Everything hits at once!

September is slipping out the door and now it is crunch time for Bazaar Bizarre!
Luckily for me Austin has returned from his tour (!!!) and now I have some helping hands, which are much needed!
He got into town @ midnight on Sunday, so last night was our real first night together. Austin made vegan tortilla soup*, we watched Heros, & I showed him how to make some jewelry. It was very relaxing. We both needed a night of puttering around. He's been living in a van on tour with the Toadies for a full month & I spent the weekend roaming around ACL, drinking vodka & vitamin water. More on this later...

Pretty exciting news!
Just as Austin & I finished dinner last night I got word that Tinymeat has finished one of the wallets I designed for them! It's now available in their shop - check it!


Also, remember the coloring book I told you about a while back? Well it's done!
It's called Peer: 25 Artists 25 Self Portraits
Who else participated? Here is a sneak preview of the each artists page along with their names & a link to their personal websites. Pre-order for the book begins now & shipping will start on October 1st.
When you get your copy & color it there is a Peer flickr group for you to post your fun to. There is a Peer 25 Vol. 2 in the works, so if you are thinking to yourself "I would love to be a part of a project like this!" all you have to do to throw your hat in the ring is email Rene of Wolfie & the Sneak with 3 images of your work.
nobiting [at] gmail.com



*if you would like our Vegan Tortilla Soup recipe I am happy to share - it is TASTY!

All That Glitters!

Over the weekend I attended a party/art opening @ Frenchy's Beauty Parlor. My friend Kym & I walked around, sipping our Lonestar's & talking about the art. My favorite of the evening was Sue Zola's glitter art. Portraits of popstars, pornstars, film & fashion icons lined the walls. All of them 100% glitter! My friend Ashley, who is a stylist @ Frenchy's, came up as I was admiring the portrait of Mick Jagger, his giant lips sparkling like ruby's & she says "Don't fall in love, he's taken! I bought it!" (!!!)
Then she took my jealous ass to meet the artist.
Sue is talented, friendly & hilarious! She truly is the Glitter Art Diva. She was kind enough to do a little Q n A with me, enjoy!

ME: After meeting you at Frenchy's the other night (such a fun party) I realized that I didn't notice one stray piece of glitter on you! Not in your hair or stuck to your dress, nada! It seems impossible to me! How do you keep all the glitter under control?

SZ: You may not have looked close enough, because believe me, glitter gets everywhere.....maybe it was just hiding in all the places that didn't show!


ME: I'm guessing that you never thought you'd be the THE Glitter Art Diva when you grew up. When you were a little girl what was your idea of a dream job?

SZ: Up until 1999, I was a musician. I came to Austin, the "Live Music Capitol of the World" from New Haven, Ct. to pursue music but ironically, I never actually got anything going.
Instead, I met my husband Dave, bought a cute little house in South Austin, and started doing glitter art as a hobby. Now my little "hobby" has become a career....hhmmm, go figure!

ME: You've been showing off your glittery goods in gallery's since 2001, has there ever been a masterpiece that you regret parting with?

SZ: Oh there have been quite a few pieces that regretfully I had to part ways with. Actually, right now I'm recreating a piece that I did about a year ago; Van Gogh's "Starry Night".
It looks pretty incredible in glitter, although it is definitely my own interpretation.


ME: What's the strangest thing you've ever committed to glitter?

SZ: There have been lots of strange custom pieces throughout the years, but the strangest piece was x-rated.....a certain manly body part that was an actual picture of the aforementioned body part....yikes!

ME: The other night you mentioned that you recently did a group art show in Vegas for Breast Defense with Iggy Pop & Kim Gordon! Did you get to rub elbows with either of them & if so did you mention to Iggy that in the past you have glitterized him & all his glory?

SZ: Oh I wish I had had the opportunity to rub elbows with Iggy Pop, the guy is a living legend, but alas, I have never met Iggy or Kim Gordon.
Who knows what the future holds though....

ME: I know you get a lot of requests for custom pieces, does one come to mind as most challenging or most flattering?

SZ: It is by far the most challenging to do a memorial piece, there's no room for error, plus it's a daunting responsibility to make it come to life and come out perfectly.

ME: You have done so many amazing portraits, have you ever done a self portrait? If so, can we see it?!

SZ: Nope, no self-portrait as of yet. There are too many better things out there to do in glitter than my mug!

ME: Last but not least, what can all of us glitter fiends expect to see in the future?

SZ: Well, rock stars never go out of style, but currently I am still obsessed with vintage cereal box glitter art, and I am on another cupcake kick!
Also, lately I have been in a girlie phase, so I absolutely love making flower glitter art!

