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I made my most recent trip to Third Eye Comics in Annapolis last month where I took these photos.
Here’s a bizarre comic book called She-Trump, which is a mashup of a transgender version of Donald Trump and the She-Hulk.
I found some new Funko Pops on display, including one of the polar bears from the famous Coca-Cola ads.
I’m old enough to remember the heyday of The Police. Now Sting and his bandmates have been given the Funko Pop treatment.
Then there is the famous Peter Pez clown as a Funko Pop holding his own Pez dispenser that looks like him.
Last month I decided to make my first trip to Tyson’s Corner Mall of 2019. As I was walking the skybridge from the Metro station to the mall I took this shot of the painted roadways outside of that mall.
As I was walking towards Metro Plaza on the way to the mall I saw this family where the women were all wearing traditional Muslim dress (like hijabs). These days there have been an increase in anti-Islamic bias (which has definitely accelerated since Donald Trump became president). It’s a testament to the resilience of this country when there are still people who are willing to publicly wear traditional outfits despite the Islamophobia that’s swirling around in this country.
I went inside of the mall. I briefly stopped by The Microsoft Store where I saw this kid testing out the Xbox.
I walked past this store called Aēsop that I hadn’t seen before on previous visits. At first I thought it might be a bookstore since the name reminded me of how I used to love reading Aesop’s Fables as a child. But, no, it’s a skin care place that sells expensive lotions. The store provided free samples of its hand cream outside of the door.
Of course I stopped by the American Girl Place. I saw that they had some new outfits for Nanea Mitchell, who’s the historical 1941 doll who lives in Hawaii around the time of the Pearl Harbor bombing.
The historical 1970s doll, Julie Albright, has some basketball-related accessories, which is appropriate since she managed to integrate the formerly all-male basketball team at her school. This also brought back memories of when I did that multiple-part review series of her books a few years ago.
I noticed one thing that has changed in recent years. There was a time when the Girl of the Year doll would be released on January 1 then officially retired on December 31 so she would be available for only one year. Last year I noticed that they extended the 2017 Girl of the Year, Gabriela McBride, a few months past the end of 2017 and she wasn’t retired until well into 2018. I noticed that they’ve done the same with the 2018 Girl of the Year, Luciana Vega. So, as of this writing, it’s not too late for anyone to buy her or her accessories.
I have already written extensively about Luciana last year so I’m not going to devote more space to her this time around.
As for this year’s Girl of the Year, well that’s a different story. The latest Girl of the Year is Blaire Wilson, who’s described as a girl whose family runs a farm that also serves as a bed and breakfast. She loves to cook yet has been diagnosed as lactose-intolerant. You can learn more about her story right here.
I find Blaire to be very cute and I totally adore her long reddish hair.
If it weren’t for the $115 price tag and the fact that I don’t have infinite space in my home, I might have been tempted to buy her on impulse. But I’m cash-strapped and have to make a great effort to keep clutter to a minimum so I’m going to have to pass on her. I like the illustration on the cover of her book below. Heck, I might check the book out of the local library at some later date but reading it is not really a major priority in my life.
Blaire has a variety of outfits that are sold separately with prices starting at $30. There are some matching human children’s clothing as well so young girls and their Blair dolls can dress alike.
Since Blaire lives on a farm, there are plenty of farm-related accessories sold separately, including animals. Blaire’s Garden, which is shown below, can be yours for only $50.
There is Blaire’s Party Décor, which costs $85. I have to admit that the cake looks very realistic.
The store currently has a Blaire-themed display where people can have their pictures taken.
The largest item in Blaire’s line is Blaire’s Family Farm Restaurant, which costs a whopping $300.
This set includes plastic pretend food, which looks very realistic.
This set does have very tiny details that are reminiscent of another item that American Girl Place sold back in 2015. It was sold in conjunction with Grace Thomas (who was the Girl of the Year at the time) and it was called Grace’s French Bakery. It was a $500 bakery set that had all kinds of bells and whistles. Blaire’s Family Farm Restaurant has only slightly fewer bells and whistles than Grace’s French Bakery (which explains why it is $200 cheaper) but the details are nonetheless still impressive, such as this sink, which has a tiny bottle of dishwashing liquid.
Here is how one of the plates from that set fits into my hand.
American Girl is also selling more and more boy dolls as part of its Truly Me line. To be honest, the boy dolls don’t really impress me too much, especially with that $115 price tag.
Here’s a last shot of two Truly Me dolls in a pretend pool. I briefly went gaga over the inflatable unicorn ring but, to be honest, anything from American Girl is definitely out of my budget right now.
Another place that is also out of my budget is this place called Sawadika Ice Cream, which specializes in creating Asian-style ice cream that looks incredibly artistic to look at. I took a free sample and the ice cream tasted fantastic. But I had to reluctantly pass on it because of finances.
I went to that mall before Easter. It’s normal to see Peeps in the stores. It’s also normal to see the Easter Bunny at the mall waiting to talk to kids and have his picture taken with them. This was the first time I saw the two combine to a special Peeps Easter Bunny area where kids can gaze at this Peeps-themed spring garden and have their photos taken with the Easter Bunny. That area was so colorful that it looked like a cross between the old board game Candyland. and the 1970s children’s television series H.R. Putnstuf.
