Sometimes you meet a person that inspires you so much they feel more like a character torn from the pages of a novel than a real person. We all have our stories to tell, but stories are like stones, and some are simply more rare. This is Petecia le Fawnhawk – artist, creative director, fashion stylist, singer and song writer. The Lone Wolf staff connected to her creative vision instantly, then fell head-over-heels in love after listening to her music (Fawnhawk). Have a listen to “Hunter’s Hide” above, and you’ll see what we mean. The song was inspired by a story Petecia wrote about a young girl who was taken into the woods by her father, a huntsman, eager to teach his daughter how to hunt. The girl was unaware of her father’s secret purpose, and as she spotted her wolf friend in the snow her father passed her a bow and arrow. She killed the creature, but with a secret promise that after she did, she would kill her father. Did you just get chills? We had the opportunity to talk to Petecia about her life, her dreams and what sets her on fire. Enjoy!
LONE WOLF: Have you always been a creative person? Describe the experience of realizing that creating was something you absolutely had to do.
Yes, I’ve always created since i can remember. A creative created creature. Daydreaming and creating little alternative realities for myself. And as I got older, I cultivated the skills to manifest these visions into material forms. The concept of “We are all that we create” became a mantra for me… and paired with “Leave the world better than you found it”… I strive to do just that.
LW: Describe one self-defining moment.
I’d have to say when my mother dropped me off after just turning 18 years old in LA with 40 bucks in my pocket. It was my first time alone in a city and I didn’t know a soul. I remember being afraid of crossing the cross walk. I met as many people as I could. I made my first gay friends (first ones I had ever met). They took me to a club and taught me how to dance. Soon after I became an electro clash gogo dancer and fashion designer for the California 80’s brand, Camp Beverly Hills. I had many, many odd gigs in those formative years, packing cigarettes in Compton, Doing costume design for film, I started a band, held art exhibits, was dubbed Queen of Cahuenga Boogie and was the infamous Wendy Lady Darling of the Hillhurst manor. I’d have to say for a little girl growing up with bikers in poverty in the small town back roads of America, this was definitely a turning point for me in my life.
LW: What are you trying to communicate with your music?
I guess I’m trying to communicate the way I see the world. It’s the great dichotomy of pain and beauty. But in the end it’s all a matter of perception. We have the power to turn pain into beauty and beauty into pain. So in the heart of everything lives it all and we might as well dance around it, be uplifted by it, laugh at it and sing to the glorious heavens that we can experience any of it at all. I think I like to create sweet ethereal and ambient uplifting songs, that feel positive with a dark undertone…but the darkness never presides over the light, it just manifests itself as a low end bass chord or a weeping violin, or somber vocals singing sweet melodies.
LW: Describe your ups and downs.
I feel like my downs are when I struggle with doubt and fear. When I allow them to cloud my awareness and forget my power as a positive energetic and creative force. I some times question society and my role within it. I feel like such a stranger at times… like I possibly don’t belong here. Perhaps that’s why I have the desire to create my own version of the world around me. But when I can clear my head of the negatives and take a back seat in my mind, I realize that I am a piece of a very large puzzle of creatures who perhaps also feel the same way I do. And we can all build an ultimate dream world together.
LW: What are you working on?
Right now my husband and I are working on a photography/ brand book. It will showcase our inspiration and lifestyle and our collection of heritage/ workwear and antiques. We’ve set aside three weeks this year solely dedicated to such. It’s hard these days to set aside time to create for yourself and develop you passion projects. So we are doing just that. I’m developing my first solo album along with my band with my music partner, James Oliver. I just shot my short film in Paris called, Rouge Red, that we will put out later this fall. Aside from that my husband and I are a creative production team mainly writing and Directing music videos and Fashion spots. What feels good to me right now is actually producing and crossing off projects on the creative to do list. Because of work, I felt It was getting neglected there for a minute. But never the less I make my work creative, so it’s never really too much of a downer.
LW: What would you dream project look like?
I have a few… but building a sort of creative education retreat. I would invite all of the artists, philosophers, professors, entrepreneurs, musicians to come there to teach a workshop, relax, learn, inspire, create and evolve. And finding a way to offer this a very low cost or through community service so that anyone of any class would have the opportunity to enjoy the experience. And eventually perhaps even building a town from the ground up. Constructing a modern day utopia that could be a study for implementation on a larger scale. Rethinking the design of everything possible in a more ecological, functional and aesthetic way.
LW: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
A UPS driver stopped to tell me when he saw I was in tears, “This too shall pass.”
LW: How did you decide to get into music?
I was living with 6 guys in the Hillhurst Manor in LA, and most of them were musicians. It was a natural turn of events. We all just collectively started playing music together.
LW:. It would be great to hear any comments about the fashion/music industry.
When you put “Industry” at the end of it… I immediately start thinking negative things. Like self servience, greed, pretension, shallowness, materialism, corruption. But as a form of
creation – I live for it. It’s when we take something natural and creative and exploit it, that it looses its original beauty. I hate the concept of buyers influencing and dictating what designers design… or label guys telling artists what their music should sound like… because their motives are not for the benefit of the whole or for the artist, but usually it’s for themselves or to appease the “corporate machine”. There’s nothing organic and inspiring about creating for a machine.
But here we are, we are in it. And like I said before. Dance around it, laugh at it, be uplifted by it and perhaps we can change the world for the better.
