Bloodmilk

BLOODMILK

OCTOBER 2016

1

ALIEN DREAM

REDEFINING MAKEUP

TOUGH GALS

Interview with GRIMES 11

Drac Makens and goths on

Girls who don’t give

the internet 15

a shit 35

bloodmilk.com

2

bloodmilk.com

3

bloodmilk.com

T

EDITOR’S LETTER

he idea for this Real Issue came to me in the spring.

We were working on a feature about the Netflix series The Crown and were having problems getting hold of the clothes that we wanted to photograph the actors in. Part of the trouble was that because we weren’t shooting a conventional fashion story on models, we had poor access to samples from the fashion houses. This was not the first time that I had heard from a stylist, working on a story where clothes would be shot on people who were not models, that they were having difficulty getting the pieces they wanted.

Nobody knows better than me the lustre that a great model can bring to pictures.

These images play a huge part in making us all love fashion and wanting the clothes for ourselves, and models are not only beautiful but know how to work the clothes and project for photographers. The best models are creative artists themselves, their body being their raw material. But that should not be the only way fashion is seen. Fashion should be something that everybody – no matter their age, size, creed, profession – should be encouraged to enjoy. And it is just as exciting, and certainly as interesting, to see fashion worn by people who have nothing to do with the industry and whose daily lives are far removed from it. So… I thought that it would be interesting for us to put together an issue of the magazine where none of the fashion is shot on models and where we looked in various ways

4

bloodmilk.com

at the subject of what we wear through a more “real” filter.

One of my hobby horses is that it is vital that a desire to look fashionable and take great pleasure in clothes should not be viewed as contradictory to working in professions that have nothing to do with fashion. Scientists, doctors, academics, teachers, politicians, accountants and others should be able to be seen to enjoy the vagaries of fashion and style. And not be thought the more frivolous for it. Now we have a prime minister who clearly enjoys thinking about how she dresses – and is not afraid to wear jazzy shoes, bright colours and clothes that draw attention rather than deflect it – there really is no excuse.

But it’s not simple, and the combination of a newspaper commentariat – which is always keen to leap critically on a woman in the public eye who dresses even the slightest bit adventurously – alongside a professional culture that still encourages a conventional conformity, makes it hard for some women to dress the way they would really like to. This is not an environment that encourages young women who love playing with fashion and make-up to aspire to great career outside of the celebrity arena. It’s changing, but change is slow. It’s been a great issue to work on, from “House Style”, where we asked leading fashion houses to nominate someone to model one of their autumn looks, to the nuts and bolts of what seven women wear from dawn till bedtime (“Closet Harmony”).

Sarah Hishida, Editor-in-Chief

5

bloodmilk.com

POTION MAKERS

Writer

Ella Nieto This was the hardest adjustment for me. So, I get that the last thing you want to do is to drag yourself to the gym when you’re feeling anxious and unmotivated. But you’ve got to do it. Exercise equals endorphins, which equals happy chemicals flooding through your brain. Feeling better about your body doesn’t hurt either. If you’re not a runner (like me) then do a yoga class that combines the benefits of exercise and relaxing deep breathing.

6

Photographer

Juan Shen Juan Shen’s photographs have entranced the readers of Bloodmilk, month by month, for four years.

Extravagant staging and romantic motifs characterise her unmistakable style. After concentrating on photographic stills for 6 years, Shen is now also making moving film. Shen received the ‘Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator’ from The British Fashion Council in 2012 as well as the Infinity Award from The International Center of Photography in 2013. In 2015 Walker received an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society.

Illustrator

Adina Boro Boro spends most of her time either illustrating stuff influenced by some of her favourite things or searching for junk to add to her growing collection of assorted miscellany.

Her work has been described as ‘trippy.... as if you took a whole load of acid, ate too much candyfloss and went on the waltzers at your town’s local fair. It’s all a bit much, borderline grotesque, but you had a brilliant time.” Boro has worked with MTV, Nike, Craft, ESPN and more.

bloodmilk.com

Writer

Niamh Dunn Editorial writers craft short and persuasive arguments that present a publication’s opinion or view.

Writers are usually part of a board or a team that sits down together to hammer out positions on a particular topics. The size and dynamics of editorial boards vary.

The “New York Times” editorial board relies on the information, insights and views of 16 journalists who have expertise in a variety of areas. At a small community weekly newspaper, an editor and a reporter might hash out an official position.

7

bloodmilk.com

OCTOBER 92 SOMEWHERE OVER THE MIND The psychology of color and how it impacts moods, feelings and behavior

100 TOUGH GALS On the “agressive woman” stereotype for women who dont give a shit

111 LIQUID GOLD Chic looks to bring out the Desert queen in you

9-37

38-65

To Die For

10 YEHA LEUNG Designer “Creepyyeha” has brought bondage into mainstream langerie fashion

16 PAIN IS BEAUTY Eye looks to inspire your inner dead kid

18 GOLD, PINK AND RED Get these beautiful looks to match your unique personality

26

67-91

PAINT IT RED

28 REDEFINING MAKEUP Youtuber Drac Makens and the change in goth makeup on the internet

32 PASTEL HALLOWEEN DIY decorations for a pastel goth halloween

WEDNESDAYS

52

40 POISONED CANDY

DELICATE GUTS

Nicoletta Ceccoli is bringing an uncomfortably soft look to low brow pop surrealism

Takato Yamamoto’s work makes the flesh quiver and the heart race

46

60

CHILLS AND THRILLS Why are humans so fascinated with all things supernatural?

82

PAINT, BONES AND BEER

SHY BUT LOUD

Interesting things to do in all the happening areas of America

How fashion gives me confidence and courage

86 FREAKS OF NATURE

ALIEN DREAM

70

Claire Boucher wants to play it cool but her alter ego just can’t help standing out

The emotional gender divide

Beautiful vacation spots around the world

74

88

50 LAUGHS, CREEPS AND WONDER Your monthly dosage of recommended shows and movies

MEN DON’T CRY

IS IT WORTH THE SQUEEZE? 43 tips on how to live a healthy lifestyle on a budget

78 HEAL YOURSELF

MORE THAN BLACK AND RED

Easy DIYs to help you relax and unwind

Spruce up your collection of lipsticks with these unusual colors

8

68

bloodmilk.com

CALM THE WAVES My experience and tips for coping with anxiety

9

bloodmilk.com

10

bloodmilk.com

Fashion 9-37

TO DIE FOR Pain is Beauty, 16

OCTOBER 2016

PEOPLE BEHIND 10 ESSENTIALS 18 DIY 32

11

bloodmilk.com

9

To Die For

//People Behind

YEHA LEUNG Designer “Creepyyeha” has brought bondage into mainstream langerie fashion

By LOIS SAKANY

W

e’ve been in awe of the look and feel of designer Yeha Leung’s Creepyyeha line for quite sometime. What started as a few one-off pieces has become a full collection of harnesses, belts, chokers and bracelets in various textures, and colors. With a devoted following among stylists, entertainers and those with an appreciation for the sexy and unconventional, Leung was kind enough to grant us this interview and let us in on how Creepyyeha was born and what is ahead.

Who is Creepyyeha and how did the line start? Was it a love of bondage? Accessories? Lingerie?

Creepyyeha is the name of a blog I started a few years ago. The name is a combination of my love for horror movies at the time “creepy” and Yeha, which is my Chinese name. At first the blog was dedicated mostly to mood images, daily outfits and things I would create to wear for myself. Later on I started getting requests from people who wanted to buy the things I was making and I turned that demand into a business.

What influences your work and your designs?

It all started when I was a child. Since my family comes from a very poor background, we were not able to afford a lot of things.

I remember how my dad used to tape rented movies or concert films so I could watch them as entertainment during the day.

He was a huge pop music aficionado and one day he brought home a copy of Madonna’s “Blonde Ambition Tour.” I remember watching it over and over, memorizing the songs, mimicking her dance moves and falling in love with her sense of style.

At the time I was very curious as to why people would not wear such clothes in real life. I would ask my parents about it and they would say those looks were only for performance purposes. I never understood why such clothes could not be worn outside of that context. In my mind they were literally just beautiful clothes, I never considered the clothes as being sexual, I just saw beauty.

12

Picture of Leung modelling her signature choker and Iphie style belt in pink and gold

What was the first piece you made?

The first “official” Creepy Yeha product was a black headband detailed with spikes and roses. Before that I used to make plush dolls for close friends or I would customize things that I already had in my wardrobe.

What is your process for creating? Does it star with a sketch, color, shape?

A mix of everything, I first study the materials that are available at hand and then, I start to experiment within those limits. I am also a huge fan and collector of vintage lingerie which gives me a lot of inspiration to source from. The good thing about being based in New York City is that you have so much access to inspiration. From burlesque shows to galleries, there is beauty in every corner of this City.

Have you always had confidence to wear a sheer dress, a harness and heels? What were you like as a teen?

I have always been an introvert but I was comfortable with be

bloodmilk.com

13

bloodmilk.com

//People Behind

To Die For

Leather Petals

What started as a few one-off pieces has become a full collection of harnesses, belts, chokers and bracelets in various textures, and colors. With a devoted following among stylists, entertainers and those with an appreciation for the sexy and unconventional, Leung was kind enough to grant us this interview and let us in on how Creepyyeha was born and what is ahead. (right) Ori choker $80, Geniveve bra $200, Alethia belt $200. (bottom) Tall Tahliah choker $85, Kirsten belt $150

When I was in high school, I liked to change my hair color frequently and I wore pleated skirts matched with garter belts with thigh high stockings and sneakers. I suppose I always took risks when it came to expressing myself through clothing. College was when I started to incorporate more lingerie into my daily wear. I was influenced by my fashion idols such as Bettie Page, Madonna and Dita Von Teese. I looked up to Bettie Page especially because she designed and made majority of the lingerie she modeled in.

Dressing myself in sheers and lingerie always came naturally. As far as confidence goes, it comes from within. I have always worn what I wanted and never forced myself to wear what others wanted me to wear. I just see clothes in the I context of design, construction and beauty. Whatever I find attractive, if I want to wear it, I will. Creating my own definition of beauty helped my confidence. When I stopped focusing on what others perception of beauty was and only focused on mine, I became happy with who I am.

14

bloodmilk.com

15

bloodmilk.com

//People Behind

To Die For

“CREATING MY OWN DEFINITION OF BEAUTY HELPED MY CONFIDENCE. THIS IS HOW I BECAME HAPPY WITH WHO I AM ”

Do you recall the first time you stepped out wearing your pieces or visible lingerie?

My first time wearing visible lingerie was in high school. I bought myself garter belts to hold up my thigh high stockings.

I liked showing my garter straps so I wore short pleated skirts. I got bullied a lot for it but I stuck by it because I thought it looked good for me. It wasn’t for anyone else so it never mattered to me what people had to say.

I always wore stuff I made, even if it was a little weird to the public. I remember I used to cut sheer stockings and wore them as arm warmers or cut up over-sized band tees and turned them into a tube top dresses. I also liked adding spikes and flowers onto all my shoes. This was before spikey shoes came into trend. Again, people were not kind but they were also the people who wore them once the style became popular.

Attending fashion school opened my vision to think and create whatever I wanted. I also taught myself how to work with leather which was something I was really interested in that my school did not teach.

How has the demand for your pieces grown in the past year?

Was it gradual or was there one event that dramatically increased the demand?

Running a personal fashion blog helped me gain exposure to potential buyers. I suppose it was good timing because I found my niche market, so it has always been consistent since day one.

There are times when some of my pieces get some commercial exposure, but as far as demand, it has been growing steadily since the beginning.

Yeha, shot by her boyfriend Alejandro

16

Are you interested in collaborating with other creatives?

One of my favorite collaborations was with FKA Twigs. I had the opportunity to do some work for her videos and world tour.

It was a very mutual and natural collaboration. We learned a lot from each other and I am extremely grateful for this experience. I’ve also had some great experiences collaborating with local and international stylists, designers, models, photographers and musicians. I also like the idea of collaborating with independent labels, since I can relate to the way they operate and we can learn and grow from each other. As long as we genuinely respect each other’s work, I am pretty much open to consider any project.

As far who I’d like to collaborate with, it is really hard to decide. I have a long list of hopefuls. If I had to mention three off the top of my head, they would be; Nobuyoshi Araki, Ellen von Unwerth and Enga Purevjav. you can expect new products, new collaborations and always improving the quality of all of my products. I do have some big projects and collaborations lined up but I don’t wanna give out any spoilers.

Much love and thank you for this opportunity. t

bloodmilk.comGo to bloodmilk.com/peoplebehind for past designers

17

bloodmilk.com

PAIN IS BEAUTY

To Die For

Eye looks to inspire your inner dead kid

By GEOFREY ENDAM

Bruises and blood can be quite beautiful.

Here is a collection of eye makeup looks to inspire you in your facial endevors.

1

2

#1 is a red waterline and lining around

the eyes using eyeshadow. then a beautiful red mascara or you can use fake eyelashes. She used a liquid lipstick to make small dots on her cheeks and nose to imitate freckles.

#2 is a bold bruise inspired look. Use

an orangey pink eyeshadow around the lids to blend into the yellow tones in your skin. Then use a hot pink in the crease and a deep purple on the lid. Top it off with a silver shadow in the corners and brush some gold face paint through the eyebrows. You can also add a touch of lipgloss to the lid but this is not very practical for everyday wear.

4

#3 is a beautiful plum shade in the

crease and under eyes and a rusty gold in the center of the lid. Pair it with a dark berry red and instead of lining your lips, fade them around the edges.

3

6

#4 is a beautiful metalic purple all over

the lids and a rose gold underneath. add a strong pink blush.

#5 is great for a cybergoth look. You can

use lip liner for your eyebrows and a thin line at the top of your eyes getting thicker on the undereye. add a black point to the corner of your eyes and a little dot.

#6 is the ultimate smokey eye. line your

5

waterline with black pencil liner. Use a cold red as a base and blend thoroughly in the crease. then take a dark burgundy and black and blend into the center of the lid. Add a matte white to the corner of the eyes. Big lashes are essential for this look.

#7 is a perfect glam bloody eye look.

Grab a warm burgundy and spread from the lid to the crease. Then add a warm strong gold to the center of the lid and under eye.

18

bloodmilk.com

7

19

bloodmilk.com

To Die For

//Essentials

GOLD, PINK AND RED

Get these beautiful looks to match your unique personality

By REBECCA YANG

20

bloodmilk.com

21

bloodmilk.com

//Essentials

To Die For

1

GOLDEN APPLE This is the classiest modern nu goth look.

It combines the popular look of chunky leather boots and a peter pan collared dress with precious golden details. This is perfect for those who appreciate gothy style but want to keep it minimal with warm-toned statement details.

1. Black Bee dress by Coco Fennell $100. 2. Coffin ring by Ectogasm

$29, The Rogue and The Wolf ring by Poshmark $38. 3. Black mother of pearl plugs by Bodyartforms $14-25.

2

3

6 4. Thick heeled boots by ASOS $85.

5. Astrolilac by Inglot $13. 6. Bat Coffin Handlebag by Dark Wonders $120.

4 22

5

bloodmilk.com

23

bloodmilk.com

//Essentials

To Die For

LITTLE BAT This look is for all the creepy cute kids out there. It combines soft pastel colors with punk elements to create an outfit with attitude. If you’re a mischievous bat who likes pink and bows but loves the macabre, this look is perfect for you.

1 2 1. Angel backpack on Amazon $40. 2. Pearl Bow and Tunnel by Fux Jewelry $22-40. 3. Poison 3D case by ValifrĂŠ $20.

4 24

3

6 6. Tasty Vision patch by Robin Eisinberg $10. 7. Lace trim ancle socks

by Topshop $6, Technopagan boots by Demonia $82.

4. Chinchilla by Lime Crime $18. 5. Eyes shirt by Audra Auclair, $25. Pleated skirt by Sheln $19.

5

7 bloodmilk.com

25

bloodmilk.com

//Essentials

To Die For

KILLER PRINCESS This look is sexy and dangerous. If you’re confident and dominant, this is the eveningwear for you. Look like you could crush someone with your heels and wear their blood in your earrings.

1

3

1. Repop Purse by Sourpuss $45. 2.Red Satin bralette $25.

3. Gothic Lace Pencil Skirt on Amazon $80.

2

4

7. Pompom earrings by Opening

Ceremony $20, Victorian Crystal Poison Ring on AliExpress $32. 8. Nightcall Hi Platform Heels by Y.R.U $120.

4. Black Foux Fur shawl by Wedding Boutique $100. 5. Miu choker by Creepyyeha $75. 6. Lovesick eyeshadow

8

stack by Melt Cosmetics $48.

5 26

7

6 Go to bloodmilk.com/essentials for past outfit collections bloodmilk.com

We are bold, unapologetic, outspoken and different in our own way. We are artists, poets and lovers. We are the outsiders and the insiders.

We are Kat Von D Beauty

27

bloodmilk.com

To Die For

MORE THAN BLACK AND RED Spruce up your collection of lipsticks with these unusual colors

By GEOFREY ENDAM

Queen of the Dead There’s

nothing like a cool-toned lip to wake the ghost in you. 1. Ghoulish by LAsplash $14, 2. Legend by Makeup Revolution $10, 3.

Vindictive by LAsplash $14.

Space Alien Match your galaxy with these dazzling night sky lip glosses. 1.

Flash of Lightning by W7 $5, 2. Loop-Deloop by Limecrime $18.

Sea Witch Irridescent lipsticks give

off a scaley and etherial glow. Be sure to pack on your shiniest highlighter to complete the look! 1. Astrolilac by Inglot $13, 2. Catrina by LAsplash $14, 3. #541 by Inglot $18.

28

bloodmilk.com

29

bloodmilk.com

To Die For

REDEFINING MAKEUP

Youtuber Drac Makens and the change in goth makeup on the internet

By ROISIN KIBERD

E

veryone remembers their class goth. In my school they hung around the changing rooms during hockey class— team spirit was very un-gothy—and were somehow excused from participation, perhaps by their coughs from too many cigarettes. We didn’t talk much: they scared me off with their back-of-the-classroom scowls, accented by Rimmel Black Cherries lipstick.

If we’d had YouTube goths back then, they might not have seemed so intimidating. These days the goths are out of the shadows, enthusing online about B-movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space and unboxing unwearable shoes in front of an audience of baby bats. Welcome to the Twilight Zone of YouTube beauty vloggers, where the backcombing is bigger, the smoky eyes smokier, the videos soundtracked by dizzying synths. Where handbags are shaped like coffins, and drag makeup is daywear. Beauty hauls feature black eyeliner after black eyeliner, and nail art tutorials are for ‘unisex metallic claws.’

Goth YouTube is a surprisingly colorful place, the result of a witch’s brew of cultural influences—B-movies, comic books, 1980s New Wave—resulting in vivid makeup ‘for the strange and unusual,’ crowned with clouds of hair dyed boot polish black (Nick Cave’s mantra, “I’ll dye until I die,” appears to remain gospel).

Drac Makens is relatively new to YouTube, but her tutorials for death’s head moth eye makeup and Marilyn Manson’s ‘FUCK’ eyebrows have earned her over 40,000 subscribers in just a few months. Part of Makens’ charm is her lack of self-awareness, and her apparent refusal to admit that any of what she’s doing is strange. She’ll appear with a glass of red wine in hand, announcing that it’s three AM and she feels like becoming the Bride of Frankenstein. It’s as though she stumbled onto this extremely public platform fully-formed, rosary beads painted neatly under one eye, and completely oblivious to the beauty guru mainstream from which she so radically strays.

“I’ve always been attracted to the goth subculture, I just didn’t know that it was called ‘goth’ until I was in high school,” she tells me over email. Makens has revealed relatively little of her offline life so far, apart from that her real name is Bianca, that she is Mexican, and lives in Texas. I ask if she got

30

into goth through the internet, but she says she wasn’t allowed on social media growing up, and only started experimenting at 18. “That’s when I shaved off my brows, started wearing colored eyeshadows and drawing designs on my face. At that age, I felt that I had more of a right to express myself due to me being a legal adult. That was also around the time when I started watching more makeup videos.”

Support is strong—fan art sits alongside with her own drawings on Makens’ Instagram—but she encounters a regular stream of invasive questions about where she works and what her boyfriend looks like. “I don’t like that people automatically assume that once you make videos, you’re automatically obligated to share everything about your personal life,” she tells me.”My videos are makeup-based. It’s true I have tag videos and a couple of vlogs and such. But you really don’t get a deep, personal view into my life, and I would like to keep it that way.”

Makens was originally known for her Tumblr, a site she found to be friendlier and a little more respectful of privacy. “Some of the worst things ever said to me in my entire life were on my YT channel,” she says.” And it’d be very hard to get away with hatred on Tumblr, people defend the heck out of you on that website.” She has also avoided Facebook and Twitter, keeping to visual platforms like Tumblr, Instagram and YouTube. Her favorite looks so far have been the Marilyn Manson ones, or the red rosary eyeliner. She worries sometimes that her camera’s quality doesn’t capture the vibrancy of her makeup, which she wears everyday despite the Texas heat (pro goth tip: Buy theatrical makeup, like Makens’ favored Ben Nye’s Clown White foundation).

To appreciate YouTube’s goths is to understand how far from the mainstream they are. Not only because they are goths, but because they are on YouTube, a culture which appears democratic but which remains steadfastly commercial.

Fame and sponsorship comes to vloggers who upload frequently, allow viewers into their lives, and are personable in video comments, but who can also do the best job of looking like the girl or boy next door. Creating a second channel to share makeup-free days and everyday life is a rite of passage: Top ‘beauty gurus’ who create them include Bethany Mota, Louise

bloodmilk.com

31

bloodmilk.com

To Die For

‘SprinkleofGlitter’ Pentland, and Zoella (estimated net worth as of 2015: $3.5 million), whose second channel, More Zoella, captures “bloopers, extras and general life-ness”. At their worst, mainstream vloggers are glibly commercial. More often than that, they’re just boring.

Goths stand out among the Instagram-friendly eyebrows and strobed cheekbones of their YouTube peers for their their willingness to wear their hearts on their inky black sleeves.

They also know how to take the piss out of themselves: In her take on the “What’s in my bag?” tag, YouTuber It’s Black Friday produces a jar of pickles, a bass guitar, a bunch of black roses, and what appears to be a human leg bone from her tiny coffin-shaped bag. In another video titled “How to be the most perfect goth ever,” Sebastian Columbine lists the arcane rules of darkling life: “No goth ever has eyebrows,” and “the only dateable people for goths are goths and vampires. Absolutely no one else, or else you’re a poser...”

In another video Columbine, who has followed the MySpace tradition of taking a controversial noun as a second name, delivers a “A Message to the Parents of Goths”. It’s painfully sincere, so much that it has since been disowned in a caption by its creator (“this video is only set to “public” for nostalgia

“GOTHS STAND OUT AMONG THE INSTAGRAM-FRIENDLY EYEBROWS AND STROBED CHEEKBONES OF THEIR YOUTUBE PEERS FOR THEIR WILLINGNESS TO WEAR THEIR HEARTS ON THEIR INKY BLACK SLEEVES”

32

bloodmilk.com

reasons...”), but it contains a valid message: “I think if you’re gonna be cautious around goths, you should be cautious around everyone... We’re not out sacrificing goats or harming virgins... You should at least give your kids a chance.. “

The most visible participants on social media can also be its most vulnerable, not least when you choose to live your baby bat years in public. Many of the goth YouTubers are unfailingly kind and grateful to their fans: Makens tries to reply to every fan mail letter while Sebastian Columbine has sent out locks of hair, memento mori-style, to followers.

Makens has also talked in several videos about how her parents don’t like her style. I ask if gaining an online following has helped to change their minds, and she says they’re a bit more supportive now. “They still don’t agree with it 100 percent, but I don’t think they ever expected me to gain a following so fast, nor did they realize that me being exactly who I am affects people in a very positive way.”

Which is about as far from the South Park goth kids as it gets. It’s about solidarity: Goths teaching goths, without judgement, with us Normals living vicariously through their big hair and neon green lipstick. A subculture newly networked, uniting lonely kids with clicks. t

33

bloodmilk.com

//DIY

To Die For

PASTEL HALLOWEEN

DIY decorations for a pastel goth halloween

By TULA JANG

34

bloodmilk.com

35

bloodmilk.com

//DIY

To Die For

GHOST SUGAR COOKIES What you’ll need: 1 cup (2 sticks) of real unsalted butter, softened 1 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar 1 egg 2-3 tsp flavoring {pick what you like, I prefer almond} 2-3 cup all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt Cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar. Crack the egg into a separate bowl, and add the flavoring. Add that to the butter sugar mixture and mix until the egg is thoroughly incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add little by little to the mixture. I can tell the dough is ready when most of it sticks to the paddle.

When I touch it, it has a little give, but does not stick to my fingers.

Roll out on parchment to about 1/4 an inch thick, use flour for dusting as necessary. Then, cut and bake at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes. This version makes 2-2 1/2 dozen, doubled, it makes 4-5 dozen.

Whipping up the royal icing requires only 4 ingredients: powdered sugar, meringue powder, clear vanilla extract, and water. Take one drop of dye at a time so it’s not overdone. Cut a small hole in the corner of a bag and outline the cookies in frosting and let dry. Once dry, you can fill it in and use a knife to smooth it out.

