Sunday, June 26

so it goes


Getting today's photo shoot together has been a long dragged out ordeal, somewhat because of my own brain, of course, but then a cavalcade of other stupid little things. How can simple things get so complicated? We ended up doing it without a live model, which is fine enough, but oh dear the weather has been a drag. It's either been sweltering hot or pouring rain - mostly pouring rain. We set up by some new "so it goes" graffitti and shot a few pieces before we had to seek cover.

And Vonnegut fans will appreciate what I found on the ground in front of it:

I know! I know!

Tuesday, June 14

"It is better to deal with the people who have intuition, now. You see, they don't know what they are doing. The ones who do know what they're doing haven't proven anything." - Sun Ra

My best music for creating:
  • Robert Wyatt / old Soft Machine. Well I guess it's all old

  • classical Indian music. Sometimes I dance involuntarily

  • free jazz, but today, specifically: Sun Ra
I guess the theme is churny, open, rambling, breathing, never-ending.  

How I Got Through Yesterday, by Helen Carter
So here is this week's trick for getting work done. It is also non-linear. I have some super cheap graph paper that I love. It smells funny and I suspect it is made from plastic and glue. I fold diagonals so I have a square section and a list on the right. Okay you're right, so far it's still linear. But then in my square I make a cloud of things to do, so that there is no hierarchy and I can leap, ADHD-bliss-style, from thing to thing throughout my studio time. When I get distracted by something else I need to do, I add it to the "later" list and move on with my day. It works this week.

Monday, June 6

true confession: Big Fig Newton


This is embarrassing. I count the Big Fig Newton among my inspiration for clothes-making - he was such a pleasing shape!

Well I was just eating a black mission fig and realized that he is shaped like ... a fig.

Sunday, June 5

serious trash and fandom among the stars

I just found out that John Waters is a superfan of Rei Kawakubo. Okay, this makes me giddy. Yes because I like them both. But also because her clothes are so wonderfully dark and serious ... but John Waters understood, inherently and instantly, in that way he has of cutting through to just what matters, that they are also hilarious.

There is a chapter devoted to her in his book Role Models, but I also found a story from a 1998 Papermag where he said:


I am scared of her because I respect her so much. She never smiles. She always looks like she's sitting in a cell thinking about hemlines for two years like a catholic saint who gave up everything to think about how to deconstruct clothes. You don't see her sense of humor when you meet her she always wears leather and black and seems to be surrounded by bald-headed women. I think, of course, she has a great sense of humor. No one could design clothes that witty who didn't. I think you can be very serious about your work and have a sense of humor, too. I am very serious about my work and I try to make good trash.


Some of my favorite things in the world are dark and hilarious at the same time. Keith Moon's drumming. The faces that Bill Murray makes. Almost any Robyn Hitchcock song.