I just celebrated my first 6 months here in Portland, and (finally) moved into my permanent pad in NE…I can get down to posting more frequently than ONCE A MONTH. I’m finding that there are so many brave, talented artists here it’s scary, and Wayne Bund is no exception. He’s a Portland-based photographer and performance artist who can also host a damn fine party. He braved an 8am call in the freezing cold (I may be losing a toe) to channel his inner Ewok with me in the Forest of Endor Mt. Tabor park, and Tucker Cullinan added a little magic, like he’s expertly done in previous posts.
Not a thought in that pretty head (photo by Summer Olsson)
I wrote a short piece for artist Kevin Truong’s online art project, The Gay Men Project, and somehow managed to not sound like an asshole. Started in the Summer of 2012 (coincidentally, it seems, around the time I started my own artistic journey), TGMP is a visual portrait of gay men all over the world. Inspired by Kevin’s own difficulties coming out, it’s intended to be a resource for those who may not have access to positive examples of gay men, or simply an interesting catalog highlighting the diversity within the community. Click here to check out my piece. I might actually be learning to come across as articulate and intelligent. So, you know, fooling everyone.
photo by Summer Olsson, digital artistry by Tucker Cullinan
Do what you love. Be brave. Take a chance.
These are all things I’ve talked about often on this blog, since my decision to take an artistic sabbatical and share the journey with others. Recently, I met someone else who took a similar leap: Michelle Lesniak-Franklin, winner of Season 11 of Project Runway (yup, it was her I was writing about at the end of this previous post). You’ll remember her personal style and razor-sharp wit, and probably her obsession with wolves, too.
I met the Portland native at her studio last week to chat, and she was just as funny, tough, and candid as she appeared to be on the show. She was also game for a photo shoot in Portland’s Japanese Gardens, inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s anime classic, “Princess Mononoke”.
BLCKSMTH: We share an obsession for the periodic table of elements. My personal token of strength is the “Fe” symbol for Iron, and yours seems to be “Au” for Gold. When did the transition happen from the name of the brand “Michelle is well” to “Au”?
Michelle Lesniak-Franklin: I got advice from a friend and investor about the name “Michelle Is Well”, that it sounds like a hospital update. “Oh, we went to the hospital to visit Michelle, how is she?” “She’s doing great, Michelle is…well.” I never loved it either, I thought it sounded really juvenile, but was something that just stuck.
I like to be smart, and articulate, and slightly geeky. And so the periodic table…you know I have a little bit of a science background, it just stuck with me. And I wanted it to be Au, to represent a golden moment, a golden piece of clothing that will stay in your closet until the end of time. You know it’s geek chic, but there’s also something tough and hard about gold. Continue reading →
(l. to r.) Michael James Schneider, Michelle Lesniak Franklin. Photo and mask construction by Summer Olsson, digital artistry by Tucker Cullinan.
Do what you love. Be brave. Take a chance.
These are all things I’ve talked about often on this blog, since my decision to take an artistic sabbatical and share the journey with others. Recently, I met someone else who took a similar leap: Michelle Lesniak-Franklin, winner of Season 11 of Project Runway (yup, it was her I was writing about at the end of this previous post). You’ll remember her personal style and razor-sharp wit, and probably her obsession with wolves, too.
I met the Portland native at her studio this week to chat, and she was just as funny, tough, and candid as she appeared to be on the show. She was also game for a photo shoot in Portland’s Japanese Gardens, inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s anime classic, “Princess Mononoke”.
BLCKSMTH: You were excited when I brought up the “Princess Mononoke” concept of the photo shoot, are you a fan of Miyazaki?
Michelle Lesniak-Franklin: I am, definitely!
Explain a little bit of the wolf obsession, please.
