A Day Away From Dolls

This is Anya, my new board. I got it a couple of months ago and now she is a part of me. On Friday, instead of the usual local mountains, Chad and I went riding at beautiful Whistler-Blackcomb, our amazing world-class ski resort just 1.5 hours drive north of Vancouver. I've been skiing this mountain sporadically since 1998, but earlier this year I decided to commit the whole 2012 season to snowboarding to get a taste of it, and fell hopelessly in love with the sport! Having been strapped into a board, skis just no longer feel the same way to me. I've been guiltlessly cheating on them with Anya.

It was a sensory abundant, physically challenging and an intensely gratifying day. Nothing to think about but the sky above me, the snow below me and the wind all around me.

Today I'm back at the studio, making Echos. Anya beckons to me from her wall mount, but I force my eyes away and bend over my desk, thinking to myself: "Soon, my darling, soon".

Probably tomorrow.

Post Moscow

I've been back from Moscow for a couple of weeks now, resting up after a pretty intense trip. The Salon show was fantastic and the Moscow weather was lovely. Very summer like. I've had a very long summer this year, because I caught bits of hot weather here and there in my travels. I'm really looking forward to staying put for a few months and working on a brand new collection.

I wanted to thank all those who came to visit me at the exhibition. Special thanks goes to Dima and Katya-thanks for the wine and a pleasant river cruise, Sasha and Lena-thanks for the roses, Katya- thank you for bringing us Chad's favorite chocolate truffles from St. Petersburg! Svetlana, thank you for organizing the show, there is just never enough beauty in the world. I hope to be able to attend again.

Hey, what is that? A doll hand zipper pull? :)While packing for this trip, I noticed that the zipper pull was broken on my favorite sweater, so I attached a bronze hand to it and now I feel like I'm shaking hands with my doll every time I zip. I think I might make some more.

Up Next: The map of my travels in China!

Another Dream

Another one of my lifelong dreams has come true, I got to hike the great wall of China. This section is part of the original wall without restorations. It was overgrown and deserted, a very surreal and exhilarating experience.

The long road to Sulamith Wulfing

This is just a little something from my doll closet. It's Sapphire wearing an extra casting of the two-horned helmet. Did I mention that this helmet was inspired by my beloved artist Sulamith Wulfing?

This one appears to be one of her earlier drawings from when she was only 27 years old, practically the same age as me. I'm 28.I've always loved this particular drawing not just for its haunting beauty, but because it contains the stylistic characteristics of both her earlier, as well as her later work; it captures the gradual transition between styles, like a still frame of her creative process and represents a moment in time when   Sulamith's distict and unique style was beginning to truly establish and solidify itself into its mature form.

I value this little drawing because it's like a nostalgic, Polaroid snap shot of Sulamith's Wulfing search for her creative identity and her own creative language of symbols with which to express her fantastical inner world.

One day I hope to make a spiritual pilgrimage to her home in Germany, to experience for myself the place where she had lived, worked and died, and to be close to her original paintings, which are still hanging on the walls of her house. I hope that I may see the original of this drawing as well.

I still have to find out where exactly her home is located. All I know is that it's in the Eilberfeld disctict of Wuppertal, on the slope above river Gelpe. Her address is not exactly advertised. Google Maps tells me that there is a street named Sulamith-Wulfing Strasse in the city, but I'm not sure if that's in the same place as her home.  If I can't find it, then I'm fully prepared to just go to Wuppertal and wonder around town asking strangers if they know where Sulamith Wulfing's house is. I'm sure I'll get a lead eventually.

Perhaps one among you, my dear readers, may have visited the house of this amazing aritst and knows where and how it can be visited? I would appreciate any help in finding my way to Sulamith Wulfing-the source of my inspiration.

Camping in British Columbian Interior

So, I'm a West Coast girl. And a city girl on top of that. But, contradictory to loving Down Town, I am a big nature lover as well. That's why I LOOOOVE going camping in the summer. My favorite place to go is Bear Creek National Park on the Okanagan Lake. When we were new immigrants in Canada, my parents and my sisters and I used to go there every summer, but now my sisters are too old and too cool to hang out with their folks, and so the annual camping tradition at Bear Creek park has been carried on mostly by Chad and I. And I have to drag Chad there while he is kicking and screaming.I don't understand that. It's such a beautiful place. I guess it's because there is no Internet connection there. I kinda missed it too. He is a good sport though, once he gets used to the idea, though he always manages to get sick while we're there. This time he had to get a prescription of antibiotics on the second day of camping after developing an infection promptly on our arrival. Therefore, he didn't swim very much. Poor Chadasaurus.That camping ground is very difficult to get into because it's incredibly beautiful, and we had to fight for our reservations for a whole week, 4 months in advance.This time we went with another couple instead of my parents, (Apparently my parents were also too cool to hang out with me) and we had loads of fun. We swam in the lake, we explored, we climbed, we visited local vineyards and honey farms, we swam through a canyon to secret waterfalls, we relaxes, we watched a wicked thunderstorm and we speed boated. One time we even thought we saw the legendary Ogopogo monster while we boated, which is said to inhabit the enormous Okanagan lake much like the Loch Ness, but upon further inspection we realized it wasn't the coils of the prehistoric serpent we were seeing, but a wake of the waves generated by the wind. It was pretty scary though for a few moments, because it looked like something alive was slithering in and out of the water. I see how some people could mistake that for some sort of a creature from a distance. Perhaps the waves are the only real basis for the whole, centuries-old myth.This is me on one of our Bear Creek Canyon expeditions. You can't see it in the picture, but I'm standing on the edge of the water fall. I'm scared of heights, and I didn't want to venture too close. We had to navigate a river bed with low water levels which was littered with enormous boulders and log debris for an hour to get to a remote water fall. My friend lost her shoe to the swift current on the way. I wore aqua socks ( kinda like rock climbing shoes) and could scale treacherous rocks with relative ease, although I was always scared of breaking my legs. The creek runs with glacier water and is very cold, but in the overwhelming heat of Okanagan, the coldness was welcome. It was awesome.Oh, and I also had some henna done right before we left. Like my doll, Silk Road.Does anybody know any other beautiful camping sites with adventures?

