I’ve embroidered a sweater for Amy Winehouse with all of her tattoos on it in all the right places.

Let me tell you why I’ve done this:

About 9 months ago I heard something about Amy Winehouse having health issues. Then I noticed that Amy Winehouse never seemed to be wearing a lot of clothes in any of the pictures I saw of her. I also noticed that she changed her look very often and looked drastically different from picture to picture. It occurred to me that maybe she felt like she had to wear revealing clothing in order to be recognized by showing off her distinctive tattoos. I found several pictures where it appears that even when she did wear warmer clothing, she was still forced to expose her tattoos.

It seemed very problematic to me that someone who is dealing with health problems would have to expose herself to the elements just because her profession requires her to be publicly recognizable. I realized that if someone were to make her a sweater that displayed her tattoos to the world without exposing her to the elements, then maybe some of her health problems would go away. At the very least it might prevent her from getting a cold.

Here is what Amy Winehouse might look like in the sweater I’ve made for her:

I thought about other ways of making this sweater, but decided that the sweater had to be embroidered by hand so that it would be as unique and distinctive as the tattoos it covers up. It also made sense that the sweater should be embroidered because embroidery is like a tattoo on fabric.

I know this sweater may not be appropriate for a lot of the fancy places that Amy might have to go, but I know she has had problems with paparazzi in the past, so at least maybe sometimes when she is recognized and photographed she can also be warm.

It only makes sense that Amy should have this sweater. If anyone has any idea how to make that happen please let me know: asalomone [AT] gmail [DOT] com

This is a show I have coming up. I’m planning to broadcast the exhibition live over a webcam so that everyone can get a good view of the JELL-O shot portrait as it is consumed.

more info coming soon…

Making art with a Lite Brite is not a new idea. But I recently found a Lite Brite at the dump near where I’m living and decided to use it to work out some imagery for an upcoming project.

Here’s what the Lite Brite I found at the dump looked like in the box:

I quicky ran out of the colored pegs that I would need to finish the project I was trying to work on, so I tried to finish it by going to www.litebrite.com. I still didn’t get the results I was looking for, but I did manage to make this more realistic representation of the clown from the “It” movie:

I think maybe they should consider releasing a new version of Lite Brite with more pegs in it for lazy artists. This is what the box should look like:

“The Kerry Polka” by The Smell

I just got a comment on the “Identity-Preserving Balaclava” project that I posted on the Instructable’s website a few months ago. The comment was from a band that made a music video inspired by my project. Check it out:

This is really the best thing that could possibly happen.

I went to the opening of a show my “PhotoREAListic FAKE Fur Bigfoot” piece is in at The Arizona Museum for Youth last night. They had gummy worms and lots of furry things available to everyone in attendance.

Here’s an excerpt from the press release on the museum’s website:

What’s a vampire’s favorite candy? A sucker! What is a Mummy’s favorite type of music? Wrap! . . . You like that? There’s lots of fun, chills & thrills and so much more happening at the Arizona Museum for Youth [AMY], now, throughout the entire summer!

Pretty good stuff.

Here’s a new video of a performance I did a couple years ago:

I just recently got the original video footage from a friend of mine in Ireland and I finally finished editing it this weekend.

Basically, this is a mash-up of the cartoonish, but graceful, violence of video games with the authentic, but humiliating, violence of real street fights (and the way both types of violence are used to entertain spectators)

Thanks to everyone who helped me with this project, I’m putting a longer version of the video on the project’s page if you wanna take a look!

This is a project I’ve started since I’ve been back in Ireland over the last month or so. It’s a band called, “The Smell,” that only plays trad (traditional Irish music) on battery-operated instruments that I think were all designed to be children’s toys. This is a video of us playing at an open-mic night in a pub in Cork. We’ve been invited back to play again this week and promised some free pints!

Click here to see our myspace music page and hear more of our songs!

This fashionable wooden model I’ve constructed will be on display at the next exhibition in the ellO gallery, By Local, opening this Friday.

I’ve got a piece featured on the Instructables website today.

Here’s an excerpt from my instructable:

It’s pretty easy to wear warm clothes on just about every part of your body except for your face. As far as I can tell, the main reason that cold-weather facial attire is somewhat socially taboo is because it generally obscures the identity of the person wearing it. Despite all of the progress our society has made towards accepting and treating all people fairly, we are still yet to escape the notion that a person in a balaclava (or ski mask) is generally up to no good. The “Identity Preserving Balaclava” is my solution to the social stigma associated with the identity concealing effect of the average balaclava.

Click here to check out the “Identity Preseving Balaclava” on the Instructables website.