… and there we went

Of course things are very different now then how things were in the 60’s or 70’s (where we are now in my story, 1968 to be exact) when the most important thing was to expand and discover your mind (at least for me and also for Salvador) and travel the world to see and live different cultures, discover the people, the good, the bad and the beauty of nature. Actually a lot of people felt like that, it was like a wave, spread out like that everywhere a bit. Now the wave is about money. Everything is in a hurry, faster and more controlled and that is scary, so money can save you, at least many think so and employ all kinds of ways to get it. Money can be a good thing but only when earned honestly and if possible with something you like and stand behind, but it is certainly not the most important thing….… To say it all in a different way ” I had enough” and that is true, did not care about the money I could earn, wanted to feel like a bird, not swim in the pool with the sharks, free to go anywhere and I cannot tell you what a great feeling it is to go somewhere without a return ticket and see what happens till a new place is calling…

We decided for Panama for some reason and took a boat from Milan with first stop Venezuela which did not look like a cool place to us, people called us aggressive words because of Salvador’s long hair and the way we were dressed, we did meet a wonderful girl who brought us to her home but back on board  we worried that Panama was much the same so we decided to get off at the next port which was Willemstad in Curacau. There the Customs kept us for hours and took off our Tape recorder (we traveled with an Akai of a considerable size), took off my magazines and our passports, went through all our luggage. They were mean and made me cry. They decided we could not stay so we had to take the next plane out, wherever it was going. No hotel would take us so we slept on a big table on the beach. The next evening the plane left for Prince-town, Jamaica, which sounded good to us but the customs were already waiting for us and they flipped over the way we looked, me in maxy fur coat and mini-dress and Salvador in leather jacket and long hair, they took one look and put us back on the plane that was now heading for George town in British Guiana where we arrived late at night, tired and hungry and they did not like us either so again back on the plane with as last stop Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. There we had to stay about a week because there was no plane leaving anywhere, again things and passports were taken off and they decided where we had to stay, very nice Hotel indeed but also very expensive and the only memory I have of that stay is that one day when we went to the pool, there was a commotion as a little boy (son of an ambassador) was laying on the bottom of the pool so Salvador dove in straight away and got him out and tried to revive him and gave him mouth to mouth but it was too late.… so sad.… his brothers were standing around in disbelieve and horror .… something like that you never forget.

Finally a plane is leaving with destination Belem, Brazil!

…And that felt straight away very different, we were of course paranoid but the customs were very kind and there we were.… Now what? Then we met in the airport this young man, traveler like us, who told us we should go to Parati and we should look up Jose Kleber, a poet and writer who lived there, and so we did. It was a long trip via Bahia, where it was raining and raining, no Barclay bank and we had to take a small boat that took hours along the coast to Parati, located between Rio and Sao Paulo, we stayed in Rio for a day or 2 but I did not like it, all the girls were after Salvador and we hardly could walk in the streets. Since I was very pregnant you can imagine what this boat trip was like for me but we got there after very long hours and what a place, our hearts cheered up, this looked like an incredible place and it was. We were guided to Jose straight away and it was as we knew each other since always and he gave us that beautiful old Portuguese house to stay and we became very good friends. Jose was one of those persons one never forgets but keeps in his heart with the fondest of memories, like I said he was a writer and he already had his problems with the government for speaking out but he was also a lawyer and he also had a bar ” El Valhaguto” which was beautiful, half without roof and trees inside.

 

This pictures were taken by Jose Kleber.

Every day we made   Fabada, The famous Brazilian Rice and beans, never forget, fry the bacon and the garlic, fry the rice, put water and red beans ….… Healthy and delicious, with a green salad at the side. We spend marvellous days, in the interview below they say we woke up each day at 4 in the afternoon but that is exaggerated, we went out to the beach and to the islands around, so beautiful and unspoiled. Salvador made an exhibition of drawings  and sold some so we could get around, there were some artists there and all together we had a great time

This came out while we were there

There was a bit of commotion in the village because of the plant Salvador is holding in the window picture…… and you have to know Portugese to read it.

