Nostra Donna Del Fango/MUD LIFE CRISIS Calendar 2008
Now available!Did you faithful reader riders hope to escape crassmas commercialism in this sacred space?Augh! Please shield the children’s eyes here, mum. I have a filthy mud-caked bit of artwork for the rest of the whole family.Thanks to cycle blog wiz Chris H of Edenbourg I learned of a place that can turn an idea that’s been brewing for a decade (basically since I wanted to do another mud shoot) but lacked the neccessary know-how to click a camera, make a publication, etc, in other words I had to GROW UP a little more to bring the Fruits of Maturity to bear on this vanity project.I think you’ll agree this is pure mudlife crisis-solving through displacement activity. With your help of course! Click here you can decide for yourself and LOG YOUR OPINION here under this post!!Once in, if you click the button that says “Preview” somewhere on the Lulu page and you can see 12 pictures of a certain middle aged wombat who’s been mucking about in the mud. With really silly names like “Carmen DeNominator” and “Gloria Stitz” etc…Here, I’ll read my own deathless press release: Twelve images of the legendary offroad bicycle champion Jacquie Phelan–napped in mud. Anne Cutler’s stunning infrared photography echoes the grace and earthiness of a RockShox photo (by Jan Oswald) fourteen years earlier. “Fango” pictures were taken in a single autumn afternoon in Marin County, 2007. Cutler’s 2008 book “Treecycle” showcases natural beauty normally hidden from human view, since we don’t see into the infrared range like insects do. Lake mud does wonders for the skin, dunnit?
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Jacquie Phelan's Weblog 
I stumbled on a quote the other day that said the bicycle is one of man’s invention that has not been for used violence. Certainly not one caked with mud nor the rider also covered.
I would use a word like resilience in the same sentence as you, well not the geekoid engineering definition, ya know the one where you gotta be deformed elastically, another kind of resilience the kind that lets you ride mixing it up in heavy traffic even when it is about as much fun a box of poison cookies.
I hope our path continues to cross and uncross from rockhopper to tommorrow’s dream.
Peace and better chocolate to you, Pye
WHAT? NO opinions? Isn’t this the USA?
–sybil DiScontent
“WHAT? NO opinions? Isn’t this the USA?”
I can’t think of a comment that doesn’t sound sleazy 🙂
Wow, congratulations on being so brave as to pose as our lady of the mud, if my spanish to italian translation is somewhat correct . . . congrats on the artistry and career goals . . . keep on cycling – our lady of the mud
This is my first visit to your site, thanks to the tip from Velo News. The photos are stunning, and the visual parallel between mud-caked you and the tree stump is particularly striking. Well Done, and I hope you had as much fun doing it as it appears.
Well, um, er, hmm. I’m a virtual stranger here, in JacquieVille, so I’m a bit reticent about voicing an opinion. The written word is a tricky thing. *You* can’t hear me saying something in gentle fun so it may sound harsh. Starkly so. Not meant to be that way. JP, you and I rode many miles together many more years ago. Ate alot of dill havarti sandwiches too. Don’t think you actually recall that as vividly as I do, but you are a very technicolor person and easy to remember.
I don’t see the point of the calendar. Would the proceeds go to a charity? To the photographer? To more dill havarti for all? The photos are beautifully done and you have a ROCKIN’ body. Not even “for a fifty-plus year old”. I mean, for anyone. But twelve months of one person seems a bit…too too. I could totally see making a calendar of 12 different women over the age of 50, showing off their athleticism, no matter what their body fat content may be. You could call it “What Middle-Age Looks Like” or “Mud-O-Pause”, or some other word jumble that occurs to you.
That would be more appealing to me, anyway. But then, maybe after 20+ years in emergency medicine I’d just be happy paying someone 30 bucks to keep their clothes ON. Am I jaded?
I seem to remember John Lydon of the band PiL (ugh — really aging myself here) remarking that, essentially, art is anything that people will pay money for. I wouldn’t be as harsh as all that. Tastefully posed and photog’d nudes (I’m thinking Mapplethorpe rather than Playboy here but again it’s a matter of opinion) CAN be more than a mere commodity. If enough folks see them as art worth preserving and showing off, then why NOT sell them to an appreciative audience? Artists hafta eat, too.
Cheers –bh