"You shall go to the comics festival!"
In a kind of Cinderella moment I've been whisked out of my normal 9-5 (or rather the far less regular work hours I normally keep) and asked to appear at the wonderful BD Passions weekend at London's Institut Francais in South Kensington, which starts tomorrow!
Sadly I'll be replacing the fabulous Catel, the visual half of the team behind Kiki de Montparnasse, one of my favourite recent graphic novels.
Happily I'll be talking about drawing and writing in London and Paris, and drawing live (and probably life-sized). There will be Absinthe.
This is my take on Kiki, drawn from a portrait of her ready to go to work in the studio of one of the artists she posed for. Luckily I've always been fascinated by Alice Prin (Kiki's real name), the girl from the sticks who became the most famous model of her day - and no mean painter herself, with a sell-out show in 1927.
Looking at her in the photo it's difficult, in our age of airbrushed supermodels, to see how she held such sway. A little too hairy, a little too un-buff for today's tastes, she was ousted in the affections of Man Ray - not only her lover but the guy who fixed her image in the century's imagination with hundreds of photographs - by Lee Miller, a Vogue model and photographer much more in keeping, lookswise, with the Claudia Schiffers and Giselles of today. It was almost like the 19th century giving way to the 20th, the tram to the car, Romanticism to Modernism. Kiki refused to behave, be good, be conventionally beautiful, and ended her career overweight, underpaid and, most of the time, drunk, a heroic failure, like the heroine of a Jean Rhys novel.
If you'd like to come and see me - or go to any of the other events over the weekend - I have ONE SPARE TICKET to give away. As the festival starts TOMORROW I'm giving it to the FIRST, yes the VERY FIRST person who asks for it in the comments box below.
READY... GET SET... GO!
Sadly, I'm sure your wonderful gift does not include a round trip ticket and 5 star accommodations ;( Loved your story and enjoy the show!
Posted by: Kathy | October 06, 2011 at 07:02 PM
I want it! :) xx
Posted by: siannon | October 06, 2011 at 07:22 PM
You've got it!
I'll email you with details.
Everyone else, please enter my Tate print giveaway at http://badaude.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/09/tate-giveaway.html. I'm extending the deadline 'til MONDAY as I'm now a bit busy 'til then!
Posted by: badaude | October 06, 2011 at 07:36 PM
Oh... how I wish I could go, but like Kathy I would also need a round-trip ticket to London to go with, grrrrr. Sounds like a wonderful evening of many of my favourites - Kiki, you and the Institut Francais! (which, incidentally, is where I discovered the Catel and Bocquet BD!) Any chance of you posting about it afterward for those of us too far away to go??
Posted by: Rachel | October 06, 2011 at 10:22 PM
Planning to, if the photos don't look too ghastly...
Posted by: badaude | October 07, 2011 at 08:54 AM