Parati is of course still there and became a popular place which is logic because it is one of these places that have magic. Again there are many stories to tell (no place and time here) but after a few months it became clear that having the baby born there would not be that cool, there was no hospital and the stories we heard… so I had to go somewhere else and then we met Miquel, a French journalist who had come to Parati and he had friends in LA, I should go there… and Salvador was going with him making a reportage of the Amazon and take pictures from a helicopter for Paris Match. Salvador sold our Akai tape-recorder and I took the plane for LA with only the address of the friend of Miquel in my pocket and apparently she was going to pick me up….…

 

LOVE and PEACE

 

After Hamburg back to Morocco where we rode horses, Salvador wearing a white Burnous ( Moroccan cape) on a white horse and me with a black cape on a black horse trotting through Marrakech, must have been quite a sight. Now, I was actually scared to death of horses because as a child of about 6 I fell under a horse and he (or she) kicked me and bit me in my arm, it was very scary and for years I had nightmares that horses were following me up the stairs and the door to my house would not open. Of course I did not want to show Salvador I was afraid and I got on this young wild horse that began jumping up with his hind legs and tried in all kind of ways to throw me off but I was determent to stay on, YES! The funny thing is that a young man who was used to riding got thrown off and broke a leg just as he got on the horse after me to show me how… These were one of the most scary moments in my life as one day we went galloping into some wild dessert land, hair in the wind, burnous flying, Salvador far in front of me, when all of a sudden the horse stops and bends his forelegs trying to throw me off by bending his head and upper body down so I could very easily slide off or thrown off by the shock of the abrupt stopping and there in front of me I see an endless deep black hole and I really don’t know how, but I managed to turn the horse, wow, imagine falling in that hole which, they later told us, were abandoned wells, nobody would ever find you!

Next stop Marbella, wonderful, the best time of Marbella I think, great restaurants very nice people, beautiful scenery, beach… all that is very different now but is still Marbella of course and it was there that I found out I was pregnant. While in Spain this pictures came out that were originally published for Stern in Germany about my display dolls but here they say something completely different, such a fantasy, if you read Spanish….

With friends we went to Sardenia where we stayed for a little while in an abandoned school, very romantic, but the wind drove us to Milan where they were waiting for me to do some work before my pregnancy was going to show. Here are some of the pictures I did….

Love those Pucci´s!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the street we met an Italian friend of Salvador, a young man with a camera and he took this picture which I  like very much….…

.…A while later we went to check out Rome and again we met this young man who gave us the picture and asked us to pose for him with clothes of a friend which he later would try to get placed, we had all a very good time, met plenty of artists living in an incredible old Palace. This photographer is Carlo Orsi, now famous and doing great pictures for all the big magazines. Here are the pictures, they did get published…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am telling this storybecause it is so nice to know some of the excellent creators when they started. Toscani was one of them, the first times I worked with him he made his living room of the small apartment he and his wife were living into a studio and there is Arthur Elgort who took pictures of us in the streets of NY and in Paris whenJean Paul Gaultier was just starting and he designed for Reveillon Furs I worked with him and he told me that he could choose the model and he had chosen me, (what honour) already then I knew he was going to go very far by the way he was styling me, and he is still one of my very favourite designers and is funny how such a memory stays with you so vividly.… Then there was Thierry Mugler and Montana and the wonderful Alaiia, just fresh, first collection! Gianni Versace´s first collection was big time and he had chosen me to open the show by coming down on a swing, then there are hairdressers and make up artist that became famous… Yes,…reminiscing, sorry I talk mostly about myself but there are a few reasons for that, first of all I am the one I know most about and because I lived already quiet a while I have friends that are with me because they were there and other friend that would like to know because they were not there, but mostly because for once and for all I have to get my story straight and like this I am organizing pictures and memories before they are gone… still a long way to go…

This came out at that time ( the pictures are taken in Milan )in the Dutch Telegraaf, hollands biggest newspaper and if you read Dutch you can check it but it is all nonsense. In short they are saying that I am now becoming a millonair because of my display Dolls and it quotes me as saying that I am tired of being photographed and flying around the world so now I just want to be on a beach… and that was true and thats where we are going next…. My little bank book works fine but stick with me on that one…

