Sai-Sai on the Runway!

The Queen of Hearts from the Alice in Wonderland Series wearing Queen of Hearts Mini Crown in Off with her Head

Jennie Vicious of Vicious Threads was invited to participate in RAW, a celebration of local artists of all kinds, at Mercy Lounge here in Nashville during fashion week. There was live music, dance, video, visual art, and a runway show. Jennie in turn invited me to provide accessories.

The runway show was in two parts, the first showing off a beautiful array of casual wear and the second, a run through of the Alice in Wonderland pieces from our Alice in Wonderland shoot back in early March. With 16 models and over 30 looks it was quite a production, but it came out beautifully! The original Alice team did the hair and makeup and Richey Vicious coordinated the music. It was pretty exciting for me, being my first ever runways show, and I was glad that I didn't have to do any of the organizing and was able to relax and watch the show. Miss Taylor Swift even came to watch, standing subtly to the side!

The models and hair and makeup artists

The Lovely Miss Jennie Vicious herself front and center, looking darling in "Sugar"

Somewhere in the Smokies/Done!

Untitled (so far) 48" x 24" acrylic on canvas

Last weekend, G and I went back to the Smoky Mountains with some friends. While doing a little bit of hiking, I started thinking about this painting again. I had started it last year after going to the Smokies in May...and got a little overwhelmed. But I was inspired after going back, brought the painting in to class and finished it up in one session. It is now hanging happily on our wall over the bed; I would show you but that would require some serious cleaning up action on my part.

It's 4 feet by 2 feet and I think I'm proud of it. But I can't really tell, I'm sort of blind to it right now. All I can see are little spots on it that I rather like and I ran out of little spots that really bother me, so it must be done!

Do those of you who can actually see it as a whole painting have any title suggestions? I based it loosely on a painting I took while hiking in the Smokies in May...

And, just for fun, here's a picture I took through the car's sky light. I like how the trees show up so well in the raindrops. It rained most of the weekend and a lot of the trees were bare, so it had an eerie, ethereal look in the woods.

Art Class

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Still Life Graphite and Watercolor

So Art Class is back up and running, and the assignment I assigned was to do a still life (any medium, any subject) and to focus on textures and how to differentiate them from each other. Of course, it seemed simple at the time, but these things always take on a life of their own. So the above is mine, I maybe had Alice in Wonderland on my mind a little bit at the time, hence the theme. But yes! I am still doodling a bit!

For this one I started out in pencil on watercolor paper, but a lot of what I liked about my set up were the little bits of color. So I thought maybe I'd add little touches of water color in the vase and on the rose and maybe the red heart ring...Of course then, the rest of it had a different texture. So I watercolored on top of the entire thing. The effect is sort of a gritty, faded illustration look, which is kind of cool, but more work than I wanted it to be, so I doubt I'll ever do it again...at least on purpose.

Which Reminds Me...

How would you describe this style? Sort of flapper-ish, sort of saloon girl, a little bit Indian princess...?

I don't have any idea myself, but it has a strangely modern romantic look while incorporating disparate bits of vintage and ethnic. I still can't decide how I feel about it.

Marie Antoinette Shoot

So Jennie Vicious (Vicious Threads) and I worked our butts off the end of last week for a last minute photo shoot. Initially, we were going for a sort of Marie Antoinette look. Jennie made an asymmetrical floral dress with vintage floral fabric and gold accents and a lace sleeve. I made a faux pearl choker and earring set, and my most over the top hat yet. And then somehow, when we met the adorable model Emily, we put her in an adorable auburn bob, and suddenly had a pseudo '60s look:

So we tried out one of my flower hats for a bit of a Jackie O' look

Jennie made this giant bow out of the same material, and suddenly it's a babydoll look

While we had our awesome team assembled, we got some pics of one of Jennie's dresses for an upcoming runway show and a giant peony hat that I made to match:

We teamed together to make this fabulous boho/flapperesque necklace combo:

And, getting a little crazy towards the end, we threw together this look, which somehow worked...

I made the clip to attach to the pearl choker, and the beaded pink robe is a unique find of Jennie's.

Josh did the photography again, and once again did an awesome job. All in all, it was a fun shoot, and once again, I have all kinds of things to load onto my site!