Tin Machine At Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium, 1991, © Gie Knaeps | Source

Photos by Steve Schapiro

1975

Los Angeles, CA

“David started drawing circles on the background paper and then the Kabbalah Tree of Life diagram on the floor.”

-Steve Schapiro

Fun House, The Stooges Discord Server!

Not directly related to Bowie, but close enough to post this here I feel. For a while, I've been very sad about the lack of servers based around my second-favorite band, The Stooges. Thus, in a stroke of pure genius I had a few months ago, I decided to just create a server myself! If you want to help out a niche server with an awesome community feeling and lots of friendly people grow, feel free to join! You don't have to be a die-hard fan of The Stooges or Iggy Pop. Even if you're just interested in yet getting to know them, this will be a welcoming place for you.

I'm looking forward to see you in the server!

Here's the server link: https://discord.gg/a3qKH5c9NU

Link to our Disboard: https://disboard.org/de/server/910145174607384597

Labyrinth comic practice- Rough draft (2/3)

David having his ear pierced backstage for those Vivienne Westwood skeleton earrings at the 1996 Brit Awards

David Bowie, Los Angeles 1983, © Greg Gorman

David Bowie’s signature was an ambigram

After he’s gone, he still continues to amaze me. Going trough some of his documents in a research for the design of a tattoo in his memory, I came across multiple of his signatures, along with some drawings, sketches and texts. I became suddenly amazed by his signature, and while studying it, considering to center the design of the tattoo on it, I made a quite interesting discovering. Nothing that I wouldn’t expect from a beautiful mind as his. David Bowie’s signature was an ambigram, in which he kept his two selves eternally communion. David Robert Jones choose his artistic name, David Bowie, as he transformed in who he dream himself of, achieving this in a way that all artists could envy and admire forever. And I found that he managed to reflect this subtly in his signature, reminding us, even without us knowing it, that he was a whole, the creator and the creation. I studied the graphology and the results were amazing.

You can easily perceive in his signatures the name “Bowie”, distorted, at least intuit it. A “B”, an “O”, and a line with a dot that could be the short transcript of the “wie”. He always signed adding the year of the signature. But that’s not all there was to it. Not slightly.

David Bowie never forgot who made himself who he was. And that was:

David

Robert

Jones If you look closely and carefully, this can be seen in all his signatures.  

B and O for Bowie.

D R J for David Robert Jones. This discovering has made me admire a mind that I couldn’t think it was possible to admire more in a way that has brought me closer to his work and personality than ever. He always remembered who he was. He still was that boy, a boy with a dream and a will to follow it. And he knew that even if it was only to himself, the most important thing was to remember, to never let go of what created and accomplished who he was, himself. To keep his mind together. Ambivalence was his talent and his gift. And that was his greatest achievement, and he left us the most sincere proof for it. It’s been really important for me personally and revealing to discover this. It leaves me with the feeling that even though I didn’t get an opportunity while he was alive, I’ve finally made contact with his soul, even if it’s with his trace. This was as great an artwork as himself.

📸: Philippe Auliac, 1989

Tin Machine, Utrecht, 1991, © Bernard Rübsamen | Source