20101224

MERRY CHRISTMAS from Pop Art Diva


  May your Christmas Eve sparkle
with merry twinkling lights.
May you enjoy the Christmas spirit
and holiday delights.
May you sing your Christmas Carols
in voices sweet and bright.
May the joy of sharing Christmas
put the jolly in your night.
 
May you wake up Christmas Morning
with your stocking full of cheer.
May your house be filled with music
that is pleasant to the ear.
May you spend your day with loved ones
and those you hold most dear.
And may you keep the Christmas spirit
throughout the whole New Year. 
 ©2010 By PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.


WISHING YOU & YOURS
A VERY
MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

©2010 by Pop Art Diva. All Rights Reserved. No permission is given to copy, share, reproduce, distribute, post or print without written authorization from PopArtDiva.Com.

 
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20101210

NEW ART for THE MARTINI DIVA!

©2010 by Pop Art Diva. All Rights Reserved. No permission is given to copy, share, reproduce, distribute, post or print without written authorization from PopArtDiva.Com.

My latest work of art is a martini illustration for TheMartiniDiva.Com.  I had done a cute martini recipe card some time back with a line up of martini glasses where the martini inside gradually went down but I did not do it for products which is kind of dumb of me.  The whole point of giving away free martini cards is to promote my Martini Art!

This week I corrected that error and did Going, Going, GONE.  Please note that the olives disappear along with the martini!  I love those kind of visual puns but not everyone catches them.  You will often see a visual pun in my work if you look for it.

I've recently added Necklaces, Coasters & Ornaments to my product line at The Martini Diva Boutique AND Necklaces, Coasters, Ornaments, &  hard cases for iPads and iPhones at the PopArtDiva Gift Gallery so check out the new goodies!

And as always you can get 
on Posters, Tees, Shoes, Business Cards, Greeting Cards, Aprons, Cups,


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20101205

Illustrations for my FIRST MARTINI BOOK!

 
I'm proud to announce the release of my first martini recipe book:
The
MERRY
MARTINI
Mixology Book
 
(Check It Out Here
 
I have published my first in a series of Martini Recipe books under my brand The Martini Diva™ and, of course, the illustrations are all Pop Art Diva style!

The Merry Martini Mixology Book is illustrated in full color throughout and features:
  • 24 delicious Christmas themed martini recipes on my originally designed recipe cards
  • Merry Martini Making Tips to help you make the very best Merry Martinis
  • Christmas Trivia to entertain you and your guests while you shake up some Holiday Jolly
 
 
It's a perfect book to put the Ho Ho Ho in your Christmas Cocktails
or to give the gift of Holiday Happy Hours to family and friends:

  Click Here to Purchase
The MERRY MARTINI MIXOLOGY BOOK



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20101201

My New BUTTERFLY POP ART and Some Thoughts on Inspiration

©2010 by Pop Art Diva. All Rights Reserved.  No permission is given to copy, share, reproduce, distribute, post or print without written authorization from PopArtDiva.Com.

BUTTERFLY POP ART 
AND SOME THOUGHTS ON INSPIRATON

Inspiration is a funny thing.  It can strike at any time of the day or night and at the oddest times as well.  Often I don't know what has inspired me and, frankly, I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it.  The inspiration gets crowded out by the creative drive and that's okay by me.  After all, it's done it's job and inspired me, it can take a break until I'm done - though it usually doesn't, bringing me even more ideas while I'm working on the current inspiration.

Such was the case with my BUTTERFLY POP ART.  While I was working on my Retro Pop Art Sixties Sky I included some butterfly silhouttes on some of the bubbles.  I was trying to put some detail in them but it was design overkill - they needed to be simple outlines - but that was the precursor to a full butterfly pop art.  I made a sticky note to do a pop art butterfly and went back to finish my pop art sky piece.

This week I'm finishing up the final pages on my new website for TheMartiniDiva.Com and found a need for that butterfly art.  I was designing the web section for my Spring themed martinis which are on recipe cards with a butterfly background and I realized it would be a great time to do the butterfly art and products so I could cross promote them on those Spring martini pages.

I did the image in several formats for the different merchandise my art is featured on and I leave my working layers for any licensing requests with special requirements.  It's always good to have options available on your designs for other uses.  I've even begun to turn my designs into multiple image formats for fabrics - I use these on my Keds sneakers and would love to see them on some cool shirts and pajamas.  How cool would it be to have my art on shirts to match my sneakers or some comfy pajamas?

