Las Palmas

Via Madrid we went to Canary Islands to arrange Salvador’s papers and stayed a few months, first in Las Palmas  and from there to one of the other 7 Islands called Fuerte Ventura. This was an amazing ancient place which looked deserted with lots of sand and a few palm trees, incredible rocks that looked prehistoric. We lived in a wonderful little house overlooking the endless sea but that was it, there was not much more, one old cinema and some fisher men so after a while it started to feel lonely and after hearing some friends of ours were in Ibiza we decided to go there. Ibiza was known since the 50’ies as a place where artists went to find the peace and beauty they were looking for. In 1970 it was still quiet unspoiled and still quiet empty although already there were a lot of foreigners. Ibiza is a very special Island with marvelous farmhouses which one could rent or buy for next to nothing (not anymore) and of course the fact that many artists were there made it highly interesting.

In the year we spend there we made many friends who are still our friends unless they left this world. We designed clothes, baked in the sun, (never heard of sunscreen then) had full moon parties and vegetarian dinners and the daily morning coffee at the Montesol. Some photographers came there to shoot summer editorials or I sometimes was booked on a trip to Africa for English Magazines and I went to the Ivory coast and Kenya.

 the Ibiza market

I was loving all the herbs that grow there and collected them in glass pots which were later taken away by the police for laboratory tests to see if that was Marijuana, which was not the case but still I was taken to the police station and had mug shots done for nothing and it even haunted us all the way to Canada years later when we thought to become Canadian but could not because of our police record in Ibiza which like I said was for nothing… The fact that Salvador was Spanish in this whole group of foreigners made the police look after us extra hard. Our friend Nancy Mehagian had a vegetarian restaurant together with her friend Sharon, called the Double Duck and we spend many a day there. Nancy is still cooking and also wrote a book . Then there was Cooky Debidour who became my closest friend, Edina Ronay and Dick Polak, also very close friends still and Karl Ferris the photographer who immortalized that time in Ibiza and his wife Anke who made the best veggieburgers, Raymond Steiner who is a photographer and film maker and his lovely wife Maree, Birgitta Bjerke the all time Queen of crochet and others, Also there were visits of some outstanding people like Jony Mitchell, ( Salvador drew her portrait) and Taj Mahal the great Blues man with whom we are still in contact as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magazines came to photograph us, Italian Vogue and the American Look magazine wrote articles and Deborah Turberville passed by and made pictures of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not to forget Nico ( The velvet underground) and that was very special because when I was home sitting outside on the porch one day, Salvador was not there at that moment, when I saw from far away someone coming through the field of Almond trees, a blond apparition that when getting closer I realized was Nico, she had heard about us and came to visit, just like that all by herself. I have been a fan of Nico always and still am, she was very special and I was thrilled she came to visit so to celebrate I made a big joint of hashish, yes that was all part of it in that time, and we smoked until she fainted right there. It was a bit scary because I did not know what to do but thank heavens it did not last long and we could laugh about it. Anyway there are many stories but not to be told here, just want to show you pictures of the things we made, Salvador’s work you can admire( I do) in Alegria’s Blog who is writing all about Salvador and his work and some of the pictures he made of me and our son Alejandro which are among my favorites.

Picture by Salvador Maron

We designed these wooden sandals and had them made up by a local carpenter, than hand painted them in all kind of patterns and colours.

The sewing machine was in the house already waiting for me and since we had no electricity this was perfect, the suit Salvador is wearing was made by me as well.

Loved that coat, velvet with leather applications, the bag was also one of our designs

The leather vest on the right was a typical example of what I was doing, lots of applications of snake and gold leather on suede, wish I had it now!

The golden bra I found in a vintage store in NY.                                        family self portrait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

… and I would not go anywhere without my YSL platform sandals, never mind it was almost impossible to walk with them on that Ibiza roads. Only when it rained or had rained we wore our own wooden sandals which kept your feet out of the mud.

“>My leather T shirts, here in gold of course. OMG wish I could make them now.

Ok, we are leaving Ibiza and are on our way to Marbella, and then Milan…… but that I tell you next time.

On one of our outings to Central Park a young man approached us and introduced himself as a Wall Street Genius, because they had said so in the papers as he was the youngest ever to make a million that fast.  He loved the way we looked and would we be interested to make clothes and sell them? Yes, we were! So soon our apartment was full of leather and studs and a sewing machine and every thing else we needed.

