Sleep Forever

Snow White has fainted. Her sidekick Squirrelly and The Huntsman look on.
I held my third annual Fur Gnarl summer party at my country estate this past weekend. I staged "Sleep Forever," an immersive theater mashup of Snow White & The Seven Dwarves and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was an homage to the wonderful "Sleep No More." Ours was more of a clusterfuck, but we all had a blast. I plan to stage another immersive theater presentation soon. The next one will be open to the public. I'm attaching some photos below. I'll add a few more when the rest of the photographers send their images in. All photos are by Paul Weiner unless noted otherwise.

Performers:
Cynthia von Buhler as Snow White
Katelan Foisy as The Queen
Rachel Boyadjis as The Prince
E. Stephen Fredericks as The Children Catcher
Katrina Galore as Truly Scrumptious
Scott Dakota as The Huntsman
Toot Sweet as Chiity Chitty Bang Bang
Walter Sickert as Baron Bomburst
Edrie as Baroness Bomburst
Julie Fotheringham as Creepy (Dwarf 2)
Dalya as Curvy (Dwarf 4)
Justin Moore as Drunky (Dwarf 3)
Joshua Fouts as Twitchy (Dwarf 5)
The Ninja House as Dwarf Cottage
Christina D'Alessandro as Squirrelly
Jeff Newelt as Caractacus Potts
Shahriar Shadab as Jeremy Potts
Sarah Coombs as Jeremiah Potts


Jeremiah and Jeremy Potts and The Prince's Horse.

The Prince's Horse, The Prince, The Huntsman. The Prince.

The Prince and The Evil Queen Fight.

Snow White and Squirrelly in the Dwarf Cottage.

Drunky and The Horse. Celebration when The Children Catcher is trapped.

Snow White douses The Children Catcher in beer.

The Huntsman.

Truly Scrumptious.

The Prince. Truly Scrumptious.

The Potts family.

The Potts family with Truly Scrumptious.

The Prince's Horse.

Drunky.

Curvy.

Creepy. The masks hung on the dock nest. Photograph by Walter Sickert.

Other Performers at The Fur Gnarl

My husband Russell Farhang (of The Howard Fishman Quartet and many other bands).

My ex-husband Adam von Buhler (of Anarchy Club, Map & Key, formerly of Splashdown).

A new band named My Husband and My Ex-husband. Singing is the amazingly talented Keith from Anarchy Club and formerly of C-60.

The lovely Kim Boekbinder.

My assistant/Princess/Prince Rachel Boyadijs also happens to be a talented poet and singer. Here she play the uke for Foley as he sings a gorgeous Irish tune.

The wonderful Walter Sickert and The Army of Toys

Once again, the wonderful Walter Sickert and The Army of Toys

Other artistic displays:

Terra Fredricks beautiful projection on the Great Room ceiling. Al Gori's Homespun Merry-Go-Round. This follows me everywhere. Al, make sure that it is at my funeral one day!

Al Gori's Homespun Merry-Go-Round. Al Gori's Homespun Merry-Go-Round.

A work-in-progress from my art studio.

A work-in-progress from my art studio.

My messy art studio.

Additional photographs of the party by the lovely and talented Kate Black can be found HERE.

For additional photographs and commentary from the fashion designer extraordinaire Kambriel click HERE.

For a slideshow of the whole party, performers, and guests (photographed by Paul Weiner) click HERE.

Evelyn Evelyn: A Tragic Tale in Two Tomes Heads to the Printer

It look longer than expected to complete the hundreds of pages of art for the Evelyn Evelyn graphic novel. It will be a two book hardcover set. We finally have a final release date, September 2011. Hooray! Here are the final proofs. They only needed a few tweaks here and there. I have been documenting my art process on a private blog. When the book is released I will open up the blog to the public. All of the drawings from the book will be available for sale. It was a pleasure working with the musicians/writers, Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley. Neil Gaiman wrote a wonderful afterword for the book. I also enjoyed working with Shawna Gore and Rachel Edidin at Dark Horse Comics. A big thank you goes out to my two art interns Meghann Pardee (darkening) and Fin Cramb (coloring)!

