A couple of days ago I went for a walk at downtown Lisbon and decided to check out the new stuff on Fnac (which is a store like Virgin Mega Store for ex, just in case you weren't familiar with it). I was taking a walk through the book's art section and hold and behold!There it was, without even expecting, I saw the Vampires Postcards, from the Vampire Art Now collection, with one of my artworks in the cover :) Altough I've seen my artwork in book covers before, it's always an amazing feeling to see them being published and actually see them on stores.
 
I used to spend hours gazing at books on that same section, discovering amazing artists, and now I'm amongst them ^^

American Mary Review

Oh hai!

So I decided to return to the blogosphere, this time I'll try to be more active. This is going to be a mixture of a personal blog + movie reviews + fashion style and pretty much whatever I'm in the mood for.

I'll start off with a movie review, since 2 days ago was the ending of MotelX which is an international horror film festival held in Lisbon - in other words: a dream come true for cinephiles, specially horror fans.
The "closing" film for this year was American Mary, and it's the one I pick for today's review.

Synopsis

American Mary is the story of a medical student named Mary who is growing increasingly broke and disenchanted with medical school and the established doctors she once idolized. The allure of easy money sends a desperate Mary through the messy world of underground surgeries which leaves more marks on her than the so-called freakish clientele.

The movie was directed and written by the Soska Sisters, known for their previous movie "Dead Hooker in a Trunk", which I've never seen, therefore this was my first contact with their work, and I got to say that I'm not at all impressed.

First impression I got from this movie was that no real study was made about the body mod culture, so it came across as ignorant one too many times. I thought I was going to watch an horror movie about EXTREME body modifications, when the majority of the mods represented were no way near extreme, they were actually pretty common.

To gain some extra cash, Mary decides to help RealGirl Ruby in her desire to become more doll like, which involved getting rid of her genitals, so she could look as "smooth" as possible. Sometime after the surgery Mary decides to search for body modifications online, when she enters a website some pictures pop up with stretched ears, some genital piercings and what not. Mary quickly closes her laptop in disgust. So... "mutilating" a vagina is weird, but apparently stretched ears and genital piercings are just BAT SHIT CRAZY.  Maybe 20 years ago stretched ears would be scary, but today... The way they approached the subject just made the directors/writers look dumb.

Mary decides to drop med school and make body mods for a living, she builds her own doctor's office in her apartment and it's all very secretive and illegal, no one knows her true identity, and some clients are seen being hooded when others are not, not sure if this has an explanation or if it's just a mistake. And excluding the amputations, everything else asked by her clients seemed pretty normal to me. Ok maybe for some people tongue bisections, stretched ears and implants aren't "normal", but it's not something you haven't seen before! And I'm pretty sure it's getting more common by the day.
The idea this movie attempts to portray is that if you want  to stretch your ears or to fork your tongue you need to go to a fake surgeon on a back alley (not to mention that you must be some kind of an aberration)  when this is completely fake! You can go to professional on a tattoo/piercing shop and they'll do it in a clean legal environment! (EDIT: Ok, I didn't know this but apparently splitting your tongue is not completely legal in the US o.O). You can even stretch your ears at home in an healthy easy way if you read about it - I don't get why this movies tries to make such a taboo out of this stuff.
 At one moment a girl shows her heart shaped nipples - which again, reveals ignorance about the subject - since the heart shaped nipples are tattoos, and not achieved by any kind of surgery!

I think I'm complaining too much about the inaccuracy of the ""body mod world"", but it ruined the movie for me, although the ending was also pretty terrible. There was no build up to it, it looked like they had to wrap it up in 5 minutes - tried to make a drama/tragedy out of it and failed, was pretty emotionless and senseless.

Some pros: Beatress, the character played by Tristan Risk, you can't help but to love her, she's an exotic dancer who has had herself altered to look like Betty Boop. Trinstan played this bizarre part in a remarkable and endearing way.
It was also good to see Katharine Isabelle back on the screen, last time I saw her was in Ginger Snaps 12 years ago, and she looks as stunning as ever.

Overall, it wasn’t the worst movie I've seen, but I sure which I hadn't spent the money to go see it either.

3.5/10

Vampire Art Now Review

As promised, here it is the “Vampire Art Now” review.

My blog has been forgotten lately, I keep back and forth between Portuguese and English. But I think I owe to my supporters around the globe to write in english. I may do more reviews in the future about other forms of art such as movies and books. But moving on to the point!

