It’s creepy, it’s crazy, it’s Billy Kheel! Seriously, Billy has been freaking us out on Gothtober for years now. Every year, without fail, Gothtober’s headquarters has a slight chill of anticipation/trepidation before we open Billy’s files to see what may be inside. His work is always impeccably rendered, always unpredictable. Here’s hoping you’re ready to rock out, because Billy’s piece this year is a weird and catchy music video dedicated to tanning beds, firearms, monsters and suspicious activities.
This is Lenore Colina’s very first Gothtober piece in her whole entire life, and danged if it didn’t give us the heebie-jeebies. Come on, we’ve been here seven years now—this is our 8th—and we’ve seen a lot of creepy stuff!
But shiver-me-pumpkins, this might really unnerve your senses with its attention to detail and luscious collection of footwear.
Let’s just say that if you like shoes, you’re going to love Day 17, and if you like blood… you’ll like it even more.
She’s also just lots of fun, and this piece proves it! Watch the magical musical shapes twirl and swirl to a jugband tune from the olden days, and then… when you’re done watching it, you should watch it again. Stuff is always interesting when it’s coming from all sides; you just never know what’s coming next in this little ditty, and I must say, its charm and mischief warms the cockles of my heart. When I light the candles, put on the spooky record and wait for the kids to come trick-or-treating, I’ll be thinking of the crisp fall weather and this enchanting orange animation.
Meet Fangerson, Squish, Noodle, Trungpa, Zoe, Diabla, Pierre: a parade of baby monsters and their teacher, Mrs. Cuttlefish! Stephanie Abler brings us a very special hand-illustrated treat. You’ll see a wonderful cartoon portfolio scrolling the story of active little individuals having a day at school. Remember: while little monsters may be hard to understand, or may freak you out or make you feel weird, they just want to go to school like anyone else.
This piece was drawn completely by hand, using good ol’fashioned paper, brushes and ink. Read more about Stephanie’s process in creating this tableau of fall schooltime fun on her blog. And you can see more of Stephanie’s work at StephanieAbler.com
Break out the FunDip and the Lick’m’Aide, because as usual, Monica Howe is back with an Atomic Fireball of a music video piece called “Come On, Taste My Rainbow.” It just isn’t’ Halloween without candy, so Monica thought she’d send a siren song to your sweet tooth to signal the season!
Cheezy alliteration aside, you might get a cavity if you watch this more than 5 times, and with the electric stylings of musician/producer, Josh Fielstra at the helm, it’s only going to get sweeter. Look closely at Monica’s nails: each nail has been carefully painted with a TINY RAINBOW from the adroit skills of an extremely patient and caring manicurist in Downtown Los Angeles.
This, and many other strange and sugary distractions and details is the video’s real achievement. In addition to the fabulous rainbow-poof-hairpiece-performance lies engaging lyrics written by Howe, such as “I caught you in my tractor beam of Haribos and Jujubees” and “I got you in my sight, my marshmallow delight.”
That said, after watching this, should you scarf an entire gallon of candy corn or caramel apples and wake up remembering nothing… you can blame it on Come on, Taste My Rainbow.
Lush Newton has graced Gothtober for many years now with her classic cut-and-color crafts. This year, the craft is boombox related, for the Story of the Haunted Boom Box, read this, and then act out the story with these crazy haunted breakdancing puppets!
Lush works as a designer and illustrator and was recently voted Best Visual Artist in Humboldt County by the readers of the Northcoast Journal for 2010.
Newton shows annually at Arts Alive! and Arts Arcata.(If you’re in Humboldt February-March 2011 come to First Street Gallery, in Eureka. Lush has somethin’ BIG planned. You will HAVE TO SEE TO BELIEVE!)
Accompanying Lush Newton’s piece is original music by Brooklyn based musician Jason Rabinowitz, who you can find in the Wall Street Journal this week!
Vampires, zombies and… headphones? Oh My! Today’s treat is six new drawings by Nyssa Oru, Gothtober’s youngest independent artist, accompanied by the sticky black goth tunes of Josh Fielstra.
