Artist and Model

Today: model Lisa Bigelow, shortly before her marriage to artist Alfred Leslie.

What did the regular person in 1959 say for fuckin' and shit as all-around-lazy noun? Just wondering.   Starbucks:  Guy who grew up in Chile, attended conservative private school then attended public school in Hawaii - just plain SoCal accent - fears his Second Amendment rights have been taken away, also that it is illegal to protest.  Thinks the CIA helped found Facebook because Twitter is best way to catch terrorists.  No longer a Democrat.  Outraged that Californians failed to pass GMO prop.  Thinks people are spying on him.  And they are.

So, failed to post every single day from July 4th to Labor Day.  Life.  At least this, for now:

Karen Radkai - old friend of RVV

The blurb:  "Sweater life, one of the great American fashion biographicals, looks newest now in white, with the added creaminess of beige.  Here, a white cashmere hooded sweater, beige flannel skirt, worn by Lisa Bigelow, a new young model find who appears for the first time on the cover of this issue of Vogue.  (She lives in New York, has three children in the four-to-six bracket, and -- when she has time -- paints "great big abstractions."  Hadley sweater, about $38.  Evan-Picone wool skirt, about $20.  Bergere bracelets.  All, at Peck & Peck.  Sweater and skirt, also at I. Magnin."

I. Magnin, gone.  Also Peck & Peck.  Evan Picone still very much with us.  The same old department store stuff that we are still wearing.

We interrupt this post for ---
Goodness - a very fashionable 80-something woman just passed by.  Mid-heel black sandals, bare legs - not bad, sleeveless black and green striped jersey dress, some kind of designer sunglasses, red lipstick, chic bag.  You don't see that in Berkeley!

It's unusual to learn who the cover model is.  I'm glad we do know, because we'll be seeing her for a long time.  (Spoiler:  same photo is on cover of January 1960 UK Vogue, up next.  Next, being kind of elastic.

I don't think Lisa Bigelow had a very long career.  In 1960, she married Alfred Leslie, a big-deal artist I just heard of, accidentally because of this.  She had a fourth child with Mr. Leslie.  They divorced in the mid-1960s.   If you google Lisa Bigelow, you find this photo of Lisa and Alfred in happier times (by Richard Avedon.)

That's Mr. Leslie, looking totally not 1959.  Some people today try to recreate this photo for their wedding albums.  I am not going to embarrass them further by posting their efforts here.

Taking this up later, while trying not to listen to blaring television - challenging.

Alfred Leslie has a very nice website, appears to be still going strong.  Here is a 2004 profile in the NYT.  In 1959, presumably when he and Ms. Bigelow were dating, Mr. Leslie made an ode to beak-nikery, called Pull My Daisy. That year, he was also featured at the Museum of Modern Art as one of "16 Americans."  He had a loft, back when it probably was a loft.  It would be interesting to know how it all worked out - artist, model and three kids in the four-to-eight bracket.

The first Mr. Bigelow - I have no idea who he was.  I have not much idea of Lisa Bigelow's life.  Was she the Lisa Bigelow who married in her freshman year at Smith?  The descendent of Parsons of Parsons engineering?  Not sure.

Mr. Leslie made a painting of Ms. Bigelow, called "Lisa Bigelow" that ended up at the University of Indiana.  I couldn't find a photo, but here is a description.

"Leslie, a 20th-century artist, painted an image of his wife in heroic proportions called "Portrait of Lisa Bigelow." When they then went through a divorce he painted over her jewelry piece by piece until only the wedding ring was left."

On that note -  tomorrow, two pages of epic boredom.