Weekend is here and for us here in LA that means the kick-off of LA Film Festival, which I’m excited to attend for the first time ever. The past 5 years I was traveling when the festivities were going on. But since I took the wow in February not to travel unless I’m über well paid or it is for family reasons I’m here and happy to be so.
Ok, so a quick catch up on the week that just passed: I’m setting up a new company with my business partner, we have been working on it for a while now and I am excited to tell you more when we are ready, which will be soon. So this week, like most other weeks, we have been working non-stop on that. And when I wasn’t doing our biz, I’ve been auditioning for all sorts of projects, reading through contracts with my manager, trying to contact SAG, which has not been easy and yesterday I shot a TV Pilot for a funny TV show. I got to play something very different from what I usually do and that is always super refreshing and it keeps me on my toes. I’ll tell you more when I can.
Oh, and then I went to the Björk concert at The Hollywood Bowl. I’ve always loved Björk, but now my respect for this little fashion icon, Icelandic super star just rose and she is now on my top 5. Björk is out of this world and the show was unbelievably well put together. We had stellar seats – center, row 4. the best view ever. Oh and a fashion PS to those who care; one of my favorite fashion models/style icons sat right behind me: Erin Wasson…
Ok, enough from me now. Enjoy your weekend and speak soon!
Much love and light from LA… xoxo KK
On set shooting the TV Pilot with one of the Co-stars of that day. His name is ‘Squirt’. He’s a 10 month old rescue puppy and luckily he already has a home. Otherwise I would be tempted to take him under my wing… So cute!
At the Björk concert at The Hollywood Bowl. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos, so I only have a few bad ones I took anyways.. Oops!
An afternoon after a long, long day, a game of chess can do wonders…
Between takes I found time to get a bit of rays. I’m super pale! I haven’t been tanning since this New Years, which I spent in Nicaragua. You get the picture… and it’s not pretty
Just dropping in with a little update of LA living. The days have been occupied with writing, auditioning, looking through contracts with my manager and finishing the nights off with social events. I could use a day in, but I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. I am not complaining though, because the energy right now is great and I’m riding it with a smile. No rest for the wicked . Hot yoga is my actual stabilizer to be honest. It calms me, keeps me grounded, mentally balanced (sort of) and healthy.
Here are a few pics from a few of this weeks’ events. Enjoy your evening and speak soon xoxo KK
My biz partner Alexis and actor James threw a house warming last night @ The Hollywood Tower. It was a roof top party in best LA style and they called it The Champagne Campaign. I did the invite for them. It’s a remake of an old pic of Marylin Monroe in bed with a photographer.
Reunion with actress from Sedona’s Rule, Katie Soo
Model Alexandria and I striking a pose…
After drinks at Soho House Friday night, we ventured to Pour Vous for some burlesque…
I’m honored to be featured in the new issue of NIGHT ITALIA with 11 pages shot by Louie Agulia, Mua: Kat Lieberkind. Here’s a few of the spreads…
More NIGHT ITALIA. (The pink stars, I did. These images, and more, are in the printed version of the magazine ‘sans stars’ …. .. )
Back from an inspiring screening of the new movie The East followed by a talk back with Ellen Page, the director Zal and co-writer/actress Britt. It was definitely food for thought and made me wanna make movies even more than I do now (which is quite a lot). These kind of screenings are set in the beautiful environment of LACMA here in West Hollywood/ Miracle Mile. I visit this museum once in a while because it has beautiful and interesting shows. But tonight’s event convinced me even more, that I need to become a member and go to screenings here all the time.
Screenings and museums apart, I have been busy writing, working and getting ‘other things’ in order, which I cannot tell you about yet, but will eventually.
Short post. I know. But I’m sooooo sleepy now and need to get some rest. Tmro I have another full day.
Speak soon xx KK
After the 30 day hot yoga charity challenge where we raised almost 120 K for little kids musical education here in LA I traveled to Las Vegas for work. When I got back to LA, more work took up most of my awake hours. So I completely got out of the yogi/workout regime, which unfortunately hits me like a boomerang within a few weeks. I stray, I pay… Hello not being 18 anymore! Back ache because of to much writing in front of the computer, insomnia because of too many thoughts, worries, ideas, excitements, drinks, encounters and … I could go on. Now, I’m back again on day 2 on my yoga mat and already feeling so much better and refreshed. I know I sound like a retard. But I gotta say, hot yoga really stabilizes me and brings calmness and perspective into my world. Living in a city and in a business where you swim with male sharks on a daily basis it is important to have your healthy long term tools. PS – I think I need a new yoga mat. Mine is pretty stinky after too many sweaty hours… #firstworldproblems
Oh well! Sometimes a girl jut gotta ride a bull. No offense. Just saying. And she is allowed to give the middle finger to the ‘Bull manager’ if he gives her a hard time making the bull do out of control non-legit moves. This once in a lifetime scene obvi happened at the legendary tourist place The Saddle Ranch on Sunset Blvd. PS – I had a blast!
