GET HUBBIED

I saw a film many years ago, Normal, about a man in a rural town who was married with kids. He worked in a very stereotypical man-centric factory. He began to have a conflict of nature, and couldn’t handle a minute more without revealing to his wife that he was a woman trapped in his male body. He'd always felt female, but his life, other people's expectations and the hardship of going against those expectations kept him from revealing his true self. As we all know, a small lie becomes a bigger, thicker darker lie, and much harder to unravel over time. With a wife, two kids, and a macho job he began cracking at the seams. He had to break out. There was heartbreak, but he and his wife stayed married!

The scenes depicting him wearing make-up and earrings to work as he made his transistion were searingly painful to witness. His friends and coworkers rejected him and made fun of him out of their own weakness and fear. He still loved his wife, did not want to be with men, but  urgently needed to become more of a she than a he, otherwise he couldn't continue living. It was dire that he become the gender he profoundly felt he was meant to be.

His wife fell apart, but soon found the strength to support him. Though gut wrenching for both of them, they remained married throughout the cosmetic phase of him dressing as a woman, to him becoming more of one physically through surgery. As a family, they stuck together throughout the confusion, and their children eventually came to accept it. If anyone complains about having a difficult hurdle or hurdles in their marriage, I would ask them to consider this with utter empathy, and to be in awe of this kind of love.

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Thanks again to cousin Tyler for the link

This past week was chock full of solitude and its opposite. I met with Skip Arnold at the CFA to go over his progress and veerings. He needs someone to help him construct the apparatus with which he will activate the action of his 'rice throw' and I say rice throw loosely.

He has a back-up plan, but I must say, it strays quite far from his personality and working style, so that I hardly recognize it as his...but that's not to say its not a good idea. Its very romantic. Its up to him.

Michele O'Marah and I met the next day at the site. Originally it was talked about that she might use the basement and elevator to stage her portrait studio. After walking through with her though, the more interesting it became to have her in the center of the action - an after dinner interactive activity. I liked the idea of the guests going to the basement to have their picture taken, but right in front of the main window her powerfully lit backdrop would up the atmosphere as it gets darker.

Mark Simon came over to my studio and showed me a DVD of The Boyfriend performing two numbers. This musical group, comprised of Chris Kuhrt, Stephen Schilling and Mark Simon, have sung together for years. When he brought up the idea a year or so ago, I knew that this trio of gay gentleman singing "I just want to get married,” would be a powerful addition to our group. It would lend balance and address the very real very sad issue at hand, that gay people in LA can’t be legally married, yet. I felt that it would have been irresponsible not to address gay marriage when working on this project.

I selected Joshua Callaghan to do a piece about the car decoration for many reasons, but I was particularly inspired by his sculpture in which he constructed a full size car out of Victorian style domestic objects, lamps and furniture. I was also interested in his decal project commissioned by Los Angeles’ printed art project, Public Art. In this work, he applied digitally printed adhesive decals to urban electricity boxes throughout the city. Their imagery depicts the landscape that is hidden behind and camouflages the unsightly boxes, transforming the environment into a piece of art. He gives us an imagined view of what we would see if the boxes were absent. The fix gap bwdecals were coated to prevent graffiti and distress on their surface so that their vibrant imagery will remain seamlessly uninterrupted.

Initially, I thought it might be interesting for him do a photographic decal version of a Just Married car to put on the couple's own car, but he took that concept and turned it into a far more interesting and participatory idea. He conceived of transforming the wedding car into an ice cream truck. Once Bec and Ruben were involved, he only had to take some measurements of their car to begin the process. The finished truck was truly imaginative and celebratory.

Bec and I met with Chris. After touring around his chalky waxy surf and map-littered studio, we sat drinking pink lemonade. Our conversation took place around his work and while not speaking about it directly, it left many impressions. Strewn and stacked, the remodeled surfboards, sanded and monumental, had a casual quality, a confidence that said it was art without trying to say it was art. Passionate for hiking, painting, surfing, climbing, mapping, sculpting, writing and charting, he fearlessly combines all of these elements into his work. Chris is captivatingly intelligent without pretense, as he has a way of welcoming you into his complexities with such friendliness. It was all a solid armature for the conversation we had about the wedding's seating chart while overlooking the garden.