LOVE and PEACE

 

It is 1967 and the first time I set foot in England. Already I had crossed half the globe with only a backpack, from Holland to Japan over land, crossing Europe, Turkey, Afghanistan, Persia (Iran), Pakistan, India, Nepal, East Pakistan, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, this was in the very early sixties when I just had finished my studies and the round trip took more than 2 years. To Paris I had been already a lot of times, had been in Spain and Scandinavia but London was new for me and THE place to be in 1967 because it was in London the Fashion scene was happening and Fashion is my Passion.

Pic. 1. That is how I arrived at the agency, all in red, red velvet coat, red hat and red YSL platform sandals( check this: I had my name embroidered on my pocket and I remember doing that to all my dresses at that time, isn’t that funny?) The other 2 are from different articles but that black dress was of the most gorgeous vintage silk with velvet patterns.

I wanted to model and I came prepared with a book that I had made up of pictures I directed myself, printed myself and in which I was wearing all my own designs, it was a hit. The doors flew open, landed straight away in Vogue where in the dressing room I met Jean Shrimpton ( one of my idols) worked with David Bailey, Norman Parkinson and Helmut Newton and on top of that they were going to make a display doll of me!

London was wonderful, you could feel an excitement in the air, things were happening. Kings road, Chelsea market, Granny takes a trip…… In the meantime I was booked solid and on one of the trips with Helmut Newton to Morocco for the Sunday Times and some publicity’s, which all together took almost 3 weeks, I met Salvador, my husband on a shoot where Helmut asked him to be in the pictures…

I stayed in Morocco while the whole crew went back to London. My agency calling desperately because I was booked and nobody understood how I could simply leave while my fame in London had taken off and every photographer was eager to work with me? Well, for me it was much more important to live to the fullest my love and the beauties of life and Morocco was so magical at that time. At a point I had to go for a few days because Vogue was going to do a spread about my display dolls with Helmut Newton and it was planned to come out when my dolls were to be unveiled. Helmut said if I did not come he would break all the dolls and photograph them like that with the heads cut, funny.

After my return to Morocco we stayed an other 2 months until my dummy was to be launched. It was great to come to London with Salvador and everything was so well arranged, I was in the clouds.

From there we were invited to Hamburg ( Germany) for an interview for Stern magazine with Florentine Bapst as the reporter and Bockelberg the photographer:

 We stayed a few days and went back to Morocco.
My Display Dolls were a big success and I signed a contract whereby for every doll sold I would get 1 E. Pound ( about $10 at the time) and this would automatically go to my account which I had specially opened in the Barclay Bank for that matter and for which in exchange they gave me a lovely looking little bank book…….
will continue……

While staying in Canary Islands, some 12 years ago, I made up these Tarot cards following all the hidden signs, colours and shapes. Was great fun but also very difficult because I did it on water colour paper that is very bubbly and I did it in the actual card size which is quiet little and for the details a bit difficult to do. The thing is that it is hard to imagine now, but I did not have a computer! As a matter of fact I was one of these people that would think never to get one but here I am and my computer is my very close friend and through Her ( I know, but for me it’s a girl) I can talk to you and show you things that I have thought or done or experienced and so hopefully inspire some one or make some one smile or think for a moment… so that is why I am here talking to you and sharing with you all kind of things even that I know for a fact that almost nobody has time or is interested in some one’s else’s life as it is already such a task to have your own in order. But still, for the few and for myself this is a wonderful way to tell my story and also for me to organise all my memories so children and grand children and great grand children and so on can have a moment of fun and know where they come from as I have no idea about mine and think that is a pity, not that it will change anything but still……

Here is ” THE BIG ARCADE” of the Tarot, 1998

They are absolutely imperfect as they are not exactly the same size and so on as they are super “handmade” so to speak… so don’t look at that although I know that now you will….

