I had one of those life altering moments a few weeks ago.  Three words-The Red Shoes. 

This movie has been on my too-watch list for awhile, but I never got around to seeing it.  Well, I finally watched it and I was blown away.  In a nutshell the story revolves around the “love” triangle of the 3 main characters-Vicky the ballerina, Boris the ballet impresario, and Julian the music composer and eventually Vicky’s betrothed.  The story is also about the choice between the love for another person and the love for one’s art, in this case Vicky’s love for her dancing.   Eventually Vicky must choose.  I put love in quotation marks because this triangle isn’t about the obvious love you’re thinking of. Or is it?  And that’s part of the genius of this film-it’s like a dream world and you’re never quite sure where the characters stand in relation to each other.  And by the way, at least watch this film just for the Technicolor which is amazing and also adds to the otherworldly feeling.

My favorite scenes are the backstage/rehearsal scenes where the dancers practice, stagehands work on sets, and musicians tune their instruments.  I want to live in that backstage.  Of course I don’t believe for a second every backstage is as emotional as the one is this movie but still, I want to be in that nurturing, artistic environment.

Honestly, I can’t completely explain the effect The Red Shoes has on me, I just want to keep typing the words “it’s effing amazing” over and over, but I will say that this film makes me want to be the best artist I can be.  And probably all of the paintings I do in the future will be inspired in some way by The Red Shoes. Like the painting below, Torment, which is directly inspired by Vicky’s inner turmoil. 

Seriously, I recommend everyone whether you’re an artist or not to watch this film.  It’s that effing amazing.

I love old movies, especially silents and films made in the 1930’s.  I rarely watch anything “recent”, although I do want to see “The King’s Speech” because it looks amazing and well-acted.  Also, Colin Firth=yummy. 

I would have been in my glory in the 30’s with those fabulous clothes, art deco designs, and handsome men in fedoras and suits with suspenders.  Yes, I have a thing for suspenders. And fedoras. And cufflinks. Basically any man that looks like Cary Grant works for me.

This collage was inspired by the smokey, film noir classic “Gilda” starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford.  My barcode collages (like this one) are simple linear pieces and I usually don’t have a plan when I’m picking the papers out-I just go with what I’m feeling at the time.  And this time I was feeling like a femme fatale.

Lapo Elkann, grandson of Gianni Agnelli, is quite the dandy.  I love Lapo because he's so unique and does his own thing.  But his outfits-I mean look at what he's wearing. Love him!

Seriously, who else could pull this off?  The second outfit really inspired the painting below, I love the fuchsia/raspberry pinks paired with dark blue and a touch of mint green.  Of course I had to name this painting after it's namesake, I'd love Lapo to see this. Hmmm.......

And the painting is available here :)

When I started my art career, I decided to keep an inspiration book or as I usually call it “these pictures were too awesome to get rid of” book.  And it’s funny now to sometimes look back and see what I thought was too awesome to get rid of.  Since I started collecting photos in a new scrapbook I decided once a month I’ll share pages from the old one with you and try to explain why I chose what I chose.  Now as I said some of the photos were chosen because they were too cool, like the Dita Von Teese photo and the Kate Moss photo (who else could make a very dull gray color combo look so chic) so I won’t really talk about them but instead focus on the pics that I might reference for my art.

The top left picture is of a textile sketch that really caught my eye because of the geometric shapes and colors, which reminded me of Studio 54 for some reason.  I don’t know why but I get a groovy, disco feel and long to hang out with Cher and Bianca Jagger, which is a feeling I rarely get. ;) But I thought the sketch was really cool and would have liked to see the finished fabric that it was based on. 

I’ll say this many times but Grey Gardens is one of my favorite movies and Little Edie is a hero to me so anything related to her or the film will find its way into my book.  The cuff and brooch shown here is part of Eva Beale’s Grey Gardens Collection where she locates pieces of jewelry that are inspired by Little Edie.  The brooch is very art deco and the shape is something I draw over and over again but have yet to make it work in a painting.

And now to the bottom left where there’s a tiny photo of a painting of a woman’s face titled “Who needs blood when you've got lipstick?” and it was done by Kate Moss using lipstick-very cool.  It also features the blood stains of her former lover Pete Doherty-very uncool.  But I love this painting for so many reasons that I’ll overlook the blood (and probably drug) stains.  Aesthetically it works very well.  Second, it was done with lipstick, which I know isn’t an original idea but I never thought to use lipstick in my paintings! And third, it was done by Kate Moss, who I love. I’ve posted a better pic of her painting below, courtesy of the telegraph website.

Next month I’ll come at you with a cd cover, a jacket, and Princess Margaret. How’s that for a combo! 

I couldn’t really think of anything to blog about this week but I need to stick to my one-post-a-week-schedule or this blog will fade quickly! So I thought I’d share this comment I heard on the Bad at Sports podcast from 2/2/11.  Kim Anno, a painter, photographer, and video artist, was discussing abstraction when she made the following, and amazing, comment:

    "When somebody says, “Oh my kid could do that”, that what their saying is that “my kid has this unfettered impulse to make something and your work reminds me of that impulse” and that’s a compliment.  People use it pejoratively, but in a certain sense it’s a compliment.  To feel connected every human being or to a group of human beings, when they look at a visceral work of art is something really moving, and it doesn’t mean that you have all the intellectual stuff behind it. Sometimes you can and sometimes you don’t.  And I make that enough for me when I’m making a painting."

This blew me away because I even think a kid could do what I do sometimes so to hear her talk about having the “unfettered impulse” of a child was inspiring and uplifting to me.  So fellow artists, when someone says their kid could do what you do remember to take it as a compliment!

Have a great weekend everyone!