I just recently came across this very candid video interview I did at MoCCA Fest this year, by Alrick Collins, aka REDesign Qreative. I go on about Baltimore, Tex Avery, Ernesto Cabral and anatomy.
Which if you peep the viddy at :39, you can get a pretty good gander at some my own anatomy as well. ::hurr hurr hurr::
What I love is you can totally over-hear my table mate Jared telling his friend next to us about how a large percentage of people coming by to see my table are either bright-eyed girls or dirty old men.
You can see my full con report for MoCCA Fest 2011 here!
While at MoCCA Fest last month I had the pleasure of meeting Holly Wilensky, aka The Dress Recycler who is a fashion blogger for The Queens Ledger up here in NYC, as well as The Brooklyn Star, Queens Examiner, LIC/Astoria Journal, Forest Hills Times and Greenpoint Gazette! She really dug my crazy 'convention drag' and my pinup art work so we got together on the phone after the dust of MoCCA Fest had settled and I told her what I was all about for the Local Designer Spotlight!
You can see the article in these following papers:
"Paigey embodies fun, flirtatious and fabulous; a true live character who brings her designs to the public on a personal level, where people can really relate to what she is illustrating. “The lines tend to blur between my art and myself,” she said."
Yeah, I started wearing wigs again. God help us all.
This past weekend was MoCCA Fest 2011- the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art's annual fundraiser and my first con of the year. I shared a table with Jared Fletcher, my longtime pal from Kubert School! (He's got a crassly hilarious webcomic called Stranger Fictions that you should check out.) I actually wasn't going to do MoCCA this year until Jared asked if I'd wanna split a table this past fall. I'm actually really glad I did now, it was a good time and I got to hang out with friends I don't see as often and meet some supercool peeps. I even got to talk to some folks from Society of Illustrators who were interested in having my products in their gift shop! And it's there and you can purchase exclusive Paigey products there now! Icluding my lipstick cases with Bitchcraft Apparel! Society is supercool- they've had exhibitions of original pieces from JC Leyendecker and Robert Crumb, who are 2 of my favorite illustrators ever!
Before table set-up (and lipstick applied!)
Table's all set up!!
Wonder Woman on Saturday! Photo by BAS Photography
Wonder Woman LOVES kimchi! ^_^
Ooh la la! New dress and new rhinestone word ballon fascinator!!
So yeah, still not sure if I'll do MoCCA again next year or not. As far as indy-style shows go it's pretty good. And it's local. But the tables are super expensive to non-MoCCA members. It was cool to test out all my new products on an audience as well. The new glass jewelry is doing well and the stash tins are def a hit. I also am going to get my Etsy store up and running after so many people got on my back about it. I have a tabletop photo studio on order and a weekend of freedom coming up to take product shots. So keep an eye on my Etsy store for a big update. ^_^
The past few months have been somewhat tumultuous. 2011 is definitely gonna be a crazy hectic year already and for some reason I'm just *compelled* to throw in more shit to do and more things to pine over. Things like getting married, getting ready for conventions, day job disgruntlements, wanting to do more flea markets, attempts at weight loss, etc., etc. It all adds up. Oye.
So to help me deal with all this craziness, I have been CRAFTING and DRAWING like a BEAST. Idle hands are the devil's playground and all. Plus I really shine when I'M STRESSED AS ALL HELL. @__@
So what have I been doing?
As a reaction to something particularly fucked up that happened at my day job last week, I drew this little doodle of myself as Spartacus from the season finale of Spartacus: Blood and Sand (which is an awesome show that I highly recommend, especially if you like nudity, bloody battles and colorful language). Protip: Never piss of a cartoonist. Or do, if you want to see them draw crazy pictures as they deal with their internalized rage.
I'm also working on a super-deformed pic of Phil and I for our upcoming wedding celebrations that I plan on printing out as cupcake toppers and making into Shrinky Dink magnets for wedding guest favors.
I finally finished Lady Blacula, who along with Varla (the blonde vampire pinup I did last month) round out my first edition of Coffin Girls that I'm decoupaging on small craft coffins and selling as stash boxes.
They'll be $40 each. Look for them at my convention tables and on my etsy page! My original source no longer carries the craft coffins I was using, so these might be it for awhile, at least until Halloween when I'm hoping there will be more readily available.
Another sketch I was playing around with. I had an idea for a series of pics that are pinup girls with a tattoo flash vibe. Another one of those projects that I'm working on when I have a second.
Also with MoCCA coming up next weekend I'm cranking out con merch as fast as I can.
Lots of glass jewelry, including rings and necklaces; as well as lipstick cases.
