Doctors and Nurses

I don't like going to the doctor's at all. I don't like needles, having my blood drawn, the smell in the offices, all their questions, and I especially don't like the idea that there could be something wrong with me.
Unfortunately I've had some problems lately and I don't have a choice anymore and have an appointment tomorrow. Last time it equaled hospital visit + neurologist and not really any relief, so I'm trying to keep my mind off of it. I figured what better way than with some quality eye candy - this time with a little medical spin.


Shall we?

Two lovely Red Cross nurses. Could you imagine someone helping you in that outfit? They look much lovelier than what I'm used to, and I'll take 'em!  Picture from here

Somehow I doubt I'd be comfortable getting doled out a prescription from here. I don't even like the jar that holds the tongue depressors! Bottles from here

Is it just me or does the girl look alot like Marilyn? The label says "General First Aid Kit, Johnson & Johnson", and the way she's on a stage makes me think maybe it was from a tv show where they did live ads? Lovely lady in spring-o-lators with robot from here

Let's hope my doctors don't look nearly as intrigued looking at my charts. Image from here

And because I can't do anything without a dose of art - one of my favorites, Richard Prince, did a whole series on Nurses. They're based on all the vintage books with nurses on the cover. I love them terribly.

Ballet

I love ballet. In fact, I love most dancing in general and have often been sucked into those shows like "So You Think You Can Dance". It's really just amazing how graceful and powerful the human body can be. When I was younger I took all sorts of dance - ballet, tap, jazz, street dance - but ballet was always my love. I used to walk around my house in my pointe shoes and I dreamed of dancing in The Nutcracker. Alas, as many young dreams do, it fell by the wayside for far too long and I lost any chance of every really truly dancing.
A few months back I started taking ballet again, thankfully with other adults and in a low level class that doesn't cause much pressure for me. Surprisingly with my lack of grace I've actually fallen back into it pretty well and am loving every second of it.

I'm sure you're wondering where this rambling is leading - well I saw this trailer the other day for the movie "La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris" and it made me really excited (this compounded on the fact that its super ballet season in NYC and all I really want to do is go back and see something again this year).




So in my love of ballet I thought I'd throw out some eye candy, including art related images since most people only know about Degas painting (and sculpting) ballerinas....

Picasso worked a lot with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, including even creating set backdrops and costumes for a performance called "Parade".

The below image is of Pablo Picasso and his second wife Jacqueline trying to teach him to dance (in fact his first wife was a ballerina with Ballets Russes)...

The artist Oskar Schlemmer also did drawings and created costumes for the Triadisches Ballett (Triadic Ballet) in 1922.

Then, behold, pure vintage ballerina goodies for the eyes!

Is anyone else here a dancer or dance lover?

Burton and a return

The entrance to the Burton exhibition....

It's hard to believe it's been since August that I have written in here. I did truly enjoy my blog (as I hoped others did as well), it's just that I got so darn busy!!

As I've mentioned before, I work for a large, world renowned museum. I LOVE my job, and sometimes it can get a little crazy in my life. For the past few months I have been working on the Tim Burton exhibition that recently opened and had an amazing good time. I think we reached around 700 pieces of drawings, costumes, figures, almost anything that you can think of. It was a lot of work, but it looks so amazing that it's truly worth having had to part with my lovely blog for a few months.

Since I didn't shoot pictures during install (except my one of me and Edward below) I had to find a couple pictures to show you all.

Me with Tim Burton wearing a vintage dress with little bicycle wheel design. (Helena Bonham Carter asked to touch it!!)

With the Edward Scissorhands costume. Those are my marching band pants and unfortunatley you can't see the super cute rhinestone sweater clip holding my sweater together or how great my curls looked piled on top of my head.


Our unofficial mascot - Balloon Boy


The blacklight carousel made specifically for the exhibition


You can see all about the exhibition including info on all the movie screenings on MoMA's website here

Tim Burton

I don't know where the time has been going lately! I have been a very bad blogger and I feel a need to explain why.

