It’s been a long time between blog posts for me. I’ve had a bit of computer burn-out.  Time always runs short, and I need to replenish  by thinking and making things.  Sometimes making things that have no use at all. There is a beauty in that, like the beauty of Bjork. I am so thrilled and grateful each and everytime I sell something, but getting it out there in cyberland takes many hours sitting in front of the computer.  In fact, right now, instead of working, I read this fascinating article on what inspires Bjork; everything from music to the rain forests. I think it is well worth the time to find out about what inspires Bjork, because she is a true original creative force.  I don’t always love all of her music, but I always love her and her strange beauty. She inspires me!

Bjork from her latest album, "Biophilia"

Click on this image to read and listen to some of the many things that inspire Bjork from this fabulous article on the guardian.uk website, written by Rebecca Nicholson.

Photo of Bjork on the Guardian UK article

You can also find images of her best fashion choices! Of course, the famous “Swan Dress” is there!

Quoted from Wikipedia’s entry on Coco Chanel:

In 1926 Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel published a picture of a short, simple black dress in American Vogue. It was calf-length, straight, and decorated only by a few diagonal lines. Vogue called it “Chanel’s Ford.” Like the Model T, the little black dress was simple and accessible for women of all social classes. Vogue also said that the LBD would become “a sort of uniform for all women of taste.”

Classic Coco, the creator of it all

In homage to the classic and iconic dress (like it’s creator!) I recently added a canvas art print of my own rendition of “Little Black Dresses.” You can buy it in my etsy shop now (I will soon be adding it to my website.) It is a lovely 8 X 10 X .75′ Canvas print, ready to hang on the wall or pace anywhere you want color (and black!) Of course, it is based on  older fashion image and all gussied up.  Click on the image to see more views.

"Little Black Dress" print on canvas, by trolleyla

Here are more images, just food for thought on the classic and immortal “Little Black Dress.” I actually own the last image, the book based entirely on the theme. Available on Amazon.com, of course!

"Little Black Dress" to infinity and beyond

Little Black Dress ca. 1964

"The Litle Black Dress" available on Amazoncom

I always thought it would be great fun to be a costume designer, since it combines art, fashion and geekery (all that research!) and I love all of those things. Fashion has quicky turned out some very cool retro styles base on the recent popular movies “The Help,” “My Week With Marilyn” and “The Artist.” These photos are from the Wall Sreet Journal’s article “Costume Drama.” I particularly love the very girly and colorful combo shown first below; “Mississippi Marvelous!”

Recently, I watched “The Prince and the Showgirl” on Turner Movie classics, which “My Week With Marilyn” was based on. I found Marilyn to be so much more alive and electric on screen than the storied Sir Laurence Olivier. I remember reading that was a very tough shoot for her, as Mr. Olivier was very bothered by her current interest in Method Acting. In spite of the troubles on set, she far outshines him. And, she is at her most gorgeous. Rent it!

Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier

As I write this post on my iPad, I acknowledge that I love the digital age as much as we all do, and there is no doubt that digital photography is one of the most important advances ever. Well, except for maybe the release of the Kodak “Brownie” camera. It was the first portable camera; the first to bring photography to everyone. You just took your photos, and sent the whole camera in, then Kodak sent you back your photos and a newly loaded camera!

I loved learning the challenge of film photography; the chemistry, the skill, the tricks of a double exposure, and sadly, it is now basically extinct. I own quite a few expensive cameras that are now worthless! (a short meditation on the nature of acquiring “things!”) and in reality, digital pixels don’t really replicate a true analog image. Somehow, something is missing!

It looks like Kodak will soon be no more, so here are some retro memories to honor “The Eastman Kodak Co.”

Lastly, I have included a COLOR FILM ANALOG photograph I took about 3 years ago, when I went around my local area taking pictures of old California style Bungalows at night. Sadly, they too, are dissapearing!!!! And NO, NOT ANY Photoshopping!!!!

