We all have those “difficult” people in our lives - ones that no matter what you get them, they never seem to be happy. They don’t tell you their unhappy with the gift, of course. They just give you this awkward smile and their eyes kinda glaze over in disinterest. “Oh…thanks. What is it exactly?” is the kind of response you’re likely to get.

Or they act thrilled and the next time you’re over their house, you see your gift, still partially wrapped in a corner. Like they couldn’t be bothered with even putting it in a closet while you visited! Well, My Pop Art is the catch-all solution for these tough ones. My Pop Art guarantees a unique, bold and fun gift that will match just about any personality.

Why? Because Pop Art resonates with people. Hence why its been around impressing us for decade upon decade. Pop Art seems like our art - art for our era. We know the colors, we know the message. And if you send them a photo of a friend or a loved one, Pop Art showcases the brightness and boldness of that particular individual’s personality. Who doesn’t like to be famous in the form of Pop Art? It’s a great chance to show off!

So if you’re wondering what to get grouchy Uncle Pete or your art collecting friend who seems to have everything, let My Pop Art help you out. We can make the simplest photo fanciful and fun. And we can put a smile on just about anyone’s face.

Smiles - guaranteed!

Color has an amazing effect on us, much of which we don’t even recognize. Look around your room. Notice the color on your walls and note how you feel about the color - or more importantly, how that color makes you feel. My Pop Art specializes in Pop Art color therapy. There’s nothing like putting Pop Artwork up on your walls to change your mood for the positive.

Blue rooms, for instance, tend to instill a sense of tranquility. So does pale yellow and lavender. Red rooms can ignite and power the mind. White rooms are cleansing and healing. Brown or green rooms have a restorative effect. Pink can have an invigorating and playful effect on your mood.

Pop Art loves big bold colors and those colors have a particular effect on us as well. Think of walking down the aisle at your local grocery store. You’re bombarded with Pop Art colors without even realizing it. Pop Art was developed, in part, based on the colors used to lure us, as advertisers do - crazy oranges and acid greens all scream “pick me!”

When you put up a piece of My Pop Art on your walls, it can really enliven a room as well as your spirit. Bold, brass Pop Art colors stimulate the imagination and titillate the mind. Pop Art can be creatively inspiring as well. So if you’re needing a “pick me up” or some creative encouragement, order yourself some My Pop Art and see how it can send some inspiration your way!

Your camera is the source of many wonderous things. In order to optimize the services of My Pop Art, you want to ensure you take the best photo possible. This means keeping your camera “happy and healthy.”

If you’re like me, this isn’t the easiest thing. I often forget that I have an expensive, intriquite piece of equipment and find myself tossing my camera carelessly in the front seat of my car or throwing it in a cluttered bag.

Here are some basic pointers to keep in mind when tending for your camera. Remember: when your camera is happy, your pictures are happy:

Take Care of the Lens

The lens is your camera’s window to the world; keep it clean. After all, your pictures can only be as good as the camera’s optics, and a dirty lens can blur your images. That said, you should clean the lens only when necessary–overcleaning it can scratch the glass or remove essential coatings on its surface. To make sure you don’t have to clean the lens more than necessary, never touch its surface or wipe it with anything except real lens cleaning material from a camera store. The modest expenditure for the proper cleaning supplies will pay off in improved longevity for your beloved camera. And when the camera isn’t in use, cover the lens with a lens cap to keep dust and contaminants from collecting on it.

No matter how careful you are, though, you’ll occasionally need to clean your camera lens. Start with a lens brush or a blower to remove the loose-clinging, abrasive particles. Then place a drop or two of lens cleaning fluid on some lens tissue or cloth and clean the lens in a light, circular motion. Don’t put the liquid directly on the lens, and–to avoid scratches–don’t press hard with the tissue.

You can use those same techniques to clean the optical viewfinder and LCD on your camera.

Avoid the Elements

When you use your digital camera outdoors, keep it dry and keep it out of extremely high temperatures. Avoid leaving it in your car, for instance, where temperatures can climb to well over 100 degrees in the summer. If you’re using it out in the sun, you might want to cover it with a light-colored towel when it’s not in use to protect the electronics (and even the adhesives in the assembly) from high temperatures.

Use Safe Storage

If you store your camera for extended periods of time, you can protect it from collecting moisture by sticking one or two pouches of silica gel in the bag or box. Many electronics come with silica gel, so you might want to save those little pouches the next time you buy a gadget. You can also buy them from most camera shops. (Note that silica gel works by drawing moisture out of the air, so it loses its effectiveness in humid conditions. Storing it in a warm, dry location will help it retain or regain its effectiveness.)

Taking good care of your camera is taking care of your investment. Today’s cameras are advanced AND delicate. Do your best to insure its safety. You’ll be rewarded for many years to come!

My Pop Art prides itself in last minute, distinctive gifts for even the most difficult of your friends and loved ones.

