Audrey Hepburn by Richard Avedon

Snapshot: Yves Saint Laurent and Catherine Deneuve

Musical Intermission: PJ Harvey 'Good Fortune'

Claudia Schiffer by Steven Meisel

Henry & Violet

Rianne ten Haken

check out this great post that the amazing Women Management blog did of my lil' sketch of the gorgeous model Rianne ten Haken!  http://womenmanagement.blogspot.com/2009/11/rianne-ten-haken-by-justin-teodoro.html

Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen by Helmut Newton

Bridget Hall (2009)

here is the Bridget Hall painting i based off of that Steven Meisel portrait.  added this quote about her by Stephane Marais from this 1994 Vogue profile of Ms. Hall where he basically sums her up as this classic beauty amongst a sea of trendy faces.  which is funny since today it's rare to get a girl who can seemingly last more than a few seasons before a new face captures our attention.
it took me awhile i think to get this painting right for me - i guess you have those preconceived notions in your head as to how the painting should turn out and sometimes it takes a different path.  which can never be a bad thing.  at some point of the process you gotta let yourself go and just see the work come to life.  and most times, like with Ms. Hall, it can turn out quite nicely.  

New York, November 8, 2009

it was a really amazingly beautiful day in NYC so i tried to make the most of it.  spent the day roaming around the Bowery and Soho and managed to catch the Urs Fischer exhibit at the New Museum.  i'd recommend seeing it just to have the chance to see art in that non traditional setting.  it's sometimes good to see work that way - you realize that there can be art beyond the canvas and wall space.  and on a superficial sidenote, i picked up some cool Elizabeth Peyton buttons from the gift shop which i'll make a point to display on my jacket lapel from now on.

it was also a really great day for people sighting - they all kinda came out of the woodwork.  perhaps the highlight was seeing Ms. Grace Coddington sweep past the lunch crowd of Veselka (and i thinks she might've noticed me mouth quite excitedly "OMG that is Grace Coddington!" like an awestruck groupie).  all in all a good day.  even though NYC can beat and grind you into a mindless, workaholic wreck all week, she can still manage to turn on the charm and beauty and just bring you all back into her arms.  i guess what more can you ask for?

Food for Thought: The Age of Reinterpretation

i had an interesting conversation tonight about the world of popular culture that we live in nowadays.  i think we can safely say that pretty much everything has been done already, no?  for fashion, i think that is a definite sure thing.  how much more can you say about a dress or a pair of pants?  there is only so much in the vernacular that you can.  but what keeps it interesting is how you anticipate the ebb and flow of culture and reinterpret those changes to fit the current mood.  maybe it really is picking up what is in the air and reinterpreting the archetypes set before us that keeps everything seem fresh and new.  music, fashion, movies, television - everything in the popular zeitgeist - it's all a reflection of the current state.  nothing new - just reinterpretations.  strange but sometimes does summing up something in something so simple and perhaps obvious make it easier to understand what we do?  maybe.  but i guess right now i'm just thinking that maybe there really shouldn't be a pressure to try to be new or reinvent the wheel but just be aware of what is around you and been done before and just be clever enough to know when to pick up where something has left off ....  

Billy Sullivan

Musical Intermission: Pet Shop Boys 'I Get Along'

"China Syndrome" by Wolfgang Tillmans (Vogue US, February 1997)

sometimes American Vogue can surprise you.  amongst all the Meisel, Demarchelier, and Testino editorials, there's that odd wild card.   and in this case it was Wolfgang Tillmans, the provocative German photographer whose work you would never guess to associate with Vogue, especially American Vogue (which might just have been the case - i'm sure this was his only spread thus far for the magazine).  apparently Mr. Tillmans only agreed to do this on the condition that he could choose the model, who turned out to be the legendary Kate Moss.  enjoy this moment when Vogue really brought fashion and art together so beautifully.

Screening Room: "Auntie Mame"

Musical Intermission: New Order live, 1984, 'Age Of Consent'