Counting down 'til Greazefest

It's less than a week until my favourite event of the year! Yep. I look forward to Greazefest Kustom Kulture festival more than my own birthday. It's the perfect mix of the kind of old cars I love, music, dancing to said music, art and SHOPPING at the markets. Not to mention hanging out and catching up with friends.


My favourite shot from GF 2009

I have all my tickets ready, my super cute outfit for the Sunday hot rod show has been picked out and I'm furiously painting in order to have my artwork for the Low Brow Art Show ready to hang. Matt is even fixing the hand brake on the tank because ... er ... I broke it. I did that while I was doing a photoshoot with it for City New's Greazefest article.

Page 3, City News July 15th 2010

I've also been popping up in numerous local publications around brisbane with an old photo Pete Walker took of me at Greazefest 2008.

The painting I'm working on is HUGE. Why did I pick such a large canvas? It's taking me forever to complete. I've also realised that I have a good chance of being intensely embarrassed by my monolith artwork hogging the hanging space. Oh gosh, please let people like it and forgive me for it's size!

It's a heck of a lot Cheaper than Splendour in the Grass and organizer Lori Lee puts on a heck of an event. If you're coming along, come and say hi! I'll be the one with the ruffly red parasol. Tickets are available on the website or at the gate. See you there kittens!

www.greazefest.com

To Bang or Not to Bang? A Hairstyle Story.

I am an ex subscriber of the 'Bettie Bangs'. I sported them since I was 15. They were inspired by a band I love, The Dance Hall Crashers, rather than the lady who made them famous (see below). I wore and loved them for a good 5 years before I decided I needed a change. It took a whole year to grow them out. But I can't help but miss them.

If you don't know what 'Bettie Bangs' are, here is a perfect example on the lady who gave them her namesake.


If you don't know who this is, for goodness sake google her or hire out 'The Notorious Bettie Page' from the video store.

Some examples of my fringe over the years:

Unstyled bangs at 15, with a hack dye job only a 15 year old would do to boot. Hah.

My bangs with a concave bob at 16. BEFORE Posh made it famous, thankyou very much.


Age 20. Neat and perfect!


I'm one of those creatures who tends makes a dilemma out of minute details. A perfectionist you might say. Yep, that's me. I'm the one who will stand in the Grocery aisle for 10 minutes deciding on a particular product. But now that my hair is long and fringe-less I ache for the ease and good looks of bangs. Lately they have been popping up on famous celebrities. Even in Chanel advertisements in glossy magazines such as Vogue.



Beyoncé



Katy Perry


Damn you beautiful celebrities. Stop making me miss what I no longer have! Here's a funny story. When I flew down to Sydney for the DimitySO photoshoot I was almost certain I was going to have my bangs cut back in. It surprised when they didn't and a little part of my was actually disappointed. It was like I wanted an excuse to cave in! It's amazing how my mind works.

In order to put a perspective on things, here is the breakdown on Bettie Bangs.

PROS

• Extremely easy to style. Perfecto hair is achievable in 5 minutes!


• It looks damn good!


• It different, alternative and individual on the mainstream where the mainstream is concerned


• You never get hair in your eyes


• It looks fantastic with creative dying.

CONS

• Having to trim the sucker all the time.


• 'Sweaty Bettie Bangs'. Sweat tends to build up underneath your precious fringe and it feels pretty disgusting


• Being at the mercy of the 'split fringe'. This happened on my formal. (Grrr!!!!) due to a hairdresser who doesn't understand short bands. Very few do!


• Lack of styling versatility where fringe styling is concerned. Say goodbye to forehead rolls, Jessica Rabbit hair, Pompadours etc.


• Having the same hairstyle as 85% of the girls in the rockabilly circle. Ok ok, we should all like what we like, but you can't deny it gets a little tiresome sometimes.


• It takes me a whole year to grow out. Longer for others

Uh oh, the cons certainly are piling up!

While I do love the Bettie Bangs I think I will resist them while I am still a dark brunette. As much as I love Bettie Page I'm over being compared to her. The bangs were never about Bettie Page for me, it was all about Elyse Rodgers from The Dance Hall Crashers.


Elyse Rogers

I can imagaine myself cutting them back once I've taken my hair to a lighter shade. I have almost mastered the 40's style faux with the help of a hair rat and a tutorial by Fleur De Guerre. So for the moment I can content myself with that.


The ever elegant Fleur with her fauxbang / victory roll combination.

I just need to collect enough of my hair to cover the ends of my hair rat. But err ... that's another story.

From Film to Fashion.

For my Fashion course I had to research, interview and write a feature article on someone in the Fashion industry. Given my interest in photography and how fashion is depicted I knew I had to interview Rose Bertwistle of Fallen Rose Media. I am a huge fan of her work. She is a very talented, kind, funny and wonderful young lady. I have even been lucky enough to work with her before on a couple of shoots. Rose is very creative and fashion focused so I knew she was the perfect person to interview.




It may surprise you that one of Brisbane’s new young talents, fashion photographer Rose Bertwistle, has never had any actual training.
It was as a cinematography student that she was encouraged to take up shooting stills.
“I’ve never looked back since,” she said.

Since Bertwistle started her own business, she has been published in Peppermint magazine and gained the acclaim of seasoned photographers.



Rose’s work is typified by her soft vintage style enhancing the natural aesthetics of her subjects rather than resorting to extensive retouching.

Originality and storytelling is an important factor in Rose’s vision for her work and she pays special attention to styling and emotions conveyed.
For a finished photo to reach fruition, Rose invests time conceptualising the idea before developing it further with regular collaborators before securing a team for the shoot.



