Tales of Owls and Flowers...

A few more scans from the vintage archives:

This set of 1966 mini posters screen printed on heavy gold card is one of my very favorite finds by this artist, soon to be properly framed and displayed along with a million other cute ephemeral odds and ends (my very first resolution for 2010!)

Have a Verrie Merrie...

Happy Holidays Everyone!
Here are a few scans from my previously semi-secret archives of 60s ephemera:


I've been organizing like crazy for the past few weeks, in advance of a couple of impending super exciting life changes which I can't wait to share! One of the super exciting announcements semi-tangentially involves all of these boxes of cute cards, notes, stationery and paper goods that I've been hauling from coast to coast all of these years, so expect lots more scans from the archives soon!!!
Here's to starting 2010 off with a bang!
xo Fawn

December Magic...

One more holiday favorite from the archives:

Also, a tiny query!
We have a semi-accidental Xmas tradition of tucking ourselves away for the holiday to feast on red velvet cakes and holiday themed horror films, but seem to have run out of un-previously viewed titles for this year... any suggestions?

The lineup so far consists 100% of this amaaazing 1979 Kate Bush Christmas Special:



Via all time faves the magical Miss Witch Mountain and Cat Party!

If You Go Down To The Woods Today...

ello everyone! Sorry it has been, as per usual, approximately one million years since my last post here. We've been pleasantly caught up in a whirl of tiny visits with faraway friends on the way to and from far-flung family fêtes, hibernating with mugs of cocoa and whipped cream, and most exciting of all, running away to the woods for a self guided fairy tale mushroom tour!

We decided to skip town late Thanksgiving eve for lack of anything better to do, eventually winding up in a perfectly beautifully ghostly deserted Astoria, dining on a Thanksgiving feast of convenience store wine, cheese and chocolate (Not having considered that everything would be closed!), thankfully finding room for the night at the cute new Commodore Hotel, and set out first thing in the a.m. for the magically silent woods, where I'm still beyond excited to have seen my very first amanitas in the wild!
We spotted these:

and so many more! I posted a few more cute mushroom clusters on my flickr and hope to capture oh so many more when we go back soon for a real Park Ranger guided tour, where we will also hopefully learn how to spot things that we can actually eat!

Ps. Magical letter H courtesy of Jessica Hische at Daily Drop Cap, my new favorite thing in the world!

Tiny Pierrettes...

A few quick shots of some recent works in progress, ten 10" x 10" pieces for an upcoming holiday show in Australia:

Full details and more updates soon, I promise!

In Other News...

I'm quite pleased to say that not only have I finally sorted out the international shipping options for ye olde One Stop Backstock Pop Up Shoppe but have also been adding some paintings to the mix:

With hopefully lots more to follow after the holiday rush!
And maybe most importantly, I also figured out how to add DISCOUNT CODES!
From this very moment through December 1st, just enter the code LAFORETNOIRE at checkout for an instant 20% off!!! Hurrah!
Happy almost-the-holidays everyone!
&hearts Fawn

Lost in the Forest...

Sorry for the lack of posts here lately, I've been swept up in a flurry of Fall leaves, ringing in the season so far by picnic-ing at dusk with Vaux’s Swifts, racing around the Oregon countryside meeting cute alpacas, and starting to hibernate just a little, which will hopefully mean lots of progress on lots of projects soon...
For now, here's a mini preview of my latest ad for Screaming Mimis, due out any day now:

This one was so, so, so fun to draw, partly because I got to create the imaginary forest backdrop of my dreams, and partly because all I needed in the way of inspiration was to take a quick peek into my own closet:

which has been kind of an explosion of plaids and tweeds and woolens as of late and admittedly kind of out of control (as in, how many brown tweed blazers does one girl need?) but have I mentioned all of the cute vintage Pendleton still kicking around thrift stores all over the Pacific Northwest? It's kind of impossible to resist. As much as I can't wait to wear every single one of these coats, the mustard plaid medieval toggle coat that got me through last winter has already fallen back into heavy rotation and will probably always be my favorite:

Kind of hard to top that, right?