As always, you can get my
on posters, tees, shoes, aprons, cards, ties, cups, stationary & more
@ The PopArtDiva Gift Gallery



 

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20101120

FUN ART & GIFTS FOR THE NEW YEAR - Ring in 2011 in Pop Art Style!



  Image ©2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.
No permission is given to copy, share, distribute, reproduce, post or print without written authorization.
 
 I get asked to do a lot of specific designs and the holidays are always on that request list.  I don't concentrate on date specific designs or current events generally but every artist should have at least one design in their portfolio for major holidays - especially if you're selling merchandise with your art on it!

I've done several for Halloween, my favorite holiday as well as a few for Christmas and I do have a holiday themed store online called HAPPY HOLLY DAZE where I post others for Valentine's Day, Easter, and other holidays but hadn't done one yet for New Years so this week I remedied that with my new HAPPY NEW YEAR POP ART.

I made two different versions; one for the particular year - in this case 2011 - and one that is a generic New Year Illustration and I set up my store so that you can buy either one on all the products I sell.  As always you can personalize anything in my store - add a name, a photo, play with text fonts & colors, change pertinent information.  This way you can create a totally unique product for yourself or as a gift.

As I've said before, I always save my working files and keep each layer so next year all I have to do is change the date in the boxes and I've got a new design for 2012.  I may change one little element each year just for the heck of it for anyone who collects my work - it all depends on whether I remember to do that next year, lol.
 
Check out my
HAPPY NEW YEAR & HAPPY 2011
Banners, T-shirts, Hoodies & Sweatshirts, Cups, Invitations, Cards, Postage, Aprons, Baby Apparel, Ties & other fun New Year Gifts
AND
I just added Ornaments to my store and this is one of the first products with those available:


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20101105

New Tropical Inspired Pop Art - UNDER THE SEA


Image ©2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.
No permission is given to copy, share, distribute, reproduce, post or print without written authorization.
 
 UNDER THE SEA POP ART
 
Yes, I know it's fall, leaves are falling, summer is over and it's time to yank out the winter coats BUT this last week I've been subjected to temperatures more suited to the dog days of summer!  It's been 90 and higher here this last week!  When I was a kid we would call this "Indian Summer" and we loved it but then it didn't hit the 90s!
Since I'm redoing a lot of my recipe cards for TheMartiniDiva.Com's new website it seemed appropriate to redo my Tropical Martini recipes and, of course, I needed a tropical image, which served as my inspiration for this tropical pop art.

I am working on a surf pop art image of a beach and a big wave with palm trees but I wanted something more ocean inspired so I took part of that image - the wave - and started from that point.  I added my favorite sea creatures, the seahorse and the starfish, put in an abstract seaweed background and threw them all "under the sea" surrounded by bubbles of various colors and transparent values.
 
I was trying to put in dolphins and palm trees as well but realized these needed to be part of my Surf City Pop Art instead so keep an eye out for that one.  I may also use part of this image inside some dolphin silhouettes similar to what I did with my Sixties Style Pop Art and the Pop Art Guitars.   I'm all excited about ocean images now and think it would be fun to do some tropical fish as well.

It may not be particularly seasonal but it's certainly appropriate to the weather this week!  This is a perfect design for anyone who loves the beach, ocean and fanciful little sea creatures.

Under The Sea Pop Art
is available on:
Posters, Tees & Hoodies, Greeting and Note Cards, Stationary, Aprons, Cups, Business Cards, Pet Tees and other gear at The PopArtDiva Gift Gallery
just in time for your holiday shopping!
 

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20101030

JACKASS, THE MARTINI - Where humor, art & cocktails meet



 Years ago, I got dragged to see the first Jackass, The Movie. I hated it.  Okay, I did laugh but mostly I just sat there wondering how anyone could be that stupid.  Which, of course, was the whole idea.

I came home and immediately created a joke martini called JACKASS, THE MARTINI.  It really is an actual recipe (minus one grungy ingredient) but I doubt it's a good tasting one.  No, I did not taste it - the recipe was written as a joke and I couldn't find the Billy Beer anyway.  It was only after I started wondering if you could still find Billy Beer that I realized you actually could make this martini and drink it - if you are of the jackass persuasion!




I am in the process of revamping all my martini cards to print quality for the new TheMartiniDiva.Com and I had to do a new one for Jackass, The Martini.  I was originally thinking of doing a cartoon of - what else - an actual jackass - the animal kind not the human kind.  When I was searching for a photo to work from all I got was images for the new movie, Jackass 3D which consisted of a skull and crutches for crossbones!
 