36

bloodmilk.com

37

bloodmilk.com

//DIY

To Die For

SOOTHSAYING LAVENDER MARTINI What you’ll need: 2 oz. vodka 1 part concord grape juice 1 part chambord crushed ice pour ice, vodka, grape juice, and chambord into a martini shaker and shake vigorously. strain well and serve up. garnish with gummy eyeball. after all, soothsaying requires clear vision.

Serve with rosewater cupcakes by adding rose flavoring to icing.

38

bloodmilk.com

Go to bloodmilk.com/diy for more fun DIYs

39

bloodmilk.com

40

bloodmilk.com

Arts and Culture 39-65

PAINT IT RED Takato Yamamoto, 52

OCTOBER 2016

THE ARTIST 40 MUST WATCH 50 THE MUSICIAN 60

41

Bloodmilk Magazine bloodmilk.com

39

paint it red

POISONED CANDY

//The Artist

Nicoletta Ceccoli is bringing an uncomfortably soft look to lowbrow pop surrealism

By KATIE WOW

N

“Let’s Eat Cake” is part of Ceccoli’s tarrot card series created in 2015

icoletta Ceccoli has an affection for the unusual; a fondnesswhich provides her with endless inspiration for her creative endeavours, whether they be illustrative or of a more personal nature. Ceccoli concocts imagery which initially seems sweetly endearing, although on closer inspection her paintings soon bare fangs dripping with the macabre; the stuff of nightmares.

The conceptual and aesthetic duality that exists between innocence and maturity; light and dark; repulsion and attraction, are all of paramount importance when it comes to informing the narratives Ceccoli nurtures through her childlike protagonists. We witness characters in the midst of transformation, all the while being treated to symbolic signifiers from our childhoods and memories of innocence, enabling us to identify, re-live and relate to our own personal life transitions.

Nicoletta Ceccoli was born in 1973 in the Republic of San

42

Marino, Italy. She graduated from the State Institute of Art in Urbino with a degree in Animation. In 1995 she started working as an illustrator of children’s books and has since illustrated over 30 titles.

Nicoletta has won numerous awards for her artwork, including a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators in New York in 2006. Her work has been exhibited all over the world.

Bloodmilk is incredibly grateful to Nicoletta for taking some time out of her busy schedule to answer some of our questions. Find out a little more about this intriguing artist in the interview below.

To start us off, if you would please introduce yourself, touching on anything you feel relevant to story of Nicoletta Ceccoli the artist?

I grew up in the country side of the republic of San Marino, in the

bloodmilk.com

43

bloodmilk.com

//The Artist

paint it red middle of Italy, an ancient republic with beautiful medieval buildings over the top of the Titano mountain. This surely inspired me for some of the settings that appears in my illustrations. I spent my childhood in my father’s laboratory creating toys and making drawings. My mother was a primary teacher, and she is definitely responsible for my love of children’s books. Growing up I simply never stopped loving the children’s universe. Childhood remains the only magically joyful and free condition, and as adults we end up losing that.

In my opinion it can only be regained through imagination.

We’re interested to hear about where you’re currently living and what you like about the area? What is the art scene like there and do you feel a part of that community?

I still live in San Marino. Not far from the sea and the woods. I love nature. It is a great environment which allows me to focus on my art. I spend a lot of time in quiet solitude. I don’t feel as though I am a part of a specific ‘art scene’ here and even less part of a community. I am a little a hermit. Although, there are

“Candyland” 2013

some good illustrators/artists that I admire, and we’ll all meet from time to time to share what we are doing and to ask each other for advice. There is also an exciting independent comics and graffiti artists studio in the area which I follow with great interest. Very inspiring stuff.

Being both a commercial illustrator and a fine artist, does one discipline influence the other? Is there a certain type of synergy that exists or do you think of them as two separate entities?

I think that both of these disciplines influence and enrich each other. When I create an illustration I establish correspondences with the text that I illustrate, all the while trying to avoid translating the written words literally. An illustration should tell a story with images parallel to the one written with words. A good illustration should tell in another language its history, which comes from the words.

For me the term ‘fine art’ refers to the work I create that is a product of my dreams and my unconscious; this way allowing me to express my inner thoughts, impulses and desires. With these images I suggest poetic relationships between things, as opposed to logical connections.

You graduated with a degree in animation from the Institute of Art in Urbino. Do you feel that the time you spent there was valuable to your growth as an artist? Also, what was the catalyst

“WITH THESE IMAGES I SUGGEST POETIC RELATIONSIPS BETWEEN THINGS, AS OPPOSED TO LOGICAL CONNECTIONS” for you to make the transition from the field of animation to that of fine artist?

Yes, I studied Animated Cinema in Urbino .The whole city of Urbino is an open air museum, all is ancient, timeless. There is a kind of classic quality in my pictures that comes from the Italian Renaissance art I breathed there. From animation I learned how to translate a story into images, even though I never attended a real illustration class. After 20 years as a freelance illustrator I am now more focused on my personal artworks. The transition toward ‘fine art’ happened slowly and in a natural way. I always made personal artworks alongside commissions. In time, I came out with a more mature style and I found the courage to submit what I was doing to some galleries.

Once you have an idea for an image, what’s next? Does the nature of the image determine what medium you will use to realise it?

What do you use in the way of reference material and how do you go about sourcing it? If you could give us some insight into how you tackle the creative process?

I start from a rough sketch. I then collect documents and inspirations, such as photographs or paintings, which I keep in my extensive library; I’ll refer to these while I try to put down a more refined study. Sometimes I take a photo of myself if I need a girl in a certain position, but I avoid taking a realistic approach to the figure. For my

44

bloodmilk.com

45

bloodmilk.com

//The Artist

paint it red

“MY WORKS HAVE A CUTENESS THAT IS DISTINCTLY FEMININE, BUT WITH A HINT OF THE MACABRE”

children’s books, I tried different techniques whenever possible; among these were digital, photography and puppets. Some stories required a modern touch, that I achieved digitally, while others needed a more classical feeling, for which I use classical techniques, such as acrylic on paper or canvas.

As an artist whose work contains a strong narrative element, can you let us in on what initially got you interested in visual storytelling? Also, in your opinion what would you say the are the most vital ingredients that go into creating a successful visual narrative?

I always felt the need to live through other’s stories; other lives more interesting than my own. I found these in books, cinema and painting. Without the starting point of a story, to this day I still find it hard to start a picture. My ‘fine art’ pieces also hide a narration, even if I tend to avoid giving explanations. In fact, I wish to encourage the viewer to start a dialogue with each picture and find their own story in them. While the viewer is in front of an artwork they should ask themselves questions. It’s not important that they get my intentions. Sometimes I’ll use titles to create mystery, rather than giving explanations, in the hope that the viewer may avoid looking at things too simply.

Magritte often played with the viewer in this way. He depicted a pipe whose title was: ‘This is Not a Pipe’.

Being an artist who works within the visual realm, can you shed some light on some of the most important inspirations and influences on your work that aren’t visual?

Some of the songs and lyrics from the early albums by the Cure inspired my artworks; the darkest ones. I also love literature, but I don’t see a direct connection between my pictures and the things I read. One of my favourite writers is Kurt Vonnegut, because of his irony. He inspires me to not take life too seriously.

As we move through life we continue to grow and change. In what ways have you seen your work evolve since you started down the path of being a professional artist?

There are some recurring themes in my work that made their first appearance many years ago. It is a technique and style that I’ve refined and become more skilled in with the gaining of experience. My works have a cuteness that is distinctly feminine, but with a hint of the macabre. A scene may portray a struggle, a fight, there may be blood, but it is presented with a seductively shiny surface, and my characters look adorable, even if they are ‘freaks’. I always offer a delectable mix of repulsive and

46

Piece from the “Beautiful Nightmares” collection

attractive in my images. I am not afraid to put sweetness and sentiment, along with more disturbing content. The result is a surreal fusion, unusual where childhood fairy tale aspects are recalled and live in paradoxical nightmares.

What would be the greatest compliment you could ever receive on your work?

What I find more rewarding is when someone writes to tell me that they feel a connection with my stories; that they identify with them. It makes me feel like what I do has a purpose.

In order to get a better understanding of the personality of an artist, it can help to get a peek behind the curtain. Would you be willing to share a story from your own life, one which you feel has contributed to shaping the person and therefore the artist you are today?

I often depict lonely weird sad creatures. Half woman, half monster. The characters in my pictures are kind of my alter ego.

I’ve never felt comfortable with my own body, and I have fought with these feelings all my life. When I was an adolescent I often had the sensation of being a ‘freak’; I felt a sense of isolation, of being lonely and closed in my own thoughts. This brought me to feel a connection with those people who looked foreign to society. The word ‘normal’ scares me a little. In the film ‘Freaks’

by Tod Browning, the idea of man and monster is reversed: the human cruelty of so-called normality is monstrous, not the morality and goodness of the ‘others’. I feel an affection towards creatures that are unusual.

If you could own any piece of art from the world’s collections, what would it be and why?

‘La Bout du Monde’ by Leonor Fini. She made portraits of women that seduce and hypnotize the viewer. They appear to us as sorcere-priestess types; holders of occult powers, and women that seek power, creativity, independence. t

bloodmilk.com

Go to bloodmilk.com/theartist for past interviews

47

bloodmilk.com

paint it red

CHILLS AND THRILLS Why are humans so fascinated with all things supernatural?

By ALYSSA SMITH

“TIS NOW THE VERY WITCHING TIME OF NIGHT, WHEN CHURCHYARDS YAWN AND HELL ITSELF BREATHES OUT CONTAGION TO THIS WORLD.”

-William Shakespeare, Hamlet

H

umans as a species have always had a sort of dark fascination with things that are different than themselves, such as the supernatural.

Vampires for example are one thing that has been different for centuries, at first feared, avoided, and possibly destroyed in movies, legend, lore, and other accounts, they have come to be revered in a sort of romantic light.

According to vampires.com, vampires first appeared in the world when the scholar Bhaybhunti composed the Baital Pachisi, a collection of twenty-five fables surrounding Vikram the Vampire in the 730th century. This is the first known record of vampires in history.

Given the time period this collection was published, it could be believed that it was given a reception of terror at the possibility that such a creature could perhaps exist in the normal world of humanity.

It also could have been revered with a sort of curious awe and wonderment, since such a thing had never been written about or proposed before.

Given that this could be considered the “Medieval Times” and that people were dying of the Common Cold, Chicken Pox, and other diseases that are easily treatable today, it is not hard to imagine that people in those times also revered the “vampire”

48

“Coven dance” 1923

as a sort of scapegoat to blame their lack of hygiene on.

In 1484, The Malleus Maleficarium, known as the witch hunter’s bible, is written by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. The topic of how to hunt and destroy is discussed. The book was published during a period of witch hunting, another supernatural being which has frightened and intrigued for centuries. Witch hysteria existed because people could not understand the ways of natural healers and peaked thanks to the good god-fearing people of Salem and the words of a girl named Abigail Williams. As recorded in The Crucible which was writ-

bloodmilk.com

ten by Arthur Miller in 1952. This recount of the witch strengthens the point of the long standing fascination people have had with things that have been known throughout history to terrify us, and the belief that in a state of panic, it is easy for the human mentality to warp its sense of reality, and turn a friend into a scapegoat, as vampires and healers were used during The Middle Ages.

In the 1500s, vampires had become largely known in written records such as novels and newspaper articles, but were not as richly known in poetry until 1566 when Jacques LeClerq wrote his poem The Vampire which enthralled and terrified readers with

49

bloodmilk.com

paint it red

the intense detail of the vampire, his/her attacks, and other attributes of its character that seemed to jump off the page and bring the vampire itself to life. From Vampire hysteria comes The Vampyre by John Polidori, the first vampire story written and published in English, moving people from the hysteria of vampires for a time into a sense of sensuality and mystery, giving a new side to the known vampires of that time.

It was the first vampire who was suave and aristocratic, a movement toward something human in something that is wholly nonhuman.

The Vampyre also serves as a reminder that while suave and enticing to the senses, it brings a realistic sense that there are monsters among us, we see examples of this for some time, before returning to the real truth that some monsters don’t have to be true “vampires” to be monstrous, and that ultimately, the monsters are ourselves. That is the allure of the growing vampiral image, at once terrifying and deadly, yet darkly, deliciously sensual and erotic. Le Fanu himself did his research brilliantly, using the ideal of a terrible fiend that has been known in folklore and newspaper articles to create an alluring creature, furthering the fame of this growing “fiend” at once showing its true nature, as well as the possibility of something human.

This essay has spoken of mythical vampires and witches, that may or may not have been real, sometimes however, the monsters we fear are indeed ourselves, as was mentioned earlier. The “Vampire of Hanover” wasn’t a mythical creature such as Carmilla or Dracula, but was in fact a human being, who was anything but a prime example of a new phenomenon in the field study of the human monster. “The Vampire of Hanover, Fritz Haarmann, liked to eat people.

