I have returned from the North with tales, photos and gifts. Presently barricaded in several layers of pillows with dog, Boards of Canada on the iTunes, amusingly enough. Get ready for an RSS bomb, reader!

My last visit to Toronto was some years ago and was mostly devoted to hanging with Herr Piggensteen during various professional obligations and withstanding bouts of work-induced dementia.  I didn’t get to spend much time with the city, but all that is changed with this visit. Ada and Ryan were the best hosts a cosmonomad can dream of. Our first night in town was spend exploring downtown on foot, eating some of the best Vietnamese food I’d ever had the pleasure of shoving into my face and capping it all off with copious amounts of spiced honey vodka. Suddenly it was 4am and I remembered that I had to be fabulous for Ego Assassin in the morning.

The DNA strand dress they’d made me was a perfect fit, as demonstrated in a previous post. Having not had much experience with latex, I was somewhat surprised by the matching thong underwear. We started on Slinka and James’ rooftop, where I was asked to climb a fire ladder, look like I’m flying and give the bitch face.  After an hour or so we were off to photographer Geoff Simpson‘s studio where excellent use of a UV light contraption was made. The highlight of the entire experience, besides meeting the designers, of course, was walking for several crowded blocks from the car to the studio, in my skin-tight semi-transparent getup. The looks.. Go good. Hoping to see final images sometime in the not too distant future. Until then I’ve been kindly given free reign to do my own editing which I just might, if time allows.

After hours in latex, impossible heels and infusing my insides with Redbull, I couldn’t think of anything but food. The evening was spent grilling vegetables & mushroom burgers in the shadow of an old factory.

Thursday: The Day of the Reception. Daylight hours were devoted to hanging, arranging, hammering, screwing, last minute changes, breaking briefly for food, then rushing to get dressed and greet the night with open arms. I can’t express enough how impressed I was with the effort put forth by Ryan, Ada, Daniel and Gabrielle. Suffice to say by the time 7pm rolled around all was perfect.

By 8pm the Plastk Wrap boutique was flooding with guests. Ada and The D took turns rationing out wine, I zoomed around trying to talk to every single person who entered, which soon proved impossible. Our patrons came from a variety of social branches; there were friends of Plastik Wrap, Coilhouse readers, readers of my fashion column, the stunning owner of Artifice Clothing (who bought two Pleiads prints for her office), a photographer from Snap! magazine and a lady from Rags and Mags, among others.  James and Slinka were in attendance and gave me beautiful blue glovelets to match the DNA dress. The night’s hot seller were the Zoetica+Plastik Wrap tees. I forced some of the new owners to model the goods.


And yes, I’m terribly excited about these shirts – I’ve been dying to something with clothes for ages. What can possibly beat this blue opalescent hue?

I’m compelled to gush about the quality of people I met at this reception. Having shown my work in LA for years, I have, tragically, come to expect an often disinterested crowd, mostly attending for the free booze and “networking”. This night was precisely opposite to everything I’m used to: everyone actually looked at the art and was friendly and talkative.

My only regret is not having had time to print a booklet with my new pieces’ stories. Still, I was happy to tell a tale of The Cloud Inspector to the dapper gent below upon his purchase of said print. We also talked about opera glasses for a while.  He was appreciative, as this post on his personal blog documents.

As an apex to it all I received two birthday songs, one performed by a group of peeps, and another, by a green-eyed Ukrainian girl named Anya. She sang me this birthday tune from Cheburashka, a song I hadn’t heard since childhood, and it was an utterly magnificent moment. The party went late into the night – I’m fairly certain we didn’t leave until 3am. And then there were even more presents back at the loft, somehow – Anna Sui socks and a genuine Ada handmade chandelier crystal necklace. I decided then and there this was The Best Birthday Ever.

Next day was lazy: walking around downtown with D and Adachka, spending a little art loot and crowned with amazing Korean barbecue prepared by chefs D and Ryan. It was a delight to introduce our hosts to the incomparable, primal joy of Korean BBQ at home, complete with a full aromatic spread of marinated meats, kimchee and a variety of side dishes.

It’s getting to be late and I’m still under the sleep-spell of jet lag so it’s time to wrap this up, my squidlings. There will be photo-evidence of the incredible multi-location Plastik Wrap shoot from Saturday soon, and, likely, more art show photos from other sources. The rest of my own pictures are here. Confession: I love Toronto – in a nutshell everything LA is not, with its older architecture, pedestrians, cafes, parks and all-you-can-eat sushi that’s actually good, somehow. Despite my, currently subdued, state I’m infused with inspiration. Being surrounded by creative and talented humans all week has done a fine job of re-igniting my fuses and I’m grateful. Good night.


Before the reception, eating a strawberry.