I have to admit I thought it was kind of funny and was laughing when I got an inspiration - why not take my Pop Art Skull silhouette and do martini crossbones???   I got a chuckle out of the idea and went for it. I did the image in both black and white versions for both the graphic and the recipe image for use on dark and light t-shirts and posters.

So here you see my latest graphic for The Martini Diva Boutique, JACKASS, THE MARTINI!  The t-shirts, cups and a few other products have both the main image and the recipe for the martini.

WARNING!!!
This is a joke okay? Like the disclaimer says, I take no responsibility for your jackass behavior and it's consequences!
 
GET
JACKASS, THE MARTINI
on posters, t-shirts, cups, cards, aprons & other gear!
 
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20101008

JOHN LENNON'S 70TH BIRTHDAY - OCTOBER 9TH

Image ©2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.
No permission is given to copy, share, distribute, reproduce, post or print without written authorization.

TOMORROW - OCTOBER 9TH would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. To those of us who grew up on The Beatles (we were called Beatlemaniacs) this is a big day. It must be a big day for everyone else too - Google is celebrating it with their first ever animated Google Doodle - check it out below. If you go to Google.com you will have to press the little red play button on the doodle and the animation will play along with a clip of the song "Imagine".



This unique Google Doodle is a wonderful tribute to someone who was so much a part of our lives - a legend in his own time and after his time as well. What you may not be aware of is the artwork is actually inspired and part of it actually is John Lennon's art! The portrait sketch of John that comprises the two "o's" in Google in the animation is a well known self-portrait.

John was quite an artist, having published a number of books which included doodles, drawings and artwork he created. I actually own the original editions of several of these including Spaniard in the Works and In His Own Write. They are filled with his wonderful and whimsical doodles and sketches.

He also created a book of drawings for his son, Sean, called Real Love. John Lennon had an interest in art his whole live - he was even encouraged by a teacher to go to art school because he didn't get good grades in anything else. To quote one of his instructors, Lennon was "Hopeless. Rather a clown in class. A shocking report. He is wasting other pupils' time."

Lennon met Stuart Sutcliffe (the original bass player for The Quarrymen) in art college, by the way, so you can credit John's artist skills with giving rise to The Beatles! John did not graduate from the Liverpool College of Art - he continued his rebelliousness, disliking the structure of a formal art education and dropped out before his final year. His art school experience did not stifle his love of drawing and John created his wonderful, quirky and totally unique art the rest of his life.

It's hard to Imagine John Lennon being seventy years old. Because he was taken from us he remains in our minds as he was when we lost him. He left behind a legacy of great music and creativity for all to enjoy. Imagine how he would have loved that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN
You live on in our hearts.




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20101006

SKULL POP ART - Sugar Skulls as Art



Images ©2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.
No permission is given to copy, share, distribute, reproduce, post or print without written authorization.
Contact PopArtDiva.Com for licensing information.


BIG BANG - BLACK HOLES POP ART
and the case of the
POP ART SKULLS

I have a friend who loves skulls and she wanted me to illustrate a skull for a tattoo. Skulls are kind of not my thing, ya know? Skulls are very goth and goth is dark and scary - not bright, colorful or humorous, all things I tend to infuse into my style of pop art.

But pop art is defined as "a form of art that depicts objects or scenes from everyday life and employs techniques of commercial art and popular illustration." Pop art gets to play with the images that bombard us daily and skulls are all over the place in today's graphics so why not play with skulls?

I am not into goth, dark or scary but I figured why not do Pop Art Skulls in my own psychedelic, sixties pop art style? I love Day of the Dead skeletons so I took my cue from the vibrant way that an image of death is treated in the folk art skeletons of the Day of the Dead celebrations. (If you're not familiar with the Mexican holiday of Día de los Muertos - Mexico's version of Memorial Day - take a look at some of the Day of the Dead images on Google.)

In this series of Pop Art I am taking silhouettes of every day images then filling them with parts of another pop art design I've created. In this pop art design I wanted my typical rainbow colors but slightly darker and less saturated overall so I dropped in black shadows and overlays on the background areas.

I also wanted some solid black shapes to sharpen the colors and to bring in the "dark" element so I popped in some black "holes" and a big graphic black circle for balance with some ghosted white stars shooting out from it. Then in went some big, bright round areas for tension across the front and all of a sudden I was seeing "black holes" and a "big bang".

These all translated nicely on the skulls giving them cracks and shattered areas - like skulls that had been around for a while. I got rid of the jawbone, added some jagged breaks and removed a tooth just to add to the illusion. What I ended up with was a cosmic explosion inside of a human skull. I kind of like the idea of a bunch of black holes and a big bang floating inside a dead head, it's sort of modern day physics meets Gothic horror - very fitting so close to Halloween!

