"Tatt2 Tammy" Jean Lange

        i'm aware that this is no good way to start a blog entry, but i would like to begin this with a preface of sorts. this blog is a way for me to share (rather than hoard to myself, as i am admittedly too often tempted to do) everything that inspires me, because i believe it is important not only to the continuance of the sort art-making i love and interesting people, but also to my personal growth. that said, this post was SO hard for me to give up. she would've been my first post, but i needed a little time to convince myself to do this. so, here goes.

        Tammy Jean Lange (better known as Tatt2 Tammy - a name she got for her former career as a tattoo artist) is who i want to be when i grow up. and i am not even joking/exaggerating. i am 100% serious. she is all and everything that i want to be in life.

        (fast background info, during the summer of 2007 i went to New Mexico to explore ghost towns and pueblos)
        hours off any main roads, just outside of Madrid (a ghost town turned artist's community in New Mexico) is the trailer home of Tatt2 Tammy. it is marked by a sign that reads "Tiny Town", and her yard is what i can only describe as a found art installation of epic proportions. it is difficult to explain exactly what is going on there (it's overwhelming to say the least). i was there for quite some time, took over 70 pictures, and still can't imagine i saw everything. there is a "river" made of broken glass, a city of old dollhouses - each with odd and elaborate setups inside (including some of barbies doing questionable things like hanging out at bars), old toys set up into makeshift nativity scenes, bones, street signs, parts of mannequins, bowling sets, bird cages, old appliances, honestly - you name it and it was probably there. but things aren't just there, everything is set up to create an absolutely surreal environment.

        i feel like i'm on the right track to becoming her (ha, i wish), as we share some rather bizarre things in common. much of her art is created from the bones of roadkill (i presently have a partially decomposed dead bird in my freezer) which she buries to decompose, then digs up and bleaches the bones. she also (obviously) uses a great deal of found objects, some of which are even left for her outside her yard.
        seriously though, this is THE coolest place i have ever been. it is very surreal and has a real life to it that is evident the moment you pull up. she has made the idea of retiring or settling somewhere out of the way and just creating outsider art very appealing to me.

        you can't get a real feeling for "Tiny Town" from photos, but i've included a few that i took, for a general idea of the place (and even one with yours truly right in the middle of it all!). if you're ever in New Mexico though, GO! -and if it's about thirty years from now, look for me too.





photos: copyright daylynn richards

Floria Sigismondi

        a year or two back i came across the music video for the White Stripes' Blue Orchid, and was entirely sucked in (it remains my all-time favorite music video, and a huge inspiration to me). the director, i quickly looked up, was Floria Sigismondi. i discovered that i had seen some of her other videos in the past and been intrigued by (but had not looked up) them, including Christina Aguilera's Fighter. (she has directed over forty other videos, including for Björk, David Bowie, and Marilyn Manson). anyway, after watching more of her videos and looking at her photography, she quickly rose onto my list of favorite artists, and has remained there.
        i can't give a better bio of her than is on her website (so i absolutely recommend checking that out). briefly though, directing-wise, she is known (and has influenced others) by her dilating, jittery camerawork, and "images derived from hallucinatory dream-states". her entire body of work includes not only her videos, but also some astounding photography (she started off as a fashion photographer) and sculpture/installation. they all tie together beautifully, and it is obvious that they are all coming from the same place and are very much in conversation with one another.
        also notably, her work has been shown with photo greats such as Cindy Sherman and (one of my personal favorites, and surely a subject of a future post) Joel-Peter Witkin.
        what really grabs me, i think, about Sigismondi's work is the bizarre and dark (though sometimes disturbing) insight that you get into her imagination while watching one of her videos (or viewing her photography). the imagery that she comes up with just blows my mind really. her imagination is out of this world.
        in short, her work mesmerizes me. check it out.

