Peace, love, and joy are important elements to any life. The Painting Queen is having a giveaway of digital peace signs, so you can spread the love! We do this in celebration of visualizing peace all ways. Each of the 7 peace signs are 1800 by 1800 pixels. Download by clicking on the image, if a plus sign appears, then click again,then right click "save as."The peace sign images are presented in PNG format which means the background is transparent. These PNG's are a gift. You may use them for promoting thoughts of peace in the world, within your own artwork, and peace filled creations.
Lately I have been busy on my sister blog"The Queens Table". If you have been over to the food blog, you may already know that is where I share healthy recipes and tips. The information on the Queens Table is what I used to get healthy again, plus lose 76 pounds! If you are suffering from an unhealthy lifestyle, please visit my other blog where I am happy to help point you in the right direction to assist you in feeling better.
"Peace comes within the souls of men when they realize their
To celebrate my fairy daughter's birthday, Fairy Queen Grandriel made a secret story book to keep magical fae memories! My little fairy is now the "Keeper" of two sprites herself and has the mighty job of keeping track of plenty of sparkling fairy dust. I thought this would make a good project idea for a fairy grandmother (as if I don't have any others). So now I will have to make other pages! Oh my!
My old 35mm Nikon finally died. Still I was inspired by a photo taken by my tiny 'coolpix' camera at an 'Art In The Park' event where the grand children were playing on a big rock. Since I have not posted much about the grandchildren for awhile, I guess it's time to enthrall you, as we grandmothers do!
You can see our Princess Aowyn is quite lost in thought deciding if she is going "here" or "there!"
Happiness found while making a flower from recycled water bottles. Serious business!
Yes, we both got our hands deep into the glitter and glue! Every good fairy simply must find glitter stuck to various bits of skin and clothing the rest of the day don't cha' know.
Multi-talented guitarist husband known as "Ben Sherman Guitar" was playing solo acoustic style in the sunshine. The wee and the tall townsfolk came out to frolic on this beautiful early summer day up on bewitching Emerald Hill! I thought we lived in Lothlorian...Are we in OZ?
Everyone took to relaxing in the shade of the trees, except mommies of the tiny toddlers, who were running, climbing, and playing tag! This was a great family and kid friendly situation, which does not always happen for our gig life. A super opportunity to have the grandchildren join us.
So as soon as "Ben Sherman Guitar' was finished his musical set for the afternoon, his favorite fairy insisted he smell the beautiful plastic flower she made! Isn't that the best kind of fan!
There was a total of four gigs this past weekend! Later Ben and myself were off to a gig with the fabulous classic rock band "Hectic Red," and the next day with the Steely Dan Tribute Band "Technicolor Motor Home." (Who by the way, are going to be opening for 'Three Dog Night' on June 29th.) Until then, Grandriel and Grandalf savored the astonishing moments with the most adorable fae in all the land! Soak in the love, play in the glitter of life, and smell the magic flowers!
"American Gothic" that is! Ben's serious look is very reminiscent of the old Grant Wood painting and just fit perfectly. Since I only have a few recent photos of myself, this one had the correct angle to fit the original paintings body. So there it is...a smiling fairy instead. I had wanted a picture of us for my Queens Table Blog About page. Something different than the usual couple photo, and the old Grant Wood painting popped into my head. It has that 'back to the earth' feel to me, since that is what we are doing now, supporting local farmers, and attempting to grow a few things ourselves. This is the kind of quick digital manipulation that I really get a kick out of doing. A bit quirky, but fun!
Anyway there we are in our painting, ready to grow and eat plants! For reference, below is the original Grant Wood "American Gothic" painting in all it's solemn glory.
I am honored and excited to announce that one of my images was selected to adorn a poster, and promotional postcard for the band Telesma! The image above will be on the celebration concert poster called 'Resurrection' for the upcoming July 20th show. The band is raising awareness and funds for band member Ian Hesford. The postcard and poster were designed by the lovely and resplendent female vocalist of Telesma, Joanne Juskus.
