We saw plenty of the smoky eye (and oodles of eye candy) last night at AUDREY’S NIGHT OUT! We’ll be sharing the eye candy and all the red carpet celebs with you soon, so keep checking back. Meanwhile, we’ll help you achieve the oh-so coveted smoky eye look in our TGIFree Friday giveaway. Read on …
In our Fall 2010 issue, we highlighted Susie Wang, the creator of the all-natural, fruit pigmented cosmetics and skincare line, 100% Pure. Her line is the first to use only patented fruit and vegetable pigment in all their products, which means you’re directly applying antioxidants and minerals to your face every time you wear her makeup. In fact, the entire line is 100% vegetarian, natural, gluten-free and biodegradable — no chemicals, no toxins, not even fur for their makeup brushes. Even their labels are printed with non-toxic soy ink and all packaging is either post-recycled, recyclable or pre-cycled (“we pick up from our neighbors packing materials such as popcorn and packing boxes to re-use them,” says 100% Pure’s website).
As you can tell, Wang is a hard-core believer in preserving the earth, but she’s also quite passionate about helping animals as well. The company has made donations to various causes helping animals — including no kill shelters and private individuals with animals who need surgery. They’ve even rescued and placed dogs into loving homes themselves.
Susie's babies Bunni and Prince.
100% Pure Creamstick Eye Liner in Black Pearl.
With all that passion, you know the line’s got to have a high standard of integrity. So this week, we’re giving away three sets of the 100% Pure Creamstick Eye Liner in Black Pearl and Black Tea Pigmented Long Wear Gel Eye Liner in Silver Star to our readers.
100% Pure Black Tea Pigmented Long Wear Gel Eye Liner.
It’s actually a really good combo for our Asian faces. You can apply the Gel Eye Liner with a small, hard-tip brush for a nice, silvery-charcoal lining effect, or you can smudge it directly on with your finger for the perfect smoky eye. And the Creamstick Eye Liner is perfectly shimmery without any nasty glitter to stab the eye. That also works as a smudgy eyeliner or as an overall eyeshadow. (Check out our Beauty Trend page in our Fall issue to mimic the look on model Charlene Almarvez.)
So tell me what your fall makeup look is gonna be. You just may win a set of the 100% Pure makeup! You have till September 29, 11:59 pm. You must have a U.S. address to win. Good luck!
After its success last year with “Le Fooding d’Amour Paris-New York,” Le Grand Fooding is back this year with a brand new event, “New York vs. San Francisco.” The best chefs from the rival coasts will engage in a friendly battle to showcase their greatest dishes representing their respective cities. All you have to do is peruse and eat. The two-night culinary extravaganza will take place on September 24 and 25 at the Museum of Modern Art PS1 in New York City.
Among the featured chefs are Korean American David Chang (owner of the famed Momofuku restaurant in New York) and Thai American James Syhabout (of Commis in Oakland, Calif.). Chang, who will be presenting a dish called “Beets, goat cheese, walnuts,” provided this (good-natured?) challenge to his Bay Area rivals (as told to Anthony Bourdain in 2009): “Fuckin’ every restaurant in San Francisco is just serving figs on a plate with nothing on it. Do something with your food.” (I like Daniel Patterson’s comeback: “David who?”)
The more diplomatic Syhabout succinctly retorted: “To keep it simple, best rhymes with West.” Syhabout will be serving up “Scallops with smoked stone fruit emulsion, licorice herbs.”
During both nights there will be a pizza cook-off pitting two of the best pizza masters of each city — Charlie Hallowell for San Francisco and David Sclarow for New York — against each other. Foodies can also look forward to cocktails prepared by New York mixologist Jim Meehan (of Please Don’t Tell) and San Francisco mixologist Erick Castro (of Rickhouse). Heading up Le Grand Remix Grill is Japanese American hip-hop producer and deejay Dan the Automator.
Sure, you get the gastronomic benefits, but proceeds from ticket sales to the event will benefit Action Against Hunger, so it’s all for a good cause.
