Lipstick Mag OKC

Lookie here! I was a featured designer in the OKC Lipstick magazine. For more info check out the site and browze the entire magazine at lipstick for women

Closing Time!

We are just blocks west of the Bishop Arts District, and right next door to Mighty Fine Arts. Google maps can make it tricky....so here are directions.

From downtown Dallas, take 30 west exit Sylvin (Main post office exit) take a left onto Sylvin and go up the hill into the cliff. You will cross over Davis and make a Left onto 10th street. Make another left onto Tyler. We will be on the left hand side. 2 story gold building. Free parking on the street.

Don't forget Free admission and free drinks provided by Sake2me and Red Strip Beer.

"Recession will make us swing again"

The British postal service is dedicating a stamp to one of my favorite designers....Ms. Mary Quant. Quant is best known for the invention of the mini skirt in the swinging sixtys and her boutique, called Bazaar on Kings Road. Here is a little quote from the article. Read more from the Telegraph.

"I never intended to be outrageous. After all, I always wore tights. I had to have tights specially made because of the short skirts. They didn't exist then except for the theatre. Everyone wore stockings. So I got the theatrical manufacturers to make some for me and then I persuaded another manufacturer to set up. They were absolutely delighted because they sold fantastic quantities and, of course, it never stopped. Such fun."

Really....Barbie & Ken

I enjoy doing research for projects before I get started and reciently I have been day dreaming about Barbie. I think todays post will make my project even more interesting!

Today in the New York Post

January 8, 2009 --

BARBIE and Ken are beloved by millions of children - but the people behind the world's most popular dolls were involved in unsavory sexual behavior they kept secret for years, a new book reveals.

In "Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel," out next month, Jerry Oppenheimer reveals that Jack Ryan, the Yale-educated designer who popularized Barbie, was a "full-blown seventies-style swinger" with "a manic need for sexual gratification."

Staging orgies at his Bel-Air mansion, Ryan, whose wives included Zsa Zsa Gabor, surrounded himself with busty Barbie clones, including Gwen Florea, who was the "voice of Barbie" in a line of talking dolls. The book quotes her: "He once said to me he loved me being tall so he could stick his nose in my boobs when he hugged me."

Ryan's friend, Stephen Gnass, confides to the author: "When Jack talked about creating Barbie . . . it was like listening to somebody talk about a sexual episode, almost like listening to a sexual pervert . . ." Ryan took calls at Mattel from a madam and patronized "high-class call girls to streetwalkers," including a "very thin and child-like" hooker. The book claims that Ryan "somehow rationalized that he was the only man in her life" until he was diagnosed with gonorrhea.

Barbie and Ken were named after the kids of Mattel founders Ruth and Elliot Handler - an honor that plagued Ken, who "grew up embarrassed and humiliated by having an anatomically incorrect boy doll named after him . . . [with] no hint of genitalia."

Despite marrying and having three kids, Ken was a closeted gay, Oppenheimer says. "To all those who knew him Ken Handler was a wonderful father, a loving husband . . . But there was another side to Ken. And in 1990 he was formally diagnosed with AIDS. His parents and wife were shocked." He died in 1994 in Greenwich Village, but obits didn't mention the disease.

Clean your closet people!!!

Do you have old sweaters in your closet that have been collecting dust since 1985? Well put them to good use and donate them to me!!!



I will be collecting sweater donations for my La Reunion Tree Carving project starting today though Jan. 24th. There are 2 options for donations

#1: Mail it to me at:
Tara to the T
PO Box 4581
Dallas, TX 75208-4581

#2: If you live in the DFW area I will gladly pick them up. Please message me at info@taratothet.com

Don't miss out on La Reunion's Open House event Saturday February 7th from noon-4:00pm. More information to follow!

La Reunion Tree Carving

My friend Sarah Jane Semrad is on of the founders of an organization in my town called La Reunion. La Reunion TX is creating an arts residency in Dallas that will host artists in both new and traditional media for periods ranging from one week to one year. In exchange for live/work space, artists will be expected to give back to the community through programs, exhibits, performances, and installations. Our residency will be built on a 35 acre site in Oak Cliff and will be as green and off-grid as possible, modeling to the community sustainable living. The project sounds so amazing to me that I have been looking forward to touring the site for quite some time. This past saturday was my lucky day!
My plan was to spend the day with Joey and tour the site, but while there I learned about this really cool project they are working on and got very inspired to apply to be a part of the 2009 tree carving project.

The Tree carving project is in partners with Preservation Tree and Texas Discovery Gardens.
The artist is challenged to create SOMETHING from a tree on the La Reunion TX land as a part of the ecological thinning of dead and dying non-native trees. Long story short many of the trees need to be removed from the land, but in order to do it in an eco-friendly and creative way the trees will be banded and artists will get a chance to be creative while the tree decomposes over time.

I have been very inspired by a very cool book and documentary project called Handmade Nation. In this trailer they show a clip of Knitta' a Houston, TX group that knit items and use them to tag things such as telephone polls and street signs. This inspired me for a proposal for the La Reunion tree carving project.

Our plan is to collect donated sweaters made out of natural materials (Cotton/ wool, no synthetic materials). We plan to remove all the green branches and wrap the tree trunk from base to tip with the recycled sweaters, creating a colorful tree wrapping. The removed branches will be used to make a green color "tree skirt" at the base of the tree. With the remaining recycled materials we plan to de-constructed the yards and material to create a La Reunion logo flag and hang it from the top of the tree.

The idea is to use all natural materials. As the tree decomposes so will the natural fibers from the sweater material. Our hopes are for animals living on the land such as birds and mice to use the tree and sweater materials to create nests for living.

Last step is to see if we get accepted for the project or not....h JaHa

Mi Vida Loca

I know every girl you ask would say that their honey is talented in some shape or form...but my honey really is talented!!!

I love hand made gifts, but this one really brought me to tears...happy ones that is. For those of you who really know me you understand a lot more about this painting. It's not just hot pink, glittery and pretty.

Living in South LA gave me an every day experience with the Mexican culture. Being a white girl from NoCal, my life dramatically changed when I moved to LA. I ate Mexican food every day, shopped at the Mexican grocery stores, learned how to cook traditional food from my close friends and their family and even learned how to speak Spanish at work. This painting means so much to me because my honey knows my past, my passion and is ridding with me into the future. Every day I walk into my studio I get a 4ft visual of beautiful pink glamorous happiness. Thank you Joey...you rock my socks off!

Mi Vida Loca!!!