Phantasmaphile

Thanksgiving

Hello, Friends.  I will be away for a few days to spend Thanksgiving with La Familia Phantasmaphile.  I am giving thanks, as always, for your support.  Wishing you much happiness and succulence, and will be back posting soon.  XO, Pam

Mat Collishaw

 

Mat Collishaw  "Beast in Me"  2003

Mat Collishaw's photographs could be stills from a Fellini film, lush as they are.  This cold snap we're having on the east coast makes me wish I could crawl inside the frame and live in his perpetual, fanciful springtime.

Ruth Waldman

Ruth Waldman  "Untitled - 40"  2006

There are few things that impress me more than someone who knows how to brandish a pencil.  Ruth Waldman's stunning drawings of undulating, Rube Goldbergian organo-systems give me the happy chills.  You can check out her work as part of the New Talent Exhibition at the Hampden Gallery in Massachusetts, curated by David Gibson and Klaus Postler, and up until December 7th.

Thomas Woodruff Interview

Thomas Woodruff  "Earth: Our stern mother/The charismatic zealot"  2007-08

Thomas Woodruff  "Earth: Our stern mother/The charismatic zealot" - flipped  2007-08

I've written about Thomas Woodruff a few times now, and can't seem to stop.  My enthusiasm for his work is bordering on mania, but better to go nuts over art than most other things, I think.  His show of motorized, rotating paintings, "Solar System (The Turning Heads)," just closed at P.P.O.W. Gallery, and was an absolute tour de force.  I had the pleasure of getting to ask Mr. Woodruff some questions about this project, as well as his general methodology and magicianship:

Phantasmaphile:  How did you get started as an artist?

Thomas Woodruff:  I was a peculiar child who preferred pencil and paper to baseball and bat, and an old movie on TV to a sunny day outside.  As I got older, because I had spent so much time practicing, I found I had developed real skills in making pictures, and this opened many doors.

Ph:  What inspires you?  Who or what are some of your influences?

TW:  Inspiration is a fickle companion; inclination and elbow grease are much more trustworthy.  The key is finding the right things to look at at the right time in your development.  Naturally for the solar system, I was looking at those fantastic, obscure, northern symbolists.  Artists like Knoph, Holdler, Moreau.  Art Nouveau came into play as well, the jewelry of Lalique, Fortuny's fabrics.  But I was also looking at van art.  My diet is always changing though.  Recently I discovered William Hoffman Beard,  he's a new fascination.  If I told you there was a time when Agnes Martin was a great influence, you probably wouldn't believe me, but it's true.  I think you can be inspired by anything from Da Vinci to "Charm School Rock of Love"...if you know what you were looking for.

Ph:  What is your idea generating process like?

TW:  I make notes, do sketches, and have plans for years in advance of actually making the works.  It gives the images a depth of flavor, like making a stew...then I allow things to be changed and altered when I'm in the midst of the making, to stay involved and in the moment, but the initial ideas are always in place.  I like to set up rules for my game.  It allows me to be more creative.

Ph:  What are your creativity rituals?  Are there certain elements you prefer to have in place when you create? (Time of day, music, beverage, etc.)

TW:  I have always work best at night, there is less distraction, and I prefer unnatural light.  When the work is going well, I often work till dawn.  I like to listen to classical music on the radio.

Ph:  Your style is filled with all sorts of decoration and embellishment.  What is it about ornamentation that appeals to you?

TW:  It seems a natural thing to me.  Most all art before our puritanical modernist age involved ornament.  Ornamentation and decoration heighten levels of content: STUFF means things.

Ph:  Your recent show, "The Solar System" was utterly magnificent - truly one of my favorite shows I've ever seen.  I read that you became interested in flipped images when you found out that these sorts of puzzles could be helpful for a friend of yours with Alzheimers.  I'm curious how you made the journey from developing this technique to deciding to utilize it to depict cosmic deities?

TW:  Thank you for the great compliment.  I found myself drawing upside-down heads while I was on the phone absentmindedly grappling with issues of my friends' troubles, trying to make sure he would get proper severance from his employer, etc. Those doodles developed into a series of moon paintings, and eventually the planets came after that.  My friend was an extraordinary dancer and choreographer before his disease took effect, and the cosmic joke was right in all our faces.  His interest in music and complex choreography work gave me the basic content that matured with my additional research on the solar system.

Ph:  I love how these paintings are done on black velvet – usually a visual shorthand for kitsch or questionable taste.  It seems to me like you are sort of winking at the viewer and taking the piss out of the art world so to speak.  Would you say that's a fairly accurate interpretation?

