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Let me run my fingers through your...

 

July's portrait of the month.

 

This time it's Tenille, a talented singer from North Carolina originally from Brooklyn. 

Since Tenille was going through a transformation in her life, like many women, she needed a small reminder of her value and grace despite feeling ungraceful. I engineered this artistic transformational glamour piece as a reminder of both her inner & outer beauty. 

Outer:

I really exaggerated her naturally curly locks to express the quote “The higher the hair the closer to God” and to give her a majestic regal vibe. The pose and the jewelry push a glamorous look that offsets the nudity in a tasteful way. It’s a glamour technique I’ve learned to deploy while living in Las Vegas and observing the stunning showgirls, specifically from the extravaganza ‘Jubilee” at Ballys. From the 1950’s to the 1990s each major casino had their own spectacular showgirl showcase. Sadly Jubilee was the very last of it’s kind until they closed a few months ago. The space is making room for yet another Circe De Soliel / EDM club thus forever erasing the showgirl culture from Las Vegas Strip. 

Inner:

I also created an “Anahata” heart chakra flower hair piece. Anahata translates to “unhurt, unstruck, and unbeaten" in Sanskrit and is the 4th primary green chakra.  It’s considered the wellspring of self-nurturing, love, warmth, compassion, joy and is located in the center of the chest at the heart level.  In addition, I repeated the Anahata behind her in a hypnotic fashion. It fades away in a 1920s zig-zagging Art Deco flower pattern. It was my attempt to represent the importance being present, meditating, and how one zones out during a focused breathing session. Lastly, her curly mane is shaped like a giant heart to push the self love concept as strongly as possible for the days when it’s harder to embrace oneself.

In the end this commission was a cultural gumbo mix of pinup, showgirl, Vegas, 1920s jazz-age, and Eastern spirituality with a sparkly twist of self love and reflection. The title for this particular art piece is “Anahata” or the more fun and corny choice “Let my run my fingers through your heart chakra.”
Enjoy.

-Santi-

FRANKIE BABY TEASER

What do you get when you cross Planet Rock vs. Pin up, Beat Street vs. West Side Story, Boomboxes, B-girls, Bronx ballrooms and bombshells from back in the day ?

Frankie Baby - a vintage urban Pin up apparel project. by artist Derek Santiago and photographer Frank Antonio mashing up New York CIty's Latin Mambo era of the 1950s, vintage glamourous Pin ups, and the wildly creative Bronx street culture of the 1980s.

The ingredients of this clip I put together pays respectful homage to the old inspiration, and the direction we aim to take the culture.
If you love, then spread this video.

*note- all breakdancing footage are women

 

 

 

Vintage pin up underdog Pete Hawley

Jantzen is a swimwear company that dates back to the 1910's. They were able to stay ahead of their competition by employing  cream of the crop in pin up artists. Petty, Barclay, Whitcomb, Vargas were the masters that left their imprint on the label, however today I wanted to focus on a little known but equally talented illustrator.

I am a huge fan of the underdog, rooting for the artists of equal talent yet lacking in press and praise. Pete Hawley, who had a 17 year long relationship (mid 1940's-50's) with Jantzen, had a knack for creating compositions of bold playful beautiful women exuding innocent sexuality through their poses and expressiveness. This winning formula paved the foundations and visual cliches now used in the "modern retro" pin up scene. Pete later went to work under a different name and painted amazingly hilarious child birthday cards for Hallmark throughout the 1960's.

I am a new fan. You can see more here.


 



Scarce retro Mexican Pin up magazine "JA-JA" cover art

Look at what I stumble on. These are some really obscure Mexican pinup artworks. I don't have much info on them but can assume they were for the 1949 version of the Maxim magazines of it's day. It's such a shame that painted covers are no longer a common practice. I know, I know. The typical latina look is not there but keep in mind, Mexican culture, like many cultures, showcase the european/ american look rather than celebrating their country's distinct ethnicity but the white, red hared Mexicanas are just as beautiful a the brown ones. Published in Mexico 1949-1950 by Editora Excelsior. Art by Al Moore, Fritz Willis and Freyre.

 

 

Random "Dirty" Magazine covers.

Dirty magazines?

Wow! The tables have turned so drastically. What was considered "dirty", taboo, and underground in 1950's "wholesome" society has now crept up into the mainstream, a new movement that cherishes  pinup cover art and culture as good clean fun. Culture has a funny way of captivating the younger generation who fall in love with the past and what the old has abandoned. 

Man!!!! As an artist, how great it would be to transport back in time to the 40s and 50's seeing countless of these magazines on newstands in TImes Square. Yeah I guess I would seem like super pervert man peering into the stacks, but I love art and happen to be passionately blessed in rendering the female form. This would've been heaven to me. Wonders what current underground taboo movements are occurring right under our noses to be made  mainstream in 30 years.

Would you have posed for these magazines back in the 50s or would your passion drown in what society thought was right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vintage Mexican Cinema Actress Maria Felix

Enough about Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Bettie Davis and the like. Sometimes I wonder why we think the world of vintage cinema revolves around Hollywood alone when there always an abundance of amazing talent worldwide. It is rare that you see or hear about actors and actresses from other countries unless they crossover to North America with an awful movie.

This post pays tribute to the "pinup worthy" icon of classic Mexican Cinema, Miss Maria Felix who starred in over 50 films, and muse to dozens of artists including Diego Rivera.

Mexican Cinema produced some of the best poster artwork worldwide and as you can see, she made illustration easy for the artist with her dark mane and expressive eyes. One of my own art works is a modern tribute to her movie "Doña Diabla. A Diego Rivera painting titled "Tehuana" which Maria classified as "muy malo" ("really bad") was originally intended to premiere in a retrospective on Rivera's work but Félix did not allow the painting to be displayed, as she never liked it.

 

Diego Rivera's muse.

 

and my modern Mexican/ Russian fusion version starring Russian model Maria Plaksina.