On the Horizon...

Hey Ladies: Being A Woman Musican Today

An interesting music interview I found today on NPR:

We asked hundreds of women working as musicians today to tell us what it's like right now: the good, the bad and the same as it ever was. Read their responses, find new music and join the discussion.
Hey Ladies


Miranda Lee Richards:
"I have received so much advice, but some of the best advice had to do with learning to do what was right for me. It's important to know somethings about the business so you can make educated decisions, but even then, you will have to be in touch with yourself to know when a situation feels right, when someone has your best interest at heart, or when an opportunity feels exciting or just the opposite. Very rarely do you feel good about things that turn out bad. I have felt cautious about things that ended up turning out great, but I've never felt bad about something that turned out good, does that make sense?"

After a lovely homemade breakfast of pancakes and coffee with Laura Graham this morning, talking dreams, talking film making and music making, I began seriously thinking about the lifestyle and decision makings and potential of the creative artistic woman. I think I wanna make music...Stumbling across this little vignette today of all days was very interesting.

Happy August Leos,
xo ac

Collectively Speaking, Then and Now...

Collectively Speaking, Then and Now:
The Other Woman and The Philadelphia Ten

June 25th, 2009 - September 7th, 2010

The Galleries at Moore
20th & the Parkway
Philadelphia, PA

OURS...

I took this photo last week while I was walking about Old City with my best friend. The Bourse sign with letters out...






XO AC

Daily Affirmations

The Element of Freedom

Alicia Keys begins her album, "The Element of Freedom" with a reading of one of the strongest and most prevalent quotes ever by Anaïs Nin:

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

xo ac

Window Seat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVp47f5YZg

xo ac

High Heels

Mr. Alexander McQueen's pieces of art...

xo ac

Rouge

xo ac

Lori Nix

Amazing photos by Lori Nix (the pieces are photographed miniatures)

Creepy Sweet

With the weather as nice as it is, i'm looking for plants to fill up the inside and make it look like the outside. While scouring Etsy for terrariums I came across this one by LBrandt:

Girls, Girls, Girls...

After going to Wendy Williams on Thursday and having to almost ask a question about my art during the Ask Wendy segment and being freaked out to do so, and then seeing myself on TV, I started to think about the vibrancy, the energy, the voice of the highly publicized, highly outgoing, famous women in POP culture...and how I sometimes fantasize about being one...it's probably a wild, wild ride.

xoxoxo
AC

how you doin'?

HOW YOU DOIN'?

A How You Doin' Tutorial by the Queen of all Media

Oscar..

Every woman is a rebel,
and usually in wild revolt against herself.

-OSCAR WILDE

It hasn't been this beautiful out in a long, long while. I want to swallow it up and never go inside.

XOXOXOXO AC

Lost Things

A Single Man and The Valley of The Dolls

A Single Man, an Interview with Colin Firth

Within a day of each other, I finished reading Jacqueline Susann's The Valley of the Dolls and saw Tom Ford's film rendition of Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man with a friend. I'm fascinated by 1960's America and by the way these two character stories were told. There is a strange parallel between that time and our current. The way people acted and lived was very different back then and yet somehow strangely similar to today...and the distant thoughts, the inner conflict of the characters in these two stories resonated with me, felt somewhat familiar. The juiciness of the tales, the subtlety of the characters' pain, the longing, all these felt familiar. But I guess that parallel can be made with many other time periods and today. And I guess these attributes are those to be coveted for good story telling. Susann's novel was maybe not as cohesive or full as one may hope for, but it sure was a page turner. I read someone called it their guilty pleasure. I found it to be just that for me with it being my many a late night companion. And Tom Ford's film had very distinctly beautiful moments, and visual gems so epitomizing of the impeccable taste of the talented, classic fashion designer. Parts quietly screamed fashion. I loved that about it. The subtlety conveyed in Colin Firth's performance was very real and heartbreaking and quite relative. The subtlety in general in certain parts was very beautiful.

xo ac

TOW XMAS III

Zef Side

XO AC

Woah...Ricky Swallow....

