Invitation

If you have a hankering for a bit of merriment this weekend, join us for art, music and drinks tomorrow evening at Elisa's new loft space (unit #5) in downtown LA. Parking is available across the street on Hunter (corner of Santa Fe and Porter)

A martini awaits you.

Hickesville Trailer Palace Adventures

A couple months ago, I whisked Elisa away for a short photographic journey to...

I only wish we'd stayed longer so we could've played a bit more, perhaps practice my archery or BB gun shooting on their range. 

I had an idea for a fed-up 50s housewife and this was the perfect backdrop.

Here are some outtakes from the photoshoot, the final image I selected for my class project are on my website

 This carved fellow wished us a fond farewell as we were leaving~

 Of course we had to stop at Pioneertown

 We escaped the heat with a cold beer at Pappy & Harriets

 and a quick visit to the ladies room before our journey home

arf! arf! arf!

Our alarm is usually set to a classical music station and this morning we awoke to Leonard Warren singing the sea shanty Blow The Man Down which can be heard here

What a lovely baritone voice to awaken us.

Instantly we are reminded of

We had to find out more about this amazing opera singer and download his sea shanties.  According to Wikipedia, Warren died in 1960 at the early age of forty-eight on stage during a performance of La forza del destino. Eyewitnesses report that Warren had completed La Forza's Act III aria, which begins Morir, tremenda cosa ("to die, a momentous thing"), and was supposed to open a sealed wallet, examine the contents and cry out "E salvo, o gioia" (He is safe, oh joy), before launching into the vigorous cabaletta but he fell to the floor. 

We tip our hats to you and your beautiful voice Leonard.

new website..woot! woot!

My new website is up, thanks to the magical powers of WordPress!

Take a peek here

Thanks for visiting!

The heart can do anything -Molière

Three years ago today, I gave my heart to this wonderful man

Happy anniversary my love.

hats & photographs

Sorry it's been awhile. I blame my lack of posts on such fun as the Jane Austen Ball

1920s Casino Night hosted by the Art Deco Society

Edwardian Ball...the pre-party at Elisa's was seriously half the fun that evening

(thanks to friend Kellie Smith for the two shots above & joining us for drinks prior to the ball)

...as well as millinery and photography which has been keeping me quite busy.

Here's an impromptu hat I created at the last minute for the 'In The Nursery' show at Corey Helford in January.

I made this little fascinator using a vintage turn of the century button I found at the flea market.

I'm thinking of selling some of my hatties on etsy. I'll post more of my hats a bit later, now onto my photography adventures.

I think it's important to document life, love -- even loss. Or use it as escapism. My dreamscapes would definitely have a nostalgic nudge & would most likely be composed of romanticism, hints of darkness & have some narrative aspects. I've always loved photography ever since my dad first handed me his Polaroid camera when I was little. He used his Polaroid the majority of the time for documenting his tree work.
I thought it was magical.

Last semester through Art Center I took Dana Hursey's digital photography class as well as a lighting class taught by Rick Ueda. It was so inspiring & kicked my butt in a good way. I still have so much to learn in the digital photographic world but am so excited to continue on this journey. I miss those hours spent in the darkroom in high school. I'd love to explore alternative developing processes specifically wet plate collodion and cyanotypes, but for now Lightroom is my digital darkroom.

I'm creating a website to showcase my photo works. I'll post it as soon as it's up.

In the meantime, I'll share a photograph I took of Mindy for a lighting assignment which was to emulate one of your favorite photographs. I've always loved the famous portrait of Louise Brooks by Eugene Robert Richee, 1928

Here's my version~

Also, Mindy asked that I photograph some of her artwork, which I gladly accepted. Here is the custom Vinylmation she did for Disney.

There will be a Vinylmation event this Saturday, May 21st at D Street in the Downtown Disney District. Details are on Mindy's blog

A-pirating we go...won't you join us, matey?!

pie, wonderland & nymphs

Nothing like pie in the eye and up your nose!

Here's a (low-res) slideshow from last Saturday's filming for Mindy & Candace's upcoming Pie In The Sky show at WWA Gallery

After getting pie'd, I headed over to the Cactus Gallery to check out illustrations of Ron Llanos' busty burlesque bomb-shells

Ran into friend Ashley who has a few Gorey-esque pieces in the show

Runs til September 5th if you didn't get a chance to take a peek yet

Last week I finished a Beginning Life Drawing class thru Art Center at Night. It was very challenging especially since I hadn't drawn much at all since I was young. I really needed something good for my soul, this was it. Ron was my AMAZING teacher.

Here are a few of my drawings from one of our homework assignments, which was to mirror illustrations from the Figure in Art book~

Our final assignment was to choose two pre-20th century art pieces with three or more characters and reinterpret them using a different medium then what was originally used.

Since I'm slightly obsessed with Alice...

I chose this Sir John Tenniel illustration, 1872, from Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

Here's my version~

I used gouache, glitter, fabric, buttons and ribbon on paper. The pieces had to be larger than 18x24 so this is fairly large. I'm already slow as a snail and don't have much experience with gouache or painting for that matter but gouache seems pretty gritty and takes a lot of paint to get the coverage needed even when watered down so I felt that it took me even longer to finish. My next painting attempt I may try a different medium.

The 2nd pre-20th century masterpiece I chose was John William Waterhouse's oil painting from 1896 called, Hylas and The Nymphs

The story behind this is Naiades of a spring take a liking to Hylas and lure him into their waters. The fate of Hylas could have been either an abrupt death by drowning or everlasting sexual bliss.

Here are several versions of my modern-day take on the Waterhouse painting~

 Not the easiest task to try to direct, model and photograph in a corset in the sweltering heat!
Thank goodness for all my fabulous assistants/models :)

Hairstylist extraordinaire, Elisa Loretta worked her magic~

If you ever need new heights in hair, she can be found here.

Thanks to all my sexy nymphs for modeling and running around downtown LA high-heeled and corseted for this last minute photo shoot. And of course to Dove (aka Hylas)!