Around San Francisco, you will see a few walls painted with a distinct style, this is the signature graffiti style of street artist Fnnch, who is best known for his murals of honey bears. At this year’s Burning Man, Fnnch brought a sculpture honey bear weighing almost 1,500lbs and was 3 stories tall. His unique style of art, from my perspective, is less graffiti as it is an opportunity for dreary city landscapes to come alive in colorful ways; his art is truly one of a kind. My personal favorite work, below, is a poppy painted on the side wall of a classic Victorian style home at Alamo Square. It’s a nice break from the gloom the city can have.
Catholic imagery is omnipresent and it’s alive. We see it from popular culture events like this year’s Met Gala, which was a part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” exhibit, a controversial exhibit of Vatican garb on loan from the Holy See, an exhibit with perhaps an obvious Chaucerian-style critique of the Church.
We see Catholic images on HBO’s The Young Pope, which doesn’t exactly paint the Church in a benevolent light. And then, more notably, we see it in the humility of Pope Francis, as he speaks above in a TED talk which I highly recommend watching. Most importantly, it’s worth noting how all of the “pomp and circumstance” dulls the pure message of hope and love that Jesus spoke of, and popular culture highlights this lack as the Church’s main fault. Truthfully, and perhaps this is worth highlighting, I think in a time of global unrest, it’s worth highlighting the importance of culture, family, and togetherness, which Catholicism has done well in upholding.
The cultural validity that the faith still holds is very real, and it’s with this platform, that the Church can begin evolving, as it clearly has – with its allowance of the garb on loan to The Met, and its projection display of nature and endangered species onto Saint Peter’s Basilica by a San Francisco-based firm, Obscura Digital, with the intent to illustrate how the Holy See is #OurCommonHome to inspire change around the world’s climate crisis.
While many would believe that the Church holds true to values that are outside of our current time, the Church could not be more relevant in giving people a sense of hope and belonging, so we experience a complex confluence of issues. The Blessed Virgin’s presence as a mother figure is important in illustrating the importance of strong female figures in one’s life, and often the erasure of this relationship between the BVM and Jesus creates discord and undermines the family. The Blessed Virgin Mary is a female figure to examine thoughtfully.
We see conflicting images in popular culture, such as the sexualized Victoria’s Secret Angels; historically, angels have never been depicted in a sexualized way, and with this use, it allows for the viewer to immediately make the connection that angels are naturally entities that are not holy, because they are human and sexual. My perspective is that we all find a balance, where we continue to think critically about images that become powerful in popular culture and also take time to appreciate the importance of values that have stood the test of time.
I was 12 years old when I visited Venice, Italy and began what is today my undying love for Venetian masks. They are a symbol of the Carnevale di Venezia (the Carnival of Venice), a time when all Venetians are able to let loose and enjoy all of their most hedonistic desires before Lent. The festival brings up to 3 million people to Venice each year! The mask symbolizes an opportunity; it’s speculated that they originally were used as a way for social hierarchy to be blurred amongst Venice’s inhabitants, but they also serve as an opportunity to not identify who is who when one is doing naughty things.
I’ve been collecting masks from Venice since that trip to Venice and I am still passionate about the cultural importance of these masks. They are a symbol of Venice’s history and they are a reminder of the timelessness of tradition.
Carta Alta creates the masks for many Hollywood films and parties. The masks featured above in Gossip Girl were created by Carta Alta. They also created Playboy’s 60th anniversary commemorative mask (below). A couple of the masks in my family’s collection are on display in my bedroom, I prefer to look for masks with a lot of detail and have unique pops of color (the hot pink cat mask was a great find!). I hope that my passion for Venetian masks is shared by others for years to come to ensure that this never becomes a lost art.
Makeup is one of my passions, but makeup can also be overwhelming for many; there is so much out there, from high end department store makeup to drugstore makeup, from the countless YouTube makeup videos to the celebrity looks we see and wonder if we can do on ourselves. I was lucky growing up to listen and learn from my mom’s beauty tricks as her degree is in cosmetology. Makeup can be simple and glamorous – here are the products that I have found to be essential to my routine, day and night. For day looks, I go lighter and for night looks I just go darker 🙂 Read on to see what I love and swear by. My list seems lengthy, but it’s really not too much at all! These are the things that I swear by!