You are probably looking around & noticing a serious lack of glitter in your life. If so, you will want to hit Sue up for one of her masterpieces.
Email her allthatglitters@austin.rr.com or contact her on myspace


AND if you want to look like one of Sue's masterpieces I suggest you try this Starry Eyed Eyeliner by Too Faced. They are fantastic & have the most fitting names imaginable! My favorites?
Obsessed Fan * Drunk Dial * Ooh Aah * Super Freak * Gold Digger

A Bitch in need...

well, you know the old saying.

Are you a magazine fiend like I am? You can tell me.
I subscribe to tons of magazines & I also visit Book People every month to buy more magazines. Maybe I have a problem but I am okay with that.
You wanna know what's not okay? Awesome independent publications disappearing from the shelves. I am sick of seeing this happen. I know I know - everyone is going green, many magazines exist only online now, but 100+ pages that I can stuff in my purse & read anywhere is something I don't want to say good bye to.
Right now Bitch Magazine needs a helping hand. Bitch has been around for about 12 years now. You probably know & love it as I do, but with the cost of paper & postage going up these lovely Portlander's find them selves in a tight spot. It costs about $40,000 to print & distribute one issue of Bitch! Whoa! That means they are spending $160k a year on printing & shipping alone! It turns out that they don't have the $40 grand they need to print the next issue. This is a call to action! We can not let Bitch go extinct! What can you do to save Bitch? Let me tell ya:

1. Make a donation (anything helps)
2. Become a subscriber
or
3. If you are already a subscriber you could purchase a gift subscription for your favorite feminist, she'll love you for it.



You can also put banners on your website or blog to inform other folks.
Thanks ladies! I mean, Bitches!

xo,
Bonnie Rue

Lions, White Tigers, & Craft! Oh My!

It's official, Monday September 15th totally exceeded my expectations. Got up super early to find that the temperature here in Austin, TX has finally dropped! It was in the 70's all day long, which is very rare here. By the time I got to work and checked my email I found out that Craftzine had posted a Q n A they did with me! We talk a lot about the craft community here in the great ATX & the upcoming Maker Faire. It was a lot of fun & super flattering to be featured on their amazing site. I tell you - the people at Craft are friendly and endlessly creative, love them!

After work and coffee with a friend I found that LIONS uploaded the first episode of their tour documentary! I get to see what my mister is up to :D
Those guys are on quite the adventure! Highs & lows, sold out shows, & questionable hygiene practices ensue...
here's a little *Becoming a Rockstar 101*

3, 2, blip...

Episode 1

NOT a fan

I decided to take a break from crafting & restocking Model Citizen stuff yesterday. I spent most of the day reading blogs, watching movies, & making soup. While cruising the web I thought I check out Sarah Palin a little bit. My mind was already made up about her. I AM NOT a fan, but I wanted to see what kind of response she is getting from the great US of A. After seeing that her & McCain have a slight edge over Obama in the polls my heart sunk. Then I found this amazing blog, Women Against Sarah Palin . My heart rate slowed, my breathing returned to normal, & I got that good ole optimistic feeling back in my heart.
The blog is a long list of women's repsponses to Sarah Palins candidacy. When I first visited this site yesterday there were over 120,000 (negative) responses & this morning there are over 130,000!!

whoa! way to go ladies!
This woman is not for us! She has the same "you are with us or against us" spirit that makes Bush so unacceptable.

I also found this video: Damon Condemns Palin


Vote Ladies! Vote! Make sure you are registered & vote!
Do the research, make an informed decision & VOTE!
*pretty please*

Hurricane Bonnie!

So Ike completely missed Austin, TX. We had some wind but not a drop of rain. Sigh.
My friends who live in Houston & down on the coast all survived with no damage to them or their property. That's a relief.

I haven't posted in a while because I myself have been a hurricane of productivity!
New designs in the works & placing orders to restock old ones. Shipping off web orders & making TONS of jewelry for Bazaar Bizarre next month... it's all coming together!
Dare I say I have it all figured out? Nah - I'd never go that far, the universe doesn't like to be figured out, so be it.

My house is a mess of creativity! Drawings, computer junk, jewelry supplies, & lists cover every available surface. It's nice really. With Austin gone there is no one to complain about the clutter ;)

As if I don't have enough going on... I took on another project last week. What is it they say? Idle hands are the devils playground? I believe it. A guy approached me about being the costumer for a movie he is producing in the spring! The script was good, the characters were interesting & the money was right. I've never done wardrobe work before, but so far so good! I've got all the main characters ready to roll, now all I have to do is shop for them, yay! I like the idea of shopping for imaginary people, I like it a lot. It's a really fun job that had never really crossed my mind. I've been thinking about movies/shows with great casts that I would have liked to dress. My So Called Life, Rickie & Rayanne alone would have been a blast! ...Why oh why did that show only have one season? Velvet Goldmine! Headwig! The Anniversary Party! The list is endless really. This movie doesn't really call for costumes so much, just wardrobe. There's some party scenes, and for the most part the characters are regular folks, but opportunity has made me day dream of future jobs like no ones business... I've got my fingers crossed that it will lead more.