Chris wondered how important it would be for Bec and Ruben to have control over seating arrangements. The conversation evolved from no, its not important, to well, it is somewhat important. That is, for the family to be able to witness the ceremony together - to share those moments that will surely outlast the day. He's got the backbone of a plan in place for the way the charts fit together, not unlike a puzzle, will be the way to discover where a guest would sit.

Bec came up with a brilliant solution preserving the strength of Chris' idea while the family could witness the core ceremony together. There will be two seatings. The ceremony seating will have the family's spots demarcated, while the dinner seating will be completely in Chris' care mixing the friends and families together.

www.themodelingagency.net

on the day

When guests were ushered back inside from the car decoration ice-cream fest, the room chirped with a heightened energy as people were told to look at their puzzle piece and compare and fit them together with other guests to find their seat. It was a bit ambitious to rally all those people into doing this with their ice-cream buzz on, so Chris got up and further explained how it all worked. Once a group had completed a whole puzzle, they made up that dinner table. As there were varying egrees of patience in the crowd and an escalated sense of urgency about eating, many people didn’t complete the puzzle and sat where they liked. The whole event got people talking to each other and it cross-pollinated the crowd in an exciting way, so I considered it a great success. Plus, the image was truly special since it was a drawing Chris’s daughter had made. The puzzle itself was die-cut by the city-loved (certainly Hubby-loved) family run business, Aardvark letterpress.

Some people just surprise you in the best of ways. Here is the post Asuka did when she received her invitation in the mail: click here

Bike It: Portraits of my Bicipandilla by Kelly Marie Martin August 18, 2011 – October 2, 2011, Curated by Irene Tsatsos
145 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91103-3921

Please support our esteemed, co-wedding march composer, Kelly Marie Martin
Bike It: Portraits of my Bicipandilla by Kelly Marie Martin features black-and-white photographic portraits, taken with a 4x5 camera, of riders in her “bicipandilla,” or bicycle gang, with their bikes.

Here's a quote from the LA Weekly article: "Bicycle gangs are nothing new. I was the leader of the Hills Angels when I was a kid. We didn’t do anything sinister. We just played "Yakety Sax" loud on our ghetto blasters and rode really fast in a straight line. Artist Kelly Marie Martin, on the other handlebar, has collected a series of her black-and-white photographic portraits of riders in her bicipandilla, or bicycle gang. The images were taken with a nice big 4x5 camera — the bulky kind with the bellows formerly used to catch images of Old West outlaws on their way to oblivion."

Here are a few pics of Bec and Ruben meeting Kelly at her show, as well as her husband Ben, who is generously donating the beer for the wedding. Oh, the beer conversation was way above my head, but let's just say there's going to be a lot of Ben's beer being well appreciated at this wedding.

Again, I was thrilled to witness the instant camaraderie between Bec, Ruben, Kelly and Ben. The show was warm and inviting, and the portraits revealed a community, a lot of them at the opening, who bond over one thing. Its a stronger community than I'd imagined, and all the people featured had a strong air about them - that they are grounded to the earth, literally, more than most.

Here's the link to the LA Weekly article: click here

click here to download the Press Release

We are all of two minds, we just hope to collide with others, whose other mind isn't like oil and water to our other mind. Its not easy, and there is no formula to prevent chaos, but this article is poignant re: how one reacts to any one thing - the choices we make that make things either really difficult, or easier, but we have to take a feather off of our own peacock tail in order to do so, which I know, is not easy. I am a Taurus, and I hear, we are stubborn.
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Waiting for Brainard" is a short movie based on "The Bakery Girl of Monceau" by Eric Rohmer (1963)

This past Monday, Art Catalogues and Dagny Corcoran at LACMA presented: George Porcari, and Tif Sigfrids as they screened their collaborative film "Waiting for Brainard." following the original Rohmer film, but not before a comfortably long popcorn and wine break. The room was full of beanbags and little camping stools. The friendliness this created immediately made it more intimate instead of formal and dry, as some screenings and panel discussions can be. I know you know what I'm talking about.

