Gil Elvgren Lecture

I had the opportunity to check out a lecture at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul given by Sarahjane Blum-Murphy last night. The event was called History of Hip: Minnesota Naughty? Sarahjane is an expert on American pin-ups and is co-owner of Grapefruit Moon Gallery. She focused on Gil Elvgren, one of the most recognizable pin-up artists and illustrators of his time. The lecture also began with a history of Munsingwear advertising from Susan Marks.

I've liked Elvgren's art for some time. The picture on the left is one of my favorites. Playful, beautiful, brilliant colors and an interesting scene with the wind up alligator. I was happy to learn that he was from St. Paul, Minnesota, so I felt it was a privilege to be able to attend such an event in his home town. Known for his All-American, girl next door, stocking clad, "ooops" expressioned, leggy pin-ups, Elvgren was also hired for Coca-Cola among other companies to draw for their advertising campaigns. His work is most notable in the WWII era and up through the 1960's.

I was hoping there would be some original paintings of his at the lecture and there were!

"Aw-Come On" (1953) and "This Doesn't Seem To Keep The Chap From My Lips" (1948) were the original oil on canvas paintings on display along with a few vintage pin-up calendars.

Photo Shoot - Behind The Scenes

With a new album called Orbital Amusement on the way, I'm working on getting things in motion for it's release. This past weekend was a photo shoot for promotions and possibly for part of the album artwork, which is currently being created by Dan Horan. These pictures were taken by my wife Brigid.

Friday I had an appointment with Megan over at Up Six, one of the vintage stores up the street I frequent to. We had talked about the album art concept we were going for and so she pulled some clothes for me to check out in my size. My favorites were a short waisted black fur coat and a floor length black robe with gold embroidery.

Saturday my wife and I met up with the photographer Emily Utne and headed up to a small studio/office for the shots. Emily shot our Of Mind And Matter cover and I was just so happy about that picture. She's artistically creative in everything she does and gives great direction. We also share similar interests and communicate well with each other about accomplishing the looks of certian shots. Emily's done a lot of cool band press shots as well as a ton of fashion photography.

She brought in a projector so we could shoot some of the pictures with an outer space background and then we did some shots with a white backdrop. After that we hopped over to the Mall Of America and got some tickets to ride the carousel. We had to wait in line and race to the horses we thought would be best for our shots. Emily rode next to me on an ostrich and we shot as the carousel went round and round, we were going up and down and the circus music was playing along with it. Really a good time! I guess I could say it was highly "amusing?" Haha! Oh well...

Just getting some pictures back now. She got some amazing shots!