Get both images on posters, t-shirts, skateboards, shoes, cards, invites, cups, aprons & other goodies:


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20100925

SIXTIES POP ART GUITARS ILLUSTRATION


Image ©2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.
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Contact PopArtDiva.Com for licensing information.

POP ART GUITARS 
Retro Sixties Style Music Pop Art

I have a thing for guitars. I learned to play an acoustic guitar when I was 13 because I had delusions of being a folk singer. Not a pop or rock singer - at least not then. NOW I'd like to be a rock star, lol. It might have something to do with getting back my youth but I really think it's because I still want to be "cool".

As close as I'm gonna get is with this fun and colorful Pop Art Guitar illustration. It's part of a new series of Retro Sixties Pop Art illustrations I've started for my website and online gift store.

I took my Retro Sixties Pop Art Sky illustration and used sections of it inside the silhouettes of some vintage classic guitars. I used a Fender, a Gibson, a Martin and a Les Paul for my silhouettes because they're the big guns of the guitar world. Once I got my four guitars done I decided to do another version with a reflection below. (I love that one, especially on black.)

I kept debating whether to insert some text - like Rock Forever or Rock On - but in the end decided against it because guitars are not just for rock and roll. Many of these great guitars have created some incredible jazz, blue, classical and country music. My pop art is very vintage sixties style art which speaks to rock but the happiness it imparts can be heard in all forms of music so why limit my audience?

If you're into music and guitars like I am stop by and order some of my cool
POP ART GUITARPoster, T-shirts, Business Cards, Skateboards, Cards, Aprons, Cups & other cool goodies:



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20100921

RETRO SIXTIES STYLE POP ART SKY - New!

Image ©2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.
No permission is given to copy, share, distribute, reproduce, post or print without written authorization.
Contact PopArtDiva.Com for licensing information.


I'm starting a new series of retro, sixties style pop art illustrations inspired by the great illustrations that were so popular when I was first learning to be an artist.

Growing up in the hippie era I was inundated with posters, album covers and images all around me like the ones below.





Then, of course, Peter Max (my pop art hero) exploded all over the sixties with his work and I immediately began to put felt tip pens to bear on my own versions of art like Peter Max's below:



If I turned in a paper at school there would be a little spot illustration at the top of the page, my Pee Chee folders were covered in mini Peter Max and Blue Meanie style doodles and my notebooks were filled with them.

I have always loved color so it's not surprising my work is extremely influenced by this iconic, bold and colorful style of art. I didn't call myself Pop Art Diva just because I needed a catchy brand name - I am a pop art diva, grown out of the soil of Andy Warhol, Peter Max, Lichtenstein, Sixties rock art, Disney and Dali - nutritional inspiration that fed my budding little artistic soul.

I've done a lot of art in my life, I've worked in a lot of mediums and styles, but I always come back to my first love of line, design and explosive color. It makes me happy, it makes me smile and it is the essence of my artistic dynamic.

RETRO SIXTIES POP ART SKY is actually the first stage of another illustration. I have taken this landscape style and used it as the interior to a series of classic guitar silhouettes. I've outlined a Gibson, a Martin, a Fender and a Les Paul guitar and have overlayed sections of this image into them to create the second part of this illustration. I'll post it up later this week.

I plan to do a whole series in this manner - create one large image then use that image within another for a double series of retro sixties pop art. Ideas are cramming my head so full I'm waking up in the middle of the night making notes!





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20100910

ARE YOU A BABY BOOMER WHO CAN'T GET A JOB?

For many of us fifty and over this is one of the hardest financial times we've ever faced. We are nearing retirement, ready to retire or have retired and BOOM! - our financial security has blown up right before our very eyes.

Many of us find ourselves in the very scary position of having to continue working when we had planned not to or, even worse, having to go back out and get a job in a job market that has traditionally tossed aside anyone in our age bracket.

It's a daunting and slippery prospect for anyone who has not had to contend with the job hunting process of searching, writing resumes and interviewing for several decades. Though I am self-employed I am not immune to this situation as I am constantly talking with boomer friends who are facing joblessness and are out there hitting the bricks in search of work and income in a very tight job market.

On top of this I discovered that looking for a job has changed completely in the years since most of us had to actually do just that! The way to find jobs, the resume writing formats and the interview process are not what they were in our early days of job hunting and without some insider knowledge most of us boomers are left out in the cold wasteland of employment opportunities without a clue.