Tif and George took the Rohmer film and did a gender and location switch, with a smattering of content revision. It was set in Silver Lake, an area I am well acquainted with since I have lived there for 11 years. The narrator was Hedi El Kholti, and his voice served as the (very French) main character's internal monologue, the main character being Tif. It was fascinating to see the two films back to back, since so much was changed, but the backbone of text remained the same while the man's voice was still a man's voice but the main character was a woman whose thoughts were projected by Hedi's characteristic sensual drawl. Very disconcerting and affective. Here is Hedi flanked by two very attractive women:

Here is a synopsis of the original Rohmer film from criterion.com: *Simple, delicate, and jazzy, the first of the “Moral Tales” shows the stirrings of what would become the Eric Rohmer style: unfussy naturalistic shooting, ironic first-person voice-over, and the image of the “unknowable” woman. A law student with a roving eye and a large appetite stuffs himself full of sugar cookies and pastries daily in order to garner the attentions of the pretty brunette who works in a quaint Paris bakery. But is he truly interested, or is she just a sweet diversion? *

In Tif and George's version the man was a woman, the pastries were Kombucha's, a popular health tonic, and Paris was Silver Lake. It was funny and thought provoking. I'd remembered the Rohmer character as unfeeling and cruel from when I'd seen it a while back. The Silver Lake version seemed so much more friendly and not as mean. Seeing the Rohmer again that night I realized the reason I remembered it as cruel was that the main character was very physically forceful on the object of his whims, the bakery girl. Tif's character was persistent, but not physical at all, and smiling much of the time. And here is George standing near a foreigner:

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It was a spirited event, and I think people really connected to the motivations of the filmmakers. It was followed by a discussion between the filmmakers and Russell Ferguson, Chair of the Art Department at UCLA. Here is a picture of Russell, Tif and Hedi after the screenings:

Cast: Hedi El Kholti Tif Sigfrids Bradney Evans Kate Wolf Christopher Michael Stewart

music by Chris Stroffolino

http://www.youtube.com/wat?ch?v=1F4H3OH78sQ

This past Saturday HubbyCo had the pleasure of attending the first official celebration in the train of celebrations leading up to the blow-out celebration at the end of September.

Tif was in charge of entertainment for the evening that began with an abbreviated six question live version of the Newlywed Game. A highlight was Bec’s response “Sigur Ros” to the question of which movie star Ruben would choose to be married to. The audience was stunned that Ruben would want to wed an entire band of Icelandic musicians.

Artist George Porcari who was in attendance filming the event, commented later that it was the best wedding shower he had ever been too, “Like the last scene in Minnie and Moscowitz.” This said in reference to the barefoot dancing in the lawn during a set of music performed by Tif and Oakland based musician, Chris Stroffolino.

looking back

Last weekend the GET HUBBIED team met Ed at Aardvark Letterpress to oversee the production of the favors. Aardvark has been nestled in the MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles since 1968. The press was founded by Luis Ocon and all of the letterpress printing is performed on-site by Luis, his sons Brooks and Cary, and their lead pressman, Oscar Gomez.   

We were rewarded to see the first finished favor come off the press after a two-step process that involved first di-cutting a couple of choice words into a thick piece of recycled paper. Bill Berkuta was our masterful and patient pressman in charge of this project. He's been in the business for 40 years (and counting); he took great care with every single piece of paper, (though its hard to call it that due to its object meatiness) and due to the thickness and variance of each sheet, it took patience. Every couple/individual/family invited to the wedding will get one of these gems, and one of them will be in the exhibition opening the 2nd week of October.   Once again, Ruscha pulls through with a witty punch line, while at the same time giving us pause to think about the absurd reality and haunting reverberance of words.   People left and right are getting married, but we're certain here at HubbyCo, that the celebration we've concocted around the exchange of words is going to be the most special of the 5918 other ceremonies that are predicted to take place on the same day: September 25th. The whole journey is special, such as working with artists like Ed, but also getting to work with people like those at Aardvark and to be momentarily immersed into worlds otherwise off our radar.

www.gagosian.com/artists/ed-ruscha

on the day

I wracked my brain as to how to best present these auspicious favors. After all this work and collaborating with such a fellow, I wanted it to be the perfect casement. I had a revelation which was to go the opposite direction from packaging them in a high-brow kind of way, and to put them in something non-descript and generic, which Ed loved: a brown paper lunch bag. Each of the favors slipped into a bag as a perfect fit and as guests were leaving they were handed their sack. Every guest and artist, and participant, helper etc. got one of these subtly-cloaked gems.

Click here for the article Congrats to Abel! Go see the show! Its up until August 27th.

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, 2525 Michigan Ave., F2, Santa Monica, (310) 453-7773, Closed Sun. and Mon. www.luisdejesus.com