Lauren Panepinto

I don’t know what good deeds I did in my life to deserve this level of homage (and insane detail) but I’m so honored. And maybe a tad bit concerned. Thank you to @kcpooleartists for going above & beyond on this Art Director Barbie Project 💚 and thank you to @marcscheff for escorting her from Santa Fe to NYC

Made it to Naples with Mompinto! Prepare for Catholic Death Cults, NSFW Pompeii artifacts, some family history & many Amaro Spritzes!

Scenes from a pretty spectacular birthday 💚 thanks to everyone who helped make it great!

I’m a big fan of @noblesigns & the @nysignmuseum and Jo & I were super excited to take a class by visiting expert @letter_boy on Block & Casual lettering. Brush lettering is SO hard but so much fun. Didn’t even notice that we stood on our feet for 6hrs on both Sat & Sun. Peter @letter_boy is a fantastic teacher & would absolutely recommend classes with him! It was also great to see how many signs @nysignmuseum has been able to save from demolition. Especially the New York Adorned sign, of personal significance, as I got my first few tattoos there!

I got to take a whirlwind trip to Oahu last week because @stjohnfrizell was asked to attend the @hifoodwinefest ! (His cocktails were the best ofc) 🥃🧉🍹 We packed a lot into our 2 free days! Lots of Spam Musubi, Poke, Malasadas, and amazing tropical fruit. We made it up to the North Shore & we visited the most famous surfing waves in the world at Banzai Pipeline. We hiked up Waimea Valley, we even saw the beach from the famous scene in “From Here to Eternity” 🌊🏄🏻‍♀️🎬 An especial thank you to @whiskysquid , who was the best local expert to wander the streets of Waikiki with on Halloween and get cocktails at @greenladycocktailroom & @vintagebookshawaii ! 🌺🌋🏝️

Street art in Naples (just like in Palermo) is such an interesting dialogue bw the neighborhood religious shrines (definitely an expression of both Catholic and Pagan traditions) & modern protest art. Sophia Loren is a patron saint of the city. And there’s as much Maradonna as there is Madonna (Naples is football crazy). There’s an artist doing Neapolitan Tarot posters, and I found so many, I hope they do a whole deck.

Took a quick trip to Naples to practice my Italian and visit some family history. It was a whirlwind trip but got to do some amazing things I hadnt been able to do in previous trips, like see Herculaneum (the OTHER city buried by Vesuvius when Pompeii was destroyed) and get to know the locals part of the city better. ☕️🥃🍝 Had incredible meals at @januarius_ristobottega & @umberto1916 , great drinks at @libreriaberisionapoli , @barrilnapoli , and an incredNegroni Carousel at @lantiquario_napoli . 💀🌋🇮🇹 The biggest parts of my Italian heritage are from Naples & Palermo so it’s been a great thrill to visit them so close together & compared to. They both have incredible food, art, markets, museums, street art, and function at incredibly loud volume (lol) but while Palermo has the Arabic/Northern African influence, Naples has this dark Catholic Gothic sensibility from its years under Spanish rule. Spending time in Naples feels SO comfortable as a New Yorker, bc the biggest parts of what you’d think of as NY Italian came directly from Naples.

The Dadpinto annual roadtrip has made it out of NY and into PA. First stop was the Big Coffee Pot in Bradford, and the @originalzippo and @wrcase Factory & Museum. ☕️ 🔥 🔪 Then we drove to the Kinzua Viaduct state park, which has a railroad bridge taller than the Statue of Liberty, that was a wonder of engineering in the 1800s, but got taken out by a tornado & was turned into a park & skywalk. 🚂 🚂 🌪️ We stayed at the @historicsummitinn with an incredible view and I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets of my life. Next morning we got up & saw Frank Lloyd Wright’s most famous building @visitfallingwater . Pictures of both that sunset and Fallingwater don’t do them justice. That’s the furthest west we’re going this trip, turned around & headed back thru PA now. A few more stops left before NYC!

On to Day 4 & 5, the Upstate NY portion of the trip - and the car history part. We went back to Saratoga Springs for the Corvette exhibit at the @saratogaautomuseum - but I think really Dadpinto just wanted another cap steak at @saltandchar in the @theadelphihotel . 🛞🏁🥩 Then we drove on to Watkins Glen, the home of the first US Grand Prix race (in 1948). Had a great time at the @imrrc research library, and then we set out to drive the 6miles of the original race. The original track was just on streets, but then the cars got so fast it was unsafe so they built a special track in 1952 - which is the basis for the Nascar race today. We stayed the night at the famous @senecalodge where all the race teams stay, and had drinks at the famous bar there, which is dripping in 75+ years of race history. They also have the US field archery championships there, hence all the arrows. If you win the tournament you get to shoot an arrow in the wall behind the bar. 🎯 🚗 🛞 We also met the infamous “Finger of the Finger Lakes”… story in the last frame 😳

Well the world is on fire but we’re on the road again for the annual Dadpinto Summer Roadtrip! We headed out of NYC and hit New Haven for burgers at @louislunch_ct , then stayed the nite in Providence at the old Biltmore, which is now the @graduatehotels Providence. We ❤️ prowling around historic hotels. Thank you to @hrabotalesserart for the rec for the @oberlin_pvd , it was great. 🚙 🚙 🚙 Then on to Boston! The spark that set us off in this direction was the chance to see @amazingroyalcrowns for the first time in over a decade & they were fantastic! It was so nice to see so many faces from back in my punk era (not that it ever ended). And it was fun to bring Dad, he got a kick out of his first ska/punk show, lol. We also had dinner at tiki place @wusongroad . Great night. 🔥 🎶 🎸 The next day we had to check out Fenway, of course, then had drinks at an old fave in a new place, @eskdboston . Thank you to @cannonjacks for showing us @equalmeasurebar 🍸🥃🍹 We prowled around @bostonu campus, and I paid my respects to the very first place I took a graphic design class. I ended up transferring to SVA, but Boston was where I figured out that I was a graphic designer at heart. Stopped to say hi at @comicopia where I used to work in 98-99. Shopped at the @garmentdistrict which thankfully hasn’t changed at all since 1997 🩷. Then had a great dinner @foxandknife and drinks @hecatebar . Back on the road tomorrow!

Istanbul Highlights: Book & Paper 🖌️📕🧿 Was super excited to try Turkish Paper Marbling (Ebru) & took Mom to a class at Gallery Les Arts Turcs & I’m in love with the process - so meditative bc it forces you to give up perfectionism & control. From the Ebru & the incredible jeweled books at the Turkish & Ottoman Museum to the Calligraphy Museum at Topkapi Palace, this is a town that reveres books and writing as much as it reveres its cats!

Istanbul Highlights: Cats & Markets (which occur simultaneously) 🐈🍅🐟 You cannot overestimate how much free reign and care the cats are given in this town. There are cat food vending machines & it’s common to see little piles of cat food people leave next to napping cats for them to wake up to. Every market stall had a cat keeping an eye on things. The cats even walk into museums & curl up on ancient statues. It’s said that Constantinople fared better in the waves of Black Plague due to its cat population & they clearly have enjoyed a hero’s residence since.