Nyssa’s been drawing most of her life, and we’re thrilled that she offered to make 6 brand new never before seen pieces for the calendar. They are of a romantic/musical nature, in keeping with this year’s loose theme.
Nyssa is a high school art student, and wishes she owned a tarantula named Bob. Her Mom’s not really into gigantic hairy arachnid-type creatures, however, so it’ll have to wait for now.
Trying to come up with something edibly creative has been the challenge for the SloCooking crew these past few years. This year was no different, with the added challenge of working with a music theme!
But never fear – zombies arise and musical chocolate was created – much to the joy of the four-year-old in the house.
Today’s film is a technological tour de force in countdown calendar films. You can watch Cristin Pescosolido’s film “Swifty and the Atomo-Flora” in 3-D! All you need are a pair of the classic red and greenish/bluish glasses, and you can see the eye-popping action fly out at you!
Shot with an HD 3-D camcorder, observe what happens when a visitor from another planet decides to visit our earth!
The bright, pumpkin-colored costume is off of Tom Swift and His Subocean Geotron. To create “Swifty,” Cristin used orange kite fabric and an excel spreadsheet to help calculate the roundness of each piece of fabric to make an inflatable sphere. Cristin sewed the costume together. Air intakes at the bottom of the suit help fans that sit in mesh pockets within the geotron.
You also might notice that the film has only ONE actor, and that’s not a typo. Using her mad digital-compositing skills, Cristin duplicated Jennifer Howard (in the white hazmat suit) running out of the tunnel approximately 7 – 8 times to get the desired effect of a gang of people running. Jen Howard plays Swifty as well.
Chris Morgan, composer, says “I just started playing around with ideas for fun, and ended up with the following, which incorporates elements such as an homage to the dire straits “money for nothing” drum fill, cyber-stripper doo-wop music, police radios and the swiss-made hang drum.”
Gothtober Fun Fact: You can find Swifty’s earlier adventures behind DOOR 2 of both Gothtober 2005 and 2006 in the archives.
Jessica Hlavac is DAY 1 of this year’s Gothtober, and I’ll tell you why:
One day, Jessica told me she was having an art opening, so I decided to check it out, and GEE WHIZ, I had no idea that Jessica makes TINY SCULPTURES!
I mean tiny. I mean, like… did she sculpt that with her eyelashes?!? Tiny.
Look at that ice cream cone, it is sitting in a spoon. The spoon has room to spare.And then, check out this sushi plate: it’s sitting on a QUARTER. This fish will not satiate your hunger, but it will be a feast for your eyes… get out the magnifying glass!
Jessica’s piece celebrates Gothtober in a cheerful and unexpected way, she even had a few squashed specimens in trying to make her movie. Squash… har-de-har. “The Pumpkin” is perfectly expertly magically weirdly fun, and we’re extremely proud to have Jessica start this year’s Gothtober.
If you’d like to find out more, you can visit Jessica’s site I’m so Tiny and also visit her Etsy Store where she sells limited edition prints of her work, and if you don’t see that perfect food you love in miniature form, you can request custom items!
Mini Sashimi
Gothtober artist fun fact: Jessica made a cameo appearance as a pumpkin patch tour guide in Sebastian Johnson’s DAY 22 of Gothtober 2004.
It’s creepy, it’s crazy, it’s Billy Kheel! Seriously, Billy has been freaking us out on Gothtober for years now. Every year, without fail, Gothtober’s headquarters has a slight chill of anticipation/trepidation before we open Billy’s files to see what may be inside. His work is always impeccably rendered, always unpredictable. Here’s hoping you’re ready to rock out, because Billy’s piece this year is a weird and catchy music video dedicated to tanning beds, firearms, monsters and suspicious activities.
This is Lenore Colina’s very first Gothtober piece in her whole entire life, and danged if it didn’t give us the heebie-jeebies. Come on, we’ve been here seven years now—this is our 8th—and we’ve seen a lot of creepy stuff!
DAY 16 
Lush Newton has graced Gothtober for many years now with her classic cut-and-color crafts. This year, the craft is boombox related, for the Story of the Haunted Boom Box, read this, and then act out the story with these crazy haunted breakdancing puppets!