Film Photography California Bungalow by trolleyla

It’s been long time between posts lately … you know, the holidays and all that. I’ve been enjoying my downtime and reading my iPad, watching movies (loved loved “The Artist”!), filling orders for my stores and generally being lazy! I recently have been perusing the Life Magazine app, which is just beautiful. They have organized their incredible iconic photos into slideshow-based themes and I discovered Françoise Sagan, (under the “romantic-drunken-mad-literary-artist category”) who by all accounts was a hard living, larger than life, precocious artist. Her first, and most famous book, “Bonjour Tristesse” was published when she was 18 years old. She was an eccentric, and I love her for that!

Here she is with some of her more famous quotes:

“To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter.”

“Art must take reality by surprise.”

I know it appears I am in love with all things French …and I am! Only the French would make the new silent movie “The Artist”, and possess the effortless style of everyday Parisiens, speak the lovely language that I now master fairly well, not to mention the great bread, the butter, and Brigitte Bardot.

She loved fast cars (and leopard coats!) (Life Magazine photo)

Francoise at work (?)

Francoise and friend

Fabulous poster for the movie of her first book

In French, “window shopping” is translated literally  as “licking the windows” (leche-vitrines) as in,  Je adore faire du lèche-vitrines pendant la période de Noël (I adore window shopping at Christmas time.) But after taking a break from my blog (and work) to have an extended stay in the City of Light, I can tell you that they have the BEST window displays there, bar none. You WILL want to lick the windows. The most amazing little stores, remarkably small and perhaps largely unnoticed, design a small feast for the senses for those who take the time to stop and look. It’s just how they do things in France (I never thought taking art education out of the public schools was a good idea.  Ask the French about it!)

One late Sunday night (yes, I said Sunday) around midnight, I was walking back to my apartment in the 6eme and I saw a women, working alone late in her little hat boutique, designing her new window display for the following week.  She would make the most incremental adjustments of the hats, then walk in the street to take a look, then go back and move things a teeny bit more.  It was very late, but apparently, very important.  That is why it is worth “licking the windows” in Paris! Thank God the French don’t like to change!

Here are just a few of the windows I photographed; mostly I was focused on photographing small Parisians scenes to embellish for my store.  Take a look, they will be added soon!

Paris, 2011

Paris, 2011

Paris, 2011

And here is a photo of the flowers in bloom at the Jardin du Luxembourg (in October, no less) that will giving me endless inspiration for happy, joyous color.

Paris, Luxembourg Gardens, 2011

I’m really loving the Spring 2012 fashion shows. In this day of gloomy economic news and stagnant growth, it is wonderful to see such happy happy color lighting up the runways! I particularly am in love with the Preen line, with it’s pop-art color palette and pixelated looking prints. I love how intertwined art and fashion have become, and I plan to make my next image with this pink and black modish-lacey look. I love it! And Rodarte’s prints that are inspired by Van Gogh’s paintings are just beautiful. Spring is in the air! (Let’s just skip winter altogether!)

Preen, Spring 2012 Blouse and Skirt

Preen Dress, Spring 2012

Rodarte, Spring 2012 Dress

Rodarte,Spring 2012 Dress

If you have ever studied another language, one of the first things you need to grasp completely is that you CANNOT translate phrases word for word from your language. That is not learning the language! Which is why the phrase “I miss Paris” never rolls off my tongue quickly enough. To miss Paris, or anyone, they must be “missed to you.” Last night I saw a House Hunters International on apartment hunting in Paris (a daunting task, of course) and today I saw a wonderful article about a new exhibition of Gertrude and The Brother’s Stein’s art collection. (If you saw “Midnight in Paris” you were probably amused by Kathy Bates’ portrayal of Gertrude and that fabulous copy of Picasso’s painting he did of her!) The exhibition, “The Stein’s Collect” is at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, then travels to New York, and finally Paris, where it all began.  From the Wall Street Journal article:

For several years, almost the only places in Paris where one could go to see collections of works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse were Gertrude and Leo’s (and later Alice’s) weekly Saturday-evening salons on rue de Fleurus, and Sarah and Michael’s the same evening on the rue Madame. Eventually, “everybody” came—writers, musicians, cafe society and the gay demimonde, foreign searchers after the new, and the artists the Steins collected.

