I’ve been working on this for a few days and I’ve got it just right. I’ve still got to rerecord vocals and polish the instruments but Nuts And Berries will definitely be available in later fall for y’all to listen to. Until then, here’s the album artwork.
Thanks for visiting my blog and site!
@joeybroyles
Inevitably, no matter what you do, someone, somewhere will hate what you are doing. Isn’t that the most negative thing you’ve ever heard? Well you cannot let it get in the way of what you do with your life and I will not let the negativity of social media get in my way ever again! So what! Just rebuke those negative thoughts and say, “This is what I’m gonna do and if it’s too much for you, so what!”
Officially, I am letting go of the things that have held me down or made me fear myself or my own success. I, myself have found that I can be so negative and it is annoying. I’m letting go! Goodbye negativity because I rebuke you and all that you’ve done to me in my life. Will there still be angry people? Will there still be bloggers/commentators who hate my work? Will they try to knock you down? The answer is yes to all, but it doesn’t matter! Let it go!
I’m moving forward and letting everything go. Every little grudge. Over it.
“Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, “So what.” That’s one of my favorite things to say. “So what.” -Andy Warhol
A lot has happened this year and I’d like to make this my first year in review: a look back on my personal life from 2010.
ANDY WARHOL
2010 started with a wonderful trip to Milwaukee where I got to see some of Andy Warhol’s paintings at the Milwaukee Art Museum. That was very much a high light of my year just because Andy is one of my heroes. Later in the year I began to dabble in silk screen printing and now have completed several acrylic paintings. Looking forward to much more of that side of me next year.
LADY GAGA
In the beginning of the year I was super depressed because Lady Gaga had all sold out concerts in my area. Then Gaga had some rescheduling conflicts for her Chicago shows and the tickets went on resale. Unfortunately I was unable to get any tickets for those shows. But lucky for me she decided to do a 2nd leg of the tour and my wish came true. So I purchased four tickets to the Milwaukee, WI show and the rest is history. Going to that concert was unlike any concert I ever experienced. I will never be the same and I have Lady Gaga to thank. Can’t wait for her new album Born This Way in the new year!
THE WEDDING
There have been many ups and downs in my life but this moment was a beautiful day. Everything about this day was magical and just the way it should have been. Glad that Danny and I got to share our special day with so many wonderful people. I’ve been with Danny seven years now and every day is a little different. We have our ups and downs but I always feel safe and I always feel loved no matter what. Biggest high light of the year!
ACID REFLUX AND OTHER FUN ISSUES
Health was definitely in the main front of my mind this year. From the health care bill getting passed to discovering new problems in my own health. Learning that I could no longer eat the same amounts of food and having to cut back on other things really forced me to look at my eating habits. Finding out that I have acid reflux wasn’t terrible. It was refreshing to know the reason why I was wheezing at night was acid reflux. So you take a pill or just don’t have that spicy burrito and then: all is good.
Eye related issues and unknown skin allergies? Still not really certain where these things come from. I have this gooey discharge coming out of my eyes: white and stringy like snot or mucous. My eye doctor says it’s white blood cell discharge and we assume it’s an allergy towards something in my house or my cat. Nothing $100 allergy eye drops can’t stop. Went through changing contacts and not wearing them for months only to find out the junk was still there. Directly or indirectly I also have sensitive skin around the eyes where my eye lids get super red and then eventually flake. Nothing a little Cortizone 10 can’t stop, I’d hate to see me in 10 years. We’ll be watching that very closely for sure.
ARTWORK OF ALL KINDS
In January I started by creating these digital illustrations of celebrities and friends and then I got really involved in it. I did not do as much video, photography, or composition of music this year. But I really got in touch with a side of me that for a long time I believed I had no business in. Growing up several art teachers had taught me that I wasn’t worth teaching because they didn’t think I had the talent. To be fair to my art teachers I was in a different place in grade school and maybe it’s best that I didn’t blossom until now. I have my new house to thank for allowing this world to blossom further into silk screen printing, acrylic painting, and other mediums. I have even sold a few pieces of my artwork on etsy.com and to one lady. Still hoping to have some sort of gallery in October 2011.
My favorite silk screen I've done, thus far.
OUR FIRST HOME
For Danny and I this was a very important step in our lives. We had the go ahead from our financial advisers to go ahead and start looking. Well, we found one in a very short period of time. We have been living there since April and it has been a great joy owning a home. Of course we’ve done a lot to it ourselves to make it ours but that’s what owning a home is all about.
