Forbidden City Tattoo Parlor

I have been organizing a project that will be part of a huge warehouse party-event-happening this Saturday...

XXX FORTUNE TELLING TATTOO PARLOR!
In our parlor we combine the best vices from those seedy businesses you find on the outskirts of every town! First, you will have your fortune read by one of our sexy fortune tellers (Maja Szychowska & Juliet Trail) using a handmade deck of erotic tarot cards. After spinning the golden penis to determine where your tattoo will go, you will have your sexual fortune "tattooed" on you with body paint by 2nd Skin. (Me and Matt Mikas) Finally you will have your portrait taken by Diana Arge in our Tijuana Bible (sexual comics) Photo Booth!


Here are details about the event itself...
STRANDED III: THE FORBIDDEN CITY
Saturday, September 4, 2010, 10pm-sunrise
At a palatial warehouse in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
(Near the DMNR train 36th St)
$15 advance / $20 door
Official Website and Facebook Event
There will be everything from a ping pong stadium to inflatable art installations...an imperial garden and a sex crimes jail...a passport office and an apothecary. Over 30 sights plus DJs and music! My tattoo parlor will be located just on the right as you enter the city.

Me and my lil' team have been working to get everything done before Saturday. Here I am working on the photobooth backdrop...

Here is Diana working on the tarot cards...

Here is Matt working on our sign...

And I just finished carving out the block prints we'll be printing on people. (Each sexual position corresponds to a zodialogical sign) Giggle! This will be a fun event...

Currently Listening: Fitz & The Tantrums...Pickin' Up the Pieces

'Page by Paige' soundtrack

I like music. So in "Page by Paige" I decided to reference a lot of bands though the t-shirts my characters wear and the posters on their walls, giving the book a sort of soundtrack.

It features a lot of the music I was listening to while making the book, a heavy dosage of Brooklyn bands (since that's where the story is set), and then some bands whose names tied in with a scene. For example (click to see larger)...

Here the tree in the Sigur Ros poster in Paige's room turns into a real tree:

I couldn't help but insert a Badly Drawn Boy self-deprecating reference:

Grizzly Bear vs. Frightened Rabbit? That captures how Paige feels vulnerable in NYC:

Musicians who I'm personally friends with are are featured on flyers:

"PAGE BY PAIGE" SOUNDTRACK:
Scythian Empires - Andrew Bird
Summertime Clothes - Animal Collective
I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers
Everybodys Stalking - Badly Drawn Boy
anthems for a seventeen year-old girl - Broken Social Scene
Golden Years - David Bowie
The Clockwise Witness - DeVotchKa
40 Day Dream - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Ragged Wood - Fleet Foxes
Pavement Tune - The Frames
I'll Be Better - Francis and the Lights
Hannah - Freelance Whales
Swim Until You Can't See Land - Frightened Rabbit
Southern Point - Grizzly Bear
Carpetbaggers - Jenny Lewis
Do You Wanna Touch Me - Joan Jett
Easy - Joanna Newsom
All my friend - LCD Soundsystem
Animal - Miike Snow
This Year - The Mountain Goats
Exo-Politics - Muse
Age Of Consent - New Order
Know - Nick Drake
Dancing with Myself - Nouvelle Vague
Better - Regina Spektor
Gobbledigook - Sigur Rós
Infinity Guitars - Sleigh Bells
I'm Waiting for the Man - The Velvet Underground
Cheated Hearts - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

SECOND SOUNDTRACK: MY MUSICIAN FRIENDS
(Mostly friends I met back in Virginia, but there are a few NYC kids...)
Thankless - All Of Fifteen
Going Through Changes - Army Of Me
In Flight - Centric
Golden Days - The Damnwells
Gravity - The Dirty Dishes
Ten Ton Cheese - The Falsies
Take My Brothers - Justin Storer and the Working Effective
We Will Become Ourselves Reborn - Ki:Theory
Invite Them Up - Marcellus Hall
Rules of the Game - MoneyPenny
Sweat Nectar - Natti Vogel
Shine On - Navel
Soberano - New Madrid
The Other Side of Love 2 - Phoenix Noir
Purple Weather Girl - Samuel Stiles
Up Against Life - Small Town Workers
Broken Bottles - Sons of Bill
Something Face - Sun Domingo
Worst in Me - The Threads
Tide March - Thrum
Rearview - Travis Elliott

If you would like to DOWNLOAD THESE MIXES, go to box.net and log in as me. (Please just don't mess with the account while you're in there!) My username is "lauraleegulledge@gmail.com" and password is "Paigelikesmusic."