I came upon this kiosk that sold something called Bliss in a Bottle. The idea is that a bottle of wine is dipped into chocolate so the bottle is coated in chocolate. The person would drink wine while eating the chocolate coating at the same time. It looks so totally decadent but it’s completely out of my price range.
I checked out The LEGO Store where I saw that they now have a LEGO set based on The Flintstones. Wow! I remember when I used to watch reruns of that show every day on TV when I was growing up.
They also had a black-and-white set based on the Mickey Mouse cartoon short Steamboat Willie, which looked pretty awesome!
They also had this statue made completely out of LEGO bricks that depicted a man dressed in a shark costume.
For dinner I treated myself to a sushi meal at Wasabi. I love seeing the food delivered on a conveyor belt and all you have to do is pick the food plate that you want to eat. The food was excellent as usual. The price is a bit on the expensive side (I spent $30 that night) so I limit myself to going there only once or twice a year. I had a job until I was laid-off recently so I felt that I was entitled to have one nice meal before I tighten my belt and start being obsessive about spending as little money as possible. If things improve for me financially I might go to Wasabi one more time in the fall or winter. Otherwise, I’ll have to savor memories of that meal until 2020 at the earliest.
After dinner I went to GameStop where I saw this mashup of Funko Pop and Pez that resulted in this unique head based on Sonic the Hedgehog.
I saw this giant sign announcing that 7Eleven is going to move into the mall soon.
I briefly stopped in The Disney Store where I saw these cute Easter plushies featuring Stitch and Angel dressed as Easter Bunnies while holding smaller plushies like a lamb and a chick. How cute!
The most unusual thing I saw at Tyson’s Corner was this sheep statue that had LED lights in various colors.
This sign was encouraging people to hop on the sheep’s back. After I took these photos, I saw a guy who did just that while taking a selfie.
The name of this statue was called iSheep and it was partially funded by the Burning Man, which is that annual festival that is held in the Nevada desert.
There were signs encouraging people to follow sheep tracks that began near the iSheep statue.
The tracks ended at this locked storefront that was called BrandBox. The doors were locked so I had to make do with taking these photos.
I later looked online and saw that BrandBox is a store where certain items that are usually available online only are available for sale on the store shelves. I guess this place is only opened on the weekends since I went to Tyson’s Corner on a Tuesday. I generally prefer to go to Tyson’s Corner either on a weekday or on a Sunday because that place turns into a totally crowded zoo on Fridays and Saturdays. Okay so there is one disadvantage of going to Tyson’s Corner on a weekday. LOL!
Since today is Halloween, I’m going to post a couple of photos of a pair of Halloween Pez dispensers that I saw at a local Five Below store. The dispensers even came with a pack of special candy corn-flavored Pez candy. (No, I didn’t buy either of these dispensers so I have no idea what candy corn Pez candy tastes like.)
All those months of dealing with my ex-husband ending all further alimony payments, getting one job where I was promised that I would eventually get full-time hours only to not being able to even get 20 hours a week after working there for four months while the boss was job hunting himself, and only being able to get freelance piecemeal work began to take a personal toll on me. I really wanted to take a vacation for just a day or two but I couldn’t afford to do it so I was trapped. But then I got my current gig where I was helping a therapist prepare for a series of upcoming webinars that are slated to begin next month so I managed to get just enough money in that I could do something fun.
However the best I was able to afford was taking the Metro to Tyson’s Corner Center in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. It was better than nothing so I decided to go for it. It was raining heavily that day but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Besides, I was riding a Metrobus to the nearest Metro subway stop so I didn’t have to worry about driving on slippery roads. I rode the Silver Line Metro to the Mall. When I arrived at the plaza that has the entrances that are located the closest to the Metro station, I noticed that it looked pretty deserted due to the rain.
That’s in contrast to past visits where, depending on the time of the year, there is usually some kind of activities for people to participate in, whether it’s playing with a giant chess set or a giant ice skating rink.
I found out that this year is the 50th anniversary of Tyson’s Corner Center and there were signs touting this fact everywhere.
I walked past the Microsoft Store. I can count the number of times I’ve actually stepped inside of that store on one hand. I walked past the entrance but I didn’t go inside on this trip.
I’ll admit that I only went to this mall for a change in scenery. I didn’t do much shopping because money was still too tight for me at the moment. I basically shot photos of whatever appealed to me at the time.
At least I found out that Golden Girls socks are actually a thing this year.
Pez dispensers have always been a bit on the kitschy side but Pez has really outdid itself with pink flamingoes Pez dispensers.
I made a brief stop inside of the Apple Store, where I saw the latest computers with the large monitors.
I also got a look at the new iPhone XS, which has received a lot of press for its over $1,000 price tag. I have to admit that the iPhone XS has nice sharp graphics on its screen. If the phone allowed for people to do their own upgrades (such as adding more memory or replacing the hard drive) it would be one thing but, as far as I can tell, this smartphone is just like all of the others where you can’t even open your own phone and it will ultimately be disposable once it stops working completely. I’m going to stick with my Samsung Galaxy J3 phone for the time being.
