Christophe Lemaire, Pre-Fall 2015

I love the lighting in this shoot. It has a strength to it that I can't quite describe. The cold and salty wet feeling from the sea helps put me right into these big jackets. Given that I live in a landscape much like the one depicted here, I really appreciate the juxtaposition of these clothes and the elements. This entire collection is wonderful - here are my favorites:

*The photographer and model are currently unknown to me.
I will update as soon as I find out.

Blue and Yellow

↑ Private

I took this picture in the fall. I was sitting on my bed thinking about how blue the gloaming was and how yellow the light melting in from the kitchen felt. I think this photo captures that moment perfectly. The nights were starting to frost around this time - a chill that I love, when the sharpest colds are still distant enough to feel romantic.

Ama 海女

↑  by Fosco Maraini (via)

↑ by Eishin Osaki (via)

 

↑ by Yoshiyuki Iwase (via)

The ideas and fishing practices of the Ama pearl divers are so different from the ones used in the community where I live. These ladies are so legendary to me. They have such a strong faith in nature and the ocean. The picture above gives me a great feeling of summer and what is like to be a human.

"Ama – The Pearl Diving Mermaids of Japan"

One of the lesser-known but fascinating parts of Japanese culture is that of the Ama pearl divers. Ama (海女 in Japanese), literally means ‘woman of the sea’ and is recorded as early as 750 in the oldest Japanese anthology of poetry, the Man’yoshu. These women specialised in freediving some 30 feet down into cold water wearing nothing more than a loincloth. Utilising special techniques to hold their breath for up to 2 minutes at a time, they would work for up to 4 hours a day in order to gather abalone, seaweed and other shellfish. ...

- Michael Gakuran (via)

This is an awesome short documentary on the Ama and features a great interview with a real live woman of the sea!


I highly recommend checking out this article ("Ama – The Pearl Diving Mermaids of Japan") by Michael Gakuran if you'd like to learn more!

Gouro Zaouli Dance

As far as seduction dances go, I say this is a pret-ty good one. 

Red Velvet

↑ The World Nightclub, NYC 1980's (via)

I love when people use the word 'underbelly' to describe the darker plane of society. Underbelly makes me feel that everything on culture's opposite side can be exposed all in one go, like flipping an alligator over. Truth is: not so.

Onfim

"This is my Dad! He is a warrior. When I

grow up, I want to be a warrior just like him!" 

This is a little birchbark drawing by a boy named Onfim. He lived in Novgorod, Russia sometime during the 11th - 15th century. I wish my dad had rakes for hands. For more on Onfim and his drawings check The Art of Onfim.

Fully Dressed at the Seashore

↑ Students in Amsterdam, 1960's (via)

↑ Nova Scotia, 1962 by Volkmar Wentzel
for National Geographic (via)

Put me in, Coach

↑ Kirsten Owen in 'Sportswear', Marie Claire Germany Nov. 1993 (via)

 

Who says you need to wear "exercise clothes" to work out? Theoretically, if you're exercising in something it then becomes exercise clothes? I really like this outfit because it's got the appropriate stuffeddoggie 2/3 ratio; two things one way, one thing the other. In this case,  you've raided a huge football player's duffel, stolen his underwear and track bottoms, and replaced them with your own skirt and stockings. He will be so surprised when he goes to get dressed for practice. You can watch his reaction via military binoculars from a mossy hillside .4 km away.

Maine Hockey

I went up to Black Bears hockey game at UMaine last week.
We lost to University Of Vermont. 

I love the smell of hockey rings - to me, the ice has a large soft fragrance that chills your cheeks and sticks in your clothes. Up close, you can smell the boys' hockey pads. In person, the game feels so different. I love the loud ting of a puck hitting the post. When a shot rockets into the wall, you can feel the resounding crack all through the arena.

Leo and Diane Dillon

These are two of the most impressionable book covers from my youth. The artwork of Leo and Diane Dillon is really fantastic. I love how certain aspects of these designs echo Japanese paintings illuminated like ancient European manuscripts. Through Leo and Diane's powers of illustration, you are preemptively thrilled by Lirael and Sabriel's strange and ambiguous danger. I was so eager to explore these worlds as a little girl. Maybe someday I'll pick these books up again. Also, how cool are those tunics and bandolier?

↑ 1995 (via)

↑ 2001 (via)

C'mere

Adelaïde Hall - Creole Love Call, with Duke Ellington and his orchestra (1927).
What a lady. I love this song for Adelaïde's lilt and lustful churning. Ai ya.

No Flex Zone

Wintertime is setting in. I dance for exercise - keep the heat at 58°F. My houseplants typically go into a state of dormancy due to brief daylight hours, low temps, and lack of humidity. Some whitefly came in with the colocasia (aka black magic elephant's ear, pictured right) and I've been treating the outbreak with Safer Soap. If you love the smell of powdered doughnuts and hate toxic chemicals, Safer Soap is the organic plant pest treatment for you.

Up-Yours

The X-Ray Spex performing Oh Bondage! Up Yours! in the documentary "Punk in London" (1977).

Poly Styrene in 1977.

Some Woodstacks

Fall is here, and you know what that means... Big bonfires started with gasoline and leafblowers! Time for outings with friends! Frosts in the night, insulating the house, the neighbor's woodpile, and HOCKEY SEASON!

Café Table

Here's a recent project of mine! It's a set of three 5-layer stencils of bad-ass ladies. Here they are installed on a Café table. It was really rewarding to get back into spray-paint. I love the process of thinking in reverse when cutting the stencils. There are so many ways you can represent ideas with layers of precise shapes - and you can further stylize with the application of the paint itself. One of my favorite areas is the lace fringe on the end of the Pirate's cloak, which is covered by the coffee creamers in this photo. The Café had requested a design done in the style of Banksy. I wanted to twist this aesthetic slightly to riff on Japanese Manga line work.

I started with a treatment of gesso to the raw fiber-board table, then used a concrete colored paint for the base (about two cans). Each figure had a golden focal-point representing their powers.

The whole project was completed in around 60 hours this past summer. I ate at the Café the other night and finally saw it in action.

Photographer/ Martin Parr

↑ Mother and Daughter, Wales 1988

↑ from "The Last Resort", New Brighton 1985

↑ from "The Last Resort", New Brighton 1985

↑ from "The Last Resort", New Brighton 1985

Plein Sud, 1997

↑ Milla Jovovich photographed by Stephane Sendaoui for Plein Sud, 1997 / via