Tuesday, December 15, 2009

More Sketchiness ...

I found this sketch among some old drawings I did when I lived in Mexico.  After college I lived in a very small town on the Baja called Todos Santos with my boyfriend at the time.  He would pay the housekeeper extra to bring her children along to sit as models and would paint them while their mother cleaned.  This is one of a few sketches I did of her children at the time.

I like the tension in her hands.  Its a mixture of self-consciousness and boredom, perhaps.

As with many experiences in cultures where the financial situation is in contrast to our own I felt uncomfortable that we paid her so little to clean the whole house, even though the rate was well above he standard for the area.  There was some issue as well concerning the sexist viewpoint that she could not be paid more than her husband, who was an oyster diver earning $6 a day.  If so she would suffer his wrath at his humiliation of earning less than his wife, if that makes any sense.  No, its not 'right' but at the time I think we felt it was not our place to assert ourselves into their culture in a disrespectful way.  We did buy his oysters though and use her services... and drew and painted their children.

It was a very different time.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Gaga Monsters...

Midori, Emily and Danielle (Jim McKenzie behind the video camera).

In response to the Lady Gaga "call-for-entries" we chose to create our own video submission. One of the things I love about her as an artist is the way she and her team continue to create unique concepts and material.  As a part of her current Monster tour she is accepting video content from the public which is incorporated into her tour video as an ongoing, ever evolving group project.  Amazing!

Emily, Matthew and Danielle. (Photo by Jim Mullin).

We shot the video in December and with the help of our amazing videographers (Jim McKenzie and Matt Cornelison) we were able to transform the interiors of my apartment into a surreal and urban backdrop.

Emily, Danielle and Midori. (Photo by Jim Mullin).

The theme Lady gaga chose for this project was "Apocalypse", so our costumes and makeup reflected a futuristic and urban look influenced heavily by, of course, Lady Gaga.  We were lucky to work with Emy CraCra (of Tres Jolie by Emy) and Angel Romero for hair and makeup and Jim Mullin supplied the wardrobe from his JM Couture line.  I will upload links to the final video once its edited, but for now, here are some "behind the scenes stills"!

Midori, makeup and hair by Angel Romero.

Here are some details of the makeup and hair concepts created by Emy Cracra and Angel Romero.

 Midori, makeup and hair by Angel Romero.


































Emily, makeup by Emy Cracra, hair by Angel Romero. (Photo by Jim Mullin).
















 





















Danielle, makeup by Emy Cracra, hair by Angel Romero. (Photo by Jim Mullin).

Matthew, makeup by Angel Romero.

This was such a fun project from beginning to end and came out even better then we expected.  It reminds me that sometimes we just need an excuse to round up or friends and fellow artists and get creative!  So get to it! For those interested, there is still time to submit your entries.  Just go to her link and upload your material: http://www.showstudio.com/project/ladygagasubmit/.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Our Rockwell Moment...

For the past few years my tradition has been to hold a "Thanks-For-Nothing" party on the day after Thanksgiving.  The reason being that on Thanksgiving Day we all have to play nice with family and folks who may not get along.  So the next day, when we are done being thankful, we gather up the left-overs and gripe with our friends at the Thanks-For-Nothing Party!

Its also a great chance to bring people together who, for various reasons, may not be able to go home to for the Holidays.

"Brrr... I need feathers!"

My nephew's Thanksgiving turkey drawing.
What happened to tracing the hand?

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Sketchy

















David Sketching at 4th Presbyterian, by Midori Tajiri

David and I went sketching the other day.  We've got kind of a "Jack Sprat" situation where he only draws inanimate objects (architecture) and I only draw animate living things (people and animals).  No matter, he drew the steeple of the 4th Presbyterian Church and I drew him!

I had forgotten how cathartic and enjoyable it is to draw.  It inspired me to scan some older sketches.  Here are a few of my favorite dog sketches I did several years ago.  The first is my beloved dog, Mono, who passed away a few years ago.  The other sketches are dogs, Jane and Rudy and their owner, my old friend, Sean. 


Mono, Sleeping by Midori Tajiri


Jane and Rudy, Sleeping by Midori Tajiri


































Sean '00, by Midori Tajiri

Monday, November 9, 2009

"The Berlin Wall", photos & book by Shinkichi Tajiri


20 years ago today the Berlin Wall fell after having divided East and West Germany since 1961.  I remember marveling at the fragments that my family brought home and framed.  At the time I had just returned to Chicago from Los Angeles and was focusing on getting accepted to SAIC, The School of The Art Insitute of Chicago, where several of my family members, including my parents, had attended.

The fall of The Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989 

My Great-Uncle, Shinkichi Tajiri, had also attended SAIC on the GI Bill after WWII.  This was after he fought as a decorated US Soldier in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team with his brothers Jim, Tom and my Grandfather, Vincent Tajiri, and before he expatriated to Europe, where he spent the remainder of his life.