I do a lot of my blogging at work during down times, lunch, break, etc. For all those who don't know, I work for the Museum of Modern Art in NY, and I LOVE my job. The past few days I've been immersed in something I've been looking forward to for years. The Tim Burton show we're having later this year is starting to trickle in and I'm helping to check the condition of all the works as they arrive. It's very time consuming and, though super fun (!), it has left me no time for other pursuits. I'm loving every second of what I'm seeing (there have been numerous squeals down in our packing rooms) so if you get a chance to see the show while it's up it's definitely one not to miss!

Tim Burton at MoMA

Tattoos

Feel how you may about tattoos, they are widely becoming more popular and accetable in our culture. Even my 56 year old mother just got her first one last year. Sometimes they can be god awful, but sometimes they can be very very good, and though some people preach for fully authentic vintage looks, I appreciate the girls who can be traditional, and yet still slightly of the times. Plus, as much as anyone would like you to think only sailors had tattoos back in the day, it's just not true. They just happened to have the most of them ;)

I've had a picture of this girl saved on my computer for I don't even know how long. I love her look with the tattoos peaking out, and to me it doesn't take away from her look, but add to it:

Sammi Sadler from UK

I've always studied this girl's make up and hair styling's via livejournal. I love how it's retro with an edge
You can see more on her livejournal page here


There is also the famous pin-up Sabina Kelley. A mom, animal activist and devoted wife, she represents the pin-up spirit with her modern edge.
photo by Shannon Brooke Imagery



There is also a great article in the NY Times right now titled "Seafarers' Memoirs, Written on Skin" about the origins of tattooing as a review for an exhibit opening at The Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, PA.



More information about the exhibit and related programs can be found on the museum's website here

Fashion at the Philadelphia Museum

I love the Philadelphia Museum. I've travelled the few hours by car to see various shows there and the city, and museum, never let me down.

So today I was super excited to notice two shows on at the museum that sound great:

Something to Wear: Fashion in Print 1850-1925
April 11, 2009 - Summer 2009
The fashion industry during 1850-1925 was a period of tremendous change and innovation. This exhibition, designed to complement Shopping in Paris: French Fashion 1850–1925 explores the world of fashion and consumer culture through printed publications. On display are books, periodicals, department store souvenirs, trade catalogs, and fashion plates from the Library’s collection of fashion-related material.


AND



Shopping in Paris: French Fashion 1850–1925
April 11, 2009 - October 25, 2009
The glamorous and cutting-edge fashions created in Paris have always inspired American dress. This exhibition explores the American experience abroad between 1850 and 1925. Such luxurious designs as the House of Worth and the classic elegance of Lanvin are being paired with American fashions based on these Parisian prototypes.

Featuring nearly twenty-five garments from the Museum’s collection—many of which are rarely (or have never been) displayed—these outfits are accompanied by an exciting array of accessories. Photographs and film clips from the early twentieth century will be on view, giving audiences a sense of the storyline around each garment and the woman who would have worn it.

And an event at the museum for the person with the big wallet:



Art After Dark: Vintage Paris
Saturday, April 18, 2009
8:00 p.m. – midnight
The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building
2525 Pennsylvania Avenue

Attire tres chic
Valet parking
All proceeds benefit the Museum's Division of Education

Individual tickets: $225

Enjoy a soirée Parisienne at the fifth Art After Dark party, co-chaired by Shelly Brown, Pia Halloran, Patricia Isen, and Helene van Beuren. With inspiration drawn from concurrent exhibitions Henri Matisse and Modern Art on the French Riviera and Shopping in Paris: French Fashion 1850–1925 in the Perelman Building, all things French will enliven the evening, including exciting performances, innovative art stations, festive food, and extraordinary art.

More info here

Alexandros Vasmoulakis

Alexandros Vasmoulakis has a solo show opening tonight in Athens. Even if you can't make it there, his art is worth taking a look at

Very Anthony Lister meets Francis Bacon. Which means, sure it may be a slight rip-off, but it's still good.