2 CARS ENTER AND NO CAR LEAVES
I had my 1989 Bonneville for 6 years when it decided to kill itself. We got me a new car, a 2001 Chevy Impala. And with the Impala that I had my first major accident. Failure to stop at an intersection. Terrible day for me that I do not want to relive. What I’m still grateful for is that all parties are OK. Lucky for me insurance bought me another car, a less sporty, and more reliable car: an Oldsmobile. Been driving very safe and even more attentive since then.
BETTY WHITE EVERYWHERE and MS. RUE
I have this ability to feel closer to a celebrity and with the Golden Girls I’ve always been so in love with them all. Betty White got a lot of attention this year and that made me very happy like a little kid who gets the toy they want in their happy meal. Sadly it was also a fateful year for Betty to be the last one standing. Ms. Rue passed away and I was so sad about it. I’m so happy to know she and all the girls will live on in film forever. Betty, I love you and to the other girls, I love you too. Many life lessons were taught to me at 10:30 pm growing up watching the Golden Girls and Designing Women before bed. Good shows!
No one ever makes me laugh like the girls!
Now that it’s the end of the year and I must make the list of New Year’s Resolutions. Last year I made goals that were somewhat easy and hard to accomplish. One goal for certain I accomplished: Having 100 videos on my YouTube channel!
BEST MOVIE: INCEPTION.
I’m trying to teach myself the art of silk screen printing. This is a series blog about the obstacles, the lessons, the knowledge and the skills I hope to possess by the end of my journey. Take what you will out of this and to other accomplished screen printers feel free to share your wealth of knowledge on the subject.
Previous entry: Part One
Since the last entry I’ve accomplished several new things: screen printing two different designs, discovering what mistakes incurred using the screen filler and drawing fluid, and making a better screen. Below are the successful prints I made from the haphazard Andy Warhol character silk screen.
Notice the hair does not print, along with the lips and nose.
As you may have noticed Andy’s hair does not print in full nor does his hair, eyes, lips, nose. The reason for this goes back to the mistake I made when applying the screen filler and drawing fluid. Originally I thought the the trouble started from my actual sketch from pencil to the screen, but I was wrong. (I do encourage you not to press hard when applying your sketch or tracing on the screen.) Let’s review where I went wrong. When painting with the drawing fluid make sure that the fluid fills into the screen. You can check by holding your screen in front of a light source. If you see little pinholes go back and lightly fill those in. I say lightly because when you put the drawing fluid on too thick you may have trouble when applying the screen filler. In my case I painted too lightly on some sections like the lips and too thick in other sections such as the eyes.
Now onto the next part where I went wrong: too much screen filler! Now the screen I’m using comes in a kit made by Speedball which you can find at your local art shop or online shopping. I have the 10 x 14 screen and so far it has been good to me. When preparing the application of your screen filler don’t be afraid to apply a large line of filler horizontally above your design, if you cut yourself short I can tell you what happens. When you take your squeegee and slide it vertically down over your design you are to do one swipe and one swipe only to cover your design! Try not to miss a section, swiping it a second time risks washing out your design. Which is exactly what happened to me my first time.
The ghostly image. The haze!
Reclaiming your one and only screen was a pain and I’m not going to lie. First of all nowhere in my awesome book or slew of bookmarked websites was there an explanation on how to reclaim your silk screen. After some hard core research I found some suggestions. Get a spray bottle and some bleach. Fill the bottle with one part bleach and two parts water. Get your screen wet with water and then spray the screen with your bleach solution. Let it soak for five minutes and then agitate with a nylon scrub brush, do this on both sides. Then blast the screen with your high pressure hose in a downward position. Soak again and repeat. Honestly I did not like doing it this way, so I’ll let you know that I’m looking to buy some sprays that with eat away at the emulsion a little faster next time. I did find this helpful video that gave me the idea… Helpful video.
So after I removed the Andy stencil and all its glory I was annoyed to still see him stuck on my screen. Now this is called haze and there is a product out there that removes the haze from your screen. I’m looking to buy it myself later this year: Enviro Haze Remover. However, it’s just a haze and will not interfere with your next design. As long as you can see through the other side I wouldn’t worry about it.
With my next design I was more prepared and took into consideration all the mistakes I made. I’m very happy to report that this next design washed through perfectly but that doesn’t mean I didn’t discover a whole new set of mistakes. Don’t worry this is an awesome hands on learning process that gets me away from long hours in front a computer screen!