CulturePOP Photocomix: Cynthia Von Buhler

The talented Seth Kushner and I made an online comic about my life. We are working on extending it into a full-length graphic novel. See the bio comic here on Dean Haspiel's fantastic Act-ti-Vate web comic site. - http://activatecomix.com/104-24-1.comic

From Seth Kushner's Blog:

This week's new installment of CulturePOP Photocomix Profiles of Real-Life Characters is the 24th and the season-2 finale. To mark the occasion, I present my profile on artist Cynthia Von Buhler.

Cynthia and I started work on the piece last fall. We discussed concepts and she soon sent me a first draft of a script, which is nearly identical to the final version. I read through it and learned about her history and the history of her family and was floored by the scope and with how well she broke down the beats of the story by page and text box. It gave me to perfect map for planning out the profile.

But, how the hell was I going to set scenes taking place during Cynthia's childhood and during the 1920s and 1930s? Cast actors and green screen in virtual sets? No, Cynthia had a far more ambitious idea. She would build miniature dollhouse sets and figurines for me to photograph. Wasn't that going to be difficult to do, I asked. No, she said, my last two books were done that way. If you haven't seen her books, But Who Will Bell the Cats? and The Cat Who Wouldn't Come Inside, you should check them out.

We did our first shoot in December, which comprised of most of the shots of Cynthia herself. I crossed off panels from the script as we worked. Then Cynthia began constructing the sets and our period characters. It took her some time to put together the prohibition speakeasy, a birth scene and a death scene, and her own childhood bedroom, among others. She also had to collect the various prop items; a bathtub still, gun, skunk, coffin, and many, many more. When I arrived at her Connecticut studio last week I was absolutely astounded by all she had wrought. But, don't take my word for it...

See it here - http://activatecomix.com/104-24-1.comic

Comments welcome and appreciated, as always. Hope you enjoy it!

Show & Tell Come To Life

Show & Tell by Cynthia von Buhler.Above: Cosette Chapiteau (as Show) and Sucre d’Orge (as Tell)
The Dr. Sketchy Anti-Art School Art Star Tribute in my honor was delightful! Below you will find a video of people sketching the models as they pose while the talented Howard Fishman (guitar) and Russell Farhang (violin) perform their song Gypsy Waltz. Gypsy Waltz plays whenever someone gets close to the interactive painting. -Cynthia von Buhler
This painting was commissioned for the cover of Communication Arts. The multimedia painting explores the use of word versus action with hidden visual and auditory messages.Above: Cosette Chapiteau (as Show) and Sucre d’Orge (as Tell)A drawing inspired by the above pose by Yao Xiao.
When you approach the painting a violin waltz can be heard coming from Tell's heart. When you look inside Show's keyhole you see a tiny lit up diorama of a framed Man Ray photograph.A few sketches inspired by the painting and pose are below:

Belen Gaard by Cynthia von Buhler.
Model Cosette ChapiteauI'm No Angel by Cynthia von Buhler.
Model Sucre d'OrgeDrawing inspired by the pose and art by Rita Flores.
Fidelio by Cynthia von Buhler.
Joan of Arc by Cynthia von Buhler. Some people believe that they saw a white dove fly out of Joan of Arc's heart when she was burned at the stake. This painting was a book cover for Beyond The Myth: The Story of Joan of Arc. It also appeared on the cover of Step By Step.
Model Cosette Chapiteau as Joan of Arc.
Drawing inspired by this painting and pose.

The beautifully delicate Sucre d'Orge disrobes for us. Please do not watch this if you are offended by nudity.


Magic! Just for fun Cynthia made a dove appear and disappear:What is that on Cynthia's face in the video above? Live sleeping cockroaches, of course. How do you do this? 1) Place them in the freezer for 1 hour and they peacefully doze off. They don't feel a thing. 2) Glue them to your face with the tiniest bit of eyelash glue. 3) They will wake well rested a few hours later.

After the event Cynthia held a salon party at her Chelsea Hotel room. Sketches from the event were displayed next to the painting which inspired them. Models posed nude while artists drew them. Yao Xiao documented the party with her lovely drawings. You can hire her to document your own parties. Find out more about her HERE.A couple days after the party we all realized that Cynthia had been staying in the room where Sid (Sex Pistols) and Nancy had stayed and where she was murdered. Creepy. We had thought the butterfly curtains were in her honor. Here is artist and author Katelan Foisy's take on the evening.

Additional pictures from the event can be found HERE.