The Dresden Dolls, Steampunk, Octavine Illustration and an Apology

Created from the gears of industry, Steampunk is an expression of a desire to return to the elegance of tea-parties, ball gowns and the glamour of a more formal, ordered existence.

Steampunk fashion celebrates industrial beauty as pocket watch mechanisms and typewriter keys find new meaning in jewelry, adornment or collage. It is in direct opposition to the mass-produced, made in China, sleek minimalist look of the Millennium.

The Dresden Dolls, a Steampunk cabaret duo, embody this new fashion phenomenon. Their large, loyal fanbase seeks to portray this neo-Victorian aesthetic through Dresden Dolls inspired paraphernalia.

By returning to handmade, artisan crafted merchandise, the Dresden Dolls’ new website, Post-War Trade, seeks to provide hand-wrought items commissioned specifically for their fans.

Contacted personally by the Dresden Dolls with a vision for a notecard based around lead singer Amanda Palmer, I sought to create an aesthetic of old Hollywood glamour. With Dresden Dolls song lyrics and my own image of Amanda Palmer, these notecards are designed, hand-screenprinted and hand-painted by yours truly and can be purchased directly through the Post-War Trade website.

In other news, please accept my apology for my long absence. Vacation and weddings ruled the month of August leaving me little time for blogging.

I was however, featured in a wonderful eco-blog, The Organic Mechanic, with a lovely interview all about me and my art along with many ecologically minded details.

In addition, my "Career Gal" painting was featured on a major London travel site, The Londonist. And, of course, when not dancing at weddings or at a reunion, the was month spent working my little fingers to the bone creating Art Deco wedding invitations, an Art Nouveau inspired Ketubah as well as a couple new Moleskine and notecard images such as "London Mod." I hope to get everything posted soon. And I promise I will not be gone for so long again. I missed you all terribly.

I'll Play if You Will

It is 55 degrees out. On Saturday it was 99 degrees. I prefer the heat so I drew her to celebrate the long summer days ahead, much eagerly anticipated and disappointingly not quite here yet.

Yesterday I was tagged twice, thus I thought in the spirit of sportsmanship I would play along. As the tags asked differing questions (one simply asked to write seven interesting things about oneself, the other had directed questions), I am combining them as to not write a manifesto.

Without further ado....

1. What were you doing ten years ago?

Living in Jerusalem waiting tables. I had left college prematurely, moved to Jerusalem by myself and got a job as a waitress. I lived in Israel for two years before returning to San Francisco to finish college. It was a most romantic point in my life and where I began to find my calling as an artist (it would take many more years to realize it).

2. Things that I would do if I were a billionaire?

I would buy a huge sprawling Victorian with stairways that ran nowhere, rooms hidden behind bookshelves, secret passages and an attic full of ephemera (think Winchester Mystery House). I prefer it to be bit decrepit to add history, drama and intrigue. I would also travel, my big orange backpack atop my small frame, to destinations exotic and locales of ancient lore. Oh, and I would buy tons of clothes. Beautiful couture fashions from decades past. And shoes, lots of shoes.

3. Places I have lived:

New Mexico
Ohio
Israel
Northern California
Oregon

4. Random Musing no. 1

I want to go to St. Petersberg as my next travel destination. I would like to see the Hermitage.

5. Random Musing no. 2

I have a mastiff-labrador cross named Belle. The name is reflexive as she is named after the Scottish band Belle and Sebastian. Belle and Sebastian named themselves after the early 1980s cartoon about the adventures of a little boy, Sebastian and his big dog, Belle.

6. Random Musing no. 3

If I could eat anything all the time it would be pie. I love pie. All kinds of pie. Especially fruit pie. And desserts in general. Big fan of sugar.

I am now tagging others. All of you. Wouldn't want to pick favorites, so everyone is invited to play; use these questions or make up your own. Cheers!~

Farewell Kabarista

I feel most blessed to live in the independent music capital of Portland, Oregon. Last night I enjoyed the lively Victorian-era French cabaret circus stylings of Vagabond Opera at the old Wonder Ballroom.

The fair red-headed chanteuse's rendition of Edith Piaf's swooning melody, Milord, the hulahooping fire-eating chorus girl and a general atmosphere of hedonistic bohemian revelry made for a most memorable Valentine's Day.



Pictured is my bohemian muse. If I close my eyes I can see her dancing to the music.

Walt Whitman & Portland

Whilst strolling about southeast Portland in the seemingly perpetual February drizzle, I spied what is perhaps one of my greatest sources of neighborhood inspiration: a hand-painted sign situated along a streetpole on a fairly major thoroughfare in the beautiful "Rose City" inconspicuously boasting the words of the first great American populist poet, Walt Whitman. His Leaves of Grass is perhaps the greatest collection of poetry of the nineteenth century and "Song of Myself" my most favorite of all.

Everyday I walk my dog Belle, a Mastiff-Lab cross, by the Walt Whitman streetpole (I find this wonderfully apropos as Whitman was a true man of the street, a poet of the senses). Regardless of my present mood, a rather hedonistic creative spirit wells up. My regard for Portland increases despite the present gloominess and my faith in art, culture, society and civilization is happily restored. The power of poetry is quite mighty indeed.

The painting pictured was inspired by my vision of a loud, dark and dirty Victorian era tavern in Whitman's industrial haven of New York City.

Album Art--My First Foray Part I

I just started a new commission today. It is for an album cover entitled "Knives That Stab Your Face." I know, pretty intense. However, Brian, the soul behind "Knives," is a slight redhead reminiscent of a rookie detective from Scotland Yard. I think it's the goatee. His music is akin to Elliott Smith or Leonard Cohen. Singer-song writer stuff with a dark edge. Hence, "Knives That Stab Your Face." The theme of the album art is to be "sinister" but will not be literal.

This being my first foray into album art, I am very excited about it. Brian wants to have the album ready for printing in a month. So that leaves me like two weeks. Yikes. Better get to work and stop futzing around on the computer....

Oh, and pictured is the painting Brian likes best and I am using as the inspiration for the album cover.