Aah, so many dream jobs to dream about!
What's your dream job?

we can rest our bones side by side

Austin is on tour again. Missing him is hard, trying to stay close to someone far away is the hardest. I'm glad the band is touring, so it's bitter sweet. We have just always been so inseparable... sigh. In the past I have made mix cd's for us to listen to "together". Setting a time for both of us to pop it in so we can kind of experience the same thing at the same time while he is on the road. Sounds cheesy, but it's fun. So cheese it is. I started to make a mix for this tour, but I only got 12 songs in... I didn't have time to finish it.
So, for this tour our "together" project is writing a daily haiku based on the same topic. We are not sharing what we write until he gets home. I picked the topic today "Bargain Bin" & tomorrow's topic is all his. I'll post the finish product in a few weeks when he returns. As for the mix cd - this is where I left it:

Going Out West - Tom Waits
Sick of Goodbyes - Sparklehorse
Heartache - Violent Femmes
Hate It Here - Wilco
Boring Together - Paleo
Cry to Me - Solomon Burke
Ruler of My Heart - Irma Thomas
When U Love Somebody - Fruit Bats
I'm So Tired - Say Hi To Your Mom
I Love How You Love Me - Neutral Milk Hotel
For The Damaged - Blonde Redhead
Do You Wanna Be Buried With My People - Scout Niblett

I need more hours in the day!

Things have been so busy lately. Busy & yet not very productive. Model Citizen sometimes has to be pushed to the back burner because of all the other happenings in my life. That day job of mine is really getting in the way ;)
I suppose I haven't been completely lazy though. I've finished a new t-shirt design that I will unveil at Bazaar Bizarre & I turned in all my paper work and TIFF files for Tiny Meat! They are going to be putting some wallets together with my art work on them! See:



I have also been working on a self portrait for a collaborative coloring book put together by Rene Garner of Wolfie & The Sneak. 25 different self portraits by 25 different artists, each page ready for you to give it your own personal touch!
Excited doesn't really cover how I feel about this project. When I got her email and saw the list of other artist she asked to do it I was 110% flattered!
Shannon Rankin, Justin Richel, Kate Bingaman Burt, & Katey Nicosia just to name a few.
On the right is a teeny tiny preview of what I have finished so far. I need to finish it!

Now if only I could start getting things crossed off my Bazaar Bizarre to do list...
Mostly I just need to make more jewelry & put together a way to display said jewelry.
Once again - if you have any fabulous ideas that don't take up a lot of room - please do tell.

well, I've got a million things to do, better get to it!

Where the hell is Possum Kingdom?

In Texas dummy!

AD Pearlman & I drove out to Possum Kingdom for Labor Day to see Lions play the Dia De Los Toadies Festival. We picked up my dear ole friend Ashley & after many wrong turns & a lot of "middle school humor" in the car - we arrived. There were 5,000 + "festies" out at the lake that day! Local law enforcement was less than thrilled. Those good ole boys were ready for anyone to step out of line.
The festival took place right on the lake, it was hot & beautiful! Kudos to the Toadies for coming up with this one, seriously - I would have never even thunk to drive out there otherwise & it is really stunning.
We drank beers & loitered around backstage while the band was setting up. Taking pictures & discussing the weird little towns we traveled through to get there. We stopped at a convenience store to get some gas & some tampax (because as you know "Tampax was There") & right on the shelf next to said tampax were two differently scented bottles of douche. Our eyebrows went up & we had to wonder - how many people stop in, get some gas, a six pack, & a bottle of douche? So the rest of the night if there was a quiet moment we were brainstorming to come up with the perfectly scented douche. My favorites were Lasagna & New Car. Anyway I digress... We had a blast! We got there in time to see Lions & then The Toadies closed, & both were great! The crowd went wild and sang along to the Toadies as if it were still 1996. I was kinda blown away. For me, the Toadies remind of my youth. If you were in Texas in the 90's you could not escape hearing them on any radio station at any given moment - they were a staple. I would not have ventured so far or maybe ever seen them at all if my man's band hadn't been on the bill. I'm glad I did though, driving the 400+ miles was worth it for the trip down memory lane.

Anyway, here are some photos from our festing. I hope you enjoy!