I came across this kiosk that I haven’t seen on previous visits. It’s for a store called b8ta and it sells a mix of Google products and technology products that are created by smaller companies.
I made a brief stop inside of Build-A-Bear Workshop where I saw these cute Halloween plushies and a brontosaurus on display.
I eventually made my way to the American Girl Place. I haven’t been there since last December so there were plenty of new things to see. I saw that Felicity Merriman, the historical doll who’s supposed to represent the American Revolution era, has been taken out of retirement and is now available for sale once again. She’s on display with Addy Walker (who represents the American Civil War period) and Samantha Parkington (who represents the first few years of the 20th century that’s known as the Edwardian Era).
Here’s another historical doll, Nanea Mitchell (who represents Hawaii around the time of the Pearl Harbor bombing) with some new accessories available for sale.
Maryellen Larkin, who represents the 1950s, relaxes in her trailer, which is sold separately from the doll. The details of this trailer are pretty impeccable.
Kit Kittredge, who represents the Great Depression, sits behind her newly released vegetable stand.
Last year I saw Z Yang for the first time. Even though she’s a contemporary doll, this one caught my eye because she’s into photography and videography like I am. I learned that she is among the dolls who will be retired soon. I would say that I’m sorry to see her go but I’m still a bit cash-strapped at the moment so there was no way I could afford this doll and her accessories. There is also the issue of space because I really don’t have enough room to have a huge collection of large dolls.
This doll in the next photo was a bit of a surprise. Gabriela McBride was released last year as American Girl’s Girl of the Year Doll for 2017. Usually the Girl of the Year doll is on sale only from January 1-December 31 then she is retired. I was surprised to see that she was still around in 2018. I still remember last year the times I tried to take her picture but the first time I failed because the phone on my previous smartphone (Droid Ultra) began to act erratically and it wouldn’t take any photos while I was at the store yet it finally worked after I returned home. The second time I brought my older Canon DSLR with me but that effort failed because I had to be elsewhere and I shot photos at that other place before I arrived at the mall and I ran out of battery power by the time I arrived. My smartphone worked miraculously until I got to Gabriela McBride and my smartphone camera decided to stop working. The third time was finally the charm when I arrived last December with a Canon PowerShot camera that I purchased used off eBay and I took some photos of that doll and her accessories without a hitch. I thought that she would be retired at the end of 2017 just like her Girl of the Year predecessors but it wasn’t the case with her.
The country singing pair of Tenney Grant and her friend Logan Everett were also slated for retirement but I didn’t bother with taking their pictures. I had already shot them and their accessories on a previous visit and there wasn’t anything new with those two.
I managed to check out the 2018 Girl of the Year. Her name is Luciana Vega, she’s a Latina, she’s into STEM, and her big dream is to work for NASA so she could go to Mars.
American Girl went all out with the space theme. In fact, one of my Facebook friends who works for NASA was posting approvingly about this doll earlier this year. (He’s the father of two daughters—both of whom are now young adults—and I’m sure he would’ve bought this doll for them if they were still kids.)
Seeing this doll in person I have to say that she’s gorgeous and her clothes are literally out of this world. (If there were ever human adult versions of her dresses, I would definitely want to buy them.) She has gorgeous black hair with a purple streak in it. If I weren’t so cash-strapped, I would definitely feel tempted to buy this doll.
Her accessories, which are sold separately, includes things like astronaut ice cream and a replica of an Apple Watch.
There are corresponding books, one of which comes with the doll and the other two are sold separately. A few days before I came to Tyson’s Corner I was at the library where I saw a young girl checking out a pile of books, including one of the Luciana books.
Among her separately sold play sets is one that resembles a STEM makerspace. There is even a cute robot dog.
If it weren’t for the fact that this STEM maker station cost $100, I would say that it would be a cool thing to purchase for the local makerspace in my area for the kids to play with.
I thought that this robot dog came with the maker station but I found out that this robodoggie is sold separately for $35.
There is also a space telescope so Luciana could look up at the stars.
Then there is this NASA space laboratory and a NASA space suit for Luciana to wear. I can understand why my Facebook friend was gushing about Luciana online. In fact, this capsule reminds me of my ex-husband, who works for NASA. If we were still together, I definitely would’ve urged him to go to the American Girl Place with me so he could see this in person. I also would’ve told him that we could stop off at Wasabi afterwards because I was trying to get him to consider the two of us eating there before he abruptly left me just three days after Christmas and three months after my hip surgery in 2011. (I had gone to Wasabi for the first time when I was still married in October, 2011 but I went by myself that time.)
The details of this capsule are pretty astounding. My ex-husband definitely would’ve gotten a kick out of it if he had seen it for himself in person.
Yes, it’s sad that visiting the American Girl Place so we could see this NASA space laboratory together is another thing I’ll never get to do with my ex-husband but that’s the way things go.
My ex-husband was never into dolls and normally I would never have been able to get him to even step one foot inside of that door. I think I may have gotten him to make a rare exception and actually visit a doll store because he definitely would’ve been impressed with the painstaking details of this NASA space laboratory.
