Lowbrow Local Talent. Reppin' for QLD

There are oodles of people all around me that have the most amazing skills. Queensland's got talent! And I just love the wonderful underground lowbrow art that goes on.

Some of you might be asking what is Lowbrow?

Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_surrealism

So that gives you a basic idea. It's mostly a term used for art but I'm going to use the term loosly and extended it to other areas. While everything here may not strictly be lowbrow it drums to the same kind of beat. It's all made of fairly underground, left of the middle, alternative and old timey styled goodness. And without further ado, let me introduce the talent!




ARTIST: Leigh Carnachen

I first fell in love with Leigh's Art when I saw her amazing piece 'Filled, Raked & Slammed' in the Lowbrow Art Show at my second Greazefest. Leigh (who goes by the alias Leighderhosen) has this beautiful tattoo inspired style with a dark and broody old timey feel about it. You can find a lot of her work emblazoned on t-shirts and regularly exhibits at Melbourne's Kustom Lane Gallery.

The thing I love most about Leigh is that she regularly posts her art on deviantArt. She just keeps pumping these beauties out and I get excited every time I see an update. If only there was somewhere closer to home for her to exhibit her work! I'd be all over that like a fat kid on a cupcake.

leighderhosen.deviantart.com/





PHOTOGRAPHER: Kate O'Brien

Ahhh where do I start with Kate O'brien? I love her! I first encountered her work through the good old Internet but I got to know it a whole lot more when I got the chance to work with her. Boy those have been memorable experiences. Having been a fan of her work for a few years now it's been amazing to see her grow. Kate O'Brien started off as a painter before switching to photography. However her photos are not unlike paintings. Every detail is attended to and with her super crafty skills she will make costumes, accessories, props and build sets all from scratch. Not only that but she is a fantastic graphic designer. A multi skilled wonder. Her own house is so meticulously decorated that it looks like one of her amazing photo sets.

Kate's style is one that is totally unique. I'm yet to see another photographer who can match the uniqueness and calibre of her incredible work.

www.kateobriencreative.com





TIKI CARVER: Marcus Thorn

Marcus carves tikis. Good tikis. Amazing tikis! In fact he is so good that he carves tikis for hotels in Hawaii and restores the antique tikis they have there. When he is not doing that he's carving up original one of kind wooden gear shift knobs that are so popular in the Kustom Kulture Hot Rod scene these day. You can even hire his tiki carvings for your wedding and party.

Tiki Marcus (as we call him) also runs tiki carving workshops from time to time in cities around Australia. I'm hanging out for this next one to try my hand at a bit of tiki carving. What the hey? I'm sure it will be a ball and you've got to try everything once right? We all love Marcus and he is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

Incidentally you might remember a tiki themed pin-up shoot I did a while back where I posed with a Tiki. That was one of Marcus's old ones!

http://www.tikibeat.com.au







Makeup Artist: Loretta Lee

Loretta is a fairly new in the makeup world but she is already making waves as her talent is undeniable. With a penchant for over the top dramatic bright and vampish make-up, her work is turning heads. She is also the girl with the ever changing hair. It changes more than her underpants. So it's safe to say she's also got the convenient talent of hairstyling to boot.

Given that Loretta is mostly self taught she is a force to be reckoned with. What will she come up with next? You can find out via her blog. Loretta also does tutorials of unique makeup styles where you can let her impart her skills to you at the whim of your mouse. Cool!

Munster Makeup



Well I think that's enough for today folks but I hope to keep this feature running regularly. Like I said there are oodles of talents around me so I've got a lot more sharing to do in the future.

I want a platinum blonde life

Booyah! I am now an official bottle blonde. This was all thanks to the beautiful Cress who hooked me up with hairdresser Jess who we both went to see to do our hair.

Blonde has all been a long time coming. Since I was 15 I dyed my already very dark hair raven black. Two years ago I decided I'd like to try the other side of the hair colour spectum and thus began the slow process of growing out supermarket black box permanent dye.


Black as black hair, captured by Teagan Renee back in 2008

I had heard endless horror stories about overzealous blondie wannabies frying their hair by waging the battle of bleach versus dye pigment. Given that my hair is naturally quite dry and frizzy to begin with, I was more than happy of taking the safe and slow route of reverting to virgin hair.


Natural brunette, 2010

The long wait paid off. My hair lit up within 20 mintues of the bleach being applied. 20 vol strength was all that was needed for my roots. Stronger stuff was applied to the ends where some remaining black bleach was turning a charming orange colour. Most of that was chopped off and I was left with very respectable shoulder length hair.


And the contrast, the new blonde, looking very yellow under that light.

Even though my hair lightened very easily, it was not left completely untouched by the ravages of bleach. Puffy, frizzy, coarse! Treatments, moisturizers and end sealer was thrown in. My hair responded very well. After a well earned rest period for my tresses I'll be going back soon for another round to rid of this goldilocks colour to become platinum!


The Holy Grail of chemically enhanced hair!

Blonde is only the beginning. Expect some crazy experimentation with pink, red and maybe even cobalt blue. After having had huge chunks of fire engine red in the past, I know my white shirt collars and shower tile grout will bother me with their adopted hues again.

On and ending note, it's been 7 days, I'm already sporting noticeable regrowth. Grr! Damn that hair of mine growths fast. Mind you I've got to say that growing a full head of hair from roots to shoulder in 20 months is pretty darn impressive.