a week full of art, poetry and midcentury treasures

from the studio of virginia fitzgerald     Share Tweet Forward Share Pin MARK your CALENDARS ... Tuesday, April 10th, 7-9pm.  Opening Reception for 'A Long Distance Relationship' at the Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro Arts Museum, 86 Park St., Attleboro, MA 02703, 508.222.2644 This event will include a recognition ceremony that honors each exhibiting artist and exhibition partners. Free and open to all. www.attleboroartsmuseum.org Wednesday, April 11th: CLOSING RECEPTION of "100 Extra Days"  6-8 PM The Carney Gallery - Regis College 235 Wellesley Street, Weston, MA 02493 MORSE LIBRARY POETRY SLAM Poetry SLAM! 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM @ TCAN Slam is held at The Center for Arts, 14 Summer St., Natick, MA 01760 Experience the power of words in this multigenerational SLAM for beginners and seasoned performers where only the audience gets slammed.  Led by the dynamic Geof Hewitt at the historic  The Center for Arts in Natick the evening starts with participants of the Dr. Seuss group (those ages up to 15), then moves onto the Dickinson performers, ages 15 and up.  Prizes awarded to the top performer in each group  Free to the general public www.natickarts.org Thursday, April 12th, 6- 8 PM. 1st RENEW Pop-up Trunk Show  Contemporary Art, Mid-Century Antiques, Sustainable Fashion and Craft Brews together at Fountain Street! @ Fountain Street Gallery 460C Harrison Avenue, Suite 2 Boston, Massachusetts 02118 www.fsfaboston.com Taste Springdale by Jacks Abby‘s newest innovative barrel-aged ales and sour beers. www.springdalebeer.com For more info. check out the links above or send me an email: va.fitzgerald (at) comcast.net look forward to seeing you soon! peace, Virginia www.virginiafitzgerald.com Copyright © 2018 Virginia Fitzgerald, All rights reserved. Your are getting this email because you have shown an interest in the art of Virginia Fitzgerald, her 'dressproject ...' & her creative endeavors. Our mailing address is: Virginia Fitzgerald 25 Washington Ave. the Winchell Building Natick, Ma  01702 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

The Time Has Come, The Time Is Now ...

The contest ends TODAY at 6PM.
So follow the link below and give my holiday windows  at
Renew Arts and Industry some cyber-lovin'!! 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZJY2JPW

Here are some photos of said windows ....




information about the contest:

Hosted by Natick Center Cultural District
Natick Center Cultural District is happy to announce it's 6th annual Holiday Window Contest! This contest offers the businesses and favorite places downtown a chance to win the title of "Best Holiday Window 2017", be recognized in a special ceremony, win a NCCD 2018 membership, and have their business name engraved on the Holiday Window Contest trophy! 

It's not going to be easy to choose but vote for your favorite window beginning on Nov. 26th at 6:00 pm. (Voting will close on December 10th at 6:00 pm.) 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZJY2JPW

Help your favorite business by voting soon and keeping Natick looking merry and bright for the holidays!

and some detail shots!! 

It is ALWAYS such a pleasure to create the window displays for this wonderful shop!! 

Patrice is a joy to work with and the merchandise is just plain dreamy!! 

Happy Holidays all!!

(and don't forget to VOTE :)

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZJY2JPW

 

Ho, ho, ho ... let the fun begin!!!

For you who might have missed the memo... today is Shop Small Saturday!!! which is to encourage folks to support and buy from small and local businesses!!  I am a big fan of the 'small' shops and I am so happy to say that my wares are carried in a number of wonderful, local 'small shop's and I have just restocked them with old favorites and some new products ....

Renew Arts & Industry

19 South Main St

Natick, MA 01760

508.318.4892

http://www.renewartsandindustry.com

Uni-T

Natick, MA 01760

Phone : 617-835-8888

Uni-T also has a wonderful website where you can see and purchase much of their merchandise which is all made by artists and artisans. 

 http://www.shopuni-t.com/art-prints/

some of the new products that I delivered
to Uni-T ...

new product: 4x4 framed dailydress inspiration photos
perfect for teacher gifts, hostess' gift or a little add-on.
can hang on the wall or sit on a desk or tabletop.
$12.00/ ea. or 3 for $30.

