Spring Portrait Event 2011: Part 2: Beautiful Baby

During the event I had the chance to photograph this beauty again. She was a wee little one when I first took her pics. It is so fun to see how they grow and I just can't believe how happy she was. I could have taken her picture all day long!!


I have about a million more pictures I could post but here is a look at just a few of my favorites.....

Spring Portrait Event 2011 Part 1 : The Details

Yesterday was my Spring Portrait Event. I could not have asked for a better day! I was a little worried all week because all it did was rain. I was worried that it would rain, I was worried it would be cloudy, and I was worried that the ground would be a muddy, swampy mess. I was worrying for nothing! The sky was perfect, no rain, and the ground was not swampy at all.

I had a lot of help from many people and I could not have asked for more. I really want to say thank you to my mom for letting me boss her around all day! She also did the food and much of the details. My mom also made most of the giveaway prizes.

Here is a look at all the details...

The food table....... those strawberry things were AMAZING!!!
















Cotton Candy!!!








Love the color of circus peanuts, so I had to have them!!

Inside of these mini cones were strawberry cupcakes...... THESE WERE A HIT! THANKS MOM!

Ahh, the prize table.

This is Jaxx. He was determined to catch those balloons. I just had to include him on here. He is a cutie!!

Here is a sneak at one of my settings for my portraits....

There is much, much, much, much more to come. Please stay tuned and let me know what you think!!! Should I have another event!?

I'm Glad...

Osama bin Laden is dead. When I heard this news I nearly burst in to tears. Many emotions rushed through my body. I thought I was imagining things! I just couldn't believe it and I could not pull myself away from the television. I watched reporter after reporter and I watched President Obama's speech. I was happy. Happy for the victims of 9/11 and happy for the USA. Some people say we shouldn't celebrate his death and that's actually a very understandable thought, and I'd normally agree. But I remember when his actions killed nearly 3,000 innocent people on our soil and he celebrated. REMEMBER HOW YOU FELT WHEN THE TOWERS FELL, REMEMBER HOW YOU FELT WHEN THE PLANES WERE CRASHING ALL AROUND AND YOU DIDN'T KNOW IF AND WHEN ANOTHER WAS GOING TO CRASH? I remember. I remember being away at college, unable to reach any one at home. I remember being terrified after learning about the plane that went down in Somerset County, where all of my loved ones live. He made me afraid. I was never more afraid than on that day. No one knew what was going on. Many people did not get to see their families again. Their loved ones were taken away forever. Osama's actions caused more than the loss of life and destruction of property. He was the cause of all of the decisions made after that point, many of which were not rational. Those irrational choices led us in to a war in which killed many of our young. Now, tell me how you feel knowing that the mastermind behind 9/11 is dead and has been brought to justice. I am under no illusions that the war on terror is going to be over. I do not believe in a million years that there will never be another terrorist attack. But I do find a sense of relief that Osama is no longer a worry on the minds of Americans and others who have fallen victim to him all over the world. That brings me to the word, Revenge. Primal, I know, but an eye for an eye. He hurt all of us and we got him, finally, and he has paid for his crimes. Now, I know we won't forgive him but we can now forget him. We are rid of Osama bin Laden. That for one, makes me very glad that he is dead. Maybe even worth a celebration.

I'm going to try.....

I have decided I am going to start making more of an effort to create more art. I feel like I never have the time anymore and honestly I'm pretty depressed about not ever making the things that I want to make or following through on ideas that I plan out. I have decided to change that by starting off with this blog post. From this point on, I am going to use my creativity instead of letting it go to waste. I'm not getting any younger.

Okay.

Now.

Here I go.

I have been getting migraines since I was 14. I remember my very first migraine. I thought I was going to die and I went blind. I still get them. I still go blind. I can go weeks without getting a migraine and then WHAM they take over my life and ruin everything. Maybe just one day. Maybe 4 in a row. But no matter how long, or how short, they still manage to influence my every day. I took part in a study a few years ago about the effects of Epilepsy and Migraines on art. You can see my one of my submissions here on this website :

http://sparksofcreativity.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

Here are a few more pieces, both self portraits:

After I googled myself once I found myself on this website about Migraines as well:

http://www.migraine-aura.com/content/e24966/e22874/e48083/index_en.html

So now you know a little bit about me and one of my influences. Stay tuned because I really am going to try to be more creative and do the things that make me happy. I don't want to waste this life and think later on "Boy, I really should have....."

Spring Portrait Event

We are holding our Spring Portrait Event, in Windber, Pa on May 21, 2011. Please sign up now because spots fill up FAST! Please email Brianakennophotography@hotmail.com and title it Portrait Event. Include how many people, their names, and their ages in the email. If you are bringing pets to be photographed, please give me some details about them as well. I will also need your phone number and your address. We'll send you a ...confirmation email letting you know that your spot has been reserved and time of your photo shoot.

How it works....

Families, Seniors, children, grandparents, engagements, pets.....

Show up at your assigned time 10 minutes prior to your scheduled time and we'll do the rest! Each family will receive a 15 minute session with a photographer. Each 15 minute slot is only $10 and you may reserve as many slots as you like (One for family shots and one for those overdue yearly portraits of the kids?) You will be able to view all of your edited images in a private online gallery where you will be able to choose and purchase your favorite. If you would like to purchase an album or a DVD of your images, you may do so for an additional charge.

