Animal Panels

I started making dog panels about 3 years ago.

The dog panel is an evolution of sorts. I started making fine art panels of my photography in 2006, and in 2008 I was inspired to make a dog panel. So now I do both.

Technique: Inspired by my many street art friends. They go bombing in the concrete jungle and beyond, where they enlarge their art through painting, stenciling & postering, and I simply - do not (on the streets). And not that I haven't ever wanted to enlarge my photos and plaster them around cities - I just don't have the gonads, or maybe the energy I suppose anymore to run from the law. ha. Anyway my panels are photos that I take, work on in the computer, enlarged, oversize printed and then adhered to wooden panels that my husband I make. We adhere using street postering technique, and then finish them with either a poly-acrylic or resin finish.

I love animals, case you didn't know ;) , and I really like dogs. We were on the Dog Whisperer years ago - and my first inspired animal-panel was to make one for Cesar Milan of his dog Daddy. Daddy was old around this time and his day were numbered so to speak so I knew making a panel for Cesar of Daddy would be pretty cool and appreciated.. Daddy was Cesar's best buddy and partner with the whole show. {Its important to document your loved ones, and I really enjoy doing that for others capturing those serendipitous moments that maybe only an owner would see, and I do through my camera.} So I took some photos of Daddy, and well I wasn't that happy with them, as it was a HOT day - Daddy was over it and didn't like the camera - ha. Yeah I got barked at pretty hard by Daddy, scared me - Cesar was laughing. (Even though I own pit bulls - being barked at by one that's pissed off because of something you are doing, well it never seems to feel right,, ha) So my initial plan to make the panel of Daddy was put on hold - until when I could get some better photos - which I did about 1 year later. But this ordeal inspired me and was the beginning.

Further inspired, I saw a photograph taken by Frank Bruynbroek of his dog AJA, a one eyed pit bull. I am in LOVE with this photo, and I love the angle at which he photographed the dog. Its framed as if it is a human portrait. It definitely oozes human qualities, which I think makes the photograph all the more interesting. The direct glance commending your attention, the deep depth of field, and where he chose to crop the shot - looks as if its sorta a doggie head shot. So now combining the dog - animal subject with a signature type framing technique combined with the panel, my fine art dog panels were born.. Not your typical animal portrait is my goal, rather a fine art piece, larger than life - of your best friend with fur.

I finally made 2 panels of my own dogs! I have them hanging in my kitchen, I love them.. My girls are such good models.






Here is one of my good friend Peyton's dog Puddy:





I have a lot of fun making these and meeting new furry faces. They all have such different personalities, just like humans, so unique..

Here are a few other examples:

Hand painted background, and hand painted highlight of certain features. In this photo the dog's tags are painted blue.



This panel does not have a frame around it, rather the image is flush with the box style panel.


"When a dog speaks about love, every word is true." - Frank Bruynbroek

Emmy Lou Harris

Last week I got the opportunity to photograph the performance of legendary Emmy Lou Harris and her band. They were performing for a charity event in La Jolla to benefit the Foundation for the Children of the Californias
which was produced by Redfearn and Associates, a San Diego based production company that I've been working with for a bit now. It was a very cool event for an exceptional cause. Here are some photos from the performance. Such a righteous lady.

Her voice was all to familiar to me, as my father is longtime fan, and I remember listening to her 8 tracks in his truck as a child. I was very happy when I was able to tell him that I met & photographed her ;) - he said he was very proud. pretty cool. Theres nothing like photographing legends - its quaintly magical.

She played a song and I think its called "All I intend to be" (can't find it.... still looking)- which she said she wrote six years after the death of her poodle-mix, who inspired Harris to set up a shelter rescue program on her 50 acre back yard called Bonaparte's Retreat. The song was about a dog, about being a homeless dog, the life of - yup - i know - right up my alley ;) it was truly amazing - I shed a few tears and you would too - find it, listen to it! & let me know when you do. (I just found the song I think it is - you can watch it here - ‘Big Black Dog’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOaUt9vG-qA )

(Bonapartes Retreat) "The rescue is dedicated to providing nurturing foster care for shelter dogs when their allotted time at the shelter has elapsed; to prevent these wonderful animals from being euthanized and to find them permanent, loving homes. Bonaparte's Retreat was created to rescue dogs who were unadoptable from Nashville Humane Association. It has evolved into rescuing dogs who have run out of time at Metro Nashville Animal Control." -BR Website.


Meeting Emmy Lou and being able t photograph her was another all time life moment - and for that I am blessed & thankful!