Writing scripts and choosing shoes for meetings and other socializing. The sweetness of LA lifestyle baby!
Just dropping in to share a tiny bit of last week’s news.
I’m at home on this fabulous Saturday night on memorial weekend writing on a new TV screen play. Was supposed to be at Soho House at a dinner, but last night got a little out of hand to say the least so I decided to stay under the radar tonight. To hit the gym, eat salmon, OD on gummy bears and do a marathon writing session. All on a very mature and adult level. Success rate is about 75 percent so far. Tmro morning hot yoga and then we are back in business.
Ok, so one of the things I did do this week, which I’m stoked to share, is a photography session with one of the best extreme directors of photography right now. Photography is my big hobby, but unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time to pursue it. But my friend, mentor and colleague Ken Corben, who I worked with shooting the DJ Steve Aoki music video under water back in December, took me under his wing this Thursday.
We went to the breath taking Huntington Botanical Garden and Library for 4 hours where he equipped me with a Canon 5d, a Nikon lense and 3 different filters. I am not big on shooting landscape so this was interesting, absolutely gorgeous and super annoying at times when I couldn’t get the settings right on the camera.
But there were truly beautiful moments that day. Did you know that there is a rose garden showing over 2,000 years of the history of the rose? Also, there was a very special moment in the water lily garden, where I spotted 3 nuns sitting across a pond chatting. So many stories to be told from that one image. And then there is the Japanese garden. Stunning! The Pisces I am, I went down to the pond and started to communicate with the fish. They loved coming to the surface and I could pat them on their heads and beautiful and colorful bodies. Such a special moment
Hope you are having a beautiful weekend. Love to hear what you have been up to. xoxo KK
I’m working the Canon 5D
My wild life / nature photography mentor Ken Corben and images from beautiful succulents of the garden…
We met this great Japanese photographer, who didn’t speak a lot of English. But he new a lot about the 5D’s technique, and he wasn’t shy to share his genius. #gem. And I got to pat the fish #pisces # love
3 nuns chatting. If only trees had ears and could tell all the stories they hear…
Just got home after a very long day and felt like writing a tiny update from last week even though it’s long after midnight and I should be sleeping. But sometimes I enjoy the quiet alone time I have when the city is less noisy and most (sane) people are fast asleep.
After my return from Vegas it seems time just flew with meetings, work and birthdays. Lots of birthdays. A surprise birthday in beautiful Laguna Beach, which is aprox. 1.5 hours from LA, but totally worth the traffic hassle. The beach down there is beautiful and you have cute little galleries, boutiques and restaurants. Some pretty amazing houses in the canyons as well and the air just feels cleaner even though it’s not that far from LA. Visiting Laguna is like going on a small vacation.
And today was another friend’s bday. This time Jørgen Klubien, whom I did the music video for last week, in his Glendale residence. Here a bunch of Danish journalists and musicians held court while we downed margaritas, cake and pizza like no tomorrow.
This week I also went hiking in Runyon Canyon with a producer and his puppies. Sort of an interesting and I guess ‘trendy’ or at least very LA way of doing meetings. Like, why sit still in an office and talk when you can hike in nature and talk…?
I also went to a private screening hosted by Rod Roddenberry and Xprize of the new Star Trek movie here in Hollywood, which was a fun event. Afterwards the crowd gathered for food and drinks and some of the old cast from the original Star Trek were there.
Oh and I had an audition today. Haha… oh well, I never speak about my auditions since I don’t want to jinx or talk about my projects until they are released. But I just want to share what my part was. It was all improvisation, which I love. We were given our objectives and then: ‘action’. I played an entertainment lawyer, who is trying to seduce 2 hopeful actresses by alluring them to my house in The Hollywood Hills (where we actually shot) and telling them about movies I can get them into. I make my bold move and one of the girls leaves while the other one stays…
It was pretty hilarious, but matter of fact surprisingly easy since I have heard so much bullshit since I got into this city I could write a trilogy about it.
Ok ’nuff said. Tomorrow I have a full day as well so I better get some rest. Here’s a tiny glimpse of my week in photos…
nite nite xoxo KK
At a meeting in the Samsung building on Wilshire overlooking downtown. It’s almost a 100 degrees F. today… Too hot!