This concert is now possible because of the astonishing story surrounding the multifaceted and vibrant musician Ian Hesford, who suffered a near fatal heart attack onstage on April 20th. The band is calling the 'Rams Head Live' concert in Baltimore 'Resurrection,' because Ian Hesford took a short voyage into the cosmic beyond, and returned again to bless us with his music, and kind spirit. It is an incredibly remarkable story of love, music, and manifesting the Spirit of life. Also a miracle that night, is that two members of the Telesma audience were trained in CPR! While one was dressed in a top hat, and the other in face paint, they jumped up on stage to revive Ian. His heart stopped for a full hour, but between the swift action of the audience members, and the EMT's who worked at resuscitating Ian for 90 minutes, his life was spared. The medical staff at Mercy hospital call his recovery miraculous. You can read a wonderful article about those people, and that night's events here in this City Paper article written by Matt Kelly.
After news of what happened to Ian Hesford was realized, the entire band, friends, and music community, surrounded Ian with constant love and light, infusing the situation with amazing compassion! It is a testament to the beautiful soul and nature of the members of the band Telesma, who stayed by Ian's side while he was in the hospital. They posted daily updates about how Ian was responding, along with their own personal thoughts and feelings. Telesma is a remarkable family of love. Everything now involves helping their band mate, along with celebrating his return to this world. They live the inspiration that is found in their unique music. And If you loved Telesma before, you really become heart connected to them after witnessing their real life response of love and caring for Ian.
That is why it means so much to me to have a small part in this awe-inspiring outpouring of love, and celebration of life!It is truly astonishing that Ian will be back up on the same stage, just three exact months later, playing all of his varied indigenous instruments! With all the fabulous artists and professional photographers who take part in the Telesma community, I am so grateful to be chosen to express this admirable concert event.It is my hope that the image I call 'Ian Universal' will help bring some attention to a very worthy cause, and an evening of phenomenal musical communication. You can also go to this link to make a donation to a trust fund that has been set up for Ian's medical expenses, called "Painted Talisman Of Miracles." The July 20th evening 'Resurrection' concert will also have silent auction items that you can bid on with all proceeds going to Ian's medical fund.
If you are not yet acquainted with Telesma music, get your mind, body, and soul, ready for some transcendence!They are an extraordinary and infectious band, capable of soothing your Spirit, and moving your body with their compelling primitive/futuristic tribal techno rhythms. You can read more about Telesma and their new CD "Action In Inaction" in this post by Ben, and my original post about experiencing Telesma for the first time here. Their new CD is a rare creation, because from the beginning to the end of this musical journey, they have your attention.Definitely something you will play over and over!Ben's post is from the viewpoint of a fellow musician that understands on many levels what Telesma is expressing.
Ian Hesford and Ben Sherman at a Benefit for Ian at Cafe Nola
Being with Telesma live is the ultimate, because you will "feel" their musical vibrations, and those of the crowd as well. It all comes together in that divine space where you could be resurrected too!
To give you an idea of my thought process while working on my image of Ian Hesford, I used this original image from a photo I had taken at one of Telesma's events. I had worked up this one that I called 'Ian - The World Emerges.' While I thought it had appeal, I could not get past the feeling that it needed something. So "it happened" just as I submitted this first idea to Joanne. I pushed the button to 'send' on my computer, then turned my head and saw that Ben was looking at photos of the Universe on his computer screen. In that instant I knew, that Ian needed to be emerging from the Universe itself. So I wrote a note to Joanne that I was going to be sending her another image. I worked up about 10 versions till I was satisfied with the arrangement below. That image is the one Telesma used on the facebook event page for the concert. When I looked at the image again, I then thought to myself I need to Telesma-ize this image... and there is the final result, in the image at the top of this post, and on the poster.
That quick moment of clarity, in knowing that Ian needed to be projecting from the Universe, is one of those fun moments when you feel connected to the Source of all creativity, which leads you to the answer...and you say...yes! Finally my image fit the theme of the trip Ian took perfectly, so I named it "Ian Universal," because he had been there and back again.
My latest project has been creating a gig poster for the Steely Dan Tribute Band called 'Technicolor Motor Home.'My goal for putting together this poster was to recreate the feel of the psychedelic rock art posters of the sixties and seventies. I actually plan on doing a few different band designs in this style, since I had so much fun playing! This colorful genre of psychedelic artwork was influenced by the artists of the San Francisco era such as Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Rick Griffin,Victor Moscoso, and Bonnie MacLean. They were famous for designing many of the rock posters that advertised the Bill Graham events at the Filmore, and the Family Dog concerts at the Avalon Ballroom. These artists and others, opened the door visually to a new way of expressing the 'feel of a band or musician' through their art, and some went on to make album cover art as well. They are also credited with having a hand in giving birth to the San Francisco Haight Ashbury hippie scene through presenting musical events, happenings, and their wonderful engaging artwork. Some of these same artists are still painting today, and I recommend you check them out, and see what they are up to. If you want to purchase your own authentic rock art poster from those days gone by, go online to 'Wolfgang's Vault,' which sells posters from that era. This company owns many of the original negatives and plates of the psychedelic originals, and they also have the largest collection of vintage and retro memorabilia. You could peruse this website just to view their historic poster collection.