 
Rubble from the Berlin Wall

Like many young Americans in the 1940's, my grandfather and his brothers were fiercely American.  They were born in Los Angeles, grew up speaking English and had faith in their government.  Like many Nisei (first generation Japanese Americans), however, he and his siblings were classified as "4C" or "Enemy Aliens" after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (which ironically fell on Shinkichi's 18th birthday).  Nonetheless, they still fought for their country, even while their family was interned by the U.S. Government in Arizona at the Poston "Relocation" internment camp and their family property, real estate and home were confiscated by the U.S. Government, never to be returned.

Barracks at Poston, the interment camp built by the U.S. Government on a former Native American Reservation to house Japanese American civilian families for the duration of WWII















U.S. Government Issues Instructions to Japanese Americans re: "relocation" to internment camps

Although the U.S. Government initially segregated the 442nd due to suspicion based on their Japanese heritage, they became the most highly decorated military unit in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients.  Despite this fact the soldiers of the 442nd experienced intense racism upon returning home to the U.S. and were denied jobs and homes due to their race.  Even other Asians did not want to be mistaken as Japanese during this time, lest they also experience ostracization. 

















Japanese American shop owner declares citizenship the day after Pearl Harbor in a futile attempt to avoid racism, Unknown Photographer 

Naturally disillusioned by all of this Shinkichi chose to leave this country and returned to Europe where he could live and pursue his career in art in a (somewhat) less racist environment.  In 1969 his travels brought him to West Berlin and to the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.  As someone who had experienced, on a very personal level, what it felt like to be segregated, ostracized, trapped and forbidden in his own country, he must have felt a special affinity to the significance of the wall and the political situation at the time.

Brandenburg gate, 1969, Unknown Photographer

He began a photo project that lasted several months and documented every kilometer of the inhabited areas near the wall in 550 black and white photographs.  He could not have known the significance of this project or what would become of the wall over the years.  His photographs show the wall and its surroundings in its "clean" state, in 1969, before it was covered in the colorful graffiti it became known for, and before its fall in 1989. The project was shelved for 30 years before interest in it was renewed.  















Excerpt from "The Berlin Wall", Shinkichi Tajiri
 
During those many years his art career soared and he became known for many different works, most notably his "knots" which have symbolized, among other things, a "coming together" of separate forces; an ironic or perhaps idealized concept considering the subtexts of these significant experiences early in his life.  Through his many "knot" sculptures he symbolically reunited what was, in his life, divided. The walls that kept him emotionally separate from his family and place of birth would not fall away before his death, like the Berlin Wall.  But in his work he found a way to bind them together.

"Friendship Knot", Shinkichi Tajiri (Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA)
 
Shinkichi passed away earlier this year.  I saw him one last time in January.  We discussed this project and we spoke about ways to promote the book and the collection of original photographs.  He was ill at the time but hanging on fiercely for many reasons, the completion of projects among them.  Or perhaps, it was the continual addition of projects that gave him new reasons to continue hanging on.  

Either way I have come to understand the many roles that art plays in our lives.  That we, as visual, auditory, sensual creatures, find ways to communicate and create solidarity through creative expression.  To leave our mark on the world and to let others know, in good times and bad, that they too are not alone.

The current exhibition of Shinkichi Tajiri's "The Berlin Wall" opens today, November 9, 2009 (on the 20th anniversary of the fall of The Berlin Wall) at the Exposorium at the VU Free University in Amsterdam, Netherlands where it will run until January 6th, 2010.

For information about the Shinkichi Tajiri Foundation you can visit the website at: www.Shinkichi-Tajiri.com.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

"You Know Me": "Reality Killed The Video Star" vs. "Video Killed The Radio Star"

Perhaps its just my ongoing obsession with rabbits and their seeming symbolic proliferance in my life right now (seriously, what does that mean?), but I love this new Robbie Williams video, "You Know Me" from his new album "Reality Killed The Video Star".


It is a beautiful song, but would I be as drawn to it if he weren't dressed as the March Hare... maybe not.  Either way the video is gorgeous and evocative.  I love how it combines the fantasy of Robbie Williams imagining himself as the rabbit and then the rabbit imagining himself as a playboy surrounded by Vargas-esque "bunnies".
 

Also amusing is the topical reference to this generation's level of media evolution wherein reality programming (including things like YouTube), which have put the camera, the subject and the audience all in the hands of the masses, may potentially make former music formats obsolete.

Therefore, if "Video Killed The Radio Star" in the '80's,  then reality may kill the video star now? Not completely... yet.  However, the growing popularity of reality based programming, including YouTube, have significantly decreased advertising and therefore revenue to formats such as radio, making production budgets smaller as corporations turn more attention lower budget vehicles such as Reality and YouTube.  Time marches on, March Hare.
















