The Raven

Happy Halloween!  Here's a video of our band's annual performance of "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, from our party on Saturday night.  Enjoy!

Buckman - live now! + How I painted my display stand and other news

The 20th Annual Buckman Art Show and Sell opened last night and is going on today until 5:00 pm!
Buckman Arts Focus Elementary School

320 Southeast 16th Avenue

Portland, OR 97214

30% of sales support the school's arts programs!

Here's a new sign I made for my table:

(I'm actually not there because we had a show last night and a friend visiting from out of town and many things to do at home and in the studio!)

Here is what my table looked like after I set it up yesterday morning:

I can't believe I found time to paint the display stand for the pinwheels...it actually only took a couple of hours and I'm really glad I did it. Here are a couple shots of the process:



I painted it bright yellow with leftover paint from my kitchen, then drew the design with a black Sharpie Paint Pen.

Then, I painted it in with acrylics and touched up the outline with more Sharpie after the paint dried. I think it turned out great!





In other news! The order of 48 pinwheels for Uncommon Goods is just about done - all I have to do is paint the wooden knobs and wrangle some shipping pallets. I have volunteers lined up from Steps to Success to help with the packing and shipping, and we'll be using the facility at Trillium for that.

I'll have some pieces in the next Amazed event, a truly amazing installation (the theme is "Music") at the High Point Market, which is the world's largest home design show. I'll be making a bunch of clocks and have plans to create a large room divider made from painted mandala records connected together.

Some of my cuffs are now available from Canadian web retailer Modern Vintage Attic. You can read an interview with me on the site's blog here.



My clocks (carried by Buy Green) are currently being featured on the home page of the brand new eBay Green Shopping Hub.

Here's a quick photo from our show last night at O'Malley's with Cootie Platoon and Muddy River Nightmare Band (You can see more photos here.) Check out our band Dartgun & the Vignettes on facebook and become a fan, why dontcha?

Next gig is Chuck's annual Smash at the Ash, April 9 at the Ash Street. We'll be rocking with Junior's Gang, Hairspray Blues, and 48 Thrills. We have some fun surprises planned too. See you there, Portland!

News from the band

This is a collection of some of my favorite photos taken of Dartgun & the Vignettes over the last few months.

Please check us out on facebook and become a fan! We're currently #17 on the Reverbnation Rock Charts for Portland. We also have some videos you can enjoy on youtube, and as always, you can be our friend on myspace!

In case you're wondering, I used picnik to edit these photos.

Our next show is this Friday night, February 12, at Kelly's Olympian, 426 SW Washington St. Hope you can make it.

Crafty Wonderland, New Pinwheels, & Sinferno Cabaret this Sunday!

Come see me in lucky booth #113 Sunday at Crafty Wonderland's Super Collossal Holiday Sale! 11 am - 7 pm at the Oregon Convention Center.

Sunday, December 13th
11am - 7pm
at the Oregon Convention Center - Hall D
777 NE MLK Jr. Blvd in Portland
All Ages and Free Admission!

You will know me by the display of spinning mandala pinwheels! The pinwheels have been full redesigned with help from our friend Mark "Mad Dog" Danielson, the engineer. Mark modified the design with new moving parts to create the best quality spinning action. The design has being improved to include a precision bearing mounted at the pinwheel center to improve product life longevity, ease of rotation and smoother operation of wheel. Basically, they spin like crazy. I mean they just keep spinning and spinning forever. It is the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Here are some photos of the new pinwheels. I actually made these as samples at the request of Uncommon Goods, who may be ordering them for their summer catalog! More on that when there's more to report...







And here's a video!



I can't wait to have them all spinning in my booth at Crafty Wonderland tomorrow!

And as if that isn't enough excitement for one day...Dartgun & the Vignettes will be playing the Sinferno Cabaret at Dante's Sunday night. The music starts at 9:00 with our friends Hello Cleveland (Chris Haberman's band). Haberman is one of my most favorite artists in the world, and here is the rad poster he designed for the show:
By the by, we have a new drummer and her name is Hurricane Kelly!



So there you have it. Tomorrow shall rock. Hope to see you!

First Thursday with Urbana

On First Thursday of this month, I set up a table outside of Activspace where Kristin (aka Urbana) has her pottery studio. Here she is posing with the Oregonian article that featured her back in April.
Did I mention that Ms. Urbana is now in the band? She's replacing Emie, who replaced Kat, as the third Vignette in Dartgun & the Vignettes. This is a good thing. I've known Kristin for years in the local crafty community and am super excited to rock out with her. (She's a belly dancer too!)

Oh, by the way - we now have a facebook fan page for the band, please become a fan at http://facebook.com/dartgunandthevignettes.

Here's what our little First Thursday set-up looked like. Kristin's friend Ashley, a jewelry artist, was also there and we did a trade - I got an awesome necklace made from a vintage map of Amsterdam.
Here's some of Kristin's cool pottery:

Tender Loving Empire was having a party too, with live music.
Also, there was the added attraction of Emily Hemeyer from Spore Gallery, "a transient DIY exhibition space."
Kristin got one of her pieces:
Emily set up a tent with a black light inside it and a table with this amazing mandala on it - made from all kinds of nifty found objects, bones, and such.
...and she even performed some interesting vocal work!