The fabulously gorgeous GiGi Deluxe is a woman of many talents, with her creative leanings running the gamut from painting to millinery work and now to tattooing. On top of all that, she is a supermom to the cutest pair of twins ever. Since GiGi is also one of my most favorite ladies to talk to, I had to get the lowdown and find out what makes her the badass woman she is!

+ You paint, draw, model, design and make clothes and hats, are a craft goddess, a dj, and now a tattoo artist! Is there anything else you would like to learn how to do?

I’m training with another tattoo artist and a plastic surgeon to learn how to do permanent cosmetics, and later this year, I’m attending courses to learn about laser tattoo removal. I feel this will make me a more rounded and educated tattoo artist, and I will be able to offer any service a client may need. Be it to remove a tattoo that someone is no longer happy with, or to lighten and prep a tattoo for a cover up. I also want to work with alopecia and mastectomy patients that want to utilize cosmetic tattooing.

I think at this point I want to perfect my skills. It’s all about learning new things, raising the bar and being my absolute best at all the things I enjoy doing.

+ Where did you grow up? Did it have a huge effect on the creative force you are now?

I Was born in Puerto Rico, and moved to Chicago when I was four. We lived in Bridgeport , an all Irish neighbourhood on the southside of Chicago. So from the beginning, I felt like an outsider. I was always in my own world. This also explains my love for (almost) everything Whitetrash.

+ You have a strong love for horror and the grotesque, where did that originate from?

My mom and fun gay uncle used to take me to all the horror and Bruce Lee movies when I was a kid. Sunday’s were a $1 for a triple feature afternoon at the Rat-mova Theatre! (that was not a typo- but it was really called the Ramova)
It was cheaper to drag me along with them, then to pay for a babysitter. Early exposure to the genre had a huge influence on my artwork and my humor.

+ Who are some artists and designers you admire?

I love and adore the late great Alexander McQueen, vintage Vivienne Westwood, Gareth Pugh and John Galliano. As far artists go, my peers and friends are constantly inspiring me. I’m extremely lucky to have such talented and creative people in my life.

+ If you could describe your style as the love child of any two people or things, who or what would they be?

Frida Kahlo would be my mom- and I couldn’t figure out who would be my Dad- so I asked my friend Szandora ( LaVey ) and she said Mick Jagger, because he was sexy as fuck and that I had to get my lips from somewhere! ha ha – I love that girl!

+ What are your wardrobe staples?

Shoes, shoes and more shoes. Tight black sweaters, snug black t-shirts, black platform heels and pencil skirts-these are must haves for me. Usually a corset, but at the moment I’m on the prowl for a few new ones..

+ Is there anything you collect?

I love re-ment Miniatures, and I used to collect ball-joint dolls, Blythe dolls, and Gene dolls but I don’t buy much anymore. I don’t feel the need to collect stuff the way that I used too, the happier I become that less I need.

+ Is there a particular decade in history you feel an affinity for? Why?

The 80′s. I was super lucky to have experienced that era first hand.

+ Name your five current obsessions (music, books, film, food, anything!)

• My twin 10 yr olds
• Art, art and more art
• Tattooing
• Being goal-oriented
• Law and Order (all of them)

+ What’s next on the menu for GiGi Deluxe?

Who knows, but that’s what makes life exciting isn’t it?

You can also follow GiGi on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook!

Photo by James Prinze

This weekend I went to the opening of Nick Cave’s (not that juan) “Meet Me at The Center of the Earth” exhibit at UCLA’s Fowler Museum. The show featured “Soundsuits,” which are sculptures made up of layers and layers of different materials such as sequins, yarn, beads, buttons, porcelain, vintage clown toys and even neon-colored weaves! My friend Phillip described them perfectly as “Club Kid ritual outfits.” The raver kid deep inside of me wanted to give one of these things a BIG OL’ HUG. Some of these grandiose pieces are made to be worn and performed in, creating another element to the work with sounds and movement, referencing the artist’s days as an Alvin Ailey-trained dancer. Interestingly enough, the first Soundsuit, constructed out of twigs was made in 1992 as a response to the Rodney King riots. I wasn’t able to take any pictures at opening night myself but here are several of them to get an idea of how incredible his work is.

Photo by James Prinze

Photo by James Prinze

Still, these photos don’t do the pieces justice. This is definitely something you have to see in person. Luckily the exhibit runs until May so there is plenty of time! Here are a couple of videos that show the artist at work and describing how the Soundsuits came to be.

