some pondering on how things connect . . .

As some of you may know I have started another 'blog' called 'daily dress inspirations' (ddi).  for the past few weeks every day I have posted an image with a good intention and/or quote, and I am loving the entire process.

It has become almost selfish; a morning ritual, a 'meditation' of sorts.  As I am going through my morning routine ~ girls to school, dog walked,  to-do lists and accessing the pending day,  I take a moment to quiet myself and listen to what kind of good intention I need and that is the intention I put out there. I then find an image and a quote and post them.

dressmat

This blog started, as many of my projects/ideas do, from my need to learn about something. This time I needed to figure out FB groups for one of my social media clients, and for me, the best way to learn is by doing. So I created a FB group in which its members would get  a daily post, and I have always thought that my dresstags were a perfect vehicle for a daily message.

Now I didn't want to be exclusive to those not on Facebook so I started posting the same dress/quote of the 'ddi' blog.  So that is the story behind the starting of the ddi blog, which I am sharing here today because there is a story behind today's posting, that I want to share.

Haney, can't hear you

It is nothing major but I thought, interesting. It highlights an 'inter-connective'ness of things.

dailydress for Lisa
Barthelson birthday

This morning, working Scruffy (my early bird dog) I was pondering the day and stressing about my pending gallery show, this October at Fountain Street Fine Art.  The opportunity of exhibiting it awesome and this space is beautiful.  Also I have asked a wonderful artist, Anne Gilson Haney to exhibit with me (LOVE her work!! I  own 2 of her pieces!!).  So this is all good! However I am not sure if I will be ready!!!

Lisa during her artist talk

Some may know, I am in the process of getting divorced (yes, I am still  not officially divorced) And with this new state of affairs I have needed to get back out in the paycheck world to support me and two teen-age girl$$$.  So I am juggling 4-5 hourly jobs, mothering two amazing girls, and making a home for the three of us.  This is all good ?!?! :) 

but I have not had time for my art.  My studio has become a storage unit for the overflow of stuff when moving from a house to an apartment.  So when thinking about my up-coming show I have can freak out!!

the daily dress journal began as
a flat moleskin plain book

However I am blessed with amazing and supportive friends. This week I sat down with awesome artist, Lisa Barthelson, and she talked with me about my show.  

She just had a beautiful exhibit last month at FSFA, and offered to give me some guidance.  I laid out the 'work' that I have been able to to do between the hustle and bustle of my current life and she saw a show?!?! One that is based on the work I am doing NOW; similiar to my daily dress journal that I  did in 2011 when I was substituting at Dana Hall and working to keep a marriage together.  The daily dress journal was based on my daily activities - using receipts, wrappers and whatnots that caught my attention during the course of the day.

the journal once I filled each page

I have been playing with this idea myself, it makes sense! And I love the work of artists who have documented their daily lives: Danica Phelp and Kate Bingaman-Burt and her Obsessive Consumption series. Yet I had y doubt, yet with Lisa's encouragement and in her presence, I felt inspired and capable.

daily dress #16

However a day or so later (yesterday) I was back to discouraged and confused, in comes another dear friend.  and as good friends do she gave me another perspective; she suggested seeing if I could move my show to a later date, when I may be more prepared and better able to produce work that won't raise the authenticity critic?!? A novel thought?! One, that in my busy, what-is-next mode, I hadn't considered.  I am not one to pass on any opportunity but maybe this is the time?!?!?

So this morning, during my rainy walk with my boy, I was working through all these possibilities and knowing I was heading to another job at 10 this morning.  As my head whirled I thought about my daily dress inspirations ~ another task that I have added to my day, and one that does even pay?!?!? But as I said above it is helpful to me.  So I stopped and meditated on what aspiration I needed today and what came was 'clarity'.

Clarity in the decision to do the show or not.

Clarity about what I will show if I do exhibit!!

Clarity on how I spend my time.

Yes clarity was what I needed today.

So my wet dog and I came home and  I looked up clarity quotes. There are many out there.  

But the one that struck me as so totally appropriate is by Melody Beattie:

Live your life from your heart. 

Share from your heart. 

And your story will touch 

and heal people's souls.

And this is the reason for this entire blog post - how interconnected things can be. Here I needed clarity about my show and decided that clarity would be my daily intention.  

While looking for a 'clarity' quote I find this one that speaks so profoundly to me about my art work and the issues that I am struggling with about my show!! 

My art is my life! My art is my heart. My art is sharing, sharing my vision of the world.  I love to highlight the simple beauty in our everyday.  I have always been drawn to the beauty is what many people cast aside ( I had a business for 7 years using used bottle caps to make jewelry).

Yesterday I read an article about age and artist and saw this quote by Faith Ringgold:

 from ART news: ‘You Become Better with Age’ by Hilarie M. Sheets

“Being an artist is a way of life,” says 82-year-old Faith Ringgold...“It’s not about ‘I’m going to major in this and get my degree, and then I’ll go to work, and then I’ll retire.’ It is something one has a passion for, does, and then becomes—and can do it literally until they pass away. ..."

