Lana

x Rosettes (continued...) x

x Rosettes x

Image that I worked on, of the amazing Claude Cahun. I thought if anyone wouldn't mind me using an image of them in the quest of gender studies, feminism, painting and pleasure; it would be Claude.

Below are the rosettes I'm using for new work, whilst tying up loose ends of old work.

The rosettes are part of a new and exciting project.......coming soon. (Not as ominous as it sounds!) x

x Lana Turner x

Father robbed and murdered

Her mother and her move to LA

Lana was "discovered" in a Hollywood Drug Store buying a coke

8 Marriages

One lover, Stompanato, came on set with a gun.

Sean Connery punched him and took away the gun.

Stompanato was deported by Scotland Yard.

Turner and Stompanato have an argument;

Her daughter, fearing her mother's life, took a kitchen knife and stabbed Stompanato; killing him.

Negative Publicity Ruins Career.

Has a heart attack;

Recovers.

Becomes a born again-Christian.

Battles a 3 year fight against throat cancer.

Dies.

Majority of estate left to maid.

x Carole Lombard x

Angry Father

Parents Divorce

Film Debut aged 12

Not great film parts

Married in 1931

Divorced in 1933

1934 - lots of successful films

Meets the love of her life

He proposes

He dies

1936 Academy Award Nomination "Best Actress"

Held lots of "unconventional parties"

Marries Clark Gable

Buy a ranch and raise chickens together

Attempts to have a child fail

Boards a plane to California

It Crashes

She dies

Gable devastated

Joins US Armed Air Forces

Attends the Launch of the Liberty ship "SS LOMBARD" named in her honour.

x Gail Russell x

Extraordinary Beauty meant Paramount Pictures employed her

She was Clinically Shy

Appeared in lots of popular films

Marries

Begins drinking to help ease her stage fright and lack of self-confidence

Paramount doesn't renew her contract

She divorces her husband

In 1957 is photographed driving her convertible into the front of a coffee shop

She appears in two more films

Found Dead

Due to Liver Damage and Malnutrition

x Olive Thomas x (Baby Vamp)

Worked as a Sales Girl selling Gingham

Married at 16

Divorced at 18

Enters "The Most Beautiful Girl In New York" competition

Wins

Becomes part of the Ziegfield Follies

Takes Part in the Midnight Frolic

Her Midnight Frolic costume is balloons which men pop with cigars

Becomes object of affection by many rich admirers

Poses Nude for Alberto Vargas

Makes Film Debut

Marries Jack Pickford

Created the image of "Baby Vamp"

First Actress to be called "Flapper"

Made $3,000 a week

Thomas partied hard, loved alcohol

Alcoholism in her family

Car crashes and fights with her husband

Adopts her six year old nephew

Love of her husband's life

They head for Paris for a second honeymoon

They have a night of partying

Rumours say she took cocaine that night

Accidentally ingests mercury bichloride solution (that was meant for her husband's syphilis)

Screams "Oh my god!"

Too late

Last words 'Pretty weak, but I'll be all right in a little while, don't worry, darling"

Dies

Husband brings her body back to US, attempts to commit suicide

Thomas' ghost is said to haunt the New Amsterdam Theatre where she performed in Midnight Frolic.

x Alma Rubens x (Red Roses in a Black Onyx Jar)

A chorus girl falls ill; Alma Rubens steps in and takes the role

Franklyn Farnum persuades her to leave the troupe

Farnum gets a part in a film, she follows him

Marries Farnum

Divorces Farnum after one month

Becomes Leading Lady in films

Very successful

Retires from films temporarily

Marries again

Found it hard to get roles because of Cocaine Addiction

In and out of mental institutions

Her addiction consumes her

Arrested on Narcotics Charge

Released on Bail

Dies of Pneumonia a week later.

x Barbara La Marr x

Her Half-sister Violet Ake and a man try to kidnap her

Marries at the Age of 17

He dies a year after

Marries again

Divorces Two years later

Marries again

Divorces Three years later

Whilst with the last husband moves to New York and writes screenplays

She returns to Los Angeles and makes her film debut

Acts frequently

Publicised as "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"

Shot to Stardom

Would claim to be from exotic ancestries

Started enjoying fast paced Hollywood Life

Only slept two hours a night

Became Addicted to Heroin

Dies of Turberculosis and Nephritis

Buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery

After her death it emerges she had an illegitimate child

He is adopted

x Martha Mansfield x

Father Desserts Family


She becomes a Ziegfield Folly

Successful film roles

Filming on location, she gets accidentally burnt by a match

Dies 24 hours later

x Louise Brooks x

Sexually Abused Aged 9

Dancer

Chorus Girl

Flapper Films

The Bob Haircut

Studio screws over, doesn't offer her a raise

She leaves

Gets black-listed

Voice deemed not suitable for new "sound" films

Leaves Films.

Leaves Hollywood.

Radio Actor

Gossip Columnist

Salesgirl in Saks

Courtesan

Heavy Drinker from the age of 14

Spendthrift.

