Voyeurism.

A couple of weeks back, after my 25th birthday, one of my gal pals, professional stylist Xza Louise Higgins came over by my house for a little intimate photoshoot. She's working on a new project for her portfolio, intriguingly entitled "does this bra make my boobs look fat?", paying homage to the concept of women and their busts throughout the decades ranging from the 1920s through the 1980s. Xza, who I've had the pleasure of both modeling for and working together with as vintage clothing dealers in Chicago, chose me to be her 1970s muse.

As she is familiar with me both behind the lens, as a commissioned artist as well as a burlesque dancer, she chose me to be her wild 70s personality. With that and the fact that bi-weekly, I shimmy out of my clothes and shake my boobs and pasties in front of large audiences in mind, we decided my theme would be more inclined toward the concepts of 70s voyeurism and bra burning.

I have to say, it was great to be shot in my home, while painting and running around in my various vintage garments, as the 50s and 70s are what my closet's wardrobe specialize in. We worked for about an hour or so, both in my studio/boudoir as well as in my living room manipulating my randomly placed eclectic mid century and modern furniture, utilizing as much of my "intimate" setting as possible.

As the photos are still be editing, and the project is still ongoing, I was given a teaser image from the tear sheet, and I'm quite pleased. So I though I'd share it with you fine folks.

Enjoy.



xoxo,
erin

Step right up, folks!

...and see loooooong awaited footage of Honey B. Combe's "Little Egypt". You can even see the amazing vintage cleopatra collar I recently gained ownership off!

BROADZILLA! (2.25.11) - "Little Egypt" by Honey B Combe from Vaudezilla Productions on Vimeo.

Not once, but twice.

Well, yeeehaaaaaw! Our buddies over at Vaudezilla Productions were kind enough to send some sweet, sweet footage over our way of two recent Honey B. Combe performances, both being different renditions of our act, "All aboard the Chattanooga Choo Choo". I'm elated to share them both, as I feel Dolly Dagger(Lindsey) and I have come quite a longggg way since first voyaging into the complex world of burlesque and all that it encompasses.

The first video reel is from our Halloween show at Exit on October 29th. For this show, we decided to channel our inner zombied-out, awakened-from-the-dead Andrews Sisters. Mission accomplished.



And here's the reel for you to enjoy:

BROADZILLA! (10.29.10) - "All Aboard the Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Honey B Combe from Vaudezilla Productions on Vimeo.

And just a short time later, we were invited to perform at the Lincoln Fair, monthly Burlesque Expostion, hosted by Vaudezilla at the Lincoln Tap Room for Lincoln Tap Room's 20th Anniversary par-tayyyyyyyyy.



Here's the reel from that expostion:

Lincoln Fair (11.20.10) - "All Aboard the Chattanooga Choo-Choo" by Honey B Combe from Vaudezilla Productions on Vimeo.

this fall/winter will have far many more things to come, but for now, I leave you with these goodies.

xoxo,
erin
and my slightly altered ego, Sugar Cane Jane

all aboard the chattanooga choo choo.

It has been quite a while since I've posted anything, as I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to gather my bearings with work, shows, freelancing and all that jazz. So I thought I'd take a moment to sit down and sort through photos of the new Honey B. Combe act that Lindsey and I worked so diligently on. Our new performance, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, as rendered by the Andrews Sisters accompanied by the Glenn Miller orchestra, debuted on Saturday, October 16th at Chicago's Viaduct Theater for the Rock Via Vaudeville expedition. We were elated to debut this act as one of the featured performers for the event, and were even more thrilled at the crowd's feedback. It's always a little nerve-racking counting down the moments until call time, especially when unleashing a new act to a theater full of nameless faces. But it went super well, and as usual, we had a fabulous time.

This was the production:


And here are some photos of Honey B. Combe backstage sporting our new handmade costumes for the performance, as photographed by Isa Giallorenzo of Chicago Looks. Additionally, we performed the Chattanooga Choo Choo again last night, in a more awake-from-the-dead, blood and gore fashion for a Halloween Burlesque show at Exit Chicago with a gaggle of smokin' gals for the monthly event, Broadzilla, and will have footage in the coming month, which I can't wait to see.





