Snapping the Mommy Lisa: Librarian Noelle Boc shares an artistic moment with her daughter Isabelle at Tewksbury Tacky Tourist Photos Night.

If the hushed chatter in the hallowed halls of Tewksbury Public Library is any indication, it looks like “Tacky Tourist Photos Live” is a bona fide smash sensation!

If you happen to live within 300 miles of the Greater Tewksbury area, load your family up in the station wagon for a photography exhibition that will create lasting memories for a lifetime!

As the Lowell Sun eloquently puts it, “secret admirers of roadside kitsch, wacky road signs, and offbeat travel photo ops will revel in the newest exhibit” at the TPL!”

Don’t think that the show is worth all those exclamation points?  Think again!!!

What if Leonardo Da Vinci had more canvas?

Library visitors can pose as the Mona Lisa for the month of December without the laborious effort of visiting the Louvre and all the annoying crowds that it entails. Pretty eerie how perfectly the outfits above match, huh? It’s almost as if the Tacky Tourist Photos exhibition was sponsored by “Project Runway.”

Hair's to You, Mona -- Lining up the hair parts isn't always easy.

The Katie Lisa is really a blonde with dark roots.

Aside from the fun-spirited photo sessions and potentially award-winning presentation, many believe that the highlight of the evening was a candid “Inside the Actor’s Studio” chat with Tacky Tourist Photos model Brian Henderson.

You might know him as the brains and the handsome mug behind such TTP classics as “Golden Gate Appetizer,” “Uganda Tourist Trap,” “Dr. Seuss Chorus Line” and “Where Can I Find a Decent Chinese Restaurant?”

Brian wowed the audience with live DVD-style commentary of what was going on his mind before, during and after each pose.

If you’d like to explore bringing the Tacky Tourist Photos exhibition to your museum, school, public library, birthday party, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, luxury resort or cruise ship, please drop us a line at tackytouristphotos@gmail.com.

Tacky Tourist Photos is obviously a fun and wildly insightful online project, but there’s nothing like actually meeting fellow fans of the genre!

As you may already know from our fruitful media campaign, we were delighted to participate in our first live art gallery show, New Hampshire’s  Floating Gallery — thank you, Beth Eisenberg — with 14 of the region’s most prestigious photographers, painters, sculptors and multimedia artists.  The Floating Gallery is a phenomenal cultural business model, simultaneously spreading buzz for the local art scene and raising money for several amazing charities.

For those of you who couldn’t join us, here’s a “Top 10″ list of awesome things about the event:

#10. MonaPalooza: free photo-op giving visitors an opportunity to provide their take on La Gioconda!

#9. Tacky Tourist Treats: Yodels!  Is there a classier or more appropriate appetizer?

#8. Bargains Galore: For a limited time only, we will match our Floating Gallery prices for our on-line friends. Any Tacky Tourist Photo on this Web site is available as an 11 x 14″ enlargement mounted on archival-quality foamcore for only $50 — with one exception.  The Jessica Simpson “Waxual Harassment” photo is $350.  All profits will benefit the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter. Email us at tackytouristphotos (@) gmail.com for details.

#7. Cash Bar: When our careers soar higher, we will offer an open bar. Even for you, Uncle Henry.

#6. Awkward encounter with artist who also had a Mona Lisa (the TTP equivalent of wearing the same dress to a cocktail party…)

#5. Making young people smile!

#4. Making older people smile!

#3. Mingling with New Hampshire’s cultural elite!

#2. Celebrity Appearances — Brian Henderson, the Tacky Tourist visionary behind the Golden Gate Snack and the Ugandan Tourist Trap photos, graciously greeted fans and answered questions.

#1: Raising money for Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter. Thanks to everyone who donated!  If you missed out on feeding the piggy bank, you can still help by clicking here.

If you would like to book a Tacky Tourist art photography show at your quaint art gallery or for your Sweet Sixteen Party or Bar/Bat Mitzvah, please inquire at tackytouristphotos (@) gmail.com.

One of the curators of Tacky Tourist Photos bravely poses as the Poutiest Mona Lisa of All Time!

NASHUA, NH — To raise money for the Nashua Soup Kitchen, the curators of TackyTouristPhotos.com will stage a daring and ambitious piece of performance art called “Be the Mona Lisa” at the Floating Art Gallery on Sunday, Dec. 6.

Visitors will substitute their heads for the famous smiling lady immortalized by Leonardo da Vinci. Yes, this is the same Mona Lisa that survived a brutal coffee mug attack at the Louvre.  Why wait in those long lines in Paris, when you can zip up Route 3 North and scoot over to the Courtyard Marriott?  The excitement lasts from 6-9 p.m. and includes live music and a cash bar.

Tacky Tourist Photos will join more than a dozen artists, painters, photographers and sculptors at the charity benefit, at which a portion of sales will help one of the following causes: The Healthy NH Foundation; Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Greater Manchester; the Nashua Humane Society; St. Jude Children’s Hospital; Children’s International; Nashua Area Artist’s Association; Nashua Soup Kitchen; New England Aquarium; Animal Rescue League of NH; and the ASPCA.

Equally significant will be the culinary experience of enjoying complimentary Tacky Appetizers, which are rumored to involve delicately sliced Hostess and Little Debbie treats.

For more information, visit the Floating Gallery.

And doesn’t Pete just make the cutest Mona Lisa?

A rare photo-op outside Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So let's get this straight: You can take pictures of DaVinci's paintings at the Louvre, but it's forbidden at this glorified version of the Hard Rock Cafe?

A TACKY TOURIST EDITORIAL – By Ilya Mirman

I’m a huge music junkie and love capturing snippets of my concert experiences with photography.

Obviously, I’m not alone. Check out the sea of cameras at this recent Springsteen concert at Boston Garden:

DESTINED FOR DISAPPOINTMENT -- Hundreds of Bruce Springsteen fans believe their tiny flashbulb will make a difference while photographing their working-class hero in a darkened cavern.

So you might imagine how psyched I was to plan a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Who needs the Louvre or Hermitage, when you got the museum housing amazing artifacts from the people that built rock and roll? I almost couldn’t fall asleep the night before, and I couldn’t wait to get out the door in the morning.

But the dream became a nightmare when the museum guards barked, “NO CAMERAS!”

No joke – you gotta check your cameras before going in. The museum is a treasure trove of awesome rock memorabilia – but you can’t photograph any of it!

Really?! You can visit the Louvre and photograph the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory of Samothrace. But you can’t photograph Madonna’s pointed bustier, Roy Orbison’s guitar, or Michael Jackson’s sequined jacket?!

What’s the deal, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Is Madonna worried about overexposure?! I am not asking to wear her bustier (personally, I’d opt to don Angus Young’s schoolboy uniform) – I just want to take a couple photos!

My guess is that the museum is overly preoccupied with driving their gift shop business, lest your photos compete with their coffee table books. Ironic, given the free-spirit and anti-establishment message of rock and roll.

But don’t take my word for it – rather, consider the Sex Pistols message to the Hall. They rejected induction in 2006 with this handwritten screed:

“Next to the Sex Pistols, rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain. Your museum. Urine in wine. We’re not coming. We’re not your monkeys. If you voted for us, hope you noted your reasons. Your anonymous as judges but your still music industry people. We’re not coming. Your not paying attention. Outside the shit-stream is a real Sex Pistol.”

Whether or not you seek “Anarchy in the U.K.,” are you with Johnny Rotten on this one?

Photography policies aside, does it bother you that the Sex Pistols don’t know the difference between the words “your” and “you’re?”