News

Protected: Gallery Slideshow of Christmas Cards for Jacob

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Protected: Seeing My Mom’s TV Sit-Com Script on TV

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Protected: Between Voters, NY Poll-workers Send Warm Wishes to Child in Hospital

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Shije Interviews Multi-Media Artist Alexis Karl

[ I met Alexis Karl at a gallery where she was performing fragrance design and came to find this was but one facet of her talent.] – Shije

Shije:  Alexis! I love your Gothic music Ondyne’s Demise. How did you get started in the world of fragrance creation?

AK:  Well, it started out with me being a multi media artist…that led to perfume.

Alexis

S:  Multi-media – but I think of specific scents from the gallery, when I met you. Earthy, rich fragrance —

AK:  Ah, I remember that. My exhibitions and performances often have elements of fragrance. I believe fragrance as an ambient element can break boundaries of architecture and alter a visitor’s perception, much in the way music can make a room seem large or small…

Scent is so similar. I can make a gallery become a forest with the scent of dirt, oak moss and flowers, or an ancient edifice with notes of stone and fossilized resins. Fragrance has that power. It is really quite an amazing artistic medium.

S:  How did it turn into a business for you?

AK:  It was not my initial intention to become part of the fragrance world, but rather, to create olfactory art works…sellable, small, fragrant art pieces that harkened back to an age before large fragrance companies. I have always strived for a very personal approach to fragrance creation, in in that vein, bespoke, or custom created fragrance are still my favorite to create!

S:  What is a ‘bespoke fragrance’?

AK:  Bespoke is a term for a custom created scent..usually for an individual, and it denotes something very special. Bespoke perfumes are pricy as they are created for one person, like a couture gown. It’s a word definitely used in the fragrance world.

S:  Here’s a link to your store so that everyone can go to House of Cherry Bomb and order the fragrance you got mentioned at the awards ceremony! I loved your celebrity-on-the-red-carpet photos of that, in sunny California! What are those awards called?

AK:  You mean The Art and Olfaction Awards! One of our scents, Tobacco Cognac, was a finalist, which was such an honor!

hocb_TCbottle2

S:  Congratulations on your success! What’s a time you’d point to as a turning point in your career? Right place at the right time, people or situations that serendipitously shaped you? That helped you to gain more success specifically in the fragrance biz?

AK:  How I got into Fragrance: as a multi media artist, and was working with the Fragrance house, Firmenich, years ago doing installations and artistic work for their creative team, when I was first introduced to their perfumers. I was immediately fascinated and inspired. The place was flooded with scent! There was this incredible juggling of fragrance notes going on all around me by master perfumes, and here I was creating large- scale paintings and installations to present their works. I thought, I would like to do this!

S:  So….the science, the alchemy if you will, of making a fragrance from scratch, it inspired you to get into that.

AK:  Yes! But… in another way. A way that incorporates my art, a way where colors synthesize with fragrance notes, where each fragrance I make will be a work of art- from concept, to scent, to packaging to presentation. So I started researching. I delved into the study of historical fragrances, from Ancient Egyptian to 18th Century French perfumes. I looked at how the fragrances were inexorably linked to culture.

S:  What do you mean inexorably linked to culture?  What does your research entail?

AK:  My research entails reading old texts on perfumery, from 15th Century Islamic texts on fragrant gardens to translations made from the walls of ancient Egyptian Tombs to reading biographies on Marie Antoinette’s perfumer. I lecture of the Art of Perfume at the Metropolitan Museum regularly now, so I research quite a bit before each lecture. All of this information on historical perfumes is very inspirational, yet I try to incorporate it into a modern perfumery practice. My scents for Scent By Alexis and the scents I create with Maria at House of Cherry Bomb are always modern. We respect the tradition of perfume, but want our perfumes to be relevant now, in this age, influenced by our urban culture.

S:  So, Alexis, with your flair for the historical, mythological and natural —

AK:  Yes! Those three! From this research I created my first line of fragrances: oil-based perfumes held in hand-gilded 18th Century inspired flacon. The research landed me lecturing work at the Metropolitan Museum and a launch at Henri Bendel. My work has changed so much over the last ten years. The scents have become more complex, and have a literary tilt.