At the time of being on the show, you’re alone during filming, and you don’t have your friends and family there. You don’t have your support system for weeks and weeks, and you’re cut off from the world. I felt, too, that my garments weren’t being received very well. Not having the fashion background, it started making me think, “Oh, I’m not good at this, no one will like my aesthetic, it’s not supposed to be out there in the world.” It started getting me down, and I felt like “You can’t be in this dark space, think of a power animal, put yourself into an animal that can survive through all odds.” And it was the wolf. And I ended up being pretty dangerous for the other people. Continue reading →
It’s not for lack of material that I haven’t done a “4 Things” post since my big announcement in February. I’ve been living in between two cities since then, and working on the book a lot, so it’s been tough to consistently write for BLCKSMTH. But I think I’ve reached an equilibrium, and saw 4 amazing things recently that gave my creativity a boost (click here to check out previous “4 Things” posts). Here are this month’s, in no particular order:
1) SpaceX! Wow, I had no idea what I was in for. A new friend, Meharban, showed me the SpaceX warehouse in Hawthorne, CA. SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, who gave a really excellent TED interview a few months ago (ya know, the guy who also invented PayPal and Tesla Motors? Yeah, that guy). As we entered the vast front office space, Meharban gestured casually over to a large open cubicle: “Oh, Elon’s here today.” OH HOLY SHIT, ELON’S HERE my brain shouted as I nodded casually, noting the intense man hunched over his monitor. Continue reading →
Have you ever discovered a secret world that was right under your nose, maybe even right in your neighborhood? It could be a speakeasy that shouldn’t be there, a great band that no one knows about (yet), or a person who creates breathtaking art that very few people have seen. I’m a little obsessed with finding those in Portland lately…one of my favorites in Los Angeles is The Museum of Jurassic Technology, check it out if you’re there.
In the meantime, here’s my soundtrack while sleuthing around Portland, looking for hidden worlds and new experiences. Shoot me an email at mkschndr@gmail.com if you know of any I should check out (or! Use my email to SPAM THE SHIT OUTTA ME).
And if you like these, check out the soundtracks for April and February.
Obviously, painfully staged photo of Michael James Schneider photo by Summer Olsson
10 months ago, I left my safety net in a career that I had for 20 years, and that I was great at. I put my career on pause for a few months to pursue things that only fulfilled me artistically and creatively, and I knew I was starting from the ground up: I’ve never been trained as a painter, as a writer, or as a set designer or interior decorator (if you’re using The Internets for the very first time, congratulations! You can click any of those red words to see examples of my stuff). Was it scary? Hell yes. Did I second guess myself? Uh, yeah, constantly. But before I started making art, I used to feel like I was complacent, sleepwalking through life.
For about a month after I left my job, I treated it like a vacation. “I’m gonna go to New York for a couple of weeks and live it up!” “I’m gonna sit on my ass all day and read back issues of McSweeney’s!” “I’m going to take about 800 pictures of my cat Ned!” But I quickly realized that I was my own boss now, I would have to give myself the daily kick in the pants to motivate myself. So I wrote down my plan, and then set it in motion. I started this blog about the journey, opened up my Etsy shop. Then the tour of my LA apartment was published on Apartment Therapy…and then the shit hit the fan. It sent me reeling, and made me flee Los Angeles for softer pastures. For awhile there “How are you doing, Mike?” was a bit of a loaded question that people started being afraid to ask, lest I burst into tears.
Discovering, relishing, interviewing, meeting, embracing. Loving this city. Making my decision deliberately, carefully, gingerly. I have a playlist, much like Alt-J during my February visit, that is the soundtrack to my life this visit. Mostly old stuff, some new. Hope you dig these.
Yeah, yeah, I’m pretty damn late to the party, but this band is my (and Summer’s) personal soundtrack when exploring Portland. The band, an English indie-rock quartet, was formed in 2007, and their debut was released here in the states in September. Most of the tracks on their album, An Awesome Wave, are great soundtracks when you have just vanquished your enemy and you are walking (in slow motion) away from the massive fireball.
Here’s a milder one, set in a modern interpretation of Raphael’s “The School Of Athens” (yes I found this out from the comments).
“This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” from l to r: Summer Olsson, Michael James Schneider, Sammi, the extremely patient Clyde Common bartender
“Two roads diverged in a wood”…no, that’s not the quote I’m trying to remember. “Life moves pretty fast; you don’t stop and look around once in awhile you could miss it.” Yup, that’s the one. Thanks Ferris.
I spent the last week exploring Portland, Oregon, for the first time. I fell in love with the city, as I had a suspicion I would. I met a lot of really wonderful people, reconnected with a crap-ton of old friends, conquered formerly-debilitating fears, and almost sliced people’s fingers off when I gave them my business card. The life-changing consequences of all this love are at the end of this post.
1) Summer in Winter! I had a blast creating art with my friend Summer Olsson (Google her)…she’s truly a fun, talented, smart person to create art with! (UPDATE: This was pretty much our soundtrack the entire visit). One brainstorm of ours was to create the characters of Fern and Clyde, two clowns moving to Portland. With the skilled photography of Aaron Warren, we dressed and painted our faces, and created a story in photos and a 6-second Vine clip that tells their story. Follow me on Facebook to get the whole story, released on Wednesdays and Saturdays! Continue reading →
