Allyson Mitchell's Hungry Purse

My lovely friend, Marne Lucas asked me to collaborate with her again. She met Canadian installation artist extraordinaire Allyson Mitchell at the opening of "Visible Vagina" at the David Nolan Gallery. They hit it off and planned to do an artist portrait session inside Allyson's installation, "Hungry Purse: The Vagina Dentata in Late Capitalism". Marne called me up to contribute a little style, make up, hair wrangling action. (uh, yeah, mention 'vagina and 'capitalism' in the same sentence you best believe I'm in).

Turns out Marne, Allyson and I are all kindred feminist artist ladies with a whole lot of silly mixed up in there. Allyson reconfirmed my love for Canada and their support of artists. She was just about to depart back from a 6 month residency. So glad I got a chance to meet her. (slick pics to come...here's some teaser shots)

I got my first chance to work with a faux mustache. Here's Allyson looking mega hot in a black poly zip up pantsuit. I think channeling a little Burt Reynolds meets Deep Lez. I MUST get a poly pantsuit. 1st functional, then flattering and so easy! With the zip down front, to boob...or not to boob. hot.

Here's a detail of the throne and stuffed pink antelope (?) heads. When asked by a gallery-goer, "What are those?" Allyson replied, "Some weird fallopian tube head things." Ahh...yes. Perfect.



I'm in love with her pink animal creations...cute little nippled minxes. Neon creatures in the woods. Here's some more from her catalog of Ladies Sasquatch.

Detail of ceiling, collected doilies, afghans knitted into one massive construction.

Marne hard at work, and her special skill--balancing atop crookedy ladders while capturing beautiful images. Notice entrance and urethra afghan. (never thought I'd write those two words together)


If you're in NY the Visible Vagina exhibition runs through March 20th. Go see it, you won't regret it!

Anais Mitchell's Hadestown + Alicia J. Rose , and me!

Awhile back I posted some teaser pics of promo shots for Anais Mitchell's upcoming album Hadestown. Time's come to release these beauts into the universe. I worked with pro photographer/amazing gal Ms. Alicia J. Rose yet again. This time I dabbled in a bit of everything: hair, make-up, wardrobe, styling, set design. I'm very pleased with our little collaboration. (big sigh...I sure do miss Portland)

Icon: Yoko Ono

I had the fortune of attending Yoko Ono's Dress Rehearsal performance at BAM Monday night. I swear, it's going to take me a year to process the whole show beginning to end. From the video montage retrospective of her life/work (I cried the whole time). If ever you wondered why this woman does what she does...it's so clear. In the face of EVERYTHING the bastard world has to throw at her she's the ultimate optimist. I couldn't respect any one more. She devastates my heart with her tenacity and positive outlook. You could try to burn her at the stake and she'd offer you a hug. It's the complete re-version/visioning of DISARMAMENT.

Here's the rough outline of the show.
It both lightens and sinks my heart to see "WAR IS OVER...if you want it" lit on top of taxi cabs in New York in 2010.

Nothing's changed but the art still remains.

So there's this dress at the t-shirt booth, that's a mystery to me. Who designed it? What does it mean, man!!?


There's a reason this woman must open her mouth. for the pretty to come out.

There were lots of special guests. (including a sneaky Mark Ronson, I'm pretty sure, Scissor Sisters and Chimera) I know I should have loved Kim, Thurston and Yoko doing "Mulberry" best. But truths be told I loved Justin Bond's "What a Bastard the World Is" so so sososo much. So appropriate, campy, heart wrenching and awesome.





AND they played "Death of Samantha" live for the first time ever???!!

humor break: Bottoms are really at the bottom of everything. "Bottoms" on the bathroom stall....love you yoko.

And I know over time, and by complete cultural saturation of Lennon/Ono's "Give Peace a Chance" renders it totally cheezeballs. But I really don't care. I still think it's powerful to sing together and stand up--so there. (and singing together with this group was really fun and earnest).


Listen to this woman: "Stay healthy this year, and don't get too angry." .......okay, i'll try.

Wig Re-construction 101 (A HairStory)

Wig wearin's my thing. It came about through many incarnations of hair dos. First and foremost, I feel I was born with the wrong hair. I'm all for positive body image but as far as I'm concerned hair isn't part of my body.

Hair's a medium to sculpt on top of my head. (think Troll hair)

First, I tested out glue & bead hair extensions. On top of the process being long (5 hours) and expensive ($300+), it was painful. Imagine having your hair pulled 24 hours a day for 3 months. yeeouch.

