Fire in the Hole

A group art show featuring artists from around the world!

Scenario: Each artist received a toy grenade to create whatever they'd like out of it! The results - AMAZING!

Be sure to come check out this show including the following artists, curated by D. Ryan Allen! Click HERE to go to the event invite!

D. Ryan Allen

Satanimals

Kimb Kreatures

Super Sandbagger

Michelle Holley

Brent Houzenga

Amy Wendt

Jeff Bonker

Amy Putney-Koenig

Dan Koenig

Ace

Kyle Thye

Melanie Johnson

Jeff Zelnio

Holly Jensen

Chris Roberts

Honey Grodt

Van Holgren

Greg Hel

Day Corrosive

James Holloway

Moses Jaen

Chad Stover

Christie Casey

Jacqueline Roate

Katie Anne Kelly

Shawn Palek

Anna Frederick

Happy Birthday To US!

One year ago today, we opened up our little shop to the public for the first time. I can’t believe that just one year later we’ve endured the worst winter in 30 years, the worst summer of rain since the 1800’s, our business flooded not once, not twice but FIVE TIMES and yet we’ve managed to keep our doors open thanks to our amazing friends, customers and insanely generous strangers. It’s such an honor to mean enough to a city that they will help us out when we are down - whether that means baking super creepy baked goods, pitching in with cleaning, painting, ripping out carpet, making donations in our honor on top of shopping in our creepy little shop.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you who have gone out of their way to care, shop, help and organize events in our name. We love and adore each and every one of you for caring about us and our success. Here’s to another year!!

Zombie Walk was a Success!

MANY THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO SHOWED UP TODAY! WE HAD SUCH A SUCCESSFUL DAY!

We had over 300+ undead show up to walk to raise awareness for the Central Iowa Shelter and Services raising well over $300 as well as hundreds of pounds of donations including toothbrushes, soap, shampoos and other items needed for the homeless shelter!

A more accurate money and donation count will be announced by Dallas J. Moore by Monday so please be sure to visit DesMoinesZombieWalk.com for more info!

Many thanks to Erin and Gary Wickering for helping hand out the raffle tickets and many thanks to all our make-up artists who got the zombies ready to go! Lenore Orosco, Shawn Palek and Meagan Chapman! Also - JOB YAMEN for donating and drawing the coolest raffle prizes ever!

Also many thanks to the Mid Iowa Rollers, The Des Moines Derby Dames, Carrie Latovic, Sleepy Hollow, Flarecaster, Dorothea’s Closet, Ryan Gillispie, Chad Wiley & Metro Concerts Live, the minister that made the sweet biohazard decore, Kyle Grubbs and MORE! If I missed anyone. I apologize! I just wanted to get the pictures posted before the zombie horde swarmed down on me!!!

We Flooded. Again.

Thursday night brought us an inch and a half of rain in less than an hour. Being downtown and less than a block away from the Des Moines River, the storm sewer drains backed up with such force that it knocked holes in FOUR different spots in our old building pipes, flooding our shop for the FIFTH time since June.

With a bulletin on Facebook we managed to get some help from our tried and true friends (thanks you guys!!!) and we got the water sucked up and the shop cleaned just in time for our Skeletales show on Saturday.

However, our headaches are not done. Now we have plumbing issues to fix that will require our shop to undergo some serious demolition in order to get to the pipes. AGAIN. So please excuse our mess while we get our flooding issues finally fixed and in order. Be sure to stop by and say hello and BUY something as we really need your support in order to stay open. Things have been insanely rough through out our first year (worst winter in 30 years and then the wettest summer since the 1800’s) and we’re barely able to scrape by at this point.

Despite our very successful bake sale in August, the money quickly went toward getting us out of our $750 hole and paid our September’s rent. Of course now with more flooding, disastrous repairs and more clean-up our sales are slow and we need every penny that we can get.

The 2nd Annual Des Moines Zombie Walk

It’s creeping up on us fast and we can’t wait! The 2nd Annual Des Moines Zombie Walk is going to be amazing! Please don’t forget that this is a CHARITY event for the Central Iowa Shelter and Services. Please bring an item from their needs list to the event, if you can afford to do so. It is not a requirement to participate but would be much appreciated if you did! If you want to read more about who started this event, go check out Dallas J. Moore’s Official Website DesMoinesZombieWalk.com!! Finder’s Creepers will be donating 10% of all their sales that day to the Central Iowa Shelter and Services as well!

THE PLANS:

11:00 AM - 2:00 PM: We will open our doors to the public so that everyone can partake in a Zombie Walk Warm-Up including: Zombie Caricatures by Job Yamen, Zombie Body Painting/Air-Brushing by Shawn Palek and Gore Effects by Lenore Oresco! Horror movies will be playing on the big screen for your enjoyment.