S:  Literary how?

AK:  Bottles are no longer hand-gilded, but now hand-etched …the fragrance names are snippets of poetry or lines from favorite writers.  My “Utopian Body” series is inspired by Michel Foucault’s The Utopian Body essay. The first two fragrances in the line create a scented poem: “Body made luminous. Secret, Sacred Cyphered.” In fact, I’ll tell you a secret nobody else knows yet: the next fragrance will be entitled “The Harmony of Being” and serve as the next line in the olfactory poem.

S: An ‘olfactory poem!’ I love that! I love secrets! And ciphers! What do you mean 18th Century scents! How old and precious are these materials you and Maria use?

AK:  From http://www.scentbyalexisperfumes.com are three descriptions: Body Made Luminous is an all natural scent composed of chocolate absolute, which is this deep rich bitter chocolate, fossilized amber, which comes from 35 million year old resin, and lush Moroccan flowers. The scent is deep and rich with a fiery, glowing heat. It is extremely sensual… daringly edible and is meant to enhance the skin’s own warmth.

Secret, Sacred, Cyphered is a heady fragrance of Moroccan flowers and tuberose blended with hints of leather, ginger and fig, all tied together by natural vanilla. It is elegant while still very sensual, and it’s base is a skin accord I actually developed for a lecture I did at the Guggenheim Museum. It is refined yet complex, and beautifully heavy.

The Harmony of Being, which will be released this spring is quite elegant. It is strives to create balance of dark and light- and so black agar wood, coffee flower and beeswax absolute play with hints of ambergris, woods and a melange of flowers like neroli, lily of the valley and mimosa. The perfume volleys back and forth with green notes and lush flowers and always a trace of delicate smoke and again, skin.

All three fragrances find a common note of skin, for the wearers body is the true base. They were created with skin in mind. They are full of rare and natural oils, and I think they are very sensual and alluring…very special.

S: Are musks always expensive, wild animal products?

AK:  Well, musks are no longer animal products, but now are synthetically created! Maria and I have some vintage musks that are about 50 years old from Morocco. The ouds are natural… and we often use vintage ouds as well…so, they are indeed hard to come by. We have found ourselves rooting in the dusty, never-opened cabinets of oil purveyors to search for forgotten Arabian ouds, the longer they sit, the more viscous and heavy the scent!

S:  Cool! Vegan musk! That is just so Brooklyn!

AK:  Ha! I guess it really is. Also, I have two fragrance lines, Scent by Alexis and House of Cherry Bomb, which I co-founded with perfumer Maria McElroy of Aroma M.  House of Cherry Bomb is all about NYC. We pair Classic NYC chic with edgy modern. We use rare, beautiful oils sourced from all over the world. Flowers from Morocco and Spain, more from France, citrus notes wild-crafted in California… vintage, hard to come by musks and ouds. I adore working with Maria who is like my sister, and who, with music blaring out of our speakers at the Aroma A Atelier, we pass oils back and forth, back and forth, talking excitedly about ideas and composing fragrances all the while.

S:  Sounds fun! Thanks for joining us.

AK:  Thanks for having me.

S:  My band says hi to your band.

AK:  Ha!

S:  Tell me their names again?

AlexisKarl1

AK:  Ondyne’s Demise are: Alexis Karl, Fara Badrieva and Paul Ashton. Now we’re joined by our incandescent fire dancer, Erin the Red! A press release from our archives:

A huge array of amazing performances happened at http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net/les.htm! My solo show MYTHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION challenges theories of creation, suggesting human-animal hybrids as our true evolutionary ancestors while promising the existence of these creatures still. The installation, composed of large scale paintings, crystal and obsidian encrusted sculptures, film, fragrance, dark ambient music and live performance spanned a 2,500 sq. foot Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY.

Sneak peek into our set: https://soundcloud.com/ondynesdemise/neon-jesus

Ondyne's-Demise-Live

See you soon.

