Target loves Audrey!

Living in Southern California (again) means having to drive, lots of freeways, and access to Target stores again. I've been going a lot lately -- hey, I need things and they have them -- and I always see at least one Audrey portrait hanging in the art section. Today I went to a different Target, because variety is the spice of life, and found this cute tote!

And here's a close-up:

Of course, I bought it. :) It's pretty affordable at $12.99 and has a smaller pocket on the inside, making it handy when you need a beach bag or market bag that will still hold your wallet and keys and other loose ends. If you can't get down to a store in your area or just prefer shopping online, the bag is available online here. They also have loads of Audrey tees I haven't seen or shared with you yet, along with some different wall art. You can see all "Audrey" search results here. Not on the website? This art, also found today:

Audrey in Love

There's a Spanish artist named Paco Chica who specializes in pop art. I received an email from him recently, and he's done an installment featuring Audrey Hepburn called "Audrey in Love". I've posted all of them here (my favourite to the left), but please feel free to visit his website to learn more about him, see other pieces he's done, and contact him if you like what you see.











Also, good news for U.S. Audrey fans! Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's has finally been released, after a four month delay. Still no explanation as to why, but at least it's here. You can read more about it or order a copy for yourself here, if you'd like.

more art

Audrey Hepburn desktops, icons and art!

Some fantastic news for you! The Fabulous Audrey Hepburn now has exclusive, custom- made Audrey Hepburn pop art for your enjoyment. There are also user icons (for message boards and instant messenger programs) and desktops of the special art for you to use, as well. These pieces are not watermarked or in any way stamped with our name, logo, or web address, because I personally think it's a little tacky. But that doesn't mean you can turn around and claim it as your own! All I ask is that you give credit where it's due. If someone tells you they like the piece, just tell them where you got it from. That's all! If this works well, there will be a lot more art where that came from. To see all of the new art, go to the multimedia page. There are also instructions on how to change a picture to your desktop if you need them. Oh, and if you have any requests of pictures you'd like to see pop art-style, let us know!

In other news, if you're in upstate New York for Valentine's Day, you may want to consider catching a screening of Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's actually playing Saturday, Sunday and Monday as well, if you've already made plans for V-day. You can read more information here, and more about the organization and the other films they screen here.

Audrey at a theatre near you; Edie Sedgwick and stencils

First up, a few theatres in America have been publishing their upcoming attractions on line and making it into Google news, so you might be able to catch Audrey on the silver screen soon!

San Diego's recently renovated North Park Theatre will be running a film festival called "Fabulous Faces of the Fifties." Audrey is, of course, one of those fabulous faces, and if you're in the area, Roman Holiday will be playing January 11-14. For more information, go here.

At the end of this month -- December 29, to be exact -- the Paramount in Ashbury Park will be playing My Fair Lady. They're actually going to be showing quite a few good movies this month, including Cabaret, so if you're in the New Jersey area, definitely check it out.

Next up, I'd been looking for some Audrey-related crafty goodness to share, but there aren't many really good things to share. I did, however, find a stencil website with some good Audrey stencils free for the taking, so if you want to add a little Audrey to your walls, t-shirts, or the sidewalk*, click here.


*Note: we don't condone grafitti here at Fab Audrey, but we are based in a city where grafitti is held as a valid artform, and Audrey stencils are found throughout the city. So if you live in an open-minded place where public works of art on public property are treated as such, then it's your call.

And speaking of stencils, have you always wanted Audrey's thick, exotic eyebrows but were unsure of how to go about it? Never fear, there are eyebrow stencils for that! With the stencil, you can either brush in dark powder to darken light brows, pencil in brows in a particular shape, or use the stencil as a plucking guide to shape your brows. Here is the page with Audrey's stencil and the Sabrina-era picture of her which inspired the shape, and the bottom of the page has a link to directions on how exactly this thing works. It's not a bad idea, actually!

Speaking of thick eyebrows, Edie Sedgwick and the upcoming film about Edie, Factory Girl, has been popping up a lot lately in conjunction with Audrey. If you're not familiar with Andy Warhol and his art and the Factory, this might take some explaining, but you're better off just doing some quick reading and coming back. So Factory Girl is about Edie's work with Andy Warhol and her supposed relationship with Bob Dylan, which he denies to this day, though he is renamed in the film for fear of being sued -- which is happening anyway. While I still don't know a whole lot about Edie, she was compared a lot to Audrey in her day and even now, with people saying that Edie had Audrey's vulnerability and charm. If this makes you curious about Edie or the film, I definitely encourage you to learn more. You can read a little more at the IMDb page for the film, which even references Holly Golightly, and you can see the trailer here.

some refreshing reality; you are an artist

Just hours after complaining about girls using Audrey out of context as "thinspiration," I find an article today that interviews teen girls and their opinions on the weight obsession. The entire article is good, and one girl actually quotes Audrey as justification for accepting yourself as you are! It doesn't get any better than that. To read the whole article, click here.

Next up is an article about women today, and their lack of lady-like appeal. Some may even be offended at this article, since it is written by a man and therefore might be viewed as sexist or misogynistic, but it was all a matter of circumstance. He was watching Audrey in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and during that viewing came across . . . well, let's say someone not so genteel. It led him on a tangent wondering what has changed in women in roughly 50 years, and if it really is all for the better. To read more, go here.

Last up for today: have you searched for Audrey on eBay auctions lately? Don't do it regularly, it's very habit forming! Trust me. :) But if you have been on lately, you might have noticed a rash of pop art wall hangings of her that are selling from about $12-20, depending on size. They're big and look like something Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein would have made. I just wanted to warn you all: DON'T BUY THEM! Sure, they look cool, and you may even really want one or three to have around your home. But please DON'T waste your money on these. Why? Because you can make them yourself, for free!

You see, there's this free program called Rasterbator. Unfortunate name, but what can you do? Anyway, you can use it either online, or download the whole thing, and both ways are free. All you do is enter in any picture on your hard drive, choose how big you want to make the picture (from 1 page to 500, maybe even more), whether you want it in its original colour, black & white, or in a selected monochrome, and Rasterbator will generate your page(s) in PDF format to print out and hang. Some people frame each page or a line of pages to make cool juxtapositions and make their collages look a little more artsy, some just tape them straight to the wall. Either way, it makes you an instant pop artist and all you have to pay for is the paper to print it on (and ink cartridges, if you print enough). For example, I just made two versions of the same picture (one sheet version): click here.* This was used with the photo's natural colours, as you can see. All I have to do is tell my photo program to fit this onto one page, print, and I have art! The extra gap at the bottom of the picture is just what would be white space at the bottom of the sheet of paper it would print on, since the photo is square and my paper isn't.

Now see how it looks in monochrome: click here.* Now do you see why it's ridiculous to pay so much for a few sheets of printed paper? Anyone can do this! In fact, I used this program to decorate my whole apartment (barring one framed Italian Funny Face poster). I must warn you though, it's highly addicting once you get the hang of it.

P.S. Feel free to download the two pictures above to print and try them out for yourself. Just click on them to see them full-sized, so you get a high quality print out.

*edit: Due to complaints that the large quality pictures were slowing down the page too much, I've changed them to text links. Clicking on the links will take you to a full, high quality picture that you may download directly and use.