Thursday, December 17, 2009

What Once Was Creepy and Juvenile Is Suddenly Loved... Dolls





In all this blitzkrieg of inspiration that I have been getting from Lolita fashion and it's Lolita lifestylers I have been looking at dolls. Wow, and it's still surprising for me to say that and mean it!! I have never really been into "cute" but somehow into twenty six years of living I have embraced little girl pink aesthetics. There are a lot of really cute dolls.

First off are the cheaper ones- Pullip Dolls are pretty affordable and not entirely an insane interest at around $110. The only problem is that they look a little bit like those Bratz dolls with those humongous noggins. But look at how cute their special dolls are like the Princess Ann/ Roman Holiday one! The website is also horrible to navigate. I have tried a few times to find a doll that I like based on it's face and it turns out that the doll is a stupid cos-play anime thing (no offense, just not my thing).








A little more, or rather, a lot more expensive are the Rosette Dolls. These suckers are about $475-$575 a pop naked. Forget clothing, wigs, and everything else you can get for these pretty things. I imagine these things set you back $1,000 FAST. But look at how pretty they are. Armeria is my favorite. And! These dolls have artists who paint up there faces and make them fancy clothing and sell them as custom dolls.

















Blog Songes de Poupees spotted this beautiful custom pair. They are done by CoCoon possibly, but I am not sure. This is what I really like about this beautiful doll scene. My mom made me little fairies when I was little that had handmade little leather skirts and doll hair and hand sculpted faces and extremities and they were just so magical. These dolls are like those fairies my mom made taken to a whole other level. So much detail with their uniquely painted faces and fancy outfits!





Now the creme de la creme! These dolls have been floating around a while on Stumble but I was just thinking about and revisiting them. For a few thousand dollars Enchanted Dolls by Russian artist Marina Bychkova are custom made. They are porcelain and Bychkova customizes them with tattoos and body mutilations. They have realistic looking genitalia and their ball and joints are as beautiful as their faces. Everything is regal and ethereal about these magical creatures of art.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

New Plaid Dress


 

I spent nearly a day and a half working on this dress and wore it to work yesterday and got three separate compliments!! One of my co-workers asked if I bought it at Anthropology. I'm feeling pretty good about my sewing skills! It was my first time doing interfacing. It was a little bit of a bitch.


I love BurdaStyle. If you like to sew and want some stylish free- to cheap patterns to print at home go there. It's the only site that I have found like it! They are very supportive of people who like sewing clothes at home that you'd actually want to wear. Forums, tips, pictures of finished outfits based on the patterns, etc! It's great! I made this dress this last week off a pattern I got on there. Coffee date dress something or other.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Lolita Inspired Petticoat



I have been looking at a lot of Lolita fashion websites and getting inspired. It's funny, there seems to a general opinion of Lolitas that you have to have the "right look" which has never worked for me in any style. I like the idea of mixing western Annie Oakley with Lolita. So I really wanted a petticoat but it needed to be shorter. This happens to be a huge no-no for Lolitas- skirts need to be close to the knee. So I did a little research and made my own. I didn't use a pattern and I decided to have the side stay open tied so that I can wear it higher tied at natural waist line of lower depending on the skirt I am wearing it with. I am really happy with the outcome! The most inspiring source for Lolita-ness is the bubblegum flick "Kamakaze Girls." I watched it on Youtube and I keep thinking about buying. It's pretty much a big ad for the Lolita clothing store "Baby The Stars Shine So Bright." The lead girl is super cute and makes you want to wear her doll like look.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

My Kinda Restaurant, I Think



Over Thanksgiving dinner two friends who just recently went to Milwaukee spoke about their short trip and the places they went. The main item of conversation and ravings was "The Safe House," a restaurant downtown themed to the extreme on spy movies. Rumor has it, you walk up to a imports/exports door which leads you to another door that you need a password to get through and you pick up a phone to get the password... and so on to get into the dining room just for beginners. In the lady's room in a naked picture of Burt Reynolds (that I imagine is the image he did for Cosmopolitan) that if you touch his crotch region rings an alarm throughout the restaurant letting everyone know what you were up to in there. All kinds of shenanigans are happening here from what I heard and I really want to go! Check out this travel blog for a little retelling of a personal experience like the one I heard and see a couple more pictures.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Around My Neighborhood In Chicago




I am loving my neighborhood. It reminds of what a tour guide had casually told me about herself in Rome. She said that she loved her city because everywhere you go there is something old and interesting around every corner. While Chicago is pretty daisy fresh and young compared to Rome, I love walking around and looking at the old buildings that are all one of a kind. I love seeing old faded ads on the sides of buildings. I like the newer signs that mimic old signs, or are badly painted updates? I like the haphazard buildings that could either be someone's apartment or someone's garage. And I like the different trees here. I am used warmer climate plants. A lot of the trees I walk by I have no idea what they are. I think that this tree might be a cherry tree?

