PIN ME UP

Eric Daigh taking photos

Ready for pin up Mr. DeMille

Behind every great pushpin artist is a woman with nimble fingers!

What is going on in these photos?  I‘m being prepared to be pushed pinned. Yes, you heard me– push pinned.

Before Christmas our good friend Maria Beaulieu  had a jewelry opening in SoHo and afterwards we went to a dinner in her honor at the home of Serea Altshul, the CBS correspondent. Hanging in her loft were these amazing portraits, one of them of Serena. They didn’t resemble anything I had every seen. They look like Chuck Close, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein went nuts at Staples buying pushpins and came home and did portraits.  They are these really interesting pop-arty yet complex portraits, that from afar have a real Chuck Close look to them. They also kind of move around like optical illusions when you change positions.  But when you go up close you see they are not painted at all, but they are made with thousands of pushpins. They’re like Henry Moores made out of Legos. They are fabulous.

We found out they were done by Eric Daigh an artist from Michigan who happened to be there that night. Serena gets credit for discovering him and doing a segment about Eric and his work for he CBS Sunday morning show. She clearly has an eye and I predict some day he will be very famous.The work he is dong is so original and interesting he is bound for success.

Glenn liked it so much he commissioned Eric do a pushpin portrait of me. So today was the first step, and the only step I have to be involved in until I get to hang it on the wall. Eric and his adorable wife Megan who helps him do the pinning and the sessions came over and took about a hundred photos of me. Then they will go home and lay my face out on a grid. A frightening thought; I told him I’m getting my eyes done, don’t use black pins under my eyes!

Then after it’s grided (if that’s a word) he draws the grid out on the canvas, I think, don’t quote me. But then this I do know he and Megan go about pushing the pins in and eventually it becomes a face.  This is arduous and dangerous work as the end of a portrait they are pricked and bleeding. But no one said being an artist is easy.

They are the most adorable, friendly couple. They came over for dinner last night and everyone called this morning to talk about how bubbly and charming they are. It makes me want to move to Michigan.

But in the meantime I can’t wait to see myself made out of pushpins. They push fast – Eric said it would be here in four weeks! I will post a photo of the finished piece when it arrives. In the meantime check out Eric’s work to see what I’m talking about.

http://daigh.com/

And while you’re on the web check out Maria’s jewelry.

http://www.erbutler.com/?kdesigner=10&m=5

Then next time you want  another pair of jeans, stop and think do I need this or should I save up for a great portrait by Eric Daigh, where I wear a pair of Maria Beaulieu earrings.

Photos By Taylor Templeton

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