S:  Yes, for sure at Fashion Week in New York. Everybody, get these free albums as a gift from Alexis Karl. Lost Cities is the newest one, here:

http://onyudo.com/#!/albums/lost-cities

AK:  Yes, and the other one online is also free, and here’s the press about it. “Mythological Evolution is a dark ambient soundtrack created for singer Alexis Karl’s multi-media one person exhibition, MYTHOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONA RE-CREATION CREATION MYTH, which explores the theory of human-hybrid evolution and the reality of mythology.  Created as part of a soundtrack for Mythological Evolution for The Hall of Celestial Transformation. Album available as a free download. Free MYTHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION SOUNDTRACK:

http://onyudo.com/album/mythological-evolution

Mythological Evolution by Ondyne’s Demise (in collaboration with Anima Animus Animal) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.”

LINKS!

http://www.scentbyalexisperfumes.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/houseofcherrybomb

http://houseofcherrybomb.com

http://bodymadeluminous.tumblr.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SCENTBYALEXIS

http://onyudo.com/#!/albums/lost-cities

Photo Credits:

All black and white photos and the photo of the Tobacco Cognac bottle are credited to Jorge Colombo

The photo of the live performance with the fire dancer is credited to Eden Brower 

 

Shije Meets Mark Kostabi

Shije Meets Mark Kostabi

Shije:  A giant ‘Kostabified’ guitar greets people at the entrance to The Cutting Room. What a beauty. I think I stared at it for half an hour. How did it come about?

KostabiMark_05011303_edited-1

Mark Kostabi:  Adam Sands, a concert booker and party/event promoter in New York asked me to do it. I agreed and along with showing many paintings within the Cutting Room, I feel like I’ve become part of the family there.

S:  Lots of musical instruments in your paintings! Which came first for you art or the music?

Free Listening Station – Mark Kostabi

MK:  I started as a visual artist at age 6. I started as a pianist at age 12. My mother was a piano teacher.

S:  Should we hear your paintings, are we supposed to imagine sounds? In music there is such an interplay, the language of music, spoken between the musicians on stage… in your visual artform do you ever riff back and forth with other artists, and if so, how long does it take to get a ping back?

MK:  I do feel art and music are very related. Both have colors and harmony. I’ve done many collaborations with other visual artists and we riffed back and forth: Enrico Baj, Tadanoori Yokoo, Howard Finster, Arman, Paul Kostabi and Tony Esposito. Sometimes the ping happens immediately. Other times it takes a while.

S:  At your exhibit at the Dillon Gallery in Chelsea, bass player Paul Nowinski told me you are from Estonia! That’s fascinating. Is there a link online where I can learn more about your family during this exciting time in history? Do you speak Estonian?

MK:  I was born in Los Angeles to Estonian immigrants. I understand a lot of Estonian but speak only a little. People have said that my visual art relates to some historical Estonian artists. The Estonian art critic, Heie Treier, could elaborate better on this. I feel very connected to the Estonian music scene.

S:  So Mark, I wrote to Heie and here’s that:

Hello Heie,

I’m interviewing Mark Kostabi, especially exploring his roots. May I please include a statement from you about his visual art? If you name other Estonian artists, I can link their wikipedia pages, so the readers will know what you mean and can explore the other artists in more depth.

Best,
Shije

Dear Shije,

I wrote about the Estonian connection in the catalogue of Mark Kostabi’s exhibition in Tallinn in 1998. The catalogue is printed, the text is not available in the internet. I have thought about the topic a lot.
Perhaps similar kind of metaphysical painting is strongly present in the Estonian painting of the cold war period (Soviet period), in the 1970s-80s. Kind of mystical, resembling de Chirico – Wikipedia. For example Mari Kurismaa, Andres Tolts; architect Vilen Künnapu promoted this kind of art in his texts. It also occured in graphic art.  See Ando Keskküla – Animation on YouTube!
It’s a long story.
Best,
Heie

S:  Is there a real life muse behind the faceless female?

spiritual_seduction_orkos201359-2

MK:  Basically I just like seeing girls with ponytails. Especially high ponytails. I think it’s so cute and sexy. The great painter and influential art critic, Walter Robinson, said all the girls with ponytails in my paintings are Heidi Follin, who is the long time girlfriend of my brother Indrek Paul Kostabi. But now my girlfriend, who is Estonian: Greesi Desiree Langovits, often wears ponytails that look exactly like the Kostabi painting ponytails. She even creates the round ponytail “tie” with her hair. It’s so cute. We call them Kostabi Tails.