Info from Wooster Collective and images from Alexandros' site here

Handiedan

Hanneke Treffers (1981) was born in the Netherlands. She studied photographic design at the Academy of Arts and Design St. Joost in the Netherlands. Along the way, she developed her skills and since 2002 she works under the name HANDIEDAN as a Amsterdam based self-employed artist, (web)designer, illustrator, flash animator and photographer.
Working as an artists HANDIEDAN creates mixed media pin-up artworks, black-and-white photo montages, drawings on clothing and fine line drawings on old sheet music.
It is a cut and paste mixture of patiently composed collages on paper and photo montages all washed together with the computer in an aesthetically pleasant and intuitive playful way. HANDIEDAN uses classic pin-ups and other elements like old sheet music, Chinese papers and stamps, old money, elegant curls, old wood, rusty metal and other old stuff she gathers on the street, flea markets or finds in old boxes on the attic. To combine the old images with her hand-dawn little girly doodles and scratches she distorts the carefully placed elements and makes the design lively, like in nature and the beauty and the discarder, objects and people, structure and balance, and happenings by purpose.



She has a great website which shows all her old work here



What really struck me though is the new work at Phone Booth Gallery (images of which are scattered through this post). I love the pin up girls mixed with old collage ephemera and the victorian calligraphy. The show closed December 31st, 2008, but the works can still be seen and bought online here

National Academy's death knell

So it seems the National Academy Museum in New York has been blacklisted by the American Association of Museums and Association of Art Museum Directors for selling off two pieces of art to cover operating costs rather than to acquire new work, as is the only permitted reason for deaccessioning.

In an e-mail message on Dec. 5 to its 190 members, it denounced the academy, founded in 1825, for “breaching one of the most basic and important of A.A.M.D.’s principles” and called on members “to suspend any loans of works of art to and any collaborations on exhibitions with the National Academy.”


I'm on the National Academy's side, and agree that it should be fair for them to claim "We’re going to go broke or we’re going to sell off two paintings, what do you think?’"

Read the full article on the NY Times here

winter wonderland

I spotted these originally on Wooster Collective's site which then lead me to the creator - Aly Lenon at 2pie.

I can't get past the fact that these are actually indentations, created by pressing themselves into snow on people's cars, and not 3-D sculptures.

Ryan McGinniss book signing

Though I'm not the biggest fan of his newer work (I'm a McGinniss circa 2003 fan myself), I was pretty excited to hear about his new book and subsequent signing that will be happening in New York this Saturday, December 13th.

His newest book, No Sin/ No Future (2008, Ginko Press) is a collaged collection of snapshots, sketches, and scans culled from the artist's studio archives. Sketchbook notes collide with photos of in-progress painting and combine with vectors and bitmaps, creating a dense site-specific visual mash-up that provides insight into the mind and process of this prolific artist. No Sin/ No Future is a limited edition of 2,500- so either head over to Zakka in Brooklyn this Saturday, December 13th, for a book launch and signing.

Banksy's pet store in New York

Banksy is elusive, iconic, and now possibly off his rocker. Known mainly for his political grafitti wall murals (people in England have placed bullet proof glass over the works and sold their homes as "Banksy mural with attached home") in various cities across the world has landed in New York City creating his first official art installation. No, you wont see any of the girls pining over floating away red balloons or rats with army hats (at least not inside), but you will find a menagerie of other works that may seem on the surface to be humorous, but deep down send the same strength political message.



You can read the entire article about the show on the New York Times website, or visit the "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill" yourself before October 31st at 89 Seventh Avenue South (near Bleeker Street).

Gilbert and George at the Brooklyn Museum

So because I have been sick this week I missed the Gilbert and George opening I was really looking forward to at the Brooklyn Museum. However this will not stop me from seeing it at some point before it closes in January 2009.

If you don't know who Gilbert and George are, you're living in a hole. I will accept that maybe some people don't know about their important early perfomance ("sculpture") works, or why they still wear the matching, slightly too small, tweed suits, but at some point in time, anyone who has ever stepped foot into a museum has probably seen an image by these two men.

The show at the Brooklyn Museum is the final venue in a large travelling retrospective of their work.

To read the NY Times review of the show go here

You can also see a few images, and get directions on how to get to this amazing show at the Brooklyn Museum website