Sigmondi's website
music video for The White Stripes' Blue Orchid



photos: http://www.floriasigismondi.com

Antonio López García

        i went to the Antonio López García exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston last week, with the expectation of being extremely impressed, but probably not particularly interested. boy, was i wrong. i had seen one of his paintings before (Sink and Mirror, 1967, oil on wood) in a photo history lecture, and had done a little background research on him, so i knew about his style of borderline obsessive realism (he is considered a “master realist” and sometimes takes years to finish a single piece), a skill which impresses me to no end, but does not generally capture my enthusiasm.
        before i get to how terribly wrong i was about García; some quick background information. García is a 72 year old working and revered Spanish artist, who has rarely been shown in the US, this exhibit is in fact, his first solo museum show in the US. he is proficient in drawing, oil painting, carved wood sculpture and plaster bas-relief.

        the first piece that really grabbed me was a 3D piece, Percha con Ropa (1963-64, Polychromed wood). it’s an actual door along with some of García’s own clothes, that creates a beautiful dusty bronze composition that also serves as a self portrait. i was then drawn to another 3D piece, which really struck me- it was a drastic change from the panoramic paintings of Madrid and hyper-realistic life-sized refrigerator that had been in the last room- it was a wood sculpture painting of a woman peering down the hall at a levitating child. as it turns out, García had a stranger side, and some of his work (particularly from 1957-64) could fit into the category of “magic realism”.
        this happened again and again throughout the exhibit, amongst the realistic paintings (with a fantastic understanding of depth i might add) there would be pieces that were slightly off, or odd, in some way.
        probably my favorite piece in the exhibit, La Cena (1971-80, oil on board) i wrote off as uninteresting at first, but quickly noted that it had multiple quirky things going on. the woman on the right’s face seems to be painted over, moved lower, but leaving traces of the old face behind, creating a disturbing and surreal image. a piece of meat on the table, under closer inspection, is actually a magazine cutout, which leads to further inspection of the other food items, such as the apple, which is also a magazine cutout, but mostly painted over.
        my close second favorite piece in the exhibit is a beautiful painting, again falling into the magic realism category, Niña Muerta (1957) which depicts a small dead girl in a box that looks, to me, like a cigar box.
        needless to say, he piqued my interest. the exhibit is definitely worth checking out. it closes July 27th, and contains over 60 paintings, drawings and sculptures, so everyone should hurry to go see it!

website with photos of 113 of Garcia’s works
MFA’s information on the exhibit
really informative Audio Slideshow from Boston.com




photos: http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/sub.asp?key=15&subkey=5339
and http://pintura.aut.org/BU04?Autnum=5.787

Mafuyu & Yoshikazu Yamagata

        in keeping with the dollhouse theme from my last post, i present “My Town in My Home”, the product of a collaboration between knit artist Mafuyu and Japanese fashion designer Yoshikazu Yamagata. the series is made up of several knit houses that can be worn as clothing (Yamagata describes them as “home wear”). they are also intended to be fun for children. the series was displayed at the Arnehem Mode Biennale (in Holland) in 2007. i think they are incredibly playful, and very clever, as well as vibrant and visually pleasing. i have to say, i would totally wear one...

Mafuyu’s site
“writtenafterwards inc” the designs of Yoshikazu Yamagata



photos: http://www.writtenafterwards.com/en/info_mytown.html

Dorothy Harvey

        i have a love not only for all things strange or slightly creepy, but also for dollhouses, so it would only make sense that this inspires me (and i hope that everyone else finds it at the very least interesting).
        this grave site, in Medina, Tennessee, is the marker for five-year-old Dorothy Marie Harvey, who died in 1931. she supposedly loved dolls, so her parents had a dollhouse grave marker built. (there is a local legend - which i find much less interesting/cool than the marker itself- which says that if you look into the dollhouse you may see her ghost.)

photo:http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/7710

Elle Muliarchyk

     i believe that for my first post, there is no better subject than Elle Muliarchyk. not only are her photographs absolutely beautiful, but she is probably the coolest person in the world. a former model, Muliarchyk achieved infamy by sneaking a camera and large or numerous props into high-end fashion boutiques and photographing herself in gorgeous gowns in the dressing rooms. she has been hit on the head by doors opened by suspicious employees, and even arrested. her current work, displaying clothing by designer Bella Freud, are more self portraits, but she has moved from dressing rooms to desolate night locations.
     the photographs are stunning, and evoke a palpable melancholy. Mulliarchyk’s drive is just as impressive. traveling mostly alone in these often undesirable areas, she has already been attacked once, having everything except her camera stolen.

Muliarchyk’s current series
NY Times article on her first series (2006)
Fashion TV interview on first series
Fashion TV interview on second series



photos: http://www.showstudio.com/viewers/5632