Now, I have to say I am not a Tarot expert nor a Tarot reader, as a matter of fact I know little about it and that is because I don’t believe that cards or anything else can tell your future or your past or your fortune, no, but the Tarot does have something special because it is thought out very well and just by laying them out the way it should be,(there are many different ways depending on the circumstances) and you have a question or a thought in your mind , you can read from the cards something that maybe strengthens the thoughts you had and may change your thoughts a bit and so on, just looking at the cards will indicate a lot of things that may make you think, like coming in contact with your “inner” self, that is mostly what I like about the Tarot and just love the images and that is why I drew them, with the help of Salvador because I am not that good at drawing animals and men.

Next thing now on my to do list is again the Tarot but in big, like poster size, like that it is much easier to work the details and later you make them smaller on the computer and they will hopefully look very neat, guess it will take me about 3 or 4 months if I think 1 drawing will take me 2 or 3 days and there are 22, you know what I mean?

But in the meantime I will get back to you and next time I like to take you to London 1967-8

Yes, it happens that a picture of you gets published without being paid for it or without permission of the person who’s face or person is used for commercial purposes. With this I count the covers because after all the magazine often sells by its cover. The first time it happened to me when I was still studying and was looking at sculptures in an open air exhibition and someone took this picture,

Fine, next thing it is on the cover of ” De Katolieke Illustratie” ( The Catholic Illustration).

OK, OK I liked it, because well, it strokes your vanity, right? Nice picture too but still they could have asked to say the least. Next came this cover and I must say I really love this picture because it is natural, I mean we were just walking in the street of Ibiza and someone took a picture,

have no idea who, but saw it years later by accident somewhere and it is of course more rare for a model to be on a cover without having posed for it, that is why I like it, me and Alejandro. Still, again, would have been correct if they had asked permission. I guess it happens a lot and wonder if that is legal now at this day, for sure it was OK then to use someone’s face for anything if the photographer decided to sell it because he had it and it was a shot probably done during a fashion shoot, this book cover is by Helmut Newton, again I like the picture because it is also one shot in between? Wonder what photographers think of that. Found this book at a second-hand bookstore in Amsterdam.

but had seen it years before and had made my agent attend on it but they said they could do nothing because the picture was the photographers property! Honestly one feels a little bit abused. If you think about it could be used for anything… this is decent and really when one is working as a model it is hard to keep track because by the time the pictures come out you are somewhere else and except if you did some great shoots with a good photographer you would check it, but impossible to check everything. A whole other thing is when it becomes a bit sneaky like in the next 2 pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first one is a fashion session with Helmut Newton for NOVA, the wonderful avant-garde magazine and when the session was finished he asked me to do some with a lipstick, I thought nothing of it and with Helmut it is always fun to pose and I thought well, the lips on the blouse he wants to make a funny picture…, and well, he would give me sometimes originals too. Any case only a few years ago I saw the lipstick picture for the first time and was never asked or informed about it or paid for it. Everybody knows that for magazines editorials you get paid very little, it is rather an honour and it will give you automatically more commercial work and there is where you made the butter for the bread… any case, that is how it is, please let me know your thoughts, am I the only one?

Not much news otherwise except I like to say we saw ” A single man” by Tom Ford and I think it is a great movie, rare these days I would almost say and I am not a particular fan of Tom Ford.
Must admit he has a lot of charm and knows how to be in the lime light and has an admirable energy but I personally don’t like his Fashion designs too much, for man it is excellent I think, like Armani used to be in the 80 ties, looking good on everybody and still standing out like elegant. Well, this movie was all perfect as far as I am concerned, great story, great acting, great directing, great styling, great music and really great photography. Congratulations to Tom Ford and I would think he should stick mostly to making movies!
On an other tone I inform you that our lovely cat, called MOMI, did not come home for a week already but instead we found this creature… had never seen one from near, it is alive here but after hanging for a few days on the wall she left this life this morning…….

So often I stood in front of the cameras of some great photographers but I also like to be behind the lens. Love to make pictures, specially portraits, don’t know why but I always get close up, get that face, that moment, that expression.

Make the person feel beautiful and click!