"You Know Me", Robbie Williams, Reality Killed the Video Star"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDb9fpSj34k

"Video Killed The Radio Star", The Buggles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWtHEmVjVw8

Friday, November 6, 2009

Silent Scream

Sometimes, when you are really frustrated and want to scream, but you can't, do you imagine it?

That's what I am thinking when I look at you like that.

This piece was done years ago, as part of an attempt at collaborative work with my friend Sean Watson.  He did the photography and photoshop.  I mostly just screamed ;)... (and did hair and makeup).

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Benetton, I Blame You!

I've always been inspired by creative make up artistry.  Art you can wear, that transforms you as a person.  It all began with those Benetton ads in the 80's that I took waaay too literally.  I haven't been able to find some of the ones I remember, ones that had bright, tribal-esque or theatrical inspired colors in geometric shapes painted asymmetrically on fresh faced models.  If you find them, please, please forward them my way!

In junior high I remember going to school with my hair in a side ponytail with a neon orange stripe painted on one side (I think it was supposed to be a lightening bolt).  Once I wore a mime stripe over one eye and another time it was a black cross, again, only over one eye (matched my Madonna inspired rosaries). The most avant garde look I came up with involved one green eyebrow and pink eye shadow with little "seeds" painted on the lid.  It was supposed to look like a slice of watermelon... I know.  This last incident may have been the one that inspired the Principal to call me out of class to ask me if "everything was ok at home".

Sadly I don't have pitcures of those early attempts of my own, but I did find these lovely images on Flicker by Panda Cat Baby.  She did the makeup and photography for the image below and the one above.  I still haven't gotten through all over her albums, but already I'm all "Rachel-Zoe-I-Die" over her.


































In high school I only continued to get more... "creative" with my hair and makeup themes, which were frequently "conceptual", but I'll save those stories for later ;)
Obviously I still take every opportunity to play "dress up", whether its for a party or a holiday, (or just watching a period film).  My friend sent me this link to the MAC Facebook site that shows techniques for some of their outragous looks: MAC FREAKS OUT BEHIND THE SCENES.

One of my favorite looks from this collection is the Roy Lichtenstein inspired comic book heroine face, painted with little dots:


Roy Lichtenstein

Another favorite source of inspiration is Japanese street fashion.  A constantly evolving melange of western and asian influences, there is always something unexpected transforming there.  

I'm collecting images of my own MUA work for my portfolio... coming soon :)

Saturday, October 31, 2009

When Life Hands You Lemons... take pretty pictures of them and rant on your blog!

Attribute it to karma, klutziness or abundant physical electricity but for some reason I seem to be one of those people who occasionally stop watches or seem to cause multiple electronic failures in a room. 

I am admittedly klutzy in that my arms and legs seem magnetically drawn to corners of walls, shelves and coffee tables. And I have been known to walk into plate glass windows and wall mirrors, sober, mind you. As for electricity, I sometimes transfer a shock when touching people or things, my electronics acquire mystery afflictions and the last time my watch suddenly died both hands were directly on midnight. Really.




But truthfully, its probably just karma. When it rains it pours, right? This weekend (after putting together my best, most extensive costume to date) both my cameras broke.



Science of the New Thought (Erastus Whitford Hopkins, 1904)

My video camera just stopped recording image and my still camera flew out of my hand when I tried to photograph a guy dressed as Michael Jackson (but maybe that was his karma ;).

The upside is that, since we marched in the parade this year, there are numerous pictures that other people have taken of us, so will compile an album of photos from various sources. In the mean time I have been playing with filters and crops on the photos that I took with my iphone, which came out more arty than snapshots would have anyway ;) so there.

I'll post more detailed images of the costumes and the parade soon. But for now, please enjoy these images: Halloween 2009: Marie Antionette and Louis XVI march in the North Halsted Street Halloween Parade, Chicago!


COSTUME / HAIR AND MAKEUP UPDATE: 

Costume: I made the costume from a vintage dress (strapless floor length light blue satin), a long crinoline, flowers and ribbon. 
Makeup: The makeup included a sheer layer of white under powder and star shaped beauty mark (women of her era often wore a beauty mark, sometimes in shapes of hearts).  
Wig: The wig was actually 3 wigs: 2 braids used under the main wig as a "bump", a long wavy silver wig that wrapped around a platinum bob wig (for extra height) in an updo.  I puled some of my own hair up and around the sides and into the ponytail to help anchor the whole thing.  I then sprayed down the whole thing in white and silver hairspray... and tons of glitter :)


I was still feeling bummed here because my camera had just broken, but I tried to pull it together for a bittersweet Marie portrait.



































I love these portraits of David and me as Marie and Louis. Believe it or not these costumes were his idea.


