17 Friday Sep 2010
Posted in Art, Design, Fashion, Photography, Reflections
≈ Comments Off on Boots…
© Catherine Lee
My boots weren’t made for walking, they are works of contemporary art.
Lauren DiMarco
My daughter considered urban graffiti a legitimate art form even before she lived in São Paulo, Brazil, “the current worldwide mecca of graffiti.” When Christian Louboutin designed these radical red calf boots she had to have them – not to wear, but to display.
© Joan Currie - Christian Louboutin Boots
© Joan Currie - San Francisco Graffiti
Model – Lauren DiMarco
16 Thursday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections
≈ Comments Off on Orange…
© Lydia Hudgens
Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.
Albert Camus
Autumn is my favorite season! Inspired by my glass pumpkin and the pumpkins in the fields and markets, I decided to inject some orange to my decor and wardrobe to spice things up for fall. First, I planned to repaint my navajo white gallery wall with a rich earth tone. In the paint store I was drawn to color samples with lovely sounding names like Amontillado, Savannah, and Calliope, but finally settled on Chutney.
Being half Dutch, I had no choice but to wear orange at the World Cup Soccer events in San Francisco last June and July. In addition to the excitement of the games, the color orange made me feel energetic, invigorated, passionate, and sensual! Since then, I have chosen several accessories from the orange-red to orange-yellow and gold range to accent my wardrobe and have discovered that I have a penchant for that color!
Model: Lauren DiMarco
14 Tuesday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Reflections, Travel
≈ Comments Off on Southern Cross…
Tags
beautiful, Beauty, Brazil, Copacabana Palace Hotel, Crosby Stills & Nash, Fashion, Nicolo Sertorio, Rio, Southern Cross
© Nicolo Sertorio
When you see the Southern Cross
For the first time
You understand now
Why you came this way…
Crosby, Stills & Nash (song)
I saw the Southern Cross for the first time floating on my back in the pool at the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio. The constellation’s five stars directly overhead were completely visible in the jet black sky. I stared at the heavens transfixed, bobbing in the water with the soothing sounds of the surf breaking onto the beach just across the Avenida Atlântica, and knew that I would remember that moment forever.
Copacabana Palace Hotel, Rio
Model – Lauren Currie
09 Thursday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections
≈ Comments Off on Maple Leaf Ball…
Tags
beautiful, Beauty, Bill McClaren, Bobby Orr, Date night, Fashion, Hockey Fall of Fame, Memoir, Photography, Writing
© Bill McClaren
I could have danced all night!
I could have danced all night!
And still have begged for more.
Lerner and Loewe
My all-time best date night was at the Maple Leaf Ball in Boston when Bobby Orr, of Boston Bruins fame, was the co-host. When he greeted me I reminded him that I had had a summer job working at the Press Department at the Canadian National Exhibition, and had escorted him to see his Hockey Hall of Fame exhibit there for the first time.
Later on the dance floor my date, a huge Bruins fan, pointed to Bobby Orr on the balcony and said -“There’s Bobby Orr!”I looked up and Bobby Orr waved and said, “Hi, Joan!” Needless to say, my date was very impressed.
Models – Lauren Currie & Oleg Galagan
08 Wednesday Sep 2010
Posted in Art, Fashion, Photography, Reflections, Writing
≈ Comments Off on Shared Experiences: Sailing…
Tags
beautiful, Jesper Brandt, Lucy Macdonald, Memoir, Photography, Sailboat racing, Sailing, Writing
© Jesper Brandt
The initial bond is the shared experience.
Lucy Macdonald
Some time ago, I signed up to crew in an overnight yacht race across Lake Ontario from Toronto to Rochester and back. I had sailed with this all-male crew many times before, save for one new member, John, who was to share the same watch.
Once under sail, both the weather and our stomachs turned bad. It was the worst night of my life – apocalyptic downpours requiring the storm jibs to be changed every hour, heaving over the sides of the boat, the boom hit John in the head and sent him flying overboard, the skipper and first mate had a fist fight on deck, and we were disqualified from the race for hitting another boat.
The next day, I received a phone call from John telling me that the night before had been the best of his life! He wanted me to be the mother of his children and there was another overnight race the coming weekend – when could he pick me up? Was it the head injury or did this man, after witnessing me at my sick and bedraggled worst, still want to meet me again? It was amazing how we had such different takes on the same experience, but beautiful in that John saw beyond the difficulties of the event and still wanted to go back for more.