APPLE SACKMAN

Not necessary to make a lot of shots but more then one so there is a choice. Here I made quiet a few and they are all good. To make a really nice picture you have to set it up though, think of the background and the light, invent a story or whatever, so you are prepared. In this case it was as easy as pie, such a beautiful girl as Apple and Alejandro such a good stylist, although both only 8, and my props ideal, but most important was the sky light in the “Atelier” we lived. June Newton was raving about it when she came to photograph us at home and yes, it was spectacular. Apple was very close friends with Alejandro, her mother Remi had been a model but was known as an extra ordinary stylist, years ahead of her time. Her father is Laurence Sackman, a renown photographer with whom I worked quiet a bit in Paris, we were good friends.

APPLE a few years later

On the other hand you may see a moment and say: Hold it,  and run for your camera but get there too late as the moment has gone. Now you can have the camera in your breast pocket, they are so small and yet everything is there, anyone can make a reasonable picture, or not? Still, the more you know about it, the better results are possible I think!

 

 

 

 

 

 

some of my favourites…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many friends that read this blog knew Apple at that time and I like to tell you that she is very well, beautiful as ever, is married and has a little boy and they live happily in Paris. She never wanted to be a model.

Next time we talk about photography I show you other ones, this time I leave you with Apple, so nice to look at….

… could not help myself….

…  playing with a portrait MARON did of me in 1969

which one you like better?

LOVE and PEACE

Lets go Photoshopping, I am a photoshopaholic…..

Isn’t this amazing? Salvador found this piece of hardware here on the farm and noticed the face so we took a picture which I then took to the photoshop, put the picture straight and gave with the darkening brush a little touch to accentuate the nose and a little stroke on the left of the mouth. Only so lightly, the strength at 14. Next thing is to play with the levels, here of course I made it darker, took it then to the colour enhancer and the face came leaping out. Fun he? Like that, one can see images everywhere really, we always see some incredible faces in the branches and leaves of trees or the clouds, free for everyone to look at, forever changing into incredible patterns and stories. Children take the time if you make them attend to it but in general mostly everybody is too busy to see.

There are so many possibilities with the photoshop but you need time a little imagination or talent and patience.
 This kind of thing is quiet simple, just play for a while with the possibilities you can find and off you go. The real picture here was more difficult to retouch because it was very damaged by time and since I had printed it myself it was not well fixed so it got discoloured spots on it. I learned photography from this particular photographer who clicked this picture, I did the styling and setting up and later did the whole darkroom thing. When I was coming out of school one day, I was about 19 and went to the Academie of Fine Arts, and was looking in the window of this Photoshop, when a little skinny, in my mind then, old man came out and asked me very nervously if he could make my portrait to put in the window and I thought it was funny and agreed so he started putting green lights and blue lights in my face, changing lamps and spots here and there and finally made some pictures with that big Camera with plates. About a week later when I passed I saw my picture in the window, an artistic shot full of colours, well, this is 50 years ago so it was different, I liked it and later I went several times with a girlfriend and had him make very funny shots of us which I would style and direct, his name was van Buren. On my afternoons off he would teach me the darkroom because I wanted to work the pictures myself. It was great fun, this wonderful moment when the picture is in the liquid and it slowly comes up…  I have had a variation of darkrooms in bathrooms and closets and even a very real one not long ago in Amsterdam. Love making pictures and now with the photoshop almost all pictures can be made to look good. Not professional, that is something else but at least the people who do have a feeling for it, can go ahead.

For some things you need the real Photoshop (Adobe), I have an 8 but there is already a 12, they are getting more and more sophisticated. Here I used the Filter in the galleries of Filters and then “Style”, just some click, click, click…
 then there is this, restoring the whole thing

 This is more precise and you do need patience here and it could have been even better but it really does take time, this already took me an hour!
Then I love to close up! Remember the movie “Blow-up” by Antonioni? With Verushka and David Hemmings.. ( if you did not see it, have a go) sometimes you see things in close up that you did not even see, like in the movie. Well the other day in the car on our way to Sherwood where we do our shopping, we saw in a field about a million birds and for some reason they all flew up and it was a cloud of birds

so I tried to get my camera out of my bag and open her and quick, quick, but too late… the birds had flown. I took a picture anyway from the car while we drove and when I closed up I saw that funny thing I had of course not noticed before and you probably also not, but one bird is flying the other way, like a general overlooking the army that is moving… Ha ha, are they not incredible? The birds I mean…

YES, TODAY I TAKE YOU ON A FASHION SHOOT FOR ITALIAN VOGUE!                      THE PHOTOGRAPHER IS STEVEN MEISEL AND THE LOCATION IS THE KOREAN CEMETERY IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES.