Take this example from a client:

“When I bought my great Aunt a gift from My Pop Art, I really thought I was pushing my luck. She’s an art collector. She loves classic oil painted work, watercolors, etc. Her house looks like a museum, full of old school artwork.

I found an old picture of her and decided to send it into My Pop Art so they could do their signature Pop Art work on it. Did I think my Aunt would like it? Not really. It didn’t seem like her style at all. But frankly, I was at a loss for ideas and I thought, well, why not?

The photo I sent of her is wonderful - she looks vibrant, young and a little wild, with a twinkle in her eye. When My Pop Art worked their magic, she looked like she was jumping off the canvas - shocking blues, raging pinks…boy, this would really be pushing the envelope.

I couldn’t have been more shocked when opened up her gift and went wild over it. She hung it up in one of her best spots in her living room. I was so pleased. I think it did a lot for her confidence as well. While those other pieces of art were classic and lovely, this work of art was her. It reminded her of who she was creatively, first and foremost.”

So My Pop Art can really save the day for those difficult people. Remember, people love bright, bold renditions of themselves. They like to see themselves celebrated in the form of Pop Art. They, too, can feel like Marilyn Monroe.

Now that you’ve received your My Pop Art piece, how do you want to frame it? Frames accentuate the piece as well as add a certain panache to your room. And it’s an important decision - your piece of artwork is an investment as well as something that deserves to be showcased properly.

So what are you general guidelines when you hang your My Pop Art?

You could choose to go to a professional framer. This is great for people who are busy and don’t have the spare time. A framer will look at your piece as a whole and decide which frame would best showcase your piece as well as suggesting several others to choose from. They also secure your artwork properly in the frame, which can be an art in and of itself!

If you’re framing yourself, first decide on the room (obviously) then give your room a good, hard look. Which colors are themes in the room? What textures? What “message” does the room send overall? A frame doesn’t necessarily have to match the room. It could be a complimentary color. If you want the piece of art to stand out (as Pop Art often does) maybe a discordant color would work. Or perhaps you want to choose a simpler frame and let the Pop Art do all the talking.

Whatever you choose, you can change your mind later as well. Reframing your artwork gives the art and your room a whole new feel. Feel free to experiment. Framing is a creative choice as well.

When most people think of Pop Art, they think soup cans and Andy Warhol. If asked, most would guess that it originated in the U.S. It actually began in Great Britain and has a more comprehensive history than one would think. It’s nice to know a little more about the piece of artwork you plan on ordering from My Pop Art. It gives you a historical scope in which to place your work.

British Pop was the product of the Independent Group (IG), formed in 1952 whose members resisted the institute’s commitment to modernist art, design, and architecture. They were particularly intrigued by American automobile design, with its emphasis on “planned obsolescence,” the intentional production of goods that would soon require replacement. British Pop artists had optimistic point of view.

They preferably dealt with various forms of direct action - assemblages and happenings rather than comics or AD. In Britain popular culture and technology was just the subject of the popular art.

In America Pop artists reproduced, duplicated, combined, overlaid and arranged the endless visual details that make up American society, introducing shifts and transformations and acting like commentaries. The most famous American Pop artist, Andy Warhol specially had a lifelong interest in movie stars which first surfaced in his art in 1962 when he begun working on portraits of Marilyn Monroe. Warhol attempted to keep his personal fascination with fame from showing through too clearly in his works, preferring to leave their meaning open to the interpretation of viewers.

The Pop and media role was summarized with Warhol’s famous quotation:” In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes”. Television, newspapers, magazines and Hollywood are just producing new images everyday. They are only enlarging the popular culture. Everything is just an image, ready to be consumed. The reality aura of art work is death, the millions copies are the survival of it.

It’s great to learn about the societal impact Pop Art has made as well as learning more information about a fun, lively and socially relevant art form. So when you hang your piece of My Pop Art on your wall, you know you have a story to tell!

If you’re like me, you can’t stand the thought of some of your best photos hiding in some dusty box in your closet or digitally stored on some lonely external hard drive. You certainly lose something when you have to turn on your computer to show someone a nice photograph. There’s a certain visceral experience that gets lost that way.

Conversely, when you send a photo into My Pop Art to have it put on a canvas, it’s a way of memorializing and celebrating your work. Now that photograph becomes a piece of artwork suitable for any wall in your household. You get the feeling of a painted work without the expense, time and effort.

In a pinch, photos on canvas are a great choice for last-minute gifts. All you need to do is find that great photo of a friend or loved one or pet and send it in. My Pop Art will do all of the work from there. It’s also a really affordable price that looks more expensive than it actually is - making it that much more ideal for last-minute gifts. You can choose from a range of sizes as well. And if canvas isn’t quite your style, you might want to explore having your work on watercolor paper, bringing a whole other style to the table.
So it might be time to dig through those old photographs and find the perfect one - one you can showcase permanently on canvas. Your friend and family will love it!

