Urban Fairytale
I recently had the pleasure of collaborating with a dear friend and fellow artist Scott Riddle. Scott is primarily a ceramic artist who creates astounding hand-sculpted microcosms which often reference the beauty of the natural world, Native American culture, sexuality, and human behavior. He has exhibited his work through out the world, showing in Japan, Paris, Los Angeles – you name it. Even though he and I are opposite ends of our country, we speak very frequently about our lives and what it means to be an artist at this particular point in time, relevant to history and geography.
We had wanted to collaborate on a work of art together for some time and finally the right moment presented itself. I had purchased some beautiful leather which I had intended to use on a commissioned corset but due to the surface decoration that was to be applied to that corset – this particular leather ended up being the wrong choice. I created the client’s work with a new more appropriate leather, but that left the original hides looking rather lonely on my studio shelves. I decided to sew a corset from the leather and ask Riddle if he would paint it for me. This idea came to me as an allusion to the punk rock and deathrock style of painting the back of your motorcycle jacket.
At the time of this collaboration, Riddle was experiencing the physical decline and eventual death of a close friend and patron of his, Gal Lahat. This is what Riddle had to say about the experience of painting the corset:
“When initially approached by Larissa to paint a corset, I had a symmetrical and floral design in my head. The corset presented a bigger challenge than expected due to its texture and three dimensional nature. The delivery of the corset to my studio also coincided with the untimely death of my closest friend, Gallal Lahat. Who was/is a huge supporter and driving force in my life and career as an artist. For week I circled the corset, tortured with fear and frustration about how and what I was going to transform this unconventional canvas into. Then one day I just let go, let go of my preconceived ideas of symmetry and design – and some of my pain regarding the loss of my dear soul mate. In this design time has ran out. The hanged man’s soul is being retrieved by the holy spirit and taken back to heaven, leaving all of the temptations and pain behind in the shadows of this mortal coil. “
Photo – Chip Willis
Model – Jessica Anne
