NY INK

I just finished my application for getting tattooed by Megan Massacre at the Worcester Street Social Club in New York City! Hope fully I'll be chosen, but hopefully not for a few months cuz its gonna cost like $2,000 and I need some time to save. Pretty exciting though, I've been a fan of Ms. Massacre since NY Ink came through my netflix instant queue. I think her style is very admirable, and while the other artists on the show each have thier talents, Megan's the artist I would most like to be tattooed by. So start saving with my fingers crossed!

Check out this beautiful painting by another extraordinary tattoo artist
Sabine Gaffron, (I think she's working out of Switzerland these days)

Sparkle Plenty

After a long week of preparing and handpainting the new edition of coma skateboards decks, I am exstatic to be done! My favorite finsished product is undoubtedly the Sparkle Deck shown here on the right. Since it is very special and took a lot more time and $$$ to make, we are keeping it for ourselves. Since there aren't a lot of other companies out there designing boards with glitter, we might have a specialty product on our hands. However for the time being its gonna have to be a product that is pre-ordered and custom made. Next time, I'm using hot pink glitter!

coma toast

coma skateboards 8" dream deck!

After putting all of our apparel and merchandise in to the shop yesterday, kinda feel like today was not very productive. Thats why tomorrow I am getting up early, probably not going to the gym (cuz i haven't in over a year), and getting my artistic side in gear to paint the rest of the boards we have in stock! Can't wait to finish filming the rest of the our next video, and hopefully have some interesting submissions for this weeks contest entries. A lot to look forward to this weekend so stay tuned!

spray paint

Coma Skateboards just sent out 5 "sponsor me" videos on behalf of our favorite team rider Brent Cordy to some our most admired sneaker companies: Vox, Etnies, Circa, DVS shoes, and Converse. Hope to hear back from someone real soon becuase spring is here, and summer is just around the corner. No time like the present to get enetered in to all the upcoming competitions... to bad we missed the Phoenix AM. Hey there's always next year for that, but for now we at Coma will be focusing on sending our best team members to all the East Coast competitions we find. For Instance, Coma Skateboards will definately be in attendance at Northsade Skatepark in Norfolk, VA on Saturday April 1. more details to be posted soon!

work work work

So yesterday I had an interview at a super nice tattoo studio. I've got to spruce up the portfolio a little more and go back for a second interview in a week , then hopefully an audition tattoo after that. I'm keeping my finger crossed and my hopes up high because this place might just be a perfect fit!  Here's some images from my tattoo Idols. Tim Kern and Saira Hunjan.

                                                               tattoo by Saira Hunjan

tattoo by Tim Kern

Coma Coma Coma Coma-Chameleon

New Shirts Available Now

Thanks to Eva for being such an enthusiastic model. She really captured the excitement we were trying to convey to our customers. Kids love Skateboards!

driving your girlfriend home

Driving home from D.C. was exhilarating. Not only was it an astonishing 84 degrees outside, but I also had my new phone equipped with Slacker Radio to listen to. I was reminded of a time when road trips were filled to the brim with excitement, when hearing a song could send you straight back to a special moment in time, when turning the radio up as load as it could go and singing along even loader was expected. Being captivated in a moment is something I haven't allowed myself to do for a while until yesterday. the great thing about the ride home is remembering all the marvelous things that occurred while you were away, for instance visiting the Palace 5ive skate shop. Waiting in line to get into a skate shop was definitely a first for me, and I wasn't even sure what I was waiting for, being the curious entity that I am I had to know. The Donavon hotel where we stayed was coincidentally just a few blocks up 14th St. from the skate shop. So after we retrieved the vehicle from valet, we skedaddled up past avenue U and saw the crowd waiting outside. Turns out the nice fellows who run Palace 5ive were have a sneaker and T shirt release party. Apparently their gear is in so much demand they have a line around the block and only allow one item per customer. Pretty freakin' rad if you ask me!!!

Saint Paddy's Day in D.C.

