All about the icons of pop culture. Including art, music, TV series, movies and fashion. Queer in nature, straight forward in its approach and classical in an unconventional manner. From review to preview, I'll talk about it, analyze it and celebrate it! Icon Art Marilyn loves pop culture.
An icon is someone who makes an effort. Art makes an effort. Therefore art is an icon. Marilyn Monroe was and is an icon and a work of art as well. Hence Marilyn Monroe and art have a nature in common. Icon - Art - Marilyn is iconic.
There is this certain time when you just goof around on youtube in search of some good music or some funny video, and then you find an absolute music and video juggernaut like this one here:
The song is called: If you Ain't Got Soul by Kris Di Angelis, and it is absolutely fantastic. the video is a promotion for a party series called Roomservice. Basically it is just wierd, sexy and outrageously gay on a stick. And I think this is just amazing! Featured in the video are Jody Harsh, Cazwell, Max Ryder, Willam Belli and some other sweeties we know well. So check it out and get ya booty moving! Also check out the other three parts o the Roomservice franchise!
With this picture i was not really sure if i could make it work. I think i would have had a hard time to really work out the face of Marilyn.
Wit this one i had doubts if i would really get it to look like gives this kissing mouth Also i thought it might have a happy undertone which the series does not.
I really liked the pose, it reminded me of something angelic. But i think i decided to leave it out since it was some sort of copy of picture #2 The Face.
Maybe I will try to make these 3 happen and then show you if they turned out or not.
I decided that I wanted to finish this art / drawing series with drawing that did jump out a little. So I decided to go for the tabloid version. There i'd have a picture of Monroe in the body bag, only her lips visible. I decided to go for the lips and not the iconic blonde hair, since her lips were super voluptuous and Amanda Lepore's lips are as well. Also I liked the idea that, even as a corpse, Monroe was property of the public.
Well, i think it is obvious with this picture. I just wanted to make a picture of a candle blown out by the wind, as a metaphor for the dimming light of Monroe's life.
This sip will be fatal for Norma and will make Monroe a legend and a myth. Sadly this last sip of champagne flushes down the cocktail of pills she took before going to bed. She will sleep. I decided to make this picture not blurred since we don't take on the action from Monroe's perspective, but much more from the perspective of an outsider, or the press.
This drawing is the moment when Monroe enters her bedroom and finds a tablet with a glass of champagne and some sleeping pills on her bed. She had left them there this morning, since she knew that she could not sleep this night. She takes the pills in the desire to take a night of sleep and flee from her problems.
Obviously in this drawing Monroe is already drunk or intoxicated. By whatever: we can see that her perception of her surroundings is already extremely blurred. She stumbles into the hallway of her house on the way into her bedroom. She seeks protection in the room she feels the most secure and comfortable.
During sketching this drawing i was thinking about this last photo session Monroe did for Vogue magazine, where he was semi nude. I think this shoot was with famous photographer Brad Stern. These pictures were really beautiful, but also had this sleepy and half dead vibe to them I decided that in order to fit the drawing into the series id go with the exposing part of the shoot, and show that Monroe really felt like an empty vessel during these days.
What to say about this drawing. I mean its obvious that some hand is touching the body of Monroe . And what I have read about her in many books is that Monroe in the last months of her life had a feeling like she was just keeping the mask of Monroe up and shrinks behind this mask till she does not even exist anymore. So for her sex is not an act of love, or connection between to people. Its just something to do. And therefore she gets into the danger of just having sex with people who could just use her or harm her.
When I drew this picture I thought about these beauty or glam shots they very often do of actors. And here in particular I was thinking about how Monroe was really duplicated by having her photograph taken I thought about it being a rip of of her skin, and by that Monroe got less and less, thematically speaking. And by, you know being photographed, she herself got less and less worth as a person because she was replicated via movie and photo . So that in the end all that was left was the sexual part of her. And by her i mean the creature Monroe and not Norma Jean. But Norma Jean was reduced to Monroe, and therefore the sex creature. And here I made the drawing very glammy and she looks kinda like she is on drugs. So this could also be seen as a reenactment of her last photo session.