As a young high school girl I wanted to create album cover art when I grew up! Alas, the music world turned to teeny tiny CD art. That is just not the same glorious album space everyone looked forward to viewing, reading, and enjoying before CD's. As a designer and artist I really appreciated the beauty of the poster and album art of my past. In eighth grade I remember attempting to paint on my junior high school glass entrance panels, a tall Peter Max starry scene. Being my first attempt at public art, I had no idea how to paint on glass properly, and made a big mess of it! Geez now that I think about it, I sure wish I still had the Peter Max posters I plastered in the basement of my youth. These days Ben and I have framed many old album covers as works of art, and have them hanging around in a semi-secret area we call our "Hippie Room." Now that I've mentioned that room, I suppose I will have to do a blog post about that mysterious room too.
Some common elements I tried to evoke on my digital rock art painting are the stretched out type, happy-fun bright colors, and images not necessarily of band members. Often the poster artists used vintage images, influenced by Art Nouveau or Art Deco posters, and these were applied in their collage or paintings instead of the expected photo of the musician. The same pre-raphaelite face from a John Everett Millais painting called 'The Bridesmaid,' that I manipulated previously in the 'Babylon Sisters tribute artwork' was also placed on this new design, because I felt she recreated the woman of the 60's, 70's era perfectly. The heart and soul feeling I wanted on this poster, was the inner light of peace that prevailed during the sixties, represented by the gorgeous dove from the Graphic Fairy's archives, which is one of my favorite images from Karen. I like to call this beautiful contemplative feminine image of the woman, my 'Lady Of Peace,' for along with the dove, she holds a tiny peace sign in her hands.
I made two versions of the poster, so the band could use one to do what the rock poster is meant to do...advertise an upcoming gig. There is a space at the bottom to fill in the show and date. The show we are celebrating at the moment is in Annapolis Maryland, at 'Rams Head Onstage', which is an intimate 300 seat venue with great acoustics that is utilized by many national acts. It is exciting to see 'Technicolor Motor Home' play in such a comfortable venue with reserved seating at tables with waiter service.
'Technicolor Motor Home' has been voted the best tribute band in the Baltimore area! A superb ten-piece ensemble, including back up singers and a horn section, these musicians are dedicated to presenting the jazz influenced rock music of the legendary group Steely Dan. With ten members in this fabulous band, it is hard to schedule everyone for show dates, so get out to see them when they play, because it is a true treat! I have no doubt my exceptional hubby Ben Sherman will be wailing on lead guitar!
Ben went to the local 'Office Depot' to have color copies made of both poster designs, so I could check out the color reproduction. Each time there was a different person running the printing equipment, so the intensity of the inks are different, but I loved the pair of brilliant color results anyway. Since I own the original file, the band and myself, can get copies made locally in this manner. For anyone else that is interested in having one of these 'Technicolor Motor Home' posters, I put them in one of our Zazzle stores online. The price is cheap, and they have always done a good job of printing for us on our previous purchases. Both versions of the new poster, along with other new merch/swag, are available in the Shermanator Gear Store and in the Technicolor Motor Home Shop.
So speaking of swaaaaggggg... Here are some everyday items I had fun applying different versions of this new design on. I adjusted the poster look for the tee shirts especially, because I have never been a fan of a big square box on t-shirt fronts. If you want some unique coolness just check out these new items in our store at Shermanator Gear!
This men's yellow t-shirt shown above really says 'Summer Of Love' to me! The t-shirt design below is shown on a dark color top which makes the colors really pop!
There are other products available too, as in travel mugs, laptop skins, large flexible fridge magnets, key chains, mouse-pads, plus numerous electronic accessories.
Great weather is here! Those big shows, and festivals of summer, are coming up! Get prepared to rock, and enjoy your Summer of Love! And be sure to get out to see Technicolor Motor Home to enjoy some great live music! Peace and Love to you all! From a very bohemian Painting Queen.