DETAILS
Le Grand Fooding 2010, New York vs. San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art PS1
Jackson Ave./46th Ave., Long Island City, New York 11101
To purchase tickets, click here.
You SERIOUSLY need to go to Audrey’s Night Out. Seriously.
If you miss out on all the fashion, celebs, and fun, don’t come crying to us.
As you may know from our previous post, the L.A. Flea Market opened up at the Dodger Stadium this summer and Audrey Assistant Editor Janice Jann and guest Helen Wong decided to help scrounge for the best vintage finds, sniff out the food trucks and give you tips and bits on…How To Navigate A Flea Market!
Flea market fashion to couture fashion, check out Audrey’s Night Out 2010 TOMORROW!
Model Liu Wen in Oscar De La Renta, Spring/Summer 2011 show.
It’s an exciting time for Asian Americans in the fashion industry. At the Council of Fashion Designers of America early this year, all three awards for the best new designers of the year were awarded to Asian American men; Richard Chai for men’s wear, Jason Wu for women’s wear and Alexander Wang for accessories. The New York Times wrote an article about Asian Americans climbing the fashion industry ladder. And it just warms our hearts to see the influx in fashionable Asians at New York’s Fashion Week.
Audrey contributor Tamae Ishii scoped out the scene in NY earlier this month and brought to us a bevy of beautiful and stylish people, even writing a piece on the Oscar De La Renta show (pictured above).
Below find more of some of fashion’s fashionable elites including Kelly Choi and Joe Zee of Elle. (Click on shots for closeups).
Even though fashion week is over, you can still get your fix for fashionable Asians at Audrey’s Night Out 2010. Only two more days until show time. Buy your tickets now!
When Bruno Mars held a special free concert at The Grove in LA on Friday, he made hundreds of young girls and boy swoon with his romantic medley, “Just The Way You Are.” We were totally impressed by Mars, whose real name is Peter Fernandez’ charm and charisma onstage. Watch it here:
Mars was promoting his debut album, “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” set to be released on October 5th. The title is both representative of the soft lovey dovey side the artist likes to sing about as well as his more rebellious persona. “I’m, you know, a little bit of a gangster.” Mars told KIIS FM’s Ryan Seacrest Friday morning.
The gangster side definitely came out a little when we found out via KoreAm that was arrested this weekend in Las Vegas on cocaine charges.
The 23-year-old singer, who rose to mainstream fame after singing on the Travie McCoy hit, “Billionaire,” was found with 2.6 grams of cocaine at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
According to an arrest report, a bathroom attendant alerted a security guard after seeing Mars enter a bathroom stall with a bag of white powder.
Police tested the powder and concluded it was cocaine. The report also stated the singer admitted doing a foolish thing and said he had never used drugs before.
Mars was released without bail on Sunday, and has not yet commented on the issue to the public.
Oooh we are just getting so excited for Audrey’s Night Out this Thursday! We’ve been ransacking our closets for some stylish somethin’ somethins to wear.
What about you? Excited to come watch the fashion show and mingle with the stars? Wanna BE in the show? Here’s your chance!
We’re looking for fashionistas to become the next AUDREY GIRL by sending in their favorite looks to our fabulous fashion show producer Chriselle’s facebook page or tweet her @chriselletweets by September 21st, 12:oo noon central time.
The most stylish cat will get to purr on the runway for Audrey’s Night Out alongside celebs and fashion models. Will it be you?
Well, we sure don’t think it’s going to be us.
Audrey's own Sample Girl.
Happy sitting in the audience to enjoy the show? Buy tickets here.
The Event
One of the most highly anticipated new shows coming out this season is NBC’s The Event. A high-octant thriller about an Everyman named Sean Walker (Jason Ritter, The Class) who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée Leilia (Sarah Roemer, Disturbia) and accidentally begins to expose the biggest government cover-up in U.S. history, affecting the lives of several strangers including the newly elected U.S. President Martinez (played by Blair Underwood of Dirty Sexy Money) and Sophia (Laura Innes, ER).