Since i was 18 i've been driving from CT to VA atleast twice a year to visit family. Its always been my desire to stop in D.C., but as of yet i haven't actually done it. Now that I'm resideing in Norfolk temporarily, I decided my time is now. I wanted to partake in the Cherry Blssom Festival in April there, but i just can't wait. So, Wednesday I will be driving up old route 64 through Richmond and Fredricksberg til I reach my destination. My husband, my daughter and I will be hopping in the old mini-van and heading North for St. Patricks day (which also is my husband's birthday)!! SO, what to do?...well, I'll only be there for 24 hours so I'm gonna have to make it count. We've already chosen a premier skate shop to visit for the Coma Skateboard Company, and I decided that the Museum of American History would be the most fun. American pop-culture at its finest, or most memorable, or something like that anyway. Mostly, I am excited about the hotel we will be staying at. Sure its like 5 times the amount I normally spend per night on my hotel budget, but what the hay! I'm worth it.

countdown to spring

10 more days 'til Spring! So far comaskateboards has already signed up for some very lovely events in which to participate here in Hampton Roads! At my daughter's school there will be the Seagull Sprint Art Show. Coma Skateboards Will be donating a free complete youth sized skate deck and have many fun prizes and activities for the little ones. Then there is the Cherry Blossom festival (not the one in D.C.). Even though I had to sneak in that one by saying I do Japanese woodblock printing, I'm still gonna represent coma and paint some fabulous longboards in the traditional Japanese style which cooincidentally is also my favorite style to tattoo in so it should be easy to just go through my old sketchbooks for inspration. Lastly there is the Sk8 Bash at Mount Trashmore in October which is kinda far off, but hopefullly worth the wait.

Although its raining cats and dogs here in Norfolk today, spring is almost in the air. Tiny little buds are forming on the tree branches. I have to format my t-shirt logo and drop that off at the printshop, then patiently wait for my new (certified pre-owned) Droid phone to arrive. Good Times!

L.H.O.O.Q.

    
Trying to find new ways to present yourself or your business can be challenging. Its seems like the more technologically advanced we become as a society the more we have to do. Now that I've entered the bloggosphere, well that's just one more thing to update. I have to wonder if this whole experience is futile? Is it worth it to be sitting in front of a computer for hours posting links on twitter or updates on facebook? Is the world just inundated with this constant overflow of information? Does anyone out there even care what I have to say. Isn't there something better I could be doing right now like painting....

 The romantic notion which I once harbored that an artist, a true artist lived life on the margins of society, a vagabond if you will, constantly donning a sketchbook and sipping black coffee at an outdoor cafe, undoubtedly consumed by some form of beauty or another. That distant dream I used to dream where I am that artist is long gone. Sure I still daydream about having a loft and a case of wine and long black cigarettes and I stay up all night throwing paint around while listening to Leonard Cohen records, but the reality is that I am just not that free. Being some one's mother aside, there are so many distractions that life offers. Is getting a college degree that important? Is working for $6 an hour 5 days a week worth it? Does my daughter's teacher really need to insist that I spend 2 hours a night reviewing third grade educational materials every freakin night? The list of dull expectations the world has for me goes on and on.

So why am I wasting my time sounding like someone who just bitches and moans all day? Truly, I despise people who whine about themselves. I assure you that is not my intent within these here paragraphs. I'm merely caught between the daydreams I have and the realities I face. Aristotle said "Hope is a waking dream" and right now I feel as if I just woke up. Looking out my window, the temptation to just play hookie today is gripping. The allure of a bottle of red wine (or maybe a bottle of inspiration known as "the green fairy" now that Absinthe is finally legal) beckons me to grab a fresh canvas and reward myself with  24 hours of doing what I truly love, instead of writing about it on some lame ass social network. Instead of pretending that I care about blogs, twits, stats, rss feeders, and url links, wouldn't I be much more successful if I focused on being an artist? Sadly, not today. I must go on. That bachelors degree is so close I can almost touch it, I desperately need the $36 in tips I'll earn today, and I'm pretty sure some one would call the authorities if I tried to pick my daughter up from school knee deep in a bottle of Absinthe.... maybe next lifetime!

