LIPSTiCK TrACeZ

We've all heard the hype.   The teen pregnancy, the anti- environmental stance, the pro drilling policies.   (Although she isn't in bed with "big-oil")  I guess she was against teaching sex ed because she couldn't teach it at home to her own kid.    Hey, I get it, we all make mistakes.     This election should not be about gender or race.   It's about issues- and in this case bad taste or poor judgement.   Can someone get a PR clean up crew in there for damage control.    In this day and age, do you really need to be photographed with a giant grizzly bear under your ass?   Love the giant crab.  (There is a similar portrait of her in Newsweek this week on the same rug)

Now these images may not offend the 60 plus middle American somewhat uneducated constituancy of the shrinking Republican party.   But I find it offensive.   I know I have to keep my values in check, but come on.    Is this a woman I can look up to?  Maybe if I wanted to take woman back 100 years in terms of the progress we have made.    


Didn't McCain do a little backround check to see what he was getting into, I guess this just shows his lack of judgement.    It is a sad day in America when the best the Republicans can do is the McCain- Sarah Palin ticket. 

PROUD TO SAY THAT LIPSTICKTRACEZ IS PRO-OBAMA.   

I don't know whether to be awestruck or disturbed by this invention.    I do know that many of the diseases that were around when I was a kid aren't around anymore thanks to modern medicine.    Some parents ponder whether to vaccinate their children or not.    I think in an urban world you have to, families that don't are irresponsible, selfish and doing their children a disservice.
Now you can do it in a cute, safe, and cuddly way.     The amazing pox teddy was designed by Mikael Metthey (Royal College of Art UK).    These cute teddy bears are designed to give kids a natural immunity to the chicken pox. 
The toys are impregnated with a weakened strain of the disease and the virus is released in a controlled setting.     What will they think up next? (source for images: SEED magazine)

One of my favorite artists is Cady Noland.   AMAAAZINGLY DISTURBING is how I would characterize her work.    The sculptures and installations remain ever so timeless even 10-15 years later.   She disappeared from the art world in the late 90's and many suggest that she had a difficult life and suffered from alcoholism.  (maybe the nod to Betty Ford had something to do with that)   Unfortunately, she wouldn't be the first or the last great artist to have a substance abuse problem.     I wish she would come back.    Great artists are hard to find.    A constant source of inspiration for me. 

Cady Noland works three-dimensionally and spatially with ready-made objects and photos from the mass media. Her works include the "ideals and symbols of the American Dream" including the US flag, basketball baskets, car tires and neon advertising signs are placed with "control mechanisms" such as flags and portraits of politicians, but also barriers, bars, chains, handcuffs, pistols and instruments of torture. source: askart.com

"Cady Noland Approximately" is, according to its organizers, "the first survey ever devoted to Cady Noland's oeuvre." This esthetic act of karaoke, identity theft, body snatching and entrepreneurial table turning, created by Shelly Bancroft and Peter Nesbett, co-directors of Triple Candie, a not-for-profit space that they have dubbed "Harlem's alternative for contemporary art," is a slap in the face, an act of misguided love and an extremely challenging, maybe even radical idea that could end up a fascinating footnote in future art history books. According to Bancroft and Nesbett, "The exhibition consists of objects re-created by the co-directors and four artist-assistants from images of Noland's art found on the Internet and in exhibition catalogues."

None of the work is for sale. Bancroft and Nesbett claim the exhibition "is meant to incite the public's desire and curiosity to experience the real thing, which remains frustratingly elusive." As a huge Noland fan, I know where they're coming from. Noland, not Barney, Hirst or Gonzalez-Torres, is the crucial link between late-1980s commodity art and much that has followed; she is the portal through which enormous amounts of appropriational, political and compositional notions pass. So mercurial, fierce and originally poetic is she that I think of her as our Rimbaud.

