It's Friday! Maybe that means I'll find time to scan some of the sketchbook scrawls I've been posting on Instagram (@raychponygold) but neglecting on here...
Hell or highwater
Chaser
I'm really pleased that Alexandra Valenti can channel some kind of divine, creative-mystic soul from somewhere outside the range of normal human minds. It makes the start of another office day a lot easier to take.
Also, that moto jacket in the fifth image from the top. Damn. Where can I possibly...?
☽ Mystics of the moon ☾
Sugarhigh + Lovestoned
Photographer: Amanda Leigh Smith
Stylist: Chloe Chippendale and Tami Snodgrass
Models: Skye Sengelmann and Sarah Peinado
Summer is now on its way... the days are longer, the nights are warmer... Maybe we can go lay outside on the grass and enjoy a clear night sky soon. Sugarhigh + Lovestoned have shared a little night-mystic inspiration to accompany a slip through the change of seasons -- spring in the south and autumn in the north.
Spring things
Collecting beautiful images;
Wild daisies growing on our lawn (and my favourite, never-take-them-off Harley boots);
Strawberries every day and killer King Brown skateboard artist issue;
Arizona Highways vintage cactus photos;
Workstation with blossoms and lace;
And Strange Totems in progress.
So, so, so glad it's southern hemisphere spring.
And Bay just arrived back from the US.
What a day.
Outlaw
Something Else teamed up with artist Julie Verhoeven for the spring 2012 Outlaw collection.
I'm at odds here; I'm not sure what to do... Is cactus print better on a long-sleeve shirt, a long-sleeve dress, a short-sleeve dress or a maxi skirt? And while making this important decision, we've got to keep in mind that the dresses and shirt all have cute little cut-outs on the collarbone/shoulder areas.
Ideally, this kind of debate would end in one of each. Everything cactus print. The only truly logical solution.
Anyway, all that Cormac McCarthy I've been reading must have messed with my mind -- I can only think in terms of horses and wolves and cowboys and outlaws and vast expanses of Mexican desert. Well.
Norse Nix
Always a favourite... Cosmic witch/magical photographer Sofia Ajram's latest shoot with Lyndsie Alguire, inspired by Norse Nix water sprites... and perfect mystical hues.
The right and godmade sun
(The top left image is from Psychonautical tumblr)
It had ceased raining in the night and he walked out on the road and called for the dog. He called and called. Standing in that inexplicable darkness. Where there was no sound anywhere save only the wind. After a while he sat in the road. He took off his hat and placed it on the tarmac before him and he bowed his head and held his face in his hands and wept. He sat there for a long time and after a while the east did gray and after a while the right and godmade sun did rise, once again, for all and without distinction.-- Cormac McCarthy
King Crimson, again.
So I had this big sketchbook plan about how the parrot was going to be an exotic type -- not the King and Crimson parrots and rosellas I grew up with -- and it just ended up looking exactly like a King Parrot with a Crimson Rosella's colouring. Anyway. This is an Instagram/sketchbook peek, hopefully I can pin down a second to scan/fix up/maybe even reproduce in larger format.
More fun later.
And there's always fun happening here: Instagram: @raychponygold, Tumblr
More fun later.
And there's always fun happening here: Instagram: @raychponygold, Tumblr
Sketchbook pages
Everything ever is half-finished.
Summer of Love
Winter blooms
Top - Evil Twin
Jeans - Dr Denim
Boots - Harley Davidson
Hat - Akubra
Necklace/rings - markets and pawn shops
Earrings - Tree of Life
I'm not sure if we've talked enough about this hat yet. Or these boots. Or even this jumper.
As for the hat and the boots, they are my most prized sartorial possessions at the moment. Mostly because they are accessories that incorporate metal/conchos, which is a major criteria in how I rate accessories.
The jumper, it's pretty much only been taken off because I can't wear it to work. But then I did wear it to work on casual Friday. And I wore the boots. I left off the hat because, frankly, you can't go wearing an Akubra into a corporate office if you plan on staying employed there for any period of time, no matter how well-embellished said Akubra might be. Also, it's a really imposing sort of hat, in no way subtle, and I don't want to make a fuss in the workplace.
Anyway. It's still cold in Melbourne, but all these blossoms are popping up everywhere, so I'm optimistic about the onset of spring and the lengthening days and the rain stopping... And most of all Bay returning from America so we can go on some spring adventures here in Victoria.
The good Niño horse
Photography: Amanda Leigh Smith
Model and stylist: Mariah Makalapua for Medicine and Headdress
Clothing: Animal Traffic Vintage
Clothing: Animal Traffic Vintage
via Born to be Wild
Well, Bay has gone to California without me, headed off to some sunsoaked shore while I ride out the rest of the Melbourne winter. And, as if I wasn't longing for summer enough... there's the above. Amanda Leigh Smith has been pulling off some amazing shoots recently, and the latest is no exception. You can almost smell summer heat, dry grass and horse sweat.
Also, sort of in the same Southwestern-horse-sweat vein, I finished reading The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy -- it was my first dig at one of his novels. There was some seriously profound sadness to it, but I was totally taken by the main character en el camino on the border of Mexico and the US... Sometimes with his brother, sometimes with their "good Niño horse", sometimes with a wolf. A bit of gunslinging and gitanos and a lot of righteous bewilderment at the injustices of the world, offset by some roadside philosophisers. It's God and nature and the way of the world.
Anyway, I love that sort of stuff.
"Before he reached the door the old man called to him again. The boy turned and stood. The matrix will not help you, the old man said. He said to catch the wolf the boy should find that place where the acts of God and those of man are of one piece. Where they cannot be distinguished... The old man said that it was not a question of finding such a place but rather of knowing it when it presented itself. He said that it was at such places that God sits and conspires in the destruction of that which he has been at such pains to create."
15/08/2012
The Crossing
Spirit in the Sky
Alexandra Valenti is at it again...
Photography: Alexandra Valenti
Model: Lauryn Holmquist
Stylist: Chloe Chippendale of SH+LS
Model: Lauryn Holmquist
Stylist: Chloe Chippendale of SH+LS
6/08/12
Ceremonial Collection: Bona Drag
For the record, my sister has excellent taste and knows exactly what she's after -- it's me who is a little weird. Hitherto I've been completely convinced that my engagement ring will be a run-of-the-mill silver piece with a semi-precious rock in it, like turquoise or labradorite.
So, when I saw Bona Drag's Ceremonial Collection, I immediately rethought the whole weddings thing -- this is more like it. High drama, luxe, southern-gothic dresses with only the most enchanted and unusual jewellery. Not to mention champagne velvet... Mara Hoffman... Pamela Love... dried roses... mixed metals... killer nails. Yep and yep.
Conchos and paper daisies
The Astral Plane
ManiaMania The Astral Plane lookbook
Sometimes I see a set of images and start to hear that high, white noise; something resonates; and it triggers an immediate need to sit down and draw, create, or explore some far-out idea. It might just be a very out-there creative hum. An idea-sync. Or... I'm probably not too sure what it is.
But ManiaMania's new lookbook has it at a high-frequency, audible pitch. I'm just totally floored by it. Incredible work, backed up with amazing jewellery.
Damn.
Hell bent III
Just a quick one from out of the sketchbook... because everything is quick at the moment, and it's already almost Friday again...