Not only for her love of new places and culture but in order to get more work, Rose sees travel as inevitable.
“The fact of the matter is, there is little to no paid work here.
“International designers go to teams down there [Sydney and Melbourne], not to us,” she said.

Eventually Rose hopes to make it to Melbourne or Paris as she does not see fashion photography taking off in Brisbane anytime soon
“I hope it does [take off]. There’s a lot of talent here.
“It should be seen,” she said.



Her advice for up and coming photographers and fashion designers is to choose a model to suit your garment.
“You wouldn’t get a Gold Coast bikini babe with fake everything to model your haute couture gown.
“You know your garment and what you want to say with it, so choose a model who is right for it.”

Rose’s deliberate selection of models is evident in her work with tall slender girls for high fashion; lush classic beauties for her vintage inspired imagery; and seasoned, fine art models that can morph from look to look like chameleons.
She also makes use of actors for her work for their evident ease in front of the camera and refined ability bring emotion into an image by ‘acting in still shots’.



It is Rose’s left of the middle approach to fashion photography that sets her apart from the rest. In her cinematic setting garments take on new life and energy, meshing seamlessly with the wearer, their mood and the story unfolding around them.

Rose's Blog
View more of Rose's spectacular work in her portfolio.


The lady behind the lens

Photoshoot with Neill Hooper

My latest bundle of DimitySO goodies arrived in the mail last week. After much 'squee'ing and excitement I decided I should probably do something with them. There were 7 sets, 4 of them with the matching camisole/slips. Plenty of choice. I'm so spoilt!



Last Friday I teamed up with Neill Hooper and did a photoshoot with some of my lovely new lingerie. Neill was responsible for a beautiful collection of tattoo photos he exhibited at the The Art Factory Gallery in Brisbane earlier this year.

I picked my favourites, Rose Beat and Courtesan Night. Also behold my newly coloured tattoos.



7/10 times I usually do my own make-up on shoots and when I do get an MUA they've recreated my look. The young lady who did my hair and make-up on this shoot, Jes Schefe, was having none of that and transformed me into something a bit different away from my usual super clean 50's pin-up look. She tousled my curls and subdued my make-up.



Well ... it was subdued until she unleashed the purple eyeshadow :)



After lounging on that baby, I would like a plush velvet couch too. Whoops, forgot to flip the ruffle over.

The Last Wintersun in Coolangatta, 2010: Day 3

Continued from The Last Wintersun, 2010: Day 2

The night before the last day of Wintersun was quite funny. After our night out, Bella, Matt and I were all sitting on the couch bed talking. However we were so tired the three of us just kind of slumped and passed out from exhaustion. When I woke up in the middle of the night Matt was still lying next to me, fully clothed in his suit, Bella had awoken earlier and gone to her bedroom. I had a bird's nest of hair, furry un-brushed teeth and still had my full skirted dress on resplendent with a tulle petticoat. Ugh Wintersun, where sleep is the enemy. I mustered the energy to yank my bra and petticoat off from under my dress and curled up back to sleep again.

Everyone slept in that morning. We all needed some well earned rest. There isn't terribly much that goes on at Wintersun on the last Monday morning and we couldn't be bothered going to the 'best of Wintersun' gig. Matt and I headed upstairs to the larger kitchen Aleisha and Scotty had to make some pancakes. They were delicious and we ate them with lashings of pure Canadian maple syrup and whipped cream.


Pancakes in the making. Also .. what I look like in the morning with unkempt hair and no make-up. Hawt.

The pancakes were great. The problem is that I made too many. So what does a bunch of 20 something year olds on the 13th floor do with a whole plate of unwanted pancakes? Frisbeeee!

It just so happened that there was a couple making out in the outdoor spa way down on the ground level. They might as well have had a big red bullseye on them. We launched our first pancake. It flew in the wind and landed near the kids in the mini-golf course. But they were not our target. A second one was launched with wind direction in mind. It flew right off course and then flung around in a curve ball. Down, down, down it went.

Bam! Right into the spa. We flung ourselves off the balcony into the lounge room in a fit of giggles. When we peered over the balcony again that darned couple were smooching again. The soggy pancake had been placed on the tiled edge. Doh!

Matt and Aleisha started packing. We filmed ourselves throwing more pancakes but they all ended up in the garden. That spa shot had to be a fluke. Scotty and I lolled on the couch digesting pancakes and watching a bit of Top Gear, possibly inspired by meeting Hampster's doppelganger the day before.


Packing is boring. Why would you film it?

I headed back to my room to wash the past 2 days worth of product build up out of my hair. There was no escaping it, my brushes couldn't penetrate my tangle of hair. Lunch was well due by then so we bundled into the car and went to the Kirra Surf Club for some food. I ordered a seafood platter and it was one of the most enjoyable meals I had ever eaten. I couldn't finish it all and I felt so bad for wasting good food. My platter had fresh oysters, large juicy whole prawns, a grilled piece of wild barramundi, half a Moreton Bay bug, a huge pile of seasoned calamari, a bowl of chips with Aoli for dipping and a fresh vinaigrette garden salad on the side.


My half eaten plate and yet still so much tasty food!

I would drive to Kirra for another plate of that please. Yum. Afterwards we whiled away the afternoon perusing 20th Century Antiques and it's neighbouring clothing store. I walked away with a red 80's belt. The whole day was really relaxed. I packed up all my gear and watched South Park on the TV back at the hotel while Bella got ready for the final gig of Wintersun. I bade her goodbye and left that night as I had to go to TAFE the next day.

It was the last Coolangatta Wintersun, for now anyway and I am glad I made the most of it. Thankless to all my wonderful friends for all the good times and memories. See you all at Greazefest!