Packs of temporary tattoos! 6 designs- $10 each!
Bracelets! Prolly won't have any in time for MoCCA, but def will have some in the future!
Hey! Just wanted to drop a quick line that I'll be at MoCCA Festival, the annual comics convention put on by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in NYC this year sharing a table with my friend Jared Fletcher of Studio Fantabulous!
Thursday April 8th was my FIRST EVER SIGNING at Jim Hanley's Universe in Manhattan. It was a pre-MoCCA Fest Women in Comics get-together featuring some really awesome independent female comic creators all chosen by Jim Hanley employee and awesome cartoonist in her own right Rachel 'Ronnie' Freire. I was so excited to take part in it I was the first girl to show up with merch in tow, giant shit-eating grin on my face. Lots of friends came by to show their support and it was awesome to sit alongside such amazing ladies. Hopefully next signing I'm a part of I'll actually have a comic! ;D
Friday the 9th I headed over to 192 Books on the West side with my pal game designer Christy Sawyer for Drink & Draw Like a Lady, a meet and greet for female cartoonists and creators. It was soooo crowded! Christy and I mostly just hung out in the corner, since it was shoulder to shoulder people and partook of the free wine being offered. Needless to say, we got a little tipsy.
As Christy and I were walking home we came across someone throwing away A GIANT CASIO KEYBOARD. @__@ So OBVIOUSLY we had to take pictures pretending to play it!!
Saturday and Sunday were the ACTUAL con! (I did all that before the actual con? Jeezums!)
I had a small sliver of a table (only half of a normal table- at $250 a pop that was all I could afford!) but that didn't stop me from rocking the spot. Fortunately it was on the end of an aisle, so I could set up everything on my table then sit/stand to the side. Saturday of the convention was INSANE! As a friend described, I was 'holding court' for 7 straight hours! It was so great to see so many friends and fans, it was like every time I turned around someone else was there for me to talk to. It was also exhausting! At one point when I was particularly exhausted, my friend Kyle Baker introduced me to one of my artistic idols, Jamie Hernandez, of Love & Rockets fame and what resulted was a hilariously awkward five minutes of us standing and looking at each other and nodding and smiling. I being intimidated because he's an amazing artist and creator of one of my fave comics, he being intimidated by me because I'm a foot taller than him with rather big knockers. (LOL!) By the time it was nearing the end of Saturday I was so fatigued from being so excited to talk to everyone I skipped out on the afterparty (which sounded to be a bust anyways) and just grabbed sushi and beers with Ballsy and some of my pals from DC Comics.
With some fans from SVA- they were so cute!
Me and my merch, shot by Reid Cooper
On Sunday the con calmed down a little bit, as is typical for the last day, and I had a chance to do some sketches for fans.
Disco Dazzler
Beautiful Dreamer from The New Gods
All in all I'd definitely chalk up this convention to a success, I'm still on the fence over whether or not I'll do it again next year, mostly because the tables are so expensive.
PS: If anything though this con has started to ignite some fires of initiative with me getting off my bum and getting on doing a comic. Had some great conversations with people about what I want to do and where I want to take my work that was very motivational. I ordered the book 'Story' by Robert McKee at the urging of my old friend Maximo Lorenzo, so hopefully that'll help me out.
PPS: I also discovered a really awesome comic being put out by a chick who came to MoCCA all the way from Portland! Her name's Catherine Peach, and she does the adorable comic 'Pussy Fuzz', which I am in LOVE with! Soooo cute! You can check out her work here! My favorite find of the convention- even though I never actually walked around. She actually had the brilliant idea of walking around selling her comics as a cigarette girl, and even had mini-comics in cigarette boxes. If I get the table at NYCC I actually want my best friend/PR agent Fenny to kind of do the same sort of thing with my promo stuff, since that con will be insanely huge.
PPPS: Forgot to post this video of MoCCA taken by The Action Room. You can see me at 1:41 for a half second.
Weeee! BIG NEWS! I'm invited to take part in a signing at Jim Hanley's Universe from 6-8 pm on Thursday April 8th for Women in Independent Comics as part of a little pre-MoCCA Fest shindig! Yeeeee! XD My first EVER SIGNING!! How exciting! I'll be bringing as much Paigey merch as I can carry, including artbooks, necklaces, prints and magnets and will be selling them in the store! So yeah, if you're in the NYC area swing on by and say hello to me and the other ladies!
For more info, click the flyer to be taken to JHU's homepage!