As I said, all things went through fine but just wait until I got clever with where I put the ink. Traditionally just as you put the screen filler horizontally above your design, you also do the same with your ink. Don’t get too creative unless you are looking to make unwanted errors. As I was printing I noticed that I was losing ink down by the words “fashion icon.” I decided to put some ink in between the lips and the words as an extra buffer. Well once the swipe was complete I got a big shadow of lips and letters as pictured below:
Notice the middle print. Very thick, almost shadow like.
Now remember, in between prints, you should run your squeegee over the screen lightly in order to properly flood the screen, otherwise the ink will dry inside the screen.
When I’m printing I feel as though I don’t get enough time before the screen is just done doing its job. I was reading my awesome book, which I highly recommend: Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens by Lena Corwin, and it says to use Ink Retarder. Ink Retarder prolongs the drying process and gives you more work time. Next print I’ll totally be prepared, keep those fingers crossed!
Where To Buy Stencil Remover?
Stencil Remover
The GOAL: In one year’s time my friends and I will be opening at some gallery, at some time, late next year. The theme of this gallery is: I AM FAMOUS, depicting all aspects of fame,literally and abstract, in a mixed media format. Fashion meets art meets something yet to be discovered. Tabloids, Warholisms, and anything else that depicts this world where we are obsessed with FAME. Being that we are fameaholics I see this as a great opportunity to take a journey and see where we go. This is an ideal opportunity to collaborate, create, and spread the word about this century’s new factory.
If you want to get involved with this project and live near Madison, WI please reply to this post.
Also looking for models to pose for photos and possibly involve them in a larger project for next year. Let us know.
-Joey Broyles
I want to let everyone know that this weekend I had a blast having a very unique birthday party. I wanted a masquerade birthday, but with the flair of Lady Gaga’s crazy style. So we had what I called: LORD JOEY’S GAGA MASQUERADE BIRTHDAY BASH and it was so fun.
The invitations.
Redesigning my apartment was probably the most fun! I covered the walls in random sayings or lyrics that Lady Gaga sings or says. I did a lot of that “Pop ate my heart” and “Pop ate my brain” stuff from her video shorts that she has used in concerts. Imagine an entire apartment living room covered with Gagaisms. “I want your psycho” covered a lot of one wall. I made these creepy hot pink hearts with ventricles and I even made a paper brain and stuck it to the ceiling. I covered my mirror with a sheet of black lace and painted words on the mirror like “DRAMA” and “VERTIGO” and “ROMANCE”. I will try and take pictures, before my boyfriend has me take it all down.
When people arrived to the masquerade I had a sign that said “Welcome to the Masquerade” and I had bright work lights in front of the door. When you opened the door everyone got blinded by the lights! For the fashion part we had this large 6 foot painting that I threw a white sheet over so we could take pictures in front of a background. We also had a camera setup that stayed in one spot and randomly took pictures throughout the evening.
Of course I had every Lady Gaga song, some of her unknowns and import singles as well. For every fourth Lady Gaga song played I did throw a couple of other pop songs in, so people wouldn’t be overwhelmed. I also made many weird mini films of my own that played silently on the t.v. along with her music videos and some of her “Pop ate my heart” and “Pop ate my brain” videos and some Andy Warhol videos as well. I really wanted the party to feel like an exhibit, if you will, of Lady Gaga. I made it themed and visually covered my apartment in her world of pop culture, fashion, music, and performance art.
On to costumes. People were so clever with their outfits and masks and makeup and even their facial attachments. I was very impressed and proud of my friends! I’ll be sure to post lots of those pictures as well!
I, myself, wore a collaboration of her looks for the evening. I liked the look of the hair from her Paparazzi video and the lipstick. But I loved her Maison Michel bunny ears so much that I made my own. For the rest of the look I really liked her “Pop ate my heart” video. I wore a black vinyl vest over a black hoodie and when you unzipped my hoodie it revealed that pop, indeed, ate my heart! I switched back and forth from the Mickey Mouse looking sunglasses and the Maison Michel inspired bunny ears throughout the evening.
For one of my presents I received an awesome Marilyn Monroe wig from my friend Kelly, so at one point her and I left the room and switched me out of my wig into the Marilyn. I came back into the room carrying a boom box that played Bad Romance. I swung my disco stick(eBay) and made everyone join in the “fashion train” as I lip synced her song! Then we had my delicious hot pink cake and played some fun games! All in all Lady Gaga really inspired me to have an awesome birthday party!
