Inside Look at an Outsider

Anado McLauchlin is a mostly self-taught assemblage artist living south of the US border and across  the  tracks in La Cieneguita, Mexico. Oftentimes he is called an Outsider artist but prefers the term Insider  artist. His creative endeavors include beaded jewelry, embellished whimsical furniture, celebrative be-  jeweled mirrors, shamanic assemblages esoteric wall hangings and revelatory gardens.

Casa Las Ranas

Anado’s Art

artifacts

artifacts

assemblage

mirror

jewelry

paintings

doors

dining cabinet

This project is in homage to all outsiders, gardeners, and folk artists the world over.

Anado’s studio in La Cieneguita and the house and grounds of Casa Las Ranas are available for tour groups or private individual visits upon appointment.

LOVE HOTELS

Checking in is anonymous. A wall of video monitors shows which rooms are available and their prices. Patrons use the touch screen to make their pick. Once selected, the room's picture goes dark to show it's in use. A clerk behind an opaque service window takes the cash and hands the couple a key.

To quote a famous philosopher of our generation, “I got to kn kn kn know what’s your fan-ta-sy”

I’m speaking of course, on behalf of Japanese Love Hotels. While you may imagine “Love Hotel Hill” to be an outrageous feature of quirky Tokyo, it is actually located in Osaka.

Chose your fantasy: Hello Kitty? Anime? S&M? Gas chamber? Schoolgirl? Children’s carnival? Subway? These privacy-pads are decorated with theme park interiors and equipped with game consoles, karaoke boxes and lusty machines. These establishments provide kinky fun for all types, from fetishists and sadomasochists to the ordinary couple seeking sexual adventure.

The Love Hotels of Japan have pretty much got all your desires covered.

Covered with photographs of tied-up Japanese women from the '80s, Imagine cuffing your date to the giant black X

Perfect for grown-up boys who never got that Neil Armstrong-themed bedroom as a kid.

slutty anime.

Christmas all year... Kinky?

Lock your partner in the torture cell and command him to pee.

If their date is late or a favorite room is still occupied, patrons can wait in these igloo-shaped internet booths.

Carousel room with toddler's faces plastered to the wall. Hello, pedophilia- here anything goes!

A train to love-land

kitsch-tastic

hello kitty weeeee

the spider room: swing from side to side of the room on chains and live out your spidey fantasy

Notice how the clock is set to 3:40 p.m., right around the time when most students have left the building and you have your detention student all to yourself.

this one scares me.

yes, broccoli? i'd like a reservation for two.

love hotel hill, osaka

Traditionally {and still in rural areas}, the whole extended family lived together: Husband, wife, grandmother, grandfather, children were all under one roof. The only way married couples were able to get some privacy would be to check into one of these love hotels.

I’m sure as the years have gone on, these hump-houses have become more exotic and strange in decor {and provide a safe opportunity for illicit affairs and one-time flings}.

Salaryman: bruno quinquet

Japanese office worker.
Between documentary and street photography, the Salaryman Project is an ongoing work about Tokyo’s unknown office worker.
This project was inspired by portraits rights problems in the field of candid photography.

documented 1/09 – 1/10

Access Your Animal Instincts

Beth Cavener Stichter

ceramic sculptures

“There are primitive animal instincts lurking in our own depths, waiting for the chance to slide past a conscious moment. The sculptures I create focus on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal and human forms. On the surface, these figures are simply feral and domestic individuals suspended in a moment of tension. Beneath the surface they embody the impacts of aggression, territorial desires, isolation, and pack mentality.

Both human and animal interactions show patterns of intricate, subliminal gestures that betray intent and motivation. The things we leave unsaid are far more important than the words we speak out-loud to one another. I have learned to read meaning in the subtler signs; a look, the way one holds one’s hands, the tightening of muscles in the shoulders, the incline of the head, the rhythm of a walk, and the slightest unconscious gestures. I rely on animal body language in my work as a metaphor for these underlying patterns, transforming the animal subjects into human psychological portraits.

I want to pry at those uncomfortable, awkward edges between animal and human. The figures are feral and uneasy, expressing frustration for the human tendency towards cruelty and lack of understanding. Entangled in their own internal and external struggles, the figures are engaged with the subjects of fear, apathy, violence and powerlessness.

Something conscious and knowing is captured in their gestures and expressions. An invitation and a rebuke.”

Blog Spotlight: twisted lamb

Twisted Lamb is a blog that exhibits Fashion Photography {especially that of the Avant-Garde category}. Her collection of images is by far one of the most intriguing that I’ve found on this here World Wide Web, so of course I had to obsessively save all of my favorite photos and turn them into animated GIFs.

She has a great eye for selecting exceptionally striking designs and concepts. As I am becoming increasingly shoulder-shruggy toward blogs that seem to mainly post about damn PRODUCTS and ITEMS to $purchase$, this is a refreshing alternative for goosebump-giving visuals.

Thanks for stopping by, and do visit Twisted Lamb!