UPDATE: We had some problems getting Zazzle to print some items. So any design here that had said 'Steely Dan Tribute Band' now will say 'Baltimore's Best Tribute Band Live', or not have the words 'Steely Dan' at all. Funny "Technicolor Motor Home" has been on the same bill twice with Jon Herington from Steely Dan, and he did not have a problem with TMH saying they were a 'Steely Dan Tribute Band'. Anyway I went in and changed every single product in the TMH Zazzle store. Geesh! That's shobiz.
The new and improved Ben Sherman Guitar website just went live! It has been in the works for over a year. I started my page designs in January, and then in March my health once again took a nose dive. I did not have the energy to work on this huge project until this October. So lately every moment we have had to sit side by side late into the wee vampire hours of our day, my hubby and I were cranking out each page and working out the bugs.
As an artist I have to admit the inspiration for the makeover of the BSG website is due to two talented men. The first is my loving husband, and my artistic Muse, Ben Sherman. Playing classical guitar, acoustic guitar, electric classic rock, jazz fusion, teaching and writing a book, his talent is awesome. I never tire of all the various ways I can showcase my Ben with my own artistic vision, whether it is by taking photographs at gigs, videoing him in a band, designing promo and merchandise, or creating artwork featuring the Shermanator! So of course he deserved my very best effort when creating a website to promote his outstanding musical endeavors. Unfortunately he had to wait out my health issues for most of the year. Actually the delay made me revisit some of my early designs and make some revisions. Artists are never satisfied.
I wanted to create for Ben a platform that expresses his commitment to excellence with a richly textured website full of images that would be a visual treat to the viewer. So the second man who inspired the overall look of the website is Jerry Jones of Shadowhouse Creations, someone I have never met. Jerry's texture collection constantly wows me, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase what can be done with his textures. Additionally Jerry's personal digital art gallery is stunning, and even Jerry's personal artwork certainly influenced two of the digital art pieces I added to Ben's new photo gallery. You can see one I created at the top of this post. I truly hope you visit the Shadowhouse Creations gallery so you can enjoy Jerry's intriguing artistic world.
Some of my website background designs for BSG were created using various Shadowhouse textures and then using Photoshop blend modes multiple times. Other textures were used just as Jerry created them, as I felt they were totally captivating just as they were made. Amazingly Jerry is a generous soul who gives you the use of his textures freely, as long as you use them in your artwork, do not sell them, or claim them as your own. Those of us who follow and respect Jerry are very protective of him ...so don't mess with his rules.
When Ben and I created his former BSG website in 2008 I was just struggling to learn digital design on the little Paint Shop Pro that came with the computer. I have learned so much since then about using Photoshop that I was very excited to dig into this website makeover. Ben actually does all the coding for the BSG website so he is the one who makes the magic happen that I have in my head! We truly are partners together and that is so cool. I guess you can tell Ben is my soul mate, and I am his number one fan. Although Ben has some other long time music fans that would dispute that fact with me! hah!
We added a beautiful new photo gallery and video gallery to the new website. In addition to gig photos, there are retro photos from Ben's musical past, (you know...the ones with the funny hair like below) as well as digital artwork I created for fun. (see the artwork at the bottom of this post) There are also newly released videos of Ben, including one I requested myself as I really wanted him to release the song called 'Cliffs Of Dover.' The Video was taken with Hectic Red during the 20th anniversary show. This is the same song he was playing on stage the night we re-met and I had said to myself, "Oh yes he will be mine!" I just felt the connection to him immediately through his music. It is the stuff of dreams.
The reason I have not been posting very much is we have been working our butts off on the new BSG website... so I hope you will take the time to check it out! Let me know what you think!
I am still in here...you know... inside your computer......
Isn't that where we all are?
Quite happy here... creating. That is what keeps me going...the love of creation and seeing what comes through after the spark of an idea. I love playing with all the new things I am learning.Emo Phillips once said to me..."Crystal I see right through you!" (Brilliant!) I am taking a moment to look out to you, and say that I have not been posting on this blog because I am inside this mysterious place working on a huge art project. I am redesigning my husbands secret new website. It is like working on 15 pieces of art at once, and there is not much time for anything else. I do not use templates, so all the pages are pieces of art I create digitally just for the website. I have eleven web pages finished, and I am feeling really good about how everything is looking. Then there are the pages I re-do, because new ideas take over during the process...and that is usually a good thing. My wonderful Ben is working on writing the code for the website in between doing taxes. I must say both things cause grumbling and gurgling sounds at times!
