venacava

I took these pictures of Jhonen Vasquez earlier this week, because it was time. Imagine this being the top result for your Google image search for the past six years. Sure, it’s cute at first, but then you start getting boxes of baby seals in the mail and the fun stops.

Two of these are clickable.

Originally published at biorequiem. Please leave any comments there.

venacava

Last month mister Christopher Hand commissioned a drawing, loosely inspired by Neli Gaiman’s Delirium and Death. Let it be known that Sandman was the single most inspiring comic book of my youth. I didn’t really get into comics [or, at the time, singular "comic"] until I was 15. Gaiman’s use of Greek mythology resonated with me, as that happened to be some of my favorite reading material growing up. His use of alluring goths also appealed to my then-extra-black soul, and I’m fairly sure I actually got into serious trouble for drawing Dream in Chemistry class once. All this is to say I was very pleased with the assignment, the results of which have finally fallen into mister Hand’s hands, {!} which means I am now at liberty to share it here.

Part of our agreement was my ability to offer reproductions of the piece to you, as well. Perhaps a bit late for the holidays, but better late than not at all, I say. 7.5 x 10″ in shades of deep plum, cinnamon and chartreuse, she’s in the shop, or can be yours right hurr at a special holiday price of $24.99

And! If you ordered from me this week and would like to tack this on to your order, email me directly and I’ll combine shipping. A close-up:

Originally published at biorequiem. Please leave any comments there.

anachronaut

2:00 am, on rout from Oakland to LA the I-5 got, what in any other part of the country would be considered a pleasant frosting, a light dusting of snow just kissing the asphalt. However To southern California this meant the skies had opened up unleashing the unrelenting rath of Some Norse god.

This, obvously warrented the closing of the highway for 8 hours.

Try not to be angry... Stiff from trying to sleep my 6'5" body in the car for 8 hours, looking at the totally clean road and micron thin hint of frost on the shoulders.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

venacava

A little late, so maybe we should pretend I didn’t say I’d do this every Wednesday, mm? Will you forgive my little imprudence? “Weekly” sounds better at the moment.

Every Wednesday week until 2010 I’m going to post ten of my favorite Suicidegirls photos from the sets I had featured on the site this year. Think of it as a way to celebrate the wonderful models I worked with over the past eleven months. Along with the images I’ll share two or three factoids from each shoot. We’ll start at the beginning of 2009 and, when we get to the end, we’ll stop.

So! Much of Round 2 was shot in everyone’s favorite pit of debauchery, Las Vegas, during the filming of the Suicidegirls Guide to Living DVD. This was a week-long SG venture, with something like 40 suicidegirls and a bunch of staff photographers on location, shooting scenes for either the DVD or sets, around the clock. Hot naked girls. Madness. A flu that spared almost no one. I can honestly say it was a unique experience, and some of my favorite sets to date were shot during this trip.

Vivid – Refractions

Vivid and I had talked about shooting a set for ages, and this was our chance. We found an especially reflective corner, upstairs at club Body English, and got to work. This girl is hilarious and a great model, to boot. Sadly, I’m not sure I’m at liberty to discuss the best anecdote from the shoot without Vivid killing me. Suffice to say that booth bench will never be the same. Come to think of it, neither will this mirror.

Annika & Lumi – Personal Effects

This was commissioned for a J. Hutchins‘ thriller titled, yes, Personal Effects. Shot in a vacant (and haunted) 1920’s apartment, the set was a sort of hunt for clues. Personal Effects comes with an array of materials inside that all relate to the story. We hid them around the apartment, in desk drawers, behind statues and under the rug, then “discovered” them throughout the set. We also knocked over furniture and Lumi made her own clues, including a note that shows up at the very end of the set and declares “Nice Ass!” in reference to the rest of the photo.

Radeo – Prisoner

By far, my favorite set I’ve shot so far, or at least one of my top three favorites. I love the darkness, the dreamy atmosphere, the model’s ligerie, and the location was to die for. It was part of an old furniture and home decor store, so the bars you see here are actually carpet racks. Radeo and I planned this a few months and advance and, on the day of the shoot, had to claim the racks by taping a note to them. Radeo was quite the acrobat, climbing all over those motherfuckers like nobody’s business, even with her ankles taped together. We did not plan to involve bondage but found some black gaffer’s tape and couldn’t resist.

Zoli – To Be Bound

Mhm, another bondage set. Once again, I helped myself to the film crew’s stuff and this time it was rope. It was just laying there abandoned, without purpose, so Zoli was a good sport and let me tie her up in an empty hotel suite. This bathroom was filled with opposing mirrors that created infinite reflections, and we took full advantage. I can’t show you most of those shots, however, because I’d need an infinite amount of black bars. You understand.