Bettie Page Heaven Bound, an art show paying tribute to the life of Bettie Page, and curated by Lenora Claire, opened this past Saturday at the World of Wonder gallery. As you can imagine, the girls and I had the most glamorous slash craziest time ever which is always expected at Lenora’s events.

The ladies and I with Dita Von Teese and Selene Luna!

Nikki, Nicki, Reyna and I with the legendary Olivia!

A couple of Olivia’s pieces

Polite in Public had a spanking machine in their photobooth. ME GUSTA! Notice how my face is the least surprised and affected…

Then the amazing Bobby Trendy joined in on the fun…I know. I die. This is going to be my Christmas card everybody.

Let’s talk FASHION! This crazy gold spider on my head was actually made by me! I’ll be writing about it more in the next post.

• Gold Widow headpiece made by me
• vintage dress
• one silk glove with gold stacks
• black heart ring & leopard head ring
• black heart purse -H&M
• Betsey Johnson black glitter Polly heels

I also made an octopus one for Tiffany to wear. Looked good on her blonde ‘do! Here we are with the beautiful Lenora Claire.

Elvira as Bettie Page by Austin Young!

Reyna and I taking turns sitting with Bettie Page’s actual shoes!

Always nice to see Mr. Jason Savvy!

Here’s a wild little video Nicki took of me giving the lowdown of the show. The end is the best…crazy Micks.

In the meantime!

XOXO

Related posts:

+ Mad Crushin’ on Lenora Claire
+ Lenora Claire’s Birthday at Houdini Mansion
+ Unpleasant Dreams
+ Lenora Claire likes doNUTS
+ You Better Work

Photo by Marla Rutherford

My favorite redheaded gal pal, the one-woman powerhouse known as Lenora Claire, is an art curator, model, writer and web series host. Anybody else with that much on their plate would have trouble keeping it together but Lenora Claire manages to pull it off with grace, all the meanwhile looking gorgeous. She gives us the scoop on her beauty secrets and style inspirations and talks to us about her upcoming art show Bettie Page: Heaven Bound.

+ Tell us all about your upcoming art show tribute to legendary icon Bettie Page.

I knew it was going to be difficult to come up with a follow up art show after my Golden Gals Gild Wild show which featured erotic art based on the Golden Girls and got nation wide press ranging from NPR to the National Enquirer but I had the amazing opportunity this summer to pose for the legendary artist Olivia and we started a really lovely friendship. When Bettie passed away the idea for a tribute show featuring Olivia’s beautiful work as well as several other amazing artists was born.

Lenora Claire by Olivia

+ How do you describe your personal style, from day to day to a night on the town?

I’m the queen of the slinky black cocktail dress. I pretty much wear variations of that (I have about 100) paired with my trademark neon red hair. I get compared to everyone from Jessica Rabbit to Bozo the clown so I must be somewhere in the middle.

+ Any beauty secrets you can share?

Since I have been dyeing my hair red which is the most impossible color to keep for ten years I’ve mastered the art of keeping up my crayola color. Since heat makes molecules expand (yes, I’ll blind you with science) that opens the hair shaft allowing color to leave so never wash with hot water always wash with cold. Also, I dump some of my dye in to my conditoner bottle so I freshen up my hair every time. On my face I love mac studio fix and always, always, always, work those false eyelashes. Also, ladies ask your best drag queen friend to teach you how to contour. We all have Ms. Potato Head faces so if you learn the art of contouring you can create the illusion of cheekbones or change around anything you don’t like.

+ Do you have any particular style icons?

Jayne Mansfield, Leigh Bowery, Dianne Brill, Vivienne Westwood, and Grace Jones.

+ What are your inspirations?

The Pierre et Gilles color pallet, Japanese street fashion, Thierry Mugler, and too many cult films to name.

Photo by Austin Young

+ Favorite artists?

James Bidgood, Joe Coleman, Henry Darger, Olivia, Mark Ryden, Colin Christian, and Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Photo by Austin Young

+ Who would you love to work with someday?

I would love for Thierry Mugler to make me an outfit that Pierre et Gilles would shoot me in for the poster for my film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky or John Waters starring myself and Paul Ruebens.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you are in the LA area this weekend, Bettie Page: Heaven Bound opens Saturday, May 2nd with a gala opening reception at World of Wonder Gallery and runs until May 29th. Lenora’s events are not to be missed! I plan to be right in the middle of that three-ring circus as I always am!

