Grim Fairy Galleries Opens

I'm thrilled to announce that I've opened Grim Fairy Galleries to the world. Grim Fairy Galleries is truly unique art presented in a truly unique way. I approached Fantasy Artist Jasmine Becket-Griffith late last year with a unique idea, license your 2d work to me and let me transform it into limited edition 3D Enchantographs. What the heck is an Enchantograph you might ask, well it's a process I've refined that takes the 2d work of our artist and explodes it into 3D with so much depth the image leaps right off the surface. She agreed to let me do a sample for her , and as they say the rest is history. If your not already familiar with Jasmine's work, you need to be, her work can be seen in Hot Topic, art.com , eBay and hundreds of specialty stores around the world.

We'll be adding more of her work and also the work of some of the most visionary artist working today. Visit the gallery today and see what's new

Are They Really Haunted?

When you purchase a Haunted Portrait from me take a look at the return address

Haunted Portraits
Norm Lanier
23503 Lutheran Cemetery Road
Tomball, TX 77377

Tomball Lutheran Cemetery is a real cemetery just a short funeral march from my front door. Now if that wasn't perfect enough for a business named Haunted Portraits then how about the fact that some say it really is haunted.

In this article in The Houston Chronicle Ghost hunter Cathi Bunn says they are and she has the videos and audio to prove it. Cathi is one of Houston's most high profile ghost hunters. Armed with a digital camera, digital camcorder with infrared night vision, a digital voice recorder, a laser temperature meter, an electromagnetic field meter and a flashlight she scours Houston's historic areas in search of ghost. On the night she visited Tomball Lutheran Cemetery with her other ghost hunting buddies she addressed the spirits in hope that they would answer. She asked" Is there anyone out there that can hear us." Complete silence. She then asked "Would you like to tell us your name" A faint cracking noise can be heard and then out of the silence "Mike". She said when she heard it it freaked her out. She had never heard or recorded such a clear response. Cathi also has videos filmed that night with objects clearly moving in front of the camera. So if you ever have something strange happen with your Haunted Portrait, just maybe it came with a little extra something :-)

A Note From my Customer

Like everything in life, when you are exposed to something every day, like my Portraits, it's easy to forget how creepy they can really be. I recently received a letter from one of my new collectors about her experience with the "Mary" HauntedPortrait she purchased

"Hi Norm, Last week I received the "Haunted Picture" I had ordered. Even though it has only been hanging on my wall for a few days, it has already paid for itself in entertainment ! I hadn't said anything about having the picture, I just put it in a nice, old fashioned frame & hung it on the wall. When my "better half" came home from a rough day at work, he fixed his usual drink to relax, however 1 wasn't enough that night, & he fixed himself a second one. Half way through the second drink, he noticed the picture on the wall. When he asked me who it was, I told him it was my Grandmother's sister, then watched him from the corner of my eye. When he got up to look at the picture closer, the picture changed." When he got right up to it, standing in front, it was just fine. He started to walk away, then turned for a last look, when she was suddenly a vampire again ! He never said a word, just went into the kitchen, poured out the rest of his drink & told me he was going to bed early as he wasn't feeling well ! He still doesn't know what really happened. I haven't laughed this much in years. Thanks so much- Diane.

Thanks so much Diane. If you have a story about your HauntedPortrait or a picture of your HauntedPortrait hanging on your wall I'd love to share it with the rest of my collectors. Send me an e-mail norm@hauntedportraits.com

The Omnimover

You may know them as Doombuggies from The Haunted Mansion but actually they were invented for the Disneyland ride Adventures Thru Inner Space in 1967. I've recently added a copy of the Patent that Disney was granted for the Omnimover in 1971 to my Haunted Mansion Blueprint page

Let me be honest here, relatively speaking, slapping some fangs on a picture and making the eyes glow is pretty simple. It's also pretty boring. When I was first getting my feet wet doing this sort of art, it's what I did, Mary, The Count and Florence. As I pushed myself my work started to become more complex with complete back stories that added an extra dimension to the characters. Now I've added another dimension to my work by doing Haunted Paintings. Inspired by the Ghost Ship Painting in The Haunted Mansion I am proud to introduce The Phantom Ship. This is by far the most complex changing portrait I've done. As you can see from the close-up photos, the amount of detail this work has is amazing. I look at changing portraits every day but even I was awed by this transformation. Because of the amount of detail this work is only being released in a 16x20 size. To order your Phantom Ship go to

I think it would be an understatement to say that most of customers love Halloween. My family and I have an annual Halloween party and nothing gives me a bigger kick then scaring or baffling my guest with props I've made. That's how I got started doing HauntedPortraits. I recently had the pleasure of meeting Joe Pfeiffer through the sale of one of Portraits. Joe is the author and illustrator of Give Them a Real Scare This Halloween: A Guide to Scaring Trick-Or-Treaters, & Haunting Your House, Yard or Party This book is stuffed with great Halloween props, decorating ideas and some of the best spooky cartoons around. Joe has agreed to share some of his cartoons with my readers and I know you will enjoy them as much as I do.

I visited Walt Disney World (WDW) way back in 1973. Back then WDW was just the Magic Kingdom, but oh what a Magical place it was. Of all the things we did at the park that crowded Easter weekend, the one that was truly awe inspiring was the Haunted Mansion. In my opinion this is the finest work of Disney Imagineering ever created. I had the joy a few years ago of sharing the Haunted Mansion and it's resident 999 ghosts with my daughter and now it's her favorite also. As a tribute to the Haunted Mansion I have a page on my website with blueprints from The Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion. To my knowledge it's the only place on the Internet where you can view this collection. If you haven't had a chance to look at them you can find them here www.hauntedportraits.com/Haunted-Mansion-Blueprints.htm, and if you haven't looked recently we've just added a few more. Here's a bonus for my subscribers only, I've created an mp3 Haunted Mansion Ringtone that you can find here www.hauntedportraits.com/hmringtone.mp3 You will need a cell phone that supports mp3 ringtones and a means to send it to your phone. This will vary depending on your phone and it's capabilities. Enjoy and feel free to share it with others that share our love of the Haunted Mansion.

Hey guys, I thought I would start sharing some of the previous articles I've written for my newsletter and other news related with Haunted Portraits. Enjoy.

RIP

Norm Lanier
Artist/Mortician
www.hauntedportraits.com