manet

 

I will be sad to see this little lady fly away home. Carly made her stand! Then she stood. Then she started walking away. I had to cut her off at the door. Her outfit is inspired by this Manet painting that is always  in my head. It's all about the buttons. There is a bit of an optical illusion going on with fifre's  brass buttons; from neck to sleeve and then continues down the  front. A row.  She only has two buttons, of course..she's tiny.  So this is only the subtlest of emulation. Mother of Pearl by roxy music is a very good song. I only use those buttons. Abalone will do in a pinch.

zero to ninety in 30 seconds flat

Tweekie, my personal assistant, went ahead and uploaded these pics of me in my makeshift studio (thanks to shary!). This is the other day. I had to finish some last minute sewing which mostly included dressing a few half-dressed bunnies and snapping some snaps. ALSO! finishing up the tiniest, tiniest peanut-shaped bunnies to sit inside doll-size teacups. It's good thing I did that. They have been flying off the shelves.  I love that term. Flying Off The Shelves.

My best boy pal Ian took those photos. He was making me laugh my head off. As usual. He talks in a whisper.

(please note 'rescue remedy' on table...practically been doing shot glasses of the shizz..seaweed rice crisps, oreo-shaped container for buttons...the bird-shaped scissors my aunt diane gave me and i have had to mail them to myself a hundred times from airports. i FINALLY figured out a way to smuggle scissors onto airplanes so i can sew! The fold-up scissors will go thru security...or rounded tips/kids work..esp with a case/plastic SHEATH..i got a pair at muji in japan..just saying. it's hard to get scissors onto planes!)

you MUST MUST click this link to fieldguided's blog...our beautiful collaboration of my handwriting and their hardwork and design equals MEOW BAG...BEAUTIFUL! i love them. Mew. Do you remember that book 'it's not the end of the world by judy blume? A. i love that book. B. her cat was named "Mew". a gray cat. all cats are gray. debbie harry had three gray cats. she wrote a song about one..is it 'sunday man'?

gonzo

Here's my new favourite bunny print! the yellow is so beautiful with the pink backdrop. Rachelle at the lovely shop 'Hawk Eyes' on Roncesvalles put the deer aside for me for bunny purposes. I say a 'deer ride' is a very fine purpose.

You can purchase a print here.http://www.etsy.com/your_shop.php
The first day of the Oneofakind show is now over.  11 more to go. Today was fun. Many, many people love the bunnies. I just burst out laughing when i typed that. It blows my mind. It is truly surreal. For me.

BLACK BEAUTY (part 2)

I'm starting to upload some prints to Etsy. Lil Black Beauty is up now and available HERE. The print is an 8X10 for $20. So please imagine the above image with more gray on either side. I love black and gray together right now. Charcoal. The primo black angora lady herself is $150. She will be also be on display shortly at the One Of A Kind show here in Toronto where I am currently  being spoiled by  my wonderful friends here.  (i have to multi-task/hang at the same time). I'm making up for lost time since I have spent the last 2.5 (more?) months in a hermetically-sealed (dexter) room making bunnies for 12-16 hrs a day. Bracket, bracket, bracket. But I got out a bit for nature walks/daily exercise. You know...like what they let you do in jail. It was very fun.

I spent all day yesterday setting up..actually most of that time was stuck in a large U-Haul picking up stuff all over the city w/ Conan the Barbarian in the passenger's seat yelling at me (about the evils of grains, vegetable oils, ugly black 90s leather jackets as friend deal breakers, etc etc etc).  It was so fun! I mean it..like hanging out with my brother. My favourite part of the day was watching JJ draping the most delicate cheesecloth/gauze in the booth..standing all over Grant's chair..i was on the floor pretty much babbling at that point..incoherent from exhaustion. BUT!!! Thanks to JJs/Conan's handmade shelves and all the other magic, the booth looks fantastic. Selena Wong helped me for the rest of the day and did her special magic. My seasonal manager PAM came in and bossed me around and made me a 'to do' list (on top of my 'to do' list), whipped everything into shape and then went onto her other job as Karen Cain's assistant at the National Ballet. These people rule.

