Jo O'Brien

You may not know this, but you (yes, you) can choose what artwork is featured on the RedBubble Home Page.

It’s actually quite easy. All you have to do is head on over to this forum thread and share eight images you think are home page worthy, and which fit the criteria.

I’d keep talking but it really is that easy.
...and if you like art, it’s also lots of fun.

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Over the last 5 weeks I got married, meandered the streets of Venice in a big straw hat, saw the opera in Verona, lay on the rocky beaches of Monterosso, ate and drank through Tuscany, climbed the leaning tower of Pisa, and put the SLR away to enjoy Rome through my eyes, not my lens. Then we came home, went on a hot air balloon ride over Melbourne, tried to sleep when it was dark and stay awake when it was light, and learned that it is impossible to respond to a month long backlog of email and bubblemail. (I put on my brave face and hit the ‘archive all’ button reminding myself that if it’s important, they’ll call back.)

So, what did I miss? What have you been up to over the last five weeks?

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The day I added my first image to RedBubble, some lovely people took a moment out of their lives to comment and tell me how much they liked it. They could see past my blurry focus and amateur composition and found something genuine and kind to say. When I realised that the whole community was like this, so giving of their praise and thoughts, I was instantly hooked.

Before long, commenting back and forth turned into conversation, and conversations into friendships. We saw each other every day on RedBubble, we shared similar passions, and we all wanted to surround ourselves with creativity and be inspired. RedBubble was the fertile soil in which to grow relationships with other artists and creative people.

Exhibitions, meet ups, holidays away together, creative successes – there have been far too many good times to comment on them all here.

But I will mention just one.

As happens in all good romance novels, I fell in love. I might sell 50 framed prints tomorrow, but nothing is going to beat that! A few weeks ago James proposed and this Sunday we are getting married. It’s going to be a small gathering of family and sprinkling of friends, overlooking the ocean.

Then, we’re off to Italy for a month to take as many photographs as our several external hard drives can handle. Today is my last day in the office before all the festivities begin, so if I don’t answer your bubblemail, it’s because I’m sipping espresso on a terrace in Venice.

Arrivederci!

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Nature is a funny thing. You go to the aquarium and buy 12 female fish. You don’t give them names because, lets get serious here – it’s pretty damn hard to tell plain orange fish apart.

So you leave the girls unattended for a while without any parental supervision and then… You wake up one morning to find several baby fish swimming around the tank just beckoning the bigger fish to mistaken them for food.

Something about this whole situation seems a bit fishy to me!

^{This is the mummy fish (maybe) I can’t tell them apart}

^{This is taken with the same lens at the same distance (so you can see the size difference)}

^{This is a baby fish near the tiny pebbles at the bottom of the tank – fish food is bigger than it!}

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Yesterday I tagged along to the International Hairstylists Society hair show which is one of the largest hair shows in the country. Having never been to one before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but “complete and utter chaos” comes fairly close.

Many of the stylists and models had been awake and preparing since 4am that morning for a 12pm show. Caffeine and sugary sweets were sustaining the tightly packed gymnasium sized hall. The fine line between sheer exhilaration and breaking into tears under the pressure was evident in the hallways and crouched in corners as entrants coached their models on posing and lay out hair pins before their event. For those of us who were spectators, our entry fee did not guarantee a seat, a view of the catwalk or even use of the toilets (good luck to you with 1000+ people wanting to do their make up! Lol.) But wow, that room had an energy to it you could set alight.

Event after event, models were herded into their seats for judging then lead over to the catwalk for 10 seconds of glory followed by the arduous and sometimes painful task of unraveling their hairdos. Then they could go home, finally eat something and have a nanna nap.

Towards the middle of the event, the crowd was urged into silence by the organisers. They killed the music and spent a full minute getting everyone to pay attention. Most of us thought something serious had happened, but it was just so the organisers could tell everyone off for leaving rubbish in the hallways and bathrooms and to let us know they didn’t want to pay for cleaners afterwards!

Despite the rushed, stressed, and relentless pace of the day, there were some real highlights – the talent. I discovered stylists and colourists that deserve to have their work in the national gallery. This was true art. Moving, inventive and ingenious.

Team spirit was evident in the many helpers and friends who had come along to support the entrants. The hair models had not only volunteered their time, but also their beautiful hair with dramatic chops and colour changes commonplace. The runway was littered with loaned designer clothing from local labels. It was this amazing sense of working together that made the day, despite it’s hardships, so memorable and positive.

Would I do it again? Hell yes. But with a packed lunch and empty bladder!

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When traveling, I became really disenchanted with photography. So many photographers all taking the same shots from the same spots. Why even bother trying to come up with something different?

By the time we got to Rome, I had started leaving my “good” camera at home, instead taking the point and shoot, which also happens to be an underwater camera. This pretty much saved me from a total creative burn out. There was something about dunking it in the fountains, and taking it out while it was pissing down rain that made me feel free to enjoy the experience. Okay, and I had a smug little moment watching the tourists rush to shelter their SLRs from the weather while I happily plonked my camera into a puddle. hehehe

This shot is from our trip to the Trevi Fountain. I thought about straightening it up, but decided I like it crooked. Besides, lots of Italy is a bit crooked (architecturally)

Around 3,000 euros are thrown into this fountain each day. That’s a lot of coins!

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model is the beautiful Edwina
www.joobrien.com

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We’ve been traveling around Italy on our honeymoon, mostly by foot. All that walking starts to take its toll so we spent a couple of days in Verona just chilling out in our hotel room and taking it easy. James is better at relaxing than me. I kept wanting to get up to do stuff, so while he slept in, I took some self portraits in the hotel curtains.

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In Venice, you can wear a blindfold while taking photographs. It doesn’t matter where you point the camera, it’s all beautiful. James and I have been avoiding the touristy stuff as much as possible while staying here. Standing in a long queue in the heat and humidity to see the inside of a building for five minutes isn’t exactly our idea of “a holiday” so instead we’ve been roaming the streets with our cameras and stalking the locals to find the best places to eat.

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I had the pleasure of shooting this year’s International Hair Show, Victorian Heat

I haven’t had time to put these through photoshop yet, so a bit rough around the edges.

facebook album with more shots

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#67 - Jo and I are pretty comfortable in any situation. It’s important to be comfortable being yourself, and feeling free to be so. We’re pretty lucky that we have the same easy going nature with each other.

#66 - Jo’s looking very contemplative tonight… I wonder what she’s thinking.

#65 - I remember a lot of my dreams. The most vivid of which involve water somehow… the ocean, boats, swimming, stormy oceans etc… Jo doesn’t remember many of her dreams - but she’s trying.

Tell me your dreams?

#64 - Finally home from a blissfull month of honeymoon goodness in Italy, the first thing Jo wanted to do? Go shopping and do a DailyJo shoot! This was one of the new tops she bought today. Oh, and some nice high heels to go with them.

#63 - Our last night in Rome before heading back to Australia was a nostalgic one. We wanted it to last forever. Jo finally found some new Italian lingere in the last town we visited, and it matched the decor perfectly.