Roots and Wings

317 N Main St, Natick, MA 01760

Phone: (508) 315-8088

www.rootsandwingshealingarts.com

Also this week, on Wednesday 11/29 from 4-7PM come visit me at Roots and Wings' tea room,
as I am one of the featured artists at Roots and Wing's Holiday event!!

I will have my dresscards, my new framed 4x4 dailydress inspirational photos, mugs, pouches, and possibly one of my organically crocheted wellness wraps?!?!?

There will be hot apple cider, great conversation, and fabulous shopping.

"Featuring 11/29 from 4:00-7:00 pm, come meet artists Virginia Fitzgerald with her dress art, whimsical art, and her new pattern creations. Shop among her functional art, wearable art, and must need accessories. Also enjoy Anastasia Papanikolaou with her essential oils and tinctures, ornaments, scented pillows and much more more. Guest Vickie Karian will be joining us too with hand knit gorgeous scarves.

Also for sale each evening will be the work from other artists who have work displayed in our cases and along our walls at Roots & Wings. And come back each Wednesday for our other featured artists including Kathy James, Sarah Allessandro,Judit Csikos-Lamb, Cheryl Dunlap, Cathy Weaver Taylor, Andi Lindsey, Anastasia Papanikolaou and more. Check back here and on Facebook for an updated schedule of events and artists."  

It's time for some Mid-Century cocktail fun ...

... this Friday, at Renew Arts and Industry, Natick. 

Come join the festivities as Renew debuts their back-room boutique, 'The Daily Dress" :), and help support Wonder Woman, Carol Chaoui and her continual fund raising efforts for the Dana-Farber Metastatic Breast Cancer Research Fund. 

Come see all the wonderful vintage garments that the Renew staff have collected, and that I had the pleasure of highlighting in Renew's newest window displays.

In the first set of windows I celebrated the clean lines of Mid-Century Modern style, by creating these painted panels of MCM fashion models and pairing them the beautifully designed furniture and housewares.

For the second set of windows, playing off the rocket ship that is in those windows, I went with the 'Lost in Space' look, painting Penny Robinson.  Also in these windows is a lovely stunning sculpture by the lovely and talented Karin Stanley, which works so well with the outer space feel.

product photo: virginiafitzgerald

product photo: virginiafitzgerald

So stop by tomorrow evening for an evening of fun, fashion, style, art, design and cocktails. 

Come imagine yourself walking into the world of Madmen. It will be an evening not to be missed!

the bustier is leaving the building ... the story behind the first eggshell dress

'eggshell dress ...' (2008)

me, removing my 'eggshell bustier...' from Renew Arts & Industry ...

the beginning .....

Just a few of the headlines from April 2007:

• College Student Guns Down Dozens in Virginia (April 16): Male student kills two in a Virginia Tech dorm. Two hours later, he kills 30 more in a classroom building before committing suicide. The shooting rampage is the most deadly in U.S. history. Fifteen others are wounded.

• Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Abortion Procedure (April 18): The ruling, 5–4, which upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a federal law passed in 2003, is the first to ban a specific type of abortion procedure. Writing in the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy said, "The act expresses respect for the dignity of human life."Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who dissents, called the decision "alarming" and said it is "so at odds with our jurisprudence" that it "should not have staying power."

• Earthquake and Tsunami Strike the Solomon Islands (April 3): Magnitude 8.0 earthquake and tsunami that follows kill at least 20 people and destroy villages.

• U.S. Squadron Hit by Suicide Bombers in Iraq (April 24): Nine U.S. soldiers are killed and at least 20 are wounded by two bombers attacking an American post in Diyala.

• Bombs Kill Nearly 200 in Baghdad (April 18): Five bombs targeting Shiite neighborhoods ravage the Iraqi capital in the worst violence in weeks. One bomb alone kills about 140 in Sadr City area.