Something Old, Something New

I found so much beautiful inspiration in the homes above, I had to share them with all of you.

I tend to feel a stronger connection to decor featured in vintage photographs. Of course, flooding light is a sure “in” with me…

Though I am generally taken by the old, I can’t quite reject the new.

Platform beds have surprisingly appealed to me for a while now. Previously, Princess and the Pea-stacked beds were a rule of thumb in my boudoir bible. However, over time, something about dreaming on a low-to-the-ground piece of wood has become rather appealing to me {and not because it reminds me of Kate Winslet floating around on the wooden board in Titanic}. Less surely seems to be more in my eyes nowadays!

Anyway, I’ve decided that my next bedroom is going to be based on this image from the film I Love You, Alice B Toklas!:

It’s sort of 60’s flower child meets Indian elegance.

Man, I wish I could’ve been a part of Venice Beach at its prime.

CHRISTIAN DIOR's Spring/Summer 2008 Haute Couture collection

Umm. I know we’re on the brim of a brand new year and all, but I can’t help backtracking to the glitz and glam of Christian Dior’s Spring/Summer 2008 Haute Couture collection. Do my eyes tell lies? Wonder awaits you.

“Who else could open a supposed treatise on Symbolist painters (quick, log onto Wikipedia!) with a blast of Led Zeppelin, gigantic overblown shapes, eye-watering color, and a whole lotta bling? Why, only John Galliano in his haute couture mode, of course. He blew vast volumes of air into multiple meters of duchesse satin, and whorled floriform shapes and swing-back swags into every passing silhouette. For garnish, there were great plastic flowers, chunks of sparkle, and frissons of dangly paillettes as embroidery. Topping it all off: towering laquered updos—”inspired by Vreeland’s Vogue,” he said—with myriad lamp-shade and saucer hats made to hover over them by the gravity-defying hand of Stephen Jones.

Somehow, Galliano’s primrose path of inspiration had, he said, wended its way from John Singer Sargent’s Madame X through to the gilded swirls and bejeweled geometrics of Gustav Klimt. All that richness—plus the vibrant reds, magentas, yellows, purples, and limes—meant the collection teetered (atop vertiginous à la Japonaise platforms) on the brink of overload. Still, strange as it may seem, this was not one of Galliano’s more manic excursions into fantasy costume. In the end, something in the odd air of high-society sixties hauteur came over as surprisingly chic.”

X

CHRISTIAN DIOR’s Spring/Summer 2008 Haute Couture collection

Umm. I know we’re on the brim of a brand new year and all, but I can’t help backtracking to the glitz and glam of Christian Dior’s Spring/Summer 2008 Haute Couture collection. Do my eyes tell lies? Wonder awaits you.

“Who else could open a supposed treatise on Symbolist painters (quick, log onto Wikipedia!) with a blast of Led Zeppelin, gigantic overblown shapes, eye-watering color, and a whole lotta bling? Why, only John Galliano in his haute couture mode, of course. He blew vast volumes of air into multiple meters of duchesse satin, and whorled floriform shapes and swing-back swags into every passing silhouette. For garnish, there were great plastic flowers, chunks of sparkle, and frissons of dangly paillettes as embroidery. Topping it all off: towering laquered updos—”inspired by Vreeland’s Vogue,” he said—with myriad lamp-shade and saucer hats made to hover over them by the gravity-defying hand of Stephen Jones.

Somehow, Galliano’s primrose path of inspiration had, he said, wended its way from John Singer Sargent’s Madame X through to the gilded swirls and bejeweled geometrics of Gustav Klimt. All that richness—plus the vibrant reds, magentas, yellows, purples, and limes—meant the collection teetered (atop vertiginous à la Japonaise platforms) on the brink of overload. Still, strange as it may seem, this was not one of Galliano’s more manic excursions into fantasy costume. In the end, something in the odd air of high-society sixties hauteur came over as surprisingly chic.”

X

APAK: (dream)home tour

Aaron and Ayumi Kajikawa Piland are a husband and wife collaborative art group known as APAK.

They live in a little cottage on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon.

They are known in particular for creating rich and colorful gouache/acrylic paintings on wood featuring the utopian lives and adventures of curious little beings living in lush fantastic environments surrounded by friendly little animals, the landscapes are familiar yet surreal, hinting at a fantastic narrative while suggesting truths about the real world at the same time.

And here is some of their inspiring art!

2010

To all my readers: Happy and healthy NEW YEAR. Letting go of the past is imperative: It’s time to shed the old and plunge into the new with optimism and grace. Think about what is important to you. Brainstorm. What makes you happy? {Not temporary glazed in sugary-sweet pleasure, but actually fulfilled as a human being}. A friend once told me that “dreams are outlines for achievable goals”. Make lists! 2009 was difficult for many, so suit up and take control of all that awaits you! The past has provided lessons learned and thicker skin, and you have  been given the wisdom and courage to conquer the future. Isn’t the unknown exciting? This is your year- you have the power to make it anything you wish it to be!

Love,

Jessie Askinazi