I was recently hired to do the book cover design, the landing page and edit a new book by Mary Eileen Williams entitled "LAND THE JOB YOU LOVE - 10 Surefire Strategies for Jobseekers over 50". What I discovered opened my eyes to why so many of my friends and colleagues are still out of work. They are not prepared for today's job market and, as a result, they are unemployed.

Eileen's book LAND THE JOB YOU LOVE is written for those of us 50 and over who are out there competing in today's job market. She has taken her twenty years of experience as a job search specialist and career/life transition counselor and applied it to a comprehensive, step-by-step guide specifically aimed at job hunters 50 and over and her book takes you through every phase of the job search, resume and interview process of today's job market.

Here is an interview I did with Eileen on today's job market and the issues facing baby boomers dealing with that market:

Listen to internet radio with PopArtDiva on Blog Talk Radio

If you're 50 or older and you're out there looking for work, LAND THE JOB YOU LOVE is an invaluable resource, workbook and guide that will be the best investment you could make in your future employment.

If you're a baby boomer and you're still out there hunting for a job, please take a moment and check it out:



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20100810

I want S'MORE! TODAY IS NATIONAL S'MORES DAY

TODAY IS NATIONAL S'MORES DAY

Why are they called S'mores? Because once you have one you want some more!

Definition of a S'More
A dessert consisting usually of toasted marshmallow and pieces of chocolate bar sandwiched between two graham crackers.

As I've said before I grew up in a camping family so S'mores were one of the earliest sweets I can remember. I loved mine where the marshmallow was toasted almost to the point of being black because it would melt the chocolate until it dripped off the graham cracker. There's nothing more fun than having to blow out the flames on your marshmallow then quickly sticking it on the waiting chocolate covered graham crackers and squishing the whole pile into a gooey mess. To this day it's the only way I will voluntarily eat a graham cracker and enjoy it.

Being part of a good scouting family we were required to gather our own marshmallow toasting stick and whittle it to a point ourselves. I still have the little knife my father gave me one camping trip when I was deemed old enough to do this myself.

S'mores are such an iconic part of an American campfire experience that it's almost sacrilegious to be sitting next to a flaming wood fire and not pull out boxes of graham crackers, bags of marshmallows and bars of chocolate.

If you've never had a S'more then you've missed out on one of the all time great classic pop culture foods of America and it's time you tried one - here's how to make the classic version:

  • Start a campfire.
  • Get 2 squares of graham crackers ready on a paper plate.
  • Place enough Hershey's (yes, I said Hershey's - it's not a true pop culture food without Hershey's) chocolate to cover one of the graham cracker squares.
  • Get a stick from a nearby tree and whittle one end to a point.
  • Place a marshmallow on your stick and roast it to a golden brown color - the marshmallow should be melted enough to almost be falling off your stick!
  • Quickly grab the marshmallow off the stick and plop it down on the chocolate.
  • Put the second graham cracker over the marshmallow.
  • Squish the whole gooey mess until the chocolate and marshmallow ooze out the sides and onto your fingers.
  • Eat with childlike abandon and glee.
You can, if without a campfire or open flame, microwave the marshmallow but it's not really a S'more without the charred marshmallow. The direct fire gives a crunchy caramelized addition to this campfire dessert that nothing else can reproduce.

Ben & Jerry's has a S'mores ice cream flavor, there's a Pop Tart S'mores, there are S'mores flavored energy bars, Russell Stover has a S'mores candy bar, Weight Watchers has a diet S'mores treat and Epicurious has a S'mores Cheesecake recipe. Krispy Kreme even has a S'mores Doughnut! There are all sorts of ways to get the S'mores flavor in the 21st century but none of these can compare to the classic campfire treat above.

A Few S'mores Facts
  • The first printed record of a S’mores recipe appeared in "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts" published in 1927
  • “National S’mores Day” is on August 10th each year - this date was instituted by the Hershey Company.
  • The Hershey Company makes more than 373 million HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate bars a year. That’s enough to make 746 million S’mores!
Modern S'more Variations:
Chocolate Chip Cookie S'mores, Chocolate Banana S’mores, Peanut Butter & Jelly S’mores, Coconut S’mores, Rocky Road S’mores, Peanut Butter Cup S'mores.

And, of course, my adult version, the
S'MORES MARTINI!

HAPPY NATIONAL S'MORES DAY!

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20100806

POP ART HOT DOG with Chips & Drink - Fast Food Art , No Calories

Image ©2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.
No permission is given to copy, share, distribute, reproduce, post or print without written authorization.
Contact PopArtDiva.Com for licensing information.


