Post 6: Princess Gaga as "The Shamaness"

I Grandpa Gaga got up bright and early this Sunday morning and started playing by myself, since Princess Gaga was sleeping late for the last time this week. She is starting the "Art of Writing" Camp at UAB's Red Mountain Writing Project to morrow morning and will be writing more poetry and song lyrics all week...

I used the same old dress form, but instead of adding objects in Photoshop, I actually dressed it up as a Shamaness this time, using all the tribal artifacts collected over our years of traveling across India, Burma, China, Bali. I dropped in one of Anay's faces from the early tests to get an idea, but we will be shooting new faces and arms to morrow after class. To see a large version of it, click here.

Post 5: "Les Deux Infantes Ghosts"

After an afternoon in Photoshop and using my stock of images of objects from around the house, the Infantes have taken shape. Of course, both Anay and I prefer the more monochromatic and ghostly version. Click here. What do you think?

Is it not a bit of a visual for the poem Anay wrote last week at the Red Mountain Writing Project Camp at UAB:

I know I am not alone

Darkness

surrounds me

yet I am not alone.

For here are my friends to heal

my new cold wounds.

The love I've lost,

the bad things in my life.

They sometimes make it worse,

by making me realize my own true mistakes.

Yet I should know I am loved by the ones who care for me.

Still, it is not enough.

I want to be loved, hugged, and so much more...

Forever more I will always need them...

Post 4: "L'Infante Ghost"

This morning, I Grandpa Gaga shot some pictures of the old dress form that has been playing Virgin Mary in a barbed wire petticoat for years in the corner of my bedroom, and with a little Photoshop came up with two very simple versions of a basic no frills "Infante" inspired of course by Velasquez's famous portrait. The first is in full glorious color, the second a little more monochromatic and ghostly...That's a start, now let's get creative Anay!

Post3: The Bubble Wrap Ruff

Actually, our old friend Michael who just joined the project came by last night with a roll of stiff bubble wrap, and that seamed like a great material to play with, so Anay cut it in three 15" strips we taped together end to end, and I accordeon pleated it and ran 3 rows of elastic braid through about one inch from the edge. It worked great and our new bubble wrap ruff fans out beautifully.

Post 2: Ruffs

We started brainstorming about props, and one that came to mind right away was the ruff. For those of you who do not know the word, I am talking about those large round Elizabethan collars made famous by, who else, Queen Elizabeth I. A number of people have used them, we just need to come up with a different one.

Now, what could we possibly make a ruff out off: fabric and lace or tulle of course, but also why not paper, plastic, leather, wood, feathers, fur, even metal, or any combination thereof...

Post 1: First Tests

Posted by Grandpa Gaga

Yesterday, Anay put on a "ninja-kabuki" face with a face painting kit left over from Halloween, and we shot some quick pictures to test the idea. We both like dark humour, strange things, the Goth look, and ran across some great pictures by ANGS-IN-WALD of the androgynous German musician Sopor Aeternus that inspired us to try and come up with our own brand of whacky images using Anay as a model. For the purpose of this blog, Anay will post as Princess Gaga, and I the adoptive grandfather behind the scene as Grandpa Gaga.