We put these out to our FaceBook fans, but forgot to blog them. Wanna make sure you don't miss anything? Please like us!

Because it takes us a long time to edit these productions, we'll be providing these videos to you each month as a sneak peak.

As one of the last tests of Daisy's fitness for my lifestyle, we took her on a two-day lookbook shoot with seven models and a production assistant. She trooped it like a charm, even getting brave enough to step in a cold river and to hop over logs! The one challenging situation was her need to be in my immediate vicinity frequently put her supermodel legs in front of the camera:

Isn't she beautiful? Such a wonderful dog, never straying from our crew, never wandering out too far on her own, always coming when called, perfectly content to follow us around or wait peacefully in the car with her sand bucket of water (fits right between front seat and her twin-sized futon in the back of the station wagon) or to protect us when approached by scary dudes)

For someone who doesn't really connect with nature much, I deserve a pat on my back for this one, not only for the trooping through the woods all weekend--bugs and snakes about--but also for the grace with which I handled the emotional intensity of the subject matter. For those of you who haven't been following, lookbook is inspired by my deceased mother who wore all white--or, being a nudist, often wore nothing at all!--all summer in the 120-degree heat of Central California, and who believed herself to be gifted with magical powers. It conjures up until-now repressed images of the books she read me (like the Time Life Series, which had a book dedicated to fairies, witches, sorcerers, elves, etc.), her art (like that famous image of Ophelia, anything by Maxfield Parish, and plenty of sensual images of semi-naked women underwater), as well as the painful part where I spent 4-6 weeks of my childhood summers being sent to summer camp so she could  have time for herself, her work, and her lovers.  I feel like we've really out done ourselves this time. In addition to for the first time explicitly using my mother and myself as the subject matter, where as past lookbooks have largely been efforts to reclaim places and practices of my traumatic past by way of putting pretty women--and "good" women--in ugly or "bad" contexts, therefor exerting a form of control over these places/practices that I did not have as a child or young adult when my autonomy was taken from me by victimizing adults.
Being able to talk about this and to end the silence via art and expression in a safe community of women and men really helps.

We are beginning to book models, photographers, production team members, and stylists for our upcoming lookbooks, and wanted to put the shout out to any fresh faces, fresh eyes, or fresh hands who'd like to come along, particularly if you're inspired by one concept more than others. We've got: (1) AUGUST = Medical/Minimal/Structural/Industrial, shot in and around Portland, inspired by my past hospital stays and intense procedural phobias, (2) SEPTEMBER = Pioneer Chic/Western Inspired, a 3-4 day shoot with locations on the way to and in to Eastern Oregon, including ghost towns, desert landscapes, the painted hills etc., inspired by my childhood fascination with gold rushers and cowboys, (3) OCTOBER = Black Magic/Mourning Time, shot in and around Portland, inspired by my mother's collection of Victorian Mourning Wear, her stint with The Church of Satan, and her time in the voodoo haven of Louisiana voodoo culture, (4) NOVEMBER = Monochromatic, shot against colorful walls or with studio backdrops in and around Portland with everyone wearing the same colors, inspired by my inherited need to obsessively organize everything combined with the Collecting the Collectors photographic art show by Carlie Armstrong, and (5) DECEMBER = Party Time, in and around Portland, with all shots representative of some form of party, inspired by a desire to overcome my life-long aversion to parties, which stems from the nature of my childhood trauma. Sound interesting? Want to be involved? We'd love to have you in any capacity. Just email us!

This month--and just in time for Pride--we're really fortunate to have some incredible hand-knit conceptual performance art costumes in the house by PNCA pre-thesis student Travis Beardsley, including the ledgendary No Homo Dress. These pieces are so impressive we felt they deserved their own mini-lookbook, styled and modeled by Loren Hughes and Hidalit Aranda. If you like what you see, please visit us or call (503) 477-5124 between 12-6 PST any day or email us for pricing. Because Travis is a starving artist AND a starving student (who has to throw a chunk of change at his forthcoming thesis), and because we know many of you would like to afford his goods but might not be able to, we give you the option of supporting small business and buying with us, or to contact Travis directly to make payment arrangements sans our 40% comission.

Are you a photographer, stylist or model who would like to participate in a lookbook shoot? If so, contact us. We are always looking for fresh new faces and fresh new eyes for our monthly in-house lookbooks, and we are even more eagerly looking to loan our clothes out to you so you can independently come up with your own concept and execute it for your portfolio developement. We don't require any money (only full payment if you lose or damage something), just your guarantee to get us the clothes back the day after the shoot and an edit of your images withing two weeks of your shoot, and lastly, your promise to graciously thank us all over the place with wardwobe credits! If this sounds like something you'd be interested in we will give you full access to our instore collection (unless our consigners disapprove of your clothing picks) and whats in our basement storage. It can sometimes take a while to schedule out these things, so please contact us ASAP to get the process going!

