Viva the pin-up!

Image taken from Nautical but nice at myspace.com/nauticalbutnice

During my recent travels through the internet looking at all things naval, nautical and tattoo themed I've happened upon a couple of saucy little numbers I'd like to share with you:

Firstly Viva Van Story, a website of girlie photography by Miss Van Story, a genius with an eye for the pin-up style. Her models include Masumi Max and Jamie Deadly and the timless images she creates range from 'smouldering seduction to coquettish playfulness'.
I love her work as it embodies the classic retro pin-up with a kinky twist. Many of her models have tattoos and a penchant for latex, but none of the images are gratuitous.

Image taken from vivaspinups.com

My second offering is the website that is 'Nautical but Nice the premier purveyor of the nautical and aeronautical pin-up'
I stumbled upon this when looking up nose art on world war two bombers (a distant cousin of vintage sailor pin-up art) What can I say? A website dedicated to sexy maritime pin-up style photos. The girls pose on 40's bomber style planes and mid century yachts and sailing ships in a range of cute nautical accessories. A full five stars from me!

My own designs for my series of nautical pin-ups based on sailor style tattoos is going well, but I have to admit to making things difficult for myself by over complicating the images. I am over thinking them. I guess it's because I'm used to spending hours at a time painting a single image instead of simply drawing. I'll keep you posted as how things go...

Follow the Fleet

I had to post this while I remember: One of my favourite films is the Fred and Ginger classic, 'Follow the Fleet' which combimes both my love of all things nautical with fantastic dancing and lots of old school glamour!

Here's my favourite song from the film sung by the lovely Ginger Rogers, check out her gorgeous little sailor suit and keep an eye out for a very young Betty Grable performing as one of the backing singers (a nice coincidence, see post 'Hello Sailor' from the 03.02.09). This film had a strong influence in shaping my ideas for a nautical themed painting seires.

Stewed, scewed and tattooed.

Carrying on from last week; I am researching vintage sailor tattoos for a new series of paintings based on the classic style and inspired by nautical phrases. My findings so far have covered some of the symbolism and history of this artfrom which I plan to expand on later...

However this week I wanted to highlight once again the genuis that was 'Sailor Jerry', the daddy of sailor tattoos and the original creator of the iconic look copied by many ever since. I've been wondering about him as a person and how he came up with his designs and what inspired his look. Then I found out about a documentary called 'Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry', I can't seem to find out much about this but have found some clips on youtube. If anyone knows where I can get a copy please let me know. In the meantime enjoy this snippet of machismo, tough guy living and bad language which seems to have summed up Sailor Jerry's attutude to life:

Hello Sailor!

Myself and international burlesque performer, the beautiful Beatrix Von Bourbon

As I metioned last week, I have been researching vintage nautical tattoos, as seen on many a burly sailor since the 1940's and 50's. But as you can see from the photo above this classical style of tattoo is still very much in favour among burlesque and rockabilly lovers today!

The reason for the research? My next series of paintings is going to be inspired by the artwork of the vintage sailor tattoo, using the pin-up girl as the main character, with each painting taking influence from different nautical sayings still in use today.

Have you ever called someone a son of a gun? how about hanging on until the bitter end? or even found yourself looking for some dutch courage? Cue some fab potential for some new paintings featuring traditional pin-up girls and sailor gear! I'm going to illustrate everyday sayings that began as true to life nautical phrases!

I've always liked the pin-up girls that featured it these classic tattoos. They are an echo of that other famous pin-up girl, Betty Grable. In fact Grable's famous rearview pose, hands on hips, is still an iconic template used for tattoos across the world.

But the pin-up girl that sat on a sailors arm were more than just a hot chick to keep morale high, they were also symbolic of the travels and places the individual had seen. For instance a hula girl meant that the sailor had reached Honolulu or Hawaii.
There is also symbolism to other well known designs; Anchors signified the sailor's crossing of the Atlantic whereas a swallow was for luck and loyalty as they always return home each year, sailors being a highly superstitious lot!

Images taken from www.sailorjerry.com

I've been working on some designs for my new paintings and as I've studied the styles and use of line and colour I've come to realise that this isn't like any other form of drawing. I've almost had to re-teach myself how to look at things. Dismiss my knowledge of proportion and perspective and think only in terms of what will work as a tattoo, as I want my paintings to look as authentic as possible. That isn't to say I want to carbon copy the orignal work of others, but for my work to be an obvious nod to the artists of yesteryear.