I gave up on extensions but found the miracle of the weft and hair bonding glue.

I started frequenting the local Mid-K beauty supply store. I bought latex bonding glue and wefts. I'd carefully glue in layers of hair on my head. I experimented with color, layers and length. But in the end, there were chunks of glue stuck in my hair and scalp. I constantly picked at my head like that weird dude in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.Somewhere during this time I shaved my head recalling some of my punk rock roots. (me at 15)

Also, I got really bummed about chemicals. I'd been dyeing my hair for 15-20 years and thought I'm one hair dye away from producing a third eye. So out went the dye. Which left me with ROOTS> ewwww<....of some unknown mousy dishwater brown color.

With all this experience and a bad haircut to nurse. (Doing my best to claim the shaved head grow out)

I set out on the wig stores on a mission. I envisioned a simple fall, a mid-wig, a 1/2 size piece. Lo and behold, these pieces don't exist. There were add on ponytails, weft and wigs. But nothing with micromesh (i.e. fake scalp). So I bought a decent human ponytail and went to town cutting, sewing and reshaping it to suit my needs.

I came up with something rudimentary but nonetheless wear everyday. (me, wig, and John)

For Halloween I needed to buy a cheap wig for my costume. Every time I stop in the wig store I pump the store people for ideas on how to improve my construction. The owner, without skipping a beat, showed me how to turn a full size wig into a quality fall--complete with the much sought, hand loomed mesh front-piece. She showed me one tiny 1/4 wig that was completely handloomed mesh selling for $550. That's rent! For a wig, not even. She talked me into a smart little super-quality wig for $109.95. I set out to customize it.

I cut the wig in two, leaving the top toupee piece (bottom) and the bottom piece (top). Then I harvested the wefts from the foundation.

I sewed the wefts row by row hoping to get bouffant elevation on the crown. But no luck this time around. Healthy hair is soft and silky, which is not conducive to back-combing or height. :(...I added four snapping combs, three in front and one in back. I've christened this wig "FrankenWig". Chalk this up to another wig lab experiment. After a cut and style....

Fierce bangs!

Hightower's Power

This is a Native pin-up/portrait series of Rachel I worked on by photographer, Marne Lucas. Besides being a stunner of a woman, fellow Libran, Marne's also enormously caring, talented, optimistic and hilarious. I've found rad women travel in packs. It's no wonder she's runs with m'lady Raquel. (sorta dying from how rad they both are). I dream of collaborating on creating gorgeous images coast to coast and continent to continent with my ladies. To dream the dream.

Here's a couple doozies from the series to sate. (hair, make up by me. styling by Rachel or "Lady Raquel" if you're nasty).

Marne and Lady Raquel have worked together as a serious dynamic duo. Beauty? I'll say, sheesh. They got it for miles.

Giving Birth to Myself

I love Halloween! I usually have my costume picked out a year in advance and spend a insane amount of time on making it. This year is a big year> a very big year and next year is going to be even more epic. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a new phase in life than to give birth to myself. Can you?

(thanks to my beloved Darrin for shaving his head and donating his hair for pubes. also big thanks to my green lady midwife, Rachel for being there for me in time of need.)



Malice is helping my mom birth me on the bar room floor of East End. Classy.

Here's some more doozies of me, Ash and Rachel getting ready to go out. (note: I kept my wallet, cell phone and a bottle of wine in vajay. mom's a lush)

It takes a village, thanks Sadie.

Check out Meryl Smith's art and props to the originator of the original costume idea.

Ophelia: Spectator/Spectacle

FTW: "Get thee to a nunnery". Choke on it, patriarchy. We got something to say. Look who's looking at who. Oh ladies! Let's just make post-post-post modern art about it shall we? More shots from Modern Ophelia:








Photos by Christine Blystone and Rachel Hightower. Styling, hair and make up: me.

Reviving Ophelia

Lady Raquel and Gigi strike again! This time for a project reviving Millais' Ophelia. Raquel and her partner Christine Blystone (henceforth, "Candy") laid their brainiac skills down on this one and took me along for the ride. With some minor make-uppin', I'm mainly along for moral support and the occasional pill and tit wrangling. Need your hair swirly? That's a job for me! Want to look dead/otherworldly and beautiful? I have some tips for ya! Here are the final shots.





Process shots: