Archive for the obituary Category

The Art World Got A Little Less Interesting Yesterday

Posted in Art, obituary, Toni Tiller with tags , , , on June 2, 2010 by Toni Tiller

Louise Bourgeois passed away yesterday at the age of 98. A completely fascinating woman who really only started to receive the recognition she deserved when she was in her 70′s. As an artist she was incredibly gifted in her ability to draw on autobiographical experiences and relate them without cloying self referentialism. The works were rich, sensual, sexual, and often terrifying. Giant spiders, tables of breasts, hacked up and mutated penises, I mean what’s not to like?

We’re going to miss her a whole lot.

I Could Go To The Archives

Posted in Art, obituary, Toni Tiller with tags , , on September 30, 2009 by Toni Tiller

I didn’t have time to make anything new this week, sorry everyone, it’s just one of those things. Between the usual demands of daily life there has been packing, moving, travel arrangements, and my twice yearly charity event (yes that is me, second from the right) for which I have been promoted (?) to Art Chair. That by the way is just a fancy way of saying I get to organize a thousand Bed Bath and Beyond framed prints and stick price tags on them.

But I digress, point is this week there will be no art from me, however I am going to point you in the direction of an artist I learned about this week from my friend Thairin over at World Of Wonder named Greer Lankton. She made interestingly creepy, sometimes life sized dolls, and I love the work but I was also fascinated by how she seemed to occupy what I think of as “in between places”. She was a transsexual who regretted her choice, an artist who’s work straddled what is for some of us the familiarly blurred line of art and craft, as well as the place between being recognized for both being the creator of and the inspiration for many works of art. She had been the model/subject/muse to artists like Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar, and David Wojnarowicz, plus she made and wore a giant fat suit sometimes and that alone makes me love her. Sadly, three out of four of the people I just mentioned are no longer with us making art, Greer passed away of a drug overdose after years of battling depression, drug addiction, and eating disorders. One of her old friends writer and curator Julia Morton wrote a touching memorial ten years after her passing for ArtNet if you are interested in getting to know her a little better.

-Toni “bunnie” Tiller

R.I.P. Marilyn Chambers

Posted in news, obituary, Toni Tiller with tags , , on April 14, 2009 by Toni Tiller

Marilyn Chambers was one of the superstars of the 70′s porn scene, and I happen to be writing this from the same place that she filmed her break out performance for the Mitchell Brothers in Behind The Green Door. Originally from Westport Connecticut, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a mainstream acting career but eventually found herself in San Francisco where her chance encounter with Jim and Artie Mitchell changed all their lives as well as the adult movie industry. Marilyn was one of the first savvy business women of the era, demanding, and getting, the contract requests that set the standard for major adult stars today and Behind The Green Door went on to become one of the highest grossing adult films of all time generating about 25 million dollars and is still in print. What I always appreciated about her was that she took complete ownership of her choices and her career, neither glamorizing nor sugar coating the business she was in and never resorting to the role of victim. She died at home yesterday at the age of 56.

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