Then, about a decade ago, for whatever reason, she absented herself. Noland hasn't had a gallery or museum exhibition in more than 10 years. When her work turns up in group shows it is said that she tries to have it removed. Thus, the idea of any kind of Cady Noland show is mouthwatering. Nevertheless, judging from the results of this exhibition, if I were Cady Noland, I'd think about getting a lawyer to get medieval on Triple Candie. Rather than creating a shining moment of revival, an artistic revelation or a shrine, Bancroft and Nesbett are unintentionally playing the roles of Rupert Pupkin and Masha, who in the 1983 Martin Scorsese film The King of Comedy are so enamored of Jerry Langford, a talk show host, that they kidnap him.

This isn't a kidnapping. But remaking Noland's work without her permission is, in a sense, holding art for ransom. It's also nothing new. The art world has grappled with ideas about authenticity, the aura of the artist, originality and transgression since Dada, Duchamp, Hugo Ball and Walter Benjamin. Ball said, "Ideas are only labels;" Duchamp that "artists should be completely non-existent." Warhol maintained he wanted "to be like a machine." Recently, Elaine Sturtevant, Richard Pettibone, Richard Prince and Sherrie Levine have made renditions of other artists' works. Now gallerists are doing it.

"Cady Noland Approximately" tests these ideas and practices in ways that are at once admirable, complex and vexing. The show asks several pressing questions, among them, do artists sacrifice their rights to anyone who wants to study their output? And is the art world only willing to grant permission to appropriate to artists or can art dealers get in on the act as well? A weirder wrinkle is that this isn't the first time that Bancroft and Nesbett have gone around an artist's wishes. Just three months ago they mounted "David Hammonds: The Unauthorized Retrospective," an exhibition consisting of scores of xeroxes of Hammonds' work. I liked the tribute-band aspect of that show, although I later heard from a third party that Hammonds was livid.

"Cady Noland Approximately" goes far further and onto trickier ground. Bancroft and Nesbett make no claims about these being real Nolands. The checklist explicitly describes how these works were fabricated. One entry reads, "Noland used 34 A-frames in the original; for this exhibition 28 were used; Noland used a single wood plank that ran through all the A-frames, this piece is made from short, individual planks that were collected from Triple Candie's parking lot, painted white and assembled to create the illusion of a single plank. . ." Another entry begins, "We were unable to locate the same stanchion bases Noland used, so substituted sign bases that we rented from a movie prop company. . ." Bancroft and Nesbett, who obviously love and admire this work, have gone to great lengths to make clear that these pieces are only approximations.

The ideas are interesting and the organizers' hearts are in the right place, yet the show falls flat. Ironically and significantly, the problem isn't that these are para-Nolands; it's that the room feels so visually inert and lackluster. In a way "Cady Noland Approximately" makes one believe in artistic aura again. You start to understand why artists are so controlling about their art and also just how much of a spatial and material genius Noland was.

"Cady Noland Approximately" will not explain to the many who have never seen an exhibition of her work why seeing Noland's art was once like taking an esthetic joyride. To grasp the envelope-pushing impact of Noland's work, consider the famous story about Jackson Pollock, who, after completing an early drip painting, turned to his wife, painter Lee Krasner, and asked not if this was a good or bad work, but "Is this a painting?" The only time I had that kind of clueless, desperate, scared, amazed reaction in the face of contemporary art was with Noland's 1989 debut exhibition at the old American Fine Arts gallery. I didn't know what I was looking at or even if it was art. I was lost. Noland opened the door to a vast chamber within the house of art that no one knew existed. It was striking and unforgettable. This show is neither.

artnet.com

If you want to learn about Cady and many other fabulous women contemporary artists one of the best books I have read is WITNESS to Her ART.   Great interview by Michele Cone in 1990.   This is a great book and I highly recommend it. 

I normally don't like to post about techie products and accessories but I will geek out for a minute here.    Hoodman makes amazing accessories for photographers and videographers, directors etc.   An arm injury forced me to make some changes in the way I shoot and this company has all the right gadgetry.

The digi- lupe- u just can't live without it.    I can shoot in the hottest, brightest dessert light and still see my frame to determine exposure perfectly with this little gadget.   Hangs around your neck while you work and weighs nothing.
 