Click Here to View the other newest one.

New Video Monday!

As a newly innitiated small business owner, I am attempting to set a goal. Every Monday night I will post a new viedo. To check out this week's edition click here. This video was filmed all over the U.S. From Sedona Arizona all the way to Virginia. There's some shots in  Venice, California and some from North Haven, Connecticut. Guaranteed to PLEASE!

"I DONT BELIEVE IN BLOGS"

Thats what my daughter said to me this morning when i told her I had to write a blogg real quick before I drive her to school. So are blogs a trend that will not be popular the next generation who learned how to text at age four, IM at age 6, and can certainly kick my ass at any video game on the market? Is this just a waste of time?  Will blogs soon be something only grandma's do? we'll just have to wait and see.

But exciting news for me and Coma Skateboards!!! We just ordered new shirts and I think they are super fun and kinda cool. So check them out here and soon they will be available on the website....

ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL

Its not like I really go to Art School. Its not like I'm at RISD or MassArt, but this movie still hits home. The film Art School Confidential was released in 2006, at which time I viewed it at the REal Art Ways theatre in Hartford, CT. I decided to watch it again last night just for giggles. This morning as I was reading all the (insert sarcasm here) delightful emails from my online classes, I had to take a deep breath (in between gigantic sobs) and remember that college (like high school) is sort of a big joke. Yeah, I'm in debt like 40,000 in student loans and I've been working on my bachelors degree for like 9 years, but to quote Fred Armisen's Joy from SNL's satire of The View "So what, Who cares".

Anywho, back to the movie: My favorite character in the movie is John Malkovitch's Professor Sandiford. As always Malkovitch delves deep into the role, and I kinda felt like I very possibly could have been in his classroom at one point or another in my lengthy college career. I mean, the attitude that Professor Sandiford has toward the students is a completely realistic rendition of what you'd imagine a washed up painter, who is essentially a failure in the art world, to be. Although I currently am not struggling with any situations like this, because all of my classes are online, I still take comfort in the comedy of it all. So what if my Biology professor writes me insulting emails about my last minute efforts and singular posts to a group discussion which I thought only required a single post because he didn't specify otherwise. I guess since he's a professor and I'm a struggling student with like 8 jobs and a kid, i have to take the insult. So what if I don't give a darn about biology and its a huge waste of my precious time...

It seems like a lot of people in these higher learning institutions really believe all students have is time. Like if I don't do something on time its an automatic ZERO, but if the shoe goes on the other foot and the professor doesn't do what they are supposed to on time... then its still me who suffers, sitting in front of my computer all weekend, hoping that I didn't miss an assignment, hoping that I used the proper etiquette when emailing the instructor. I am so glad I watched Art School Confidential again, it gave me back the perspective I so desperately needed.

I heart JUXTAPOZ

I wish i had 30 bucks.

This book is on my wish list. Anything Juxtapoz is worth the money but I'm totally hoping that my husband buys me this as a belated valentines gift. In addition to this titillating new book of erotica, the Juxtapoz Magazine is doing a super cool special edition this April called "Art in the Streets". I'm especially excited to read the interview with Shepard Fairey. I'm not the world's biggest fan of graffiti, and I don't understand the art form as well as a lot of people. In the late 90's, I was a young pony trotting around the streets of Boston and I clearly remember seeing the "OBEY" stickers and stenciled graffiti all over. Like many others, I was drawn to the likeness of Andre the Giant, and wanted to know more. Why were these images everywhere. Then I began to see them in other cities I travelled to. Now a days there are many a copy out there trying to get their 15 minutes like in Willimantic the "figurehead experiment". I do have to admit that I have seen the figurehead all over New England, and I do think its a nifty concept and all. Nothing compares however, to the original "Obey". Later in my formal education in Art History when I learned about the Dada movement and artsts like Marcel Duchamps it dawned on me that those stickers were more that just clever and humorous reminders of my childhood with a messgae that inspired me to question authority (because like most teenagers when someone commands me to "Obey" my natural instinct was to do just the opposite and I'm convinced that was Shepard Fairey's intent).