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Beautiful Women Over 50: Flavia Bacarella, Remarkable Artist

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Flavia Bacarella is an amazing artist whose work pulls you in with its color, its directness, and its life force. She is primarily a painter, with a remarkable eye for color, shade, and mood, so it’s not surprising to hear her say that what she has always “most loved about painting is the visual pleasure I gain from the colors.” You can see this love of color in her paintings of scenes from the farm in upstate New York where she lives with her husband, Keith Stewart, an organic farmer and writer. In all of her paintings, woodcuts, and drawings, you can see her love of her work.

Belgian Blues

Oops 50 interviewed Flavia Bacarella recently, so that we could introduce our readers to this wonderfully gifted artist and her work.

Oops 50: When/how did you become a painter?

Up on the Hill

FB: I started painting after graduating as an English major from college. As a child, though, I always was drawn to ‘coloring’ and was totally passionate about my 64-color crayola set. I drew with these crayons non-stop as a kid. But I didn’t study art other than an occasional art course in grade school and high school until after college. When I started studying, I took a drawing course, and the teacher encouraged me to become a painter. I started studying painting at night until I was able to take a fellowship leave and a couple of special leaves without pay in order to participate in both a full-time studio program at the Studio School in NYC and later earn a graduate degree from Brooklyn College.

Buckwheat

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Tags: beautiful women over 50; women over 50; women artists; women artists over 50; painters; woodcuts; painting
Posted in Beautiful Women >50, Beauty, Interviews | 3 Comments »

Feeling Invisible? Wanna Tell Oprah?

Friday, August 13th, 2010

Here at Oops50, we received notification from the Oprah Winfrey show (yes, we are on her people’s radar!!!) that they are going to do a show on the subject of women feeling “invisible” with age. They wanted us to tell our “Beautiful Women over 50″ readers, in case someone feels this subject speaks directly to her and would like to go on television to talk about it. The application process involves writing your story (2000 words or less) and uploading your picture. Here’s the description from their website posting:

Were you the beauty queen or always the prettiest girl in the room – and now that you’re losing your looks, you feel you’ve lost your sense of self? Did you always rely on your beauty to get what you wanted? Without your looks, do you feel like you have nothing to fall back on? Were you always able to coast on your looks and never had to work hard to get a job or to do well in school? Maybe you felt like you didn’t have to be smart or develop other skills because you were pretty? Was all the male attention you received a big part of your self worth and identity? Do you often think back on how easy life was for you when you were a knockout? Do you now feel invisible when you were once the center of attention? Perhaps now that you no longer feel as beautiful, you feel you have lost your self-worth or self-esteem? Are you or someone you know terrified of losing your looks? Are you having a hard time aging? Are you obsessed with looking gorgeous and feel that without your looks, you are struggling to find your purpose in life? Have you had plastic surgery to try to look how you did in your twenties? If you are a woman who is coping with losing the one thing you always relied on – your looks – we want to hear from you. Please tell us your story.

If you are interested in applying, here’s the link:

https://www.oprah.com/ownshow/plug_form.html?plug_id=4423291

But keep in mind, don’t apply unless you are “willing to appear on television!”

Tags: aging, Beautiful Women >50, beauty queens, feeling invisible, oprah, Oprah Winfrey, women aging
Posted in Beautiful Women >50, Beauty, Entertainment, Living, Main, Relationships, Style | 9 Comments »

Joan Rivers: “A Piece of Work”

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Annice

When Charlie Rose interviews someone, I watch and listen. I guess that makes me a Charlie Rose groupie (I rely on Tivo to get my fill). So, when he interviews Joan Rivers about the documentary, “A Piece of Work,” I go see it. The film, by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, spans the 40 year career of Ms. Rivers. At 77 (she’s actually 75 in the film), we see a tough broad who is not afraid to bare all. In fact, she thrives on it, needs it, like an addict.
Watch this great trailer:

I’m not exactly sure when I stopped liking Joan Rivers, but I’m guessing it was back in the late 80s with everyone else. Falling from grace due to a series of professional and personal blows such as being blacklisted by Johnny Carson/NBC, and the 1987 suicide of her husband/manager, she struggled to find work in her beloved show biz.