Each of these individuals will be charging a small fee for their creep-tastic services but each artist will be donating a huge chunk of their earnings to the Central Iowa Shelter and Services.

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM: All of the zombies will gather and you will do the Zombie Walk through downtown Des Moines. Each zombie will be marked for identification and given a raffle ticket for a chance to win prizes at the end of the event. For a detailed map of the walk, click here. Have fun, be safe and behave! Some of you will be back a little sooner than others, so feel free to hang out and watch horror movies until the raffle!

5:15-5:30 PM: We will be holding the raffle promptly at 5:15 that evening. So far we’ve gotten awesome prizes donated from Sleepy Hollow Sports Park, Mid-Iowa Rollers, Des Moines Derby Dames and many of the artists who are featured in the art gallery are donating some items for the raffle as well. At this time, we will be accepting cash donations for the Shelter as well!

One Year Anniversary is Creeping up....

I can’t believe that just one year ago, we were slaving away painting this place, in order to open the doors to Finder’s Creepers on Halloween night!! It’s been a crazy year and it definitely hasn’t been the easiest one, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. It feels good to have so much support from the community and we appreciate each and every one of you.

In our first year we endured many downfalls (I won’t name them all) but the worst being the fact that we flooded in June. I thought at first that we would have to close our doors but with thanks to our friends, we have remained open by the skin of our teeth!

Since we have big plans on Halloween night this year, we decided to celebrate our on year anniversary a little early! On October 16th, we plan on having a Group Art Show that will be open to the public from 6-8pm and then we will close our doors for a private celebration for the people who have helped make our first year successful.

Many thanks to Job Yamen for drawing up the coolest One Year Anniversary Flyer!

Kyle X Presents....

Well - this would have been updated sooner, by my Blahhhg kept screwing up on me. Considering the first “movie night” already started last weekend (we watched Blood Feast and Blood Freak), I suppose I should announce THIS week’s movie titles......

We will be watching “Surf Nazis Must Die!” and “Shockwaves”. Be here a little early. The movie starts at 5:00 on the nose. Bring treats to share if you wish. Bring a chair to sit on. We will have popcorn available at no cost. Bring your own drink - NO BOOZE. This is movie watching time!!!!! The $5 donation is just a suggestion and not required. We are still trying to recover from what the summer flooding did to our pocket books, so every little bit counts!

Join us! And now.. a word from our sponsor....

To all those attending my festival this month: I just want to let each and every one of you to know that you will not be dissappointed. In fact, I would guaren-damn-tee it or your money back but it's a free show... so you get nothing, you greedy weirdos.

Just a few reminders, though:

- If you can't make the $5 suggested donation, it would also be acceptible to bring some snacks to share with everyone! Remember: sharing is caring, being selfish is... doucheish.

- This will be held in the basement, so if you want to bring a chair or a pillow, that's great, but nothing too rediculous like those lounging foldable chairs… we have to make room for everyone!

- All these films will be rated “R”, so please don’t bring the young’uns… you don’t want to pay for years of psychological scarring do you?

- And finally: please no booze and be respectful to the store we’re doing this shindig for!

That’s it for now! Be sure to join us on Sunday Sept 5th for our first blood –soaked, weird ass double feature of “Blood Feast” and “Blood Freak”!

Yours in the name of H.R. “Bob” Dobbs:-Kyle X.

Skeletales

Atlanta-based artist and Iowa native, Andy Imm, reveals an art installation about the missing. “Skeletales”, offers an intense system of mixed media. Through sculpture, assemblage, and performance, Andy brings to life an awareness of “a silent society” lost in our media saturated news print. By creating technological totem memorials and mask identities, he alerts us to a ritualistic form of communication. The use of age-progressions and afterimage ageplay portrays a future that now exists in present, a collage of missing identities that resurface as lasting connections to the past.

As a math educator, Andy illustrates the ability to reveal our social

acculturation. He taps into many intriguing stories of the time. By

investigating a possible manhunt, murder mystery, targeted kidnap, or urbanprime time crime he reveals the exploration of a dystopian reality.

Woody Cornwell, the founder of internationally acclaimed Eyedrum, says, "Andy is expressing a difficult and sensitive narrative to the audience... It's personal and deeply felt. Should it be an emotionally filled anger or love of loss? Yes. Loss is tragic but of course it's that... I feel that's what his art is approaching."

This anthropomorphic and phantasmagoric exhibition will provide free art giveaways, celebration, reflection rooms, and emotional release for the whole community - a cathartic family experience.

INFO: Art Stop, Saturday, September 25th, 6-10 p.m., performance @ 8 p.m.

Finder’s Creepers

515 18th Street

Des Moines, IA 50309

(515) 288-9815

Des Moines Zombie Walk!