• Bombs Kill Dozens in Algeria (April 11): Some 35 people are killed and hundreds are wounded when suicide bombers attack a government building in the capital, Algiers, and a police station on the outskirts of the capital. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claims responsibility for the attack.

It was April 2007 .... the Iraq war was a never ending quagmire, Mother Nature was making herself heard with Tsunamis, snow storms and tornados, taking lives and property, a male student went on a shooting spree on a collage campus and a good friend's marriage abruptly ended.               In April of 2007 I was feeling the fragility and pain of life quite clearly.  

As a way to deal with the overwhelming sense of loss and helplessness I headed to my studio.  

I had been collecting eggshells from my house and my neighbors, knowing  that they would be a beautiful and poignant material in which to create a dress, therefore I had a good collection of eggshells at my disposal. So as a way to center myself amongst all the craziness going in the world, I grabbed my eggshells and my hot glue gun and began building. I still remember thinking that the hot glue was so messy compared to the delicateness and fragility of the eggshells, but that dichotomy was appropriate for how I was feeling.

That first day of building was cathartic, I just grab whatever shell that was closest, I didn't think.   I didn't care if it was brown or white eggshell, I just needed to build something.  However the next day when I returned to my studio I was put off by the randomness of the colors of the shells; I didn't like it.  Yet I didn't want to start again,  I wanted to honor how the dress began. So to 'compromise' I started covering both the brown and white shells with smaller pieces of the opposite color shell, as a way of blending the two colors.  

And as happens so many times with my 'dressproject', my solution to camouflage the different color shells not only succeeded, but it also visually suggested lace.  I loved this suggestion but I had NOT planned it. This is the beautiful serendipity found in my 'dressproject'.

I continued to build the dress, embracing the messiness of the hot glue, using the ever-present wisps of hot glue to suggest dripping whites of the eggs.  While making this sculpture I needed to learn patience and mindfulness.  I learned the hard way not to just yank the hot glue gun's cord out of the wall, as it could and did go flying into the eggshell dress (clean up aisle 3).

Once the dress was finished I had the opportunity to exhibit it at the Natick Collection and the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA, 

the 'dressproject' at the Natick Collection, Natick, MA (2008)

where it got much attention ... 'look, those are eggshells?!?!?'

at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA (2008)

Unfortunately, even with a well thought-out and throughly cushioned mode of transport, the traveling was too much for the sculpture and once she returned from Watertown, she succumbed to gravity.

It was odd because the dress didn't break in transit.  It was a day or so after returning from Watertown. 

I was in my studio when I heard a very soft crinkling sound, almost undetectable.  I stopped what I was doing to investigate.  At this time my studio had a leaky ceiling and possible rodent residences, so I wanted to see what was making this sound.

As I walked around my studio, ears straining, I realized that the sound was coming from my eggshell dress?!?! As I got closer to the sculpture I understood that it was crumbling and there was nothing I could do about it.  I tried to save it but only was able to salvage the top ...

 

But there was much I loved about this sculpture ~ the patterning created by the mosaic of eggshell, the beauty of the eggshells themselves and most of all, I wanted to honor the 'place' from where the piece started, it was a physical expression of how crazy fragile life was. 

So instead of scrapping the entire piece, I created the 'eggshell bustier ...' which I exhibited at my solo shows at the Dana Hall School, 2008 and the Holliston High School, 2009, before in took up residency in the offices of One80Visuals/ Renew Arts and Industry, Natick, MA.

There, the 'eggshell bustier ...'  stayed, quietly crumbling, until last Friday when I gingerly removed it. I was pleasantly surprised how the piece still had some integrity and I was able to transfer it into a bin in one piece.  And today, as my daughter Harriet spied it in the backseat of my car, she insisted that I salvage the eggshell dress/bustier yet again because, "it has been so many places."

'this comes from with ...' (2009)
Medicine Wheel Productions, Boston, MA

So we will see where the bustier will go from here, but it did inspire my room installation/environment, 'this comes from within ...' which is a very good thing....

peace