Foundation: Clinique’s Superbalanced Makeup (without SPF) in Breeze (32)
Concealer: Glossier concealer in Light
Loose Powder: Covergirl Clean Professional in Translucent Fair (I use sparingly on my nose)
Blush: Milani rose powder blush in Tea Rose
Highlight:High Beam by Benefit Cosmetics (for my fair skin tone, it adds a sweet pink shimmer)
Eyebrows: Maybelline Great Lash Clear Mascara (for grooming my brows in place)
Eyeshadow: NYX Cosmetics palette in The Natural Shadow or LA Colors palette in Bronze Queen
Mascara: L’Oreal Voluminous Original in Blackest Black
Lipstick: Revlon’s “Gentlemen Prefer Pink” or Revlon’s “Love That Red“
Lip Liner: L’Oreal Colour Riche in Forever Rose or L’Oreal Colour Riche in Always Red
Lipgloss: NYX Cosmetics Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee
It only took the sound of an explosion and a power outage in my neighborhood yesterday to actually wake me up to the reality of how important emergency preparedness really is. I live and have lived in California for my entire life – I am used to the concept of the “Big One” happening and have pushed the thought far away in my mind, until yesterday’s power outage. I think I was sufficiently spooked into the reality of what it means to actually have to deal with a serious emergency.
That’s what led me here, FEMA’s link to creating your own emergency preparedness kit (seriously, do it!) and the types of information that you want and need on hand in the event of an emergency. Ready.gov has tons of interesting information, and I highly recommend bookmarking it. A small backpack from Amazon with the “basics” seems sufficient, but it’s actually not – the items you can collect on your own can be more personalized and make you thoroughly think about what an emergency can involve – it’s random, but even remembering things like toys and books for children and feminine hygiene products… Also, filling out information beforehand is so crucial, I am starting to think, in the event of a real emergency, I’m not sure if it’s that easy to quickly recall the memorized information that is second nature to us. Just think, it’s better to prepared than not… Are you ready?
If you are close with me, I have probably mentioned to you about how I avidly follow a miniature chihuahua on Instagram (@machi5536) named Omo and she resides in Tokyo, Japan (I think). Omo is the funniest pup on Instagram by a long shot (I’m serious), but I’m not a huge fan of the effort that Omo’s owner takes in dressing Omo and her companion in silly outfits, but I will admit, it’s still amusing. Nonetheless, Omo’s personality is so vibrant and so adorable that she is a little ray of sunshine in my Instagram feed everyday, that I truly enjoy every moment of. Whoever Omo’s owners are, I am grateful that you have shared little Omo in all of her adorable hilarity to the world. We love it. #ILoveOmo
There are so many reasons to smile for Smile Train. This organization has a sustainable business model where they empower local doctors to provide cleft lip care within their communities. Through this model, there can be more change affected as there is more opportunity for children suffering from cleft lip to get the surgery that they so desperately need. The organization has given over 1,000,000 cleft repair surgeries and every 5 minutes, a child is getting the surgery – lives are literally being transformed with this organization.
This is a remarkable concept that can be scaled quite well; as far as the organization itself goes, they have done a remarkable job with their marketing and their partner organizations – partnering in 2016 with The Miss Universe Organization, where recently Miss Universe Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters represented the organization at the United Nations. Another partnership done well has been with Kylie Jenner and her company, Kylie Cosmetics, which donated almost $500k in proceeds from her “lip kit” products alone, and helping 600 children with receiving the much needed surgery. Another successful partnership has been with Christie Brinkley being their Goodwill Ambassador, representing the organizations at events for more than 10 years.
Growing up a 90’s child was great for the toy era… Those were epic times – the 1995 mermaid Barbie was classic whimsical Barbie, the Polly Pocket by Rose Art board game that came out in 1994 (maybe the most epic board game created of all time?), and last but not least, sand art. For some reason, I found the concept of sand art to be so awesome when I was little – and honestly, I still do, today! Also, let’s never forget the technicolor wildness of Lisa Frank and the oh-so-popular ’89 release of Disney’s The Little Mermaid (Ariel is still my favorite princess). Well, the 90’s are long gone, but hopefully the nostalgia and colors galore can live on!
Bora Bora… The most fabulous spot to be if you’re ever in French Polynesia. In ancient times, islanders referred to it as “Pora pora mai te pora,” meaning “created by the gods.” I think that is aptly described; listening to my mother’s descriptions of her travels to Tahiti growing up were so magical that it put Bora Bora right at the top of my list of places to explore and travel to. Four Seasons Bora Bora has become a notable wedding destination as well. The turquoise waters and overwater bungalows are no doubt a place everyone needs to spend time in.
ILYSB by LANY is my current favorite jam… I thoroughly enjoy how their album cover is of a rosy pink colored flower bush. So, what does “ILYSB” and “LANY” exactly stand for? ILYSB stands for “I love you so bad,” and LANY is one of the hippest Indie pop bands around, their name standing for the cities LA and NY merged together, but pronounced “Lay-nee.” Paul Klein, their front man is currently dating actress Nicola Peltz, daughter of famed businessman Nelson Peltz. Nicola’s brother, Will Peltz, is currently signed with IMG Models Worldwide and has been taking the fashion world by storm. It’s quite the creative family. Paul Klein perhaps wrote “ILYSB” for another special lady, but I’m sure it applies well to his relationship with Nicola…
rosybvm.com 