arien

Okay, my dearest friends... did you miss me?? Because I missed you. I may not be completely back in action as of yet, but I wanted to send out a nice loooooooooooooooong update. Okay, so maybe I just picked out too many pictures to post. Anywho, I wanted to say I'm alive, busy, and doing pretty well. I've got various projects in the works as usual. But on top of that I also have a new position at work that really vibes with my personality. No it has nothing to do with nude pictures, silly! It's a bank!!! And on top of the top of that I also have had many family events and projects to keep me super busy, including my sister's wedding. It's happening in June! I'm sure I'll post some pretty pictures from that once it happens. But I have a whole different set of pictures to share with you today. This may have happened about a month ago, but it still in my recent history of awesome and worth sharing with anyone who will listen:

TransWorld's Halloween and Attractions Show

If you don't know by now, Halloween is a pretty huge part of my life. You can read a little bit more about that in some of my previous blogs like this, this, this, or this. So I currently work for Eleventh Hour which is moving to a still unknown as of yet location. It will still be in Chicago, but it'll be bigger and better (hopefully due to my mastery in set/props artwork). The owner asked me to go to the haunt convention with him, the makeup team, and the HR head in order to better figure out what we will be doing with the show next season. Some of the actors hitched along even though there wasn't much from them to get from it (not that I'm belittling them, because I do that stuff too). They just went for fun. Either way, it was a very interesting time with some VERY interesting people.

Picture the show as a giant Halloween store with everything you could ever want to buy for a high quality haunt. I'm talking everything including that $30,000 animatronic to hover over your guests or the zip line activity for your guests to enjoy while they wait for the show. Well one of the first things I run into is this guy. I call it the Meat Suit. I think it was suppose to be scary... but I think it was just hilarious! Although I wish they gave him some mean perfume because he stank of latex!!



Don't you worry, there were plenty of pretty things to look at as well. I made sure to take some pictures of the naked girls at the convention for you all. Yes, they are literally naked with tape on their nipples and a small bit of underwear. It was done to showcase what the their brand of airbrush makeup could do if you do it right.









This girl had no real reason to be almost naked... she just liked it, and so I liked it:





But one of the things that seemed to almost be taking over the convention was masks. Of course this new found appreciation for high quality mask making is due to the popular show Face Off. Although it's not that important to have masks of that quality all over your haunt, it's still amazing and a good thing to have for the actors haunting the waiting lines. I've always found these absolutely beautiful and amazing, and one day I will make my own. I'm just not sure if it's going to be this year. Anyway, I met Glenn Hetrick (one of the judges and an amazing artist) and saw contestants everywhere I turned. I felt like there must be hidden cameras somewhere. Very odd.



Shout out to my friend Anthony and his win on Face Off this season!! He was at the show as well, and I said hi, but didn't really want to bother him too much because he was busy with fan girls, so no pictures. But his artwork is definitely worth a peak or two. I know him because he was a grade ahead of me in college. He's not one of my good friends, but I'm proud of him nonetheless. He and all of the other contestants were fighting for the spotlight against the big companies. So yes, masks everywhere. Here are some of my personal favorites.



I must say, tongue where the chin goes is brilliant. It's so well balanced, creepy, and just stylized enough.









They weren't all full face and full glory. This one is a lovely face to wear on top of your face. More of a masquerade type of idea. I like him because he's forced to smile... ::insert evil laugh here::



I must say, this one was my absolute FAVORITE of the bunch. It was unique, completely accurate anatomically (if this were to actually happen to your face), and just creepy enough to crawl under your skin. Delicious...



Of course we had our own fun with trying on masks and being silly.



And you may not be able to tell, but that's me in this doll mask. It reminded me of my doll maker character from last season and the doll face prop I made. Ahhhhh fond memories of threatening people's lives as a form of entertainment...



But the weekend wasn't ALL horror. One of the after hours events was a party at City Museum. I will describe it as a cross between Discovery Zone and a museum of natural history and savaged art. You basically need to know that it was AWESOME. You could climb through structures like this:



And end up crawling up two stories and over 30 feet of nothing but air looking down at the bar below. Exit and fall in to a giant ball pit:



Appear in random places where one part is more beautiful than the last:



And finally find that slide that you were looking for in the first place. Don't worry, it won't actually eat you:



But what's this?? There's an indoor crazy jungle gym in the form of caves as well?? Don't you worry, you can explore every inch of that as well on your way to find the ten story slide in the middle of the building. Trust me, it's worth it.



Beware, it's a tight fit. And you might want to wear knee pads... Not the time to be wearing dress clothes.







But that's okay, this group isn't the classiest of people... they are much more fun than that:





All in all, a wonderful trip and an adventure to remember! And just in case you forgot about the Halloween part of this blog yet, here is a cow head to make you feel better. Isn't it cute????? I want one. Cows are my favorite animal...



So happy Halloween everyone!!! Or should that be Easter... hmmm... Anywho I WILL get the next set up soon, I swear. It's been edited and ready to go for months, but for some reason that I cannot figure out yet, I cannot upload them onto the site. I've been very slowly emailing for help from the site which doesn't seem to work. So JCK is going to try changing the files for me and helping me upload. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! Here is another preview to keep you going. And just to tease you more I'll let you know that I'm putting together a Zatanna costume for C2E2 this year. Don't worry, I'll definitely post that for you.