Jørgen Klubien, Carsten Lindberg & Co are having a sing along session…. ‘kom tilbage til mig’..
Jørgen and Spooner cutting the cake….
Laguna bday time with the girls in a gorgeous mansion with tons of champagne… #divine
I never shared what it was like flying a helicopter for the first time so I thought I’d tell a bit about it now. Oh and PS! By flying a helicopter I don’t mean being a passenger in a helicopter. No! I mean being a helicopter pilot bitches
I cannot disclose why I was asked to take my first helicopter pilot lesson, but I can say that it is on my top 3 list of things I’ve ever done. Wow, it is an adrenalin kick if I ever had one. So sexy, cool and mind blowing amazing to just fly over Mother Earth like a little bug with wings doing 90 knots (aprox. 100 miles per hour).
So what happened? I arrived at Van Nuys private airport a little north of Hollywood. It’s a place where a lot of people keep their private jets and helicopters so there is no commercial activity going on. Elite Helicopters greeted me and without further ado I was checking the blades, engine, fuel supply etc. on the Robinson R22 helicopter I was flying today. Minutes later I was seated, headset and seat belt on in the pilot seat getting ready for take off.
Was I nervous? Actually no. I was so focused on understanding how all the buttons, foot pedals and equipment worked so I didn’t have time to be scared. A real pilot was next to me and he guided me through the entire experience from Van Nuys airport to and around the Hollywood Sign and back again. It was insanely amazing. Never have I felt such a power trip. I felt like a true lady boss handling big machinery and having the world at my feet. Flying a helicopter is extremely difficult. Way more than I ever imagined. But the rush you get from getting a bird’s perspective on the world is worth everything.
Here’s a few images and a tiny video from me flying the Robinson R22 over the iconic Hollywood sign
Back in LA again and busy with work. No rest for the wicked baby!
After the amazing shoot in the Hollywood hills on Saturday, which I cannot wait to show you pictures from, my team and beautiful friends went to an improvised dinner at Jorgen Klubien’s house. Jorgen is an amazing, Danish and may I point out celebrity artist, singer, cartoonist and friend.
After one too many Margaritas, loads of Thai food and wine we listened to music, chilled out and had fun until it was time to roll home.
On that note, Jorgen has been plotting his new (and first solo) music video for a while and I’m in it. So today we all met up again and shot a bunch of footage before my girls said goodbye for now and headed towards San Diego.
It was a fun and easy shoot even though it was all day / night and hot as fxxk! almost a 100 degrees. Jesus! And we had a bonfire going.
Anyways, I’m home now and happy to have a day tmro where I’m not in front of the camera. A day where I can unpack from Vegas, go to yoga, reply emails and get back in to writing my TV script.
I’m off to bed now! Here are a few photos from the dinner Saturday and todays’ shoot…. xx KK
Jorgen and I are such posers ….
MUA Karen and I plus me in the swing for the shoot…
I’ve been absent for a while on the blog. Not only has my blog and website acted weirdly lately, which has made it difficult to post anything. That aside, I have been super busy with work, which has taken me far away from the blogging stratosphere and into the ‘real world’.
But… I missed sitting down, blogging, contemplating and posting a few pictures now and then of what’s going on in my insane world and sharing my thoughts however lame or insightful they might be. Fact is, I changed Web master, and during that process my email, website and blog was down for quite a while. It felt almost like a vacation not to receive any emails for so long. I can recommend it for a while. You get so much stuff done outside the ‘email world’. But now I’m back on track again.
Ok, so where to start? I was in Las Vegas this week shooting gorgeous editorials in the desert and in our amazing hotel suite @ the Trump Towers with the dream team photographer Signe Morkebjerg Sjostrom and makeup artist Karen Schnack, that did the editorial we did for VOGUE ITALIA. Yes, we made it into VOGUE bitches!
We didn’t have too much time for cray-cray Vegas fun and clubbing this time since we worked every day, but I did get to see my local girlfriends in Sin City and we did hit Surrender Night Club on a Wednesday, which was pretty happening to say the least. (I’m going back soon sans work!)
Today, back in LA, we shot in the Hills in my friend’s house and we got some amazing photos (againa). Unfortunately I cannot disclose any pictures yet from Vegas nor here in LA, since everything is confidential until released in the magazines. So here are a few behind the scenes snap shots…
What inspires you on a daily basis and what gives you ‘wings to fly’?