Luciana is totally rocking this astronaut space suit.
For families who want to purchase Luciana and her accessories but who are cash-strapped, there are Mega Construx kit versions.
Like other Girl of the Year dolls, the American Girl Place has a designated space where people can have their selfies taken with a standee of Luciana Vegan and a space capsule.
The sign said to turn the handle and look inside but the door handle was broken when I was there.
The best I was able to do was to shoot through the door window.
American Girl sold separate Washington, DC souvenir t-shirts for dolls. They also had matching shirts for their human owners as well but I only shot the doll shirts.
I didn’t spend much time in the store beyond Luciana and the BeForever historical dolls. But I saw this car that looked cool. It reminded me of that Volkswagen that American Girl came out for the 1970s historical doll Julie Albright a few years back.
I also shot these two outfits that were released just in time for the upcoming winter holiday trio of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
After my visit to the American Girl Place I ate a sushi dinner at Wasabi, which is the place that delivers food on conveyor belts and you could pick which plates you want.
After dinner I walked around the mall a bit. I found a temporary Halloween store that was selling costumes. This year they have costumes based on that mega-popular video game Fortnite. (I’ve seen kids play that game and they can’t seem to get enough of it. I haven’t tried it myself as of this writing.)
I did get a chuckle out of this obvious parody of My Little Pony‘s Rainbow Dash, even though I know nothing about Fortnite‘s Rainbow Smash.
They also had two costumes based on the late artist and TV personality Bob Ross. A couple of friends or lovers could dress up together as Bob Ross and one of his paintings, which I find hilarious.
Just a few feet away from the Halloween store is a Christmas store. This is crazy. Halloween and Thanksgiving haven’t even happened yet and there is already a Christmas store.
Just a few days after I took this shot of these Grinch ornaments I learned that someone is coming out with yet another remake of How the Grinch Stole Christmas that will be shown on the big screen. I guess that’s why there was a display of these ornaments. I personally think that doing yet another remake is so unnecessary. I have the original 1960’s TV special on DVD so I can always play that one on my TV screen instead of paying over $10 to see the remake in a movie theater.
For Martin Luther King Day this year I decided to go to Baltimore because the American Visionary Art Museum has free admission on that day each year. (The usual admission is $15.95 for adults under 60.) So I took a leisurely walk around the Inner Harbor on a cold and cloudy day.
I eventually found the American Visionary Art Museum, which has a very distinctive looking building on the outside.
I made my way inside where I saw this interesting exhibition in the lobby. Here’s some background. On Christmas Eve I was at the National Postal Museum in downtown DC where I learned that Frank Warren, author of the PostSecret books, had an exhibition in that museum. I thought it was neat because I’ve known about Frank’s work through Artomatic, since his PostSecret project was initially started as an Artomatic exhibition. It turns out that he is in another exhibition at this museum as well. His PostSecret postcards have been paired with a collection of vintage metal lunch boxes (which brought back numerous memories for me because I used to carry my lunch in one of those boxes when I was in elementary school and other kids did the same).
The museum had an exhibit from another artist I’m well aware of because he has shown at Artomatic in the past. His name is Matt Sesow and he’s a DC artist who lost his hand in a childhood accident. He also is known for being an usually prolific painter.
I saw this print of Martin Luther King on sale in the museum gift shop, known as the Sideshow.
This art piece includes a recipe for a hot milk cake. I took those pictures because I’m thinking about trying that recipe in the future.
Here’s the rest of the photographs I took that day, which shows only a very small sample of what the museum has.
The most interesting part of the museum was this exhibition where all of the art was created with edible materials like bread, crackers, and seeds.
I picked up one souvenir while I was at this museum. It’s a little toy TV set where you view it through a viewfinder in the back to see a picture of one of the art displays at the museum. You click on a button to see more pictures just like a View Master (except you can’t change the pictures in this TV set, unlike the View Master).
Last year I planned on going to Baltimore to celebrate my birthday at Christmas Village in Baltimore. I had to scuttle those plans because my birthday fell on a Tuesday and it turns out that the place was closed on certain Tuesdays including my birthday. (I ended up going to Tyson’s Corner instead and I still had fun last year.)
This year my birthday fell on a Thursday so I decided to go to Baltimore, just like I planned last year. I was determined to go there despite the fact that the Polar Vortex had just arrived in my area so the temperatures plunged to below freezing. (I basically wore a heavy winter coat and a hat so I was able to brave the deep freeze.)
On the way to Baltimore I stopped off at a local Jo-Ann’s Fabrics & Crafts store to check out the recent sales. I found a bundled pair of slipper socks. The original price was $9.99, which would’ve been a decent price for two pairs of thick socks. But they were on sale for half-price, which meant that I paid $5 for the bundle (or $2.50 per pair).
I took the light rail into the city. I initially went by Harborplace where I saw this ice skating rink.
Since my last visit to Harborplace, I found that the store It’s Sugar had moved from one pavilion to another. (It is now located next to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium.)
I purchased a few things for myself on my birthday. Here is this cute gingerbread man cookie I bought.
I purchased this Pez dispenser featuring Badtz-Maru, one of Hello Kitty’s friends.
