Monday, July 25, 2011

Hairdresser on Fire


Van Smith is the artist behind John Water's diva actress Divine's costumes and hairstyles. He created Divine's iconic look for the film Pink Flamingos that consisted of a receding hairline, white clown make-up, and eyebrows as well as eye make-up extending to the back of the forehead. She was supposed to be a mix of Jane Mansfield and Clarabell the Clown (from the Howdy Doody show, a 1950's children's television program). In the 1998 documentary "Divine Trash" Van Smith claims that he raised Divine's Hairline because he wanted her face -like a blank canvas- to have more space to apply make-up. Around the time Divine's look was introduced drag queens were just female impersonators with a conservative look. Divine's revolutionary look changed appeal for decades to come, drag queens continue to emulate Divine today. 
Female Troubles (1974)
Van Smith created Divine's look for John Water's Film Female Troubles a film about cults and brainwashing where Divine plays Dawn Davenport a feeble-minded house wife that becomes involved in various crimes with the surreal ideas imposed by two facist hairdressers Donald & Donna Dasher (Mary Vivian Pierce & David Lochary) that beauty is crime

Divine's see-thru gown tailored for the 300 lb actress
Female Troubles (1974)
 Edith Massey's catsuit from Female Troubles
Female Troubles (1974)
Mink Stole and David Lochary as Connie and Raymond Marble in Pink Flamingos (1972)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
 Van Smith was considered one of John Water's Dreamlanders- John Water's film crew for his independent film studio Dreamland productions work that consisted of his friends- he created the amazing costumes for all of John waters films from Pink Flamingos to A Dirty Shame until his death in 2006
Jean Hill Desperate Living
Mary Vivian Pierce Female Troubles (1974)

Female Troubles (1974)
Melanie Griffith Cecil B. Demented (2000)
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
Cecil B. Demented (2000)


Other works include:
Desperate Living (1977)
Polyester (1981)
Hairspray (1988)
Cry Baby (1990)
Serial Mom (1994)
Pecker (1998)
Cecil B Demented (2000)
A Dirty Shame (2004)
-Amanda Jacques


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Buffalo Bill's Tattoos


The Goodbye Horses Scene in Silence of the Lambs is one of the best scenes in any film I have ever seen, the cuts are spot on the sound track and the evolution, ahh the lighting, I would have to say it stands alone as the most perfect scene ever made... which easily explains why it has been so often parodied (in various cartoons, and Clerks ect.).. aside from that I have recently become obsessed with Buffalo Bill's sacrilegious holy wound tattoos, also the great enigmatic Q Lazzarus' song Goodbye Horses


Ted Levine as Jame ''Buffalo Bill" Gumb is amazingly sexy, he should have his own film, not to mention Silence of the Lambs consolidated his role as an evil mother fucker, if one year from today I still want his tattoo its on.   
-MJJ

Thursday, July 14, 2011

In the Valley of Sleep


 2011

I have very few friends I actually enjoy, one of them is (Colin) Daddy Peterson, I met Colin in high school film club when my family moved to Laguna Beach my junior year in high school. He's always showing me his sketch books and I have had the opportunity to see his style of work develop and change over the past four years... although nowadays he spends more time doing experimental/industrial/conceptual music... he recently moved to Long Beach and I have been staying at his flat a few days a week to commute to school in LA...




2009
I really like his work and it usually sits around in his house so when he agreed to let me post his work I kind of ran to the local press and had my favorites scanned... we are supposed to start painting sessions together soon, Amanda has been inviting him over for lessons for the past two years... we haven't really gotten around to it yet.... but it seems imminent




-MJJ

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Comics.... Voyeurism & Bronwyn Price

About two years ago I spent the summer in London at my uncles' flat in Kings Cross across from the station, they recently moved to Seven Sisters.. but that's not the point, the thing is I was often stranded outside the building waiting for them to get home because I didn't have a key.. one of those days I spent a few hours in a local print shop and discovered the great Bedsit Journals bought a few and went on with my life.. I started getting into comic books in high school and had had very little contact with them before. My first recollection of reading a 'comic book' was as a kid when I picked up one of those dirty graphic novels from a warehouse in a factory my dad ran in Mexico, which of course any six year old would find fascinating..
I also remember one of my father's associates had a teenage son with a fascination with Archie comics which even now seems bizarre to me.. any how I enjoy the usual R. Crumb and many other lewd and ironic publications.. so back to Richard Cowdry's Bedsit Journals... I added him on facebook and some other comics artists and recently came across Bronwyn Price and since I couldn't find any information on her over google (lol)...... she agreed to let me facebook interview her and post some of her art/comics which is fucking clever and amazing... look at the LINE QUALITY-  its all about the line quality and dot shading or is that benday?.. so here it goes:

J: where are you from? 
B:Born in Barking (east London), grew up by the seaside then moved back to London in my teens. I'm currently in south London.
J: do you publish your art as comics?
B: Not yet, but that's what I'm working on now, getting enough stuff together to put some out. Hopefully soon.



J:what got you into this style?
B:As a kid I liked old movies and girls' comics and they both made quite an impression on my view of the world. When I was older I got into underground comics, pulp books and record covers, stuff like that. I didn't start drawing properly until I was 30 so by that time I'd had a lot of influences going in. I think there's a slight '70s touch to my art though I can't put my finger on what it is exactly. I started stippling (the stuff with all the little dots) because I wanted to make my comics look like old movies. Then I was shown the works of Drew Friedman and I went stipple-crazy for a while after that. I've not quite reached the style I'm going for yet but I'm getting there.

J: have you been to art school?
B: No, I did art at school and it was enough to put me off picking up a pencil again for twelve years. I started a film studies degree but got kicked out early on. The film studies course was probably a pretty big influence on me though.


J:who is your favorite artist/comic book artist?
B:Oh gosh, it's a real struggle answering that but if I had to choose I'd say Basil Wolverton.

J: I notice you have a lot of blues inspired comics: who is your favourite musician?
B: Music has been such a big part of my life I can't help but draw it. Mainly 50s/60s music, especially country and soul. The Everly Brothers are a big favourite of mine. I even started drawing a comic about them until I realised that publishing it might not be exactly legal.

J:for your shading do you do it all by hand or do you use benday pattern or both?
B:I'm the old-fashioned type and do it all by hand. The stippled stuff I do using a small paintbrush and ink. My favourite way of colouring is with an airbrush. I've probably got one of the most time-consuming comic techniques going but I just like the effect it gives. I'd like to try that benday thing out though.

you can check out more of her work at  http://calliopekid.deviantart.com/ 
and that's a WRAP!
-MJJ

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Hats and Huicholes

El Santo & a Mexican woman who resembles Anna Karina

I'm in two summer classes... Golden Age of Mexican Cinema and Latin American Civilization and I've been looking into topics for my two end of semester theses, so I was thinking the re-articulation of Indian culture in modern art and also El Santo films. I'm choosing these because I know nearly nothing about either and think it would be fun to dive into some research without preconceptions.. either way looking at huichol art and costume it occurred to me to make a contemporary Huichol inspired hat to wear around, because that would be fucking cool and Gaultier doesn't give a shit about exploiting the Mexican's peripheral cultures and also because the Geneva convention's proposition on preserving culture is bullshit...

-MJJ

Poodles

Poodles are the ditto of the animal kingdom, so cool..





as far as I'm concerned photos by Ren Netherland 

Apparently in middle America people have poodle grooming contests

-MJJ