Magical Realism

We were honored to attend another opening night at The Undermain Theater. They've been working on a piece by Len Jenkin called Time In Kafka, and since I saw Port Twilight I've been dying to see more of his work on stage. It is most definitely a wild ride. The "story lines" in what I've seen of his work so far, seem to be backdrops for the eccentric characters and their poetic, oddly sad and simultaneously hilarious dialogue and monologues. It really can't go without mentioning that in both plays there are sporadic dance numbers made up of moves you would most likely perform in your kitchen when you're all alone (as Jessica, one of the actresses eloquently put it) which I'm a reeeal big fan of. 

HEALING DANCE #47!!!

Commence with The Mash Potato!

And The Twist!

And The Monkey!

Also, the sets there are always beautiful. (cough* John Arnone)

(Here is Kent Williams. In Port Twilight his character would periodically wander around stage cranking that creepy *read:badass music box, and the little monkey passed out fortunes to the audience).

Mr. Jenkin's plays have a magical realism type of vibe where wild things happen in what may or may not be real places in the future or past...Also, me and Jonathan were lucky enough to chat with Mr. Jenkin and found out he paints too! His paintings mimic his plays. Lots of characters and colors with only a bit of a linear story line. 

I really like his stuff, and am thankful to Kat and Bruce at The Undermain for introducing me.

(And also for the free cheese that happens on opening night).

And so I felt inspired to wear patterns and bright colors.

Boots: UO Sweater: Target, Everything else, thrifted.

Webb Gallery

Another magical find. Jonathan and I had a rather "fly by the seat of our pantaloons" kinda Sunday last week, and we ended up in Waxahachie, Texas. Webb Gallery is an oddball treasure we luckily uncovered (thanks to the our friends Paul and SJ) in the small town. It's nestled just near one of those charming southern town squares. Apparently, this is a place lots of hip people in Dallas already know about, cause when I instagramed this business, everyone was all "Duh Duh Duh, you're not cool unless you pee your pants hang out at the Webb Gallery!"

This space is brimming with old carnival signs and vintage strange-art and folk art and all sorts of twisted little americana nuggets of antiquity and abnormality. The owners of Webb Gallery are a husband and wife team, and apparently travel around the country searching for fun things, and self-taught artists to fill their gallery. Also, and very importantly, the owners are seemingly dog-people (this place has a cute pooch that greets everyone at the door)! Bright colors everywhere! Free Beer! Americana! Doggies! Vintage thangs! It's totally worth the trip, y'all.

If you live in DFW and support the arts in any way there is no reason why you shouldn't go here. So get there.

www.webbartgallery.com

Diane Arbus and Mohammed Ali by Tim Kerr

 Admirers of Dexter, and Dexter himself

 Upstairs, there were figurines that had been decapitated and carefully painted and reassembled with different heads. These were some of my FAVORITE pieces there. I'm not sure of the artist though. If you know, please comment! Also pictured, a gorgeous farm table that looked to be about 25 ft long!

There's Paul!

 More art by Tim Kerr

 I fell in love with the light in the back of the gallery where this old staircase leads to the second floor loft space. (A menorah AND Muddy Waters? If you know me, you know why this excites me so! Awwwww shit yeah!)

Lovely little spaces with lovely things and lovely light. 

I need to go back soon. 

Pink Lady

Just a quicky. I've never been a huge Sarah Jessica Parker fan, but this look is one for the books. 

I love it. I want it on me.  It is very reminiscent of the Pink Ladies from Grease, and I've always been an advocate for silly things like that influencing style. (Not necessarily an entire era, but a specific character or colorway in a film or cartoon or what-have-you). 

Following the Leader

I discovered an artist I am ashamed of not knowing of until now. Mary Blair.  Disney movies like Cinderella, The Three Caballeros, Alice and Wonderland, and especially Peter Pan have influenced my imagination and sensibilities and shower singing since childhood. She is the color stylist and concept artist behind all these films. Considering the release date of Peter Pan (1953), this is rather impressive.....obviously the art world for women wasn't exactly an open playing field at the time. She's said to be "Disney's Modernist" and now I'm obseeesssed. 

“Mary was the first artist I knew of to have different shades of red next to each other. You just didn’t do that! But Mary made it work,” said Animator Frank Thomas.

Apparently she wore glasses with different tinted lenses because she liked seeing all the different colors. Who knows how much of an impact artists like Mary Blair had over such a vast age-group of children,  How they interpreted the world...color.....characters.  

She made Captain Hook's coat red. She made Alice's dress that bright blue. She made the Cheshire Cat purple and pink

There is so much more to her than what is in this measly post. I highly recommend web researching her RIGHT NOW while you're surfing the web at work. 

 This is one of her early water colors before she worked for Disney. The heavy use of like-colors in the majority of the painting makes the fire so vibrant, I love the reflection of light in the underbelly of the umbrella! It reminds me of the Peter Pan and Tiger Lily scene in Peter Pan.

I'm sure you can piece together which movies these concept pieces influenced. 

She was also the designer behind "It's a Small World" at Disney land. Her use of shape and color is so reminiscent of that time. Such cluttered geometric loveliness. Where do you think she derived her inspiration from?

Aaaaaaaaaaaand she was beautiful and rocked the peasant blouse hard. 

Sources: www.thestylerookie.com, www.tarlani.com, www.magicofmaryblair.com