fleet collection

Two things: this is not a fashion blog, and I am not a fashion blogger.  So when the opportunity presented itself for me to get my hands on some crazy cute dresses from Fleet Collection and take some pictures in them, I was like "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! me?!" and then I was like "GIMME THOSE DRESSES!"  

You see, I love clothes.  I really, really love clothes.  Especially dresses.  I have more dresses than pairs of socks, or t-shirts.  Dresses for days!  I love dresses!

Basically: I convinced my friend Janine Ker to hang out in Griffith Park here in Los Angeles for a day and take pictures of me.  It was so much fun!  Not just styling the dresses, but getting to collaborate on something with my friend, doing something creative outside the norm for both of us.  I mean, I'm no model, and the button on Janine's camera is held on with a bit of tape, and we did this all completely guerilla style!  (We almost got booted out of Travel Town for bringing 'props' in with us.) We got some weird looks, but that just added to the fun, I think.  

It also forced me to respect my favorite fashion bloggers that much more...it takes a lot of planning and creativity to get good shots!

Credits for this adventure:

Dresses by Fleet Collection

Photos by Janine Ker

Styled and modeled by this moi

We shot this blue dress in Travel Town in Griffith Park.  It's full of cool old trains.  It's probably one of the coolest places in LA.  And it's free!

As a person who owns a lotta dresses already, I have to say that these are really excellently crafted.  I'm not jus saying that!  The fabric is nice and thick, so you don't have to wear a slip underneath, and they fit like a glove.  They're not flimsy like dresses this cute tend to be.  

Also, they are made in downtown Los Angeles!!  How cool is that?

sweater: J.Crew

shoes: Kurt Geiger

little suitcases: that is just the kinda stuff that I keep around.

This is a good place to mention that Janine is also my hairdresser.  She is responsible for my pixie cut, which gets me an average of one compliment a day.  

For the photos with this black and red dress I had the silly idea of going to this giant bougainvillea bush in Atwater Village, right by a train overpass.  It was our least glamorous location for sure (garbage all over, old man with a shopping cart rolled through, a car honked at us) but those flowers matched the dress so well!

sunglasses: the $15 or less store in Santa Barbara.  They were $7!

hat: some vintage hole in the wall.

belt: a thrift store like seriously 8 years ago

shoes: Kurt Geiger again

necklace: The Getty Center gift shop

THIS dress may have been my favorite.  I love red.  

 hat: J.Crew

belt: a thrift store like seriously 9 years ago

sunglasses: Asos

hat: Topshop

cardigan: Crossroads

all my jewelry: vintage

I got that paper parasol at FYF Fest a couple months ago for the practical purpose of keeping the sun off and also the awesome purpose of being adorable.  It was a fun prop!

Both Janine and I agreed that this yellow dress looked best among the yellow leaves of the sycamore trees.  The sycamore is my favorite tree.  How could you not love a tree that grows little deedly-balls on it?!

cardigan: Crossroads

shoes, sunglasses: Urban Outfitters

lace socks: Forever21

I hope I get the opportunity to do something like this again.  Super fun times!

Don't worry, there will be an art update soon.  I sure as heck have a lot to share, I just have to wait until the time is right!

brush pen part 2

Hey! I've been sick aaaaalll week! It sucks. I really thought I was better last night but after being in denial most of the day I finally took a Sudafed and passed out. At least I woke up breathing through my nose, which was a major improvement! I've been sucking down tea and hanging around my apartment for daaaaays and started reminiscing about last weekend when I thought I had beat my sore throat and went to brunch at Alcove, the favorite breakfast-at-noon spot in my neighborhood. It is full of characters, myself included. Here's a few that I encountered:

The lady on the right had a whole lot of look happening: a big woolly oversize sweater, a ripply tunic or dress (it's hard to tell which sometimes but this was supposed to be a dress since she wasn't wearing anything under it), giant chunky rock necklace, crazy gladiator sandals, and the ultimate accessory: a small dog. The dog was cute but ultra tiny! It looked fragile and fluffy. Her friend was tiny and had worlds largest handbag.



This girl is a cupcake. She was really working that romper. Except for the back, where the edge of her butt cheek kept peaking out...but I did you the courtesy of only drawing her from the front.



This was a tall, skinny, lanky couple. They looked like they just rolled out of bed to have a tall, skinny, lanky brunch together.




Also, I added a whoooooollle bunch of new prints to the shop this week. All stuff from my show last month. Lots of the originals are still available too, but I'm still considering whether to put them up in the store or not. I haven't had much luck selling OG's on etsy.

This will probably be my only post this week, since I've spent most of it laying around watching Grey Gardens and eating cough drops like candy.

drawings that I did from the balcony in the dark

I saw Camera Obscura last night at the Henry Fonda in Hollywood. They are sooooo great! The not great thing was that we had balcony seats. They are good for seeing the stage, but not so good for dancing around like you are supposed to do at a show. I tried to make the best of the situation by busting out my brush pen to doodle...but the only surface available to draw upon were cocktail napkins from the bar. So here are some doodles that I doodled out in the hot smelly balcony in the dark!