HOT DOG AS COOL POP ART

As promised - or threatened, whichever way you choose to look at it - here is my Pop Art Hot Dog with sides of potato chips, a dill pickle and a nice soft drink.

I wanted this to be a companion piece to my Pop Art Hamburger and Fries so I left the hot dog and the bun normal colors in all sections and played with the side orders colors. Nothing like a blue dill pickle to tickle your food humor!

I also tied the background in - using ovals on this instead of the squares on the burger piece. I really think these backgrounds give the illustrations a very retro look.

I realized what I have here is a Pop Art Chicago Dog thanks to the pickle and tomato! I'm a fan of chili dogs myself but I wanted a classic hot dog because pop art is a comment on pop culture and the classic frankfurter is part of our Americana. If you're from L.A. think of it as a Dodger Dog, lol.

I have to be honest, I drew the bloody hot dog a few times. For some reason it's so simple that I struggled to keep it from being unrecognizable! I originally had a mustard bottle in the background but there was WAY too much yellow when combined with the chips and mustard so I switched it out and put in a soft drink, then added a nice slice of dill pickle! Gotta have my dill pickle!

Hot dogs always make me think of campfires at Boy Scout Jamborees. My dad was an executive with the Boy Scouts of America and we did a lot of cook outs - I mean a lot! The whole family was in scouting (Den Mother Mom, Eagle Scout Brother, Girl Scout Sister) and I spent a lot of my summers as a kid hanging out with Boy Scouts of all ages. I can still recite the Boy Scout Oath, "I will do my best, to do my duty, to God and my country and to obey the Scout law to help other people at all times. To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight." Amazing considering I sometimes forget what day it is now. . .

I will tell you that a hot dog on a stick over a nice wood fire tastes like nothing else on this earth - maybe I should have stuck in a small serving of S'mores on my Hot Dog Pop Art?

It's a nice mate for my Pop Art Burger and Fries, don't you think?

Both images are available as posters, t-shirts, cards, aprons & even shoes at The PopArtDiva Gift Gallery

Both are available for licensing as well - all of my images are.

POP ART BURGER & FRIES
by PopArtDiva


Images Copyright 2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.
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20100805

Vintage Keds Sneakers Return as Retro Pop Art Tennies


Remember Ked's Shoes? We used to call them "tennies" - they were lace up canvas shoes with a rubber soul and I must have had dozens of pairs of them in the fifties and early sixties. My brother used to have the hi-tops as well - they were introduced as Pro-Keds in the sixties and were marketed as basketball shoes. In fact, they were worn by many popular basketball players of the day.

Keds were "scientifically designed" according to Colonel Keds - remember him from this commercial?



I remember picking at the blue rubber label that was glued to the back of the upper soul until I peeled it off. I did it with every pair of Ked's shoes that I owned. I'd save that blue rubber label too, until I stuck it somewhere and forgot it.

Did you know that these style shoes were called sneakers because the rubber soles allowed you to be silent when walking - thus you could "sneak" up on someone?

I loved those shoes as a kid, I'd wear mine until they got holes in them from wear and tear and washing. Mom used to clean them in our washing machine - I think that's why she liked them, they were easy to keep clean as well as fairly inexpensive. When you had 3 children outgrowing shoes faster than a speeding bullet access to cheap, washable shoes was a boon to the family budget.

I hadn't seen those shoes in years - they got pushed aside by Nikes, Reeboks and then by all the designer athletic shoes with all the bells and whistles of today's sports shoes. Simple little canvas tennies were out of style until retro fashions brought them back. I even saw them worn by Bella Swan of the Twilight films!

Now, thanks to modern technology, I get to put my own pop art designs on those same Keds shoes and I can change the colors of all the laces, trim & rubber souls to match my art as well. It's a real thrill seeing my art on something I loved as a kid. . . and the first thing I did when I got my first pair of my Pop Art Keds shoes was look for the little blue rubber label on the back of the heel - still there but I think I'll restrain myself from trying to peel them off . . . maybe.

Ain't technology grand when it brings back something so cool from the past?

ORDER YOUR OWN PAIR OF MY RETRO STYLE KEDS SNEAKERS,
You can even customize the details with your own color preferences:


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20100801

POP ART MARTINIS 2010 - Cocktails Revisited

Image Copyright 2010 by PopArtDiva.com. No permission is given to post, share, copy, print, e-mail, distribute or link to. All Rights Reserved.

POP ART MARTINIS 2010

This is my latest in my pop art food series. I did "MARTINI ME" (see below) for The Martini Diva Boutique and really liked how the martini and the olives turned out and thought it would make a great traditional style pop art for The PopArtDiva Gift Gallery as well.

