A New Series of Photographs-FORTUNY!

I have taken a few self-portrait photographs wearing an amazing find of vintage dress from Etsy.  To me, it looks like a gown that the amazing multi-media Venitian Artist, Mariano Fortuny, would have made(or something close to it, I can dream!).  I wish I could have taken photographs in Venice, but I am stuck her in the U.S.A.  There are gorgeous canals near where I live and you can take little rides down them.  I usually decide to take my photographs in the middle of the night(when I finally can't take the nagging from my art to 'do it now!' anymore).  "Cross of Saint Cecelia" necklace by Parrish Relics

"Fortuny on the Stage"

The Lady in Blue and Orange-A New Series of Self Portraits

Here I am, running and jumping around the building I live in which was built in the early 1900s.  It is full of amazing details-Arches, Stained Glass Windows, Gothic Revival Trims, Old Coal Shoots, Chandeliers, Tile Floors, Fountains in the Courtyard and more and more. My neighbors are used to me doing these things. The best part is that there is a photograph of the building just after it was finished in the entry hall with cars from the 1920s-priceless!



I hope all is well with all the folks in Blogland!

J.W. Waterhouse's "Hylas and the Nymphs"

A few new Pre-Raphaelite inspired Self Portrait Photographs



The Original Painting by J.W. Waterhouse "Hylas and The Nymphs

 

Meet One of My Favourite Models

I am trying to get back to Blog-Land. i am also fiddling around with a new look on my blog-will see how things end up.  Here are a few of my photograhs that show one of my favourite models-my younger sister-The gorgeous, blonde haired and blue-eyed Fox!  I love taking photographs of her.  I just cannot take a bad photograph of her.  And, since she is my sister, I don't feel so bad being the bossy photographer that I am! I hope all is well with all of You!  I have missed you!

My timeless Beauty Fox in "Tall Grasses"

Her features are out of control!  Look at those cheekbones! Here hands are just divine.  And, no, I did not get these genes.

"Roses and Gold"

Disgusting! I simply messed up her hair with some mouse, brushed some gold glitter over her face, applied some lip gloss, popped a few roses in her hair and took this photograph in my backyard.  Yeah, if she wasn't so sweet and funny, I would have a huge problem with  her!

"Tall Grasses Part II"

I love how she has such a timeless look-she can be many different characters for my photographs and loves to play along with my crazy ideas.

I think this is the only photograph of me(I don't know who took this!) "behind the scenes".  Don't be blinded by my fancy photography set-up and equipment-hehe.  I have always been a "Camera and make it up as you go..." kind of girl.

My Own Lizzie Siddal

It has been forever since I have posted to my blog!  I have been distracted from my routine and trying to get other projects done and then overwhelmed at how to begin with my blog.  So, I decided to do a short post about someone I love and who has been inspiring me for about 20 years!  This dear sister-friend of mine is my very own "Lizzie Siddal". 

I used to live in NE and she was a fabulous model for my photography, paintings and monotypes.  She is also a photographer, painter and printmaker so we both took turns being each others model.  We also just had a wonderful time being together.  

 There were fun trips to vintage clothing stores all over to find costumes for our photographs and unique(and cheap!) pieces of furniture to make our little ancient apartments into jewel box castles. 

( Look at what she did to my apartment when I was away for a weekend!  She made the outside of it as well as the stairs up to it(all 3 whirling and twirling teeny previously servant quarters stairs of an very old mansion)into an overgrown, enchanted Castle right out of Sleeping Beauty!  This is after I got into her apartment and covered everything with "pixie dust" and posted blown up photographs of her from one Pre-Raphaelite shoot all over our wee village!  Ha!  It was really sad, I kept these up until I moved.  It was extremely hard to take them down.)
 There were also many trips to hear concerts from artists like Loreena McKennitt and the Medieval Baebes.  We climbled lots of mountains and picked blueberries from low growing bushes which we made jams and pies.  We swam in fabulous secret swimming holes where there were beautiful waterfalls . 

 

 We were always cooking, making art, dressing up, taking fun little trips, going to our favourite restaurants and poetry readings, getting ready for art shows, weaving on our bead looms together to get through the long winters and we just really liked to be in each others company.

 Hay Jumps in Western MA!

 Photographs in Enchanted Forests~

 

 The Gorgeous Skies of Fall in NE

 

There are always hilarious sides to these "very serious" photographs!  Love this one! Moving around in this gown when it was wet was crazy, but she wouldn't get out until we had the perfect photo!

( An amazing "Garden" of old trucks circa 1940-gorgeous with Victorian finery!)
  I am not sure what I would be doing now or if I would be doing art now if this sister hadn't kept pushing me and telling me to keep going!  So, I have to thank her a million times over and am always sending her my love still though I am back in the midwest.  

 We still send each other our art, letters, and keep in touch with phone calls.  She will always be my favourite model and muse!  I miss her and all the fun we had together! 

 Grow, Braid, Cut, Repeat...I still have this set of braids-there are quite a few!

  Miss You!  Love you! Ooh, I always loved that coat and I still have that cobalt blue scarf that I wove!

The Painting That Started it All and Came Full Circle

The Pre-Raphealite Painting by Millias that I saw and wanted to try and do my own photographic portrait of.

My finished photograph of my version.

Another painting and version of Ophelia which inspired me.

And, two of the photographs that I took in my own verision of it.

This inspired me to dress up as this Ophelia for Halloween one year with one of my art students who wanted to dress up like one of my art dolls. I think she did a really good job!

The doll she dressed up as was the first art doll I ever made. Her name? Ophelia!

Recently, I have started doing digital self-portrait photographs. I took this self-portrait photograph in my own bathtub which I shrouded with dark black fabric, filled to the rim with water and about 4 dozen roses. Why? It has a bit of an "Ophelia" vibe going on.

The more photographs I took, the more I studied the Pre-Raphealites.  The self portrait photograph below is part of my "Prosperine" series which was inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossit's painting above-the famous  "Proserpine"

His imagination and my photograph inspired me to make another one of my art dolls(at this time I had made hundreds of them and learned a lot).  This time, I was focusing on Prosperine's gown and gorgeous, wavy dark hair in the painting. She was to be a gift for dear friend, but ended up in show instead.

(She is in just the beginning phase of getting her costume and hair together in this photo, but now she is done now. More photographs to come!)

Then, after many years of being inspired and making pieces of my own, I was given the opportunity to curate an Art Show in which I asked all the artists to do their own take on the Pre-Raphealites. It was so exciting to see what each artist came up with in their own style!

Above is a large painting that a local artist Justin Cooper did called "Jane Burden Recyled".  I love how he mixed the old with his own unique style!

Almost 15 years later, my original photograph of my first film version of Ophelia was blown up very large as a digital photograph and put in this same show.  No one had ever really seen her, especially this large, and she had never been in one of my shows. What a thrill to come full circle!