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Lady Krishna’s “SHE BLEEDS FOR ME! Menstruation Menopause” Makes Visible the Discarded
Seattle art icon’s new 60 piece show goes directly to the source of universal feminism.
SEATTLE – January 11, 2016
Lady Krishna, a Seattle native and resident, opens her new show at Fred Wildlife Refuge (128 Belmont Ave East) Her 60 canvas installation outsourced materials from 30 female menstruating collaborators on handkerchiefs.
Beginning Janurary 11, 2016 and running for four days, art lovers can experience a personal and visceral display from 11:00am-5:00pm daily. On Thursday, January 14, 2016 there will be a gala party from 6:00pm-10:00Ppm for the Capitol Hill Art Walk with a performance at 9:00pm by Lady Krishna’s Peppermint Lounge. This joint effort, led by the creative mind of Lady Krishna, started with a performance piece in 1984 in New York City and crossed through the years and over the continent seeking a new audience in Seattle.
“I was always INTO my period. Having mine stop, I had to make this piece because I don’t have my own anymore,” said Lady Krishna. “My girlfriends helped me finish what I started in 1984 (glamour girls bleeding on things). It’s a testament to the friendships I have formed with these women here in Seattle. This show is about trust. This show is about friendship. This show is about female intuition, the highest form of intelligence. You want feminism? I’ll show you feminism.”
For more information about “SHE BLEEDS FOR ME; Menstruation Menopause,” please contact theladykrishna@gmail.com
Vamping to Nirvana
Seattle Met, Published Feb 1, 2014, 5:00am
By: Laura Cassidy
Image: Dennis Wise
A conversation with enlightenment seeker and performance artist
Natasha Lady Krishna
NATASHA SHULMAN’S WARRIOR POSE is a little different than most people’s. Sure, because of those six-inch heels, but also because she learned it in the ’80s on New York’s Lower East Side as one of the first students of Jivamukti yoga—now the practice of choice for celeb yogis like Madonna, Sting, and Betsey Johnson. Natasha Lady Krishna, as she is much more commonly known, doesn’t always wear vinyl bondage boots when leading free Thursday-night meditations at 8 Limbs on Capitol Hill, but if the native-born portraitist and singer is off for, say, a gig with her band the Peppermint Lounge after class, well, those on the spiritual path often prefer to travel light.
WHAT ARE YOU WEARING I’ve had this leather jacket since 1985. Well, not really. I had one just like it but I gave it away, and then this one came back to me. I like tight clothes. Tight, tight, tight. I feel vulnerable in loose clothes. And yes, this is all my hair. When I hang out with the burlesque girls, they always want to know.
YOUR LOOK I used to perform with Steve Buscemi in New York, and he described me as Marlene Dietrich on acid, but I’ve been wearing a variation of this outfit for as long as I can remember. I probably would have just been a cheerleader, but my family was too left wing.
YOUR NAME My roommates in New York gave it to me ages ago. I was always coming in from the clubs when they were getting up to do yoga. It was a joke about noble devotees—a joke that I didn’t really need to get up to meditate. But of course I did. I just kept different hours.
STYLE AS LOVING KINDESS I came back to the Northwest to love people in down jackets. I mean, the Dalai Lama wears some pretty square-looking shoes, right? The real gurus, they see through all that. I hope we all can.
AGE-APPROPRIATE ATTIRE In India your age is related to how flexible your spine is, and I’ve been doing yoga since 1986. I’m older than all of you, but I’m younger too.
IN LIVING COLOR My band and I are performing at Everyday Music on 10th Avenue on Valentine’s Day. It’s like a holy day.
BIO
Lady Krishna (Natasha Shulman) is an artist, performer and fashion muse. Born in the midwest (where she gets her rocker gene from), she grew up in Seattle, Paris and New Haven. Lady Krishna's early influences were Seattle painters Bob and Fay Jones. Yet her very first teacher was the Oriental rug in her parent's living room, which trained her eye in mathematics, patterns, geometry and color. Having intellectual parents, Lady Krishna spent a lot of time with that rug.
From 1972-1977, Lady Krishna attended California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts) and studied with: Pat Steir, Allan Kaprow, John Baldessari, James Starrett, and Elizabeth Murray, Lynda Benglis, and Rebecca Horn amongst others. At 17, Lady Krishna was the youngest student in the feminist art program with Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. Taking full advantage of the interdisciplinary aspects of Cal Arts, Lady Krishna also hung out in a composition course with Harold Budd and attended graduate film seminars with Don Levy. Despite her love of music and film, Lady Krishna always returned to painting as a foundation for herself.
After graduating from art school with a concentration in painting and multimedia in 1977, Lady Krishna moved to Paris to work, study, and have a love affair. The following year, she returned to New York City to continue her work in both art and music.
The next eighteen years would contain numerous showings and performances in downtown New York City. From one woman shows at La Mama to performances at P.S. 122 and The Kitchen, Lady Krishna was on the scene. She also showed her work in many East Village galleries from Semaphore East to Bridgewater Gallery, and refers to her art during this time as "children's prison art." In 1996, Lady Krishna moved to Amsterdam for a year to paint her Red Ballerina series. Ballerinas were, and continue to be a prominent subject matter in her work.
In 1997, Lady Krishna returned to Seattle to punish herself for having so much fun in New York. She spent the next eighteen years drinking champagne, recuperating, and putting together her rock n' roll band Lady Krishna's Peppermint Lounge. The band has released five records, including two produced by Erik Blood, and has a record recorded with Marc Ribot slated for release early 2016. She also became a meditation teacher and, of course, continued painting.
Natasha Lady Krishna is still taking action, and is currently working on a top secret painting project she plans to unveil in early 2016.
Email theladykrishna@gmail.com for additional information.