This year’s Halloween tableau was like no other. The gilded hallways
of Buddakan fed into a cavernous room with a massive table set for feasting. Each
noble host perched beside or danced atop their table setting. We were their
court.
The banquette table could be seen from above, but once you
took the stairs you were heads lower than ghosts with bulbous, inflated skin,
monsters with horned appendages that branched until they brushed the ceiling
and reptilian creatures whose bodysuits were so seamless and consuming, it took
me hours to recognize a friend.
Two particularly dashing royals were my friends Dylan Monroe,
a zombie queen for the night, and Jessica Love, a lizard lady. They've both lent their looks to my paintings in the past and are part of the otherworldly, queer
performance troupe, the Zand Collective.
My roommate Bonnie Burke, a talented photographer and a dead
ringer as a dead rose, documented the evening. These are her photographs. More
treats (and tricks) on her website and blog.
Getting ready.
White Witch and Dead Rose
Susanne Bartsch's Halloween at Auntie Mame's
Table topping
In line for the bathroom
Jessica Love