I also bought the right angle viewfinder that allows you to shoot super low without bending in a yoga position to get the shot.   
hoodman site

Nike just launched NSW, a clothing line of sportswear and technical apparel.  

Based on the concept of the "playmaker".    The playmaker is basically the player that controls the game.   Art critic Neville Wakefield wrote one of the essays along with other conceptual writers and contributors.    This campaign was executed perfectly based on contemporary art inspirations.   The visual imagery was to capture speed, action, sports and futuristic technology components.    I did the photography and the Design was by DUALFORCES. who designed Lipsticktracez as well.
  check it.

My Dad was a huge opera buff and Wagner was usually playing in the background at my house growing up.    I think when I had nightmares Die Walkure was like the background music.     At the time I thought it was annoying, but now I think fondly back to those days when my Dad would blare Beethoven or Wagner and sit around talking about Nietzsche.    My sister and I were dragged to the opera and just hated it at the time, does any 10 year old like opera?     After high school I found myself listening to classical music quite a bit, especially the Italian composers like Vivaldi and Verdi.     I also listen to a lot of Bach and have turned Nova onto it.   Very soothing, kids love it.   (Baby Bach is a great kid relaxer) 
One of my favorite opera's is La Boheme.   It's so tragic and beautiful.        A few years back I discovered Maria Callas.   Her signature operas were Tosca and Norma, although she performed La Boheme as well. (source for these images is the Maria Callas website)
She was the Audrey Hepburn of Opera.   A mezzo-soprano with incredible talent, a voice to die for and great style.     They just don't make em like they used to.     A true Diva. 
   Unfortunately the great love of her life, Aristotle Onassis left her for Jackie O (hard to compete with that).    He broke her heart and her spirit.   She was never quite the same after that.
Maria Callas official site 

Maria Callas  (December 2, 1923 - September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and perhaps the most renowned opera singer of the 1950s. She combined an impressive bel canto technique with great dramatic gifts. An extremely versatile singer, her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini, and further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini, and in her early career, the music dramas of Wagner. Her remarkable musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed La Divina. (wikipedia source)


    
 

Every night my daughter and I read together.    This has been a ritual since she was a little baby.   Now that Nova is 7 we choose our books together and she is starting to read to me.      Our recent favorites are fun for parents too.    Tricycle Press does some great children's books.  Ten Speed Press  Their books are thoughtful, intelligent, witty and worldly.

Making Cents by Elizabeth Keeler Robinson
illustrations by Bob McMahon

This is a complicated subject for little ones and the book makes it fun, exuberant and
entertaining.   Packed with cool facts about currency.   A great math tool to start a little investor on the path to saving money, not just spending it.


G is for Googol   A Math Alphabet Book
by: David M. Schwartz and illustrated by Marissa Moss


super cute and funny.   A great way to teach mathematical  terms like "unit" and "obtuse".

What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio

A fantastic photo book accompanied by stories about the families and how they live.    

Every day, millions of families around the world gather--at the table or on the floor, in a house or outdoors--to eat together. Ever wondered what a typical meal is like on the other side of the world? Or next door? Cultural geographers Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio visited twenty-five families in twenty-one countries to create this fascinating look at what people around the world eat in a week. Meet a family that spends long hours hunting for seal and fish together; a family that raises and eats guinea pigs; a family that drinks six gallons of Coca-Cola a week.

This enthralling glimpse into cultural similarities and differences is at once a striking photographic essay and an essential study in nutrition and the global marketplace. (review courtesy of press release)

A little future pop, a little afro punk.   Most notable is that she is an original standing out from the crowd.     Janelle Monae 's album METROPOLIS is out now.     Janelle makes you focus on the talent first, the style follows, and it's her experimentation with fashion, conceptual imagery and visual fantasy makes her one to watch.
  I love that she is a mixture of glam, pop, rockabilly and future pop.   It is so nice to see originality in a genre so watered down with bottle blonds, boy bands and girls that show toooo much skin.  Next year at this time I'm sure she will have a few magazine covers under her belt.   Check her out.