Winter Booties


It's getting a little chilly. I knocked these slippers out of some faux fur that my mom was kind enough to give me. I really want some Uggs to wear in the house but these are pretty warm! They might just do and they are an original design! I just traced out the shape of my feet and sewed them up and added ties that I had sewed for a project that I never saw through.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Halloween Is Creeping Up

I just went to the used bookstore that is close to my hood, Myopic in Wicker Park, and picked up two Halloweeny sort of books, "Rosemary's Baby" by Ira Levin and "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson. I am always way into this time of year. I love the chill to the air and the holiday spirit that occupancies it that is a mix of neighboorly kindness and horror... free candy bars and morbid decorations for the benefit of those people around you that rarely talk to otherwise. I like the parade of little kiddies getting to dress up for once any insane or cute way they want to express themselves. I love doing the same if I find a place to show off the tremendous amount of thought and work that I put into every excuse to do so.

I find it really interesting that topics that normally I find really discomforting become temporarily something I want to examine and even, in a way, embrace and celebrate. Death, horror, the supernatural, creepiness... Like Dio de los Meurtos is embracing that life is made wonderful because of death, I think that it's healthy to recognize the morbid for a month too. By thinking not only about death but also about murder, horror, serial killers, and all the things that give us nightmares we can reflect that most of us have it pretty good, not to have these things as a part of everyday life.

Sorry, I am getting a bit deep.

I am not a fan of the organization of mentalfloss.com but they have some really cool posts if you can figure out how to navigate through their site. Here is one Halloweeny one on post-mortem portraits that I can't stop thinking about. It makes sense that at the time photography was availiable enough that nearly anyone could have their photo taken but not as easily available that you would likely have had your photo taken before a sudden death. Still, it is creepy and hard to understand a family propping up a dead family member for one last Kodak moment.






Monday, October 12, 2009

Internet Photo Find D'Jour

How badass are these boyscouts? I love their boots! Clothing use to be so much cooler before globalization and when people would dress utilitarian authentically and looked bitch'n on accident.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Bang Bang

Okay, trying to get back into some sort of made up world of normalcy. Having time to be inspired, intrigued, and to just mess around with the internet in general.

Do you love the covers of those dime store/ pulp novels where you buy them and it never even crosses your mind that the book might be readable. Look at these radical photos posted at http://1dak.com/art/models-made-out-of-books-44-photos/!!


This is one of those ideas that is so simple but so great that I asked myself "why couldn't I come up with this before this person did?" and "where are those pulp novels in my book collection... could I emotionally handle cutting them up?" I am trying to think of where I could sit one of these up and questioning if it would look good outside of lighting and photographing them to look even grander then they already are.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Grievances


Go to this site, Fed by Birds! It is everything I wish I could be in a blog!

If anyone is taking notice right now I am not posting too much because I am busy to the max getting ready to go to Chicago. All my notebooks are all packaged up and all. I do have other things I want to put on here that are concept ready so to speak but I just keep not getting to it. But hey, I will say that I hate it when people say that they wish there were more hours in the day. Hours are really arbitrary and just a system, not a reality. What is reality is how you choose to spend your time and to that effect you just have to do your best. I so the past couple and next couple of weeks may only hold one here and there magical appearance of a post on here.

Fav Picture Ever


This is a little vain. Full story is what really makes it, at least as a great personal story. I was, and still kinda am, obsessed with The Great Gatsby, and was messing around with friends in high school putting on wigs and playing camera time. I jumped into the car and was crying out, "Oh no, Myrtle! I didn't see her." And then I guess I found the bb gun and this was taken. Still looks like and feels like a good time to me.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Garage Sale Tomorrow




Haven't even got to the garage sale part but it is already draining me. I know I need to do it but I hate it and dealing with people being cheap because it's the one social situation where you can take cheapness to its highest level. But still, I kind of like garage sales, a lot. Especially when I am on the other side, spending the money and then leaving. All the discarded stuff that are usually items held on to for a long time and then it suddenly dawns on the person that it isn't needed for whatever reason. Like nostalgic items. Or items that for one promised a thinner and more handsome physic no more. Or former projects never quite gotten to. All kicked to the curbside.

I found this top piece of paper in high school and that's all I remember about it. Besides that I really liked it and still do. But it wouldn't be as cool if I knew the exact reason why it was drawn, though a general idea is easy enough to assume. These other two, well, I don't know what to say about them. Don't remember making them and can't remember what I am babbling about in them. But I like them too.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

See America Right




I "stumble upon(ed)" this very cool flash type website that I find very pretty. Very much up my alley. Its called The Book Of Numbers.

If you don't know what I mean by "stumble upon" google it and add it to your firefox tool bar!

Documentation


I am getting more and more happy to open up my iphoto each scanning session. It is always fun to reexamine these pages just as it is with anyone's personal diary or journals. For me, they look great put together to be surveyed all at once.