TW:  No, actually not at all.  I hate winks, it's kind of creepy and not too healthy.  I was truly interested in the effect of painting floating objects on the blackest of blacks, and to see if I could make it beautiful and stunning.  I'm amused with all the baggage a viewer brings TO A FABRIC CHOICE.  It just goes to show how easy we are all sidetracked.

Ph:  As I told you before, the sensation of standing in a room with all of these rotating paintings was unlike anything I've experienced in a gallery.  It really threw off my center of gravity, and felt a bit like being in some sort of mystic funhouse.  I wonder if you're sad the show will be broken up into individual sales, since they presumably won't be in the same room again for quite some time, giving that same effect?

TW:  I wanted to challenge my own perceptions, and in doing so, challenge other viewers.  This exhibition may be broken up, because like my previous Freak Parade project, a book is in the works.  These paintings are meant to go out in the world.  An artist must document his or her production, but not become precious about it.  The aspect of total control should be in the studio when the work is created, and when the work is completed, the artist should release the reigns a bit.

Ph:  What happens when the batteries run out or the motor dies?  Do they come with a lifetime warranty?

TW:  The motors were built by a company that builds machines for Vegas, Times Square, etc.  They should be working for a very long time.  There was quite a bit of research and development on them.

Ph:  What are your next plans?

TW:  Several projects.  The primary one is the make my versions of the designs for the "Times of the Day" by Phillip Otto Runge.  He was an interesting German romantic artist who died before he got to paint these four crazy/visionary images.  I've loved them for a long time...even made a trip to Hamburg to see the ruins of one of his attempts.

Ph:  Would you say that art is a kind of spiritual practice for you?

TW:  I think anything done with real intensity has rewards for one's spirit.

Juan Santapau

Juan Santapau  page 4 from "Unspeakable"

Juan Santapau is the maker of quietly beautiful, unusual comics.  His latest story, "Unspeakable" can be read in its entirety on his site.  It is a lovely, curious tale, filled with secrets and adolescent awakening.

Fashion Roundup

It seems the fashion world has gone feverishly fantastical this season, and there have been some breathtaking spreads you simply must see!

From Ruven Afanador's shoot in Elle Italia, November 2008:

From Tim Walker's shoot in Vogue Italia, November 2008:

The entire December issue of British Vogue is dedicated to fantasy:

And contains this incredible Wonka-esque shoot by Tim Walker (yet again):

*SIGH*

Christin Couture

Christin Couture  "Miraculous Monster Birth"

I love a painting that makes me do a double-take.  Upon first glimpse, Christin Couture's paintings look like restrained Victorian portraits, replete with mute children and shadowy rooms.  Look again and you'll find far more curious goings-on, like mutant creatures and murdered corpses.  Devilish fun indeed.

Via

Boris Artzybasheff

 

A monograph by surrealist illustrator, Boris Artzybasheff, was just rereleased by Titan Books last month.  Entitled As I See, this book was of utmost importance to many artists in the comix and Juxtapoz scenes.  I can't wait to get my paws on it.

Via

Desert Sin show!

I have written about the dark and beauteous burlesque troupe, Desert Sin, before.  Their show, Musée des Femmes: Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, has been brought back by popular demand to the Zipper Factory.  Information is as follows:

Desert Sin Dance Company presents:
"Musée des Femmes - Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque"
Thursdays, November 20th and December 18th at 8pm at the Zipper Factory Theater and Tavern
336 W. 37th St. NY, NY 10018
Tickets $20:  (212) 352-3101 or available at www.thezipperfactory.com
Produced by Djahari Clark and Cassandra Siegler, in association with The Zipper Factory Theater
Directed by Djahari Clark

Desert Sin Dance Company, known internationally for their edgy and erotic fusion of dance and theater, now comes to New York with their acclaimed production, "Musée des Femmes - Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque".  This sideshow-stylized psychological spectacle is an imaginative journey through sight-and-sound and is guaranteed to mesmerize the audience!  The unique story line lends an emotional and
human twist to stories of some of the boldest and most intriguing women throughout time, both fictional and historical, including legendary film starlet Mata Hari, The Hindu Goddess Kali, The Snow Queen, and Joan of Arc.

Do go see it - it is gorgeous, disturbing, and really sexy.

