Kacey
Kacey Johansing. Amazing singer. Here is one of my favorites from our shoot together. I'm currently pulling together the material for her website and album. Watch out for Kacey, she will sing you into a dream.
Happy 2010
Found some good album design and new music from designer, Alex Koplin's blog . Check out 'worst friends' album art. Squawking swans are pretty brutal if you ask me.
Wooden Textiles
I've been dreaming about a wooden area rug and was thinking about asking Adrian if he could design one at Ufacto. Then...I found German designer Elisa Strozyk.
The Root of it All
With editing my photo & art archive, I find myself thinking of the first connection to my art education: My grandmother, Llellwyn Jackson. She was a ballerina and modern dancer during the time of Isadora Duncan and was a very strong willed, adventurous woman. She broke boundaries through dance and was amoung some of the greatest female performance artists and dancers of American history. I found some incredible images of her in the online archives of the Library of Congress, all taken by the great Arnold Genthe, who also was Isadora Duncan's portraitist as well as many other female dancers, writers, and actors in the early 1900's. In these portraits she was only 16 or 17.
"...In the early 1900s two American female dancers, Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis, as well as one German female dancer, Mary Wigman, started to rebel against the rigid constraints of Classical Ballet. Shedding the authoritarian controls surrounding classical ballet technique, costume, and shoes, these early modern dance pioneers focused on creative self-expression rather than on technical virtuosity. Modern dance is a more relaxed, free style of dance in which choreographers use emotions and moods to design their own steps, in contrast to ballet's structured code of steps. It has a deliberate use of gravity, whereas ballet strives to be light and airy... In 1903 - Isadora Duncan developed a dance technique influenced by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzche and a belief that dance of the ancient Greeks (natural and free) was the dance of the future. Duncan developed a philosophy of dance based on natural and spiritual concepts and advocated for that acceptance of pure dance as a high art."
I was walking around in a parisian snowy daze and came across a poster with an old photo of a dancer on it. It looked just like my Grandmother. It turns out, there is an exhibition of Isadora Duncan in Paris right now, at the Musee Bourdelle, "Isadora Duncan: Une Sculpture Vivante" (A living sculpture). Duncan was a major celebrity in Belle Epoque Paris, and was a friend or acquaintance of most of the Paris-based artists of the day. It features 5 of her dance costumes, many photographs and drawings including sketches by Antoine Bourdelle during one of her performances in Paris, and her personal belongings. Bourdelle was a student of Rodin's, whom the Museum (and street) is named after. I cannot wait to see it. I will bask in the images and stories of my Grandmother's New York milieu. The exhibition is up until March 14, 2010. On one last note, I want to add that I lived in a beautiful apartment building in Oakland once, and I was told that she had lived there and the building was originally built for ballet dancers. So much is small in this world.
Reflecting and Twisting
Experiencing a delayed culture shock. Gearing up for the re-launch of my site while maintaining alertness to the world around me. Constantly plugging into the nuances of Paris life has been twisting my brain. A deep breath here and there and all is good.
Excited about the collaboration between my sister and London based designer, Leslie Hendin. They are teaming up to create my new photo based art site. When making my past/present lists at new year's , I promised myself that I would re-design my site, find a publisher for a portrait book idea I have cooking up, and have my first Paris exhibition locked in before the Summer. List it up.
Le Gang
An ongoing work in progress: Portraits of my circle of radness. The three up top are Tülay, Hannes, and Hélène. I am going to have a portrait show of my "Paris Portraits" in Marfa next year. I'm really excited.
The interior shot is of the sacred flat, 'Martel'. It belongs to dear friends who have lovingly shared it with Adrian and I and it was the best liason into my Paris living. I put some papel picado flags up for a spell to give the flat a little Mexi blast of vibe and color. A magical space. Lots of epic memories shared inside that room.
Erlend, Eirik and Les were in town last month, so naturally a cozy night off the road (or life) had to happen at chez nous. Shoes and pressure off. Les is stoking on the Glass Slipper, a current project yet to finish it's prototyping chapter, by Adrian and his Glass Cube world.
Balcony Tears
What a night. At Le Bataclan, we watched our Bergen boys, Erlend and Eirik, from the balcony with permo smiles. Warm light hit every face in the crowd and we sang, snapped, and clapped along to some of the most beautiful modern music the world has to offer. The bros dedicated a song to Adrian and I, "Homesick", and Erlend blew a kiss up to the balcony. Sweetness.
The Kings of Convenience are so heart stringy and dear to me. Simone, Adrian and I went on tour with them during both of their US tours and lived out of suitcases and tourbus sleeping pods. It's been a few years since those days, so last night's concert was a major reunion that brought me right back to my dense northern California days of musical and artful friends, spontaneity, and a deep love for all things pure and golden.
To top it off, Feisty happened to be in town, and at the end of the performance, she appeared on stage and sang two duets. The audience went wild and we, up in the balcony, held hands with joyful watery eyes. Im such a softy for radical moments that remind me of how amazing my friends and life are.
Afterwards, in true sister-of-the-band tradition, I made carrot-ginger soup for all. Although I'm far from California, I can still experience the same golden moments that keep life warm and full of sun. Stoked.
The Yay Bay
I discovered something. Stopping in NYC en route to Home is a natural way to transition into American life again. NYC feels a little bit Euro and a lot US. It's sort of like tempering your body and mind slowly and warmly, rather than jumping into a cold pool. NYC was quick and magical. Checked in on Mariella at her ballet school, and her 16-year-old-in-nyc world. Saw Linda before her move to Minneapolis. Watched sister Simone play with Rubies. Collected a new hat at the beautiful Worth & Worth hat shop. Walked passed the blanket rapped Vanessa Redgrave in the newly Fall central park and pretty much hugged the city in general.
It feels so good to be back in California for a spell now. After a week in Santa Barbara surrounding Brooke & Crosby's wedding we headed back to the bay last night. Had yet another incredible meal at Charlie's restaurant, Pizzaiolo, where Ingrid and I traditionally go to reconnect. To start, there was flatbread with eggplant, a cucumber and farro salad, a few perfect beets and ricotta. Next up was a halibut mantecato that reminded me of a dish I had in Portugal resembling salt cod (Bacalao). The pizza for us was cherry tomato with arugula with a perfectly salted crust. YUM. Some shell beans on the side with a bit of aioli as well. For desert I had an affogato and a walk home.
Excited about a shoot on Friday with the lovely Kacey Johansing. We met eachother in Paris via Bart Davenport and was FLOORED by her singing. Going to do something magical with her involving inventive looks with 70's lighting. New and old at the same time. That's how I roll.
Kings in Paris
I hung out on set yesterday in magical Provins, France, and absorbed the ins and outs of creating a music video project. Francois was a positive force on set as he smiled his way through it all. My friends from Norway, Kings of Convenience, have a new record coming out in October called "Declaration of Dependence" and this video shoot was for the single, "Mrs. Cold". I shot the cover of this record while we were all spending time together at Casa Rincon, Mexico. So nice.
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