 At 8 o’clock sharp the chauffeur is at the door and off we go in a shiny black Mercedes, hair washed and a clean face, (only red lips because I don’t go anywhere without them) an other adventure! Never worked with Steven so that is fun and very curious who is going to be there. It took about 3 quarters of an hour to get there because of the heavy traffic most of us know so well. Upon arriving I was guided immediately to the breakfast table full of goodies, mostly very healthy ones. It was going to be a hot day… and there she was, beautiful Linda E:”hello. how are you, nice to meet you”

and slowly more and more people came on the scene: master  hairdresser Guido and his 5 disciples, Pat Mc Grath, the make up artists queen, with 5 or 6 of her followers, Vogue stylist Karl Templer and his band, several assistants, caterers, all wonderful people, very relaxed.

 

 

Finally Steven arrived and the commotion starts, fittings, this for you that for you, hmmm, that will look good on you  ,or no better this and so on. There were about 8 tents to accommodate the make up tables, A cabin to relax, a cabin to change, tables and tables of accessories and racks and racks of the most gorgeous clothes, YSL ( in who’s honour this shoot was), Chanel, Dior, Dolce y Cabana, Gaulthier, everything black!  Beautiful Bags by Chanel and Vuitton, great shoes but such high heels that even when I put them a few minutes, strictly for the picture, I got already cramps in my legs.

Steven knows exactly what he wants and does not shoot rolls and rolls of film, everybody is attend and the props are working, rain, fans for wind and blowing leaves. A few shots and they see the result immediately because they have an incredible set up going on.

 

 

One sits around a lot because they are preparing for the next shot and that is indeed a lot of work, there are

 

7 models here, 4 women and 3 men and each has to be made up and coifed and then dressed and then all the accessories, which take time to sort out: this hat with that gloves, no, better with the long gloves and a bracelet!

The make up artist that was assigned to me was very funny and entertaining, his name is Jeffrey A. Kyle (on Face Book).

The girls were wonderful and extremely beautiful I thought, good time to be a model now…..…

 

The lunch was fantastic  and everything went smoothly, a great day all together.

Around 5 or 6 the chauffeur was ready to bring me back, there were a lot of black cars that is for sure. Next day same thing…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…  this is what it takes….…                                                    

  and that is how it goes.…

It was Pat’s birthday, so there was a delicious cake and champagne to close the day. The wrap up, as they say!

… with some long moments in between, for Vogue no one is in a hurry because it is not that every minute costs a fortune like for publicity

 

 

 

 

interview by Linda Morand for MMM’s.In this interview you can read more about it and if you are still not bored

 

 

THIS IS THE STORY, here you can see some pictures of the Vogue spread.

Hope you enjoyed this one, I thought it was a good occasion to show the pictures I made that day… otherwise what do I do with them?

 

Sometimes it is difficult to decide what to write about, not because there is a lack of ideas here but on the contrary there are so many. I figure I will just start and see what it comes to. For one , and this is really true, this morning I said to Salvador; It is funny, everybody here sees a lot of deer in their backyards and here we hardly ever see one. Months ago one crossed the road right in front of our car but that was it. A bit later we were having breakfast and I look out and what do I see? Not 1 but 2 deer crossing the backyard!

Hardly had time to get my camera and I only got one at a time….  But don’t you think that is funny? Did the deer come because I was thinking of them or was I thinking of deer because they were going to come?