Thanks to Dallas J. Moore, we will be hosting the 2nd Annual Des Moines Zombie Walk! Never been? No problem, we’ll walk you through it. This year promises to be even bigger and better! Not only is this a reason to dress up like a zombie and parade around town, it’s a great way to raise awareness and give to those less fortunate!

This Zombie Walk will begin and end at Finder’s Creepers and will include zombie caricatures by Job Yamen, zombie body painting by Shawn Palek and will have zombie related artwork up for grabs by D. Ryan Allen, not to mention all the fine goodies in our shop!

In addition, there will be a raffle at the end with all proceeds being donated to Central Iowa Shelter & Services. Since the winter season will be upon us all too soon, we are requesting that each zombie bring a donation of items such as medicine (aspirin, antacids, cold/flu items), travel-size shampoo/soap and winter items (such as hats, mittens, coats). Or you can always check their needs list for a more updated request.

Anyhow- mark your calendars for October 2nd and get ready to dress up like a zombie and help out the homeless all in one fun-filled day! We hope to see you there!

For more info visit the Des Moines Zombie Walk website!

Mmmm.. Brain Cupcakes

Look! Kim made the front page of the Des Moines’ Metro page!

Slaving away baking - just for us!

Our bake sale was a success!!! Many thanks to all of the kind folks who came out to show their support, made baked goods for us and helped us raise some dough to help us keep our doors open. After our flooding in June we were almost $1,000 in the hole. It really means a lot to us that we have so many awesome friends and people who care enough about our little shop to help us keep our doors open longer. If it weren’t for you guys, we would have had to close after all the grief that Mother Nature had given us in our first year of business. We kept hearing that Des Moines NEEDS us to be open and we love you for that.

We owe a special thank you to Shawn Palek, Steve Baier, Job Yamen, Kimberly Dobstaff, all our bakers, MY MOM, Erin O’Brien and ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO CAME TO SHOW US THEIR SUPPORT! We had an amazing turn-out. You guys are amazing and we thank you from the bottom of our black oozing hearts. Thanks for being the best customers, support system and friends a ghoul could ask for!

Check out the delicious Brains inspired "Car Bomb Cupcakes"

Zombie Fest

**you do not have to live in iowa to help us. if you like supporting diy businesses who in turn support diy artists and fellow comrades, please help!**

Please read the reasons as to WHY we have to have a fundraiser first... and then move on to the non-depressing FUN STUFF:

So, as most of you are already aware - we are in dire straights here at Finder's Creepers. After surviving the worst winter in 30 years we leapt right into the worst summer of rain that our state has had since the 1800's.

In June, our business flooded terribly and forced us to close for nearly two weeks. In those two weeks, we had to do all of the repairs ourselves including ripping out carpet, our stage, moving all of the furniture and display cases we once had down there as well as scraping the nasty carpet glue, clean up and painting both the floor and the walls where the carpet had removed the paint. Needless to say, it was a lot of work and it put us immediately into debt. When small businesses are forced to close and not earn their daily income - it messes things up quickly. We have been on the downhill struggle ever since.

We have been asking for donations to our pay-pal account (if you are able) all you have to do is click on the link below and donate what you can to help us keep our doors open:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi

-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&

hosted_button_id=M78776CRJ

XMF4

With that said - we are now planning a huge fundraiser that will incorporate both a Zombie Fest and a Bake Sale inspired by creepy treats!

***ZOMBIE FEST/BAKE SALE EXTRAVAGANZA!!!***

I'm all for costumes. If everyday could be Halloween I would be a much happier girl. With that said - we want to host yet another bake sale (our last one was in the name of March of Dimes for Babies and we raised $750 in a matter of hours). Although this fundraiser is for us, I am hoping we can get some volunteers to bake goods for us to sell off for donations. If you would like to volunteer your baked goods to us - you have our heartfelt gratitude. Please just send me an email at (erin@finderscreepers.com)

and let me know what you'd like to donate to the bake sale. A lot of folks have stated that they'd like to bake "spooky" themed treats just for this cause and I think that sounds like a fun idea! What better way to fit a spooky bake sale in with a zombie fest?!

For the Zombie Fest - come in costume if you want. If you don't want to - that's okay too. It is August and rotting flesh can get a little hot and smelly. It is a bake sale so we don't want to make people sick, okay? We have two Iowa made horror movies including Dead Moans and Legend Has It - plus Kristian Day may be able to gather up a few more indie films for your viewing pleasure. If after that you want to run amock in your zombie gear and terrify people in downtown Des Moines - please take pictures.

----> We will be doing a viewing of Kristian Day's indie films, as well as the indie film Dead Moans and Legend Has It

----> There will be zombie caricatures done by Job Yamen 1-5

----> There will be zombie body painting by Shawn Palek 12-5

----> There will be live pin-up zombie painting by Steve Baier 12 - ?