Janelle Monae site
Janelle Monáe, Girl from Another Planet

Open your minds, earthlings, and prepare to be launched headfirst into an alternate universe. A place where robots fall in love with humans. Where your tour guide into this alternate realm is a demure lil thang with a bold set of pipes. "I'm an alien from outer space," declares Janelle Monáe on the first song of her debut album, Metropolis: The Chase Suite (Special Edition). Yes, Toto, we are no longer in Kansas anymore. Or even planet Earth.   Janelle images from her website, last paragraph from her website.

I normally don't take fashion photographers as artists too seriously but I do make acceptions.    Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin and Chris Von Wangenheim are some of my favorites.  (and ofcourse, among the living Mr. Steven Meisel)  The funny thing is their work was all done around the same time.     Guess I love that 1970's look.   One of my favorite models of that era was Lisa Taylor who is in Vogue this month  at 56 and still looking amazing.  Here she is in a DIOR ad shot in 1976 with a Doberman, this image is pretty iconic and you have probably seen it.     Two of my favorite inspirations, crime and fashion came together in Chris's imagery.    The look of Chris's visuals served as the photography inspiration for the film  The Eyes of Laura Mars".  The styling, the makeup, hair, energy.   One of my favorite Faye Dunaway movies.     I'll never be glamourous enough to wear gouchos and heels on a shoot and throw an ElCamino into a ring of fire, but she knew how to make it look fabulous.

Chris von Wangenheim produced a body of work which has continued to fascinate, intrigue and influence the photography world. Combining a dark world of sexuality, violence, and vouyerism in all their perverse implications, with an extreme visual elegance, he achieved a starling synthesis of glamour and terror which is unique to his work.

He was born in 1942 in Germany. In 1965 he migrated to New York to learn photography. One year after he had set up his own studio and began working for Harper's Bazaar.By 1970 he was photographing for Italian Vogue and by 1971 for French Vogue. In 1972 he became 'contributing editor' of American Vogue.

Chris von Wangenheim worked for many mayor advertising companies such as Revlon, Clairol, Christian Dior and Helena Rubinstein. He also contributed to magazines like Esquire, Oui, Playboy, and Interview.

His career was cut short in 1981 by an early accidental death.


Staley Wise gallery
all images and bio courtesy of Staley Wise gallery

Rapper, "clothing designer",  and Hermes bag- toting rock star extraordinaire Pharrell WIlliams is ready for his new role.    Contemporary art collector.     Thank god Pharrell is setting an example for his peers.   Much like Jay Z and other blue chip rappers like Nas, Pharrell (arrogant as he may be) has just elevated the game.    He has great style, he's hot, can actually sing, make block rockin beats..... and has good taste in art.
Thats all it really boils down to.   GOOD TASTE- and yes, hard to get and impossible to buy.  You are usually born with it, or in the case of most celebrities, you just pay a stylist to have it for you..

Pharrell's collection has a long way to go, he's not the Eli Broad of rap-YET- but he's off to a good start with anchor pieces by Keith Haring and ubiquitous street artist KAWS.    I have another post about KAWS in my blog from a few months ago if you want to follow up.   Aside from the fact that art is beautiful and inspiring to have around, it's also valuable stuff.    In today's economy art is more valuable than most stocks.   As witnessed here, the new status symbol.  Art is in.
I hope more musicians go to MOSS for one of a kind design pieces, Regen and other great  galleries to spend their windfalls instead of JACOB the Jeweler.    Bling does't age quite as well as the Baldessari or KOONS.    .

FYI: if you are interested in starting to collect contemporary art,  the top galleries are listed in our links on this site to firmiliarize yourself with the artists.    There are also tons of great galleries on the lower east side and Chelsea in NYC and Chung King Road,  Silverlake, Bergamont Station and Venice in LA etc. where you can buy great affordable pieces.    Collect art and support the arts-it's a great way to support creativity.

Images of  Pharrell by Alasdair McLellan      layout courtesy of Fashion rocks.