I love finding new sculptors that blow my mind...and this guy is amazing!

Bronze Balloons by Ricky Swallow...


These are insanely amazing...Beautiful wood carvings by Ricky Swallow.

Be my Valentine

In Honor of Valentine's Day...




<3
XO AC

Love this...

Beauty in unexpected places always makes me smile...

Women and Women First.

Ok. I can't get enough of this St. Vincent video- "Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood". The weird women's theme and the dude dressed like a girl made me recall days at Moore College of Art and Design.
I can't wait until The Other Woman starts our band....:).




XLG

Ladies and Cakes

A friend sent me the link to this video last night and I just thought it was awesome. It combines my love of cakes, clothes and religious symbolism into one messy soiree. Très Other Woman.



<3

Sculpture Dad

I like to say that Ron Mueck is my sculpture dad...meaning that if anyone in the worldwide sculpture community were to take me under their wing and give me fatherly advice, I'd like it to be him. This is why:

En Vogue

I really feel like the soul of The Other Woman parallels that of En Vogue.

XO AC

Girl-crushery

From UrbanDictionary.com:

girl crush: feelings of admiration and adoration which a girl has for another girl, without wanting to shag said girl. a nonsexual attraction, usually based on veneration at some level.

I suppose everyone has their girl crushes, sometimes one each for various aspects of life, ie music, fashion, art, overall life...

My current art girl crush is Melissa Dixson, a New York City taxidermist. I first saw Melissa's taxidermy on Etsy and then again later, when I saw her blog while google searching for images of taxidermy. I obsessively read her blog as far back as my brain could stand.

My reasoning for girl crushery is first, who doesn't love a girl who does taxidermy? Thats so bad-ass. I love taxidermy, collect skulls, sculpt dead animals and I have a deerhead hanging in my kitchen that looks at me while I eat oatmeal...but could I actually do the deed of cutting into an animal and stuffing him(or her) back to life? Probably not, as I am a bit wussish about guts and whatnot. That doesn't stop me from taking photos every time I see a dead bird or hanging out in the Wagner Institute drawing the oldest crustiest taxidermy I think I've ever seen, but it does makes me respect/jealous of someone who isn't a animal guts wuss like myself.

Secondly, she seems to have great taste based on the random art and style bits that end up on her blog.

Thirdly, she seems nice...she doesn't just go out and slaughter animals for the stuffing. She makes sure she gets each one in a sustainable way.

Finally, she did a taxidermied fawn as Bambi, which was especially appealing, given my Bambi obsession of early last year, which hasn't really gone away...(Case in point - I am using Flower (the skunk) as the "model" for the skunk piece I'm currently working on....Justin says I can't use an animation as a model. I say he can kiss my bootie, I'm doin' it.)

Anyway, all this talk makes me curious to know who the other ladies girl crushes are..(Aub, I know a few of yours!) La, Aub, Laura...spill yo' girl crush beans!

The Swell Season

The Swell Season featuring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova


The cat's out of the bag, LG...this is it.
Ticket with your name on it.
Tuesday night, 8pm.
Radio City Music Hall.

XO AC

AC helping Haiti

Ms. Aubrie Costello, is donating 50% of all art sales to help relief efforts in Haiti. Please check out her website at www.aubriecostello.com for details.

The Theatre, 2008

Bring it back...

Today I saw a tweet by Art in the Age about John Paul Thurlow and the drawings of magazine covers he's been doing:

This is an attempt to remake cover art for every great magazine I own (+ a few record covers soon). Covers is an hommage to the creative men and women who produce such disposable perfection.

With each Cover I take a perfect mass-produced object and turn it into a fucked up one-off. Don't expect perfection here, that's not the way I see beauty in the world.

For 2010 I'm planning the Covers 1 -100 book (limited edition of 100, numbered and signed), a new site, and an exhibition. If you think that sounds interesting let me know...

I love the idea of taking something so commercial and spending so much time making it your own.