----> Mid Iowa Roller Girls will be here with their Wheel of Prizes 4-7

----> There will be a silent auction for original art by D. Ryan Allen and more TBA!

----> Plus, we will be watching tons of other zombie inspired films throughout the afternoon/evening

----> In addition, NIGHTMARE CITY APPAREL will be offering t-shirts to the top 5 biggest donators to our fundraiser from their Zombi line.

Ryan Jon Gillispie & Jungleville Estates

Junglevile Estates has recently re-located to Iowa from New York and his artwork is damn amazing with a graffiti like style mixed with sweet graphic design. Guaranteed you haven't seen anything like it. Pin-ups with superhero themes, monsters, big booty girls, werewolves and pin-ups are just a taste of what you will see! Plus, there will be a video to watch as well!

Ryan Jon Gillispie is a local talent that demands your attention with his cool colors and beautiful women - all drawn and colored by hand.

Although their work differs greatly, they are both inspired by the ladies - so get down here and check 'em out!

As always, this show is free and guaranteed to be fun! NEW WORKS will be shown by both artists.

Decided to join this crazy place

If you haven't heard of us and/or stumbled upon this by accident - please check out our website: www.finderscreepers.com

Exhibits currently on display:

The Byrds - featuring CoffinRust.com and Aleuranthropy.com

David Normal - the "illuminations" series - only available for viewing until July 16th!

Coffin Rust, Aleuranthropy and David Normal

Our June 26th Art Show is going to me simply amazing. Daniel and Melissa Byrd are traveling all the way from Mobile, AL just to be in this show. I have been a FAN of both of their artwork over the years and after six years of being friends via the internet, I will finally have the chance to meet them in real life. I am SO excited!

Daniel is an amazing painter and I personally have started a collection of both his and his wife's work. Melissa is an amazing photographer and when we first opened in October, Melissa's prints quickly sold out. With great excitement, I am proud to announce that both artists will be bringing some new and unseen work in addition to their affordable prints.

On top of their visit, we are expecting many visitors driving in from California, South Dakota, Louisiana and Wisconsin if all goes well! I've even heard rumors that Butch Von Dreaux will be in town for this event along with all the artists from Skin Lab, in Houma, LA so for all of you who have been waiting to meet Butch in person - it just may finally happen!

In addition to the Byrds, we will also be featuring an artist named David Normal (from the Bay area) who will be exhibiting for the first time his "illuminations" which are silk prints, installed to hang from the ceiling and glow. I got to see a virtual tour of what these will look like and I am so excited to have this in our gallery!

Check out the sneak peek I'm about to post and write JUNE 26 on your calendar for a MUST SEE VISIT to Finder's Creepers.

Charity Bake Sale

Please come down to Finder’s Creepers on April 3rd and help support our Bake Sale! We pledged to raise $1,000 for March of Dimes for Babies (in the honor of the Lohoff Family and their son, Baby Kooper (RIP)). We have already raised $855 and would love to go above and beyond the dollar amount that we pledged!

There will be a punk rock cake walk, gluten-free and vegan treats as well as beverages! What better way to spend a spring afternoon than to eat treats all in the name of charity!

We hope to see you there!

March of Dimes Raffle - Saturday Night

Many of you know about our big raffle that is raising funds for the March of Dimes for Babies in the name of my friend’s son - baby Kooper (RIP). This is such an important cause and we at Finder’s Creepers would like to personally thank the quite a few individuals and businesses for donating goods for such an IMPORTANT cause!

To the Lohoff Family: I love you with all my heart and I am so sorry for the loss that you had to endure. This is for you and baby Kooper.

THANK YOU TO:

Angela Petraline at Dorthea’s Closet and Sugar Lids - for donating a kick ass silver fox pelt hat!

Julie from Magpie and VITAE - for donating jewelry, artwork and the killer Betty Page-esque outfit I wished I was skinny enough to wear!

Shannon Monahan Weyent - for donating a $105 gift certificate to the Spa at West Glen

Paul Nycz and Iron Heart Tattoo - for donating shirts and showing your artwork here!

Mike Diamond and Sacred Diamond Tattoo - for donating shirts and showing your artwork here!

Heather from Jane & Friends for the $110 Hemp Brand Gift Basket

BEJOYFUL for the cute jewelry

The Best Place Ever - for gift certificates for movie rentals!

Leanne Kamberg - for donating an amazing painting

Nate Fetus - for donating two tickets to the Magrudergrind/Misery Index Show

Jennifer Harrison Ramey at Dirty Denim for donating a Salvage hoodie!

Heather Reese from Bella’s Bite Cakery & Confections for donating a $50 gift certificate for delicious baked goods!

Also - huge thanks to Nate Phillips for taking on the responsibility of selling tickets and to Zach Osborne for being our Security!

If I forgot someone - please just send me an email and tell me! I’m juggling a lot right now trying to organize the raffle!