This afternoon I had an interview down on Melrose Ave for ARTE-TV, a European television channel that focuses on…art. (You never would have guessed that, huh?) 

They are doing a piece for their popular series “Next Stop” on Graffiti and Street Art in Los Angeles and a friend of mine over at Melrose and Fairfax hooked me up with them for an interview. It was sweet, albeit a bit bizarre for me, being interviewed about something non-porn related…

I have to say I was nervous! However it was an honor to be included in the documentary piece, especially since it will feature many of Los Angeles’ great street artists. After all, when it comes to street art, I am a total rookie and definitely the new kid on the block.

 Recently, with the urging of my closest friends and my husband Andy, I have started to realize that no one else seems to capture the type of photos I am capable of, the way I see fading Americana. It seems so cocky to say that but it’s true.

I decided that this might be the time to let the proverbial cat out of the bag, so-to-speak, about who I am and who DeeKay is. I have long been a photographer, focusing mostly on the great vanishing motel signs across America. The neon kind of the post-Depression and Googie era, but I rarely shoot them at night…I prefer them in their raw state, during the daytime so you can see their  neglected and weathered state, great metal victims of the elements, rusting and peeling, broken neon… forgotten, decrepit and unloved.

 My photography is not something I talk about all that often; it’s a part of me, of my soul. In the world of adult, where every part of me is out there for the world to see, where I perform acts in front of a camera that most people don’t even speak of let alone attempt to do in the privacy and comfort of their bedrooms…and then add to it the interviews and articles…and my radio show where everything from my porn adventures to my relationships (and then some) is all out there for the public to hear…well, my photography became sacred, something close to me, something I kept for myself. I felt that I deserved to keep it for me, it was special. It was mine.

 

I had a former appreciation for graffiti; something I marveled at as a teenager when I moved to San Diego, away from my quiet small town in Colorado . Years later, as a newbie in the porn biz I remember riding the train from San Diego to Los Angeles often, gazing out the windows, watching the graffiti zoom by, street art I now recognize as some of the top artists and writers in Los Angeles. During the last 10 years I lived in downtown Los Angeles, steps away from the concrete wedge of the Los Angeles river, a hotbed of graffiti and street art. Occasionally I would photograph the pieces, somehow never feeling able to capture their bright colors and the raw meaning behind them. It still saddens me to see the LA river, once filled with vibrant and interesting tags, writing and pieces, now empty and bare, buffed and badly painted over by the city of LA in what I consider a failed attempt to beautify the downtown area.

When my husband Andy started www.bombedoutLA.com I found myself sort of the defacto photographer for the site. As we wandered the city I became more familiar with styles of street art that weren’t as common downtown; stencils and wheat pastes. I realized my photography could transfer easily into this new (to me) art form – in fact the rusted motel and liquor store signs were street art themselves –  and began to explore it around the beginning of March, 2011. Yes, barely three weeks ago.   

I had originally wanted to keep the art of DeeKay (a play on the urban ‘decay’ I photographed and the ‘K’ from my name) separate from Kylie Ireland the porn star…but it occurred to me if I mixed sexy pastes and spray stencils of ‘Kylie’ with the old signs – I started with arrows – it became a fun, naughty new bit of street art that encompassed everything about me… it also made my art more striking and noticeable.

My first pieces were posted immediately on our blog, www.bombedoutLA.com and within days had been posted on LA’s premiere street art website – Melrose and Fairfax. I have blogged about them on www.kylieirelandblog.com and spoken of them on my Sirius radio show through a thin veil of secrecy. I guess it’s not a secret anymore…

It will be interesting to see where this new direction takes me.

I will let everyone know as soon as the interview/documentary comes out and where to find it.

Thank you ARTE-TV and Melrose and Fairfax.

 

In the meantime here are a few pix and a vid clip from today:

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Melrose & Fairfax on ARTE-TV:

Melrose & Fairfax Reporting: DeeKay – Revealed!

• http://melroseandfairfax.blogspot.com/2011/03/secret-street-art-porn-star-revealed.html