Hopefully i'll get some booth pictures up soon. tomorrow is the first of many more very long days.

BLACK BEAUTY

this is a pretty little lady. the wondrous carly waito posed and snapped her photograph.

she's wearing leopard print legwarmers, little house/laura ashley on the prairie skirt, marle gray cashmere capelet (w/ abalone button detail...i hadn't sewn the button PLUS snap on yet so it's a lazy pin job..but that's all done).

anyways. she's ready to rock and roll and she has FRIENDS!

HAWK

carly waito and i had the most amazing and successful bunny photo shoot yesterday. i love working with her.  some of the photos will make you cry (and laugh and then cry again). i'll include a silly one that was a 'meh' one. it's not 'meh'..it is great..just not as on the money as the others...she's wearing a HAT but it also looks like a lion's mane or..as ben said...a mullet wig (especially from the back. Business in the front/party in the back) also.
we both intuitively know which ones are the money shots* and are always in total  agreement. HOW RARE.
* apologies
speaking of great collaboration! isobel campbell and mark lanegan perfection (lee and nancy)..their last album HAWK...beauteous...here is my favourite song of the past 24 hours (played on repeat)


You Won't Let Me Down Again.

Isobel is lovely (& w/ real lady's body as in: no emaciation)...cello player from belle&seb..and mark..i love his death-rasp. i met him & he is just how you would imagine him to be. i love this yin/yang collaboration. i wish the rest of the world would follow suit.

speaking of more awesome collaboration! ahlers and fieldguided. tavi and janeprattsassy.
wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

can this bridge cross the ocean?

 Doubtful.
my favourite images of the bunnies (right now) is of them
facing in this direction.

looking forward/pressing on.

& nothing getting

in the way

this is my favourite song right now In for the Kill (Skream's Let's Get Ravey remix) by la roux
(forgive that ridiculous graphic on the 'video')

cant get no

arent these funny bunny pants? i guess more 'shorts trousers'...i wing this stuff as i go along and pattern nothing. so either it turns out or it doesn't turn out. but. i usually get it to turn out to my liking. somehow. make it work. or i avoid doing it at all. or i figure out another way. and then i apply these tactics to other areas in my life. the rest of my life. (my biggest pleasure during bunny production was coming to the end of a spool of thread. that was satisfaction. & watching the wrestler (& splice).

speaking of splice...hit that 'satisfaction' link for some genius Chan Marshall (& judah bauer on guitar)

processing

 cramming

that's called a 'Lamb Car'

 this is a favourite one.

 peanuts

 half-done midsized bunnies

 i make other art while i'm doing this. i write things down while i work. this is a photograph of an image ripped out of..something. Re-photographing. down below is some of the writing i speak of. thoughts. this is how my bookwork comes together over time. i edit a few times during the year and see what happens. it's seasonal work.

 here are some good things...'stevie' art from the very great Chelsea magazine and the most recent Lightning Dust album that amber sweetly sent me plus some of her mixes. (jeremy designed the stellar cover)

 oh my goodness. Old School Crew. They were inspiring me. The very first bunny i ever made, the second, the 607th and the 2,001 bun. I've lost track. can u believe how they've changed?