Bankruptcy.

Twice Divorced.

No Children.

"Barren Brooks"

One night stand with Greta Garbo

Dies of a heart attack in 1985.

x Dorothy Dandridge x

Parent's split up shortly after her birth

With sister was a vaudeville acted called "The Wonder Sisters"

Skipped School

Great Depression ruins The Wonder Sisters

Move to New York

Re-name themselves "The Dandridge Sisters"

Performed at The Cotton Club

Got into Film Work

Married Dancer and had child

Child Born brain damaged

Couple Divorce

Starred with John Wayne

Carmen Jones

Nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress

First African American to be nominated for Best Actress

Island In The Sun

No more film parts come

She sings in nightclubs again

Marries Jack Denison

Domestic Abuse Rumours

Divorces him

Swindled out of money

Owes taxes

Sells Hollywood Home

Puts Daughter in Mental Institution

Dorothy Suffers Nervous Breakdown

Earl Mills starts arranging her "comeback"

Comeback never comes.

Overdose of Antidepressant

Dies aged 42.

x Lupe Velez x

Father ashamed of her career so she wasn't allowed to use his surname

Moves from Mexico City home to Texas

Moves to California

Got parts in movies

Accused of promoting communism

30 and still not a huge star

Leaves Hollywood for Broadway

Gets Pregnant

Following her catholic upbringing refuses to have an abortion

Cannot bear to give birth to the child

Commits Suicide

To Harald: May God forgive you and forgive me, too; but I prefer to take my life away and our baby's, before I bring him with shame, or killing him. Lupe.

Edie Sedgwick plays Lupe in the Warhol film "Lupe"

x Peg Entwistle x

Mother died when young

Father re-married

Family emigrate to America

Step Mother died

Father killed by hit and run

Has success on broadway

Marries a man

Divorces him over charges of cruelty and she claims she didn't know he was married before with a child

Get's a part in a film

Commits suicide by throwing herself off the "H" in the hollywood sign

Film released

Her grave remained unmarked until 2010

Her suicide note: I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.

x Mabel Normand x

Broke up with film producer

Made her re-evaluate her life

Developes close friendship with a director

He's murdered

Her drug use becomes talked about news

Her chauffeur, a millionaire and a golfer all become wounded by her pistol

She's a heroin addict for most of her life

She dies of tuberculosis aged 37.

x Florence Lawrence x

The "biograph Girl"

Achieved her life-long dream of buying a massive estate and grew roses

Had a fight with her husband

He left and sent her letters about how he was going to commit suicide

They Reunite

She retired from films

Induced to work on last few films

Stage fire breaks out on set

Lawrence gets burnt and suffers a fall

Blames husband for making her do that film

They divorce

Never regains career

Gets married again to someone new

They divorce.

Marries someone else

He's abusive

They divorce

Travels to Hollywood to regain career

MGM pay her $75 a week for bit parts

Alone and discouraged she suffers from myelofibrosis

Commits suicide by eating ant paste

Buried in an unmarked grave until 1991 when Roddy McDowall pays for a memorial marker.

x Vivien Leigh x

Bipolar

Manic Depressive

Numerous breakdowns

Tuberculosis

"I'm not afraid to die." - Vivien Leigh

x Tallulah Bankhead x

Mother Died when she was a baby

Drug Addictions

Sex issues - "I'm as pure as the driven slush"

Five Hour Hysterectomy due to venereal disease - she then said to the doctor after " Don't think this has taught me a lesson!"

Her last words? "Codeine.. Bourbon"

x Damsel in Distress x

I love the cross over between art and fashion; I was totally enamoured and enthralled by the Art and Fashion exhibition at The Royal Academy. I was also enthralled by Sketch's pop-up eatery at the venue. Sandwiches wrapped like delicate french knickers with cute pastel bows, latte's in fine bone china with dainty roses on them; should food be this gorgeous at the end of a fashion focused exhibition?

As I bit into my sandwich and sketched away, I looked up and saw Claudia Schiffer in a variety of prints by Jake and Dinos Chapman, playing the "Damsel in distress" on illustrated horror backgrounds. Almost swallowed by the skull of doom she still manages to get her lush red lace bra out and shows off that vintage 'do.

Why am I talking about this on here?

Well, she reminds me of an old family friend Ingrid Pitt, who sadly passed away last year. The actress infamous for her roles in the hammer horror films, she was amazing. She survived a concentration camp childhood, married three times, held a black belt in Karate and a pilot's license.

One of my favourite illustrations/artworks ever is the poster I have for her "Countess Dracula" film for Hammer. It hung on my wall for about four years before I moved to London, and in it she's a fiendish yellow with cherry lips.

Are Damsels in distress ever really helpless? Are vixens true life vampires? The roles that cinema has projected onto women leave them confused about who to be; the cold vixen or the over emotional damsel in distress? I feel it's only now that women are finding their own feet, and they will, as long as they don't get sucked up by crappy rom coms.

P.S. Emma Forrest's new book "Your Voice in My Head" you just have to read.