 We also got an assistant who would drive us around in a red convertible MG to get us whatever we needed and we started cutting and sewing, Salvador designed the vest I am wearing in the painting and I made it up of colored snake leathers and gold and silver and above a picture of me in my pink Star jacket, I have a monkey on my lap which is hard to see and I don’t remember where it came from, funny. When I look at it now I see we were very influenced by America and their super heroes…

 Below picture of what was my SKY jacket, you could snap the skirt on or off, love to make clothes with options and often make things reversible. I decided not to line any of the clothes but feel the leather on your skin and it behaves better around your body…

Remember I told you about Olé, the actor of the Living Theater who was staying with us around that time, this is him in the picture below. He liked to sew and one day made a pants for himself which was so hard and stiff it could stand up by itself. It was an amazing sight , this shiny red pants (patent leather) standing in the middle of the room, will never forget that image. Jimmy is no longer on this planet but we remember him fondly.

We got some publicity, here the New Yorker with pictures of Caterine Millinaire

and an article in the German Twen (hottest avant-garde magazine at that time) with pictures by Anders Holmquist
We sold our designs to 2 stores: The Whip and Flukes, Best By and Co and this picture came out in Vogue:

A wrap around Butterfly and the all American Eagle

I know that Bill King did a color picture for Bazaar of the vest that’s in the painting, saw it but don’t have it, the girl that was photographed in it told me that he loved the piece. Nice! I love his pictures.

 We made a lot of leather clothes especially long coats and pants so when we went to Woodstock we were from head to toe dressed in leather, looking great but once we had found a place in the middle of that sea of people as far as your eyes would reach, it started to rain, but I mean rain! It did not stop the whole night and leather when it gets wet is unbearable, heavy and uncomfortable, so when the rain did not stop the next day either, we decided to leave, which was easier said then done. To pass through that crowd of thousands of people was something else, and I don’t remember how we got there but I do remember what it was trying to get out and walking miles and miles along the road full of parked cars… feeling dizzy because of not sleeping, hungry and wet. Don’t really remember very well who and what we saw but it was an incredible feeling to be there and it also was a great feeling to get out of there.

 We came out in this book… the picture was taken in Central Park, check Salvador’s pants.…

All together it was a great time with lots of funny things happening, like the young man from Wall Street brought us a gun one day, for our protection I guess but it made us paranoid so we flushed the bullets (there were 2 of them) in the toilet ( can you imagine)? And friends made a short movie of us throwing the gun in a river. Sometimes we would go and visit Salvador Dali and Amanda Lear on Sunday afternoons when they would receive friends in their Hotel suite, Salvador knew Amanda Lear from Marbella ( later in Spain I made a short movie directed by Salvador Dali) and well, like I said; crazy times but we also worked, Salvador painted, the clothes we made together and in between I was working as a model of which I will talk about next time…

 

LOVE and PEACE

Somewhere at the end of 1968 we arrived in

and we rented a room in the Chelsea Hotel we had heard about in LA, it was a place where artists, writers, painters, musicians, actors were staying and it was a wild place. New York itself was a wild place, like a jungle, with so much going on. We soon found a place of our own, 92nd, between Fifth and Madison, just a few steps to Central Park and exactly where the Guggenheim is. It was a great place, there even was a garden, we did not realize how lucky we were and all that for $250 a month. We soon became familiar with the scene and made friends or met friends we knew from other places.

Salvador in front of Kansas city which was THE place to meet and have this wonderful salads and steaks….

Salvador knew the actors of the Living Theatre he had met in Rome and Paris and who were now performing in NY. We would hang out with them quiet a bit and one of the actors, Jimmy Tirov ( alias OLÉ ) of whom I will talk later, even stayed with us for a while. They were extra ordinary people and we met others,Andy Warhol who interviewed us, the cast of Hair, great photographers and models, designers like Paul Ropp as well as a real life bank robber who was actually a very kind person and he told us he never wanted to be caught but rather be shot( he was shot later), police, lawyers and the whole bit. There were crazy parties, almost everybody we knew was into mind expanding and many drugs were available for that, especially LSD. There are many stories and adventures (not to be told here in the Cyber jungle) but I do like to show you the things we did, Salvador painted, we designed leather clothes ( next Blog) and I modeled for the American Magazines ( the next next one ). In the meantime we went for walks in the park and the streets with the baby and on one of these occasions a young photographer asked us if he could make pictures and that was Arthur Elgort, now a known fashion photographer.