Ian Anthony Dale plays detective Simon Lee
One of the key characters in the show is detective Simon Lee, played by actor Ian Anthony Dale (of Japanese, French and English descent.) If you recognize Dale’s exceptionally sculpted face, it’s probably because the actor, 32, has been all over television, including shows like CSI, Cold Case, Without a Trace, Bones and 24.
The hype surrounding the show adds to the casts’ publicity workload, with Dale having to make numerous press appearances, from San Diego’s Comic Con to the Emmy’s. Despite his frenzied schedule, the actor took some time to chat with Audrey.
How are you doing these days, Ian?
For the last couple of months, been pretty exciting and really busy. My life went from being pretty laid-back to pretty hectic.
It’s awesome that you were able to land a part on The Event. How did that happen?
I heard of the job from Jeffrey Reiner. Just last year, I was lucky enough to do a guest star role on Trauma which Jeffrey Reiner was also exec producing/directing. I got some pretty good opportunities to do some good work and I must have done a good job cause he then started pushing me for the role of Simon Lee for The Event. This is a really exciting opportunity.
Did you always know you wanted to act?
When I was a junior in high school, I had never done any acting and my friend says why don’t we try out for this one act play? I was trying to get over my fear of public speaking so I thought why not? I was lucky enough to get a speaking part and I quickly discovered theatre and performing was something I enjoyed. I actually shifted gear when I went to college because I was so disillusioned with Asian American roles. The odds were stacked against me. However, over my four years in college, I saw the landscape begin to change. You saw Lucy Liu on Ally Mcbeal and I thought, why don’t I give this a shot? So after I graduated, I packed my bags and headed to LA.
And now, you’re on one of the hottest shows this season, The Event. The show has been getting comparisons to Lost and Heroes. How do these comparisons make you feel?
I think it’s nice to draw those kinds of comparisons ‘cause you’re talking about shows that have been on air for a really long time. I think people are going to have a lot of high expectations but they don’t want to be hung out to dry because a lot of people felt like their lives were wasted from the ending of Lost. Our show will try not to repeat the mistakes of that show and questions will get answered but I don’t feel any personal pressure but the pressure really rides on the shoulders of the producers and writers because they have to come up with engaging stories week in and week out. I’m just enjoying the chance to get to work with amazing people.
Catch Ian Anthony Dale in The Event tonight on NBC.
I mean, seriously — Bristol Palin??? I’d expect it from Levi, but it seems Bristol out-Levi’d Levi on this one.
If it weren’t for Margaret Cho, I’d completely ban Dancing With the Stars from my TV. Thank goodness Ms. Cho found time in her busy schedule between touring for her new CD Cho Dependent and her role in Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva to do Dancing With the Stars. I’ll watch just to listen to her sure-fire comebacks to judge’s criticisms.
Artist Miya Ando is a woman obsessed with light.
Miya Ando creating her sakura work in Berlin. Photo by Thomas Krusselmann.
So much so that she went to Berlin recently and braved the freezing temperatures to create this fleeting, beautiful moment of artwork called “Resplendency: The Art of Light” for the Dam Stuhltrager Gallery. As a part of her “I’m Beautiful Night” series, Ando created phosphorescent sakura (cherry blossom) images, visible only for a short time at night, in the icy snow in front of the Reichstag. Of the piece, Ando said:
“My thoughts on doing this piece was basically the result of a meditation upon Berlin as a person who grew up near Hiroshima and heard stories all my life from my Japanese grandparents about the atomic bomb and the World War, how if affected my Japanese family, and how it felt for me to be in Germany, as Japan and Germany were on the same side of the war. On my father’s side, we are Russian-Jews. My father and also my grandfather on his side were military. My Russian grandfather would tell me about Pearl Harbor and about the war, and I have a great uncle and great aunt who are Holocaust survivors and have tattoos of numbers on their upper forearms.