S:  If there were a rosetta stone, you know, a legend to the map, a decoder ring for your symbols, which of your artworks would it be?

IMG_1075

MK: You’ve just given me an idea for a new book. Thanks. It doesn’t exist yet but a painting that may come close is The Rhythm of Inspiration, a very large and detailed painting that was in my 1998 Tallinn retrospective (which was curated by Heie Treier) and for many years was displayed within the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn.

I’ve done over 30 books so I don’t know which is the most likely to contain a decoder ring, but Conversations With Kostabi comes to mind as a strong possibility.

S:  Mark, I like your painting Climate Control, the world out of control, but soothed by the familiar shape and shading of the ponytail lady and familiar symbols.  Tell me a secret about the symbols that nobody else knows! Example, what’s with the witchy hat?

MK:  The relevance of the pointed hat depends on the context of the rest of the painting. It could be for witches, parties, dunces or an antenna for wisdom.

S:  Is Misguided Perfection set in Italy? I like the depth of the shadows in it, and that it looks like three women holding up the sun! Strong women! Can you tell me more secrets about all the significant symbols in the painting?

MK:  If you asked a prolific film maker, like Woody Allen for example, about things within any of his movies and you cited the title of the film, I imagine he would know which film you were talking about. But I have made over 20,000 paintings and I don’t remember all the titles. I must say however, I like the title: Misguided Perfection. One word of that title could describe my brain.

S:  Until the event at Martin Lawrence Gallery, I thought of you as a painter. I think because of CD covers you’ve made for The Ramones, and Guns N’ Roses. So to find out you sculpt — the two sculptures were a beautiful surprise.

mark-kostabi-cover-adios-amigos-ramones-photo-by-george-duboseuse-your-illusion-1

MK:  Thanks. I pointed at you like a rockstar.

S:  You’re the rockstar! Such a fun evening. More than once I was asked if I modeled for any of these.

ShijePonytailModel

MK: What did you say?

S:  I lied, “Only the ponytail ones.”  *both laugh*

Cutting Room Photo ©2015 Derek Storm
Artwork Photos Courtesy of Mark Kostabi and Martin Lawrence Gallery
Additional Photos ©2015 Kenmarespoppin.com and Shije.com

For this full interview in Spanish, click here.

Shije Goes to a Fine Art Auction

 

Shije Meets Doctors Without Borders

ShijePinkDressTree-1280-wm

Learn more! This organization of doctors and nurses volunteer to provide urgent medical care in countries to victims of war and disaster regardless of race, religion, or politics. http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Google Play my new single at http://bit.ly/13qmpJN

Alone with the Fire (In Italian)

Alone with the Fire Review – English

From: Buddy

To: Shije

Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2013 6:53 PM

Subject: Alone with the Fire

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/alone-with-the-fire/id597859708?i=597859718

Hi Shije!

Sorry for the lack of communication. Been so damned busy I have only looked at my business folder inboxes the last several weeks, so I added a Shije folder so your communications won’t get lost amidst all the other folders I’ve been ignoring lately.

I have a large selection of tunes from various CD’s that I call my “Work List”. It’s my own little “Top 40” collection I listen to throughout the day while I’m working, and all your music is in there. Every time I listen to Alone with the Fire, I think what an incredible song that is. I have never heard a song about an abusive relationship that is written with such incredible insight and compassion.

I have a sister and also a niece who have gone through incredibly abusive relationships. My niece went from one to another. I know what its like to want to kill someone. My sister hung in for 9 years. I never could understand that. Alone with the Fire puts it all in a very perceptive context. Nice work. I think it goes right to the heart of every woman who has ever gone through such torment.

— Buddy

OR … maybe that wasn’t what it was about …

Yes, Buddy that is exactly what it is about.

To make it equally he-said, she-said I had to write it all out on paper. Each person gets the same amount of measures to “talk” just like in divorce court. The effect I hoped for is less blaming and more disappointment.

I hope by balancing the genders like that it can touch men in abusive relationships too….