I love the playful look of the martini glass and the multi-colored olives but it was the background that really gives this Pop Art a retro look. For some reason the shades of the pastels and the stripes remind me of the Rat Pack - think Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin hanging out in Palm Springs.

When I first started The Martini Diva several years ago I did my first version of Pop Art Martinis which had brighter coloring and animal print backgrounds:

I also did Pop Art Margaritas, Pop Art Wine and Pop Art Cocktails for a series of four. I try to work in series for several reasons, it's a good idea if you're creating illustrations for product licensing and merchandise and it's also good for home decor as people often want a grouping for wall art. As always I do my images in several different shapes as well - usually a version in a standard print/poster size (18x24 or 16x20), a square version and a long horizontal rectangular version (great shape for over beds and sofas and as a cup wrap around).

I also keep my "working" files - an unflattened version with all the layers still workable. I have often received licensing requests where a client will ask for one of my pieces but with different colors, different text or a different layout for a specific purpose. Think of any of these as cocktail napkins, coasters or paper plates or even as wrapping paper or fabric designs!

I myself use my designs on several products like t-shirts and aprons, cups with a wrap around graphic, shoes, ties and even skateboards. All of these require different layouts of the illustration. Keeping my working files allows me to adjust almost any part of the illustration which is a real time saver!

The first part of Pop Art Martinis 2010 actually started as a single Rainbow Martini for a saying I wanted to illustrate for products at The Martini Diva Boutique:



When I finished it I realized it would be a good idea to post the martini image without the text as well and then I saw the possibility of the martini glass as a new Pop Art Martini!

I'm going to have to revisit my margarita glass, cocktail glass and wine glass as well I suppose. Then I think I'll finally tackle a Pop Art Beer - it would go great with my Pop Art Hamburger & Fries, lol. But first I'd better finish my Pop Art Hot Dog & Chips (update: Pop Art Hot Dog finished 8-6-2010!)

All of the above images are available on posters, t-shirts, cards, shoes, hats, totes, aprons and even business card designs, postage and skateboards at my stores - all of them customizable too. Just click on any of the images or links to check them out!

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20100720

GRUNGE ART - Rorschach Pop Art with a Schmear?

My Rorschach Grungy Graffiti with a Pop Art Touch

With my artistic bent towards pop art and pop culture I always taken note of how the world of advertising and marketing bring fringe movements to the mass media of billboards, TV ads and product hawking. It has always fascinated me that underground movements that wish to defy the commercialization of the modern world end up as such a large part of that world sooner or later.

The marketing machine of modern times is a hungry, voracious carnivore always on the ready to gobble up the latest "hot trend" and poop it back out to aid their product sales. This has always been somewhat humorous to me which is why most of my pop art has a decidedly light, silly and colorful feel to it - I think laughter is a much better weapon to deflate pomposity than anger.

In the past year or so I've been seeing a lot of the Grunge influence popping up in ads and marketing. Cars, clothing and a ton of other brands/products are all getting a bit messy with the splatters, splats, drips and uncontrolled element that are big part of the grunge look. Whenever I see a new visual trend in mass media I get my "pop art" radar up and start doing some digging around to find the inspiration. In this case it was the Grunge movement that started in the mid eighties in Seattle, Washington.

There's some lively discussion as to what constitutes "grunge art" but messy and dark seem to be the two common elements. Remember that this art is inspired by the Grunge music scene that started in Seattle - a music that merges the punk/hard rock sounds of the preceding era with the apathy and angst of the youth of the 80s. Most people will think Nirvana and Pearl Jam, though both these groups were a more commercialized interpretation of the original Indie garage music beginnings.

There was a lot of distortion to the instruments in grunge music, especially the guitar, kind of a "messy" style of music filled with dark emotions (angst) and characterized by "grungy" looking band members. (The term grungy itself originated sometime in the mid sixties as an alternate term for dirty or filthy and to this day I still use the term for something dirty and sticky - i.e. "my kitchen floor is so grungy my feet are sticking to the tile!") Thus angst, boredom, dishevelment and distorted sound combine to create Grunge and Grunge art is a visual of these same qualities.

Twenty five years or so later Madison Avenue gets a hold of it and turns it into a sales aid - then I have to get a hold of that and turn it into a visual prank! Behold! My take on the Grunge trend of today's popular culture - a Pop Art of a graffiti Rorschach test on acid. And yes, being a former Mad Woman, I turned it into products too - that's just what I do.