I bought myself this Guinness Luxury Dark Chocolate Truffle Bar. It was very delicious.
I took a few photos of other items in that store but I didn’t buy any of them.
After my visit to Harborplace I took a couple of photos of the Inner Harbor area at sunset.
I eventually made my way to the Christmas Village in Baltimore.
I’ve been there other years (see the photos I took in 2013, 2014, and 2015). Some of the same vendors were there this year while there were others whom I had never seen before. I also saw some empty booths but I had no idea if fewer vendors signed up or if it was because I came on a Thursday night and some of the missing vendors only worked on the weekends. I had been looking forward to eating some bratwurst with sauerkraut for dinner followed by a Belgian waffle topped with hot fudge and whipped cream for dessert. Unfortunately the waffle place wasn’t there this year, which was a big disappointment. The German food booth was still there so at least I was still able to eat the bratwurst and sauerbraten platter.
I purchased only one item. It was a pack of incense that I got from the large Käthe Wohlfahrt booth that was located at one end of the main tent. I’ve been lighting the incense each night since then so my home can smell like Christmas. (LOL!)
On my way back to the light rail stop, I saw this homeless person laying down under a thin blanket outside the Baltimore Convention Center. Usually I wouldn’t pay this person much notice other than the fact that the Polar Vortex had arrived and the temperatures were forecasted to dip under 20 degrees Fahrenheit over night. (The following morning my AccuWeather app on my smartphone registered 18 degrees Fahrenheit.) I felt that this person should really be indoors but I didn’t know where to turn since I live 30 miles south of Baltimore.
I took the above picture and frantically did Google searches on my smartphone for homeless organizations in Baltimore. I texted the photo to a couple of organizations while indicating where the person was located. For added measure I texted the photo to the Baltimore Police Department. I even uploaded this photo on my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts using people to forward this to anyone who could help bring this person in from the cold. I don’t know if my efforts helped or not other than the fact that for the next few days I did a Google search for any recent homeless deaths in Baltimore outside the Baltimore Convention Center only to turn up empty-handed. I guess this person somehow survived the Polar Vortex but I’ll never know for sure.
Once I reached the North Linthicum Light Rail Station (where my car was parked) I drove over to Glen Burnie. Last year I found out about this overdecorated house on Delmar Avenue and I saw it for the first time on Christmas Eve. This year I decided to check it out again and, yes, it is still just as heavily decorated as it was last year.
The only difference I could tell between this year and last year is the next-door neighbor’s lighted sign that said “DITTO” with an arrow pointed to the other house. (That neighbor’s house didn’t have any outdoor lights at all other than that “DITTO” sign.)
By the way the house on Delmar Avenue has its own Facebook page that you can view to get the latest news and photos about that house.
Last year I shot a bunch of still photos of that house. This year I decided to shoot a video so you can get a sense of the flashing lights (including an animated laser display that’s shown on the garage door) and the constant Christmas music.
I headed home after visiting that house so that was it for celebrating my birthday in Baltimore and Glen Burnie.
Here are a few Easter pictures I’ve taken for this year’s post. I was at a local Safeway when I saw this chocolate bunny in an unusual package. It’s called Too Tall Bunny and it shows a bunny holding a basketball with its ears literally bursting from the package.
Extra plastic was used to cover the exposed chocolate ears in order to protect them from damage.
I saw these cute Easter Bunny butter sculptures, which would be perfect for any kind of family Easter dinner.
I also saw butter sculptures shaped like lambs but, unlike the Easter Bunny butter sculptures, these lambs were housed on a cardboard box so you couldn’t see what each lamb butter sculpture looked like until after you purchase it and take it home.
Last Sunday was both Palm Sunday and the Spring Equinox (also known as the first day of spring). The weather didn’t reflect the fact that it’s now officially spring because it was cold, rainy, and gloomy. Despite that a friend of mine threw a party at her house and I went to it. The next photo shows this ceramic Easter village that I saw on display in her home while I was at the party.
My friend and her family had recently moved into this home that faces Greenbelt Lake. I took a couple of shots from the window that shows how picturesque the lake is despite the gloomy weather.
Here are a few miscellaneous Easter-related photos that I took recently.
I’ll end this post with a few flower photos I recently took since spring, Easter, and flowers go together. (The world famous cherry blossom trees are at their peak bloom in downtown Washington, DC as of this writing.)
Previous in This Series
Last week I mentioned that I’ve been going through some old files on my computer hard drive and I found the original rough drafts of my old Artomatic blog posts from previous years. (There was a time when Artomatic gave everyone who participated their own blogging account. For Artomatic this year, I had to step up and volunteer to be a blogger before I received my own blogging account.) It’s pretty appropriate to share some of these posts here since Artomatic is going on until next month.
While I visited a few previous Artomatics, the first time I actually participated was in 2007. I enjoyed that experience so much that when Artomatic was announced again in 2008, I jumped at the chance to participate in it again.