PS. Drawing this ad also got me re-acquainted with my semi-dormant ceramic mushroom obsession. Oops. Here are a few possible candidates for new additions to the collection:

Recent Acquisitions...

The One That Got Away...

I lost the most amazing 60s deco revival papier-mâché bust on eBay a few months ago and am still kicking myself for not bidding just a teeny tiny bit more...

The combination of dusky grass green and just ever-so-slightly day-glo pink with the deep avocado green of her hair is nothing short of absolutely perfect!

In The Village...

One of my favorite things about Fashion Week is when a designers inspiration for their collection parallels an inspiration of my own, and every tiny detail becomes a secret signifier of a favorite element of a favorite thing.
Karen Walker has always been one of those designers, which explains why I spent all afternoon scouring the internets for the first sign of her 'The Village' collection, inspired by the 60s British television series 'The Prisoner', which I spent many an hour on the clock obsessing over during a youthful stint as a cult video store employee.
The sets and costume design are 100 percent amazing and super over the top, and coincidentally something I had also obsessed over turning into a clothing collection once upon time, so of course I had visions dancing in my head of a carnivalesque production of canopied penny farthings, pointy parasols and patchwork capes, an imaginary army of awning stripes, schoolboy suits and rugby striped shirtdresses:

The real collection, while super cute and starring the requisite piped blazer, is actually not at all like any of that (which is probably for the best) but does still perfectly capture that 60s seaside meets Edwardian holiday camp look that I so adore, and also features one of my favorite Karen Walker prints since the lollipop trees and puppies of yore...

Nautical flags!!!

Candy Colored Cottages...

I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who knows my work or reads my blog that I love, love LOVE historical kitsch (though I am kind of loathe to use the term kitsch in all but the most academic of senses) so it will probably come as no surprise that I'm totally obsessed with the work of artist/designer/architect/genius Richard Woods:



His signature pop faux bois MDF panels have turned up on on many a design blog and graced many a gallery floor, but you kind of have to see the rest of his work too! Called "architectural interventions" by Frieze Magazine, his installations are one part tongue-in-cheek tribute to/pastiche of English vernacular architecture and one part pure unadulterated whimsy.

My favorite is probably the candy colored Stone Clad Cottages at Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, though I do have a soft spot for half-timbering and love that he once transformed Deitch Projects (along with a handful of collectors homes) into a Mock Tudor:


Image from "Tooning Up the World" via IdN Magazine.

Past Tents...

It's practically sweater weather now in Portland, and though I'll be super excited to access the 99.9% of my wardrobe that is made up of tweeds and heavy wool and sweater vests, I will be sad to see our weekly outdoor expeditions fall by the wayside until next year. I was kind of just getting the hang of this nature thing again! Last weekend we went on an epic stroll in the Columbia River Gorge that should have led to a super secret swimming hole which we never quite found. Along the way we were menaced by a tiny hissy silver snake, and, at one point, I could be found quite comically clinging to a mossy rock for dear life in knee deep rapids... But, the trail through old growth redwoods was insanely beautiful and dotted with a couple of cute little campsites tucked into the foliage that we swore to pay another visit to before the rains start for a couple of nights around a fire with toasted marshmallows and owl calls...

But first, the task of figuring out how and where to acquire the makings of a cute camp!

As someone who is both secretly mortified of modern day sporting gear and not so secretly a fan of historic re-enactments, I'm kind of hooked on the idea of strictly vintage camping gear, and actually have a folder full of reference photos and ebay searches but absolutely no idea where to start! Wandervogel lutes and a cute 60s campstove, anyone?

I do know exaaactly where I would acquire my very first tent if I could so afford it, however!

For as long as I've had the internet, I've been obsessed with Past Tents, home of ridiculously adorable historically accurate vintage reproduction stripey tents; medieval, napoleonic, civil war, tudor and yes, even teepees, if you so desire!

My imaginary shopping cart is forever full of the pavilion tent in all sizes, in every combination of every sherbet-y shade in the book:



This is basically the campsite of my dreams:

By Etrusia UK via Flickr.

