IT WAS A GRAVEYARD SMASH

Best holiday of the year. Best city to spend it in. Milwaukee you prove yet again that this is home,where I am supposed to be.


Designed by Kim Krans.


Getting ready.


My ALL SEEING costume inspired by Micaela O'Herlihy.


Heather & Sarah, sisters.


Vinnie


J. Toms


Ashley & Ryan


Jonny O.


Gia & Hannah


Kenny & Nick


DANGER: Party Punch


Sam V. wins the tallest costume.


Halloween romance.


Aaron went barefoot the entire party.


Goodnight Halloween.


The morning after.

Thanks to everyone who helped prepare & make this happen.

Thanks to our friends who flew from both coasts to hang.

Thanks to our friends who drove from out of town (Kentucky & Chicago) to party.

Thanks to everyone in Milwaukee for keeping the sexy out & keeping it real weird & spooky.

And the biggest thanks to party hosts Heather & John for having the most raging (dare I say) first annual WHO DIED? Halloween party.

COLLECTION

More here.

Season of the Witch

WITCH is an all-woman everything.



It's theater revolution, magic, terror, joy, garlic, flowers, spells.

It's awareness that witches and gypsies were the original guerrillas and resistance fighters against oppression particularly the oppression of women-- down through the ages.

Witches have always been women who dared to be: courageous, aggressive, intelligent, nonconformist, exploitative, curious, independent, sexually liberated and revolutionary. this possibly explains why nine million of them have been burned.

You make your own rules. You are free and beautiful. You can be invisible or evident in how you choose to make your witch-self known

- excerpts from "WITCH!" a self-published zine by Xander Marro [originally reprinted from the W.I.T.C.H. MANIFESTO]


Four years ago in 2007 I curated a group exhibit in Milwaukee at my old spot Paper Boat Gallery titled "The New Witch". I'm pretty sure I re-visit this show every year on my blog but I'm in love with the work from it. The exhibit itself featured a diverse selection of work by an amazing group of women artists from around the country; Xandar Marro, Pippi Zornoza, Micaela O'Herlihy, Kim Kisiolek, Polina Malikin and Katy Horan.

Xander Marro, who's image (top) that was a silk-screened patch was the showcard for the show. Her zine that was a part of the show "WITCH!" has so much great fodder & inspiration. And I'd like to point out the words I pulled above to share resonate importance year round, not just during the fall Halloween season.

I also couldn't be more excited to be sharing with you WITCHSONG. Up until this point it was only heard as a part of "The New Witch" show as a sound installation. Micaela gave me permission to share with you this fucking unreal track.

In order to compose this piece Micaela sorted and sifted through 60 films that all featured witches, pulled the audio and then collaged them together into this fantastic experimental track. Feel free to download & share & please credit when deserved.


WITCHSONG uploaded by faythelevine

If you are interested there is a random selection of photos from "The New Witch" here.

Salvation Mountain

Since my last blog post which was shockingly (to me) just under a month ago I've been moving non-stop. I guess that's pretty usual in my world, but normally I don't go on a two week trip where I am conducting daily interviews, driving across country, trying to not eat gas station snacks in substitute of meals and always desperately trying to find good coffee.



Normally, I am just regular busy, but this special trip was a result of my current labor of love, a documentary I am co-directing with friend and collaborator Sam Macon. It's been in the works for over a year and a half, and the subject is Sign Painters. Yes, all things hand lettered- windows, signs, sandwich boards, trucks, boats, etc. and really more about the people behind them. The film on it's own deserves its own post so I'll stick to my trip to Salvation Mountain for the sake of keeping this short.

In a nutshell we were conducting interviews in a number of cities. Sam had driven from Chicago to Los Angeles, so he picked Travis Auclair (our director of photography) and I up at LAX. We drove directly to Big Bear Lake, then Las Vegas and back to Los Angeles in a week. We then had to get to Austin for our next round of interviews. Travis flew home between shoots, Sam & I had two days to make the drive to meet Travis in Austin at the airport. We almost made it in time.

On day one we didn't make it as far as planned. Due to a late start, lunch in Palm Springs at the Ace Hotel, a date shake at a road side stand, ogling and smelling the Salton Sea from up close and then a slight detour to see the magnificent Salvation Mountain. We got to Tuscon and hit the wall, so we stayed at the trusty Hotel Congress. The next day's brutal 18 hour drive to (almost) Austin was worth it, as you can see why with the photos below. The entire way to Austin from LA is beautiful, so much open space. So much border patrol. So much nothing. I have photos of all this carefully cataloged on my new terrible new obsession of instagram [username: faythelevine].

There was nothing that could of prepared me for when hen we turned the corner driving up towards Salvation Mountain which according to their official website "is located in the lower desert of Southern California in Imperial County just east of the Salton Sea and about a hour and a half from Palm Springs". As a lover of all wild and crazy environmental art- I had seen photos of Salvation Mountain before, but in person it's incredible, vast and amazing. Sort of impossible to describe. Visionary artist Leonard Knight wasn't working when we arrived, but if you have the time there is a number you can call to have him come from "town" and talk about his project. Please note: these photos were taken on my iphone (I KNOW I KNOW) but you should get the gist.

























You need to go, full photo set is here.


p.s. If you ever get to drive through Marfa, TX, check and see if this rainbow is still hanging out.