Post 31: "The Baby Boomer"

  Yeah, that's us, not so pretty... But we won't give up, will we? A lot of symbolism in there, my favorite grandmother's school book maxim calligraphy page, my dad's square and plumb line, as well as his Red Cross medal, my grandfather's very old Picon card deck(my favorite French apéritif), an antique "Le Coq" Marseilles soap as a fig leaf, a couple of chips on my shoulders, "Les Globes du Roi Soleil", the memory of all our dogs guarding our hearts. My best friend had polio in 1957, we were scared shitless. He survived... This one took a while...

Post 30: " The Infanta Maria Theresa with her Dwarfs"

I spent the next couple of days on the computer adding stuff to the original image in Photoshop. Maria Theresa seems to have liked dogs, chocolate, gambling, card games, and playing with her pet dwarfs... She was eventually married to her double first cousin King Louis XIV of France by her father the King of Spain Philip IV for political reasons. Talk of inbreeding... After the marriage ceremony, Louis wanted to consummate the marriage as quickly as possible. However the new queen was granted by her mother in law (and aunt) the privilege that the consummation would be private, and not public as was the custom.

Notice in the background a miniature version of the gigantic "Globes du Roi Soleil" that I saw at the Bibliotèque Nationale on my last stay in Paris.

She put up graciously with all her husband mistresses, and upon her death at the age of 44, the King said: "This is the first trouble which she has given me".

It has been suggested that she was the unnamed "great princess" who, according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, originally said "Let them eat cake" (and not Marie Antoinette of Austria almost a century later).

Velasquez Portrait of Maria Theresa of Spain with two watches.

Post 29: "The Infanta Maria Theresa with Wooden Legs"

I found this wonderful leather laced wooden leg on eBay, and just had to use it and do another Infanta version. This one is a reference to the famous portrait of Maria Theresa with the watches by Velasquez, using my Grandfather and Great Grandfather's watches hanging on the barbed wire petticoat, and my Grandmother's fan. The embroidered velvet "bustier" is actually an antique altar trim that we somehow wrapped around Jojo and bunched up behind her back.

Post 28: Grandma Gaga's visit

My dear old friend Jojo came down to visit for the week-end, and was drafted into posing for some Lady Gaga spoofs, which she did with her usual gusto.
The bubble wrap ruff had been made originally with Princess Gaga in mind as the model, but she has been unavailable, and school has started back up, so Grandpa Gaga has to go on on his own for therapeutic reasons...
I have to say Grandma Gaga looks damn good in this one!

Then, there is more...

Post 27: More Gaga Geishas

"THE SMILE"
"SAMURAI GEISHA"
"MADAME BUTTERFLY"
"LOOK, NO TEETH!"
"LA TRICOTEUSE"

I ended up adding a section to my website Photography Section called "SELF PORTRAITS GAGA", and another called "UNCLE GAGA GAGS", which I will continue to update as new gaga ideas take form.

Post 26: Uncle Gaga poses as a "geriatric geisha"

"GEISHA GAGA"

Time has flown and I have not been posting the new stuff as it happened. Let's catch up. There have been two new collaborators to the project, Uncle Gaga and Grandma Gaga, and I think we got some pretty good stuff. First, my old friend Michael decided he was going to pose for me a Geisha, and what a Geisha he was!
"FOREVER DEMURE"
"EMPIRE OF THE SUN"
"COCK THE COCK"
"BOO!"