Paper Dolls Opening Reception: Mitsy Avila Ovalles, "Untitled" SOLD

Last Thursday, the M.I.S.S ladies got on planes and hopped into cars to make our way down to Los Angeles for our first ever art show, “Paper Dolls” at FIFTY24LA Gallery. It was a great excuse to see the ladies since we mostly work over the phone and via email – when we’re all together watch out – we form like Voltron and tear shit up!

Paper Dolls Opening Reception: Post Reception M.I.S.S. Dinner at Roscoes!

The show was a success with tons of people out and about for Downtown LA Art Walk, we had a steady stream of visitors and a few no-shows (damn LA parking!). It was great to connect with people we haven’t seen in a while like Laura Knapp, Lanie from Hellz and the DMPC ladies; It was also nice to finally meet ladies that we’ve worked with but hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting in person like Jaq from Nola Darling, Sarah Morrison of internet fame and Melinda of Her Nails. One of the highlights for me was finally meeting Estevan Oriol, whose store The Last Laugh is next door, who came by to check out the show.

Paper Dolls Opening Reception: Lanie Alabanza-Barcena & the Hellz Crew

The show would never have come together without the participation of so many talented artists whose work is so diverse. I am proud to have such an eclectic showing of pieces all with varying interpretations of the paper doll (and many of them sans clothing!) – with many pieces coming in from around the country (and some other countries too!). Many many thanks go out to all the participating artists: Adriana Yugovitch, Alice Mizrachi, Amanda Lopez, Branden Collins, Claw Money, Esther Kim, Farah Siozon, Fawn Gehweiler, Ilisha Helfman, Indie184, Insa, J. David Mckenney, Kelly Tunstall, Kerin.Rose, Kime Buzzelli, Leola Bermanzohn, Lisa Perrin, Liz Sullivan, Magda Sayeg (Knitta Please), Martina Fugazzotto, Melly Elliott, Miss Kika, Mitsy Avila Ovalles, Molly Crabapple, Narcissister, Nicole Markoff, Nubby Twiglet, Paulina Quintana, Queen Andrea, Sahara Marina Borja, Shin Tanaka, Sofia Maldonado, Solarspace (Austin Pinon), Tone Tank, and Toofly.

Paper Dolls Opening Reception: Fawn Gehweiler "Forest Girl" $150

A very big special thank you to the ladies who made this happen – Kimberly Jefferson and Lexx Valdez – as well as the L.A.-based M.I.S.S. interns Leilanie, Felicia and Ashley! Big hugs! And last but not least, many thanks to the Upper Playground family, FIFTY24LA, Krista & Melinda.

Please check out the Paper Dolls gallery to see photos of some of our visitors and all of the art pieces (a few pieces are missing – we’re getting those photos and will update the post shortly!). All of the items are for sale unless they are marked as SOLD. If you are interested in purchasing a piece, please email us at miss@missomnimedia.com with the name of the piece and the artist who created it.

The show runs until March 3, 2010 so if you missed the opening you have some time to check it out and there’s also the February Downtown LA Art Walk on February 11, 2010.

Thanks for all of your support and we look forward to putting together more events that push the culture forward and bring ladies together.

xoxo
GDK

M.I.S.S., has teamed up with Upper Playground to curate its first ever art show at FIFTY24LA Gallery. In keeping with our love of fashion and art, we are very excited to present “Paper Dolls” – a group show displaying new works by artists and their interpretation of the paper doll.

Curated by M.I.S.S. editors Lexx Valdez and Kimberly Jefferson, these ladies put together an impressive array of artists including: Adriana Yugovitch, Alice Mizrachi, Amanda Lopez, Branden Collins, Claw Money, Esther Kim, Farah Siozon, Fawn Gehweiler, Ilisha Helfman, Indie184, Insa, J. David Mckenney, Katie Rodgers, Kelly Tunstall, Kerin.Rose, Kim Moloney, Kime Buzzelli, Lanie Alabanza-Barcena, Leola Bermanzohn, Lisa Perrin, Liz Sullivan, Magda Sayeg (Knitta Please), Martina Fugazzotto, Melly Elliott, Miss Kika, Mitsy Avila Ovalles, Molly Crabapple, Narcissister, Nicole Markoff, Nubby Twiglet, Paulina Quintana, Queen Andrea, Sahara Marina Borja, Shin Tanaka, Sofia Maldonado, Solarspace, Tone Tank, and Toofly.

Using the iconic paper doll as inspiration, each artist offers his or her own artistic interpretation of the woman’s fashion figure. From photographs, illustrations and paintings, there are varied expressions of the paper doll – all with the signature touches of each artist.

Stay tuned to MissOmniMedia.com for daily posts on each contributing artist with examples of his or her works.

”Paper Dolls” features new works on display at FIFTY24LA Gallery from January 14, 2010 through March 3, 2010. Please spread the word and we hope to see you there!

Opening/Downtown LA Art Walk: Thursday, January 14, 2010
Second Opening/Downtown LA Art Walk: Thursday, February 11, 2010

FIFTY24LA GALLERY
125 East 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
213.623.4300
Tuesday – Saturday 12 to 6

Project: Upper Playground x Montana Colors Artist Series
Role: Project Manager
Notes: For this project Upper Playground teamed up with Montana Colors to create artist series cans featuring the work of Mister Cartoon, MQ, El Mac/Retna & Sam Flores.

What can I say? I’ve fallen a bit behind with the blog but that happens sometimes. This is a bit old, but I had the pleasure of working on this great project that dropped a few months back between Upper Playground and Montana Colors to feature the artwork of 4 artists on Montana Hardcore cans. The four featured artists are: Mister Cartoon, MQ, El Mac & Retna and Sam Flores. All of the cans can be purchased on the Upper Playground web store.

Project: Upper Playground LOCS
Role: Project Manager & Photographer
Notes: For Upper Playground’s 10th Anniversary, I thought of and managed this collaboration between Upper Playground and City Locs.  The limited edition pairs sold out in 7 hours.

When I started at Upper Playground last year, one of my first tasks was to get some collabs lined up for their 10-Year Anniversary. One of the first things that came to mind was LOCS – the sunglasses of choice for cholos and gangsters – think Kid Frost and Eazy-E. Today, we finally launched this project that was almost a year in the making and I’m happy to say we sold out in 7 hours. Pretty amazing! This is just the beginning – you’ll have to wait and see what UP has up their sleeves for the rest of the year…

If you’re a regular reader on the blog, you’ve probably noticed that my posting has slowed down a bit.  2009 is Mama’s 5th Anniversary, and after 5 wonderful years, I’ve decided to take a break from Mama.  I’ve actually been on “hiatus” since March ’08 but since I design my collections a year in advance, I didn’t want to announce my break before all of my collections had been released.  I want to thank everyone that’s supported me and Mama these past five years – from the customers, store buyers and press – it’s been a wonderful journey that I will always remember fondly.

You’re probably wondering why I stopped, and the simple answer is:  It wasn’t fun anymore.  I’ve had a lot of help but Mama has always been a 1-woman show.  I decided to stop after my best tradeshow ever – sales and the number of accounts were growing – but with that came more work.  I’m not afraid of work, but more and more of my time was spent dealing with issues like sales, production, and order fulfillment, and I had less time to work on the design and marketing – the two reasons I started Mama to begin with.  It was a difficult decision to make, but I felt I had given Mama everything I had, and that I had done all I could on my own.

For the past year, I’ve been focusing on M.I.S.S. (Mama’s International Secret Society), the website I co-founded, with Liz Baca, that covers women’s fashion, art, design, music, culture – basically a curated collection of the things we love.  I love working on M.I.S.S., as I feels it marries the two parts of my brain – the creative side and the nerdy side.  I also love that I get to cover many brands from sneakers to high-end, as my love of fashion is vast, and when you have your own line you are always reppin’ one thing and M.I.S.S. gives me the chance to rep everything I love.

M.I.S.S. also gives me a lot of creative freedom to work with other companies on a consulting basis.  We have projects lined-up that will start rolling out next year – it’s too early for me to speak about them now, but they are definitely something that we are very excited about.

In September, I also joined the Upper Playground team in San Francisco and I handle all the PR and Marketing there.  It’s a great honor to work for UP as I have tremendous respect for their work and their product.  I’ve had the chance to develop great collaborative projects for them and have worked with some of the most respected contemporary artists in the world.

As you can see, I’m not less busy, just re-focusing my efforts on things that I feel will help keep me on the path of happiness.  I won’t lie, the transition took some time and the decision was difficult – I put my heart and soul into Mama.  But, I feel like I’m now in a place where I know that I can have more impact as a writer/critic than as a designer of one brand.  I have so much to say and share, and I’ll be doing it daily here.  I hope you enjoy the new site, and thanks for reading.