Celeste Byers - Behind the Scene

This job was assigned to me by an old friend – colleague I suppose of sorts, Seth Combs. I met Seth back around 2005ish when he was working at Riviera magazine. I used to shoot editorials and events for Riviera quite often when they first were launched in San Diego. Then Seth moved on to the San Diego City Beat where he was the music editor. I did a cover shot of San Diego’s Finest ‘Tim Pyles” for their music issue under Seth’s suggestion. I just Googled and found this Tim Pyles YouTube Video of the low budget – American Apparel inspired photo shoot (click here) OMgoodness. That was some good times. I have heard that the Tim Pyles cover shot is many peoples favorite cover shot to date – awesome…. Back to Seth, he has since left City Beat and moved on to Pacific San Diego magazine. Seth contacted me to shoot Celeste Byers for their Oct 1^st 2010 issue.

Arriving to Celeste’s home in Ocean Beach I found a talkative, goofy, intelligent and beautiful young woman who just back from Southeast Asia from a solo mission where she said she went to relax and find inspiration for her artwork. We talked about her trip and her adventures as we loosely defined what we would shoot. So we set up some lights and went for it.

Celeste showed me her artwork and I was utterly amazed. I assumed she was decent, but I was overly impressed by her quality of work for her age. I’ve been around a lot of artists in my day and this by far blew my mind, absolutely gorgeous works.

It felt freeing to be able to capture the essence of the artist for an editorial. I loved it. We probably shot for about an hour, maybe longer than we should of, but we were laughing and having a good time, getting great shots and that’s what being a photographer is all about.

Overall a successful shoot for Pacific San Diego Magazine. Looking forward to doing more.

Keep your eye out for Celeste Byers. I assume her to do very well in the art world.

Photo Teacher

In January of 2010 I started teaching photography at the Art Institute San Diego - Mission Valley. Its just part time, 1 class a week for now. Maybe in the future I'll do more. Its a lot of work and I like to give my 100%, so 1 class for now is perfect. I truly enjoy inspiring and teaching new talent creative tools. I utilize my knowledge, stories and give them the hands on field type experience.. Very rewarding on a personal level. Plus they keep me on my toes, ha. There is no photography major at the Art Institute San Diego. All of my students are in graphic design, animation, web design and advertising majors. My goal with each class is to relate their future careers to real world professional commercial photography.

I officially have 3 quarters finished. About to move into my fourth, Fall. During each quarter my goal is to have 1 field trip to a commercial photographers studio, which we have done so far with
Frank Rogozienski and Lon Atkinson. Then I have had two photographers come in and do presentations. So far we have had Bil Zelman and Chris Straley. These interactions are priceless. I can watch the students wheels turning when they are speaking. I encourage any professional out there to give back. & I am so grateful Frank, Lon, Bil and Chris have.. The students took a lot a way from their presentations, including the big one: inspiration.

At the end of each quarter my students are to do a final project. Here is one of the students blog posts: "Pen 15" in regards to his final project.. They make me very proud!

MHP 'HEALTH' Panel - featured in New Yorker Article

Way back in 2005. Cat Greenleaf and Michael Rey made their way to San Diego to shoot a feature for Discovery’s Travel Channel. The came to the VOICE gallery did a short segmant and then Justin & I spent the day with them touring & filming San Diego. Years later, we still stay in touch. A little over a year ago they commissioned me to create a panel from one of my photos. At the time I had only made 4'x4' panels. The photo they were interested in, was definitely NOT going to fit in a 4'x4' dimension. So we created the first 4'x6' panel to accommodate the photo, "Health". Cat just mailed me this article from the New Yorker Paper in which they were featured in the Home section (click to read full article).
If you check out the yellow highlighted box it says that Cat named one of her favorite things in her home as my "Health" panel - very cool! You can see a photo of it behind them (red arrow). Since they have had this panel in their home, they have introduced it to many of their friends including Keri Glassman of Nutrious Life and Maggie Gallant - Senior Vice President at Rogers & Cowan, both of which have commissioned a Health panel from me. Thanks Cat & Mike, so much!


Cat is currently a features reporter for WNBC, NewsChannel 4 in NYC. She also hosts a segment called Talk Stoop - in which she interviews celebrities passing through NYC on her front stoop. Also she has just launched her new company called LUSTBKLYN. I went to her launch party last night at Fred Segal in LA with Peyton Robertson and Ashley Netzband of Bay Bird Inc along with my bff Jolene (thanks gurl for making the trek with me, yeah we got home at a lovely 3am,,, gotta love when they do construction on the 5fwy in the early morning).