Here's my first design for the saying 'Rack and Ruin', meaning for a ship to become wrecked, as mentioned earlier, it's the pin-up girl who is telling the story;

Image copyright of Gemma Parker, www.gemma-parker.blogspot.com

In all my research I couldn't go without mentioning THE man who epitomises the classic vintage tattoo, Sailor Jerry! An artist who many see as the father of old school tattoo, who became a sailor himself at the age of 19, travelled the world and began his life long affair with tattoos. He studied the art of southeast Asia which became a huge influence on his style, opening his first tattoo shop in Honolulu's Chinatown which according to his official website was;

'ground zero for swaggering sailors, drunken soldiers and whoever else wasn't afraid to hang around volatile levels of testosterone.'

These rowdy sailors appreciated a bold impressive design that they could show off 'back home' and Sailor Jerry's signiture style became iconic in tattoo art acroos the world.

Aint what cha do....it's the way that you do it!

I have now uploaded a picture of my most recent painting for the series,' My Baby's Got a Secret' onto my website! You can see 'Parfait Amour' here!: www.gemmaparker.co.uk
I have also been researching nautical tattoos for some time now and have begun a series of paintings inspired by the old school pin-ups that decorated many a well travelled sailor's arms. If anyone has any interesting info to pass on or a sailor inspired tattoo please get in touch!

On other news:

Last week I was lucky enough to go and see the 'Blonde Bombshells of 1943' at The Lowry. This nostalgic musical is the story of an all girl swing band run by band leader Betty. The only trouble is her band members keep disappearing every time they play a GI camp, and with the chance to play live on the BBC tonight, Betty is pushed to find new recruits and fast! Cue the entrance of a naive school girl, a singing nun, an upper class army toff with an eye for the boys, and a male drummer doing everything he can to avoid being drafted into the army.

The story focuses on Liz, the young schoolgirl, who in one day, learns about love, betrayal and death, oh and also the saxophone. All the girls (and guy) are tremedous musicians and each in turn gets the opportunity to show off their talents. But I have to say that it was Lilly the nun's oblivious rendition of a George Formby classic full of inuendos that made me giggle the most. Another high point that stuck fast in my memory is when Miranda, the curvacious army toff decides to put her 'posh frock' on for that nights performance, in front of the other girls, and the auidence. It was mesmorising to behold a 1940's hottie reveal her silk undies (not army issue, you wouldn't believe how they chafe!) and nylons. Rosie Jenkins who played Miranda was obviously having a ball with her character and was very sexy to boot.

The music was brilliant with such classics by Glenn Miller, Fats Waller and The Andrews Sisters and I left the theatre singing the tunes for a long time afterwards. The finale where the most glamourous girl band of all time don blonde wigs and red sparkly numbers proved beyond doubt that it don't mean a thing if it aint got that swing!

Ladies of Burlesque

This week I thought I'd share with you a comtemporary artist I've recently learnt about. I was directed to Sadie Lee as both her and my own subject matter and painting styles have many similarities. During her career Sadie Lee has exhibited works such as 'A Dying Art' - 'Ladies of Burlesque' at the National Portrait Gallery. This series of work is especially exciting to me as it features famous names from old school 1950's American burlesque like Dixie Evans, touted as 'the Marilyn Monroe of burlesque'. But the twist with Lee's work is that she painted portraits of these glamour girls as they are now, mature ladies in their 60's and 70's.

Dixie Evans by Sadie Lee.

In 2007 as part of the Queerupnorth International festival, Lee exhibited at Salford Museum and Art Gallery with her show, 'And then he was a she', a selection of ten large portraits of the legendary drag queen Holly Woodlawn, part of Warhol's Factory set, immortalised by Lou Reed in Walk on the Wild Side...

"Holly came from Miami, F.L.A., hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.,
Plucked her eyebrows on the way; shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says ‘Hey Babe, take a walk on the wild side,’
Said ‘Hey Honey, take a walk on the wild side.’”
Walk on the Wild Side Lou Reed (1972)

The paintings are a facsinating look a an icon without the veil mystery. They show a eldery and fragile individual in an honest portrayal complete with walking frame and sagging skin, but Lee has still mananged to show a glamourous and proud character in Woodlawn.

