The Gothtober Countdown Calendar could not be the sweet and deranged haunted haven that it is without the hard work of all its wondrous contributors!
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1 Alison “Fonzie” McHaffie Bergman
2 Rick Orner
3 Odious Ari
4 Roasted Udon Fisher
5 Ananda & Kierston VanDeStefano
6 Jenn Paige Gordon
7 Leah Harmon
8 Nora Rachel Art
9 Paul “Pablo” Gailiunas
10 Moon House Productions
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11 Cristin Pescosolido
12 Sabine Maxine
13 Federico Tobon
14 Danny “JP” Torrance
15 The Witchy Witches
16 Kendra & Miles
17 The Family Chambers
18 Stephanie Abler
19 David LeBarron
20 Barry “Cindy” Morse
21 Mike Rainey
22 Lush Newton
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23 Jenny Walsh
24 Ignis Fatua
25 Kimberly Kim
26 Michael Gump
27 Yuki Okada
28 Del Norte Presents
29 Waller Family
30 The Stig
31 Bona Bones
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DAY 1 – Alison “Fonzie” McHaffie Bergman
Alison Bergman lives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont with Peter (son) and Scott (husband) and our pets–Daisy (dog), Sahsa (cat) and Sam (cat). As we were shooting our movie, a guy in his car rolled down his window and yelled out “Pumpkin Head!!!” and that became our working title. We have two pumpkin heads, so we added an “S.” Happy Halloween. Boo!
DAY 2 – Rick Orner
Rick Orner apparently can’t make up his mind about what kind of artist he is. He has worked in traditional special-effects as an animatronics and prop fabricator, been the production designer on an Oscar nominated animated short, is a graphic designer for netflix/marvel DVD releases, is a 3D animator, ran the lighting for a club in 1990’s Seattle, repaired rides at Universal Studios, was in a Cheerios commercial singing bad karaoke, a shopping center Easter Bunny….. You get the idea.
If anyone reading this has a degree in psychology, please stop by rickorner.com to peruse the evidence and offer a diagnosis.
DAY 3 – Odious Ari
Odious Ari is the world’s best and most famous 103 year old Vaudevillian alive in Los Angeles. He does it all: music, magic, juggling, career counseling, and bloodletting! Go see him perform around L.A., hire him for your terrible party, or hear him on his radio variety show (or podcast, for you youngsters), The Hour of Misery and Light Entertainments. And give him some money! Times is tough!
DAY 4 – Siri “Roasted Udon” Fisher
1st person bio: My name is Siri Fisher. I’m 13 years old. I’ve been drawing for almost 3 years. I like to draw fictional stuff involving human-like characters and monsters, And I usually use traditional mediums, But I like to do digital art as well. 3rd person bio: Siri Fisher is a radical middle schooler who likes to draw monsters and sing German arias. Her favorite animal is the axolotl and favorite food is udon. You can see more of her art on Twitter @roastedudon.
DAY 5 – Ananda & Kierston VanDeStefano
Ananda and Kierston knew when they met that Destiny was giving them both the break they needed to do Great things together!
Kierston an amazing artist and Ananda a chocolatier and baker…It was a match made in Heaven! Gothtober arrived in their lives a couple months later with all the screaming joy that a fun advent calendar Should be! Thanks to the birthing coach JP for helping us create a fun way to express our Love and Passions!
DAY 6 – Jenn Paige Gordon
Jenn Paige Gordon is a wandering queerdo currently scribbling words and art in LA, where she stubbornly refuses to learn to drive. She likes YA Fantasy Fiction and matching through clashing! Visit her on Instagram @evening_creatures
DAY 7 – Leah Harmon
Leah Harmon owned a tea room, sought to make a fortune by devising household gadgets, and, for a spell, ran an antiques auction during which a parrot roosted on her shoulder. She disappeared into a ball of purple chicken fur, and we haven’t seen her since.
DAY 8 – Nora Rachel Art
Nora Rachel is a genderqueer femme visual artist residing in Los Angeles, California. She primarily works with hand-painted vintage porcelain, china, and ceramics. She paints typography, queer imagery, and portraiture onto one of a kind vintage pieces, using these vintage treasures as her canvas. She is interested in the juxtaposition of these delicate and traditionally feminine pieces with sexually explicit and taboo themes. Nora also works with embroidery, watercolor, and pen & ink. Nora‘s work is inspired by femmes, queer communities, radical femininity, and a large dose of salt. Find her past work and work available for purchase at www.norarachelart.com
DAY 9 – Pablo
Pablo is a Canadian who lives in the Pasadena of California. He knows detailed medical stuff, and sometimes drinks a beer. He’s vegetarian and has been known to wear a crop-top t-shirt to show off his handsome bellybutton. His bellybutton won first place at the Canadian bellybutton Regatta 2012.
DAY 10 – Moonhouse Productions
Moon House Productions is Paprika Clark and Emily Hansen. Pepper and Emily met a long time ago in a county far far away while working on a play together (Dracula or Sleeping Beauty, not sure which one came first!) Their interests range from art and literature to science and politics to nature and food. This is their first foray into the world of Gothober.
DAY 11 – Cristin Pescosolido
Cristin Pescosolido is a compositor and visual effects supervisor who likes to make short films in her spare time. Sometimes they are creepy and gross, sometimes silly and not gross at all. You have probably seen her professional work in the film, Rogue One where she made the Death Star look good, the planet Scarif look very glowy and bright. Her other interests include experimental photography, knitting, rugby, keeping early 1970s fords running, and the occasional welding and stained glass work.
DAY 12 – Sabine Maxine
SabineMaxine Lopez is the Owner of Patty Wack Vintage, founder of A Tribe Called Queer, curator of Queer Bazaar. Sabine works as a Stylist, Photographer, and Curator of Clothing+Art+Events. Sabine has been collecting vintage for well over 15 years and decided to turn her passion into a business, with the launch of her Etsy online shop in 2013. She has styled and shot all of her PWV Look Books to date and her work as a stylist was chosen to be featured on the runway at Queer Fashion Week in 2016. She loves collaborating with other artists and plans to do so more in 2017.
DAY 13 – Federico Tobon/Wolfcat Workshop
He wanted to be a writer when he was in high school, but the drawings on the margins and the back of his notebooks kept on getting bigger and stronger. More alive. They ate the words, chewing them with little noises of ink and paper (they had a hard time swallowing the poems but genuinely enjoyed some of the short stories).Federico’s hands sided with the drawings and said they’d much rather spend time making things and pictures than writing words. “What makes us happy will make you happy” they said with satisfied hand gestures. An agreement was forged and Federico makes and draws every day. The hands have kept their promise. Their creations can be seen here: http://wolfcatworkshop.com or on Instagram @wolfcatworkshop.
DAY 14 – Danny Torrance, aka Julianna Parr
Julianna (JP) Parr is the Head Candycorn of Gothtober, one of the programs run by SparkleBlob, the arts non-profit that brings you CraftNight, DocuMART™ and our annual holiday puppet show, to name just a few of our programs. Cassils is a performance artist, body builder and personal trainer from Montreal, Quebec, Canada now based in Los Angeles, California.
DAY 15 – The Witchy Witches
The Witchy Witches are deee-lited to bring you another fantastical Halloween video spell in honor of Gothtober’s 15th birthday! Since 2012 the Witchy Witches have haunted the Gothtober video advent calendar with truly outrageous outrageousness and magical magicness. This year the coven sisters are proud to welcome a new member to the circle of power, teen scream princess of the Los Angeles underground drag scene the one and only Heather Damage who will be joining forces with Guy-a Magique LaMarr, Frizzy Fawcett, and Lady Ass Majick to enact our annual incantational direct to video ceremonial ceremony to save the world!
DAY 16 – Scribble Scrabbles, aka, Kendra & Miles
Kendra & Miles are a mother and son crafting duo. They often can be found making paper crafts and other various objects with their vast collection of google eyes and puff balls. Kendra has a bachelor’s degree from a prestigious school of art and design which has aided her in the mastery of glitter application, however it is Miles who is the creative director and vision behind each project. His unique blending of genres and medium positions the work on the cutting edge of contemporary craft practices.