Live Painting @ Summerstage

My LIVE PAINTING AT CENTRAL PARK SUMMERSTAGE went really well!
(And September 26th I'll be back doing face/body painting for the NY Gypsy Festival)

During the concert I made a non-objective (super abstract) painting of The XX song "Crystalised" because they were the headliner.





My method...
1. I started with just bands of colors, like abstract lines of sheet music.

2. I chose browns and purples because the band features vocals by a guys and a girl, so the colors looked like a pleasing mixture of sweet feminine and earthy masculine.

3. I folded up strips of paper like when you make paper dolls, but I cut out each strip as a single instrument in the song. One was the plucky guitar, one the bass rhythm, one the smooth female vocal, etc. (I used this method before for a drawing of a Sufjan Stevens song)

4. Then I unfolded all the sheets onto my blank sheet music. I would have spray painted them like a stencil, but spray paint wasn't allowed. So I just copied them with brushwork, eventually adding more and more lines building it up into an lovely layered mess of lines.

Here is the finished painting! (I'm selling it on Etsy for $185)


A close up:

I used to draw music all the time, in face I once did an art show of ALL MUSIC at Sidetracks back in Charlottesville. If you're interested, here are links to old drawings I made of random songs by Postal Service, World Leader Pretend, Bach, Wilco, Franz Ferdiand, Moby, and Andrew Bird.

Currently Listening: XX by The xx (duh)

Book. Is. Done.

In case I forgot to mention this fact earlier...."PAGE BY PAIGE" IS DONE! Hooray!

Now all that's left is the oh-so-essential-cover and some copy-editing. In the meantime, I'm working on some NEW fun project ideas which I'm very excited about. Scheme, scheme, scheme.

Here are some of the finished pages with the lettering done! (click to see larger) I picked these three pages totally at random...





Currently Listening: Kele...The Boxer

2nd Skin Summer Adventures

Here are my latest adventures in body painting...

BURLESQUE DANCERS
We painted a group of four burlesque dancers a while back, each with a different metallic look: gold, silver, copper, and black ice. The photos were shot in Matt's apartment. Here are pics of performers Delysia LaChatte and Ava Va Voom, photographs by Anthony Pappalardi. (More pics on Flickr)



SAILOR TATTOOS
Matt and I painted sailor-inspired tattoos with The Poetry Brothel at this event for Poets & Writer's Magazine. We were on board the legendary Lightship Frying Pan, a salvaged sunken ship now parked in the Hudson River. (More pics on Flickr)




PATRIOTIC PHOTO SHOOT
In celebration of the fourth of July, I painted a group of models for a stars and stripes themed photo shoot at Hall of Fame recording studio in Jamaica, Queens. (More pics on Flickr)



Currently Listening: The Arcade Fire...The Suburbs

Two Painty Events This Week...

LIVE PAINTING AT SUMMERSTAGE

This Sunday I'll be making artwork LIVE at Summerstage in conjunction with Ad Hoc Art! I'll be making a mixed-media painting based on the music being performed.

The concert features The xx, Chairlift, and Jack Peñate
Sunday August 8th FREE!
Doors @ 6:00/ Show @ 7:00
Ramsey Field in Central Park (E 69th St. entrance)

Ad Hoc-ers Garrison and Alison will be silk screening so bring a shirt or a bag you'd like to be decorated! Here is the event on Facebook.




BODY PAINTING AT "POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE" PARTY

Matt and I will be painting old-school-sailor-inspired tattoos at this public event on a boat on the Hudson River! Do you really have better plans for a Monday night?

Monday August 2nd
6:00-9:00pm FREE
Lightship Frying Pan (a salvaged historic boat docked at Pier 66)
West 26th Street in the Hudson River Park

The event is celebrating Poets & Writers Magazine’s Summer Issue. Enjoy intimate readings below the deck by The Poetry Brothel. Mingle with poets, authors, editors, and agents. Raffle, book exchange (bring a book!), and literary cocktail specials. Event on Facebook.



Currently Listening: Francis and The Lights...It'll Be Better