The Young Joan Rivers

Circumstances and age seemed to have turned Ms. Rivers into a comic whose jokes seemed more like cruel jabs aimed to hurt the likes of Liz Taylor and her battle with weight. I find it very ironic for Joan to be hassling Liz when she was perpetually under the knife of her plastic surgeon re-figuring her face, and who knows what else. I know it’s none of my business how many face lifts this Grande Dame of comedy endures but frankly, I think her face lifts turned me off when she started to look like a caricature of herself standing in Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.

Now, here’s the big BUT – after seeing this film, and her journey back to glitz and glamour, I actually like Joan Rivers again! She’s one smart woman who climbed her way back to legendary status selling her jewelry on QVC, and her red carpet attacks (with her daughter) on celebrity T.V. And don’t forget her latest gig on Donald Trump’s reality show “The Celebrity Apprentice.” No, I didn’t watch it but I was not surprised to learn that Ms. Rivers won the competition, which by the way, meant she had to beat out her own daughter, also on the show. Needless to say, the mother and daughter relationship is strained. Nothing new here abut mothers and daughters.

The many faces of the Queen of Comedy

In spite of her obsession to be a star and stay on top of her game, I couldn’t help but admire Joan Rivers. Like I said before, she is one tough broad, and she’s not afraid to fight tooth and nail to keep her dream alive. Aging gracefully? Not her. Aging any way she can is more like it.

Tags: annicejoanriversoops50, AnnieSundberg, Beautiful Women >50, charlierose, joanrivers, joanriversapieceofwork, oops50, oops50joanrivers, Ricki Stern, women over 50, women over fifty, women's journeys, womenaging, writers over 50
Posted in Annice'sAngle, Beautiful Women >50, Beauty, Entertainment, Fitness, Health, Living, Main, Movies, Style | 3 Comments »

Want to Know the Latest Scoop on Bras?

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Annice

Read The Wall Street Journal. I’m not kidding. I found the most fascinating article on bras there. Don’t know how many of you beautiful women over 50 read the WSJ, but I get it daily, and Christina Binkley’s May 13^th article, “Bra Building: New Engineering for Bigger Curves” is a gem. Why would the WSJ feature almost a whole page on bras? Well, bras are big business–and getting bigger. It seems that bra sizes have gone up in the last decade, and D or DD sizes are not uncommon. In fact, manufacturers have been cranking up cup sizes to KK.

The article says baby boomers need a lift to support their sagging breasts–thus the need for the “engineered” bra. But I, for one, have been observing the young girls with bovine breasts who feel the need to bare beaucoup cleavage instead of hooking up a little more engineering than their mothers or grandmothers. I’m convinced it’s all the hormones in their burgers and chicken nuggets, not to mention the milk they drink that’s injected with rBGH to speed up production.

But never mind them, it’s all about me, and I’ve been looking for that perfect bra where the underwire doesn’t gouge my chest after two hours and doesn’t cost a week’s earnings. And bras aren’t cheap. It seems a good bra can cost up to $100. And why is that, you might ask? Because, what do you know, good bras have over 24 working parts, and all that engineering costs money! So if you have good information on a great bra at a great price, please come forward and share that information with us women over 50.

In the meantime, visit the WSJ video, where the journalist interviews a bra maker and seller – there’s a 12-second ad you’ll have to sit through first, but it’s worth it. And here’s the link for the article:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703339304575240382280390218.html

Tags: Beautiful Women >50, bras, brasforbiggerbreasts, Christina Binkley, growth hormones, The Wall Street Journal
Posted in Beautiful Women >50, Beauty, Living, Main, Products, Style | 7 Comments »