Finally, a Name

Yesterday the cousin and I went to the LACMA Museum, it was so amazing. I have been to museums before, but this was the first time i had been to one that was more modern. I got to see works by so many people we studied in Art History, dating back to the bauhaus and even some of my favorite pop artists. It was interesting to see some of the textiles mis-labled (the plain weave linen was neither linen or a plain weave). The most exciting part by far was the Japanese Pavilion. They even had a special exhibit on Utagawa. Not my favorite Japanese print artist but was still awesome to see. When descending the spiral ramp we got to see many scrolls and then there was one that stopped my cousin and I. it is colligraphy for Snow, Moon, Flower. When put together it is Setsugetsuka "a timeless Japanese poetic phrase symbolizing three of the four seasons (winter, autumn, spring). Here, each character is written in black ink, in archaic Chinese style" (quoted from the plaque). Now i need to learn to pronounce it properly. However this seems to embody what alot of my show is about. Seasons, atmosphere, poetic movement. we saw it, and it was just like.. This is It

Mark's Bar Mitzvah

so this entire weekend was devoted to my cousin Mark who just turned 13. friday we went to service and then dinner. saturday we went to service which took up the entire morning and then a lunch at the temple, had a few hours for a break and then off to the party. Mann Jewish people know how to party. start off with family pictures and the cousins fooling around with taking pictures and then the party motivators come in and keep all the children and three twenty-somethings dancing. barely even stopping to eat dinner we did choreography, running games (after the first few rounds i took my heels off for my safety and the safety of those around me). my cousin got hit on by tommy (11 years old) who thought she was 14, my other cousin(who is older than me and V) got i.d. right after the two of us ordered wine. and the three of us got invited to party with the motivators after the party at a place called whiskey. we didnt go though. so sunday is the after party pool party, we ate leftover food chatted swam in the pool (more like floated on a floatation device) and took naps around the pool.
The cousin and I. Here is the dress i had been working on. it has my computer chip design hand-printed on silk. it is one shouldered and pleated/darted around the neck

Th walls were upholstered. As soon as we stepped of the elevator i was like "the walls!!". It blew my mind!

Justin Beiber: Strumming my Pain with his Fingers

"this song is about Justin Beiber, too bad he wasnt around when it was made"
I am now in LA. and a mix of Justin Beiber and the Fugees came to this statement. Other than the not-so-fond of flying and passing about four car accidents every time we drive, things are going smoothly. Will admit though, the lack of shoulder checking really freaks me out. First meal: chipotle. I have been craving this small mexican chain restaurant, but this was just a snack. For dinner a friend hideki, who works at the boiling crab got us in for dinner. The average wait to get into this place at dinner time is one to two hours. Here you order seafood by the pound which is cooked in a bag with seasonings and put on the table. There is no plates or utensils, you use your hands and be prepared to get dirty. I didnt hesitate and my hands were bright orange by the end. I also developed a crushing technique when I needed to break into the hard shell of the crawfish. This little suckers shell is hard to break and ends up being alot of work for a small piece of meat, but not when you crush them!

After dinner I found this awesome vogue from taiwan. The guy seemed very confused that I was ok that it wasnt in english.
Today was the first part of my cousins bar mitzvah so we ate quite a bit for dinner at vactorio's. But the best part of my day was doing the hem stitch on my dress for tomorrow while putting my feet in the pool!
oh yes. I bought a new camera. hence the usage of more photos than usual. I got the photos back from the shoot for some of my jackets. I have gone through them and narrowed them down to the best ones. will post those maybe on sunday.

So Much to Do, So Much Rain.