The Steins were such influential and astute art collectors that they managed to have owned some of the most beautiful and important paintings ever created, such as these two glorious Matisse portraits. They are breathtaking!

So I’m sure you can understand why I have learned to say correctly “Paris me manque” whilst my head is thinking: “Paris is missed to me!”

Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein in "Midnight in Paris"

Gertrude Stein, 1905–6, by Pablo Picasso

Girl With a Hat, Henri Matisse 1908

Woman with a Hat, Henri Matisse 1905

And as always, please visit my store(s) to see the things of Paris that are missed to me

Eiffel Tower by Trolleyla, canvas print 16 X 20

Last weekend I caught “A Place in the Sun” on Turner Movie Classics. Of course, anything with Elizabeth Taylor in her prime is retro glamour heaven, especially when the movie includes her good friend Montgomery Clift (or James Dean.) It seemed a lot more melodramatic and over-acted than I remember- my how movies have changed! Oh well, they were very earnest and worked hard, and it was a good movie in it’s day. However now, it is a Old Hollywood Classic, and I love them all! The gowns by Edith Head were amazing, the black and white chiaroscuro lighting, the lovely and delicate Liz, the handsome Monty. I particularly love the bright pop-art orange and yellow movie poster.. so cool! A little Gone With the Wind-ish, don’t you think? Just more fodder for inspiration! I Love Turner Movie Classics!

Movie Poster for A Place in the Sun

Poster with Text

Edith Head Design, from A Place in the Sun

Edith Head Flower Bodice Dress

When I was much younger and practicing my oil painting skills, I painted a picture from a photograph of David Hockney. I’m innately attracted to bright and audacious color, so I loved him not only for his personal style-  his bleached yellow orange hair, heavy round black rimmed spectacles, loud striped rugby shirts, his trademark miss-matched socks.  I am enamored with his blazing color palette and his subject matter, ranging from southern california architecture (and their swimming pools), portraits of his friends, and his later giant landscapes painted “en plein air” in his native England.

He has always been innovative and embraced new tecnology; mediums both high and low were just another means to document his abundant creativity. One of my favorite Hockney eras was his 4 x 6 inch photographs taken  with a drugstore camera, then developed at the one-hour photo stop. He them pieced them together creating giant collages, the most famous being “Pear Blossom Highway.”

So I have been happy to discover that since 2008 he has been painting on his iphone, and most recently on his ipad. His recent show in Paris of his ipad creations are changing the rules (again) for what a work of art can be.  At the show titled “Fleurs Fraiches,” his drawings are displayed on ipads mounted to the gallery walls, and he emails new creations to the show daily. He has even evolved his eclectic personal style by having suits made for him with pockets large enough to hold ipads, thus, technology influences fashion! He loves the immediacy of the medium. He states, “You can make a drawing of the sunrise at 6am and send it out to people by 7am.”

Hockney’s ipad drawing raise larger questions about the aesthetic and monetary value of art.  For earlier shows, he had his paintings printed out, mounted and priced. At the Paris show, the work is not for sale, merely displayed. He loves the democracy of the medium; anyone can download an app and get to work creating masterpieces and perfecting their finger dexterity. Not to mention there are no paint stained hands or fingernails, and nothing to clean up! Yet all the pieces are quite distinctly Hockney-esque. I wonder about the value of Hockney’s pieces if he decides to sell the ipads that he created them on. I suppose one could purchase the ipad and just delete it, and thus create the 21st century version of Robert Raushcheberg’s famous “Erased DeKooning.” Every art student is familiar with the story of how the upstart young artist Rauschenberg nagged the mega-famous elder statesman deKooing to give him a drawing. After finally succeeding, he promply almost completedly erased it, and then signed his name. Ahh, I love art!