I'm Back!

Finally back home in beautiful Vancouver (pictured in the background) after my Berlin show + travels.  The show went great (it was taken down on July 5th) and I feel so refreshed from our travels that I'm exhausted. I need a vacation from the vacation.Now that we're back, there are so many exciting things to work on. So many projects in my head that I don't know which one I want to start on first.  Along with exciting new ideas that I want to work on, there are also a bunch of loose ends to tie up from existing projects (an idea for Cosmos Exploratum Genesis' costume came to me while hiking in Switzerland).First things first though, I'll be finally sending out the prizes from the Enchanted Doll Birthday contest.

Meeting Nati

Something awesome has happened in Basel aside from the art fair this year: I finally met in person my kindred spirit, a fellow artist and a long time internet friend- Nati.After years of making plans to visit each other, fate has finally intervened and decreed that Nati and I should be in Basel, Switzerland at the same time. Even after we made plans to meet in a certain place at a certain time in Basel, we actually ended up accidentally running into each other point blank in a completely different place in Basel. Turns out it's a small city. Or a small world. It was a pleasant surprise, though neither of us recognized the other at first, or simply refused to believe that we could just run into each other like that in a city that was foreign to us both.We spent the rest of the somewhat warm afternoon hanging out on the bank of river Rhine, nibbling on snacks and drinking these really cool miniature bottles of wine. Both, mini wine bottles and the whole drinking outside thing were a very exotic novelty to me, because outdoor drinking is illegal in Vancouver. The whole experience was very pleasant and I even got a little sun burn.Nati is awesome. I'm so glad we finally met. Even if the circumstances were a little strange.Don't know who Nati is?  Find out by checking out her site.

Some Highlights from England

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has an incredible jewelry collection and the best book store I've ever been to.The books are almost exclusively about decorative art, craft and fashion, which is very relevant to my work. Unable to cope with finding so much useful research material in one place, I almost had a panic attack. I was running from shelf to shelf with an arm load of books like a crazy person: flipping desperately though pages, devouring what I could with my eyes and mumbling to myself in disoriented excitement, all the while knowing that I couldn't take my hoard home with me due to luggage weight limitations. I chose 3 of my favorite books and resorted to photographing the covers of the other ones so that I could order them online once I came home. I spent more time in the bookstore than in the exhibits.Phantom of the opera musical on Piccadilly.I've always disliked live stage shows. They make me uncomfortable. I don't know why, but after I seeing the Phantom of he Opera, I've began to suspect that it's because I've never seen a good one up until then. I was astounded at the quality of production and blown away by the experience! There is so much live entertainment going on in London...all the time. It's so dynamic and vibrant. Vancouver is a cultural ghost town compared to large European cities. It makes me sad. It's very pretty here though.London Eye is the biggest Ferris wheel in Europe and the third largest in the world.I'm very uncomfortable with heights, but not enough to avoid going up on tall, non-moving structures with spectacular views. I hate rollecoasters with a passion and never go to the so called amusement parks, but I thought it would be a great experience to go for a ride to 135 m (443ft) in a glass cabin. When we started climbing and I saw the earth slowly fall away beneath my feet, I began to regret my decision. Luckily, I was trapped up there in the sky and had nowhere to go but up. See more photos from the ride here.The Stonehenge.I've been wanting to see the Stonehenge ever since I was a little girl and finally my dream came true. I love ancient monuments because they are eternally shrouded in mystery and provide a physical link to a time long gone. Ancient places are mystical. Touching something that's been around for thousands of years makes me feel like I'm touching the very fabric of time, as if it's been absorbed by the object. Unfortunately I was unable to touch anything at Stonehenge because of the severely restricted access. I was only able to gaze at it from afar and contemplate the mystery of the place from behind the fence meant to keep all visitors seemingly half a mile away. But even contemplating was hard, because the Stonehenge is situated right smack in the middle between two big highways. Yeah. Noise pollution and traffic are super mysterious. They really add to the whole ancient feel. Reee-diculous.Who was the genius -city-planning engineer who approved the construction of highways within meters of a world heritage site?! And it's not like there was no other option; there are miles of empty, rolling land all around it and instead of moving the roads half a mile in either direction, somebody decided that those highways had to be built right there, in that exact spot. Right where they will ruin the view and the experience the most. Stupid.Although London seemed so big and busy at first that it made me apprehensive, I still very much enjoyed visiting it and look forward to coming back at one point.