© Jesper Brandt
06 Monday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections, Relationships, Writing
≈ Comments Off on Engaging in Life…
Tags
beautiful, Beauty, Fashion, Jesper Brandt, Memoir, Photography, Sailor Moon, Writing
© Jesper Brandt
Sometimes we have love and sometimes we lose love. Sometimes love can hurt terribly like a deep wound. In our world we have lots of ups and down, pleasures and pains. But that’s life and we learn to accept the bad with the good. Without the bad times we wouldn’t appreciate the good times. Life is precious and I cherish ever single moment. – Sailor Moon
A newly married woman I know worried that her husband was going to leave her because there was so much drama in her life. Family and friends were constantly asking for her help with serious issues and there seemed to be no end in sight to the bad tidings.
It turned out that she did not have to fret for one moment about her husband’s commitment to the marriage. It was her way of engaging in the messiness of life and not turning away from helping others – getting her hands dirty as it were, that he adored and loved about her most. He knew also that if the time were to come when he needed help, she would be right there at his side.
Consider a mosaic: shards of glass, stone or tile are set together in such a way as to form an image. If all the pieces are white – no picture is evident. Add a few fragments of light yellow or beige and perhaps the beginning of an image appears. But add some black and glittery gold to the work and now you start to have definition from the contrast between the light and the dark. Further, when you add shards from the entire color palette, a vision emerges that has depth, intensity, and profundity. We have only one chance to create the image that is our life. It can be shallow or it can have depth. The choice is ours!
© Jesper Brandt
05 Sunday Sep 2010
Posted in Dance, Fashion, Photography, Reflections
≈ Comments Off on Belly Dancing…
© Joan Currie
Great dancers are not great because of their technique;
they are great because of their passion.
Martha Graham
Classical Egyptian belly dancing is an activity that I have embraced for the music, choreography, tradition, community of women, and the costumes. It is important to shake and listen before choosing a hip scarf as each one makes a different sound depending on the number and characteristics of the individual coins and other embellishments. The black scarf has a heavier sound and is better suited to more percussive, tribal rhythms.
© Joan Currie
Model – Lauren Currie
04 Saturday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Travel
≈ Comments Off on Half Moon Bay…
Tags
Anna Landa, Beach, beautiful, Beauty, Fashion Photography, Half Moon Bay, Heart, Isak Dinesen, Kelp, Lauren DiMarco, Photography
© Anna Landa
The cure for anything is salt – water, tears, or the sea.
Isak Dinesen
When I arrived in Half Moon Bay this morning it was shrouded in fog.
© Joan Currie
Model – Lauren DiMarco
Lower Photos – Joan Currie
03 Friday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections
≈ Comments Off on Beautification…
© Lauren DiMarco
Beauty is about perception, not about make-up. I think the beginning of all beauty is knowing and liking oneself. You can’t put on make-up, or dress yourself, or do your hair with any sort of fun or joy if you’re doing it from a position of correction. – Kevyn Aucoin
I spotted a construction sign that read, Beautification in progress. Thank you for your patience! Although I know we are in a constant state of beautification both inside and out, I thought it would be a good idea to make a similar sign to carry with me when I go about my activities of daily living. It could explain, for example, why I do not look my best when I roll out of bed and dash into Starbucks at 6:30 for my morning latte in track pants and a T-shirt, tousled hair, and no make-up.
I remember an Oprah makeover segment in which Gayle King discussed the woes of being single. She confessed that on Sunday mornings she, too, ran in for coffee and a newspaper in her tracksuit without benefit of makeup or coiffed hair. Oprah and her makeover expert exchanged knowing glances and said, “That’s why you’re still single.” Gayle retorted that if she ran into a potential date, she would simply say, “this isn’t what I really look like!” With a sign, she wouldn’t have had to say a word…
31 Tuesday Aug 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections
Tags
Baudelaire, beautiful, Beauty, Charles Baudelaire, Fashion, Juan Zambrano, Mollusc, Octopus, Oleg Galagan, Photography
© Juan Zambrano
…the unexpected, the surprising, the astonishing, are essential to and characteristic of beauty. – Charles Baudelaire
There is a beauty in the grotesqueness of the octopus draped over the model’s skin – the mythological masculine form juxtaposed with the slimy, fetid mollusc. Both share a damp pallor.
Model – Oleg Galagan
Satin & Sand 