Immersive Hundertwasser...

The final segment was the works of Friedensreich Hundertwasser (Austria, 1928-2000). Apparently he was fascinated by spirals and considered straight lines “godless and immoral.”

He was most famous for his architecture, including a whimsical apartment building built in Vienna in 1985 called Hundertwasserhaus that I took the girls to see in 2010 after learning that Ashlynn had studied him in art class. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and would gladly go to another. I just saw that Van Gogh is featured there until the end of this year, so might have to find an excuse for another trip to Paris.

Immersive Klimt...

By far the longest and coolest segment of the show was the paintings of Gustav Klimt (Austria, 1862-1918).

We enjoyed walking around to see the show from different perspectives.

Perhaps his best know painting, The Kiss, was finished in 1908 during his golden phase.

It was incredible to see his works come alive with sound and color on the 30-foot (10-meter) high walls and pillars as well as on the ceiling and floor.

Atelier des Luminieres...

Ashlynn surprised me with tickets to an amazing art immersion experience at the Atelier des Luminieres, a new digital museum of fine art housed in a former 19th century foundry.

She had been to something similar when on a school trip to Provence several years ago, so was very excited about introducing me to this unique form of art.

Our tickets were time specific so that we would arrive at an appropriate time to see the entire show as artists’ paintings or digital creations, as in the case of this first part of the show, are projected 360 degrees around the vast space using 140 video projectors. 

This first part was Poetic_AI, which used artificial intelligence in the visual creation process. It was the shortest and spaciest segment of the 75-minute show. 

Art in the Streets of Paris...

As always, I was on the lookout for cool street art while I wandered around with Ashlynn. 

In addition to painted murals, I spotted this giant thumb near our hotel. Le Pouce was sculpted in 1994 by Ceasar Baldaccini using his own thumb as his model for this 39-foot (12-meter) tall version. 

I also spotted this adorable French patisserie in the window of the Lego Store.

Visiting Ashlynn in Paris...

I was thrilled when Ashlynn invited me to visit her just a few days after my return from Nepal. My window of opportunity was small because of her nearly frantic schedule of castings for Paris Fashion Week, but it was an offer that I couldn’t pass up. Last minute train fares were quite high, so I took a long-distance bus for the first time, which took about seven hours. I was pleasantly surprised that Ashlynn was there to greet me as she’d instructed me to meet her at the studio apartment in the Latin Quarter that she’d rented from AirBnB for three weeks. 

She was very excited to show me her neighborhood, so we walked instead of taking public transport.  We came across a brass band practicing under a bridge and an outdoor dance class along the Siene.

We also passed Notre Dame, which is especially majestic in the dark.

After pulling my suitcase along for an hour, I was relieved that I didn’t have to carry it up to her sixth floor flat.

The elevator was so thin that it was difficult to maneuver both the suitcase and my body inside.

It clearly must have been squeezed in next to the staircase many years after the building was constructed.

The tiny elevator barely prepared me for how tiny the apartment was. Ashlynn was absolutely beaming when she opened the door to show me the very first place she’d ever lived on her own. Inside was a desk, bed, table, chair, kitchenette and shower. It was definitely a good use of the small space.

The toilet was shared in the hall. As there was only a single bed, I spent that first night on the floor since she had to work the next morning and needed her beauty rest.

It was truly compact, but was quite nice with an excellent view. That evening we ate at a traditional French café in the Latin Quarter.

While she was off at castings, I took the subway across the city to La Defense, Europe’s largest purpose-built business district. I dropped our bags off at CitizenM, my favorite hip budget hotel where I had found a fantastic price for a long weekend, and met her back in town. This photo was actually taken the next morning as she prepared to leave for a long day of castings...

...and this was taken that first night as we enjoyed welcome drinks in the bar.

Second Editorial in Paris...

Ashlynn’s other editorial, H+ Beyond Humanity by French photographer Manon Clavelier, was clearly also not a classic fashion shoot. She was the only model in this shoot for Modisch Magazine, a print and digital cutting edge fashion magazine. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience of creating art. 

This shot is particularly cool!

The photographer’s website says: This photo series suggests a reflection on transhumanist movement duality. Not really sure what that means, but Wikipedia says: “Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+) is an international philosophical movement that advocates for the transformation of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies to greatly enhance human intellect and physiology.” It was especially exciting to learn that one of the photos was chosen for the cover of the magazine.

First Editorial in Paris...

Five months after the shoot, the results were finally unveiled for the White Chapel editorial photographed by Laura Marie Cieplik for the February issue of DSection Magazine.

Here are six of the photos featuring Ashlynn, but she was actually in a total of eight. See if you can spot the others on the photographer’s website.

You might notice that Ashlynn is the only one not smoking in this shot. 

Strangely, after posting on Instagram that pre-orders for this issue were being accepted, the DSection Magazine website has gone offline. Not a good sign, but still hoping that they do print this issue and I can somehow manage to get a copy.