Trinie Dalton

I just finished reading the book Wide Eyed by Trinie Dalton, and it has become an instant all-time favorite.  It is essentially a collection of short stories, except all of the stories are from the same first-person perspective.  They seem semi-autobiographical, but what is true and what isn't really doesn't matter.  What does matter is that each story is a sort of free-associative meditation on life and death and mystery and magic.  You know what?  That description doesn't do it justice.  Let me try again:  Do you like stories filled with glam rockers, glass figurines, mushrooms, sexual predators, unicorns, candy, horror movies, grandmotherly ghosts, and lavender cats?  Do you like reading about video games, moonlit gardens, solitude, fairy tales, and theme parks?  Do you like books which are funny and strange and touching without being schmaltzy?   Then this is the book for you.  It's so fresh and imaginative, yet surprisingly grounded and filled with rainbow-colored emotional subtlety.  It's unlike anything I have read before.

Some other reasons why Trinie Dalton rules:  1.  She is also an artist (the book cover is an example of her visual work).  2.  She has another book coming out called MYTHTYM, which is a collection of zines she's made about werewolves and other mythical creatures.  3.  She is also a freelance journalist, and did an awesome feature in the last issue of Arthur about one of my favorite bands, Brightblack Morning Light.

Trinie Dalton, Phantasmaphile salutes you!

Meghan Boody

Meghan Boody  "Night is generally my time for walking"  2006

Photographic wizardress, Meghan Boody, has a show up at Rick Wester Fine Art that looks dazzling.  Called "The Lighthouse and How She Got There," each work is actually part of a disjointed narrative about young girls on the run from something as dangerous as it is ambiguous.  There will also be pieces from Boody's "Glass Worlds" project on display, which contain fantastical vingettes enclosed in glass domes.  Be sure to stop by the gallery between now and December 6th.

Raqib Shaw

Raqib Shaw  "Garden of Earthly Delights VI"  2004

Speaking of the Met, I stumbled upon an amazing little exhibition they currently have up in the Modern Art mezzanine: works of Raqib Shaw.  I am very much like a crow, in that I am attracted to glittery things.  So you can imagine the thalamus explosion I experienced when I encountered Shaw's sequin and crystal festooned works.  The problem with sparkle is that the darn internet completely obliterates their magnificence (see Angelo Filomino, Jamie Vasta, Lori Field, Miriam Wosk, et al as examples of this.)  No matter, you'll just have to pop up to the Met and see these pieces for yourself.  I can certainly think of worse ways of spending one's time.  ;-)

Georges de La Tour

Georges de La Tour  "The Penitent Magdalen"  

I've been taking a continuing ed class for fun at NYU called "Signs and Symbols: Reading Art."  Most of the lectures have been a good review from my undergrad art history classes, but my favorite sessions have been when we've gone to one of the most special places on earth, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

It feels as though I've been there hundreds of times since I was a child, yet still it never fails to cast its spell over me each and every time.  It seems I'm forever falling in love with a new discovery, or having a happy reunion with an old favorite.  Lately, Georges de La Tour's "The Penitent Magdalen" has been really knocking my socks off.  It's funny, cause I remember adoring this piece as a girl, but never retaining who it was by or what it was called.  Lo and behold, I keep finding myself pulled toward it on my visits this year.  I know this has become my mantra but You Really Must See It In Person!  It truly looks like nothing else - it's so rich and darkly charged and seemingly three dimensional, as if the candle will flicker at any moment, and MM will turn around and give a long, knowing look.

Jason Clay Lewis

Jason Clay Lewis  "Girl with Octopus"  2007-2008

I am a total sucker for shiny things, so Jason Clay Lewis's gold leaf adorned skeletal babes are rocking my world.  He is a master at marrying the macabre with satire, and his work is always clever and really beautifully made.

CELEBRATING!

Hi, Friends:

I'm taking the day off to celebrate this proud, miraculous moment in American history.  Will be back to regular posting tomorrow.

Elated,
Pam

Vote

Scott Hansen

Dame Darcy

Renaissance woman/goth-fairy Dame Darcy has a sparkling new graphic novel out called Gasoline, and it sounds heavenly:

"In a post-apocalyptic world, the search for precious gasoline pits a family of orphaned witches against conniving nihilists who lurk in the decaying urban sprawl. The family must learn to shed a life of materialism and adopt new, alternative means of living in order to survive. Written and illustrated by artist Dame Darcy, Gasoline is a fantastical and eco-conscious gothic tale of danger, heartbreak, and the perseverance of magic and love."

She also has a slew of events planned over the coming weeks, including loads of book signings on both coasts, and a solo show at Sloan Fine Art here in NYC from November 19th through December 20th.  So.  Excited.