Your Chexy attended the L.A. Photo Show held earlier this month, where this photo absolutely floored me — from the wonderful mind of photographer Liz Steketee (pronounced “Steketee”).
Liz uses images from her own family’s history, digitally manipulated with other images, to rewrite her own history as it suits her. The idea fascinates me. The above photo is one of her relatives (an aunt, if I recall correctly), with her son’s face superimposed on the image. It is so stunning and arresting, I had to stop to talk with her. Here is the description of her “Reconstructed Memories” series in her words, from her website:
“Reconstructed Memories is a unique print series that uses my personal family photographs to rewrite history from my vantage point. By choosing unrelated images and digitally manipulating them into unlikely combinations, I build new memories. I forge new relationships, address old confrontations, imagine difference experiences, and face old demons. I disrupt linear narratives and recompose events, establishing my family history as a construct. Once these new snapshots have been finalized digitally, they are printed, aged and weathered according to their appropriate time period. This rebuilding of memory has allowed me to establish my own version of reality, as I prefer it. Reconstructed Memories takes the form of a unique print series as well as a series of reconstructed “false” family photo albums that adhere to my revisionist history.”
The above image is another breathtaking shot from the Reconstructed Memories series. The idea of manipulating one’s own visual history is so compelling! What would you do with yours?!
See the rest of this captivating series by Liz Steketee here. Be sure to check out her “American Snapshots” as well.
Today marks what would have been the 99th birthday of Loretta Young, who began her career in silent films in 1917 at the age of 3, winning an Oscar in 1947 for “Farmer’s Daughter,” and making a highly successful transition to TV with an 8-year run of “The Loretta Young Show.”
Young had a child with the then-married Clark Gable in 1935. She hid the birth and later “adopted” the child, naming her Judy Lewis.
Loretta Young was a lifelong Republican and very active in the church, earning her the nicknames “Attila the Nun” and “Saint Loretta.” She married three times, with one annulment and one divorce.
In 1993, she married 83-year-old fashion designer Jean Louis, who died four years later. (Louis designed the gown Marilyn Monroe wore to sing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” which sold at auction in 1999 for $1.26 million.)
In 1973, her son Christopher Lewis, then 29, was charged with child molestation and filming and distributing child porn. He plead “no contest” and faced life in prison, but got probation and a $500 fine. Another son, Peter Lewis, was in the rock group Moby Grape.
Betty Deuce, as delicate as a little green elf, meets various members of the media at Buckingham Palace, regarding next year’s Diamond Jubilee, marking Betty’s 60th year on the throne.
That little bauble Betty is wearing is Queen Mary’s Emerald Brooch, a cabochon emerald surrounded by two rows of diamonds, with an emerald drop. The brooch was made from a larger piece called a “stomacher,” owned by the mother of Queen Mary, the Duchess of Teck. Styles changed and stomachers were not longer worn, so many of them were made into smaller pieces such as this one.
Chexydecimal Studio City Bureau Chief Andy (also former London Bureau Chief) spotted the catastrophic lamp (I think it’s a lamp) at the Pasadena City College Flea Market this morning. It might have been owned by Andy’s favorite drag queen, Isolde Thandirt. But I doubt it.
If you’re going for the Retrocious look, this mess is for you.
The shade is a lullaby of something someone once thought was a good idea. Imagine it lit. Just don’t eat first.
The base, which I suppose could be said has a sub-Saharan feel to it, includes plenty of nooks and crannies for dust to gather, or for adding smaller decorative items.
Lindsay Lohan as she appeared in court today, where she was sentenced to 30 days in jail for violating terms of her parole, and the Fit Bitty Baby doll.