Unlike my other songs that don’t say he or she, this one and Fools Gold are decidedly hetero songs. This one you love was my paternal grandmother’s favorite song, R.I.P. Faye 2005, man she would rock it out. She’d yell, “Play the hole in my pocket song again!” She never learned the title of it and that’s okay.

I think it was therapy for her to forgive her abusive husband (my dad’s dad) by seeing he got that toughness taught to him by the generational misinformation that came before,

and God help us all.

I want “She Walked Away” to be the take away message so much more than any non-constructive yea-unto-fatal ideas in country music like the NRA sponsored Grammy winner Miranda Lambert “I’m gonna go home and get my shotgun, he aint seen me crazy yet, I’m gonna show him what a little girl’s made of, gunpowder and lead.” That anthemic sing-along encourages women to shoot and kill anyone who has somuchas hurt their feelings. Filling our industrial prison complexes with low IQ gun-toting Americans by way of song? Count me out!

Love Ya!

I’ll send CDs to your sister & niece & sign em if you want. Email me their addresses.

Shije

Alonewiththefire-wm

Dear Shije,

“I’ll send CDs …”

That’s very gracious of you. I will dig up that information.

I agree wholeheartedly. We need to be much more into comprehension than condemnation. Revenge is not a solution. It is an escalation. Dysfunction is taught at an early age. Someone said “Give me a boy at seven and I will show you the man”. Frustration and anger goes somewhere and the means of dealing with it becomes the method of coping with stress -for example-… you can’t hit your father (or mother)… Or break a toy… pull your teddy bears eyes out… hurt yourself… grow up… hurt the one you love the most. Or, as you stated so well in your lyrics, a learned defense – taught and nurtured in ignorance – with unexpected consequences. Your song is a masterpiece. I really mean that.

— Buddy

Shije Re-Meets Mighty Mike Schermer — a text message conversation

SchermerShije320wm

Shije: Great party! I have a CD for you!! & 18 seconds of you on the Marcia Ball stage