Yesterday I was interviewed about my inspirations and life as an artist here in Los Angeles. I was sat down in a recording studio adjacent to Santa Monica Airport in front of huge LED lights and asked a bunch of questions while the camera rolled. I guess you could say the interview more or less turned into an interesting conversation between PK Images the interviewer/ director and I. The question; ‘What inspires you as an artist and what gives you wings to fly’ came up and I thought I’d share my thoughts on that:
It inspires me immensely, now and forever, to conquer my worst fears of flying, my fears of being successful, my fears of jumping and not knowing if the net will appear. To take the risk of your life, to cross that terrifying line where you leave everything you know behind and venture into the unknown.
Ultimately, it gives me an amazing feeling of freedom – wings if you will – learning not to be scared of the unknown. Because you know what? The net always appears when you jump. We just have to trust our instincts. But the journey getting to a place where you chose freedom instead of fear is not easy. I’m still traveling it and probably always will. But it seems that the further I get down the path the easier it is to continue.
On a more concrete level, the friends and artists I surround myself with inspire me every day. I am in awe when I see my friends follow their dreams and do their work without compromise. It is so sexy and such an inspiration. It makes me smile and gives me confidence that I can do it to. We can all do it. It is my strong believe that we owe it to the World and to humanity to shine and thereby give others ‘permission’ to shine too. Some people might interpret this as the ego talking. On the contrary, I think it is very healing to see powerful people going for it and being successful. Remember that failure is a huge part of success. You can’t be successful without having failed many times before.
To demonstrate, here is a video of some guys that seriously face their worse fears on a very concrete level and suddenly my personal fears seem rather small scale… See what you think :
If you wanna check out more videos like this click here!
Who: Aaron Axelrod / Where: Los Angeles / What: Visual Artist
Famous for: At the tender age of 18, Aaron was asked to create one of the angel sculptures in front of The Kodak Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, which made him the youngest artist to ever do that. He has done designs for Disney, Ed Hardy and numerous set designs for Jay Leno’s ‘Tonight Show’, music sets for the famous music festival Coachella. But his career really took off after he was asked to do a painting of Barack Obama for the Inauguration in DC at the ‘Manifest Hope’ show.
Aaron Axelrod
Sometimes you come across people who aside from being talented at what they do, are inspiring, wise, charming and interesting as human beings as well. Not only because they excel in their field, but their energy, their risk-taking, ‘middle finger to fear’ attitude, lust for turning the obvious upside down and contributing with a new perspective on life, leaves you smiling, energized and perhaps inspired to take a risk in your own life. The Los Angeles native visual artist Aaron Axelrod is one of those personas.
I met Aaron at a birthday party back in the Spring of 2010 in a little sports bar on 3rd street in West Hollywood. Shortly after I modeled for one of his visual pieces and the rest is history. So last week when we shot some images together again I sat him down, I turned on my recorder, we shared some wine and I asked him to share his thoughts on his art, his journey, Los Angeles, life and – yeah a lot of other things … Check it out if you like:
- How long have you worked as an artist?
”Professionally since I was 18. So a little over 10 years. And actually living from it 5 years ago.”
- What has your journey been like to get to where you are today?
”Mostly it’s been the lonely wolf kinda journey. My parents have supported me in life advice. But they are not artists so I had no one to ask for that kind of advice. So all this is a learning experience for me. But yet, I’ve been super lucky. I always knew I was going to be an artist and everybody around me supported me in my dream. I went to Cal Arts and as a student I was making money doing commissioned work. Mostly paintings of famous people and movie directors. Then Disney asked me to do some T-shirt designs and I did the first Ed Hardy line for Christian Audigier. Then I did music stage art decorations for Coachella bands. They have a music stages there and they dress it up and give a theme to the set to match it to the band. After that, someone at Jay Leno’s ‘The Tonight Show’ saw my work at Coachella and because of that they wanted to work with me. So I did stage art for ‘The Tonight Show’ too. This was all while I was at Cal Arts. I was in my early 20′s. You know, one gig leads to another. And when I graduated it was kind of an easy transition for me to just be a working artist.”
- How would you describe the process of creating your work? What’s the approach for you personally?
”The most important thing for me is not to be stagnant. To try to evolve and change. and the best way to do that for me, ’cause I get bored very easily, is to get into different experiences. Like, always keep an open mind to things. Try new experiences whether its traveling, hanging out with different types of people, doing different drugs, doing different psychedelics, meditating. Just kind of getting out of my comfort zone. Once I feel like I’m in a comfort zone, that is not a good thing. Like, I have to switch it up. And so all my series and bodies of work come from different experiences that I have had.”