This event will have music, food, goodies, and giveaways.

I will be more than happy to answer any other questions you may have regarding this event. Please email me @ Brianakennophotography@hotmail.com. Thank you!

Official....

Wow, two posts in two days!

It is official! I sent my little sketchbook off to its home today! It will only be there for a little while until it goes off an a working vacation for a few months around the United States. Then it will go back to its home at the Brooklyn Art Library.

Check it out!!

The Finished Sketchbook

Wow, it really has been a long time since I have posted on here. Many moons ago I told you all about The Sketchbook Project. I may have said that I would keep you all updated on the project as it went along. Well, I am finished with it and I never did one post on the darn thing. So I guess this will have to be one super huge long post on my sketchbook.

First let me just say that I enjoyed most of my sketchbook project. The creativity part I LOVED. The trying to deal with the thin pages of the sketchbook they provided created a lot of problems. The first issue was that I wanted to use spray adhesive to glue the pages together to make them thicker. This did work, until I painted on them. I guess though, that it is my own stupid fault for thinking that watercolors wouldnt do anything to the adhesive. I also used spray adhesive on the extra pages that I did paintings on and added in. This did not work at all. The pages popped right out each time I turned the page. BOO spray adhesive! So running behind on the project (which needs to be post marked by Saturday- EEK!)I made a trip to Michael's in this blizzard and bought some differnt tapes and paper glue. Only deciding on what I was going to buy after hours of online, late night, (and hysterical) research.

One problem that nearly sent me over the edge was the fixative. Not paying attention, I sprayed fixative on my sketches and paintings and sat them aside. Not waiting for them to dry. They stuck together. Some of them ripped. A migraine began forming. And then yet another late night spent in hysterics was spent fixing my artwork.

Now, on to the work.

I am influenced by MANY different things. Don't forget my theme was, Help!, so I did my best to stay within that theme. Some of these works are obvious, some only have the meaning of help to me. Some, you may take differently than others. I feel like that is what art is anyway. You take from it what you take from it and other people may take something completely different. It is subjective. Right here is where I wish to add my favorite quote from Ani Difranco "Art is why I get up in the morning, but my definition ends there, you know it doesn't seem fair that I'm living for something I can't even define..."

One last note, the art work that I did on seperate sheets of paper were done on old old paper from and old old copy of Robin Hood.

Why Robin Hood you ask? He stole from the rich to HELP the poor. Boy, I'm clever.

And now the cover. I did't want anything that was too much on the cover. I think maybe I should make it stand out more, but I just wanted a simple, cute pencil drawing.

Next I made a title page.

This is my lovely, more beautiful, cartoon self.

This next one was inspired by too things. Migraines and a recurring nightmare I had when I was a child. The nightmare was, my mom had a candle in her stomach and when it burned out she would die. After she died I had to go live with the gals from Facts of Life. I'm not joking. It woke me up all the time, and I would cry and cry. I still remember every detail of that nightmare and it still freaks me out, as funny as it might seem to you. (haha, Facts of Life)

This next one ofcourse is migraines again.





Again, migraines and auras. Oh, and floaters too. I have lots of those. Hate them.





I just like drawing octopuses. Or is it Octopi? Octipodes? Google it. I don't know, neither does google.

Ps. That bird needs help.







This was already in one of my other sketchbooks. Probably inspired by heartache and migraines.

I just like painting trees.

I think the title of the poem should be Migraines.

This following sketch was done one night when I had another Migraine. This one was in the back of my head (basilar migraine). I was going to draw a hole or knife stuck in the head, but it was too nice to ruin.

I think the next few are out of order. Just deal okay! ;)

This is one of my faves! Naturally, it was one that was majorly ruined with the fixative incident. But its fixed now and I bet you cant even tell!

Darn floaters!

Aww, now heres my baby. I love him so much. He helps me to be happy. His kind helps pull sleds. Huskies are abandoned every day. They need help. See, fits right in with the theme.

I heart me some belugas.

BTW: Their environment is being ruined. They need assistance. (sick of saying help)

Hello. Migraines again.

I wrote this poem many ions ago. I was sad. I had some heartache going on.

Autism. Early Intervention is very important!!!

Again, I like trees. Idk. She looks helpless to me.

Take one guess as to why her head is on fire........ If you said migraine, you are wrong.

Just kidding. You're right :)

I am an avid reader. Mainly things on the holocaust. (or teen vampire fiction, but.....) I had the awesome pleasure of meeting a few holocaust survivers over the years. One that I absolutely loved was Bob Mendler. He was an amazing person. I had the pleasure of seeing him at a play at the Mountain Playhouse a few months before he died. He actually remembered me from college. He passed away on December 10, 2009. I cried that day because I knew what the world would be missing. He was a great man. When I read the sentence that is highlight on the page below it reminded me of Bob and I wanted to do something for him in this sketchbook.

If you cant read the sentence is says,

"Sick and sore are we of our hard lot, and we can bear no more."

Never Forget.

This is the last page of my sketchbook.

If there is anyone out there reading this blog, or even just this post. Let me know.