I ordered my Vampire Art Now (the UK version) from Wook.pt for 22,04€, not expensive at all considering it has 192 pages, hardcover and the printing is absolutely gorgeous! Amazing colors, quality paper, it has a beautiful shine to it, but not too much. You might be wondering why I had to buy the book since I participated on it. Well, the copy the publishers were supposed to send is still yet to come. They said that the books for the artists got stuck on a boat in China, something like that. Funny how the books for selling didn’t got stuck anywhere. Anyway, I was too excited to see the result and bought it, I don’t mind having an extra copy ;)

(sorry for the poor quality photos)

Starting with the cover:

Front cover, my artwork, Sunset.
I was a little disappointed when I saw it. Looks a little bit too dark, but what bugs me the most is that it’s not completely centered. It has a protective paper cover and then the hard cover, both have shiny letters which is a nice detail.
Back cover is an artwork by Charilie Siebert, Molly with a little résumé of the
book. I’ll transcribe:

The folkloric vampire has allowed writers and artists throughout history to explore classic themes of immortality, fear and desire. Vampire Art Now breathes fresh life into the classic mythology, showcasing the best of contemporary vampire artwork from artist around the world.

Front flap cover artwork: Vampire Mikael by Neil Que
Back flap cover: Beast by Christine M. Griffin

Moving on to the inside :)

The book starts with a small but fun to read Foreword, by the New York bestselling author Rachel Caine. You can read about the vampire evolution in history or in art. As Rachel says “There’s just something about vampires that won’t die”.
This is followed by a two page introduction by the creators of the book, Jamine Becket Griffith and Mathew David Becket. Again, some vampire history and how vampires are susceptible to change according to the viewer.

And now to the “Art” part.

The artworks are organized by chapters, 10 to be exact:
- The Aristocracy and Victoriana
- Vampiric Vixens
- Contemporary Goth and Urban Undead
- Graveyard Grotesque
- Vampire Hunters and the Hunted
- Undead in the Darkroom
- Cartoons and Comics
- Bloodlust and Bittersweet Romance
- Dracula and his Disguises
- Gothic Quartes

Although the book is divided be themes, it includes all mediums from sculpture, to color pencils to digital art.
Obviously I won’t talk about each single piece of artwork or this would be the longest review ever, so I’ll share some photos of what you can except from inside. I guarantee you this is a compilation of amazingly talented artists! Every page I flipped I felt more honored to be a part of this project. From the classic horror movie vampire, to the more futuristic or anime, you have it all here.

My artwork Anime Vorax is on pages 32-33 and it’s the opening of the Chapter 2, Vampiric Vixens. Sadly when I sent my information to the publishers I still had my old website, so it’s credited www.shinobinaku.net, which doesn’t exist anymore, it’s www.shinobinaku.COM now, wich really is a pitty, otherwise it would be perfect.

"Three black souls share a couch in this dark digital piece. They all stare forward with illuminated eyes, as cobwebs surround the background. Joana Dias shares her thoughts and inspirations: “Soul Eater is the translation from ancient latin for this work. I felt like I needed an empowering vampire, and so was inspired by the goddess Bast, as she was known as a female devourer and matriarch of cats. I do also enjoy combining vampires and felines since they have always appealed to me as mysterious and sensual creatures".

My other two works can my found on Chapter 8 - Bloodlust and Bittersweet Romance, pages 143, 144.

If I was a Vampire

"In an eternal embrace these two vampires hold each other and at this moment they feel very human. If I Was A Vampire by Joana Dias demonstrates the softer side of vampires, their ability to love. “I am greatly inspired by various forms of art, and try to channel that inspiration in my work. This one in particular is based on music. Unlike my other vampire artwork, this one is focused of the notion of eternal romance and undying love. This was also the first appearance of my character Sunset”.

Sunset

The character Sunset displays bloodthirsty appetite as scarlet rivers of blood drip down her lips, contrasting against her pale skin. Gore-loving nymphs always make de most heinous acts look sensual. Dias says: “I wanted to create a portrait of Sunset, as she is a centerpiece in my cast os original characters. In order to create her more faithfully to my vision, I drew her from scratch, unlike the majority of my work, which is photomanipulation.”

The book ends with the Artist Directory and the typical acknowledgments.
In conclusion, I truly love it, the only two things I’m unhappy about it’s the front cover, it’s not completely centered, it may sound picky but I think it makes a huge difference. And unfortunately, the credits, my website leads to nowhere :( I’m hoping people who enjoyed my art just google “Joana Dias” or “Shinobinaku” and my current website shows right at the top of the list ahah :D.

If you haven’t ordered it yet, you should! If you are a vampire lover, an horror lover or simply an art lover, this is a must have. And, apparently, due to the great success this book is having, Ilex Press is going to publish a “Vampire Art Now Postcard Book” :D it will be a smaller version, so only Anima Vorax and Sunset will be on it, Sunset being the front cover again :D It will come out in 2012 ;)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. I can’t thank enough for the support I’ve been receiving.

Love,
Shino