”For instance I did ‘The Silent Vipassana meditation’ and it changed my outlook on myself and my POV of the world. It’s a self confidence thing. I’m not as much concerned about how much other people are going to react to myself or my work. Like, if someone really hates me or hates my art, I don’t really care anymore. I’m super confident. I realized who I am more going through that 11 days silent meditation…”
”…But to be honest, I did this one experience, Ayahuasca, a South / Central American type of psychedelic or medicine that you do with a shaman. That changed my life completely. That showed me things I didn’t think were possible to see on Earth. It was crazy! Out in a cabin in the wilderness. It’s hard to put in words. The visuals are so beautiful. It’s like a fairytale on acid. You come face to face with your fears and you learn how to deal with them. It takes you to super happy places. It goes from your past when you were born and shows you the meaning of life. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true. I’ve done it a couple of times. You have to diet before to prepare your body for the experience. Only eat rice and tuna out of a can for a week. Nothing else. You have to do a cleanse.”
- Aside from the Vipassana and Ayahuasca, that are both pretty intense, do you have any other places, muses, music, movies, persons you look to for inspiration?
”Aside from new experiences and putting myself out of the comfort zone, I find inspiration in people. Like you Kristina (yours truly is literally blushing right now ). You know; obviously pretty girls, cool girls and guys who have experienced different things than me in a different order in different countries. People who have another perspective on things and life… Also, I’m a huge music fan. I can’t even make art without music. Movies too. Art and fashion too. I love Quentin Tarantino. The way he tells stories and the way he writes is amazing. Gasper Noe, is sick as well. I love ‘Enter the Void’. This guy is a fucking genius. Most of my inspirations don’t come from fine art. Maybe it’s because that is what I do so I look at other things to draw from.”
- A lot of your work revolves around ‘destruction’. You even mentioned the word a few times tonight. Please elaborate why you like to ‘destroy’?
”You can’t really have one extreme without the other. you can’t destruct something without creating something new. So you need those two extremes in life. And I think a lot of times people are scared to look at the negative parts in life. I think it is an artist’s job to bring things to life and upfront to people. And when they do, that it allows you to think about the good stuff in a different light. you need to understand both sides. If you are only happy in your life you wouldn’t really get strong as a person because you have never dealt or failed to get stronger. You need to learn from your mistakes.”
”… You know, even Michelangelo when he would make sculptures he would destroy rocks to make something beautiful. In the act of creating you are destroying. I think this is very interesting and the negative is more for me because I feel that people like to look away from that. I like to fuck with people. You can’t be scared as an artist. You have to have your own voice and not make art for other people…”
”… I used to want everybody to like me, but I got to a point when I realized it was impossible. I met people that thought that The Beatles suck. If someone can actually hate The Beatles I figured out, that it is impossible for everybody to like something or someone. And once you understand that, it is all good.”
- What are the pros and cons of living in LA as an artist?
”There’s obvious pros. It’s a huge city with all cultures, entertainment and it’s a musical capital too. And it’s beginning to be one of the main art capitals as well. It’s a world stage. You have access to anything here. A negative thing is, that so many people here are full of shit. Everyone who is from out of town who moves here wants to be the next Justin Bieber or whoever the fuck. Everybody wants to be famous. It’s really annoying. I feel it’s very rare to meet someone in this city that actually do their work because they love it and not because they just want to get famous. Another thing; Traffic sucks. And it’s hard to meet people. You can’t walk and just meet people like for instance you do in NYC. But the girls are gorgeous and the food is really good. And the weather is amazing.”
- What’s your ultimate dream?
”I think I’m living the ultimate dream. I do what I want every single day. The most interesting part is not the end result. My most enjoyment comes from making the art. The actual process. When it’s done it’s over. The journey is the most important thing.”
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
”Doing the same thing, but bigger scale. maybe I’m in Tokyo hanging with you.. hahaha!”
- What is the best advice you ever got from somebody?
” This is the best advice I got and probably also the best advice I can give to someone; What you do is, you allow yourself to fail. ‘Cause the only way to succeed is if you fail many, many, many times. If you don’t fail you will not succeed. And don’t give up. Just think of failure as part of succeeding. And when you do that you won’t get depressed. It can be frustrating sometimes. But it’s all good. It’s like you throw a net and you catch a couple of things. It being work, girls whatever. Once you understand that and stop taking it personally you will take it for what it is. Even a Damien Hirst or a Gaspar Noe – these huge people – They fail a million times. They’ve been turned down a million times.”
- What’s up next for Aaron?
” I’m working on a piece, which will be displayed to the public that I’m very excited about. It will be 6 storage tall and it will be mobile and moving from city to city. It will be a piece about destruction, but ultimately when people look at it they will see beauty and a fresh, new start. i can’t disclose more at this point”
xoxo KK
