i have a picture… pinned to my wall
it’s no secret that i’m the most sentimental person out there. who keeps, and collects, everything. every little piece of something that has meaning has been tucked away somewhere for me to find again & relive that moment. and in this complete overhaul of my life this month aka moving back into a studio by myself, i’ve dedicated this new clarity (aka more sober than not moments) to thoroughly going through what is important to keep and what is absolutely necessary to get out of my life, my head, my heart etc in order to move forward. yeah, i know sounds pretty fucking hippie for me. this i know. but i’ve felt the three years i’ve spent in this apartment was a drunken detour to the rest of my life which is about to get fucking epic. now, now… didn’t say i was sitting in meetings drinking coffee & smoking ciggarettes (not that there is in anyway anything wrong with that.) just charting a little personal growth here. and am in the process of throwing out entire boxes of mementos, because holding onto a shoe box with notes that said you loved me is not doing a fucking thing for me right now. change is good. i need to remind myself. letting go of the past is damn near essential, and holding my head up high when i kind of feel like dying inside, well sometimes its harder than usual.
anyway. back to the fun stuff.
i’ve collected images and pinned, taped, and collaged every wall of every room i’ve ever lived in all my life.
i’ve decided that all the images below will not be on display in my new digs. mainly cos the place is pretty small and i don’t want to look like an insane psychopath covering all my walls in weird little pictures. i’ve scanned and archived everything that i had on my collage wall in the avenue D apartment (probs should’ve taken a flick of it before i dismantled but oh well.) and so the process of moving (and moving on) begins.
this image has no shit been on every wall of my room since i was in high school it’s from Raygun magazine which was one of my big photo inspirations as teenager. i love this image a lot, but perhaps 16 years of staring at the same image… well, it’s time to let go.
here’s a little collage from the wall. the top left photo is one i took of my brother in FL when i was 10, i might put that in a little frame in the new spot, not sure yet. the polaroid was a self portrait from my park slope apt in 2005. photobooth was from a theme party i threw @ remote lounge in 2003. helmut newton one is a fave shot. funny little japanese tape stuck to polaroid from a magazine test shot from when we opened c.rons on mulberry was taken in june 2004.
dali & mia farrow. i took this from a photo collection i shot for Swann Galleries back in 2002. i used to have it hanging above the door peep hole in my park slope studio in 2003.
this was a postcard that my homey louis sent me from china. i love louis. his nickname for me is “hard nosed cupcake.” that’s how he addressed this postcard to me as well.
me, niks, and athena. my best friends for over a decade. we’re all pisces. this was taken on the N train from Astoria in 1998-99. i think i’m rocking white eyeshadow in this one. (!!!) we’re all babies in this one.
this one has hung above light switches in two of my apartments. one of my favourite harry benson shots of all time.
this was my wall in the carroll gardens apt in 1999-2002. top left is a picture i took in 1996 @ liquid sky of my college roommate krista, dog painting was 1/2 of a cat/dog series done by my friend emily malone as a birthday gift to me & nikki b., little kid crayon w. tempera paint courtesy of my little bro tommy o in kindergarten, weird little black & white was a senior high photo winner, and the one to the left of that is a portrait i took of nesto @ coney island high tuesdays in 1997.
this one is from my aunt marybeth’s wedding in june 1980 on the upper west side. story is that my dad’s cousin Dan McIntyre was hired to shoot the wedding and got so drunk at the reception that the only great pictures are of me, aged 3. i was pretty fucking cute as a kid.
this is a photo i found at a flea marked in chelsea in 2005 when i was wandering around w. MZ. I looked at it and all i thought is what i wrote on the image. pretty much.
more c.rons test shots. these are from the elizabeth street store. 2003.
i used to love these little guys. i have a collection of over 300 stickers from neoprint machines. this one was from 2004. we had a machine at a c.rons/teen vogue party at the mulberry street store. kept intact cos i like the pop art/repetitious image effect. i was blonde in this picture. funny.
my all time fave shot of kate by Nick Knight. 1998.
ha. this one cracks me up. it was a flyer for my friend hillery’s 30th bday. 2006, i think.
this is the menu from the Standard Downtown LA that looks like ali. this is when i was out there for Tony’s bday in 2005 and we took this fucking thing everywhere, as if ali was there with us. those pictures can be found here.
photobooths w. niks & jennie pack. 2001.
from my aunt marybeth’s balcony on the upper west. 1980. l-r: my cousin bill (r.i.p.), my uncle tim (r.i.p.), aunt mem (who everyone says i remind them of), cousin rita, aunt bernadette, my dad’s the dude in the back w. the sweet stache (r.i.p.), and the guy poking out the window is my uncle vin, who is pretty much a street bum/alcoholic in my hometown & bewilders me as to why he’s still around & my pops and uncle aren’t.
me & baby brother. 1983. love the shit out of this kid. for real.
the top one is from marilyn’s last sitting shot by bert stern, the bottom is from a kate spread inspired by marilyn’s last sitting, think it was in interview mag 2004 or so.
this one was a fortune i got when i was going thru a situation with someone. not revealing years to protect the innocent, but will say i’m pretty sure i still am.
helmut newton postcard given to me on my 30th birthday by roommate jason in 2006.
this if from a nylon guys mag story about denim. kate w. johnny, kate w. pete. 2006-07?
me & karim @ guido pete’s wedding. 2005? they had a photobooth, we drank champagne for 12 hours that day. epic day.
rolling stones. don’t know where i got this one.
i dream of going to paris & falling in love w. a dark haired, dark eyed parisian who smokes too many ciggarettes.
marvin gaye will always remind me of my father.
this one was given to me by my friend joe maida, who i met when i went to governor’s school for photo in summer 1994. i have not seen joe since then but we kept in touch for awhile, sending eachother letters and talking about going to deee lite concerts. all i remember is he was pretty much my gay boyfriend for 5 weeks that summer & his astrological sign is cancer. i love this photo. i wonder how he’s doing.
this still pisses me off i never got a bike pad. something i started that became something else. but a piece of time none the less. summer 2006.
postcard for a photo show. shot is of the crowd at the jam’s last show in london. think 1981 it was taken. 1982.
this one i chose to be the last. i didn’t remember why or what had drawn me to this image, i used to have it on my wall in the park slope studio (2003-2005). then when i pulled it down off my wall i read the back of it, posted below the image. i mean the girls outfit is pretty bad, the newspaper front page clip is pretty epic, and the sentiment of just having that hand on the knee seems sweet. but then i read the back of it….
“That’s all i wanted to say. But everything always takes a little longer than you think.”
The others i’ve kept, but this last one, i’ve thrown out.
