Noncomformist

Fashion Week 02-11 - Yigal Azrouel

Loving the clean lines at the Azourel show this week. That white dress would make one edgy bride. The kind of chic you don't mess with! Give her the Antherium, Dahlia, Rose bouquet and she's ready for a ceremony that spells "n.o.n.c.o.n.f.o.r.m.i.s.t". Notice the word wedding doesn't apply here. There's no doubt her groom is one bad ass himself!

Colossal Friend

Had a fantastic dream that I rode my pet elephant through a forest and to a beach. What an empowering being!!
Above a still from the Texas Instruments Ad which reminded me of the slumbering adventure and what it might portend.
Below French Jumbo Blush Ranunculus in a silver Julep Cup- simple and sweet.

Lover's Day!!!

.......Now, Cupid
don't you hear me
calling you
I need you
Cupid
help me
I need you
Cupid

..........................................................................Sam Cook

The Glamorous Orient

Photographed by Norman Parkinson 1956

I stumbled upon this remarkable 50's fashion photograph of the astonishingly chic Anne Gunning in Jaipur Rajasthan, India. The flowers below are Lilacs, Hydrangea, Anemones, Dusty Miller, Queen Anne's Lace, Spanish lavender, Astrantia, Picasso Calla Lilies, and Peonies- an unusual yet exotic combination of colors and textures.

Baby Boy

ranunculus

A request for a "Blessing gift" of a newborn baby boy yielded deep rich hues of burgundy, violet and emerald green. Baby gifts don't always have to be pallid.

Opalescent Blues

I have found that anytime I collect things my love affair with the chosen items dwindle so I opt out and peruse ebay lovingly looking for my favorite things which I never buy. Just seeing them brings me such satisfaction! So from time to time I will post these goodies. Tonight I found this lovely "Opalescent Hobnail Pitcher". It called to mind a white and violet arrangement I made this week of anemones, lilac and silver dollars. In a way I do wish I owned the miniature pitcher to have put these flowers in it! Well the thought is there.

Sally Mann

One of my all time favorite female photographers is Sally Mann. She captures time in her photographs and creates an alternate reality both mystical and unsettling. She proceeds where Julia Margeret Cameron (another fave) left off and delves into a world that invokes past lives, transition, innocence lost, fragility........

Black History Month

Mr and Mrs Jack Johnson 1911

This photo hung prominently in his Chicago nightclub Cafe de Champion which was the first "mixed" club in the US. Although he was not an ideal life partner the man was a force of nature and one of the best examples of rugged individualism there ever was!

"The possession of muscular strength and the courage to use it in contests with other men for physical supremacy does not necessarily imply a lack of appreciation for the finer and better things of life."
...............Jack Johnson

WIKIPEDIA: Johnson was an early example of the celebrity athlete in the modern era, appearing regularly in the press and later on radio and in motion pictures. He earned considerable sums endorsing various products, including patent medicines, and indulged several expensive hobbies such as automobile racing and tailored clothing, as well as purchasing jewelry and furs for his wives. Once, when he was pulled over for a $50 speeding ticket (a large sum at the time), he gave the officer a $100 bill; when the officer protested that he couldn't make change for that much, Johnson told him to keep the change, as he was going to make his return trip at the same speed.^[1] Johnson was also interested in opera (his favorite being Il Trovatore) and in history — he was an admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte, believing him to have risen from a similar origin to his own. In 1920, Johnson opened a night club in Harlem; he sold it three years later to a gangster, Owney Madden, who renamed it the Cotton Club.

Johnson constantly flouted conventions regarding the social and economic "place" of blacks in American society. As a black man, he broke a powerful taboo in consorting with white women, and would constantly and arrogantly verbally taunt men (both white and black) inside and outside the ring. Johnson was pompous about his affection for white women, and imperious about his physical prowess, both in and out of the ring. Asked the secret of his staying power by a reporter who had watched a succession of women parade into, and out of, the champion's hotel room, Johnson supposedly said "Eat jellied eels and think distant thoughts".^[9]

Johnson was married three times. All of his wives were white, a fact that caused considerable controversy at the time. In January 1911, Johnson married Etta Terry Duryea. A Brooklyn socialite and former wife of businessman Charles Duryea, she met Johnson at a car race in 1909. Their romantic involvement was very turbulent. Beaten many times by Johnson and suffering from severe depression, she committed suicide in September 1912, shooting herself with a revolver.

Less than three months later, on December 4, 1912, Johnson married Lucille Cameron. After Johnson married Cameron, two ministers in the South recommended that Johnson be lynched. Cameron divorced him in 1924 because of infidelity.

The next year, Johnson married Irene Pineau. When asked by a reporter at Johnson's funeral what she had loved about him, she replied, "I loved him because of his courage. He faced the world unafraid. There wasn't anybody or anything he feared."

The Constant Constance

A lovely arrangement by the forever inspired and inspiring Constance Spry

I can never get enough of Constance Spry and her iconoclastic arrangements. Luckily I had a chance to play with some left overs in the studio and fell into a Spry induced meditation! Life ain't all that bad.

Natures Fleeting Jewels

My dear friend Eric Blum's paintings sprung to mind as I delivered flowers this weekend on 73rd and CPW. I stumbled across these ice pendents and thought of his ephemeral and hypnotic wax/oil paintings. I could almost hear the Cocteau Twins in the background.