Amy Oksman Rodriguez – "Cities: Boston"
|
|||
 |
Amy Oksman Rodriguez, the unnamed body painted model, on the porch of her home in Verona, New Jersey, with a sculpture of Saint Francis collected by her mother. |
|
Paul Shapiro with a [unnamed] body-painted model, an activity done for the photographer. Boston MA, June, 1968, photo by Paul Fusco. |
|
|
In June, 1968, LOOK devoted an entire edition to life in urban America. Paul Shapiro was an artist and musician living in Boston and Amy Oksman was a friend who volunteered to be the model for Paul's body paint. Amy grew up in Brooklyn but moved to Boston to study art. Her father had owned a furniture store for the trade, and Amy inherited an entrepreneurial mindset in a hippie's body. She started a vintage clothing store in Boston and later in San Francisco. Amy says she got to the west coast the year after the Summer of Love in 1967. She and a friend became the Flying Cat Sisters and opened their store on Fillmore Street near Precita Park. In fact, it was right in front of the practice facility for the new latin rock group Santana. "All the guys from Santana would come into our store, buy our clothes, and wear them at the Fillmore Ballroom," Amy says. |
|
Those experiences fostered a life-long interest in involvement in latin jazz, rock and zydeco music. The hippie shop eventually closed and Amy moved back to the east coast, got married, had two children. She now has two grandkids. Her professional life took her into medical transciption. In her interview, she talks about how events during the 60s opened up possibilities for women, created a sexual revolution and a drug culture. |