Bettie Page: Heaven Bound
May 2, 2009 8pm-Midnight
$5 admission
World of Wonder Storefront Gallery
6650 Hollywood Blvd Hollywood, California 90028
(323) 603 6300

More Lenora Claire here:

www.LenoraClaire.com
www.Myspace.com/LenoraClaire
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lenora-Claire/731212083
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenora_Claire
http://twitter.com/lenoraclaire
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenoraclaire/

Related posts:

+ Lenora Clare Likes doNUTS
+ You Better Work
+ Lenora Claire’s Birthday at Houdini Mansion

Happy Monday everyone! With the launch of my Paper Doll, I thought it would be the perfect time to interrogate the lovely lady behind all the artwork on agentlover.com, New York-based artist Gea Philes!

+ You were born in Chile. How old were you when you came to the States?

Yes, I was born in Santiago, Chile. My family and I took the long bumpy way to America when I was 8.

+ Did you have an artistic childhood? I imagine a mini Gea* doodling decapitated unicorns when all the other kids were busy drawing tulips and teddy bears.

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing. I enjoyed tracing mostly when I was younger. Would get a comic book and put tracing paper over it and copy it. The decapitated unicorns didn’t come until I entered Junior High School.

+ You live in New York , which I am sure is a constant source of inspiration. Are there any other places in the world that fuel your creative spirit?

I can’t say NYC inspires me too much, it’s a love/hate relationship with this place. Don’t mind me, I’ve been here too long…I’m just grouchy. If I had to single out a place that fuels me, it be probably space.

+ What artists do you admire?

I admire the ones that make work I can stare long and deep enough to feel like they understand what’s going on in my psyche. The balance of beautiful and grotesque, evil and kind, a good sense of humor is always welcomed too. To name a few: Trevor Brown, Andy Warhol, Suehiro Maruo, Henry Darger, Stu Mead, Ichiba Daisuke, Francis Bacon, Gustav Klimt…

+ I’m envious of people who can draw because of their ability to manifest whatever images pop into their heads. Is there an occupation or even just a hobby that you’ve really wished you could learn?

Occupation…I wish I was a flight attendant specially, now with news of virgin space, so very 2001.

+ Does music inspire your art? Do you listen to anything when you are working?

I do listen to a lot of music. It doesn’t directly inspire my art but it does help me adjust my mood. I’m pretty sensitive in that way. A song can either make me cry or want to bash something…it comes in handy when I’m tackling certain subjects in my work.

+ Since you are a big fan of the cinema and even make your own short films, have you ever wanted to get into filmmaking on a larger scale someday?

I would love to…but I’m too much of a scatterbrain and money of course is the issue. Right now I am attempting an animated short. No flash, just very old school way of doing things. We’ll see how long that takes to do. Most of my short films (gawd this is making them sound so much more prestige then they really are but the next part won’t) run under one minute cause I use the video option on my camera. I hope this animated one will be at least more than 5 minutes long

+ Five things you are obsessed with right now:

Crunchy peanut butter, my ex-boyfriend’s big nose, World of Warcrack, LOST, my cat (always and 4ver)

+ What are your goals for your art?

Book or comic book, I’m not picky. It be nice to have something in print (more then just a couple of pages)

+ What’s next in the world of Gea*?

Updating my website…I keep getting scolded for that. >_<

Sorry I know its been years!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You can follow more of Gea’s art and adventures on her website, myspace and her new film blog, A Beautiful Fraud Called Cinema.

It’s pretty safe to say I was raised on comic books. I grew up with only brothers and my father was, and still is, an avid collector of everything comic-related so during my childhood I developed an equal fondness for Barbie as well as Professor Charles Xavier. These days I still get [cautiously] excited for the many comic-based movies that are released, am convinced that Oona Goosepimple [of Nancy and Sluggo] is a big reason why I gravitate towards all things strange and spooky, and believe that picking up a Betty and Veronica Double Digest can make you feel a whole lot better after a truly shitty day.

Among my stacks of Excaliburs and Archies, you could also find the dog-eared, yellowing pages of a comic book called Katy Keene, which featured the adventures of a raven-haired pinup model from the fifties and sixties. The thing about Katy Keene comics was that since she was a glamorous model, she would always be dressed in fabulous clothing. She was definitely a major inspiration behind my love of both dressing up and the fashion from those eras. Katy, along with other friends like rich bitch Gloria Grandbilt, sibling “Sis the Candy Kid” and even her boyfriends [yes, plural] would have their own paper dolls!