On more than one occasion I've been asked by a good portion of my female fans where I get the retro clothes that I wear while hanging at my artist alley booth. I always like to look my best when representing myself and my artwork. And for curvier girls such as myself, the retro pinup style is very complimentary to my figure.
NYCC '09
Well, me being the sweetheart I am, will share with you some of my favorite stores for retro clothing. Just promise we won't show up somewhere in the same outfit. ;)
Mode Merr makes awesome stuff. Of my 'dress up' clothes I'd say about 60% of it is Mode Merr. Their pencil skirts are a great foundation piece to build off of. Every girl should have at least one. Just be careful getting in and out of cars, if you're a tall, clumsy girl like me who tends to plop down where ever she's gonna sit, you'll run the risk of busting the back seam of a pencil skirt and run back in the house to emergency sew it back together. Their tops are also great, I love the peasant tops and the 'Everyone loves cleavage' blouse with the Mandarin keyhole. It definitely lives up to it's name. My boyfriend Phil has basically forbidden me from wearing that top anywhere he is not also present, as 'the girls' are very much on display.
I've actually have worn Mode Merr so much that I was asked to take part in the upcoming Mode Merr Fashion Spectacular in Brooklyn on April 25th! Sooo excited! If you can come out I highly suggest it- it's at the Bell House in Gowanus, Bk which is a great venue (with an awesome bar) and they have all their current stock on sale along with uber-cheap clearance items a fashion show for their upcoming new stuff and an AMAZING burlesque show featuring acts like The World Famous Pontani Sisters, Miss Delirium Tremens and Dirty Martini. Sooo excited!!
Babygirl Boutique has alot of cool jewelry and a wide variety to their stuff.
Stop Staring! is my go-to brand for when I've gotta get uber-dressy, like for weddings, dinners and various other fanciness.
Daddy O's was one of the first stores I went to for my retro-inspired shopping. Not only do they have alot of great dresses (some Stop Staring! dresses are cheaper here than on the actual SS! site) they also have alot of guy clothes, particularly lounge and work shirts. Phil gets stuff from here regularly.
Pin-up Girl clothing has some AWESOME STUFF. Great selection, a bunch of exclusives, one of the few stores I can shop at where I know stuff will usually fit me without getting it tailored to my hourglassy figure.
***** I have yet to actually buy anything from any of these stores, but I PLAN to: *****
GORGEOUS formal dresses from a variety of eras.
Where I plan on getting my wedding dress one day.
Suuuper cute swing dresses with very full skirts and crinolines. I've seen them in person and they're beautiful.
So wait! Now that you have all these uber-hot pin-up clothes, you gotta get the foundation garments to wear underneath to get that va-va-voom hourglass shape!
Girdlebound has some great selections on bullet bras, waist cinchers and girdles at totally decent prices. I know I rarely go out in pin-up style without my RAGO waist cincher.
There's also Secrets in Lace (who has a betty Page AND Dita Von Teese collection!) and Dirty Dolls Lingerie, who make excellent vintage style underthings that are a wee bit out of my price range at the moment. ;) But one day....
These are all the stores I can think of off the top of my head. If you have more to suggest by all means leave a comment!
Hi hi! So yeah, last weekend was King Con Brooklyn, which was quite a success! Was an intimate SPX-like convention, basically an entire artist alley, which was nice because it basically became a meet-and-greet for fellow NYC artists. I made back my table money in sales, which is all one can truly hope for when getting a table at a con. You always end up taking a loss somewhere- be it traveling, paying for product to sell, food to eat, etc, etc. It was super-cool since it was primarily local peeps in attendance, I actually got some recognition from being at other local events around the city and from plastering my stickers and postcards are around town. It was especially funny when someone recognized my cards from the Thai restaurant in Long Island City, Queens that I sometimes go to after work to pick up dinner. I've been dropping them off, thinking nothing of it. It's nice to know there is actually some sort of payoff in running around town with a heavy purse full of self-promotional material. My space was also very awesome. I had an 8' table up against the 'wall', which was actually a wall made of about 3 rows of church pews, so I was able to sit quite comfortably during the two long 10am-7pm days of the convention. I do love going to comic conventions and working my table, meeting fans and fellow creators- but I am also VERY relieved this was my last con for the year. As much as I love doing them, they certainly take alot out of me. Especially since I only leave my table when I ABSOLUTELY have to. XP All the talking, pitching, conversing, getting excited over things and humoring the occaisional weirdo while fun in short bursts can definitely become exhaustive over an 8 hour shift. I usually end up going straight home after the con is over for the day and throwing my jammies on. But I'll be able to rest up for MoCCA Fest in April, which will be my next convention appearance! More on that as it gets closer!