For Rock Via Vaudeville, we were given two time slots, and of course, we had to bust out our Little Egypt act, so Isa had us do a little costume change in the dark, so she could snag a couple more photos of us and our banner...





with love and tassels,
Honey B. Combe!



oh, p.s. look forward to some of the following random excursions to come:

-"Plastic is Fantastic" Barbies from around the world photoshoot

-Excavated Memories Jewelry lookbook photoshoot

-Milio's Hair Salon pin-up hair show featuring Chicago burlesque babes

-new vintage treasures and inventory for Psychosurplus Vintage

-and yes, new concepts for a new art show,(because it's been wayyyy too long since I've curated) yayyyyyyyyyy!

xoxo,
erin.

Holy moly, I'm in Time Out Chicago...!

Okay, okay, so a few weeks ago, I was stopped on the street and asked if I could be photographed and interviewed briefly. I was hestitant at first, as I didn't know what the hell these two random guys were trying to get at, until they told me they were from Time Out Magazine(the Chicago edition), to which I replied surely, as long as the interview wasn't too ridiculous and they didn't mind the fact that I was carrying three bags of groceries along with me. They basically summarized the interview as being more or less fashion based, but as we got to talking (while the interviewer, Jake, recorded everything on his dictaphone), the conversation branched out to all sorts of silly things. I told them I would agree to letting them include me in this week's issues if I could receive a jpeg of the photo they decided to use for the blurb, via my business email. To my pleasant surprise, when Andrew, the photgrapher, emailed me the image, he also noted that Time Out would be running my interview and image on the first page as the feature for the public eye section.

!!!!!Whoaaaaaaaa, man, awesome!!!!!

I really don't want to toot my own horn, but when I saw the new copy of Time Out the other day, I couldn't deny being a little delighted. Plus, it's one of the first times that I've been interviewed and accurately quoted in a public editorial, as a few botches have happened with other blurbs and such in the past, so that was super exciting, too. Plus, they noted my friend Niki's vintage business, BombshellShocked, that I work/model for, which is grand, because she and her business were featured just a couple months back in Time Out for the Vintage issue. Plus, I just plain ol' love that gal.

Yay!

This is the image they decided upon, photo credit goes to Andrew Nawrocki of Time Out Chicago.


(Here's the the full article)

xoxo,
erin

Indian Delights, Indonesian garage rock, Incense & a little piece of mind.

Yesterday, I had a lovely afternoon with my long time friend, Kara, traveling to the far north side of Chicago, visiting a street in a neighborhood I lived in for a time as a child. The street we spent the day romping aorund on was Devon Ave, in West Roger's Park, home to one of the largest Indo-Pakistani communities in the U.S. We went to countless fabric stores, jewelry shops and home goods businesses, absorbing all of the amazingly vibrant jewels, fabrics and garments, while Kara searched diligently for a new nose ring. We ventured into a few of the markets, inhaling scents of spices, incense and fresh pastries. It was such an incredible day. We also managed to take ina few snacks while we were up there, first diving into oven fired dough pastries filled with cheeses and potato from a Georgian (provincial region of Russia) bakery, in the more Russian inhabited portion of the street at the western end of the stretch, as well as naan breads and lamb patties, accompanied by highly refreshing rose water yogurt drinks at the Indian Garden, a restaurant dedicated solely to delicious Indian cuisine. Needless to say, we spent the bus ride back to Logan Square in totally delightful food comas.

Though I don't have any photos from yesterday's adventure quite yet, here's a photo of Kara and me from her first day after moving back to Chicago. Together, we make quite the brightly colored adevnturous duo.


When we got back to my apartment, we vegged out on the couch for a bit, burning our new incense finds and listened to the sounds of Dara Puspita, this super amazing surf/garage girl band from the 60s & 70s that originated in Indonesia, but was later exiled to China. They rule.


After Kara left that evening, and my boyfriend went out skating with his friend, I decided to curl up on the couch with a glass of wine and work on a new illustration. It's been a while since I've had such a relaxing day and had the opprtunity to work on some new art without the pressure of work or commissions or deadlines, so I was thrilled to have a little piece of mind. I didn't really have anything particular in mind to draw out, but I was also pondering different ways to promote my burlesque endeavors and where the fall will take me in terms of my career as an artist and a relative newbie in the Burlesque field in Chicago, so I decided to combine the two work/extra-cirrculars I love and came up with this new piece. Of course, as with most of my artwork, it's not really finished, but for now, I'm pretty happy with the direction it's going in.

Take a gander.


xoxo,
erin

Where's my whistle? Where's my luggage? And some tap shoes??