Get GRUNGE-Y with
Grunge Pop Art Posters, T-shirts, Aprons, Baby Tees, Cards & More
from The PopArtDiva Gift Gallery



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20100710

POP ART EATING! ANDY WARHOL EATS A HAMBURGER

Since I just finished my Pop Art Burger and Fries I thought you would all get a kick out of seeing the real Andy Warhol eat a hamburger!


I've watched this several times trying to see what brand of burger he's eating and can't - but I can see that the bottle of ketchup is Heinz, lol.

This is Pop Art Food Performance Art! Maybe I should start recording my forays to fast food joints, lol. I could do 15 minutes on french fries alone!

POP ART BURGER & FRIES
by PopArtDiva


Image Copyright 2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.

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20100709

POP ART BURGER & FRIES and some Fast Food Nostalgia

Image ©2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved.
No permission is given to copy, share, distribute, reproduce, post or print without written authorization.
Contact PopArtDiva.Com for licensing information.



As I threatened in my last post I did go ahead and do a Hamburger & Fries Pop Art for my Pop Art Food series. I did use the background from my Pop Art Cookies to inspire me but this time I used square instead of circles. Maybe the Pop Art Hot Dog will have triangles. . .(update 8/7/2010 - nope it ended up with ovals!)

The hamburger was a lot of fun to sketch and I drew it like I like to eat my burgers - with lettuce, onions, tomatoes and pickles and a lot of ketchup. I am not a 'mustard on hamburger' kind of person - mustard is for hot dogs!

When I got to the color stage I found it a bit of a challenge because I was not too sure about odd colored beef but I liked the purple pickles, pink lettuce and blue tomatoes idea. In the end, I decided to leave the burger and bun naturally colored and just adjust the condiments and the fries. Pop Art is all about messing with cultural icons - taking the common of the day and turning it into "art" using commercial art techniques so, if Andy Warhol can turn Marilyn green, I can certainly turn a pickle purple and some lettuce pink!

I always ask for extra pickles on the side because I just like pickles so you will see my side order of pickles on the right! If you look very close you will actually see the salt on the fries though probably not in the small image above.

You can order up your Pop Art Burger and Fries on Posters, T-shirts, Aprons, Cards, Business Cards and other goodies at The PopArtDiva Gift Gallery.

MEMORIES OF BURGERS & FRIES

I grew up in Wichita, Kansas which just happens to be the birthplace of White Castle Burgers. Interestingly enough I never had a White Castle Burger until I was in my twenties and went back East for an ad job, but I do remember my folks taking us to Griff's.

In those days a burger was fifteen cents and fries were eleven cents. Mom would order each of us kids a small burger, fries and a milkshake. I always got my burger with just ketchup and pickles (you could custom order your burger, at least in those days) and I got a chocolate shake. I would dip my fries in the chocolate shake - something I will still do if I get the opportunity.

Griff's was one of the burger joints that had car hop service so we kids were often in our pajamas eating our burgers. I guess our folks liked the idea of just being able to drop us into our beds in a carb coma after dinner, lol. I just thought it was cool to go out to eat in my pajamas that had feet!

The Griff's company closed decades ago but there are still some of the individual drive-ups open and operating in a few states. Had I known there was one in Albuquerque I would have hunted it down and ordered my old favorites just for the nostalgia. I can still remember that particular grease taste and those lard fried potatoes - honestly, nothing beats a french fry cooked in lard!

I'm making myself hungry again.

Pop Art Burgers & Fries Copyright 2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved. No permission is given to copy, distribute, e-mail, share or reproduce without written permission from PopArtDiva.Com


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20100703

POP ART COOKIES - Cookies that won't go to your hips!



When I was working on my newest pieces in my Pop Art Food Series I did a quick cookie sketch too but it was not my favorite of the three and I almost didn't do this pop art. I mean how much can you do with a stack of cookies?? Interestingly enough, my POP ART COOKIES turned out to be my favorite. I think it's because I love the kind of retro background I created for this one. There's something about those circles that just really pop the cookies. Plus it was fun making the chocolate chips in a rainbow.

I may use this background idea for my Pop Art Hamburgers, Hot Dogs & Fries too. It's got that retro drive-in feel to it. I'm having a great time with this series of Pop Art Food, every one of these remind me of being a kid and eagerly anticipating one of my Mom's homemade desserts. It's nice when my own art brings me wonderful memories.

They also make me hungry and I ended up making a batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday - yes, I used M&M's instead of chips, had to have my rainbow colors!

Available on Posters & Prints, Clothing, Home Decor, Cards & Stationery, Games & Toys & Other Fine Gifts

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day is August 4th.