I'm Back!

There is no place like home.Hello, hello, hello. I'm back from my European travels to my beautiful Vancouver. It' been gloomy and rainy for 4 days straight since my return, but I love it. This weather is very conducive to working. My studio feels so much more cozy and warm when I hear the rush of rain and leaves outside my window.It's time for me to go back to work. I'm still recovering from flu I picked up while in Vienna or London (or could be anywhere for that matter), as well as very jet legged and slightly disoriented when it comes to day and night. For some reason I always find it much harder to re-adjust to Pacific time than to any other time zone. On the other hand, I love waking up while it's still dark. The day feels so much longer and more productive this way.My trip was amazing, naturally. Aside from getting extremely ill at the worst possible time, right before the big show, everything went swimmingly. Chad and I met lots of amazing people and made new friends. I want to express our gratitude to our gracious and generous hosts who provided us with housing throughout this trip: Helene in Paris, Ilona in London, Elita in Vienna and Strychnin gallery staff in Cologne -Thank you. What a great time we had! Also, we got to meet and hang out with some local fans and clients of Enchanted Doll, and that was pretty amazing too. Thank you as well.Starting Monday I'm going back to working on orders, but only part time, with the larger chunk of my time dedicated to working on new projects and developing new material for my upcoming shows, primarily, the big solo show in Berlin in 2010. Meanwhile I've got lots of pictures from the trip to organize and post. There will also be a few updates to the site as well that I've been wanting to do for ages, but couldn't get around to it. So much to do......Stay tuned for the pictures and some stories from the trip.

Louis Vuitton Spring 2010 show

Yesterday Chad and I attended the Louis Vuitton spring 2010 show, at the Louvre. This is my formal invitation. Chad and I picked them up at the LV head quarters just a couple of hours before the show. Actually, the reason we flew to Europe so much earlier this fall than the Art Fair 21, is so that we could attend it. Fabrizio invited us a few months ago and I was very excited to see a couture fashion show in person.It was extremely awesome and fabulous. We took a short video of the last couple of minutes on the runway and some pictures back stage, after the show. I saw some celebrities whom I recognized and a bunch more whom I didn't. The back stage party was actually longer than the runway show itself. Chad and I hung out for an hour or so. I drank a lot of champagne.We met up with Fabrizio Viti, the LV shoe designer back stage. He is holding a bag that contains his new Enchanted Doll. He took her to the show with him!The guests and the media crowded around empty wardrobe racks and mirrors. There were mannequin heads, huge wigs and bottles and bottles of hair spray laying around everywhere. Actress Camilla Belle giving interviews.Fabrizio showing and telling me about the shoes he had designed for this collection and which the models just wore on the runway. I'm holding my favorite one.I met and talked to the beautiful Natalia Vodianova. It was rather surreal meeting her in person since I have known about this model and referenced her face in painting my dolls for a long time. She is just as beautiful in person as she is on magazines covers. I told her that I was going to sculpt her face for my dolls and she thought it was a fabulous idea. Although, I think that she didn't take it seriously. I saw her husband, Justin Portman there too. It's funny, we are the same age her and I, yet she felt quite a bit older than me because she is so tall, beautiful and has 3 childern. Very sweet girl.  We posed for a picture together but the camera battery died at that very moment.  Hopefully I will get another chance for a photo at a future show.These look just like dolls, but they are photos of the runway models in their outfits stuck to a wall. On that scale they look just like dolls.Afterward Chad and I sat by the glass pyramid and the fountains in the Louver square and enjoyed the warm autumn day in Paris. Then we went inside to see some more works of art.

Fun and frog legs in Paris

Here I am, scootering in Enghien-les-Bains, the Northern suburb of Paris, where Chad and I are staying with Helene and her family. I borrowed this scooter from Sasha, Helene's sweet little girl when we went for a walk around the neighbourhood and Chad snapped this shot, which by sheer coincidence happened to be framed exactly as the shot of Enghien les Bains that Wikipedia uses.Helene, showing us around. It's a really nice neighborhood.We met up with my old Vancouver friend, Iana and her new French boyfriend for lunch the next day and I had snails and frog legs. They were ok. I don't think I will be having them again. I'll post pics of that later on Flickr. The new boyfriend then went back to work (he's a French cop) and the three of us went to explore a huge flea market where we saw some of the most amazing antiques I've ever laid my eyes on.Chad, relaxing after an exhausting day.Our connecting flight to Paris was through Los Angeles and I think that's why we saw Joshua Jackson at the airport. He flew on the same flight as us and I told him that I really liked him in the Fringe, although I don't really like the show itself. For some reason, even though I had a camera in my jacket pocket, I didn't ask him for a picture. I suppose I didn't want to be rude and/ or lame.