Tomorrow is my actual birthday and I will be 26! Hope I can manage to be as amazing and famous as Lady Gaga!
If you’d like to see pictures you can see them on my FACEBOOK Page as well: Lady Gaga Masquerade
For the last two months I’ve been having issues walking in and out of stores because I thought my new phone was setting the alarms off.
Yesterday, Danny and I went to the mall. Our first stop was Barnes & Noble Bookstore. When we walked through the door I set the alarm off. Immediately,without looking around, I feel embarrassed. I imagine massive amounts of people looking at me and pointing, “He stole something!” I then ask you how can I steal something if I haven’t even walked through your door yet? I just shrugged and say quietly to anyone who may or may not care, which no one does care, “…It’s my new phone. It sets off alarms.”
So we look around and we go towards the media area. Here I will have to walk through another alarm and set it off, yet it again. I walk through and suddenly, “Beep!!!”
The lady putting cds away says, “Hi there.” And I pretend that it was nothing.
Danny and I look around some more and I see some movies I’ve been dying to buy from now until the rest of my life. Basquiat with David Bowie as Andy Warhol. Huge fan of the YouTube clips of this movie! Want this movie. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, of all the Disney movies, I’ve never owned this one.
Out we walk from the media area and guess what happens on my way out? BEEP! BEEP!
A thousand people, I feel, are now looking and pointing at me thinking I stole something! “You over there! I don’t believe that your phone has set off the alarm! Pull your pants down and lets see what you are hiding!” I swear to God! It sucks, in this particular situation, to be the center of attention!
So quite, manically, I say to the lady, “I think my phone keeps setting off these alarms can I try and figure out for sure what it is?”
She doesn’t seem to mind. So I walk my coat through and no beeps. Then I have Danny walk my phone through. No beeps.
“It’s okay,” she says. “You don’t need to take your clothes off.”
By this point I do indeed have a rather small audience watching me. At this point I really could care less. I proceed to think, “maybe it’s my belt, that’s metal.” I wave it through and there are no beeps!
I walk through and I of course beep. Please somebody please deactivate me, so that I can shop like a normal person again! Sure I’m making a huge ass of myself, but you know, when you set off every alarm in every store you shop at for two months, you start to wonder!
The nice lady says, “Sometimes it’s your wallet. They put those tags in your wallet and sometimes they forget to deactivate them.” She looks a little less worried now that I’ve retrieved my coat covered in Twilight memorabilia buttons, my belt now back around my waist and my scarf back around my neck.
I take my wallet and give it to Danny and he walks through and the alarm goes off. We tell her thank you and proceed towards the exit into the food court. Boy, do I ever need some comfort food, for two reasons: I’m hungry and I just made a huge ass of myself. As we walk out of Barnes & Noble I set off the other alarm. BEEP! The army awaits to arrest me in the food court for stealing the invisible book from Barnes & Noble Bookstore!
Well! Today I emptied out my wallet and all of it’s contents and I did not find anything attached to my wallet. I did find a little magnetic strip that attaches to sunglasses at your local Target. That cute square thing that is almost impossible to take off your sunglasses, because it’s so damn sticky? Yes that thing! That little thing that measures 1.5 sq inches… THAT LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT? Yes! That’s what has been setting off the alarms! It got stuck to the back of my debit card and has been wreaking havoc for the last two months! Well no more!
Such a small thing. To cause such big drama in my life!
These sunglasses have caused so many problems! But I still love them!
This year for Halloween I will be Andy Warhol. Young Andy Warhol from about 1966 or so. Can’t wait! Here’s a preview of my costume:
And some other fun Halloween photos with the help of Photoshop and Photo Booth on my new iMac! Yay!
Have a safe and scary All Hallow's Eve!
I thought after my last post, we’d lighten things up a bit. I will, however start with, yes I met my biological mother, and it wasn’t a traumatic experience. It’s cool to have met her, and we’ll see where we go from here. And now on to videos…
And now I must finish reading this book, I’ve got less than 100 pages!
p.s. Have you seen my new coat? I bought it at Target. No sightings of Target Boy. Did I make him disappear? I hope so, lol! It’s not completely identical, but if you want identical you’ll be paying shit loads of money on eBay!
Edward Cullen Coat at Target Fall 2009!
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG, FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER Joey Broyles.