SchermerPanorama

Mike: Beer drinkin backstage schmoozing merch selling panorama
Shije: You named it! I’m putting your CD on my library!! Nice artwork – you can have it back later so you sell it! Put mine on Marcia’s, too!
Mike: Small world thought for the day: when I was ski bumming in Lake Tahoe I played every Tuesday at Bar of America…Steve Kershisnik was my bass and sometimes B-3 player…I have not listened to this disc yet, but we will en route to CT this afternoon.
Shije: He was on Tom Jones’ gig & I think is in the band of TJ in movie Mars Attacks. Pretty much my entire band was pictured in that TJ band scene, shot in Vegas. I was an event planner for PGA events there, after years as a thankless backup singer for an impersonator show. I used TJs band during the day during their 2 week runs every six months. It took 22 months to complete.
M: He ever played you the Tom Jones record recorded in Memphis with the Stax and Muscle Shoals rhythm sections? All cool b side soul tunes that no record company would have ever released…
S: I’ve seen his show 56x, I never wanna hear GreenGreenGrass of Home nor Delilah again!!!!
M: He’s paying the bills.
S: Totally then we’d go all Primus creative. Steve is a fun cat. TJ plays 330 dates a year. Respect!
M: That’s a lot of women’s panties.
S: Oh yes that actually happened. They’d still be on the stage next day at 5pm sound check. Hotel porters would come sweep them up. Grandma gal sizes. TMI?
M: He should make quilts of them and donate them to charity.
S: Quite enterprising! I’ll buy you a sewing machine & spread a rumor that you love big girls’ lacies! All quilts will have a tag sewn in w your lawyers # for quilt cases of STDs or crabs or bedbugs. Not so sexy now is it.   lol
M: No, the danger…is even sexier. And…that would not be a rumor.
S: Tmi ! Lol! I’m on FB w chat w Novak same time. Am I in 10th grade? And you drove the Zamboni? Someone trusted you with the Zamboni?!
M: Not just any Zamboni, they had purchased that from Sonja Henie‘s personal ice rink after a fire had messed it all up and she replaced with one you didn’t hafta shovel out manually…not that she had to shovel out her own Zamboni but…or maybe she did I dunno.
As memory serves me this is more communication between us than our entire childhood combined, much less the 10th grade…not that that’s a bad thing, I’m glad to be in touch…jus sayin.
S: My sister was named after that skater. Our parents didn’t find out they misspelled it til later! #lifeb4Google
M: My middle name is Howard, after my great grandfather Harold, who preferred to be called Howard and they didn’t know until he died.
God damnit…I kinda wanted this CD to suck so our hater car could get a good laugh on the road, but no…it had to be great, thanks…
When did you do this? It’s kinda got a Alanis Morrisette 90s vibe…funkier tho…hope that’s not a dis, I mean that in a good way.
SchermerShije670wm
Nice job…Dig Yo Grave, cool tune.
S: Thanks.
M: Well Shije…you’ve achieved a first in this car…we have never listened to a cd all the way through without using the fast forward button…that may not sound like much of a compliment, but you’d have to know the 3 jaded musicians in this car.
S: You, Don & sax? I accept your compliment and the weight it has.
M: Me Don and Damien (drummer).
S: A+ drummer that kid. Plus I respect you all’s opinion, so that means so much.
M: Damien goes “well damn, this is no fun…this chick is actually good” and puts his headphones on. He’s no kid btw, a young 38.
S: Hahaha haters will hate.
M: We get a lot of cds handed to us…
S: But mine is the best ever. You can say it. Joe Bonamassa has. And Prince’s band. I met them at The NAMM show. You’re not alone in loving my music, that’s all I’m saying. You’re in good company. I love people connecting with the stories & writing their own stories out of it. I get the most heartfelt mail.
M: Ummmm…
S: So now, in Austin, you do this A+ solo project on Marcia’s nights off? With those same cats?! Stellar!
M: Thank you!…in Austin a bit, not so much. It’s complicated booking around MB’s sched. 
In California I can get away with it easier because I have a solid relationship with all those venues.
I do a Monday night blues gig in Austin when I’m home, and that band lets me sub it out when I’m not. We do a few of those songs, but it’s more of a straight ahead Texas blues band.
S: Cool…meaning TX covers? ZZ, et al?
M: No…older stuff…T Bone Walker, Freddie King, Albert Collins, BB…and Chicago blues like Little Walter, Muddy etc…but with a Texas attitude…like early T-Birds I guess, especially when our harp player and singer is there…personnel varies week to week, it’s actually the drummer’s band. He and the bass player are the only constants because they don’t tour. It’s super fun…at a funky dive on the eastside, bad part of town…hipsters and swing dancers come there to feel dirty.
There’s this young piano player singer named Emily Gimble on the gig sometimes who you would love…has one of those throwback voices 27 yrs old and sounds like Little Esther or Dinah Washington…
She’s Johnny Gimble‘s granddaughter…google him if you don’t know him…fiddle player for Bob Wills and on hundreds of legendary country recordings.
You…jinxed me…all that talk about Tom Jones and his merch? Or…lack thereof…well, guess who left Marcia’s merch case in the hotel lobby this morning.
S: Oh noooo! Time for a fast FedEx from home! You’re Gordon Lightfooting it!
M: Oh Gordon Lightfoot, not TJ…whatev. I messed up…MB handled it well, I like my boss.
S: Good. lol okay so Matt Andrae & I are doing a song together via Skype! A la Tuck & Patti Unchained Melody.
M: Nice, tell him I said hey.
M: I’m the same way…have an awesome gf, haven’t written in 6 mos.
S: Lol you all only write blues?!?
M: And soul ballads, and dumb funny stuff…you mean there’s more?
S: LOL!
SchermerCrowd

“Fool’s Gold” Gets National Press

Recording artist Shije gets compared to Shania Twain. Because of Shije’s song “Fools Gold” Music Connection Magazine listed her indie debut in The Top 20 Demos of the Year. They called it “a nod to pop country.” Is it rock, or is it country? Have a listen to that song yourself, see if there’s a similarity to any other artists you like. Shije and her band wonder, why the Shania comparison? Is it vocal tone? A rich alto range? Pop country feel? A smokin’ band? You decide. Shije loves her fans and keeps writing songs for them. “There’s always room for more!” Shije says to all Shania fans “‘Come On Over’!”

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/fools-gold/id597859708?i=597859727

Join here to get email updates from Shije http://shije.com/join/