 'we can sit here for a bit even though you're in my space'

nice mess

 baby chick yellow bunnies waiting for ears.

 here are bunnies that are yelling at me: WE NEED CLOTHES. i drape them for a week or so...wait to see what they *need*.
here are bunnymaking images over the past 2 months. processing. always
oh and some more inspiration that has nothing to do with bunnies but it does but it doesnt.
The Rose!

mother of murphy~!

have you seen the new Vanity Fair? they plastered a marilyn monroe quote from a poem that i used in the selves..and had reservations about using her words b/c they are BEYOND vulnerable...i cant believe it! plastered across VF! it's from a poem she wrote and i've carted it around for over a decade thinking/knowing 'i have to use this somewhere'. poem fragment: help/help/help/i feel life coming closer/when all i want to do is die'.
i held onto it b/c it's shocking, sad, pathetic and why would the world's most beloved lady FEEL that way? it's like something from a 14 year old's diary.
anyways! awesome. it always feels good to feel a part of the collective consciousness and obviously this needs to get looked at.
radical!
i cant wait to read her diaries. wherever she is, i hope she is okay with all of this. maybe it's about time. it certainly is in my books.
i have to go catch a plane now! and finish packing and go pick up a poster at STAPLES (for the 5th time)
ciao bellas.
PS here is another bunny to look at. I've been making them little bill cosby-inspired sweaters. they will get jazzier with time.

x

My Art

i'm tidying up my computer before i leave for a month & found this gold. i made this (unedited) gem 3 yrs ago when i first came  to the yukon..sitting at my desk working on random book, turned around and captured MARVIN preening to Prism's "Spaceship Superstar"
i recommend FULL SCREEN

invasion of the body snatchers.

dear friend

hi.
here are some more recent bunnies to look at. when i put the grey fur 'hat' on the big bunny, i started laughing. hard. that will happen. it  looks like a wig but then it's a hat. what do you think? Ben thought 'Anna Karenina' which i thought apt b/c there is other Russian influence in some of the other 'looks' (plus that's my lineage. at some point). I added a dusty lavender cape with very antique pearl button detail and leopard print maxi skirt to 'explorer guy/elvis wig'...so suddenly 'he' became a 'she'. this has been a bit of an issue in this final stretch of CLOAKING the bunnies. at times leaving me beside myself. with confusion. (i was  forced to make a pair of knickers for a bunny who refused to become a girl). So much of my work is putting together a puzzle...i do all this work somewhat blindly and (somehow trusting the process) but no matter what, the final stretch is always piecing together the puzzle..making sense of the work..and self-editing which is almost impossible but i force myself to do it. 

the "peepers" look like pods right now. like invasion of the body snatchers or SPLICE (i just watched that movie! it's so good. totally entertaining).

the bunnies have been insisting on legwarmers. (leopard print black w/ slate grey)
photos of which are floating around somewhere.

i am  exhausted.

'getting there'

not to be confused with 'Being There' or.............this

'roll with'

chester went to live in los angeles (w/ Entourage). lucky duck! he was a custom order and what you dont see, is what you dont see...cos..see..underneath his hyper-furred out SWEATER*, were some tiny gray woolly ballz. i'll leave it at that. so basically, he's ballin'...in LA.

i'm listening MISS POTTER (in the background). ewan mc just said to beatrix/zellwegggeredd 'cry face':

'You and rabbits!! Extraordinary!'

i'm like the metal version of miss potter. that was a JOKE. i grew up on SCTV.

* so i take a sweater made from angora (bunny) and then i make a bunny and THEN i make a sweater for the bunny from the sweater made of bunny. That's like MATRIX META.


(all i want to do right now is talk about THE WRESTLER but i need to get back to work).

PS thank you to Kerri Reid for sending me THIS GOLD. As far as i'm concerned this is (my)  high art. My favourite band (heart) performing  @ 'dancing with the stars' and those dancers dancing to barracuda. 'i had to turn my heart away'.

which reminds me: i dreamt last night i survived a plane crash. it was an old 70s conchord flight occupied by fashionistas. they all died. there were 4 survivors: me, meesoo lee, random and a publisher from england that i was in communicado with.

o, if u only knew

my laptop feels like it is about to explode.

here is a little bit of *radio*  w/ BitchMedia.  Heather Leighton interviewed me across the country in September and now it's up. There are other good interviews on there. Recommended! as they like to say nowadays.

I am in 'Bunny Nightshift Lockdown'.