Marilyn: The Last Hours, a reenactment drawn by the model of Amanda Lepore
Like we all probably know Marilyn has travelled a lot during her life. She was torn between L.A. where she had to work and where she live and New York where she felt hoe. She was not really that much of a Hollywood type of girl. So Maonroe was always on the travel. I choose her sitting because it reminds me of the view you get when ou look inside a cab. For my story, Monroe sits in the cab, and drives home to meet with someone.
Since this is just the cover of my the series, there is not that much to it. But i wanted it to have a very Hollywood-esk look, like in the opening sequences of the old Hollywood movies when the names are flying in. Just like in Monroe's movie: "Gentleman prefer Blonde's". I choose this very simple B/W look because i think it befits the series status as an retroperspective best. So stay tuned for the next picture of Marilyn: The Last Hours!
A sex symbol is a thing, and i hate it to be a thing. - Marilyn Monroe
Monroe #1 Fear
She has inspired generations, has overcome obstacles, had give stardom a new peak and will mesmerize the world forever. Her beautiful, artificial, tragic and controversial life was a mirror of all the beauty of Hollywood and all its ugly symptoms. Of course we are talking about Marilyn Monroe. Her death is, up until today, a mystery and has inspired musicians, singers, artists and models. She has become a true legend and an iconic figure of pop culture. Monroe has really made her way into fashion and academia and into many other ventures. I myself am very inspired by Monroe and her story, i have read many books on her and i have painted Monroe several times.
From the first of may i will start to post an 11 picture long series entitled: Marilyn: The Last Hours, a reenactment drawn by the model of Amanda Lepore. Each day I will post a picture, and add a little information about the story I have created behind the series. On May 12th I will explain the inspiration between the project and maybe some "outtakes". So I hope you are excited for the turnout!
Hey you out there and welcome to a new episode if "Music Minute". This time I got a song and a music video for you by Amanda Lepore, the probably most famous transsexual on the planet. I have written about Amanda before. And now I want you guys to enjoy a little song of hers called "Marilyn" which you can purchase (you should!) here. The song it self is a mixture of pop with rock and electronic elements.
Picture by Vimeo. Copyright by Peace Bisquit, Amanda Lepore and all the restrictive owners.
Lepore sing about Madonna, Britney and Einstein and compares Marilyn to all of them. She states that she is the rue icon and generally creates Monroe as a person which had all these abilities So she makes Monroe this really superior being. Also Cazwell raps about Monroe taking pills, drinking champagne and her career. So the pay homage to what Monroe represented. In the video Lepore reenacts the last photo session of Monroe, where she did semi nude photographs, and a party. Also we see Lepore posing as a dead Monroe on the bed, and have a paparazzi discover here. The video is very sensual and sexual and Cazwell is included in a scene filming men making out, which apparently turns him on. So we really depict the video as an homage to the lifestyle the figure Monroe represented. Id say that the video is really beautiful and a different approach to the last few hours of Monroe. But not from the historical perspective rather more form the perspective of sexuality and an overdose of erotic.
Video is property of the owner. Copyright by Amanda Lepore,
Hey fellas! Lately my obsession for drag and Drag Queens has risen to an extensive amount of crazyness, Each morning, when I drive to work, I listen to songs by RuPaul, Sherry Vine, Sharon Needles and Willam Belli. As if that is not enough I raise the bar by adding rapper Cazwell and the worlds, probably most famopus, transsexual: Amanda Lepore!
Okay here is the thing: If you havent heared of one of them.. go and google the shit out of their names! I mean seriously! You gotta know their work because it is drag-nificient.But here is the real story. Whe i searched the web for new music for my car I came across the following song by Sharon Needles from her album PG 13: "I wish I were Amanda Lepore".
And you have to believe me: "I wish I were Amanda Lepore" is so my new favorite song in the car! Bravo Sharon! And then I came across that Miss Lepore had recorded a solo album and of course i did what any good obsessed follower of pup-culture would do: I bought the album and it is called I... Amanda Lepore! And let me tell you: It is worth it! Here is my absoloute favourite from the album, with in addition an even more amazing video. The song is called Marilyn. You can watch the video below. I just love the way the video deals with the whole Monroe story, it is such a good installation. And Amanda just looks like Monroe. And the song really alienates the video and elseround. Love it!So go and fresh up you knowledge on Grad and Trans and listen to that music! And before you judge just read what Amanda had to go through to become who she is today!