2008 was a momentous year for me for reasons other than Artomatic. I was born with a dislocated left hip and, as some old baby photos have documented, I was placed in a body cast for several months. My left hip joints snapped into place, the cast was removed, and I learned how to walk like an average child soon afterwards. I sprained the same left hip in a roller skating accident when I was 12 but I managed to recuperate and I walked like a regular person again. All that changed by late 2007 when I began to walk with a limp. As time went on, I had a harder time walking and by the time of Artomatic 2008, I had to use a cane to get around.
Despite my hip problems, I wanted to participate in Artomatic and I did so. That year I decided to focus mostly on photography, with the exception of this Peep Floyd diorama that I originally did for The Washington Post‘s annual Peeps diorama contest but it failed to make even Honorable Mention. Here is the original online catalogue that I put up to promote my exhibition space.
Here are just a few selected posts I made in my Artomatic account’s blog that year as archived on my hard drive. (That blog has long since been deleted since Artomatic tends to totally revamp its website whenever a new Artomatic event is announced.)
I’m Participating in Artomatic 2008, March 27, 2008
I’ve finally finished with registration. This year I’m going to emphasize my photography more mainly because I’ve been more successful at that than doing strictly drawing and painting.
Now my next task is to sift through my vast trove of digital photos to pick out the right ones to display. I am quite a shutterbug. I’m glad for the invention of digital cameras because I still remember the pain of running out of film and I had to choose between shelling out more money for film (then have to shell out more money to get them processed) or quit my picture taking for the day. I have a monumental task ahead of me so I’m going to sign off now.
Latest Stuff About Me, April 18, 2008
Last Saturday I went to the Artomatic orientation where I picked out my site. I’ll be located on the 7th floor, NE Quadrant, Area C4. I know it sounds like gobbledygook now but I’m sure it’ll become more apparent once the show opens and the maps/brochures are printed. For the time being, I’ll just say that my wall space is located right next to the men’s restroom on the 7th floor.
My Exhibit for This Year, May 8, 2008
I know that some of you who are familiar with my exhibit at last year’s Artomatic will be wondering if I’m doing anything different. Well, the answer is yes. I’m going to describe the difference between this year’s exhibit and last year’s.
Last year I had a variety of different media ranging from digital photographs to drawings to paintings. I even had a couple of dolls I customized myself that were on display in small glass cases that were mounted on the wall.
This year I’m focusing exclusively on digital photographs. That’s mainly because I wanted artwork that was more transportable than my larger art pieces. All of my photographs are either 8″ x 10″ or 5″ x 7″. Keeping the photos at those two sizes made frame shopping really easy for me since those two are standard sizes. On top of that, I’ve had people tell me that my biggest strength is in photography so I decided to highlight that some more.
The biggest challenge I had was whittling down the hundreds of digital photographs that I have on my hard disk to just 32 photos. (Sixteen of them are 8″ x 10″ while the rest are 5″ x 7″.) Then I had the additional challenge of printing since, as experienced digital photographers and computer graphics artists know, what is seen on the computer screen doesn’t mean that the print version will turn out the same. But I managed to get everything done in time for the opening tomorrow night.
I’m also pricing my photos at $10 for the 8″ x 10″ and $6 for the 5″ x 7″. I know my pricing methods may become controversial but there’s a method to my madness. If you’ve been reading a newspaper or watching any of the cable news channel, you’ll know that this country is in an economic crisis due to rising gas costs, higher food prices, and the subprime mortgage crisis. I really don’t think that people are in the mood to shell out $100 or higher for a piece of art no matter how much they love it because of the economy.
I also had an epiphany around the end of last year’s Artomatic. I got someone who wanted to buy one of my drawings but she wanted to know how much it would cost if I would remove it from the frame. Since I didn’t have any other serious buyers of my artwork last year, I told her that I would take $25 off my drawing. So I sold it to her and took home an empty frame.
This year I scoured the local big box retailers looking for the lowest frame prices. A.C. Moore had the best prices with many frames being sold for $3 and $4 and with some going for as low as $2. What’s more, the frames still looked pretty decent despite the low prices. Then I went to Staples where I bought a pack of satin-finish photographic paper for $35. I calculated each sheet as costing around sixty cents per sheet, which isn’t bad.
I even have a catchy ad phrase that I put on a sign in my area: “Affordable Artwork for Uncertain Economic Times”.
What’s more, since I have my photos on a hard drive, I can easily print multiple copies so if one person buys one of my photos and someone else wants that same photo, I can print and frame another copy and sell it to that other person.
I will have a small table next to my photos where I will have a guestbook for you to sign and a digital frame that will rotate digital photos of some of my other works of art like my drawings, paintings, sculptures, and crafts. I purchased this digital frame at Target and I love it because I can display more of my art than the space that’s alloted to me.
