Chromium Dumb Belle Blog

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Cat stalking, thrift store Mata Hari pinball and meeting Dan and Desiree’s new kitty Feathers…

Yesterday was the anniversary of the Marchesa Luisa Casati’s death in 1957…So we had our annual Casati day, a day set aside just for her… he he…

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I first got into Casati back in 1999 when the biography ‘Infinite Variety’ was first released. I was working in a fancy shoe store in Bond St, London at the time and was looking thru a magazine on my lunch break when i came to a 3 page article about the book. I was amazed looking at the pics they put in the article and ripped it all out to keep. One of the photos was a picture of Casati, Bakst and Giovanni Boldini standing side by side in the most peculiar clothing. I wish i still had the picture and anyone that has the book will know the one i mean but its not online anywhere. That weekend i bought the book.  I had never seen anyone like her before, she was so strange. I loved how the book didnt look like a biography of some pretty little 20s tragic flapper…it looked like it was about some crazed mad woman…and thats the best! So i got it and read it and i was obsessed…really really obsessed with her and the book. I read it a few times after again and forced my then boyfriend to read it too, anyone close to me always gets it forced on them too.

A few years later i had moved out of London to the south coast. I had decided instead of getting another regular job i would work from home collecting and selling vintage etc..i had also started to draw and paint again which had all stopped when i left Art School and moved to London. So now i had time to be creative again. One of the first things i painted was a large portrait of Casati.  She was still my favorite even after these 3 or 4 years, so it was obvious that i should use her for my first painting. Everybody told me how good it was (it really was not not but i believed them at the time) and that i should try and sell it. The very same day her biographers Scott Ryerson and Michael Yaccarino emailed me about purchasing the piece for their Casati Archives. I was so excited to have a piece of my art alongside so many wonderful treasures and artworks of the Marchesa Casati. Eventually Scot and Michael ended up with most of my Casati pieces, paper dolls, paintings and ink drawings. I would write them a few times a week and they would tell me lots of extra bits of Casati gossip, i must have been annoying, such a nerd.  They were very kind and sent me any copies of articles and photos as well as a very special signed copy of their beautiful Princess Of Wax book which they were then releasing. If you hav’nt heard of this book then you should try and get a copy. Its a fairytale based on Casati written by Scot and Michael and its really beautifully illustrated by Anne Bachelier an amazing french artist. Her painting are like colourful spidery webs.Ive included a photos below…

Eventually around 2002? i decided to make my own book about Casati- Black Pearls: Drawings of the Marchesa Luisa Casati. Scot and Michael very kindly wrote the foreword for this very crudely made self published book which i was so so excited about at the time. I wish i still had a copy. It was limited to 50…My parents or Moni has a copy somewhere im sure…

I feel like reading Infinite Variety changed my life just a little bit. Casati has played such an important role in my creative life, she was part of the beginning  and i guess even in other areas too. I read her book once or twice a year and im virtually always drawing her, her malific features are in every character i make. I still make artwork in homage to her and im sure in some way always will.  I read any books on people associated with her and im always searching the index in old biographies to see if she is mentioned…People always ask me why im so mad on her but i cant ever really say……its a secret…

My friend Phil and i spent a hot summer day at Brompton Cemetry in London in search of her grave to scatter dead flowers on a few years back, it was one of the best times ever and i wish i still had all the dodgy photos we took that day. Her grave was hidden under lots of ivy and other wild vines but it was great to see it and read the famous inscription, took hours to find. Anybody close to London should spend a day at the cemetry, it is really beautiful, lots of old columns and the craziest gravestones ever. We found a jewelled cross stone, all encrusted in stones and coloured glass cabochans too…

Happy Marchesa Luisa Casati day…

Below are some of the older artworks of Casati by Augustus John, Many Ray, Bakst, Erte

Captured in the 21st Century by Ted Coconis, Olga Balabnova, Marissa Berenson costumed as Casati at the Rothschild ball in the 70s and Anne Bachelier’s art for the Princess of Wax..

Ink drawings from my book- Black Pearls…

Paper and velvet dolls of Luisa…

Over the last few years with Chromium Dumb Belle…

A few people have been asking if i would be selling prints of the Pony photograph i used in the Cosmic Love Show recently so i decided to just make a limited edition run of 8 x 10’s on good quality glossy photographic paper. I only printed 15 and just listed a few on Etsy today for those of you who find that an easier way to catch me… It is a really special picture of Sahara wearing Chromium Dumb Belle accessories …

PRINTS HERE

A great article i just found by Daria Tavoularis, here- HIPPIE EMBOIDERY

“the imperfect work of a single human being’s hands is of value”

“(it) carries power because power has been invested in it - a circular flow of energy.”

I still have 3 giant Tearful Eye necklaces…on Sale- Now $75 from $175

Tearful Eyes

Today was apparently the hottest day of the year so we took a stroll to get ice cream and hunt for cats, squirrels…and Hens..