Anni Rossi opened. She plays the viola and sings and stomps on a suitcase wearing big boots for percussion. It took me a few minutes of watching her to realize that I went to CalArts with her! I think we had some classes together. People used to say she was awesome, but I never saw her perform until last night. Sean says I jacked her pretty hard in this drawing. Sorry Anni. You stomp out a song real good, though!



...THEN a band called Agent Ribbons played. They looked like a band of wind up dolls that played instruments! They had a great cello/violin player. She had a flower in her hair that was probably as big as her head.






I could not tell you what this bird guy was all about. He must have been over six feet tall, wearing a bright pink suit with a bird mask, and a moon shaped tambourine in one hand and a boxing glove on the other. If you are confused by these drawings, then imagine how I felt when this was actually happening in front of me.




Camera Obscura! They are a big band, and their lead singer has what I call a "cupcake" body: kinda thick, but not fat, but cute and appealing all over. Like a cupcake.






Yay!

screwing around with a brush pen

I just got a brush pen! I've never really messed around with one before, and I don't really understand how to use it. I understand that it makes whatever you draw look about 300x cooler instantly, but they are very sensitive instruments and I'm used to hammering away on paper with an unsharpened Ebony pencil, so it will take some getting used to. These are just some experiments from last week...



I saw this girl at Trader Joe's last week, when it was all weird/rainy/cold outside. It literally looked like she had just wrapped a tea towel around her shoulders and pulled on the most ridiculous, bright leg warmers she could find. I thought to myself, "Really?? Are pants really that hard to come by these days??" And flip flops, in the rain? What?



But that is why I love Trader Joe's in Silverlake. So much style, so many varieties of tortilla chips!

pics from the show!

As promised, some photos from the show this past weekend, courtesy of Jules! (As you may know, dear blog reader, my camera has resigned to paper weight status, and so I have no pics of my own.)



Sorry to anyone in these pics who would rather not be. If it makes you feel better, there are pretty much no flattering images of myself to speak of.





Bert approved.



Cute children and cute dogs liked the show, too...(that's my friend's baby Kaitlyn and my sister's baby Bambi).



Yep. Good times.

that book...

Remember that book I illustrated, and how I had to do it really fast and I didn't update my blog for like a month because of it? Well here's proof that it exists!

Right HERE!

I can't tell you how crazy it feels to search my own name on amazon and actually have something come up! By the way, I'm not responsible for the cover...that's just a screen shot from the film (weird). It's not actually available until August, but I was excited about it regardless.

AND my gallery opening was last night and it was great, if I do say so myself. So many people showed up to be supportive and check out the work and that was super awesome, and my friend Jenny + pals played some great music, and my bff Matthias made vegan cupcakes which was so sweet of him. Pictures coming soon! In the meantime, here are some little paintings from the show that were very spontaneous and fun to do...

lillian gish as the L.A. river

I know that when you hear "L.A. river" a bunch of clever, mostly negative quips come to mind, like "what river?" and "why isn't there any water it it?" and "oh that big cement thing?" and "that's not a river it's a jumbo sized storm drain!" etc. etc. and on into infinity. But I've actually hung around the LA river before, and yeah there's water in it, fish even, lots of birds, lots of bugs, some garbage, trees, reeds, and sometimes a rogue shopping cart. It doesn't smell very good and I wouldn't swim in it, EVER, but it's there and it's actually a pretty nice place to hang out in certain spots. Like all things in Los Angeles you have to seek it out and know exactly where to go and when. To me it's just another one of those magical secrets hidden away in the city...




AND, this is the last time I'm going to shamelessly advertise my show this weekend (Sunday) at Pehrspace. I'm going to be there all evening, from 6-11pm, eating Newman-O's and generally schmoozing, so if you're in LA you should stop by. There will be lots of paintings for sale, including this one! Next post will probably be photos of the show, so if you are inhabiting remote lands, don't fret! You'll still get a peak.

Kudos to all the folks whose films I saw at the CalArts Producer's Show last night, by the way! Good show, everybody.

building fun!

I'm gonna remind you right now: I have a show at Pehrspace next month! The opening is the evening of May 10, which is a Sunday, and there will be musics and alcohol stuff and also CUPCAKES! Cupcakes with stupid plastic googly finger puppet monsters on top! You can't miss out on that!

And if you've got crazy money burning in your pockets, you can even buy one of these...



...or you can just run up and touch one while I'm not looking, stuff your face with cupcake, dance around and leave.



Either way I'd like you to go if you can!

sketch fun

Sketches for paintings in the works...







Inspired by houses and apartments in my neighborhood.