane in Cabin Number One, I wonder if my natural aversion to germs and blood and gore would be overridden by my weird, anxiety-calming obsession with cleaning and organizing.
Mailbox Monsters
When I was a child, there were certain cultural touchstones associated with Halloween that I considered sacrosanct; jack-o-lanterns, trick-or-treating, and halloween specials. Most people agree on those. But there’s one arcane practice that most folks have relegated to the past, one that I have always genuinely looked forward to at this time of year: sending and receiving Halloween cards in the mail.
The Red Death: Party Like It’s 1399!
Remember that time a deadly plague swept through the land, and many cynics felt they were untouchable? And remember how death, arbitrary and brutal, took even those that mocked it in its cold embrace? That’s the kind of poetic justice Edgar Allan Poe reveled (and excelled) in. You knew I was talking about Poe, right?
The Monster Walks: Another Gallery1988 Exhibit
Frankenstein’s monster has risen from the slab once again, and Michelle and I have only ourselves to blame. Well, maybe Gallery1988 should shoulder some of the blame, because this mixed-media Son of Frankenstein diorama is part of their current show, The Golden Age of Hollywood.
Commissioned to Build a TMNT / Universal Monsters Diorama
Sometimes a job’s just a job. Other times, it’s so much fun you feel guilty cashing the paycheck. Such was the case when, recently, a client commissioned Michelle and me to build a diorama that’s a cross between the Mutant Turtles’ sewer lair and Dr. Frankenstein’s lab.