Opaque – Impish

Opaque, to me, looks like a Warerhouse nymph. N’est ce pas?

Chloe & Vice – Strip Tease

This, I had to shoot while filming was happening. That is to say, this scene was being filmed as I was trying to shoot a set, out of the cameras’ way. There will be footage of me doing this on the DVD. We replicated some of the poses after filming was finished, since there was only so much crawling and going fetal an can accomplish, photographically speaking. Also: rug-burn.

Annika – Gold Dust

Conceived and shot the same day as the Personal Effects set, this was all about gold. Initially, the model was wearing gold sequined hot-pants, a gold-beaded sweater, and a gold leotard. I did that to her hair.

Marianne – Designs on You

My favorite part of this set, besides Marianne who is always a pleasure to work with, was a mint green vintage dentist chair in the corner of this room and M’s shiny red Fluevogs (not pictured).

Bob – What Stays in Vegas

Shot this while covering Cinevegas ‘09 with Chinashop. It’s part of these shenanigans, which I couldn’t even begin to explain.

Georgia & Milloux – Temptation

Hey, it’s my bedroom! At the risk of coming across as a creepy Boogie Nights-style pornographer, I offered these laydeez a plate of sliced strawberries covered in honey to use as a prop. Have you ever had strawberries like this? It’s incredible! And I really dig this shot. The angle of Milloux’s fingers, both their expressions, that red rope. Believe me when I say there was nothing artificial about this here chemistry. A soft note on which to end out excursion through Round Two of my 2009 SG sets.

Originally published at biorequiem. Please leave any comments there.

venacava

1. ART SHOW

Hark! This Saturday [this very one] you’re all invited to Induced Epidemics – the very first art show curated by Haute Macabre. I’ll be there, showing a very large, one-of-a-kind version of Honeydrip.

The breakdown:

Date: Saturday, December 5, 2009
Time: 8:00pm – 11:40pm [mhm]
Location: Chaos Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Address: 6031 Hollywood Blvd.

Also showing: Chad Michael Ward, Michael Hussar, Sequoia Emmanuel, Eirik Aswang, Cherry Vega, Tim Kern, Courtney Riot, Zoe Williams, Andy Yang, Jessica McCourt, Scott Holloway, and Talismur

2. NADYA’S BIRTHDAY

Nadya had quite a year of being 26 and it was great to help her see it off and greet 27, among friends and with CAKE. We watched El Topo, played with furry animals and stuffed out faces with fondue. We all need more fondue in our lives. Also, I need more parties in my life that don’t make me want to escape in under 45 minutes.

A very special coffee table

We celebrated at Paul and Thomas’ awesome house, which is filled with all sorts of art and interesting STUFF. An entire set of photos from this lovely night is here, a few favorites, below.

Gretta and Nadya

Nomz

Courtney, blending with the night

3. THANKSGIVING a la Russe

Thanksgiving is a sinister holiday. However, if we can all pretend we’re not thanking the Native Americans for their permanent sacrifice and think of the modern-day notion of Thanksgiving as Feast N’ Gratitude Day, it’s pretty sweet.

As a Russian, celebrating this holiday is new. Like Christmas, it was never a family tradition, [Christmas still isn't] but over the past few years my mom has figured out that she can lure me into the Valley with promise of food and drink. Smart cookie, that Julia. This was my second Thanksgiving at mom’s and it was Ales’ first ever.

The traditional Thanksgiving smoked salmon

A worldly woman, mom presented a cornucopia of appetizers, per Russian tradition. Among them: fresh mozzarella, beef tongue, two kinds of smoked fish, salad, stewed eggplant and so much more. As for the mandatory turkey, ours was stuffed with apples and served with pineapple sweet potatoes. Now I want it all over again.

Now, a moment of honesty, entirely devoid of the usual quips. I can do this.

I have a lot to be thankful for, this year more than ever. Between Coilhouse completing its first print cycle [it's quarterly], our first magazine signing at ComicCon, going freelance, April’s trip to London and Paris, meeting, luring, and claiming Ales, and a succession of completely unprecedented experiences that verge on the imaginary, 2009 was a charmed year for me. How could it not be, ‘t was the year of the monkey, after all.

D’aww

It was also a drastically challenging year for me and for those close to me, which makes the victories all the more resonant. I’m incredibly proud of all my peeps: you’ve grown creatively, met your challenges head on, moved across continents, kicked ass, rewired your brains, and emerged from the rubble, tousled, but full of grace. High five!

There, I DUDDITS. Let us never speak of this again.

Originally published at biorequiem. Please leave any comments there.