Death as Art

Death as Art

Artists in different cultures and times have portrayed death in both symbolic and literal ways. 

a post card from Morbid Curiosity, the Richard Harris Death Collection

While writing The Muse, I researched the depiction of death in art and discovered this really insane artist that continues to push mega boundaries. His name is Gregor Schneider.

Why should you care about this dude?

Well for die-hard fans of The Muse, this guy is as close to a real-life HEX as you're going to find. For those who haven't read the novel, Hex is a huge part of the story and the main dark artist who takes the heroine on a very wicked ride through magic, death, and self-revelation.

I began reading up on Gregor Schneider due to all of these controversial articles he has in the press. The more I learned about him, the more the character Hex Castillo began to grown and start walking around in my head.

Here's some interesting and somewhat frightening exploits of Mr. Scheneider.




1. In 2000, he faked his death as part of an exhibition.

2. One of his famous art installations is a haunted house that people walk into called The Haus ur.

Visitors have reported having horrifying experiences while walking through the house.

The rooms' walls move in and out

The rooms also move around the house.

3. 21 Beach Cells
Scheneider took over Sydney's famous Bondi Beach and placed individual prison cells for sun bathers.

4. His recent art installation involves dark rooms that will blow fragrances into the air.

It consists of five silent rooms that a visitor walks through alone. The rooms are fairly plain - white, grey and metal walls. But the catch is that it's cold, pitch black, and there's no turning back. Each room is modified by tiny changes to get your imagination running and your heart racing. 

5. Creating a place in art museums for people to die.

Schneider stated in an interview that he wanted to create a space in a museum where people could die. His argument was that society's horror of death was so much that we prefer to ignore it, leaving people to die in the clinical impersonality of a hospital rather than somewhere beautiful.

Thanks so much for learning about one of my favorite artists and my muse for The Muse.

The Muse's Dream cast

Who are the people I envisioned when I wrote The Muse? 

There are tons of characters in the story. I decided to reveal the real inspirations for the four main characters in the novel.

Alvarez Castillo, the brother that's desperately trying to keep the whole family together as women die around him.

 Henry Cavill

Elle, the heart broken nude model who hopes to revive her career and discover herself with famous dark artist, Hex Castillo.

Krysten Ritter

Hex, the dark artist that sees the beauty of death and just wants to world to see it to.

a young Johnny Depp

Grandma, the supernatural wielder in a world with no magic. In her way she attempts to organize the events around her and her family, while triggering even more chaos in the process.

Lupe Ontiveros

Top 5 Crazy Performance Art Gifs

Peformance art is fun because it yanks the viewer out of their comfort zones and forces them to look at the world, an emotion, or anything in a very different light.

As I wrote the The Muse, I read, researched, and attended hoards of performance art. Some of it blew my mind. While a lot of it left me with my mouth open in shock. 

Here's my top 5 craziest performance art gifs 

Consider yourself cultured, after this viewing!! Lol. 

5. Milk Pour

4. Beauty Walk

3. Ice Cream

2. Playing with Knives

1.  ?????

Let's hope we've all been inspired from all of that! LOL!

Top Five Art Installations

AMAZON

People who really love The Muse, tend to send me excited emails about the art installations showcased within in the mystery romance novel. The best part about writing the story was the art research.

For those who are saying, "What the hell is an art installation?" 

It's basically a big adult playground that people consider art. At least that is the unofficial Kenya Wright answer.

So today I will give you my 

Top Five Art Installations

Tomás Saraceno’s Biospheric Cloud Cities

I probably could spend half a day bouncing around in this installation!

Leandro Erlich’s Bâtiment

This is just a fun photo op waiting to happen. Have you figured out why the people appear to be hanging on the building?

Ernesto Neto’s Woven Installations

I think once I got over the initial part of being in the air, I would be running through these woven paths!

The Rain Room at The Barbican, London

I had a friend who went to this installation in New York. Apparently, you will never get wet in the rain room no matter how slow you move or wherever you go.



The aMAZEme Labyrinth by Marco Saboya & Gualter Pupo

Talk about finding innovative ways to recycle books and magazines!

Vajayjay and Amazon: What I'm learning as I self-publish.

Note: As of this date, Amazon just took The Babysitter off of their site again for the cover. I'll have to get a new cover for it.

FYI, to all writers interested in self-publishing. Amazon does not play with vajayjay on their covers.

Amazon rejected The Babysitter book cover five times. 

The one below is the approved one.

Initially the cover looked like this:

Obviously the big difference of the two is that one has a big ugly ass box at the bottom and one doesn't.

What is funny to me, is that Amazon never explained why they rejected the original cover. 

I (my slow behind) had to guess. 

Clearly, for most people, the answer was obvious, but for me. . .

I stared at that cover for hours, wondering, "What's wrong with it?"

Finally my husband walked by and said, "It looks like the girl's vajayjay is showing a little in the shadows."

To be fair to me and the model:

I don't think this model is completely naked. 

Surely she's wearing underwear right? 

But no. . .Amazon wasn't having it.

This forced me to change The Muse's book cover from bare nipple. . . 

Hey, I thought I could get away with it. . .it's ART!

Here's the painted over nipple cover that they did accept:

I get Amazon's reasoning.

However, I found the original covers to be captivating and not lewd at all. Especially when there are some pretty icky lewd covers out there. 

Sorry. I bet you won't be able to get that out of your mind for the rest of the day. . . 

Granted, this is just my personal opinion but. . .

The Muse (Interracial Romantic Suspense) Released!

What happens when Death is the Muse?

Only $.99  
Available on Amazon and B&N
Add it to Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

On the first day of her nude modeling job, Elle deals with a corpse, an eccentric dark artist, his sexy brother, and a grandmother that can see someone's future by just touching their hands. Although these crazy distractions shove her on edge, it's just what she needs to mend her battered heart and forget about her ex-boyfriend. Besides, she does get to live in their castle for the whole three months. 

Everything seems magical and perfect. Until more dead bodies are discovered.

There's something going on at night, right in the artist's garden. Under the moonlight, young women are being cut and sliced, and no one has a clue to who's doing it. And the more Elle is around the weird family in the castle, the more she realizes that they all are hiding secrets.

My thoughts:

What happens when Death is the Muse?

This story goes deep into the intriguing world of dark art.

We have a broken-hearted nude model. . .

that begins working for one of the most famous dark artist in the world. She's trying to revive her career, and it seems she's made the right choice of modeling for him . . .

until the dead girls are discovered in his garden.

Did I mention that there's a Hot Brother in this?

Excerpt #1

"I’ll sacrifice for you?” I asked.

“Yes,” Hex whispered. “You’re going to give up something to gain whatever it is you need.”

This was the art world and Hex represented a true artist who saw the world in many layers of reality, so thick that a layer could be yanked away for a few seconds and analyzed like a book.

“Sacrifice.” I curled the word around my tongue and sucked in the bitter taste of it. “Why sacrifice?”

“Because in order to truly be free you’ll have to surrender it all. You’ll have to tear away all of the things that bind you to whatever is keeping you back from your passion.”

Smexy Excerpt

The ocean waves crashed against us. That cool water rose up to our knees. All was forgotten in those sweet kisses—lips gliding against lips, wet tongues twisting and exploring, hungry hands and taunting fingers.