mix media

McQueen in Spook Green

Illustrations, Projects Series

On a recent and dreary Thursday my “faux-bro” and I had made our way to a tattoo parlor for new piercings. And as he drove, I kept spotting compact vehicles that were a sort of high voltage green.

“Trench Retouch” 8.5 x 11 Cray-pas and pencil on paper

“Do ya suppose that spooks have traded in dark sedans for bright green compacts?” I mused for his consideration. And there you have the beginning of my backstory as to how I became inspired for this specific sketch. 

As afterward, he and I hit a bookstore where I snatched a copy of i-D magazine. And it was when I found within [Issue No 362] this particular editorial, photographed by Amy Troost, a fantastic shot of model Abby Champion wearing a McQueen designed “trench dress”. 

Hopefully, creative license is enough to pardon my reimagining this khaki dress in my “new spook green”…

Geranium Porch

Illustrations, Projects Series

From the archives of Harper’s Bazaar, I was very touched by a 1948 picture that had been taken by Louise Dahl-Wolfe. As we are all now vulnerable, the way in which this [uncredited] model held a handkerchief in front of a porch beam gave me some sense of empathy and reassurance. In my own illustration and more than anything else, I tried to bring out what I sensed – rather than what is seen in the original. 

Geranium Porch 2020
8″ x 11.5″, Mix Media

Photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe [b. 1895, d. 1989] is credited with influencing a number of the most coveted fashion photographers of the Mid-century era. Dahl-Wolfe did so by using naturalized settings and the advancement in producing full color images during the Forties and Fifties for fashion shoots in her role as a staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. 

Despite having her work exhibited in galleries and museums, Louise Dahl-Wolfe – according to a quote I found online at Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago – was not of the opinion that photography could be considered Fine Art. 

 

Louise Dahl-Wolfe Photo
1948

My Sprite A-Sprinting

Graphic

Tim Walker’s photo of Thomasin McKenzie gave birth to this design! [Which I depicted within a prior post here…] So rather than an egg, my sprite dashes with a snow globe behind her. At first I didn’t know how I wanted to go about adding “snow” inside the globe – that is, until I recalled my little squirt bottles of “liquid pearls” [via Tim Holtz collection which can be found here: https://www.simonsaysstamp.com/%5D

Sprite Sprinting