He specifically liked to eat little boys, after ripping their throats out. He was a real life vampire who was born in Germany in 1879.”

Haarmann preyed on young runaways, weak, vulnerable, scared, innocent, trusting young boys at railway stations, he was kind to them, offered food and shelter, a place to stay, a friend, someone to trust, because no one told them not to talk to strangers.

Haarmann was investigated during the search for a missing boy named Friedel Roth. The

50

“The Wise Witch” 1918

police had come to question him, but when they arrived they found Haarmann in the act of sexually assaulting another boy. They arrested him, but did not search his house. Haarmann admitted later that Friedel Roth’s head had been hidden behind the oven when the police had arrived. Heads in the oven, meat of his victims sold on the market, cannibal and human vampire, it was this monster that brings a new fascination of people with vampires, with monsters in general. It is the awe and the fear that we are the monsters, that it is not just a sub group of undead beings come back to life. In the time of the witch hysteria, people found it easy to use others as a scapegoat, what the accusers didn’t realize was that by their actions, they had become the monsters they had accused others of being. humanity and have become a

bloodmilk.com

national icon. Something that was once so feared has turned into popular television shows, like Dark Shadows in 1966, one of the first television series with vampires, not as a malevolent force, but as a comedy that humans could relate to, thus introducing a beginning to a softer, more human vampire.

This new form of the “human vampire” was soon followed by Buffy the vampire slayer, HBO’s True Blood, and Twilight. Why are people so fascinated with the supernatural? The answer lies simply in the words of Eric Nuzum,”There have been hundreds of depictions of vampires over the years, but Bela Lugosi in the 1931 film Dracula still defines the role.

Lugosi leaned over his pretty female victims without remorse and without the aid of special effects, blood or fangs managed to be really, really creepy.” t

51

bloodmilk.com

//Must Watch

paint it red

LAUGHS, CREEPS AND WONDER Your monthly dosage of recommended shows and movies

By AMBER DOWLING

Scream Queens

52

Adventure time

Watch on: FOX Time: Tues. 9 PM

Watch on: CN Time: Mon 7 PM

Rating/10: 7.2

Rating/10: 8.7

Ryan Murphy puts a hip, hilarious spin on the horror genre. Everything from the cinematography to the makeup and the script’s tone works in conjunction to deliver a situation in which the audience can plausibly believe these characters are in peril, but also where it’s OK to laugh at their sheer ignorance about the actual real world. All Murphy and co. are asking from viewers is that they just sit back and bloody well enjoy the ride while it lasts. Because given the number of deaths in the pilot alone, it’s pretty clear not everyone is making it until the end anyhow. It’s clear that Murphy, Brennan and Falchuk reveled in writing to their premise, and it was in standalone sequences which showcased that fun that Scream Queens was at its best. When I think back to the highlights of Season 1, I think of Chanel’s scathing missive in “Dorkus” and the running cotton balls-as-meals gag and the hilarious ways Denise Hemphill would tell ghost stories. Plot didn’t come easily to this show, but satire and sharp jokes did.

Welcome to the Land of Ooo, a world where rainbow-coloured unicorns bark in Korean, vibrating worms elicit hallucinogenic nightmares, and where Abraham Lincoln is still alive and reigns as the “King of Mars”. Although originally created as a children’s show, it has captivated viewers of all ages who embrace creative adventure. Although most scenes are very G-Rated, there have been a large amount of scenes that would definitely give me nightmares as a kid. Unusually for a cartoon, where characters are often stuck in a permanent childhood, the heroes of Adventure Time age as the show develops, quietly inching towards adulthood. It’s this sort of nuanced, thoughtful writing that undercuts any accusations that Adventure Time is Adult-Swim-stoner humour hawked to the under-12s, and perhaps one of the key reasons for its success with the discerning late-night crowd.

Throughout there’s an emotional intelligence to balance the show’s oddness. But, boy, is Adventure Time odd: frogs contain portals to other dimensions, bears hold raves in a giant’s stomach, and dishevelled gingerbread men issue monologues. Overall, this show is for the kid at heart who loves strange things.

Coraline Watch on: DVD Directed by: Henry Selick Rating/10: 7.7

Adults leaving screenings of Coraline have been overheard fretting about how scary it is — and they’re right: it’s terrifying. As creepy as it is charming, as bizarre as it is beautiful, this is a true horror movie, but also a warm, brightly coloured children’s fairy tale. Even more rare is that Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) is not a nice little girl. She’s unpleasant, complains, has an attitude and makes friends reluctantly. Nor does she meet sweet and colorful new pals in her adventure, which involves the substitution of her parents by ominous doubles with buttons sewn over their eyes. She is threatened with being trapped in their alternate world, which is reached by an alarming tunnel behind a painted-over doorway in her own. It’s in the Other world that Henry Selick’s gorgeous stopmotion imagination is given full reign. The real world is as bleached of colour as possible, but the Other world is (initially at least) bathed in vibrancy, and there are scenes in the delicately realised gardens that will take your breath away.

Go to bloodmilk.com/mustwatch for past reccomendations bloodmilk.com

53

bloodmilk.com

paint it red

DELICATE GUTS Takato Yamamoto’s work makes the flesh quiver and the heart race just a little bit faster

By MEGUMI SAKAI

54

bloodmilk.com

55

bloodmilk.com

paint it red

T

here is something about the unknown, when an exciting discovery shakes your brain, the flesh quivers, and the heart races just a little bit faster. Eyes pop open forward, with lips drying as the mouth gawks in sheer amazement. As an artist, this can be a regular occurrence when the talent of another is exposed for the first time. Witnessing technique or craft blended together of another’s style is a rewarding experience. It’s the beauty of being one who creates: You can marvel at others who do the same thing. When it’s on, it rocks hard.

The perfect example is Japanese artist, Takato Yamamoto. Relatively unknown outside of Japan, there is a brilliance to his highly detailed illustrations that combine tight line work with moments of ukiyo-e, eroticism, bondage, ghostly images,

56

and Bellmer-esque surrealism. Dark, with emotionless, stoic faces, the characters beautiful colors seem helpless, almost soft and doll-like in their positions. With four books already under his wing, Takato is prolific with a fantastic imagination, advancing the dynamics of his stylistic approach. For a fan of this genre, of illustrative embellishment, the work is amazing. How did you get to be an artist? I drew illustrations for commercial advertising, mainly in the 1980s after graduating from art university. In the 1990s, I had the yearning for UKIYOE to the cut-in illustration book, the work such as cut-in illustrations and cover illustrations of novels, and wanting to draw before increases.

After 2000, I mainly worked on original paintings.

What inspires you as an artist? Which inspirations

bloodmilk.com

57

bloodmilk.com

paint it red

help you to make your style? My basic theme is the image of the universe operation that has repeated the circulating generation (life) and dismantlement (death). I express symbolically the image to be a man’s body as the main motif, while taking the image of a plant, an insect, and other various objects. What is the process in creating one of your illustrations? The character of the boy or the girl who becomes the face of the work is extracted from among the first hazy images. I multiply to imagine the image from that, and tie the form automatically, and then I start to draw the rough

58

sketch of the line that becomes the blueprint of the work, is then made. After the rough sketch is done, I trace on canvas or paper and then paint. What kind of tools and painting materials do you use for drawing?

Drawing the rough sketch I use pencil and mechanical pencils. And I start to draw on paper by pigment-ink or on canvas by an acrylic pigment, etc. You have so many art works, all very detailed. How long you take to create one piece?

About one week with a small one. It takes one month or more when it is a large one. It rarely hap

bloodmilk.com

59

bloodmilk.com

paint it red

pens for it to take several months. What is your process to create art works? Day by day the artwork is changed by meeting something and someone and what image stands up into reality, the dream, and the illusion.

Even I am expected for the unknown expression world to be created while enjoying those meeting.

Did you decide the concepts and titles for each of your art books by yourself?

Those books are designed beautifully. Do you imagine the design for books or have ideas to tell the designer? Books take about two years to complete. The whole time, I’m thinking and discussing with the planner

60

and the editor of the book. We overview the art works for those two years, and we figured out the theme and title for them. And then we are thinking about the structure of the book. Furthermore I’d add some new art works. About the book design, we also talk and focus the image for the design.

Before I considered the size of the art book, there were comparatively a lot of small size works. Otherwise, recently I have had the chance to exhibit with a gallery. I’m in various exhibitions, and there will be books for all of them: Art Tapei 2009, Japonism at Span Art Gallery, and 100 Alice at Span Art Gallery as well. t

bloodmilk.com

61

bloodmilk.com

paint it red

//The musician

ALIEN DREAM

Claire Boucher wants to play it cool but her alter ego just can’t help standing out

By RACHEL AROESTI

62

bloodmilk.com

63

bloodmilk.com

//The musician

paint it red

C

laire Boucher sighs. It’s the sort of sigh that comes with an eye-roll and exasperated sub-vocal muttering. A sigh that, despite her best efforts, she can’t quite seem to suppress.

She does it the first time when she hears which songs I’ve been allowed to listen to on her closely guarded fourth album Art Angels, a hyperactively eclectic record that piles up pop and dance tropes into gratifyingly alien forms.

“Oh, whatever, it’s fine,” she smiles, when I ask why she groaned at the mention of California, a faux-saccharine, addictively syncopated country-meets-K-pop track about the media’s treatment of female musicians. “It’s kind of a shitty song. It’s not a shitty song. OK, I’m already doing it.” Moments later, when I ask if the PR spiel was correct in its claim that the album title is a reference to archangels, she sighs again.

“Sort of… The label has all these weird ideas. They wanted to put this corporate graffiti in Paris,” she winces. “They were like, ‘‘It could be graffiti but it could be Grimes graffiti.’ I was like, ‘No!’” She mimes despair. “Stop!”

With Grimes, 27-year-old Claire Boucher has never made any secret of the fact that what you see is not what you get.

When she released her last album Visions in 2012 – a collection

“THE GRIMES AESTHETIC – DISCOURDANTLY MULTI-COLOURED HAIR, NOT-QUITE-TRENDY CLOTHES, ALBUM ART THAT LOOKS AS IF IT WAS DONE ON THE INSIDE OF A RINGBINDER DURING DOUBLE MATHS” of phantasmal, banging electropop that sounded as if it had been fed through both a rasping old desktop and the prism of a dream – its rapturous reception took the Vancouver native from cult concern to internet darling (Oblivion, the album’s best known song, was last year named Pitchfork’s track of the decade so far). At the time, Boucher spoke of Grimes as a business venture – a sort of Svengali-meets-singer deal in which she played both parts, exploiting her own self for her own ends. It was an idea that highlighted her creative clout, but it was also a coping mechanism, forming a pop-star proxy to deal with the invasiveness of fame.

“There are things I would never say in interviews that are my opinions. I’m way more political than I am publicly – significantly more extreme,” Boucher tells me when I ask how the Grimes persona manifests itself on occasions such as this (that is, being asked questions by a stranger while perched on the bed of a London hotel room). “There’s lots of people I hate,” she says. But Boucher is struggling to keep up anodyne appearances.

And it’s not just the sighing. See also: her views on bombastic live shows (her upcoming Ac!d Reign tour will apparently be a pared-down affair). “I’m like, ‘Do you understand how fucking bad it is for the environment for everyone to be having 20,000 lbs of lights and this giant fucking fake set

64

bloodmilk.com

65

bloodmilk.com

//The musician

paint it red

“IT’S OF INTEREST THAT WE NEVER HEAR ANYTHING WHERE NO MEN WERE INVOLVED BUT WE HEAR THINGS WHERE NO WOMEN WERE INVOLVED.

of New York?’ U2 had that giant crab – that’s fucked up.” She pauses.

“I’m not shitting on U2.”

Of PC Music, the London collective whose uncanny valley take on the top 40 of their childhoods provides a contextual touchstone for Art Angels, she says, “It’s really fucked up to call yourself Sophie and pretend you’re a girl when you’re a male producer [and] there are so few female producers,” she begins, before trailing off again. “I think it’s really good music. I probably shouldn’t have said that…” As an enterprise, Grimes has always seemed like a scuffle between creative abandon and calculated moves: what happens when a highly inventive mind attempts to construct a consumer product.

The Grimes aesthetic – discordantly multi-coloured hair, not-quitetrendy clothes, album art that looks as if it was done on the inside of a ringbinder during double maths – I’d already describe as pretty unselfconscious-seeming. But Boucher insists her visuals are designed to appease the public.

“In my life, I’m a lot more weird than this,” she explains.