The proceeding video is footage of Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers performing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra to the classic, Chattanooga Choo Choo. This is one of my favorite musical selections, and though I love The Andrews Sisters version of this song, I just absolutely adore Dorothy Danridge's performance. As we gradually make our way into fall this year, Honey B. Combe has been on the prowl for new act inspiration, and boy, oh boy, have we found it in this segment! Lindsey and I are doing a wardrobe and performance overhaul for the upcoming season, and we're completely stoked to include Honey B. Combe's very special version of Chattanooga Choo Choo to our spankin' new repetoire.



We also recently had another fantastic show with our friends over at Vaudezilla this past month, winding down August with a totally revised "Peace Pipe" performance in Broadzilla! the Burlesque Beast at Exit Chicago. That show was filmed and photographed, and though I'm still awaiting footage and such, which are all soon to come, I can't wait to visually share the experience!

I have much more catching up to do, but we'll have to save other goodies for later.

xoxo,
erin

acrylics and cheetah print. yes!!

On September 3rd, 2010, I will be displaying new work in a group show entitled Nature Vs. Machine. The show will be curated by my good friend Corryn Jackson of Three Birds Gallery, who you may remember having seen in older posts, as her and I co-curated a show together earlier this year along with Lindsey, and it was most definitely bananas! Nature vs. Machine will feature the work of ten artists hailing from both Chicago, Il and Ann Arbor, MI, and challenges the artists to question the duality of "nature" and the artificial creation of the "machine." The artists have been divided into two groups to emulate one experience versus the other. I have taken on the machine.

With my favorite acrylic color palette, a giant slab of masonite & a huge roll of late 60s Cheetah print wall paper (not to mention, a month of brainstorming, trying to figure out what the hell I was going to visually contribute), I channeled my thoughts and got to work.

Here are some (crude) photos documenting the progression of my piece, as the deadline approaches...


round one.

round two.

and, tada! (it's still not 100% completed, but it's soooo close)


xoxo,
erin.

commission me this, commission me that.

so a little while back, my friend Linda approached me asked me if I would do two commissioned works for her, after seeing a new series of illustrations I had been working on over the winter/spring. She requested very specific pieces, unlike the normal illustrative work I do, and I was certainly down for the count. She's a pretty mystical gal, into all sorts of cultures and iconic imagery. Here are the pieces, I did for her office at home, the first of which being the Celtic Triquestra, in my illustrative style, the other of which being the Eyes of Horus, also in my personal style.

Here's how they turned out:






I was stoked to do pieces that were out of the norm for me, though the eyes of horus fit somewhat in with my previous fascination with ancient egyptian iconic symbolism, and it's a pleasure knowing that the pieces went to a loving and inspired home. Cheers, Linda!

xoxo,
erin

So, I was stitchin' in my kitchen....

So yesterday, before I hit the pool with twenty other rad-tastic ladies, I spent my morning finishing up my new costume for Honey B. Combe's next and newest ridiculous act. Our inspiration for the newest performance comes from our shared love for channeling early 70s psychedelic freak outs, fringe and a whole lotta shaking. When I finally finished hand stitching and hand beading the last few essential layers on to my bikini pieces, I managed to snag a couple of (crappy) camera phone photos of parts of my masterpiece. Unfortunately, the images aren't the best quality, but you get the gist. Once Lindsey and I unveil our new dance, we'll have some sweet and vibrant photos, from a real camera, no less.

For now, here's a little peak at my rekindled love for ruffles and fringe,accompanied by one my favorite Soul Train performance clips to end with a fun spoiler of what track we're working with for these schnazzy costumes..



(and I haven't even uploaded a picture of the technicolor psychedelic piece that goes on top of these skivvies..)

Put this on, and put it in your piece pipe! ;)


..and this is where we'll be debuting this new number of all numbers..


xoxo, with a little fringe on top!
-erin

Inspiration's in the air, or more like, in the hair!

I recently joined forces with one of my favorite blog-turned-websites, Black Girl with Long Hair, as their art director and event coordinator, after being interviewed and featured on the site about my hair and as a style icon. You can find the interview here. It was a pleasure to become a part of their hair, culture and style community, and then, furthermore, an HONOR to become a part of their design and planning team! Leila, the head mama & mastermind behind the scenes, and I just completed our first project together. Here's the first graphic design piece I completed for her and the site. It's for our upcoming natural-flufftastic-hair event coming up in Chicago, our homebase, where we will be showcasing tons of great vintage accessory & natural hair product vendors, along with loads of other fabulous goodies! This event is open to ALL walks of life, and does not exclude any color, creed, gender or hair styling preference! I'm stoked!



perhaps, if you're in the city, i'll see you there...xoxoxo

-erin.