Blog

The iPhonoegraphy Experiment

 

iPhone +Photography = iPhoneography. Pushing the limits of what a 2 megapixel camera phone can do.

As much as I yearned getting into photography, the idea of learning to master a professional DSLR camera, with all it's complex settings, gadgets, buttons and operating system never seemed too appealing.

But now I have this little iPhone device in my pocket armed with a might powerful 2 MEGAPIXEL camera, amazing apps and the simplicity of using ONE button.

Low Fi photography has never been so much fun.

-S-

Vintage pin up underdog Pete Hawley

Jantzen is a swimwear company that dates back to the 1910's. They were able to stay ahead of their competition by employing  cream of the crop in pin up artists. Petty, Barclay, Whitcomb, Vargas were the masters that left their imprint on the label, however today I wanted to focus on a little known but equally talented illustrator.

I am a huge fan of the underdog, rooting for the artists of equal talent yet lacking in press and praise. Pete Hawley, who had a 17 year long relationship (mid 1940's-50's) with Jantzen, had a knack for creating compositions of bold playful beautiful women exuding innocent sexuality through their poses and expressiveness. This winning formula paved the foundations and visual cliches now used in the "modern retro" pin up scene. Pete later went to work under a different name and painted amazingly hilarious child birthday cards for Hallmark throughout the 1960's.

I am a new fan. You can see more here.


 



From Russia with Love

For some reason my artwork appears on lots of Russian sites. The big surprise was opening up my email and getting this photo. Dasha, from Saint Petersburg, Russia, covered her arm with a tattoo of my 2004 image "Double Bonita Bandera" and sent me the results. She is planning on getting more of my work on her body. Wow. Thank you.

-Santi- 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009 was an amazing year. Thank you all for the creative support. This year will bring some new things and a few surprises. Stay tuned.

-Santi-

Gothic - Samoan - Latin- retro pinup tattoo design- Say what?

 

Creativity stems from placing the disconnected together and coming up with new and interesting possibilities. The opportunity to put that into practice arrived when I was hired to create a " gothic - Samoan - Latin- retro pinup"  tattoo design.  

 

 

The tricky thing was figuring out how to wedge the design on his back between 2 other tattoos, a Samoan pinup shoulder design (another tattoo I design for him last year) and an older, larger gothic gargoyle piece on the center of his back. He wanted to somehow bridge the two designs with this new one blending the gothic with the Samoan and adding a Latina retro pinup that is based on his lady. It had to express her love for music, love for life, her passion for shoes and her favorite flower, the lily of the valley yet represeningt her darker mysterious side.  The whole motif is a heart shape made with with curved samoan striped patterns on one side and flower vines on the other. I had the lily of the valley flower bulbs morph into skulls, Although it wasn't in the original plan, this was the perfect excuse to make her face into a "Dios de los muertos"  skull mask Although the tattoo will be in black and white, I could not resist colorizing her.