I will also have a diorama displayed on that table called Peep Floyd. I originally created this diorama for The Washington Post’s second annual Peeps contest but it didn’t make the final cut among the judges. I was disappointed but my husband was even more heartbroken than I was. (He felt that I was robbed.) So I decided to give my little diorama a second chance by displaying it with my artwork. I’m even putting it up for sale for only $5 (which is about how much money I spent making it in the first place). What’s even amusing is that there will be a display of the winning Peeps dioramas on the 10th floor while my display will be on the 7th floor. So if people decided to start on the first floor and work their way up, chances are that they will see my own diorama first before they see the winners on the 10th floor. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Last year I printed three photo zines that I sold on the honor system where people can put money in a box if they wanted one or more of my zines. I did it mainly as a promotional item, even if it was a pain to print multiple copies for the duration of Artomatic. (The fact that I was using a 10-year-old Epson color printer didn’t help matters much.) I thought that I would get some sort of opportunities from the zines after Artomatic in the long run so I toughed out the time spent printing, collating, and stapling the zines. I also gritted my teeth as I spent lots of money on printer ink since those zines did use up tons of ink. Even though the zines sold pretty well (some people did leave money in the box), nothing ever came of those zines after Artomatic ended. No one contacted me saying, “Hey I liked your zines and photos and I want to do some work with you.”
Basically it really wasn’t worth the time or money spent making and distributing the zines so I’m not going to do any more this year. I know that some of you will be disappointed but that’s the way things go.
The biggest change from last year to this year is myself. Yes, I am a year older but my health has gone down a bit. I have an old injury in my left hip that was repaired a long time ago but I’ve now developed osteoarthritis in it. Last year I was able to walk normally most of the time (although I did limp if I overextended myself by doing too much walking or other physical work). This year I’m walking with a limp and I use a walking stick whenever I have to walk around outside for any great distances. I’ve consulted an orthopedic specialist and he’s recommending that I undergo a hip replacement, especially since my left leg is now a little bit shorter than my right leg, thanks to the osteoarthritis.
But, before I undergo the surgery, I have to lose weight and do exercises to strengthen my hip. As a result, I’m still able to participate in Artomatic since I won’t be able to undergo the surgery until July at the earliest.
Having osteoarthritis is a bit of a bummer. I get more physically tired than before, partially because of having to take prescription version of ibuprofen (which has drowsiness as a side effect) and partially because it’s just more physically taxing to limp around. My current condition was a major factor in my decision to focus on smaller photographs than my larger canvases since the photos are easier to cart around than a big canvas. Since I decided to eliminate the zines, I will find Artomatic less taxing than last year.
I will be at the opening tomorrow night with my husband. This weekend I will be working as a vendor at the Greenbelt Green Man Festival in Greenbelt, Maryland. I will have a packed schedule.
I’m Doing Pretty Well at Artomatic This Year, May 26, 2008
So far I had someone who wanted six copies of my “Shalom Y’all” photo because she wanted to give them away to her Jewish friends. I also have one other person who may be potentially interested in purchasing something from me but I haven’t heard back from him.
So far I took part in a drawing workshop on Opening Night and I’ve also worked one shift so far. (It happened to be on the same night as the “Meet the Artists Night” so I couldn’t be at my area, with the exception of a brief break that I took around 8 p.m.) Right now I’m typing this entry from a hotel room in Charleston, South Carolina but I intend to participate in more Artomatic events once I return.
I happened to be in Charleston at the same time as their annual Piccolo Spoleto Festival—an art-filled festival that includes special exhibitions at area art galleries, special theatre shows, special musical concerts, and a crafts fair. I intend to check out the crafts fair at least. I also intend to visit the City Market, which is filled with stalls of people hawking food items and various types of crafts. It’s also where a local African-American group of people known as the Gullahs sell their speciality craft–making baskets, vases, flowers, and other items out of sweetgrass.
Well, anyway, see ya later!
My Artomatic Videos, June 2, 2008
This year I’ve been doing more at Artomatic than just showing my artwork and attending a few events. I’ve also been taking photographs and shooting video. I haven’t decided what I’ll do with the photos yet but I’ve already edited and uploaded three short video clips on my YouTube account.
All three videos are of the firedancing troupe known as Flights of Fire. I shot this during the second hour of their show on May 16. (I missed the first hour because I was finishing up the last hour of my own volunteer shift during that time.) I was pretty exhausted after working my five-hour volunteer shift so I basically went outside, sat down, and unwind a bit by watching the group perform the rest of their show. I happened to have my videocamera with me so I filmed them as they did their various fire tricks to some lively dance music.
This first clip is a general highlights reel as I focused on the troupe’s most spectacular firedancing tricks:
The second clip is a very sexy and erotic routine that is performed in its entirety:
The third clip is the grand finale that is also performed in its entirety. Imagine a bunch of people dancing and swinging flaming torches at the same time and you’ll get something like this:
Two More Artomatic Videos For You to View, June 5, 2008
I shot two more videos at Artomatic that I’ve uploaded to my YouTube account. The first one is the Peeps artist reception that was held on May 31, 2008.
The second one is the first-ever Artomatic 500 cardboard car race, which is just as hilarious as it sounds.
Enjoy!
A Posting From Artomatic, June 13, 2008
I’ve just finished the third required volunteer shift over an hour ago and I’m waiting for this workshop on “Urban R & D: Developing a Community Research and Design Lab” to begin in a few minutes. Actually volunteering wasn’t too bad despite my totally arthritic hip (which has given me a bad limp in recent months and has definitely put a crimp on my mobility) because I was given desk jobs. (I worked the front desk on the first floor the first two times and I worked the fourth floor this final time today.)