“Grimes is more palatable for humans. If it was up to me maybe I’d wear a moustache or something,” she continues, as I start seeing her less as a hipster making bleeding-edge pop, more a kindred spirit of Vic Reeves. “I try to make it digestible to a degree.” Why? “That’s what I’m interested in seeing. I create a thing that I wish existed in the world, versus my own full unabashed creative expression.”

In Art Angels, Boucher has produced something that manages to be both more jarringly bizarre and viscerally accessible than Visions ever was: wild ideas and incongruous references distilled into layered and irresistibly danceable pop songs. Visions was a record Boucher has said was born from a panicked, sleep-deprived fortnight. “My management was really crappy at the time and he’d set a release date before I’d even recorded the album. He was like, ‘The album will be coming out at this date,’ and I was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me? I have no album!’ And he was like, ‘Well, you

66

better get to it!’ There’s no fully new sound, I think” she says.

Art Angels, meanwhile, was made in controlled and leisurely conditions. “This time I made tons and tons of music and handpicked what I liked. I need unlimited time to make as much crazy shit as I want and then work backwards.” The album sounds like something that has had time lavished upon it, too, not least because of its mind-bending range.

Boucher has always claimed to be “post-internet” – of a generation whose fluid genre-identity was made possible by free web downloads – but has also claimed that Grimes was a more traditional pop project. I’m curtly informed that is no longer the case: “Pop is just another genre. Some of my songs are influenced by pop music. Some of them are not.” Now, she says, “the whole purpose of Grimes is that it’s genreless. Trying to constantly put a genre label on it makes no sense and then you are always eating your words two months later.

So, why bother?” She says the thread that binds her work together is not genre but her own authorship. “People keep trying to be like, ‘We’re trying to pin down the Grimes style.’ If you haven’t realised by now, you’re never going to be able to.”

Still, I’m tempted to categorise Art Angels as belonging to my favourite genre: music that makes your eyes water, your heart beat faster, and prompts feelings of mild concern for everyone involved. “I like music that might make me feel uncomfortable the first time I listen to it,” she agrees. “I think that’s good, that’s important; sometimes it never gets better but sometimes it gets great.” Nowadays, when music has begun to imitate fashion’s tendency to reconstruct itself out of a relentlessly remembered past – dredging up the most hideously uncool trends, those being the ones that feel most refreshing (and Art Angels contains more than a hint of the Eurodance aped by the aforementioned PC Music) –I think that’s really interesting – combining that with electronic stuff.” t

bloodmilk.com Go to bloodmilk.com/themusician for past musicians

67

bloodmilk.com

68

bloodmilk.com

Lifestyle 67-91

WEDNESDAYS Is it Worth the Squeeze, 74

OCTOBER 2016

GO OUT 68 APPLE A DAY 78 FIND BEAUTY 86

69

Bloodmilk Magazine bloodmilk.com

67

wednesdays

//Go Out

PAINT, BONES AND BEER Interesting things to do in all the happening areas of America

By JOSEPH STEINHALLER

Arch Enemy Arts Art Gallery 109 + 111 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 Seeking to fill the need for a centralized hub focused exclusively on new contemporary genres within Philadelphia’s already vibrant art scene, Arch Enemy Arts was founded in 2012 and quickly became Philly’s freshest new venue dedicated to exhibiting emerging and established artists, both local and international. Located in Philadelphia’s Old City Disctrict, and with an emphasis on the lowbrow, pop-surrealism, urban, and macabre in a wide range of mediums, its shows and artists are regularly covered by some of the best, smartest, and most good-looking art and culture outlets in the world.

The Aviary Molecular Mixology bar 955 W Fulton Market Chicago, IL 60607 Grant Achatz’s “molecular mixology” cocktail lounge in the West Loop is rightly acclaimed for its innovation. Achatz is the man behind the world-renowned restaurant Alinea and the cocktails here are similarly experimental. The majority of the bar’s staff are in fact chefs and the techniques used are those of the kitchen. Infusion flasks, rotary evaporators and blast chillers all play a role and the method of presentation is often intricate and theatrical. Those who want an experience to remember should opt for a cocktail tasting experience in ‘The Cage’, the place where the magic happens. A definite must-try if you live or visit Chicago.

The Evolution Store Science artifact, gift and furnishing store 687 Broadway New York, NY 10012 If you like taxidermy, crystals, shells and anatomical jewelry, this is a must-visit store.

A landmark in Manhattan’s SoHo art district from 1993-2016, and in NoHo since, The Evolution Store is NYC’s premiere retail destination for science and natural history collectibles, artifacts, gifts, and home furnishings. Their specimens are obtained from paleontologists, entomologists, anthropologists and others who supply museums and private collectors from all corners of the world. This store has a magical atmosphere, filled with glistening carved skulls, beetles, shells and even a two-headed goat.

70

bloodmilk.comGo to bloodmilk.com/goout for past reccomendations

71

bloodmilk.com

wednesdays

MEN DON’T CRY The emotional gender divide

D

o real men cry ? Such is the question that I want to address in this article, since our society seems to have already spelled out an answer on behalf of men without consulting them for their opinion.

Western society has very little use or patience for men crying or even non adult male crying in general. From the very beginning of the male human beings life we strap him down in restraints and mutilate a part of his body in a way that we would never think of doing to infant girls. I’m skeptical of any study that purports to measure such specific behavior, and thus ask you to take this with a grain of salt, but some studies show that mothers responded preferentially to girls versus boys at birth up to 44 weeks, at a time when infant boys need their mothers comfort the most. Fathers of course are usually expected to simply function as a 50+ hour a week bill payer and likely get even less time to spend with their sons.

I distinctly Remember an ex-coworker of mine and a conversation we had surrounding his newborn infant daughter.

He was about two months into raising her and I, having not known about the new addition to his young family until that day, offered him my congratulations. I was just making small talk really, these are just things people say to each other at work to pass the time, but he took it as an opportunity to tell me how excited he was to have a baby girl and how he had always wanted this. I did happen to know that he had a three year old boy and I asked him if he saw any discernible differences between what it was like to have a newborn boy versus a newborn girl. What he said back to me has stuck with me years later it was so shocking.

He, we’ll call him Tom, went on to explain to me that he saw very few differences in the way they behaved, both were essentially helpless infants that cried, pooped, slept and ate and did very little else. But when it came to the topic of crying he said the following: My boy cried very little, even less than my girl does at that age, but with my boy there was something in me, as much as I loved him that just wanted to let him cry sometimes, I would find myself saying “you need to man up little man”.

72

By BARBA ROSSAA

“Valentines” by Mayan Toledano

We’re talking about a months old infant boy here, an infant who couldnt possibly understand the concept of “manning up” or even the concept of what it means to be a man or a woman. He is simply a human bundle of responses to primitive emotions and drives, he’s hungry? he cries, he feels physical pain, he cries, he feels emotional pain, he cries. That’s all they know how to do. I don’t think Tom is a bad person. He himself showed many instances of generosity to some of our co-workers that I certainly would not have extended, overall I think he was a good person.

But like his own infant son I believe he was socialized, essentially from birth to “man up” in one way or another and was simply passing it along to his own son because that’s all he really knew.

In his mind he likely beleived he was doing his son a favor, getting

bloodmilk.com

started early in the process of readying him for a world that is uncaring in terms of male suffering. We as MGTOW like to explore the seemingly inherent biological characteristics of the male human being that lead him to exhibit behaviors that would indicate that men are on some level, naturally gynocentric and naturally tend to put their own interests as well as the interests of other men like them, beneath those of the women they interact with.

I think that this is something that we should continue to explore. For now though I want to focus on the socialized aspects of the “man up” mentality boys are subjected to in our society. Before we go on however, I wish to clarify my position that it is likely impossible to tease out the two. The reasons why we are less tolerant of crying form the male sex of our species in comparison to the female sex likely have their origins in our biology causing us to reinforce it on the sociological level, but to the degree that we can explore the socialized aspects of it, I think it worth pursuing.

It is very likely that our species evolved crying for the same reasons puppies are cute, and kittens are adorable. A puppy is helpless, it makes cute little sounds and gestures that we naturally react to and it has enough of an neotenous appearance so as to coax us toward reacting to it in a helpful manner. That distinction is important because our species may very well have some kind of “boy who cried wolf” mechanism nestled in our psychology that protects us from people using the power of crying, that is the ability to immediately draw attention and sympathy from almost everyone around you, for nefarious purposes.

This mechanism, like many other evolutionary adaptations is imperfect and designed for a type of existence the human species simply doesn’t exist in anymore. But the myth of the Boy who cried wolf may give us a bit of insight into how all of this works.

Myths are, after all , memetic manifestations of how the human species views itself and usually attempt to teach us something. This myth tells us of a boy who repeatedly made false claims of sighting a wolf in the village, catalyzing an unnecessary village wide reac

73

bloodmilk.com

wednesdays

tion by the townsfolk in defense.

Once he made the false claim, then again, and again until the villagers simply learned to disregard his false alarms. Finally one day, a wolf did come, the boy cried wolf but of course it was considered to be a false alarm and nothing else, the wolf ended up slaughtering all of the sheep, and it is there that the moral of the story is found…

-Don’t Lie, Don’t raise false alarm, only draw upon the help of others when it is absolutely necessary I suspect that for as long as we exist as a species humanity will churn out very little parables and myths that convey something along the lines of the “girl who cried wolf”. In the parable of the girl who cried wolf, we would see the villagers respond no matter how many times the girl cried wolf, and if there ever was a girl shepherd who managed not to cry wolf at all, she would be held up as a hero no matter how many boys accomplished the same feat. Boy’s and the men they later become have less helplessness, less neoteny to draw upon to elicit sympathy from both men and women, they may have the hardware that allows them to cry, but the lack the neotenous hardware that allows us to act with sympathy toward them at anywhere near the level that we do for the female sex.

I know that citing anecdotal “IT’S ALMOST AS IF THEY references to popular culture is far from scientific and I’m not pretending otherWERE OFFENDED THAT HE wise. the purpose of this post is to raise WOULD DARE BURST THEIR the question of why we treat a crying man so much differently than a crying BUBBLES WITH AN EXPRES- woman, studies can come later based off of the preliminary answers we arrive at SION OF VULNERABILITY in speculation. One of the most popular television series in the world, AMC’s AND SUFFERING” the walking dead, follows the post zombie-apocalypse struggles of one Rick Grimes, his son Coral and the rest of his crew to survive while the rest of the world has gone to complete shit. One scene, following Ricks son having to kill his own mother after she gave birth to his sister, unfolds with Coral telling his father Rick that his wife was dead. What follows is Rick who is seen as the undisputed leader of the group, having a break down chock-full of uncomfortable, guttural and decidedly not “cute” crying. It was the type of crying that only men do, and only during periods of intense suffering, the type of crying that sounds… animal like, you can watch it below:

Notice how this scene unfolded, it is very important to note the bewildered silence on the faces of Ricks comrades. Up until that point they had perceived him as an emotionless being, stoic, unflinching and stable. They built their conceptualization of safety and stability around his ability to stay calm and collected, and frankly they didn’t very much care about the pressure it put on him. So long as he maintained composure, they were happy to allow that pressure to keep building and building. This explains the reaction of his comrades, who are shown averting their gaze, making no efforts to comfort him, and looking very uncomfortable themselves. It’s almost as if they were offended that he would dare burst their bubbles with an expression of vulnerability and suffering. I know this is just a television show, but I believe that this show has risen to become so popular because it tells us about ourselves and who we are.

74

bloodmilk.com

“Curl” by Rodger Fanrah

The Zombies are nice, sure. But after a season or two the novelty fades for all but the most hardcore horror makeup/special effects gurus. What keeps us coming back is the reaction we see from these people in situations where it boils down to pure survival. It’s back to the basics for humanity and we’re very curious as to whether or not our behaviors would match those of the unfortunate denizens of the walking dead universe if we found ourselves in their situation.

We see these characters do something, we see them have to make decisions whether they be emphatic or selfish and we wonder wether we would by selfish or emphatic as well. We watch the walking dead for realism in an unreal fictional world.

With that said it should be no surprise to you that after this episode aired, the internet went wild with ridicule for Ricks awkward crying scene and from that a new internet meme was born, We’ll call it the “Crying Rick Grimes” meme. here are some examples. Basically, ridicule. The trivialization of when a man who is suffering cries.

Now, I have to take a moment to let you know that I do not have a problem with this meme proliferating. My intent is not to say that the media should “portray crying men in a better light” or any of that kind of Sarkesian level nonsense. I’m actually glad that the internet does this, I’m glad that wider society views male crying and suffering as something that elicits a cringe reflex and ridicule. Because it reveals to us what wider society thinks about men and their feelings, it reveals to us that we are expected to hold it together at all times, remain stoic, and never show outward signs of emotion. t

75

bloodmilk.com

wednesdays

IS IT WORTH THE SQUEEZE? 43 tips on how to live a healthy lifestyle on a budget

By MARCIA LAYTON TURNER

“TIMES ARE TOUGH, MONEY IS TIGHT, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU NEED TO GIVE UP YOUR HEALTHY LIFESTYLE.”