Eventually I will come to the photo editing part for the photo gallery page and that will be a large project in itself! Although when I am done I will have more pics for my new Flickr account. Oh I forgot to announce...."Hey! I have a new 'The Painting Queen' Flickr account!"
Anyway just wanted to peek out to Blogville and say hello! I am hoping to squeeze in a colorful post next week that I had started a few weeks ago.It's magical! Got to go bake up some Cini-buns to keep my sweetie cheerful during tax time! See ya! For realz!
Credits: Artwork Copyright 2011 by Crystal Sherman/Crystal Visions Art
There is a new band in town, a 'Steely Dan' Tribute band named 'Technicolor Motor Home' and they are truly amazing! It was due to this new band that I was inspired to create this funky digital collage art piece called 'Oh Those Babylon Sisters!' Constantly for weeks,I had an earworm in my head singing "Babylon sisters...shake it!" Anyone who knows the song may recognize some of the symbolism from the lyrics in the image. I had a fun time creating this artwork, even though right now the earworm is starting up again singing, "You got to shake it baby. You got to shake it baby. Shake it!" Yes, I certainly foresee more song inspired artwork to come! Ideas are already formin' in me head! (Click images to view larger, then hit back button.) (Credits for collage elements I used at bottom of post.)
If you live in the Maryland area 'Technicolor Motor Home' is a must see event! Wowie Zowie! The excitement for this powerful 10 piece band was felt by everyone at their incredible debut performance at the Recher Theater in Towson Maryland Feb 25.
When you listen and watch the video's posted down below of the bands premier performance you will not believe that they only had a few rehearsals, due to snow and ice storms occurring every time a rehearsal was scheduled. 'Technicolor Motor Home' persevered by drawing on the mechanized hum of another world. And now I can have more crazy fun playing with motor home images like the one below! I see a trend happening....
The success of their debut performance is a sign of the supreme musicianship and talent recruited for this band by the perennially barefooted Glenn Workman, who put this project together. Glenn plays keyboards, and sings most of the songs in their repertoire.
Steely Dan music is difficult and challenging to learn, because of the deep jazz influences and constant changes occurring during each song. You really need to know your stuff to do this material correctly. The musicians in 'Technicolor Motor Home' are well known as some of the best in Maryland, and you will see many smiles in the crowd for 'Technicolor Motor Home', as they really do justice to these great songs. As amazing as this band is now, it is going to get even better!
The horn section of the band is powerful and adds a fullness to the sound, recreating the Steely Dan songs as they were meant to be played. During the concert the hard core Steely Dan fans appreciated the sound created by Jim McFalls on Trombone, Dave Makowiecki on Trumpet, and Barry Caudill on Saxophone.
The backup singers Meg Murray and Kelly Butcher provide the authentic details that this music requires.
Mark St. Pierre on drums, and Anthony Setola on bass, play the perfect Steely Dan riffs and rhythms.
Ben Sherman and Bryan Ewald, both incredible guitarists, add the spark to the infamous Steely Dan guitar solos. Along with playing lead guitar Ben Sherman also sings lead vocals on some SD songs.
This is the band to see in Baltimore! Keep an eye on the 'Technicolor Motor Home' schedule for the word is out on this powerhouse band!
'Oh Those Babylon Sisters!' are ready to rock and highly recommend you enjoy the following two videos of 'Technicolor Motor Home' Live!
Note: This is only the second time I tried using a hand held video device which is Kodak's version of a Flip. I think the visual quality is pretty good for web. The sound is from the live mixing board at 'The Recher Theater' by Keith Nachodsky. Next time I hope to try out the zoom button! (For anyone who may not know, the awesome guitarist Ben Sherman is the Painting Queen's King! Love to hear him play!!!)
Credits: Photos and videos by Crystal Sherman, Babylon Sisters Artwork Copyright 2011 by Crystal Sherman/Crystal VisionsArt Elements used in digital collage:Tumble Fish Studios - (Jubilant, Ethereal, Splendor),Rasberry RoadDesigns - (Domestic Goddess, Grungy Alpha), Deviant Scrap- (Beth Rimmer (Romance), Finecrafted Designs (Zetti Revamp) Holliewood Studios (Random Alpha) SherrieJD (License Letters), Texture:Shadowhouse Creations - (Odds and Ends)