“I thought that having invisible sakura that were visible only very fleetingly for a moment was appropriate in front of the Reichstag.”
Check out the video of Ando creating the work.
Audrey Magazine featured Ando in our Fall 2010 issue. The Japanese-Russian American artist — born in California, raised in Japan, and currently based in Brooklyn — expresses the myriad facets of herself in her art. Here is more of our conversation with her.
Audrey Magazine: Much of your work seems inspired by or is a play on light. What draws you to light?
Miya Ando: I’m very inspired by and sensitive to light. My friends always tease me because I often say that i can’t remember the time or the place or the conversation, but I can tell you what the light looked like. Part of the reason why I love to work with steel is because it reflects the light very beautifully and changes throughout the day, depending on the light. it’s quite dynamic in that way. Lately I have been thinking about light as a poetic expression of transformation or transcendence. I think light can be very mysterious and magical and otherworldly. I’ve always been spiritually inclined and so I regard light in this way and apply light as a component of my visual vocabulary to express my concepts.
An example of Ando's phosphorescent works, as seen in day, left, and at night, right.
AM: You grew up between Santa Cruz, Calif., and Okayama, Japan, in a Buddhist temple? What was that like?
MA: I have very happy memories of the temple and of living with my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. My hometown did not have any other half-Japanese, half-Caucasian people at that time, so at times it was difficult being considered different. I am really grateful to have been introduced to a life of ritual and respect, of contemplation and of having philosophical pursuits be integrated into one’s daily life.
Miya Ando. Photo by Anthony Gamboa.
AM: Is it true you are a descendant of samurai-era swordmakers?
MA: Yes, before my family went into the Buddhist priesthood, they made swords. My Ando family is quite an old family — I am the 16th generation. There is a family registry of history and records that are kept, like a family tree. My great uncles collected the Ando family swords and would tell me stories. It’s very much part of our family identity and history.
AM: After college, you went to apprentice with a master metal smith in Japan. Why?
MA: I finished UC Berkeley in two years and then went on to Yale for graduate school. I left my graduate program early in order to pursue my studio practice and metalworking full time. As part of my commitment to metalworking, I moved back to Japan to become an apprentice and to learn about the material from the very beginning, from zero. It was very important for me to approach the material in a respectful way and I learned a great deal not only about the material but also about humility in my study in Japan.
AM: Is that how you got involved in steel artwork?
MA: I had been introduced to working with metal when I was a very small child; my father had a hobby of rebuilding cars and so I spent lots of time in an automotive garage. I knew how to do basic braising and welding when I was a young girl and so when I started to work with materials as a young artist, metal was very natural for me. I have always felt very comfortable around a metal shop and sparks and welding and sanding. I was drawn to metals because of my childhood, but also because I had always heard these wonderful stories about sword smiths and my Japanese family, I knew that I was from a steel family and working with steel felt very good in the way of connecting with this part of my heritage.
I had something of an epiphany when I was a young artist and I was welding a sculpture for the first time. I was inside of the dark welding hood and it all became very clear to me — that I loved working with this material so much that I decided that I would study very hard and learn as much as I could about the material.
I felt from the beginning that steel was a perfect substrate in that it was so quiet and grey and understated. The innumerable shades of grey within the material has always transfixed me. I think it is quite elegant and refined. The steel is a cornerstone of strength and permenance and yet all things are transitory, ephemeral. I always loved the poetry there. I love that steel can be so hard and look so very soft and ethereal.
30.48 by Miya Ando.
AM: Any other influences in your art?
MA: I think that living in the redwoods in Santa Cruz and by the ocean influenced me. I think back now on that landscape and the beauty in that scenery — of the grey sea, the beautiful fog which I always loved, the solitude in the mountains, the amazing light that would come between the trees and through the leaves. I also think often of the temple where I lived. of the rice fields I played in, the stillness and serenity, the quiet space in the hondo (main altar room in the temple). I think of the very simple, reductivist and minimalist setting of the temple, the grid of shoji screens and of the lovely diffused light that would filter through the screens. All were very influential in my work.