I can't remember the name of this band, it might have been Chicago Red Line Cabaret (so correct me if I am wrong), so I am just calling them the Rabbit Band, which played music as they marched through the crowd.
















This couple was one of the finalists for "Best Couple" in the costume contest. They should have won first place in my opinion. They are dressed as Queen Elizabeth and Walter Raleigh. The costumes were handmade by Kai Wallace (one of the revelers here). Stunning and inspiring!








I'm not sure what this one was supposed to be, but I thought it was a Dr. Seuss character. He stood on 4 foot stilts for extra height. Amazing.



















I like pictures like this that have that moving memory feeling, like an unspecific dream or thought you just can't seem to articulate.











This one I am calling "Marie Von D", after Kat, the tattoo artist. If Marie were alive today I think she would take many brave fashion risks, like tattooing her face.

Actually, my aunt has a tattoo on her face, which was her homage to her female mentor, Vali Myers. I would get a tattoo on my face, perhaps. Maybe like the one I have drawn here, a star over my beauty mark.. but then I would miss my beauty mark, which I have named "Elizabeth Taylor" (She has one in the same place)... but maybe I'll save this thought for another post ;)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Overheard in Chicago 1: "Of Rats and Men"

"Ok, so the point is, RATS have FUR, and furriers can make any fur look like..." - (some guy talking on his cell on Michigan Ave near the Tribune building).

I really wish I had stayed to hear the rest of that sentence.






















(Gareth Pugh's Rat Coat, W Magazine)


FYI: The guy saying this may or may not have been talking on his phone. I just assumed he was on an earpiece, but Teryn was convinced he was talking to himself (i.e. crazy man). He was wearing a trench coat and walking funny...

Hearing that guy gave me pause and I simultaneously thought:
a) Note to self, be careful when purchasing fur that it is not rat!, and
b) ... wait, why would I be buying fur?!

Before those who know me cry "hypocrite", let me first confess. There may be a few scraps of fur lying around my closet, and by scraps I mean a beaver jacket and a mink stole, both of which were thrift store finds, not that it makes them any less "fur" or me less guilt ridden.

Gareth Pugh's "Rat Coat", pictured above, debuted in 2007 and was called "the most subversive anti-fur protest we have ever seen", by Fashionista.com. I agree it is both subversive and darkly humorous, but will the targeted audience be swayed by this kind of statement? I'm not sure those ladies get this type of humor ;). (Read full article here: http://fashionista.com/2007/11/gareth_pughs_rat_coat_an_essay.php).

I have in the past tried to rationalize ownership of things like this by saying that they were vintage and died long ago for someone else, but it is a lame attempt I admit. I have to own up to the fact that even buying them from thrift or wearing them in general perpetuates an industry based on violence borne against the very creatures I love so dearly.

Currently I have rationalized their presence in that they are part of a costume collection, but even that seems like a lame attempt to appease the Id driven cave woman in me that wants what she wants when she wants it. I guess my lesson to learn here is that some things (like boycotting Denny's or not smoking) are easy to give up in the name of politics and morals, and some things (like foie gras and fur), are very difficult.

Soon, my dearies, very soon, I will have to pry these treasures from my own greedy fists and make a drag queen somewhere very happy.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Garden Bugs Mini-Cupcakes for my sister's birthday!

I swear, all my posts will NOT be about baking. I just happens it's birthday month. That and the fact that I am channeling my creativity into cute baking outlets rather than "serious" art at the moment. Not that baking art isn't legit, but maybe I have been watching too much "Ace Of Cakes" lately. Guilty as charged.

Anyway, I wanted to bake something
special for my sister's birthday but I had to factor in that whatever I create must: a) survive a six hour car ride, and b) also be appealing to three nephews under the age of ten. I assumed they would not appreciate pink girly cupcakes so I thought a cute bug theme might still appeal to them, although I was worried about their finicky taste regarding unfamiliar food. Happily they like bug cupcakes and even ate the fondant bugs :)


I made three kinds of mini cupcakes (42 in total). The first set were little caterpillars.

The cupcakes were made from a home made chocolate cupcake recipe and the little nests are chocolate frosting with chocolate sprinkles. The Caterpillars are green fondant and sprinkles.


 

















The ladybug cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes with white frosting and chocolate sprinkles. The ladybugs are red and blue fondant and chocolate shot for antennae. Why are they so much cuter in groups?


 



















These are little scarab beetles. The cupcakes re chocolate with white frosting and white non-pareils. The scarab beetles are blue fondant with pink and lavender sugar crystals and chocolate shot antennae. These were made with my mom in mind. I remember how she likes scarab beetles.







I feel that I should mention here that I don't actually like sweets and, other than tasting these as I go to make sure they are good, I don't usually eat much of what I bake. I just really like making them. And feeding them to people. It fulfills a necessary maternal instinct of mine to nurture people.