Oh hello camping dreamland! It really doesn't get much more picturesque than candy colored tents set up inside crumbling castle walls, which is what I imagine it would have looked like if I had made it to Tapestry Goes West last year, which fell on both my birthday and the super cosmic date of 08/08/08, was going to be held in the deer park of a castle in Wales, with Circulus headlining, but was sadly semi-cancelled at the last minute! Not that I had cobbled together quite enough pocket change to get there anyway... maybe next time?

More Cute Camping...

On a slightly different note, with a slightly more modern day stripey tent, how cute are these pictures of 60s car camping in Germany, avec perfectly put together outfits, comfy chairs and lots of reading materials?


Both from one of many amazing sets of family vacation photos taken all over Europe by photographer Harald Haeusler, also by way of Flickr.

One Stop Pop Up Shoppe...

I'm cleaning out my "archives" and set up a little temporary online shoppe for all of the goods here!

Duplicates, triplicates, long lost production samples, alternate colorways and all sorts of sometimes one of a kind odds and ends are up for grabs, through the month of September only!



The address again?
http://fawn.bigcartel.com

Also, new ebay listings ending tomorrow! Farewell cute 60s floral corduroy suits, hello off the grid treehouse (Maybe? Unless my beloved Portland would like to produce some exciting projects for me to toil away at? Soonish?)

xoxoxo
Fawn

You take the Power of the Flower...

Here are a few more shots from the weekend:



Mostly spent tooling around Sauvie Island, skipping from farm to farm in a u-pick flower frenzy, collecting more dahlias, zinnias, mums and gerber daisies than we could ever possibly display, even after filling practically every glass, mug, tiny novelty vase and empty bottle in the house! And of course I couldn't help but obsess over the colorsssss, collecting and photographing every perfect electric salmon pink and insanely rich velvety blood red!
We were originally planning to pick a few baskets of blackberries too, but found a heaping platter of them outside or front door just a few days earlier, a sneaky gift from our next door neighbor who has one of the most beautiful urban gardens we've ever seen!
Have I mentioned lately how much I love Portland in the summertime?
A few more Sauvie Island photos can be found at my flickr, along with a few more recent odds and ends, including this guy:

who may just be our new favorite Portland street cat ever!

PS. Bonus points if you read that last title and immediately thought of this scene (it started looping in my head and I had to find the footage, pronto!):

from Otto Preminger's Skidoo, one of my favorite movies ever made, of all time, EVER. It also stars Groucho Marx, Jackie Gleason, Cesar Romero, Frankie Avalon... no big deal, right? How about 60s supermodel and Rolling Stones pal Donyale Luna? John Phillip Law aka Pygar from Barbarella? Oh, and, costumes by Rudi Gernreich? Soundtrack by Harry Nilsson? If you haven't already seen it, do it now!

I seriously love, love, LOVE Carol Channing, and have probably never been more awestruck and starstruck than seeing her perform Razzle Dazzle (with fireworks!) a few years ago at the Hollywood Bowl!

Here's another classic Carol Channing moment, from Thoroughly Modern Millie:

Raaasberries!!!

Summer's not a Bummer...

It's a Stunner...
and it's NOW!

Apologies for the woefully infrequent summertime updates around here. Lots more coming soon, I promise!

In the meantime, here's a quick snapshot from a birthday weekend spent wandering around the great outdoors:

Now we're enjoying a little string rainy days with a cool breeze and a little hint of fall, welcoming a little time to hibernate and focus after the epic heatwaves of the past few weeks. It actually seems to be the perfect time for it to be turning a little gray, now the million projects that we have forever in progress or waiting for just the right day to get started may finally have a chance to see the light of day!

Notes to Self...

Apologies if you've already seen these next few posts on a million blogs, a million years ago, I'm just catching up with months and months of reading and need a few reminders of a few things too perfect not to commit to memory...

Like these hazy kaleidoscopic Sarah Moon-y cotton candy hair confections:

‘Backstage at Galliano’ by Mark Leibowitz via New York Magazine.

Perfect Rooms 101...