AM: There seems to be a lot of chemistry (phosphorescence, layering chemicals, etc.) and hardcore manual labor involved in your artwork. How do you do it? It must be physically exhausting and you must be really strong!
MA: Metal work in very grueling and physically taxing. I’m drawn to intensity and so the process of working with fire, acid, caustics and sharp things appeals to me — I’m a tactile person who likes keeping my hands busy and so for me it’s really engaging and interesting, although very challenging at times. I spend hours sanding — I’m pretty sure that my body looks the way it does because it’s a visual manifestation of the physical labor that i do! However, I do push-ups and yoga and exercises so that I can lift the steel more easily when I work with it. I dislike having to stop working and ask for help in moving things around my studio, so I try to be strong so I can stay independent. Now that the works are getting very large though, I have to work with a team.
Yes, there are many chemicals and acids and chemistry in my work — sometimes I feel like a scientist or alchemist! I did not learn metal-finishing in school; my process is a layering of many finishing treatments that I came up with through trial and error. I spend lots of time playing with materials and chemicals and testing things before I go to execute a piece. I have a system of working in my studio where I will hand sand until my arms get tired, then I will move on to another task in order to keep from overtaxing my muscles. It’s more sustainable to do it this way since I work every day.
Ando hard at work. Photo by Thomas Krusselmann.
AM: What inspired the “I’m Beautiful Night” series, and why is it called that?
MA: It is a series of paintings, both indoor and outdoor, that are created with phosphorescent paint that is invisible in the daylight and only viewable for a short period of time in darkness. I love the ephemeral nature of this medium. There is an independence and subtly in this material, which I thought was very poignant.
The title of the series is derived from my own name — “Miya” is written with the characters “Beautiful” (Mi) and “Night” (Ya) in Japanese. The first piece was part of a graffiti-themed show in Louisville, Ky. I thought it was a nice way to pay homage to the tradition of “tagging” one’s name in graffiti culture, but I wanted to write my own name in a way that would transmit a positive message to the viewers. Anyone reading “I’m Beautiful Night” may consider that they, themselves are beautiful, or that they are part of the beautiful night, as the words are only viewable in the darkness.
The art show in Louisville where I am showing the piece is in conjunction with a public commission in Louisville. The commission is for The Healing Place, a women’s homeless shelter and alcohol/drug rehabilitation facility. I wanted to do a piece that had a connection to women and so I used the grass writing style of hiragana. Grass writing was used by Heian Era women, who at the time were not allowed to study kanji characters which were being assimilated into the Japanese writing system. The male intelligencia of the time believed that kanji was too difficult for women to understand. There was an explosion of women’s writing at this time because they were able to write very quickly in the phonetic hiragana writing system. Novels such as The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (considered the world’s first novel) and the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon are incredible, fantastic works! I loved the notion that these women were marginalized, but were able to transcend their position and create these masterworks. I wanted to honor this strength and creativity by writing in their style of grass writing, which I believe is quite beautiful. To me, grass writing aesthetically conveys a very poetic, feminine and lovely feeling, even if one cannot read the actual Japanese hiragana characters. It felt to me a very nice way to connect the women’s shelter public piece with the gallery show.
AM: You’re actively involved in various causes and the fight against ovarian cancer. What motivates your activism?
MA: I view philanthropy and charity work as an extension of my art practice. It is a continuation of my art in social action. My dear friend and gallerist Karla Diehl in Louisville is a young woman in her 30s, she recently went though chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. Given that we were doing a show incorporating women’s writing and also in conjunction with the woman’s shelter, I thought it would be so wonderful if we could do something special to benefit ovarian cancer research. She and I came up with an aluminum print edition to raise awareness for this cause. I’m really honored to be able to apply my artwork to help people.
Want to see Miya Ando’s works live? She’ll be at various places in the next few months, including the Dumbo Arts Festival in September, a solo exhibition in October, and in Australia in November. Get all the details at Miyaando.com/news.