DAY 17 – The Family Chambers
Christy Chambers lives with her favorite red bearded Ogre and their smelly 13 year old giant in a small village in Germany. She spends her days making art with teenagers and entertaining the locals. For fun she wanders the deep dark fairy tale forests to photograph moss and poisonous fungus. She is also working on a degree in stinky cheese and regional wines.
Brian Chambers lives with the lady above, He failed at being a nihilist and spends his days making video games. He routinely hunts for treasure in the local German forest and prefers beer from Bavaria.
Nigel Chambers lives with the family above and after consulting with his comrades, does not approve the public distribution of his bio as it might compromise the mission.
DAY 18 – Stephanie Abler
By day, Stephanie Abler is an unassuming bespectacled graduate student in speech-language pathology, but by night she is a fluffy video-making Tasmanian devil! This year’s piece is Stephanie’s 12th contribution to Gothtober. Stephanie lives in a modest burrow in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner and two pet rainbows and enjoys swimming, making stop-motion animation, and world travel.
DAY 19 – David LeBarron
David is a storyteller, fabulist and witchypoo. He incorporates myth, fantasy, spirituality and humor into his multi-platformed work. For example: buy his children’s book: When Carrots Ruled to World. Come see his new solo-show The Complete History of Drag in a Few Mo-mo, which is about tour the planet! Or say hi at Akbar over the weekend. Yes, David is as scary and terrifying as his Gothotber work would leave you to believe! www.davidlebarron.com
DAY 20 – Barry Morse
Los Angeles native Barry Morse is an artist working in video, painting, sculpture and performance.
Mike Rainey never figured out what he wanted to be when he grew up, so he does a little of everything. In addition to making short films, he plays cello and electric bass, acts, designs motion graphics, engineers shade structures for Burning Man, fixes computers, cooks, and makes bad jokes.
DAY 22 – Lush Newton
Lush Newton is a visual artist who lives and works in Arcata, California. Newton graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Illustation and Design from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1997. Drawing, painting and creating art have been a passion for her since she was a small child living in rural southwest Missouri.
In 2001 Newton came to Humboldt County, California, where she draws,paints and makes sculpture out of recycled materials. Since 2003 Newton has participated in the Kinetic Sculpture Race, the tri-athalon of the art world. in 2015, Newton completed a 16 foot tall pink polka dotted peg leg pony on wheels that farts bubbles.
DAY 23 – Jenny Walsh
Jenny Walsh is sharpening sticks, licking frogs and playing tricks. Later she’ll be boiling meats, spitting bees and baking treats. Halloween is ne’r a bore, for those who darken Jenny’s door.
DAY 24 – Ignis Fatua
Ignis Fatua is the LA-based video collaborators responsible for YouTube anti-hits “Brains and Ice Cream” and “Spinny Thingy”. They would like to thank whiskey, take-out food, and Charlie the Skull for making this video possible.
DAY 25 – Kimberly Kim
Kimberly Kim is a multidisciplinary Composer, musician, artist and Tibetan sound bowl healer located in Los Angeles. She finds great joy and inspiration in the beauty of nature and animals. This will be her 3rd year participating in the Gothtober calendar archives, she is so excited and honored to be a part of JP The Head Candy Corns macabre ghastly calander!
DAY 26 – Michael Gump
Is also known as Bob Bugs. He makes art the likes of which you’ve never seen, and twice that you’ll never forget. Visit him on Instagram in all of his many forms.
DAY 27 – Yuki Okada
Is probably going to move to Maui, but for now, she’s in LA, doing graphic design and experimenting with her bubbling potions to create recipes you’ll just die for, and then ask for seconds.
DAY 28 – Del Norte Presents
Del Norte lurks in your dreams, Del Norte hears all your screams.
DAY 29 – Waller Family Singers
They sing! They’re a Family! They’re the Wallers!
DAY 30 – The Stig
Find out more about America’s most beloved Basset Hound! He’s THE STIG!
DAY 31 HALLOWEEN! – Bona Bones
MICHAEL SODERSTROM – Gothtober’s Programmer