Inside Grey Gardens:

via the New York Times. I LOVE that the menagerie cabinet has been fully restored.

R.I.P. Heinz Edelmann...

Sad news about legendary designer/illustrator/favorite Twen Magazine contributor/Yellow Submarine art director Heinz Edelmann via the LA Times.

Me and my Shadow...

I love these shots of Twiggy (looking ever so slightly bemused) making the most of a lookalike contest photo-op avec aspiring doppelgängers:

via the LIFE photo archive.

I had a whole post in the works to accompany these images on the subject of aspiring doppelgängers (As the seemingly eternal target of one of my own, who has been ramping up her appropriations again as of late. Hello identical website and strangely familiar blog posts. Oh hi process and palettes and personal references, how interesting to see you all so out of context!) but will save that for a rainy day. In the meantime let's just pretend that scenario is even a tiny fraction as adorable and innocent as above...

Dear Portland...

I'm showing a little wall of new paintings as a guest artist at Compound Gallery this Thursday, kind of a mini preview of a new series in the works, a tribute to Regency ragamuffins, dollies and dandies with a little bit of Buster Keaton thrown in for good measure:

I'll be exhibiting alongside a selection of artwork from the book "Pink Attitude, Contemporary Female Creativity"

Opening Thursday, July 2nd at 7:00pm
Compound Gallery
107 NW 5th Ave.
Portland, OR

For more information please visit:
http://www.compoundgallery.com

For pricelist or other show info please contact: matt {at} compoundgallery {dot} com
(This show is my first experiment with new depression era pricing, so get them while you can!)

Work in Progress...

It's Only a Paper Moon...

Back to Basics...

Sorry it's been so terribly quiet around here, I've been taking a little bit of an internet hiatus for art making! Here are a few tiny peeks at a new little batch of paintings coming very soon:


I know at least a few people reading this will be excited to hear that I've been revisiting the process that had pretty much become interchangeable with my signature over the years; enamels on glass and plexi, most commonly known for their uncanny resemblance to boiled sweets! I had all but abandoned my favorite materials for a bit in favor of more traditional paintings on canvas and panel partly due to gallery requests for less shattery artworks, and while I still love the idea of veering in the direction of revisionist portraiture forever, I was never able to recapture the perfectly perfect hyper flat candy colors of my dreams in any other medium, and have been quite happily picking up where I left off...

Which might have been with this Baby Lemonade show, circa, oh, 2007? Yikes!


It wasn't until I left LA that I realized there was something quintessentially LA about my chosen materials, specifically the translucence, flourescents and candyflake stripes of the mid-to-late 60s Ferus Gallery stable, probably lodged into my subconscious somewhere between divesting the school library of all of its Pop Art and Color Field books in high school and experimenting with casting and pigmenting my dads surfboard resins.

There are surprisingly few pieces to be found online, but here are a few of my favorites from the LA Glass and Plastics and Finish Fetish crews:

Craig Kauffman


Billy Al Bengston


Norman Zammitt

I've been super nostalgic for both Los Angeles specific and late 60s-specific art movements lately, and have have been revisiting both via these amazing books:

Practically on permanent loan from the Portland Library. Thanks guys!

Also recommended, Morgan Neville's The Cool School, How LA Learned to Love Modern Art documentary!

David Hockney goes to Malibu...

I've been slowly but surely posting a few more of the dreamy summer dresses, flapper revival sailor sweaters and perfect summer suits that didn't quite work out in my wardrobe to Ebay for the past few weeks:

And so far, this has been the hardest thing to part with. I was hoping to channel something of a "David Hockney goes to Malibu" look for the summer, and this candy colored seersucker suit, which has been languishing at the back of the closet waiting for its day in the sun, would have been absolutely perfect, if only it wouldn't have needed to be tailored half to death in order to fit me quite right! I'll be pretty sad to see it go, but know that it would probably love to be taken out for a stroll!

On a tangentially related note, I think I may be newly obsessed with these Madras and raw silk bow ties by heritage haberdasher J. Press:



Brought to my attention by preeminent menswear blog A Continuous Lean.