It’s tough to keep up sometimes. There’s so many dates I need to be aware of. Most of them have to do with bills and such…I barely have room for birthdays anymore. But my sister or my mother don’t find this excuse acceptable. They want a gift and a good one. Did I tell you they’re picky as well? Well, they are!

But not to matter. When I discovered My Pop Art, I was eternally grateful. I knew I had found a “one stop gift shop” for any friend or family member. I breathed an audible sigh of relief. No longer did I have to endure an awkward silence on the phone. No longer did I have to hear “Oh…I really don’t think you needed to but thanks…I guess.” Those days were behind me. Now I could relax, knowing that my friends and family members received something truly unique. Truly amazing. Truly artistic and creative. And those moments of embarrassment were behind me.

If you need to save face like me, then tune into My Pop Art. You’ll soon find an online friend who’ll make sure those moments of awkwardness are far behind you. You won’t be afraid of calendars anymore. You will relax, knowing an online company has saved you from the manipulative moments of the most guilt inducing family member. You’re free, you’re free…and remember, you can just get a gift certificate. You don’t even have to bother with anything more intricate than that. You are officially off the hook. Run!

When we think My Pop Art, we think of a unique website that offers a myriad of gift-giving possibilities. And when we think Pop Art, we tend to think of Andy Warhol, soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. And while Warhol figures predominantly in the Pop Art scene, there are scores of other artists who have paved the way in this arena as well.

So before you purchase your first piece of My Pop Art, its fun to explore the history of other well-known and recognized pop artists. That way, when you look at your artwork, you see history as well.

Let’s look at Roy Lichenstein, a fantastic trailblazer who produced scores of Pop Art masterpieces:

He was born in New York City in October 1923. His parents were middle-class and he described himself as having had a quiet and uneventful childhood. Though art was not taught as part of the curriculum at his high school, in his junior year he started to draw and paint as a hobby. His first subjects were jazz musicians (the product of a youthful enthusiasm for their music), and his work was affected by Picasso’s Blue and Rose Period paintings, which he knew from reproductions.

After years of schooling and advancement in his artistry:

In 1960 Lichtenstein was appointed Assistant Professor at Douglas College at Rutgers University of New Jersey, which put him within striking distance of New York. He attended a number of early ‘Happenings’, but did not participate in them actively. These contacts revived his interest in Pop imagery, and a more immediate stimulus was provided by a challenge from one of his sons, who pointed to a Mickey Mouse comic book and said; ‘I bet you can’t paint as good as that.’ In 1961 Lichtenstein produced about six paintings showing characters from comic-strip frames, with only minor changes of colour and form from the original source material. It was at this time that he first made use of devices which were to become signatures in his work - Ben-Day dots, lettering and speech balloons.

Lichtenstein took in his comic-strip paintings unannounced to the new Leo Castelli Gallery, and was almost immediately accepted for exhibition there, in preference to Andy Warhol, who had started doing similar work. His first one-man show with Castelli in 1962 launched him on a career which was thereafter uniformly successful. In 1963 he moved from New Jersey to New York, having taken leave of absence from his job at Rutgers; in 1964 he resigned from teaching altogether. In 1966 he showed at the Venice Biennale, and in 1969 he was given a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, which later toured America. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1970, and then moved to Southampton, Long Island, thus following a pattern set by many successful American artists.

So when you buy your next piece from My Pop Art, remember, Pop Art has a rich history…beyond Andy Warhol! And when you partake in ordering a piece, you become part of the rich heritage that is Pop Art.

We discussed some of the basics regarding hanging your new My Pop Art piece in your home. Now we’ll get a little more specific. Hanging your art correctly is almost as important as the artwork itself. If you don’t set the piece correctly, you’re not doing the most you can to optimize not only the artwork itself, but the look of your room.

You don’t have to be an interior designer but it is helpful to know specifically how to hang your My Pop Artwork so its shown off in all its bold glory! Here are some more pointers to consider when hanging:

In general, artwork should be hung so that the center point of the picture or grouping is at about eye level for the average person. While this won’t be possible in every situation, it’s a good guideline to keep in mind.

Another technique to remember is that a grouping of pictures should be thought of as one unit. Test an arrangement of pictures by laying everything out on a large table (or on the floor), playing with combinations until you hit upon one that works. Laying them out on paper is even better since you’ll be able to trace around each object and determine where picture hangers should be installed. Tape the paper up on the wall as a template for picture hangers and you’ll be done in no time.

You can also lay out pieces of scrap molding (or tape) onto the floor to form the “outside” boundaries of a picture grouping — the measurements within which the smaller pieces of art will be set. This is useful when a particular wall has certain boundaries that must be observed (such as a chair rail, windows, heating vents, and the like) and helps keep your arrangement the proper size.

Now that you know some of the specifics, hang your Pop Art piece correctly and with pride. Its bound to show off any room in your house.