For those who don’t know I was a Digital Art (and English) major at the University of Virginia. Basically what that means is that I spent the first two years doing traditional studio arts (a few semesters of drawing, painting and sculpture) and the last two years doing weird little projects. The beauty of the digital art major was that it was so fluid and new that no one really knew what the heck we were supposed to be doing. We learned Photoshop, created crazy little websites using Dreamweaver, messed around with QTVR and did a year of video production at the Charlottesville Public Access station among many other really strange things (I once had to clock hours loading hebrew national hot dogs onto a small train in Fayerweather gallery for Adam Wolpa’s Condimentalism exhibition).

That’s Adam and his dogs

Anyway, one of my most memorable projects was an email collabo with some students in Krakow, Poland. I was really into advertising at the time so my partner (Jerzy?) and I decided to do our project based on this. He sent me images with descriptions in Polish which I translated and then created mini ad campaigns around. For instance, he sent me a picture of a pair of black velvet panties saying they were his favorite smell and I created black velvet scented air fresheners.

And that, surprisingly, brings me to the point of this post. I just came across this website, Face Your Pockets, which seems to be some kind of Russian/American art project. It is a series of user submitted photos where people empty their pockets or purses and then place the contents along with their face on a flatbed scanner. The result is dope little shots such as the one above. I’m into it. If I ever get around to contributing I’ll definitely post my photo here.

It’s funny how things happen. Yesterday in the office I got into yet another discussion/debate about female rappers. This time, it was about whether femcees have ever primarily marketed themselves and their music towards a female audience. I said yes, my coworkers said no. While Lil’ Kim (in her Hardcore days) and Foxy (back when she still had the Ill Na Na) did in fact empower and attract women that wanted to be sexy yet powerful, I had to admit that their target audience was male. Not being one to go down easily, I had to take it way back to Queen Latifiah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.” Bong! You can’t tell me “You gotta let em know/ you ain’t a b!tc# or a hoe,” wasn’t created as an anthem for the ladies.

Toofly, Alice Mizrachi and Shiro

Anyway, a few hours later I ended up stopping by the first exhibit of the aptly named female art collective, Younity. Younity was founded in New York City in 2007 by noted artist Alice Mizrachi and graffiti legend Toofly “to create an international collective of female artists, designers, photographers and craftswomen.” The show, “Crossover: Fusion of Female Stylez, Ideaz and Skillz” featured work by painters, street artists, photographers, graphic designers and fashion designers. It is available for viewing by appointment only through December 5th at the Showroom Gallery. I highly suggest you check it out. The work was simply amazing. I left inspired to dust off my paintbrushes and excited to get involved with Younity.

“Laetitia Reclining” by Lexi Bella

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Last night, I stopped by the Parish showroom to take a look at their Spring 2008 line. The stuff was looked pretty good and the soul food (Soul Fixins) and martinis were definitely appreciated.

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