If you pay attention it happens all the time and it has something to do with your attention being fixed on a certain thing or person? Like when our baby was a baby we used to go walk with her in a baby-car and I noticed all of a sudden there were quiet a lot of women with baby cars in the street, never had noticed them before. Or when you are pregnant you notice a lot of women pregnant and so on…

No, today I wanted to talk a little bit about Julita, this morning I came across a picture of her and a ton of memories came streaming in. Julita was our land lady in Canary Islands, in a place called Guia, about 20 miles from Las Palmas. Salvador was already there when I arrived from America and had rented that place from Julita, which was a top floor in a building that never got finished ( the Spanish are good at that) but had 2 floors. Downstairs was Julita’s domain because she was very heavy and could not walk the stairs. She had an enormous “kitchen” which was from top till bottom filled with antiques and old stuff, plants hanging everywhere, some old fridges full of I don’t know what, mostly bloody meat as she had that dog that was enormous and looked like a lion, never saw one like that, and everybody was scared to death of him. If you could wrestle yourself through all the stuff , watching out not to bump your head on all the cans and pots and treasures that were hanging from the ceiling, there was a table to sit and have a coffee amidst the incredible screams of about a 100 birds and a few Persian cats in cages that had their way of smelling too. Julita was beautiful, always immaculate made up, black eyes and red lips. She loved to dress nice but never could find anything to please her because of her size. but she had an old sewing machine, the pedal kind, and as smart and convincing as she was, she had me make her a bunch of outfits, even a bra because she could not find one big enough and here in the USA I see them all over and when I see them I always have to think of Julita.

Here is Julita posing in the wedding dress I made her from materials she had, which where for curtains but she had a lot of it. It was a sleeveless dress with a jacket and it really looked great and beside her is her husband, not yet changed in his suit for which he would wait till the last minute. Behind them a painting of them young she asked Salvador to make.

Her bedroom was quiet small and had a door with iron bars like they have in jail and always triple locked, whether she was in or out the room. She once was attacked while in bed and they had stolen all her gold, Julita loved gold, always wearing a lot of it so now the people that came to see her had to talk through the iron bars. We were the only ones more or less that were allowed to go in there and had a visit if you could find a place to sit between the dolls and other things she collected. The walls were full of clocks, the ones that say Coo-coo and the once that announce each half hour with a clang! I counted once 37 of them and plenty of mirrors of course. She loved to be in bed, she would sit like a doll, with stretched legs because she could not bend them, on top of some colourful blankets, because there on top of the bed she was the most comfortable and lets not forget she was well into her 60ties and very very heavy. In the time we were there she got married, although they had been married already but something had happened and they had to do it over again, they had 3 grown sons and he, the husband, only came home the weekends. He had a great love for whisky and together they had some incredible screaming sessions which was taken over by the incredible bird they had who could copy anything, so at times you thought someone had a fit but it was just the bird, no, unbelievable, he or she could do the phone ringing or my sewing machine going or the cats miaow or the birds sing, anything really and he kept calling a name which was not of any one known in the house and Julita sometimes got things nobody knew from where…. but that is a whole book, she is like a personage of the Almodovar movies to say the least. There was a room downstairs that was rented to a transvestite who had gorgeous long blond hair, boobs and everything. She had one leg shorter than the other so she could not walk well and did not work. She had a wonderful collection of Barby dolls and was very kind but did not want to know much about the other people that lived in the garage that had become a room. They were a couple and when I was saw her I thought what a pretty girl, very modern and nice looking. It turned out she was a boy but a girl, and the boyfriend who told me once that his mother had him his whole life tied to the bed, he could walk around a little bit but was tied up and had to do his necessities right there and other unbelievable horror stories, but that could be an other book by itself  and then there was an other transvestite of whom I forgot the name but he, she, had Aids and nobody wanted to have anything to do with that person but Julita always had an open door and food. Then there was el Padrino, who would come over everyday and sit with Julita for a while, he was very elegant and she would get all beautiful and dressed up and Raquel, the girl that came to clean… they were all caracters and could be an other book but this is getting too long so I leave you with an other picture of Julita with a dress I made of a very nasty material she picked up somewhere……

Guia 1998.