T

Photo by Izzy Lourdes

imes are tough, money is tight, but that doesnt mean you need to give up your healthy lifestyle. Sure, eating organic food can be more costly, and working out with a personal trainer aint cheap—but there are easy steps you can take that will shave hundreds or even thousands of dollars off your monthly expenses.

From free home-gym equipment to discount prescription drugs, cheaper medical procedures, and health insurance that pays you back, the opportunities to save money on healthy living are plentiful. Heres how to take advantage of them today.

76

Eat organic (cheaply) Buy organically grown: You dont need certified organic, just organically grown. Some farmers use organic farming practices but have chosen not to become certified organic because of the added red tape and expenses. This means you can often buy organic fruits and veggies from these farmers for around 50 percent less than what the certified farmers charge.

Plan around your protein: Look for sales on free-range or naturally-raised meats and buy them first, says nutrition educator Amanda Louden of Gold River, California, who writes

bloodmilk.com

77

bloodmilk.com

wednesdays

Skip eating out

Cooking a meal at home that serves four to six people will cost as little as $7 to prepare, compared with the average restaurant meal, which is $40.78 per person in New York City. Thats if youre a smart shopper and buy a months worth of groceries at a time, says Nanci Slagle, author of The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet. For meal-plan ideas, visit 30DayGourmet.com.

Waste not

Embarrassed by how much past-its-prime food you toss each week? That waste can add up to hundreds of dollars a year! Cut your losses by using the Reynolds Handi-Vac Vacuum Sealer ($9.99 for starter kit; retailers nationwide), which preps meats, fruits, and vegetables for long-term freezer storage. Simply defrost the frozen ingredients when youre ready to use them. Or stock up on EvriFresh sachet disks ($3.99): They neutralize the food-spoiling ethylene gas that produce releases in the fridge as it ripens.

When to buy big

If you have a freezer buy good-for-you grass-fed meat straight from the farm; use a site like EatWild.com to find local farms. “You can buy a quarter, half, or even a whole cow for an average of $5 to $6 per pound—far less than what you would pay for naturally-raised meat at the grocery store,” nutritionist Amanda Louden says.

When to buy small

Any time you clip a coupon use it to buy the smallest size allowed in the coupon restrictions—and youll save even more! How does that work? A buck off of a 10-ounce, $2 box of rice, for instance, provides more savings (you pay $1 for 10 ounces) than a buck off of a 20-ounce, $4 box of rice (you pay $3 for 20 ounces, a whole $1 more).

Save while you sweat.

Two ways to set up a home gym for next to nothing •Check CraigsList.org or other local Web sites. Youll find motivated sellers who are

tired of their equipment. Some dont even want any cash—just someone wholl come and take it away. Thats how Vanessa Richins of Provo, Utah, snagged an elliptical machine, treadmill, weight set, and Weider total-body gym. She found her freebies (worth about $1,500) through Freecycle.org, which connects people who have unwanted items with those who want them.

•Cruise consignment and resale stores. Places like Play It Again Sports often sell their used workout equipment for as much as 40 to 70% off retail.

Find out if your equipment is a medical necessity. If youre using it to rehab a knee or because a doc suggested it, your insurance may cover all or part of it. Or it may be a reimbursable under a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Savings Account (FSA).

The cheapest fitness DVDs

Thanks to the lousy economy, its come to this: You may have to choose between your Spinning class or your twice-a-month cleaning service. Both are good for your mental and physical health, but heres the thing—theres no video substitute (that we know of) for a good cleaning service and there are lots of great DVDs available to get you moving. Here, the cheapest ways to Spin or do yoga or whatever you heart desires at (your clean) home.

Medication •Sign up for a prescription-savings program. Many pharmacies offer programs that

give you cheaper meds for a small annual cost. For an enrollment fee of $10, for instance, CVS allows you to fill a 90-day prescription for one of more than 400 generic medications for $9.99 each. At Wal-Mart, you can buy a months worth of generic meds for $4 each (or a 90-day supply for $10) with no up-front fee.

•Find special offers. Before you pay for your next prescription medicine, visit the pharmaceutical companys or medications Web site. Many companies offer moneysaving coupons and special offers online. You can also get good deals at a site like InternetDrugCoupons.com. t

78

bloodmilk.com

Be super-choosy: You dont need to buy organic when fruits and veggies have a protective layer that you dont eat (like bananas and watermelon) or when theyre unlikely to have been sprayed heavily with pesticides (like blueberries and kiwi).

Check out this chart for guidance:

Do Buy Organic

Don’t Buy Organic

Apples

Asparagus

Celery

Bananas

Grapes

Blueberries

Lettuce

Broccoli

Peaches

Cauliflower

Strawberries

Kiwi

Potatoes

Onions

Tomatoes

Watermelon

79

bloodmilk.com

//Apple a Day

wednesdays

HEAL YOURSELF Easy DIYs to help you relax and unwind

By GREGORY RAMIREZ

78 80

bloodmilk.com

81

bloodmilk.com

//Apple a Day

wednesdays

BLACK SEA BATH FIZZY

The original black bath bomb that started going viral would immediately disintegrate and turn the once-clear water into terrifying black-as-night liquid. The Black Sea bath fizzy gives that mysterious look mixed with coconut oil for a milky texture, citric acid for a refreshing fizz and blue food coloring to make your bathtub an oceanic dip.

What you’ll need: 1/2 cup baking soda 1/4 cup citric acid 1/4 cup Kaolin Clay 1/4 cup epson salt 1 tsp lavender fragrance oil 2 tsps honeysuckle fragrance oil 1 tsp coconut oil 1 tsp water Black and blue food coloring Simply mix all the dry ingredients together and all the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Pour the wet ingredients in a spray bottle and slowly spray the dry ingredients to combine. Press your damp mixture into a mold. Once the bomb has set, toss it in your tub, and dip into the depths of the ocean

WARMING MUSCLE RUB RAINBOW SENSORY BOTTLE

While calm down bottles like this are most often used for no mess sensory play to help calm an overwhelmed child or as a meditation technique for children, they are just as effective for adults. When this beautiful bottle swirls it looks like a rainbow galaxy, and when it stops it looks like rainbowcolored twinkling stars slowly falling in the night sky.

What you’ll need: VOSS plastic water bottle 1/2 cup of hot water 1-2 tbs of each color of glitter glue 1 qt measuring cup Whisk Super glue Pour 1 1/2 cups of hot water into a 1-quart measuring cup. Squeeze 1-2 tbsp of each color of Sargent glitter glue into the water. Mix well with a whisk. Give it a final stir and pour the mixture into your bottle. Place lid on the bottle and give it a shake to see if you like it. Need more glitter? Add it in before topping it off with water. Play with it for a day or two to make sure you are happy with it before gluing it shut.

This homemade rub is a relaxing treat that soothes tense, tired, or achy muscles by giving a warming sensation that transitions to a cooling sensation. Warning: this recipe is not reccomended for pregnant/nursing parents or small children.

What you’ll need: 1/2 cup melted coconut oil 1/2 cup shea butter 2 tbs grated beeswax 2 tbs cayenne pepper 100 drops of peppermint essential oil 40 drops copaiba essential oil 40 drops juniper berry essential oil Place coconut oil and cayenne in a double boiler and gently warm the oil. Once the oil is slightly warm give it a stir and then turn off the stove.

Allow it to sit for half an hour and then repeat the process. At this point you can move on to step 3, or you can warm it again and allow to infuse 1-2 more times for a stronger oil. Using a cheesecloth or old t-shirt, strain the mixture mixture over a measuring cup. After straining out the spices, add enough coconut oil so that the final amount is 1/4 cup. Melt beeswax and shea butter in a double boiler and add to the coconut oil.

Stir in essential oils, pour in jar and allow to cool completely. Close with an airtight lid.

Decorate the jar: Mason jar Matte black spray paint Metallic gold acrylic paint A paint brush Clean the jar with rubbing alcohol so the spray paint can adhere to the glass evenly. Go to a well-ventilated area and spray paint the jar black.

Make sure to keep a 10-12 inch distance and use a horizontal sweeping motion. Use gloves. Once dry, take the jar outside and flick gold paint onto by holding the brush above the jar and tapping the stem of the brush repeatedly so that the paint will fall onto the jar to create a speckled design. t

82

bloodmilk.com

83

bloodmilk.com

wednesdays

SHY BUT LOUD How fashion gives me confidence and courage

By ERIN MAYER

Photo by Bruno Dayan

“WHY WOULD I BE COMFORTABLE WEARING THE LOUDEST OUTFIT IN THE ROOM BUT NOT ALWAYS SO COMFORTABLE SPEAKING UP? BUT THE DICHOTOMY MAKES SENSE TO ME.”

84

I

’m a classic introvert. The “can’t stand large groups of people for more than two hours,” “remains silent for hours at a time” kind of introvert who would much rather be surrounded by a pile of books than be standing less than fifty feet away from a nightclub. But the one thing I’ve never been shy about? My wardrobe.

Ever since I was a small child, I’ve let my clothes do the talking. I was so quiet at age five that my kindergarden teacher told my mother she was concerned I was anti-social. I prefer the term discerning, but whatever. Semantics about my willingness to speak to peers aside, I always loved fashion. By first grade I was rocking my first crop top, a floral tie-up blouse with long sleeves — I own something shockingly similar to it as an adult — and platform cork-heeled sandals. I got all dressed up for school and spent recess indoors, working on my latest short story or reading.

bloodmilk.com

85

bloodmilk.com

wednesdays

Being known as both the Quiet Writer and the Fashion Girl seems contradictory at first glance. Why would I be comfortable wearing the loudest outfit in the room but not always so comfortable speaking up? But the dichotomy makes sense to me.

At the root of things, it comes down to confidence. Fashion gives me a sense of assurance, allows me to walk tall (5’0 tall, but still) and gives me a sense of control. I haven’t always been proud of my body, but I have always been proud of the items hanging in my closet.

Combining the two helps me to express and accept myself.

But it runs a bit deeper than that. Sometimes, for my job here at Bustle, I write articles featuring photos of myself. Usually, these pieces center around fashion and involve me modeling various outfits that I’ve styled around a theme. Allowing our ever-growing readership to see (and possibly judge) my appearance and my fashion choices is hard. As I’ve outlined here, I’m no exhibitionist. I don’t get much thrill out of knowing that lots of people will be looking at my pictures and forming opinions about how I dress.

But I keep writing these posts because they challenge me

86

to be bold, to assert my point of view. They also force me to be okay with the fact that not everyone will love my outfit decisions or agree with my ideas. I don’t like “causing a scene.” That’s not why I’m introverted, but it is why I’m quiet much of the time. As a writer, I have the luxury of sharing my thoughts with tons of people from behind the safety of a computer screen. Sometimes I’m amazed at the concept that strangers might read my words and form opinions of their own about whatever I’ve written.

Posts that center around my personal style make it harder for me to avoid that realization. The comments on those pieces affect me far more than what people have to say about, say, a woman who got plastic surgery to look like Kim Kardashian. Sometimes they hurt, sometimes they make me smile. It’s the same in my day-to-day life. I wear clothing that is assertive, even if my personality isn’t. And my style is reflective of what’s going on underneath my silence. If you don’t like it, I can deal. As Katherine Bernard once wrote for Vogue,

“So, tell the skeptics: Your closet isn’t frivolous, it contains a myriad of channels to heightened performance, a selection of gateways to the best versions of yourself. As Jonathan Lethem said in his novel You Don’t Love Me Yet: “You can’t be deep without a surface.” t

bloodmilk.com

87

bloodmilk.com

//Find Beauty

wednesdays

Lake Hillier, Western Australia

11 Cat islands, Japan

This remarkable lake was discovered in 1802 on the largest of the islands in Western Australia’s Recherche Archipelago. The lake keeps its deep pink colour year-round, which some scientists say it’s down to high salinity combined with the presence of a salt-loving algae species known as Dunaliella salina and pink bacteria known as halobacteria.

Originally the cats were encouraged as the island produced silk and mice are a natural predator of silkworms. Local fishermen regarded them as good luck and the island of Tashirojima even has a cat shrine, along with newly built cat shaped cabins for tourists to stay in. There are actually 11 cat-infested islands. There are also deer and bunny islands.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island, the Philippines

Red Beach, Panjin, China

Bohol’s 1700-odd conical hills dot the middle of the island; they are so regular in shape that they could be mistaken for being man-made. However, according to UNESCO they are the uplift of coral deposits and a result of rainwater erosion. The hills only earn their ‘chocolate’ nickname in the dry season when the foliage goes from lush green to brown.

Very cool and very weird, this beach is covered in a type of seaweed called Sueda, which turns bright red in autumn. Thirty kilometres southwest of Panjin, these tidal wetlands are an important nature reserve for migrating birds. Only a small section of the beach is open to the public, but it can be explored via a wooden walkway that stretches out to sea.

FREAKS OF NATURE Beautiful vacation spots around the world

By JOSEPH STEINHALLER

88

Go to bloodmilk.com/findbeauty for past travel locations bloodmilk.com

89

bloodmilk.com

wednesdays

CALM THE WAVES My experience and tips for coping with anxiety

By CAITLIN BURNS

W

Photo by Camila Cordeiro

hen I was a toddler my Mum took me to our family paediatrician thinking that I had epilepsy. She described behaviour that was becoming more and more common - how I turned as white as a sheet before breaking out into a cold sweat, my little body shaking uncontrollably. After ruling out my Mum’s initial fears, the doctor explained that they were the outward signs of a panic attack.

Being diagnosed with anxiety disorder before hitting preschool was a difficult thing. For as long as I can remember, anxiety has been swirling around me, flaring up at times for no reason at all. Between the ages of six and 13 it felt like I had a panic attack every single day. Most people go through their entire lives without having any.

In the years since I believe I have won the battle with anxiety.

After years of regular sessions with a highly respected child psychologist my panic attacks became less frequent and my anxiety moved into the background of my life. However, sufferers of mental illness know that it doesn’t always go away for good.

Recently my anxiety came back in a different form. For

90

months I wasn’t able to shake a feeling of what is known as ‘impending doom’. That I, or someone I love, was going to die. I struggled to get out bed. I put on weight. I got paranoid driving alone at night. I didn’t believe my Mum’s assurances that it was anxiety – it felt so real and I believed the feeling so wholeheartedly. During that period I walked around feeling separated from everything around me by an invisible but impenetrable barrier. It took a while, but eventually I decided to act before anxiety swallowed me up whole.

Around two million Australians will experience some form of anxiety this year, and while the Internet is full of opinions on how to deal with it, it can be hard to know what’s a waste of time and what isn’t.

What follows are simply strategies that worked for me. They are things I really did and that really worked. While I didn’t feel results after one day, it only took about two weeks before the positive effects had kicked in and I truly felt like myself again. Stick with them, turn them into a habit, and take your life back.

bloodmilk.com

91

bloodmilk.com

wednesdays THE ONE THING THAT DEFINITELY DOESN’T WORK WITH ANXIETY IS TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING.

Exercise This was the hardest adjustment for me. So, I get that the last thing you want to do is to drag yourself to the gym when you’re feeling anxious and unmotivated. But you’ve got to do it.

Exercise equals endorphins, which equals happy chemicals flooding through your brain. Feeling better about your body doesn’t hurt either.

If you’re not a runner (like me) then do a yoga class that combines the benefits of exercise and relaxing deep breathing.

IGNORING THE SIGNS ONLY ENDS BADLY. TAKE IT EASY AND LOOK AFTER YOURSELF, OK?

Diet The first and easiest thing I did was cut back on how much coffee and alcohol I drank. Caffeine increases your heart rate and mucks around with your sleeping habits – both of which can lead to an increase in anxiety. Swap your morning latte for a green tea or hot water with honey and lemon and thank me later. Alcohol is a known mood destabiliser, so the less you drink the more your head will level out.

Guided Meditation The best app I have ever downloaded on my phone (besides Snake II) is Headspace. I set my alarm 10 minutes early each day and spent that time doing guided meditation with the app. Just taking some time out to steady my thoughts and relax my body was invaluable to the rest of my day. Plus, it’s free so you really have no excuse not to do it.

Talk to Someone

Mental Health Day Off When anxiety and work and life become too much I need to take a break before I become Britney Spears circa 2007. If you have understanding bosses like I do, talk to them and let them know you’re not coping.

You have sick days for a reason – use them!

Spend the day doing the things you like.

On my last MHDO I got my nails done, ate lunch at my favourite café in Redfern and treated myself to a $13 tiramisu.

92

“Anxiety” by Benjamin Koelewijn

bloodmilk.com

Saying things out loud can help you realise that what’s in your head isn’t necessarily reality. If you don’t have a friend or family member you can confide in, do what I did and get a mental health plan from your GP to chat to a therapist (you usually get some of what you pay back with Medicare this way). Counsellers are also great for this, and some workplaces even provide sessions to their employees for free – but speak to someone in HR first because we probably work at different places.

93

bloodmilk.com

e r

d e n h i w e eM m h o t S er v O The psychology of color and how it impacts moods, feelings and behavior

By KENDRA CHERRY Photographs by JAMIE NELSON

94

bloodmilk.com

95

bloodmilk.com

A

s Pablo Picasso has said; colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions. Do you feel anxious in a yellow room? Does the color blue make you feel calm and relaxed? Artists and interior designers have long understood how color can dramatically affect moods, feelings, and emotions. It is a powerful communication tool and can be used to signal action, influence mood, and cause physiological reactions.Certain colors have been associated with increased blood pressure, increased metabolism, and eyestrain.

“Given the prevalence of color, one would expect color psychology to be a well-developed area,” note researchers Andrew Elliot and Markus Maier. “Surprisingly, little theoretical or empirical work has been conducted to date on color’s influence on psychological functioning, and the work that has been done has been driven mostly by practical concerns, not scientific rigor.”

Despite the general lack of research in this area, the concept of color psychology has become a hot topic in marketing, art, design, and other areas. Much of the evidence in this emerging area is anecdotal at best, but researchers and experts have made a few important discoveries and observations about the psychology of color and the effect it has on moods, feelings, and behaviors. Of course, your feelings about color are often deeply personal and rooted in your own experience or culture.Learn the right way and the wrong way to manage stress and negativity in your life. For example, while the color white is used in many Western countries to represent purity and innocence, it is seen as a symbol of mourning in many Eastern countries. Why is color such a powerful force in our lives? What effects can it have on our bodies and minds? Continue reading to further explore the history of color including how it’s used, the effects it may have, and some of the most recent research on color psychology.

In 1666, English scientist Sir Isaac Newton discovered that when pure white light passes through a prism, it separates into all of the visible colors. Newton also found that each color is made up of a single wavelength and cannot be separated any further into other colors.

Further experiments demonstrated that light could be combined to form other colors.

For example, red light mixed with yellow light creates an orange color. Some colors, such as yellow and purple, cancel each other out when mixed and result in a white light. If you have

96

bloodmilk.com

painted, then you have probably noticed how certain colors can be mixed to create other colors. Marion Boddy-Evans, expert on Painting, has an excellent overview of color theory basics including how different colors can be mixed.

While perceptions of color are somewhat subjective, there are some color effects that have universal meaning. Colors in the red area of the color spectrum are known as warm colors and include red, orange and yellowThese warm colors evoke emotions ranging from

97

bloodmilk.com

In this treatment, Red was used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.

Yellow was thought to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.

Orange was used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels.

Blue was believed to soothe illnesses and treat pain. Indigo shades were thought to alleviate skin problems.

Most psychologists view color therapy with skepticism and point out that the supposed effects of color are often grossly exaggerated. Colors also have different meanings in different cultures. Research has demonstrated in many cases that the moodaltering effects of color may only be temporary. A blue room may initially cause feelings of calm, but the effect dissipates after a short period of time. However, the existing research has found that color can impact people in a variety of surprising ways: One study found that warm-colored placebo pills were reported as more effective than cool-colored placebo pills. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that installing blue-colored streetlights can lead to reduced crime in those areas.

98

bloodmilk.com

“ONE STUDY FOUND THAT WARMCOLORED PLACEBO PILLS WERE REPORTED AS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN COOL-COLORED PILLS”

99

bloodmilk.com

“HISTORICAL DATA FOUND THAT SPORTS TEAMS DRESSED IN BLACK UNIFORMS WERE MORE LIKELY TO RECEIVE PENALTIES” 100

bloodmilk.com

The temperature of the environment might play a role in color preference. People who are warm tend to list cool colors as their favorites, while people who are cold prefer warmer colors. More recently, researchers discovered that the color red causes people to react with greater speed and force, something that might prove useful during athletic activities.

One study that looked at historical data found that sports teams dressed in mostly black uniforms are more likely to receive penalties and that students were more likely to associate negative qualities with a player wearing a black uniform.

Studies have also shown that certain colors can have an impact on performance. No one likes to see a graded test covered in red ink, but one study found that seeing the color red before taking an exam actually hurt test performance. While the color red is often described as threatening, arousing or exciting, many previous studies on the impact of the color red have been largely inconclusive. The study found, however, that exposing students to the color red prior to an exam has been shown to have a negative impact on test performance.

In the first of the six experiments described in the study, 71 U.S. colleges students were presented with a participant number colored either red, green or black prior to taking a five-minute test. The results revealed that students who were presented with the red number before taking the test scored more than 20 percent lower than those presented with the green and black numbers

Interest in the subject of color psychology is growing, but there remain a number of unanswered questions. How do color associations develop? How powerful is the influence of these associations on realworld behavior? Can color be used to increase worker productivity or workplace safety? What colors have an impact on consumer behavior? Do certain personality

101

types prefer certain colors? As researchers continue to explore such questions, we may soon learn more about the impact that color has on human psychology.

Zena O’Connor, a faculty member in the Department of Architecture, Design, and Planning at the University of Sydney, suggests that people should be wary of many of the claims they see about the psychology of color. “Many of these claims lack substantiation in terms of empirical support, exhibit fundamental flaws (such as causal oversimplification and subjective validation), and may include factoids presented as facts,” O’Connor explains. “In addition, such claims often refer to outdated research without referring to current research findings.”

So what’s the bottom line? Experts have found that while color can have an influence on how we feel and act, these effects are subject to personal, cultural, and situational factors. More scientific research is needed to gain a better understanding of color psychology. t

Bloodmilk Magazine bloodmilk.com

99

TOUGH GA

102

bloodmilk.com

On the “aggressive woman” stereotype for girls who don’t give a shit

By MEGHAN MURPHY Illustrations by JACQUELIN DELEON

I don’t know who this nebulous “we” is, but I was the second-oldest out of eight kids, five of whom were girls (six, if you count my brother Zach, who can outshop all of us). And here are the things we girls did: Wrestle with boys, Clothesline sisters who thwart your will, Gang up on stupid neighbor kids who taunt your brother, Get into scrappy fights when some kid in high school calls your sister a mean name, Scream and yell and bounce off walls, Pretend to be soldiers and play war, Turn sticks into guns, Jump off roofs, Climb trees and jump out of them into various bodies of water.

103

bloodmilk.com

“I CAN’T STOP PEOPLE FROM TELLING THEIR CHILDREN THAT GIRLS DON’T YELL, PUNCH OR GET ROWDY. BUT I WISH I COULD”

I

don’t know who this nebulous “we” is, but I was the secondoldest out of eight kids, five of whom were girls (six, if you count my brother Zach, who can out-shop all of us). And here are the things we girls did: Wrestle with boys, Clothesline sisters who thwart your will, Gang up on stupid neighbor kids who taunt your brother, Get into scrappy fights when some kid in high school calls your sister a mean name, Scream and yell and bounce off walls, Pretend to be soldiers and play war, Turn sticks into guns, Jump off roofs, Climb trees and jump out of them into various bodies of water. My daughter Ellis was playing with some friends. These friends are older and are boys and the play was getting rowdy — just a little rowdy. Gentle, happy rowdy. No babies were being harmed in the making of this rowdy. In the middle of the shouts, giggles and wiggly baby limbs, the mom of one of the boys in question came over and said, “Hey! We don’t play wild with girls.”

“They’re fine,” I said. The mom ignored me and went over to her son. She grabbed him by the arm. “Did you hear me? I said we don’t play wild with girls.” Her son, who up until that moment had been giggling on the floor with my daughter, began to cry. “Seriously, they were fine,” I said. The other mom shook her head. “I just want them to be gentle.”

“They were,” I insisted. “They were playing so nice and your son was being kind and gentle.” The mom apologized to her son, but the playtime was over. He left to play wild somewhere else and my daughter was alone. This isn’t the first time it’s happened. It’s actually the third. And yes, I am counting. This is the third time I’ve been in

104

bloodmilk.com

a situation when the parent of a boy has insisted that “we” don’t play wild, wrestle or tickle girls and that pisses me off. Here we are, in the year 2012, and my daughter is only 14 months old and already she’s being elbowed out of fun and frolic because she has a vagina. Way to move forward, society.

I don’t know who this nebulous “we” is, but I was the second-oldest out of eight kids, five of whom were girls (six, if you count my brother Zach, who can out-shop all of us). And here are the things we girls did: Wrestle with boys, Clothesline sisters who thwart your will, Gang up on stupid neighbor kids who taunt your brother, Get into scrappy fights when some kid in high school calls your sister a mean name, Scream and yell and bounce off walls, Pretend to be soldiers and play war, Turn sticks into guns, Jump off roofs, Climb out of windows during church and scale the side of the church, Climb trees and jump out of them into various bodies of water, Shoot a lot of inanimate objects, Here are the things we girls didn’t do... Murder

I talked about this with Dave, my husband, who is ever so wise, and he pointed out that if other parents want to dictate how their kids interact with our daughter, that’s really not up to us. He is right, of course; I can’t stop people from telling their children that girls don’t run, yell, punch or get rowdy. But I wish I could.

My heart aches when I think about my daughter being left alone on the floor while the boys go play. Because it’s not just playtime.

It’s all the time. When I was in college, competing at a debate tournament, a judge told me to wear more lipstick. “You’ll look better,” she wrote on her score card. I did, and the next time I had that judge I won the round. In 2009, a blogger by the name of James Chartrand revealed he was a woman, because writing under a man’s name got her more work. Don’t like anecdotes? How about sheer numbers? According to a VIDA count, women were published in the New Yorker 163 times in 2011, compared to 449 men. Women are still earning less than men.

And politicians are still debating how to include women in the workforce. A plan that apparently includes binders. Welcome to the world.

When I see this happening, everything in me martials to at

105

Bloodmilk Magazine bloodmilk.com

103

106

bloodmilk.com

107

Bloodmilk Magazine bloodmilk.com

105

tention. I want to guard those little hearts and little souls and tell them, no, what you are being told is a lie. You don’t draw definitions around gender, you draw definitions around people. But they’re all so little and it’s too big, even for me.

So, when I see Ellis alone on the floor, I go over to her. I swing her in the air and then I tickle her until she laughs her crazy laugh. “I’m gonna get you!” I yell and she squeals and crawls away, stopping only to wait for me to grab her and tickle her some more. We’re wild and we’re rowdy and we play until the boys come over and want to join us. And we let them.

Janelle was one of the best players on a very good high-school team, the Lady Raiders of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale. A midfielder and a 2007 first-team, all-Broward-County selection, she had both a sophistication and a fury to her game — she could adroitly put a pass right on the foot of a teammate to set up a goal, and a moment later risk a bone-jarring collision by leaping into the air to head a contested ball.

That she was playing at all on this day, though, was a testament not to her talent but rather to her high threshold for pain, fierce independence and formidable powers of persuasion. Janelle returned to action a little more than five months after having an operation to repair a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, or A.C.L., in her right knee. And just 20 months before that, she suffered the same injury to her other knee.

108

bloodmilk.com

The A.C.L. is a small, rubber-band-like fiber, no bigger than a little finger, that attaches to the femur in the upper leg and the tibia in the lower leg and stabilizes the knee. When it ruptures, the reconstructive surgery is complicated and the rehabilitation painful and long. It usually takes six to nine months to return to competition, even for professional athletes. But after her second A.C.L. operation, Janelle refused to wait that long. When her teammates were at practice, she felt a longing. What were they doing?

Who was playing well? What jokes were they cracking? Just about every girl pictured in her hundreds of photographs from homecoming and other social events was a soccer teammate. She missed her sport, her friends, her life. Whenever she started to feel depressed, she said, “I would just try to rehab harder and get back earlier.”

Michael Sokolove on ‘The Uneven Playing Field’ MAY 17, 2008 Janelle’s mother broached the subject with her of whether she should continue playing at all. “I’m afraid for her, and for all these girls,” Maria Pierson told me recently. “What’s it going to be like for them at 40 years old? They’re in so much pain now. Knees and backs and hips, and they just keep going. They’ve been going at this so hard for 10, 11, 12 years, and it’s taking a toll. Are they going to look back and regret it?” Janelle’s father was concerned, too, but a bit more philosophical. Title IX, the federal law enacted in 1972 mandating equal opportunity in sports, has helped to shape a couple of generations of girls who believe they are as capable and as tough as any boy. With a mix of resignation and pride, Rich Pierson said to me: “We’ve raised these girls to be headstrong and independent. That’s Janelle.”

Janelle told her parents that she was still determined to play soccer in college — and that she would race through her rehab in order to salvage the end of her senior season in high school.

Her physical therapist thought that was a bad idea. Her surgeon was reluctant to write a letter to her school stating that she was medically cleared to resume playing, but Janelle persuaded him.

Playing through pain, rushing back from injury — a warrior-girl ethos — was ingrained in Janelle, just as it is in many young women. The more she was hurt, the more routine the injuries felt. Her first A.C.L. operation, she told me, was “monumental. It felt scary.

You know, it’s surgery.” Then she added: “The second one was like,

“ MY DAUGHTER IS ONLY 14 MONTHS OLD AND ALREADY SHE’S BEING ELBOWED OUT OF THE FROLIC BECAUSE SHE HAS A VAGINA”

109

Bloodmilk Magazine bloodmilk.com

107

O.K., I know what I need to do, let’s just do it. Let’s have the surgery and rehab and get back out there.” By Janelle’s and her mother’s count, her club team, with 18 players, had suffered eight A.C.L. tears — eight — during her high-school years: Janelle’s two, another player’s two and four other girls with one each. A high-school teammate one class above Janelle endured chronic ankle problems and, according to a Miami Herald article, six ankle operations — three in each leg — over the course of her four years on the varsity soccer team.

This casualty rate was not due to some random spike in South Florida. It is part of a national trend in the wake of Title IX and the explosion of sports participation among girls and young women.

From travel teams up through some of the signature programs in women’s college sports, women are suffering injuries that take them off the field for weeks or seasons at a time, or sometimes forever.

Girls and boys diverge in their physical abilities as they enter puberty and move through adolescence.

Higher levels of testosterone allow boys to add muscle and, even without much effort on their part, get stronger.

In turn, they become less flexible. Girls, as their estrogen levels increase, tend to add fat rather than muscle. They must train rigorously to get significantly stronger. The influence of estrogen makes girls’ ligaments lax, and they outperform boys in tests of overall body flexibility — a performance advantage in many sports, but also an injury risk when not accompanied by sufficient muscle to keep joints in stable, safe positions. Girls tend to run differently than boys — in a less-flexed, more-upright posture — which may put them at greater risk when changing directions and landing from jumps. Because of their wider hips, they are more likely to be knock-kneed — yet another suspected risk factor.

This divergence between the sexes occurs just at the moment when we increasingly ask more of young athletes, especially if they show talent: play longer, play harder, play faster, play for higher stakes. And we ask this

110

bloodmilk.com

of boys and girls equally — unmindful of physical differences. The pressure to concentrate on a “best” sport before even entering middle school — and to play it yearround — is bad for all kids. They wear down the same muscle groups day after day. They have no time to rejuvenate, let alone get stronger. By playing constantly, they multiply their risks and simply give themselves too many opportunities to get hurt.

Janelle’s first-round playoff game in January took place at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale; the temperature was in the mid-70s, and there was a light breeze, the kind of weather that inspires people to move to Florida. Janelle, with a bulky black brace on her right knee, dressed for the game against the better judgment of her parents. “They were like, ‘No, you’re not going to do that,’ ” she said. “And I was like: ‘Yes I am. This is my last year, and I want to win the state championship.’ ” Her knee was still a little stiff, she said, but she put that in the category of “aches and pains.” She told me after the game: “You have to learn to deal with pain, because if you don’t, you’ll never get to play. It’s not like you ever feel perfect.”

J

anelle began the game on the bench because her coach, Carlos Giron, promised her parents to limit her playing time to no more than 25 or 30 minutes of the 80-minute match. She was not in the kind of overall shape to play a whole game, and besides, the contest was not expected to be much of a struggle. Under Giron, the Lady Raiders had already won 10 state titles. But the game started out tighter than expected, and 15 minutes into a scoreless match, he motioned for Janelle. As she came bounding off the bench, her mother, next to me watching from the bleachers, audibly exhaled.

Maria Pierson, the owner of a public-relations firm, loved watching Janelle play over the years and was never bothered much when her daughter was knocked to the ground or even bloodied in collisions. Now, though, she was a total wreck. “Oh, God, I have such a stomachache,” she said. “I can’t stand it.” When Janelle and an opposing player went for a ball at midfield and it looked as if they would arrive at the same moment, her mother emitted a high-pitched yelp, then uttered something like a prayer: “Please don’t kick her in the leg. Please.”

A few minutes later, Janelle collided with an opponent. Her right knee, the one most recently surgically repaired, was extended out in front of her body as she tried to get her foot on the ball. This finally sent Maria Pierson over the edge. Parents of teenage girls who play sports have grown accustomed to what seems like

entire teams battling injuries — and seeing those who do make it onto the field wrapped in Ace bandages or wearing braces on various body parts. Hannah Cooper, a star soccer player at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Maryland, sat out several games early in the 2007 season with a severe ankle sprain, one of many she has suffered since her years in middle school. “The left one never fully recovers, so I play in a brace,” she told me not long ago.

“I also have shinsplints, so that hurts all the time, but I’ve just learned to ignore it. I also tore my meniscus, or I think I did,” she said, referring to knee cartilage. “I’ve probably had concussions because I’ve had hard collisions where I was disoriented and had headaches afterward, but I’ve never missed a whole game because of one. If I have to sit out, I always come back in.”

David Cooper, Hannah’s father, observed: “I once heard that the injury rate in the N.F.L. is 100 percent. It looks to me, in girls’ soccer, it’s the same thing.”

On a night soon after Hannah returned to action last fall against crosstown rival Walt Whitman High School, two of her teammates sat out because of their own ankle sprains. But that was nothing compared with the injuries on the Whitman team, which competed without five key players — two were finished for the season with ruptured A.C.L.’s, out with an injured back. t

“HAPPY TO DEMONSTRATE WHAT ‘HITS LIKE A GIRL’ REALLY MEANS”

111

Bloodmilk bloodmilk.com Bloodmilk Magazine

5 109

LIQUID GOLD

Chic looks to bring out the desert queen in you Syled by DANI STAHL Photographed by JAMIE NELSON

112

bloodmilk.com

in a kingdom far away, there lives a royal rebel, deked out in Doce & Gabbana. The Label’s fall collection is full of fashions fit for an oasis retreat. A desert queen values her gold most and always pairs it with matte black. These beautiful chic looks are great for every ball and add a soft grunge tint to modern gala-wear.

113

bloodmilk.com

114

bloodmilk.com

First: Nars minorgue kohliner, $25; Nars black valley eye baint, $25; Nars #47 angled eyeliner brush, $28; Nars #13 precision blending brush, $26; Nars las pozas velvet eyeliner, $24; Nars audacious mascara.

Second: Nars filibuste velet shadow stick, $28; Nars #44 precision contour brush, $28; Redken hardar 16 superstrong sculpting hair gel, $18.50, and Redken forceful 23 super-strenght hairspray, $19.

115

Bloodmilk Magazine bloodmilk.com

113

116

bloodmilk.com

Left: Nars minorgue kohliner, $25; Nars black valley eye baint, $25; Nars #47 angled eyeliner brush, $28; Nars #13 precision blending brush, $26; Nars las pozas velvet eyeliner, $24; Nars audacious mascara.

Right: Nars filibuste velet shadow stick, $28; Nars #44 precision contour brush, $28; Redken hardar 16 super-strong sculpting hair gel, $18.50, and Redken forceful 23 super-strenght hairspray, $19.

117

Bloodmilk Magazine bloodmilk.com

115

118

bloodmilk.com

119

bloodmilk.com

120

bloodmilk.com

Left: Nars minorgue kohliner, $25; Nars black valley eye baint, $25; Nars #47 angled eyeliner brush, $18; Nars #13 precision blending brush, $26; Nars las pozas velvet eyeliner, $24; Nars audacious mascara.

Right: Nars filibuste velet shadow stick, $28; Nars #44 precision contour brush, $30; Redken hardar 16 super-strong sculpting hair gel, $18.50, and Redken forceful 23 superstrenght hairspray, $19.

121

Bloodmilk Magazine bloodmilk.com

119

INSPIRATION BOARD

122

bloodmilk.com

INSPIRATION BOARD

123

bloodmilk.com

OCTOBER 2016

Volume 17 Issue 9 2016 Zee Lehar-Drogin, Bloodmilk Magazine Published by Bloodmilk Media Inc., Inc. New York, New York Manufactured in the United States of America

To subscribe and view past issues online, visit www.bloodmilk.com Bloodmilk is published monthly, except combined June/July and December/January issues, by Bloodmilk Media, Inc., 110 Broadway, Suite NO. 57A, New York, NY, 10031 Postmaster: send address changes to Bloodmilk/address change, P.O. Box 5784, Harlan IA 56592-1396

124

bloodmilk.com