Yesterday was one of the busiest days I have had in quite some time. a few days ago AW called to cancel my shoot in the morning, so I planned to make a brand new piece for the jacket shoot.  I designed and printed a computer chip print on a silk satin sandwash (my favorite silk to work with).  Then wednesday morning I get a call from AW, they had a model no-show and needed me to come in. After the shoot was finished I hurried home to work on the jacket and make up for lost time. a few hours later I whipped off to kensington to meet up for the calgary fashion interview.   It went well I wasnt really too sure what kind of questions would be asked but it kind of covered everything, from my inspirations to what I see in the future, to modeling, art, hip hop, dance, fashion, everything.  Run through the rain back to my car to go home to put the finishing touches on the jacket and pick up some last minute accessories for the shoot.  

9:30 pm rolls around and Im off to fish creek park to scout locations. I then learn that it is actually closing and Im being kicked out. great.  After figuring out some new arrangements we wait for all the models to arrive so that they can follow me to the new location.  We waited, and waited and i had one model no-show.  this made me a little upset and I felt even more disorganized even though i had planned so much and kept being thrown curve balls.  The shoot however went amazing.  The models were fantastic and bared the cold and the little bit of rain that was still lingering around and we managed to pull shots that was exactly what i was looking for. even if we needed to drive my car up the curb a little and use my headlights for lighting.  Once I have these photos, I think this blog will get a little re-vamping. 

Exciting stuff.

Consider This

When eating in a tatami room at a Japanese restaurant, do not put your bare feet on the wall so that your legs cover where the server needs to serve you, and your feet are beside the servers head.  Feet belong on the ground. 

Thank You

finding photos

i also came across this photo on chris sattlegger's website. in an earlier post i posted the picture that i recieved from this shoot, but i quite like this one as well

picture time

so i havent shown any photos of anything for a while, but i got a new one on wednesday when i showed up at aw for a photoshoot (which ended up being cancelled).  i had forgotten about this one, but i really like the blue eyeshadow. I think that with this photo ive also come to terms that i am not "pastey" but rather just fair skinned haha. also i did the womens conference on the weekend where we modeled makeup application on stage. i took a photo on my blackberry but it doesnt really do the makeup justice.  it was the "purple" look, i always end up being the one with the purple look because makeup artist always see the green in my eyes.  

things that are coming up.. on the 16th i will be doing an aw makeup shoot in the morning, interviewing with calgaryfashion.ca in the afternoon and doing a photoshoot for my jackets in the evening.  oh ya because of shooting with ben last week he mentioned me to adrianna at calgary fashion who asked to do an interview with me about my show! so excited.  on the 20th we will start the morning off with casting call for my runway show (facebook invite here), then in the afternoon i will be shooting some group shots for an organization and then off to banff to celebrate my birthday! 

ive also booked my first photoshoot in vancouver.. its the same day i arrive haha.

finally got some time to work in the studio, got some creditcard chip prints done, now need to finish some more prints so i can bring them to LA and do some sewing down there.

A Little Lost

so i just received in the mail, my letter from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts letting me know that i did not receive my grant.   I'm feeling a little bit bummed, no a lot. but i am only going to let this last for the next 30 minutes before i go to work. after that it is time to re-evaluate the plan, and make it still work.  i knew the show would go on regardless of the approval of the grant but however now that i do not have it i will not be able to afford Caroline and Saxon Fraser, two of the best female dancers i have ever met.  

on the plus side i went to fabric land and got a beautiful jacquard black cotton and some linen/rayon so i can start printing and getting back into sewing mode which i seem to have abandoned for the last week and a half.

Pieces of the Puzzle

yesterdays shoot was amazing!  ben brought his partner in crime ben.. the two of them worked different angles and brought lots of interesting ideas to the table. we ended up doing group shots as well as single shots and the location was incredible. the weather finally pulled out of its gloomy rain period just in time for us to start shooting. so exciting. 

today i did my orientation for my summer residency. finally time to start painting and printing again. i will also need to start organizing my time better and keeping on top of things to get everything done in time!

today is also my sisters dance recital. im excited, she is the cutest thing ever!

this Saturday i will also be modeling at COP, im not really sure what it is for other than i will be a model for makeup. should be interesting.

Ben Tsui 

Ben Hayden