                                     with our friend Miroslava, photo Arthur Elgort

We loved the photo booth and had great fun making pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 or making test shots with young unknown photographers, which are among my favorite ones of all the pictures I did… mostly because I was wearing my own clothes…

New York 1969 was quiet a year with somewhere in the middle Woodstock, where we went… it was a great year, it was a mind blowing year, it was an exciting year for New York and for us…

OH, and not to forget I saw Greta Garbo! I was looking at some pictures of a film theater and felt someone looking at me and when I turned I saw it was Greta, she looked me straight in the eye then turned and disappeared… I am since always a great fan of hers…

There I was taking off from Parati to Los Angeles, alone! Lucky for me the friend of Michael was at the airport, a beautiful young African American women who greeted me warmly and took me to her home. It was already night but the mother was waiting for us and they gave me one of the small rooms with a big TV, I had not seen TV in ages and that’s what I mostly did in the following days, never went outside but took a peek once and saw as far as I could see small grey houses all the same. The mother and the  daughter were both so kind and took very good care of me but after about a week it became obvious I could not stay, the neighbors were getting curious. This was back in 68 and things were very different then, this was a neighbor hood with only African American people and it was probably a very strange thing for the mother to have me there, she probably was afraid the neighbors would talk, she said something to that effect, I don’t know but had to go. So this wonderful girl, forgive me I forgot her name, wish I knew and I would look for her and thank her again, she was a special lady, took me to a friend of hers. It was my first time in Los Angeles and there I was, all alone longing for Salvador who was hanging out of a helicopter taking pictures of the Amazon River, no way for contact. No money and a total stranger in this big busy city. OK, first thing was to get some money and it was then I realized I had lost my little bankbook but lucky I still had some incredible beautiful amber beads from Morocco so I went to look for a boutique in Beverly Hills to buy them from me. This is funny because about 25 years later I met this woman and she remembered me coming to the store where she was then working and she did buy my beads, I mean…  The friend I now was introduced to was a woman painter ( paintress)? and she was again one of this wonderful persons that took complete care of me and I would just love to know where she is and who she is, never can thank them enough, in all my loneliness and precarious situation she made me happy and grateful. But then again I did not want to overstay and was a bit afraid to have the baby, which was due very soon, I did not know how soon because I had not been to a doctor once, but soon for sure.  In the end I decided to go to Vancouver where my 2 sisters were living, I would be safe with them. So I bought a ticket with the money of the beads and went to Canada. Lucky enough because I got all the care one needs, doctors, hospital and all the rest and there he was… our Alejandro.

This came out in the Vancouver paper, one of the few pictures of that time.

Was great to be with my sisters who took very good care of me but my heart was crazy to be with Salvador who was now on his way to NY. via Miami and when we could get it together on either side, we would meet in LA. At least we were in contact and soon enough I set off for LA again and there he was, now sharing the beauty of our baby and of our love.

Tried to work but there was only one agency: Wilhelmina, they told me they worked mainly in NY and that’s where I should go. We somehow got the money together to go to NY where I contacted Eileen Ford (big time American model agency) and from there on things got easier. I had met Eileen before when she came to Europe to look for models and she had asked me to come to NY and I had been in NY before when David Bailey took me to introduce me to American Vogue. Bailey was with Catherine Denueve and I was invited to stay with the Fords, who were very entertaining. There were several models staying there but I only remember Maud Adams vividly because she was so kind and always smiling. Well, I ended up with one picture in American Vogue,

I was hanging out in the studio for 2 days where Bailey was photographing Lauren Hutton and I was so impressed with the way and easiness she moved and on top of that she was super kind and nice to me, another great lady. I somehow missed the boat then because I was invited by Diane Vreeland to come and see her, she was the empress of Fashion and very funny, had me turn and pose for her and then send me to the studio of Richard Avedon. Now, believe it or not but I was very shy and did not put my foot in the door so when I rang the bell to his studio some assistant opened the door and I said I came to see Mr. Avedon and he asked me if I had pictures and I said no, that was stupid of me not to take my book from London, what was I thinking? so He said well Mr. Avedon is very busy and has no time and closed the door before I could say that Diane Vreeland had sent me, because that opens all the doors.

Anyway this was the second time to come to the Big Apple and we were to stay for a while……

It’s been a while since I last posted and that is because I went on a little trip to Los Angeles to celebrate our youngest grandchild’s first birthday and time flies, as we all know. But this is as good an occasion as any to introduce them to you…

 

This is Amara on her birthday… March 12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amara ready to go to town and on the right her mammy around the same age in Paris

She is not wearing lip gloss but drinking milk, soooo pretty, I could make 1000 pix of her

And this is Dashaun, 5 years and a real actor and great model, loves to be photographed.

And finally Alijah, she is 12 and already as tall as me, 5.8, and poses like a professional, she has her style. For these pictures I made her up with false lashes and all which she loved but she did her own hair ( I would have liked it wild and natural but she likes to straighten it) and the green ear rings I made she wears to school and not only on St. Patrick day. She sings and dances like a natural.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some photo shopping, can’t help myself, I am an addict.

Really could go on but this is enough for now I think, had a lot of fun doing them and hope you enjoy looking at them.

                                              Alijah made this picture of Amara,

                                 and we go back to LA in my next post in 1968……

 

… 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…….