Bill Woggon, the creator of Katy Keene, would ask fans to submit wardrobe illustrations, so many of her outfits were designed by the readers themselves! In the eighties, the comic was revived so I had many of the newer ones as well. I also read a lot of Vicki Valentine, another pinup comic character of Bill Woggon’s. It was interesting going through these old comics and seeing how certain elements that were on Katy’s and Vicki’s clothes are the exact kind of details I now use for my own fashion style. I remember being six years old and looking at those panels over and over. Surely all those heart-patterned dresses and big bows must have gotten stuck in my subconscious!

A couple of years ago, Archie comics had another Katy comeback, but I haven’t found any of the books, which is fine because I fucking hate the artwork! And they chose to modernize her glam occupation as a “Hollywood celebrity.” BAH.

If you’ve noticed a change on the Pages section on the upper right of my blog, there is something very new and exciting! When I decided to redesign my website last year, I wanted a Paper Doll feature to pay tribute to my love of Katy Keene as well as to accompany the fashion-oriented direction I was going in. I asked the wonderful and amazing Gea to do the artwork. The clothing is from my actual wardrobe and I even have a couple of guest stars. It’s bananas how talented she is. Yay Gea! Be on the lookout for the upcoming interview I have with her also!

Take a look! You can drag the outfits and accessories to dress me up and click the swatches to change the background. The beautiful brocade and chandelier backgrounds are actually papers from Hambly Screen Prints. I love it so much!

Next up is deciding which Katy Keene paper dolls I want for a tattoo…anybody know a good tattooist for this in SoCal?

Also, present for you!

The Mills Brothers – “Paper Doll”

I go bonkers for anything panda-related so this recent post from Fops and Dandies about Beijing-based artist Zhao Bandi’s panda-themed fashion show immediately caught my eye. Bandi, who also goes by the name ‘Pandaman’ has been known to use stuffed pandas as a medium to express modern Chinese social issues in a satirical manner. The fashion show, which debuted last fall, allowed a new kind of platform for his amusing social commentary.

Over thirty models decorated in outrageous panda-inspired outfits walked the runways portraying different characters of Chinese social classes, from corrupt government officials and web celebrities, to lesbians and label whores. Well, now I have a good idea of what will either be my next Halloween costume or Madonna Inn photoshoot…

And as with any interesting artist comes a backlash of controversy, the show triggered the acceleration of a “panda law” to be passed in Chengdu, protecting the endangered animal’s image from being represented as anything considered suggestive or demeaning. So basically, the artist would not be allowed to strut around the town arm-in-arm with a couple panda girls like a Furry-loving pimp daddy! For shame!

Obviously, this picture of me jumping on the bed in a panda hat would be outlawed! This whole thing sparks my interest, not only because I squeal at the sight of anything panda, but also because my vacation to Beijing last year exposed me to their incredible art scene.

I can’t wait to see what Pandaman has up his sleeve next.

[Sources: Fops and Dandies, Pandatime, Art Zine China, Show China.]

With February already here, long-awaited fashion and makeup collaborations will finally make their way to some of us who’ve been reading about them for months.
First off, I’ve been waiting to see what Milla Jovovich has planned for her Jovovich-Hawk line debuting at Target [as part of their GO International series] on March 2. When I first saw the sneak peek of the line I wasn’t too impressed, as I like to dress like I’m five years old and most of the prints are laid-back California girl chic, but there are a few pieces that I will check out when it hits the store. This eyelet dress looks perfect for a Spring pic-a-nic.

And this cream-colored number looks fitting for that tea party I someday plan to have…

Although the last thing I need is another black dress, I am digging the detail on the bottom. [Photos via Target.com]

In a couple weeks the Fafi/MAC Cosmetics collaboration will be coming out! And look how pretty it is!

I can’t wait to get my hands on some of that, especially since I had to throw away a bunch of eye makeup because of an eye infection I had [VOM, I know]. Her line is said to debut on Valentine’s Day. That’s gonna be a nice present to the one I love most. ME!

[photos via Fafi's podcast.

And don't forget Heatherette's MAC line is also coming out in March!

[Photo via Spektra.]

Better save your pennies putanas! [I first wrote penis instead of pennies there. Aiiiii!]