Monthly Archives: February 2012

February 15, 2012 — A Fashion Interlude

Recent­ly I had the good for­tune of meet­ing one of Ling-Ai’s nieces who had saved many of Ling-Ai’s papers and pos­ses­sions.  I am cur­rent­ly por­ing through doc­u­ments and pieces of paper, look­ing for clues that tell more about the mak­ing of KUKAN.  It can be a tedious job.  So I took an after­noon off to explore some of Ling-Ai’s fash­ion acces­sories that had been painstak­ing­ly packed away.  Ling-Ai had an obvi­ous flair for fash­ion.  And the vin­tage clothes lover in me went gaga as I opened this eye-catch­ing tres MOD turquoise hat box. 

Photo of Li Ling-Ai's Hat Box.

Li Ling-Ai’s Mod Turquoise Hat Box could be a fash­ion acces­so­ry in itself

 

The con­tents of the box did not dis­ap­point.  I dis­cov­ered three exquis­ite­ly craft­ed lit­tle num­bers.  A pink bro­cade small saucer hat with a stun­ning plume was my favorite.

Photo of Li Ling-Ai's Nick Savage pink brocade hat.

Plumed pink bro­cade hat by Nick Savage

 
I had a lot of fun imag­in­ing the type of occa­sion Ling-Ai chose to wear this hat to.
 
 
Photo of pink brocade hat.
 
Photo of Nick Savage pink brocade plumed hat owned by Li Ling-Ai
While pho­tograph­ing this hat, I noticed the amaz­ing crafts­man­ship that went into it’s construction.
 
Photo of detail from pink brocade hat by Nick Savage

Detail of pink bro­cade hat.

A signed label was sewn into the inside lin­ing of the hat.  Nick Sav­age appears to be the tal­ent­ed milliner who made it.
 
Photo of inside of pink brocade hat
These next two pieces were also made by Nick. And are equal­ly exquisite.
 
 
Photo of gold ponytail hat by Nick Savage.

Gold pony­tail hat by Nick Savage.Gold-banded camel­lia hat by Nick Savage

 
 
 
Photo of gold-banded camellia hat by Nick Savage

Gold-band­ed camel­lia hat by Nick Savage

 

The lit­tle details are mar­velous. Check out the sep­a­rate braid­ed strands that start this gold pony-tail plume.

Photo of gold ponytail saucer hat by Nick Savage

 And the per­fect posi­tion­ing of the bro­cad­ed fabric.
 
Gold ponytail saucer hat by Nick Savage.
The camel­lia on this inven­tive piece was a lit­tle a squished, but I imag­ine it was pret­ty sump­tious when Ling-Ai wore it back in the day.
 
Photo of gold-banded camellia hat by Nick Savage
Gold-banded camellia hat by Nick Savage
 
I could­n’t find any infor­ma­tion on the inter­net about the tal­ent­ed Nick Sav­age.  But I did find a lit­tle label in the inside of this camel­lia hat. 
 
 
 It had a New York City address — 350 East 50th Street — from Google Maps it looks to be a build­ing just off Lex­ing­ton Ave.  If any fash­ion­istas have any more infor­ma­tion on him, please let me know.  I have Mr. Sav­age’s millinery gifts, Li Ling-Ai’s fash­ion sense and her niece’s fore­sight to thank for a won­der­ful after­noon spent in a world of gamorous fantasy. 
 
Black velvet rhinestone and pearl studded hat from Li Ling-Ai's collection.

Black vel­vet rhine­stone and pearl stud­ded hat from Li Ling-Ai’s collection.

 
To top off my post I’ll leave with a few shots of anoth­er gor­geous top­per in Ling-Ai’s col­lec­tion (by an unknown maker).
 
 Detail of Velvet Hat
 

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February 19, 2012 — What do HUGO and FINDING KUKAN have in common?

Film Poster for HUGO

Mar­tin Scorce’s HUGO is a trib­ute to film pio­neer Georges Melies

 

Like many peo­ple who were charmed by Scorcese’s recent film HUGO, I had lit­tle knowl­edge of ear­ly film his­to­ry or Georges Melies before see­ing the movie, so I head­ed to the inter­net after­wards to find out a lit­tle more about him.

 

Photo of Ben Kingsley & Martin Scorcese on the set of HUGO

Ben Kings­ley (cen­ter right, as Georges Melies) con­fers with director/producer Mar­tin Scors­ese (far right) on the set of HUGO, from Para­mount Pic­tures and GK Films. Pho­to: Jaap Buitendijk.

 

Although Melies is rec­og­nized today as an ear­ly film inno­va­tor with a fab­u­lous imag­i­na­tion, he fell out of favor dur­ing his life­time and many of his films were melt­ed down or destroyed.

Still from Melies's THE MAN WITH THE RUBBER HEAD

Still from Melies’s THE MAN WITH THE RUBBER HEAD

 

While read­ing about Melies, I ran across Wikipedia’s list of Redis­cov­ered Films. Hap­pi­ly a cou­ple of Melies’s films from the 1890s have been redis­cov­ered in this century.

 

Excerpt from Wikipedia's List of Rediscovered Films - 1890s

Excerpt from Wikipedi­a’s List of Redis­cov­ered Films — 1890s

 

Scrolling down the list, look what film shows up in the 1940’s … Rey Scott’s KUKAN!

 

Excerpt from Wikipedia's List of Rediscovered Films - 1940s

Excerpt from Wikipedi­a’s List of Redis­cov­ered Films — 1940s

 

And that’s the answer to a film triv­ia ques­tion that might some­day be asked on a game show in the far future – HUGO and FINDING KUKAN are both about redis­cov­er­ing lost films and for­got­ten filmmakers.

 

Georges Melies postage stamp

In 1961 the French gov­ern­ment issued a postage stamp in hon­or of Georges Melies’s cin­e­mat­ic contributions.

 

Maybe some­day KUKAN, Rey Scott, and Li Ling-Ai will have a postage stamp ded­i­cat­ed to them too.

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January 30, 2012 — Georgia Remote Shoot

I got goose bumps when I first saw Michelle Scott’s paint­ings on her web­page two years ago, and I’ve been a fan of her work ever since. Since my dis­cov­ery of KUKAN, Michelle has been using her grand­fa­ther Rey Scott’s Chi­na pho­tographs in her paintings.

Painting by Michelle Scott

Bat­tle Cry” by Michelle Scott

Recent­ly she cre­at­ed a cou­ple of excit­ing new paint­ings for a group show at 2Rules Fine Art Gallery that will open on Feb­ru­ary 3rd in Mari­et­ta, Geor­gia. While seat­ed at my desk in Hawaii, I was able to inter­view Michelle about that process with the help of Skype and Atlanta DP Wes Brown­ing of Sema Films.

Photo of Robin Lung in Hawaii office

Direc­tor Robin Lung con­ducts Skype inter­view from Hawaii.

 

Wes also got some nice shots of Michelle putting some final touch­es on her paint­ings before deliv­er­ing them to 2Rules. Wes and Skype facil­i­tat­ed anoth­er vir­tu­al meet­ing and inter­view with gallery own­er Becky Rule. Of course I would have loved to do be there in per­son for it all, but I’m thank­ful that Skype and Wes allowed me to be a vir­tu­al part of it. Here are some pho­tos Wes took of the shoot.


 

Becky Rule of 2Rules Fine Art

 

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