For the next two days we'll be driving between Bagby and Breitenbush hot springs with seven blond models, an collection of all white clothing, lots of goddess-like jewelry, a two-person production team, yours truly as the art director/photographer, and a behind the scenes photographer. This lookbook will commemorate my mother, who was blond, and who believed herself to be a good witch, and who wore white and nothing but white all summer long (it was 120-degrees for three months where I grew up, but I suspect the white reflected the purity she aspired towards). Although we have over the course of the last year liquidated at least 1/2 of my mother's white collection, we have sourced some more nice silk, linen, wool, and cotton pieces, and are fortunate enough to be borrowing some choice pieces from Hattie's Vintage, Rad Summer, and Bombshell Vintage. Yay!

Those are just a few of our locations. Truth be told, the route we're taking is SO beautiful from start to finish I tired of getting out of the car ever 1/4 mile to photograph a location and decided we'll just wing it. I realized something important about myself on this trip that I'd been beginning understand intuitively but could not yet put words to: photo-taking often comes from a place of insecurity in me, as if I need to take a photo to remember, to remember to go back to things, for fear of forgetting them; simultaneously, I use the camera as a barrier between myself and the intensity of the world; and also to document things and people and activities I think are beautiful so I can at least find beauty in the world, if not in myself. On this scouting adventure, however, I temporarily relenquished this anxious photo-taking compulsion and just took it in. Much peacefulness ensued.

This is how we do it. Lots of prettiness and lots of silliness! Huge thanks to Hidalit Aranda and Loren Hughes for all the fun!

Stay tuned for this micro lookbook featuring the beautiful crochet designs of PNCA pre-thesis student Travis Beardsly. H-O-T!

This month at Golden Rule we're pleased to collaborate with Project Grow to launch the Snow Cone Series fashion line by Tess Bidelspach, one of Project Grow's many prolific artists. Meet Tess in the space Tuesdays in June from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., or at our opening reception Friday, June 3rd from 7-10 p.m., when Tess' wearable art will be featured on live models.

All photos by Kara Jean Caldwell. All pieces in this collection will be available for viewing or for purchase during the month of June at Golden Rule Gallery. We are open seven days a week from 12-6 p.m., as well as by appointment. We accept all forms of payment by phone (503-477-5124) as well as by email, or PayPal, and are happy to ship nationally and internationally.

We are 100% sure Kara Jean Caldwell from our March 2011 Lookbook and this month's Christian/Carnivale Lookbook is going to be an accidental star. After seeing her in the new PGE commercial--which, by the way, her casting story is totally hilarious, completely unintentional, totally serindepitous--we're certain that if she doesn't become a professional model real soon, she's going to become a famous actress just for being her own darling self. And she has the best mental health ever!

Isn't she just the darling-est? We call her the human noodle. And as a model she has such a diversity of expression, it's amazing. Everything Kara is wearing above and all the other non-consignment clothing in our May 2011 Lookbook is currently 40% off in our space for one last day, Sunday, May 29th. Stop by and visit us in the flesh at 811 E. Burnside, Suite 122 (around the back of the building) to make Kara's attire yours at dirt cheap prices as we clear the way for our June collection.

Lovely lady Marika (pronounced "Mar-ee-ka" not "Mar-eye-ka") is not only the beauty behind her Etsy shop, and the brains behind social marketing for Eden (the new Pearl District spin-off of Missisippi's Flutter), she's also our Friday volunteer, AND is working on finishing up the 6-months over-due update to our Who We Are page. How does she do it so well and look so good? And really, these images are just the outtakes--the not so good ones--from our May 2011 Christian/Carnivale Lookbook.

Everything Marika is wearing above and all the other non-consignment clothing in our May 2011 Lookbook is currently 40% off in our space for one last day, Sunday, May 29th. Stop by and visit us in the flesh at 811 E. Burnside, Suite 122 (around the back of the building) to make Marika's attire yours at dirt cheap prices as we clear the way for our June fashion collection.

If I were the female Storm Tharp, Alicia from our April 2011 and May 2011 lookbooks would be my version of Ashby Lee Collison. In fact, I'm damned near ready to start painting people other than my grandparents just so I can obsess over Alicia's darling little face and ventreloquist body. She's SO my muse right now. And these images are just the outtakes . . .

Everything Alicia is wearing above and all the other non-consignment clothing in our May 2011 Lookbook is currently 40% off in our space for one last day, Sunday, May 29th. Stop by and visit us in the flesh at 811 E. Burnside, Suite 122 (around the back of the building) to make Alicias attire yours at dirt cheap prices as we clear the way for our June fashion collection by Tess!