Tag Archives: Suzanne Forbes art

Dandy Wellington Black Apparel Arts Challenge: Black Trans Lives Matter!

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Dandy Wellington Black Apparel Arts challenge by Suzanne Forbes June 8 2020I first saw the work of Dandy Wellington, a vintage apparel icon and bandleader, through the Amplify Melanated Voices Challenge.

The challenge was created by Jessica Wilson MS. RD and Alishia McCullough aka BlackandEmbodied to encourage white voices to shut up about themselves and reflect on ideas like The Seven Circles of Whiteness, while working to amplify Black voices.

White costume and reenactment women I follow posted about the Black members of their community, and I saw the Insta feed of Mr. Wellington, among many others! I have been stanning #CosplayingwhileBlack for a long time, but there are lot of Black Cosplayers I didn’t know about. I am now a Patron of Cheyenne Jaz Wise who is so great and a huge Starfire fan! This is actually my favorite casual Starfire cosplay EVER.

And I am a total fan of vintage powerhouse Dandy Wellington!

Mr. Wellington’s challenge to artists is to create art that resembles vintage fashion illustrations and ads, but with #VintageStyleNOTVintageValues!! He wrote,

When I first started getting into vintage and classic menswear, I looked to two major resources for inspiration: photographs and apparel arts illustrations. Both mediums were rewarding but apparel arts was shockingly lacking in diversity. Sure there was a porter or maid but they weren’t the subject of the piece. So I’m challenging all the artist out there to create #BlackApparelArts illustrations. Representation matters and your work could inspire some budding historical fashion lover or cosplayer to see their style potential.

Dandy Wellington InstagramI was instantly so excited and fired up!

He included Leyendecker in the examples, which just made me wild. I commented and asked if I could draw him with a Black trans woman in vintage attire, and he said “Sure!”. So I made this drawing. The gentleman on the right is inspired by the picture above of Mr. Wellington, taken by Anne Hugus Photography.

Dandy Wellington challenge by Suzanne Forbes June 8 2020 detailBefore I posted the drawing I contacted one of my muses who is Black and nonbinary and asked them if they would do a sensitivity check.

To make sure I hadn’t done anything stupid or created harmful iconography despite my good intentions. I offered to pay them for the check, since doing a sensitivity check exposes the viewer to potential harm. We agreed on a trade for a drawing of them I did two years ago. And the picture went up! I am so grateful for this wonderful challenge. I release all copyright to the drawing, and it may be used and shared freely.

You can find all of Mr. Wellington’s links here.

He has a band he is the bandleader of, a Youtube channel, a Patreon, a shop with CHARMING merch, classes, events and more!

I am so grateful to my Patrons on Patreon, whose monthly financial support makes it possible for me to stay home and work safely.

 

Performers when they’re not performing!

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Michele Frances Clark at Crack Bellmer by Suzanne Forbes May 28 2020

Here are two drawings from the last two live shows I went to before self-isolation.

I made this drawing of fellow New Yorker Michele Frances Clark and Sky of @skyandmichele, at the Velvet Creepers show at Crack Bellmer!

I don’t usually draw performers when they aren’t performing, but I looked across the dark club and saw Michele’s character and style and beauty shining like a lamp. I hope I have captured that feeling a little bit. I am sorry I didn’t get her partner, amazing hooper Sky, from the front, but her signature long hair is there!

The Pain Proof Priestess in the dressing room at Torture Garden by Suzanne Forbes Then just a week later I wound up drawing in the dressing room at Torture Garden Berlin.

I made this picture of fantastic, majestic performer Bertoulle Beaurebec, The Pain Proof Priestess, before she changed into her costume. The dressing room was VERY SMALL, and VERY CROWDED. It was simply packed with beautiful people climbing in and out of costumes, mostly latex and leather. I was squished on a little vinyl loveseat with a boy who was threading laces into the gauntlets Sylva Hattington of Bubbles and Frown made to go with the spectacular headpieces she created for the main show. Sylva was frantically busy working on getting people dressed and made up!

I don’t usually go into the dressing room or draw performers when they aren’t fully in costume and on-stage or at least in their public personas. This is because I really value the effort that they make to create their stage selves, and want to honor that as a completed vision. However, in this instance, Ms. Beaurebec was clearly in her priestess self. She was so serene and mighty in her giant boots and robe-like gown, I felt like I was drawing an aspect of the priestess.

Fifi Fantome and Lucille Spielfuchs at Torture Garden July 14 2020 by Suzanne ForbesAnd I was in the dressing room because I was exhausted and feeling overwhelmed some of the night and there weren’t really any chill spaces at the venue, the gorgeous newly-reopened Metropol. I also drew Fifi Fantôme and Lucille Spielfuchs in the dressing room, above! Fifi was changing from a cabaret goth-clown look to a fetish look and I captured her in transition. Fifi has a Patreon now btw, with all kinds of cool stuff!

Also, I want to share a story about what happened at that Velvet Creepers show at Crack Bellmer.

Crack Bellmer is a gorgeous, marvelous venue in the RAW site in Friechrichshain. It reminds me of beloved Oakland warehouse spaces like The Vulcan. There is a sort of deck to the left of the stage, with a huge black couch on it, and that is where I was set up, with my friend and colleague Daniel Paikov. While I was drawing Michelle, a young woman came up to us.

It was during intermission, and the music was loud. The young woman leaned over and said to me, yelling, “Do you have any speed?” Because I was seated on a raised platform and leaning forward to hear her, the spray of spittle from her mouth went right over my glasses and into my eyes.

I was jolted from the shock, and at the same time, Daniel and I both cracked up because she had asked the single person in the room least likely to have any speed. Do people even do speed anymore? We laughed hysterically at her, but at the same time, my mind was racing, trying to remember everything I knew about saliva transmission of Hep C. Apparently, this girl had been going up to every single person in the club and asking if they had speed. Yelling. Probably at a hundred people, mostly drunk.

I knew about SARS-CoV-2, but I was well aware it wasn’t in Berlin yet. It was Friday, February 21st, three days before Jen Spahns announced coronavirus community spread had begun in Germany.

March 1, the morning I came home from Torture Garden at 4am, the first patient in Berlin was announced. I knew that night it was the last event I’d be going to for a long time. Both Sadie, who was sitting with me at TG, and I got sick after the party, and were sick the first week of March. But just colds. Lucky and blessed. It’s unlikely I will go to a public event without a face shield again, which is an acceptable price to pay.

I am so grateful to my Patrons on Patreon, whose monthly financial support lets me keep working safely at home.

Previous TG Berlin drawings here and here.