Eyes



Have you ever watched footage of eyeball surgery? You know, just the regular old better eye sight stuff? Complete horror show stuff. In high school in physiology we were warned that watching child birth makes some a little squeamish but did not receive the same courtesy for eyeball retina flipping action. And that is what I find really disturbing. Who are we without our eyesight? How traumatic is it to lose? Admit it, when you meet a person who is blind it causes some level of discomfort that is above deafness or other disabilities. You get something in your eye and you curse ever taking the health of your sight for granted. I am a big fan of eyeballs, and they also terrify me. I respect them.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Celestial Ash


The Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles is having what looks like a very rad exhibit titled "Celestial Ash: Assemblages from Los Angeles." It is reportedly inspired by assemblage artist extraordinaire Joseph Cornell and features one of his works. Source Link Here.

I really like what is conjured up emotionally by these works. For me, it's in part documenting in the first a snippet from everyday existence, a sort of clue that someone has been in this spot but is not there anymore. What you want to assume about the person who occupies this space can be done so through what is left behind. And the other is very victorian ephemeral scrapbook collage with an interest in science, eh, entomology. And to be simple, they give great aesthetic.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Damn Photoshop, Blessed Freeware

Having problems opening photoshop and so I got antsy and found a paint program for macs that is free. Found one that has its issues but for a free program it is really cool. Check out and google "Beautiful Dorena" if you have time to blow or you just like ephemeral clip art like me.

"Beautiful Dorena is a free, experimental paint program for Macintosh. It contains a myriad of practical and impractical picture creation tools and features. If you have a video camera you can hook it up to your computer and fun painting with live video. It also has a fictional back-story about its creation and a built-in soundscape. Beautiful Dorena was made by the original creator of Kid Pix."

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Drawing a Line Between the Past and Present



Bansky and Jules Verne at first seem like an odd pairing but I think what is happening in these two images hold a lot of similarities. Despite our computers, phones, and general mass technological daily state of living, we are still fascinated with the past. And yet that past was all about moving toward the future. Okay, Jules Verne was around not that long ago and while the cave paintings are far more removed from our time it still wasn't that long ago and I think we all relate when we see them, know why they were made and realize that today we are still compulsively making our mark on the wall.

This Giant can be seen here moving around in a very Jonathan Swift manner at a seemingly very awesome festival in France.

The Banksy I have no idea about. I just saw it on the internet and liked it. I love how many ideas could be brought up by it. That cave paintings are considered art and yet they are possibly the oldest example of graffiti that we have, that we destroy perfectly good art on our streets, it's just a great juxapostition of the past and present...
And it's cool to think that in a way Banksy is much like the cave painter- an anonymous artist rendering on walls what he sees and is concerned about out in the world.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Secret Life Of Bears, Foxes, Pigs....




I really like the great American painter of anthropomorphic bears -
William Beard (1824-1900).
I vaguely remember these painting from early childhood, well really just Bear Dance . I'm not sure if I ever really saw it or if instead Beard really tapped into the childhood desire to see teddy bears come to life when our backs are turned and just made them full on bears- taking it a step up. Auction House Records is hilarious too! Makes me want to be Alice and argue with a frog or rabbit.

Remember What Is Beautiful


 These are some random thoughts, as far as I can tell. I have no idea what was going on here. But I do really love how I used to always write this kind of poetry. Was I even conscience of the fact that I was doing that? Do I still do that and not realize it? Perhaps, because I write this here without being too self conscience of what it is exactly that I am doing. Just letting it flow. Just letting it all go.

Just A Little More Greece/ Roma




I would never be able to describe how beautiful the places in the top photos were, or how rad is was walking through alleys in Rome and coming upon a Nun taking in the scenery and old Brunellesci too. If I go any further trying to read this will be like trying to make works out of someone talking in tongues. 

The Queen Bee





The one with the red cellophane has a picture from a fashion magazine of Vanessa Beecroft under it that I really like. I don't know that much about her but I have seen images of her several times over that look just like this one- half naked and regal despite the fact that she is an older woman and not stick model thin. I love these images of her. She is proud. Good for her. Rock it! This is what sexy should be. I believe that she is a photographer and that her thing is to take images like these. Of real women with average bodies and question our beliefs of femininity and self image. But really its the self confident images of her that I really like.
The second image is just natural history museum stuff. I don't know. I like it. I feel like there is a connection there somehow between bees, femininity, and natural science. There is really, because I bought a book a few months back at the Culver City based Museum of Jurassic Technology that was all about bees and our historical mythology and superstition of bees that was largely involved with goddesses and bees being connected.
And thirdly red "Sexy" page. Yeah.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

New York, New York





These pages that I made out of all the papers, receipts, pictures, and postcards that I brought home from New York are some of my favorite. I want more then anything to get back to this style I had making pages in my journals. It was frantic and messily textured yet edited and simple with great use of materials and composition. I built that style so fast and then lost it somewhere fast and didn't even realize it. I see it now looking back. I think I started to like what I was doing and then got impatient. I hope I can use paint and pictures and other relics of Chicago with the fresh eyes that I am taking there and make these kinda pages again. I think that the paint is the real key. I couldn't just flip to the next page. I had to really think the one page I was painting out because the color had to work and then I had to consider the time it would take to dry.