We had GREAT time, it was very cool. So happy I went. & I got to meet their baby Nick for the first time.

Tonight - Photography Show @ Mixture (Little Italy, SD)

"High Voltage" - c. Monica Hoover 2010 4'x6' panel - Newest Panel in the collection. Come see it at the Mixture Photography show - info below.

MIXTURE EVENT+

FEATURING:
Featuring photographic works by local San Diego photographers: David Harrison, Monica Hoover, Anthony Levas, Frank Rogozienski and Lisa Smith.


WHERE:
Mixture - (Home Furnishings)
2210 Kettner Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92101.
* Corner of Kettner & Ivy

WHEN:
6pm - 8:30pm. Public Reception (I have to do a quick photo shoot this evening from 5:30 to 8pm. I'm going to be at Mixture before from 230-430, and then I'll head back around 8:15 if you want to stop by and say hello.)


I first met Misti and Brumbi (Owners of Mixture) back in 2003 / 2004 when they first opened their store. I was working with Riviera Magazine / Dawn Triemstra - to shoot an editorial / lifestyle piece on Mixture. We set up a lifestyle shoot / dinner party including several different people. One of whom was a stranger to me then, but now one of my dearest friends and awesome lady all around - Elise Purcell.. I need to dig up that shoot and scan and post those photos.. So thats how I met Mixture. Since then we've stayed n touch over the years. A few months ago I did a bunch of product, event and exterior photography for Mixture. It was at this point Misti asked me if I would be interested in being apart of this photography show. She said the photographers that they have selected - are all photographers that are 'Mixture family' - who have done work with Mixture over the years. So naturally, I said 'of course! & thank you!"

Interesting - one of the other exhibiting Photographers is Frank Rogozienski. I met Frank for the first time about 5 months ago when I took my Art Institute Photography class to his studio for a field trip. I was referred to Frank from our mutual friend and amazing photographer Bil Zelman.. (Thanks Bil!) - And so now Frank and I are in the same show. Pretty cool how things connect. From what I saw of Frank's fine art "Americana" work - its just gorgeous & worth a look & a purchase if you can!

Hope you can make it tonight! - & for the adventerous ones, the after party: we'll be hanging out at the Ruby Room in Hillcrest 9pm - to watch my husband's band 'Mr. Orange Undercover" play - its a reunion show. They split up in 2007 because the drummer had moved. So its a one night show tonight - thats gonna be rockin!

City Beat Cover Shot

Its really ridiculous the amount of time I let go in between postings. In attempting to get better at it - here we go. Last week I was called by City Beat to shoot the cover for this weeks issue featuring the 8 nominated bands for the San Diego 2010 Music Awards 'Best New Band" . They knew they had 7 to 8 people (1 representative from each band) that needed to be shot. So - after a late night Skype conference call with the Editor David Rolland and Music Editor Peter Holslin, we had come up with a concept that we would set up a studio, 'on location' behind the City Beat building. I would bring a back drop, we would focus more on a tighter shot of the group. Well shoot day rolls around(the next day ;) ), the location wasn't exactly what I imagined, and power was an issue. Then one of band members shows up in an old pickup red truck. I then decided this initial concept must change. The art director Adam Vieyra was on board so we went with it. Shooting large groups of people, and in general established band people, you don't usually have a lot of time for set up and move around. You have to get the shot set up quick, lighting better be solid, and your shooting must be on point, clock is counting down. I generally don't like changing directions - once you have the concept laid down, but in most case scenarios, nothing goes as planned - you gotta role with it - and make kick ass photos. I'm happy with the results - we got a lot of great shots, but here is the final result with the copy. Pick up this weeks City Beat - or visit the article online - click here!

I'm Back

I can't believe its been almost 2 years since I've blogged.. Maybe thats when I got a facebook account - or perhaps thats when I got a full time job with Charlotte Russe. Either way - I'm Back and excited to be. I'm also back to freelance photography & in the process of reopening a studio - its all in the works. I even started a fan page on Facebook for Monica Hoover photography.. Check it & LIKE it! whooo hoo - movin' on up..

On a side note I've been wanting to write a blog about dogs, yes mine of course AND just in general. Blogs are beautiful because they truly are freedom of speech if you let them be - so tune into this one "Trinity and Sandi" - I think it'll be the best one yet.. and maybe a book one day. Cheers.