Last night I attended the Artists’ Social. I met someone whom I had volunteered with on a previous shift and I also met up with other people whom I had met at other Artomatic events. What was cool was that I sold two of my photographs to someone who loved by two robot photos (one of the Toyota Partner Robot and the other of the Honda Asimo—both taken at a Japanese cultural festival at the Kennedy Center a few months ago).
I’m looking forward to attending Artomatic tomorrow night–they are having the first-ever Art in Fashion show, which is supposed to have fire as the theme. From the way this event is being hyped, it sounds like Project Runway on steroids.
Well, anyway, I gotta wrap this entry up and head off to tonight’s workshop.
More Artomatic Videos, June 21, 2008
I shot and posted a few more videos at Artomatic before it ended last Sunday but I’ve only gotten around to blogging about it now.
First is a video of my own exhibit, which was displayed on the 7th floor next to the men’s bathroom.
Next is a video of a couple of interactive exhibits that were done by other artists.
I previously videotaped the Peeps artist reception where I spoke with prolific Peeps diorama artist Carl Cordell. At the time he was working on a fourth diorama, “The Day The Earth Stood Peeped”, that wasn’t ready in time for the reception. I kept on going to the Peeps area for the next few weeks but the diorama didn’t make its appearance until last Saturday, the day before the last day of Artomatic. I made a short video highlighting that diorama.
I did a three-part video about the Art in Fashion show, which was the closing event of Artomatic. (It was held the night before Artomatic’s final day.) It highlighted fashions created by fashion designers in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. I had fun attending this because I’m such a fan of Project Runway and I had never seen a fashion show in person before.
After the fashion show ended, there was a big party that included all kinds of activities. I videotaped some of it but I was running out of battery power by that point so I didn’t film as much as I wanted to. But it should give you an idea of what it was like. (Some parts of this video are definitely NSFW because it includes scenes of body painting on partially or fully nude bodies.)
Well, anyway, that’s it for the Artomatic videos.
Visiting the Artomatic Site for the Last Time, June 21, 2008
I had successfully sold yet another photo to someone and he and I agreed to meet at the Artomatic site today. After the transaction was made and he took his newly-purchased photo with him, I took down my exhibit. I felt wistful as I did it but, as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end.
Goodbye For Now, June 23, 2008
Now that Artomatic is over and I’ve picked up my artwork from the site, it’s time for me to say goodbye to this blog until the next time I decide to participate in an Artomatic.
Three months after I wrote that last farewell Artomatic post, I underwent a hip replacement followed by physical therapy that lasted until well into 2009. In early 2011 I suffered two falls within a week that knocked my hip replacement out of alignment so I had to undergo hip revision surgery followed by more physical therapy. Right now my hip is doing fine. <knock wood!>
Next in This Series
The day before the latest massive snowstorm that was big enough to shut down the entire Baltimore-Washington, DC area down, I decided to do some grocery shopping when I learned about the weather forecasts. I did the bulk of my shopping at Aldi’s but there were a few items that I still needed that Aldi’s didn’t have in stock so I went to Safeway.
What was really surreal is that the day before the snowstorm it was raining like crazy and the temperature was in the relatively warm 40’s (it sure beats the sub-freezing temperatures that we’ve been getting). I walked past this vehicle in the parking lot that had these window stickers that only fans of Doctor Who can understand.
I found these giant sized Pez dispensers on display inside the store.
To give you an idea of how big these Pez dispensers were, here is my hand next to one of them.
I’ve been seeing these items appearing in more and more stores. On the surface they look like coloring books that happen to come with a small pack of Crayola crayons. But, believe it or not, they are supposed to be the latest in smartphone technology. The idea is to color the pages using the enclosed crayons, download the appropriate app on your favorite smartphone or tablet, then take pictures of each page you’ve colored using that special app. The characters that you color are supposed to come to life in your smartphone/tablet and you can take pictures of them. Additionally they are supposed to make noises and you can control them. They have the potential to either be totally innovative or a total bust.
Later that evening I headed over to Makerspace 125 where I sat in on a very basic introduction to Scratch Programming as part of its weekly “Taste of Tech” series. I have to say that I was pretty impressed with Scratch, especially the animation part. I basically played around with the Scratch website but I didn’t save any of the animations that I created (mainly because they really weren’t much). I did take a few photographs of the latest outputs from Makerspace 125’s 3D printer.
This Peep chick looks pretty darned close to its edible marshmallow counterpart.
And here’s one more photo of some of the 3D printouts.
$900 Pez Dispensers, Dylan’s Candy Bar, New York City, 2007
Digital photograph
Can be sized up to the maximum of 8.5 inches x 11 inches (22 cm x 28 cm).
During a visit to New York City, I decided to check out Dylan’s Candy Bar, which is a very large candy store. (You can easily call it a candy store on steroids.) I saw this locked shelf that had these giant Pez dispensers whose heads were covered in Swavorski crystals. Each dispenser was priced at a whopping $900! I had to take a photograph so I could show my friends back in Washington, DC because seeing Pez dispensers that expensive seemed totally unreal.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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