Image taken from www.andthenhewasashe.com

I can't believe that this show was exhibited in a gallery just around the corner from my own studio and I never knew it was on until recently! I would have loved to see the paintings up close.

A quick post script about Dixie Evans
Dixie Evans is now in her late 60's and still performs. She is responsible for curating Exotic World (or the Burlesque Hall of Fame), a museum of burlesque memorabilia with a stunning collection from the golden age of bump and grind. She also initiated Miss Exotic World, an annual pageant and fundraiser for the museum which showcases famous names from past decades as well as up and coming personalitles from the neo burlesque scene.
In her day, Dixie went under the headline, 'The Marilyn Monroe of burlesque' and looking at her photos it's easy to see why! In an age where attitides to sex were still pretty prudish and even sex symbols like Monroe never showed more than a mid rift on the screen, Evans could let your imagination run wild. If you couldn't have Monroe, you could have the next best thing!

A fallen Hollwood starlet, a painting that never ends and the spangles that never happened. This week I have been mostly...

Non sewing

Well the sewing venture for The Chantilly Belles new piece of stage attire didn't go 100% to plan over the weekend, which made both myself and Rene La Rouge very cranky. Basically we didn't realise you have to check what your material is made from before ironing on tranfers (duh!) and as it was full polyester we got stopped in our tracks. We are now exploring a Plan B route...

Painitng
I was at the studio yesterday, where I had a lovely long chat and cup of tea with Salford's Art and Cultural Developments Manager about my practice. It was so good to talk to someone who opened up a lot of possilbities to me and understood the pros and cons of being a freelance artist.
I am now buzzing with ideas and more aware of directions I can take my art into.
We talked for so long painting time was cut short so I didn't have much of a go at finishing my latest painting. I can't wait to get the bloodly thing out of the way now!

Reading
I can't put down 'Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, The Barbara Payton story'.
I first knew about Barbara Payton, the tragic 40's/50's Hollywood starlet when she made an appearance in the excellant fictional novel 'This song is you' by Megan Abbott. A dark and violent thriller that was based on a true story of missing actress Jean Spangler. (Incidentaly the true story is just as compelling as the book and well worth investigating!)

I was fascinated to learn that the beautiful troubled and provocative character of Barbara really existed and did some research on her on the internet. When I saw there was a book relating the tale of her life I had to read it.

'Kiss tomorrow Goodbye, the Barbara Payton Story' by John O Dowd is a heartbreaking account of how a free spirted highly sexed glamour girl fell from Hollywood's favour to slowly rot on its streets in skid row.
Barbara had everything going for her, incredible beauty, talent and intelligence, which makes her story even more unbelievable.
After acting in films next to James Cagney and Gregory Peck it seemed this blonde starlet was on the brink of making the big time and becoming another name to match the likes of Monroe. But her erratic private life became more of a focal point to the public as Barbara certainly knew how to party.

Her name became linked with drug dealers and mobsters and she made frequent trips to court because of her bad choice in 'friends.' Her reputation got torn irreparably when she began to see both highly esteemed and well loved classical actor Franchot Tone and B movie muscle man Tom Neal. The breaking point of which was a massive punch up (with Neal doing most of the punching) which left Tone close to death in hospital. Barbara's 'Bad gal' image was sealed as a nation held her to blame.
Her career took a massive nose dive and she appeared in only a few more B films as the major film studios systematically turned their backs on her until it eventually fizzled out completely. But Barbara's tragedy wasn't just the loss of her film star dreams, it was her blatent need for self destruction which took the form of acloholism, drug use and nymphomania. Over the years she had numerous steamy love affairs with everyone from leading men to car hop boys. In the 50's the only word for her was tramp.

But Bab's wasn't a bad person, in fact by all accounts she was a kind generous and fun person to know. However with her slow free fall from success she went all out to destroy every part of herself including her character. By the early 60's with four failed marriages under her belt and forcibly estranged from her young son, the once glamourous and impeccable actress had gone from earning $10,000 a week at Warner Bros to turing tricks on Sunset Boulevard for $5 a time. She eventually died an all too early death at the age of 39.
The book is so welll written and O Dowd has put forward an objective series of events with great detail and sensitivity. I have enjoyed reading it greatly but have to admit to reflecting on it with feelings of sadness but also fascination.
One of Barbara's most famous films was the campy B movie 'The bride of the Gorrila', enjoy: