Hello, people of the world and people of my life (not necessarily in that order)!
It’s the end of the year, and something is happening to me that feels really wrong. I have the urge to write one of those year-end wrap-it-up newsletters!! And I know that 54.9% of people polled hate to read them! To be fair, though, something is wrong with you, too, because studies show that there is a 77.7% chance that you will read it if I write it. IF!!
The fact is, you already know what I’ve been doing this year professionally and – sort of – personally, because my life and art are so blended and I report whatever I can remember about my creative ventures in these pan-sexual, I mean bi-monthy newsletters.
For example, Repair and Design Futures, curated by Kate Irvin, is on view at the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island thru June 30, 2019. This show includes my pieceThen and Now (Circles: Coreopsis Moonbeams, Irises, Poppies, Forest Road). Repair is also the theme of the latest edition of the RISD Museum’s smart and beautifully designed biannual journal, Manual 11, which features TaN(CMIPFR) with a gorgeous essay by Olivia Laing, author of the Trip to Echo Spring, The Lonely City, and Crudo, as well as 2 of the best photos of my work that I have ever seen, including this one of the TaN(CMIPFR)’s rear view:
I am also pleased to report that A Concentration of Power is on view at theJoost van den Bergh Gallery in St. James, Piccadilly in London and will remain there thru January 31. My Underpants of Many Colors are in very distinguished company in this thoughtful/playful group show of art and historical artifacts curated by my pal, artistAlexander Gorlizki.
I just spent a thrilling week in Portland, Oregon, setting the stage (all puns intended!) for my latest design collaboration there with the awe-inspiring, tear-inducing, karaoke-singing, ground-breaking theater companyHand2Mouth. Dream|Logic opens February 23, 2019 at Alberta Abbey. It is a fully immersive piece using the language of local Portland teens to create a completely unique experience for ALL AGES. We’re talking about walking, everybody! The audience will go through the weird and stimulating overlooked areas in Alberta Abby’s historic building to experience adventure, growth, beauty (I hope), and entertainment (guaranteed!).
It turns out that February is Oregon month for me! At the time of the opening of Dream|Logic I’ll be spending the month 3,500 feet above sea level in the Cascade Mountain Range in central Oregon in residence at theCaldera Arts Center! I plan to spend my time there creating more Then and Now sequin items, adapting the script for my playWho or What I Am to be better suited for touring and submission for festivals, and creating a very special site-specific performance to be staged at the RISD Museum in the Spring in conjunction with the Repair and Design Futures.
I’m also in my second year serving as a mentor for New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA)’s Immigrant Artist Program. It’s a wonderful program that offers individual and community support to artists who moved to the USA within the past 10 years. (I have a secret: the IA Program makes me feel supported, too!)
Ugh, Art! Yawn, boring. How about some high fashion House of Larréon news??
I am happy to report that sales in my onlineSHOP were quite brisk this holiday season! Perhaps it was Alexis Soloski’s New York Times story about my relationship with House of Larréon muse Bridget Everett
and the creation of her newest gown, “Beaver Deep, Mountains High” that got the ball rolling, so to speak.
Or perhaps it was the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library‘s acquisition of LOOK BOOK and their posting on Instagram of three of its elegant spreads featuring photographs by Todd Oldham that drew all of the new couture clientele.
Who knows? But I’ll take it all!
The Times was too shy to include the actual name of the gown, but that didn’t stop Bridget from mopping the Joe’s Pub stage with it during Bridget Everett and the Tender Moments’ Winter run and Murray Hill’s A Murray Little Christmas shows there, and the world via social media and even New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix which has her teetering just above the lowbrow border.
If you would care to visit the SHOP, you will find, sadly, that our hottest seller of the season, Dr. Larreonstein’s patchwork ski hats, are temporarily out of stock. BUT we still have a scarf or 2, a handful of beautiful handmade patchwork neckties, a bunch of t-shirts, and a new crop of a very special adorable item, my hand-screened, Larry Krone face ONESIES!!
Uh oh- onesies make me think of babies, babies make me think of families, and families make me think of year-end wrap-it-up newsletters! Here it comes. I’ll keep it brief.
My husband Jim & I spent much of this year looking at the following face and swooning a lot:
Her name is Dory Lee Linda Andralis Krone, she is a rescue from Puerto Rico, and she is a (delightful, adorable, loving) handful.
In other animal husbandry news (that’s what that means, right?), Jim’s band Jim Andralis and the Syntonics is doing great and is creating the most beautiful music available! And now I can officially announce that my honorary trial as a featured member was a success, and I have graduated to become AN ACTUAL SYNTONIC!!! OURsecond album “Shut Up Shut Up” was released in a glorious concert at Joe’s Pub on January 26th, and we’re now recording a new album and rehearsing for a concert March 25th at that same old dump which is actually the greatest place in New York, Joe’s Pub.
OK, briefer: My sisters & brothers – and in-laws, too! – Janet & Randy Kennedy and David & Amy McFeeters-Krone, Kori & Chad Erceg and their families are all doing great and super-achieving to a sickening degree. Books are being published (Randy’s Presidio & Ursula: Issue 1), TV and other media appearances are getting made (Janet’s Sleep Doctor stuff), David is doing a bewildering whatever he does with something having to do with licensing and technologies, a new Real Estate career just got started (Amy), an established one keeps getting better (Kori), and a delicately balanced life of financial planning/craft beer connoisseurship gets hoppier by the minute (Chad), not to mention a bunch of kids (Guy, Abby, Grant, Rachel, Anna, Sophia, Leo, and Iris) who are going berserk with their brains and bodies as only young folk can do: rowing, band, twirling, college, guitar ensemble, Bat Mitzvah preparations, forensic biology, art, baseball, fashion!
Are you grossed out yet? That passage ended up being less ironic than I’d planned, so I’m sorry.
But the part I will add that you don’t usually see in one of these things is that despite all of this joy and productivity around me, my life has been far from perfect. I have been tormented the past few years by the disintegration of my relationship with my parents. We used to be very close, so this has been a big deal for me. It has shaped my mood, my work, and affected my relationships. Life moves on, and I am lucky to have my husband and his loving parents Argie & George as well as the disgustingly sweet, gaggingly brilliant family I’ve already mentioned, plus extended family including my chosen family of friends, some of whom I have known as long as I’ve known my parents (longer now that I no longer seem to know my parents at all) and like way better. The point here is not to be dramatic but to spread the word that no, you cannot choose happiness – if I could have chosen to be happy these past few years, I certainly would have. And also to go against my policy of not giving unsolicited advice and offer this nugget based only on my own personal experience: you are not a failure if you try to “choose” to be happy, and it doesn’t work. You can live with your sadness and let it be a part of you without allowing it to get in the way of your appreciating the things that you do have that can bring you pride, satisfaction, and even some full-on joy and happiness. More advice: stop telling people what to do! (I’m saying that to myself right now.)
The following is a song I wrote kind of on this topic. It depicts a fictional interaction between one of my real nieces (or nephews) and me. It also breaks the no advice rule and is considerably brazen in its wholesome, uplifting attitude, so be warned:
If Something Can Go Right (It Might)
After school today my sweet niece came up to me
With her lunchbox in her hand I saw the teardrops in her eyes
She said Uncle I’m so scared it’s such a bad, bad world
I said Honey, listen to Uncle’s advice
Some people live in fear of the future
They feel sure the things they care about will go wrong in time
But last I checked optimism’s not a punishable crime
And if something can go right it just might
And I know, because I was born on the wrong day of the wrong year
I lived in the wrong town
I had the wrong mom but the right dog
Still the wrong bullshit went down
I took a wrong turn down the wrong street
In the middle of the wrong night
But somewhere down the road things went right
I told my niece I hope that you will hear me
Those folks who say you can choose happiness are wrong
And if things go bad for you, you cannot make it disappear
Face the music, dear, know it’s there, then sing a brand new song
Find you some good friends
Who treat you the right way
And when the sun is shining, god dammit, make some hay
Remember that to struggle is a natural plight
And if something can go wrong, that means it also can go right
And girl, the one thing you can choose is your family
With an open heart and an open mind, they will come to you
Even though the world around you may be crumbling to the ground
All you need is love to get you through
Take me: I went to the right bar
On the right night
I had the right 4 or 5 beers
That made my head feel the right kind of light
Then I met the right man with the right soul
And both our hearts took flight
And I learned sometimes when things can go right, they might
I bet on the right horse
On the right track
We jumped the fence together
And we’re never going back
So little girl let’s make a wish together
Squeeze my hand real tight
May someday something in your life go this right
Yes, remember if something can go right, it might
It’s true, everybody! Happy New Year!!
By the way, this site was designed and made by Matt Fisher. Don’t you want one like it? Hire him!!