 I could not agree more - art is my life, my passion. So that is my story that I will share in October, my current story, my daily story. Now how it will present itself . . .well, stay tuned.

if: obsession

OK ~ another IF topic that I couldn't pass up however I am feeling like i am cheating, a bit ....

This collage/illustration comes from MY most recent compulsive obsession ~ my daily dress journal/project!! I started creating a page a day in a moleskin sketch book in February. I try to take some detritus from the day and create a 'collage' which includes an origami dress. When i first began I filled a book, creating a page for each day. Since then I have started two more books but the days are not always in sequence, and I skip a day here or there ~ but that is only because of, wait for it.... I run out of TIME!!! but I am obsessed and I am now collecting every scrap of interesting paper that i can find!! and I LOVE it!!! ( I have even set up a Daily Dress Project blog where I am trying to post each page, I am still in March, but plugging away:)

When i was wondering why I was spending time working on these books (when there was amble other things I could be addressing) my very wise daughter responded, without hesitation - you need a creative outlet!! from the mouth of babes!!

So that my contribution to the Illustration Friday community!! a illustration of an obsession which also represents my obsession with making art and my obsession with dresses!!! Which leads me to the other photo in this post - the dress I made with Eugene Quinn for the Barefoot at Rockport event which was held yesterday!! It was a beautiful event and I was so honored to be included!! Thank you Corina Belle-Isle who organized all the magic!! Happy Friday!!

artistic existential angst

so .... I feel like it has been years since I have posted on this blog!! I have been working on my daily dress project blog ~ which I wonder what is the purpose of doing it, but then I still do. But now here I am!!! And I feel like sharing what I have been experiencing lately. As I think about it, it is yet another roller coaster ride, ups and downs (more the downs) ~ and there are many legit reasons for this ride, but every time I speed into the loopty-loop I feel scared and lost, and maybe sharing will help me and others!!

So in the past month, give or take, I have had a mind blowing experience at Vermont Studio Center, as well as set up and took down 2 significant gallery shows. The latter alone can send me into a minor tailspin but I think the combination has taken its toll. Also I returned from a time of living and breathing art to a schedule that doesn't allow for much studio time ~ teaching (with extracurricular activities) and a family that really missed me and wants their due!! Add to that the revelation from VSC to take better care of myself!!! whew!! In fact today was an 'old Virginia' day, which means high energy, get in as much as I can!! It was a great day but this falls under the category of burning the candle at both ends ~ up @ 6ish to get girls ready & off to school, teach from 8-2:30, then pickup girls and friends for an artistic field trip, dinner and some much needed flip-flop shopping!! I love these days and the artistic field trip was to ArtSpace in Maynard for Catherine Evans' show, Struggling with Entropy. It is a wonderful show - so inventive and talk about a woman who knows her way with materials - 14. 2 miles of gimp, Clementine boxes, yoplait cups and sharpies on medium-density fibreboard (MDF). It is an spirited show, sadly ending on Friday. The wall of gimp is breath-taking, viewed up close it is one thing: a study of gesture and color combinations and technique. Viewed from a distance it is another: a study of color and movement. Catherine is an inspiring soul ~ full of ideas with the courage to develop them!! Talking with her this afternoon was stimulating, it helped me to feel like the artist that I am. She had also set up an interactive work station with squares of MDF and sharpies of every color ~ so I sat down and drew a dress!! Working with the sharpies on the MDF is dreamy ~ she has created a large wall piece called, "too many markers to count" which I have admired for awhile, so it was delightful to make my own design. And I am happy with it, although I am thinking about putting some text behind the words.

I have been doing a few thing with text lately. I love to work with words, legible and illegible. I like to think that the essence of the word is in the work, even if it can't be read. I started this diptych about my VSC experience and both sides have words. The background of the piece on the left is filled with words about my experience and I am thinking of putting words behind my sharpie/MDF dress. Words that convey strength, knowing, courage and spirit!! to note finding my artist self again!!

The idea for the diptych pieces came from my daily dress project/journal. Both of the visiting artists @ VSC were drawn to my daily dress book. Both were fascinated and suggested that i create the pages in a larger format & this is what I did for the VSC diptych. I don't think they are as successful as the pages in the book which are intimate and manageable ~ but it is a good experiment. It is interesting once the first ddp (daily dress project) book was done I was a bit at sea on how to continue. I loved the idea of making some days bigger and some small. But as with so many things - reality trumps idea. So I have a new moleskin book, but even with that I am struggling ~ saving many materials from each day but not being able to create the pages :(. Time is the culprit!! and I must remember that ~ not that I have lost my 'touch'. All those artists out there know what I am talking about - any blip is your work and immediately you question you place in this world as an artist.

So I am struggling with that question and how much does one alter their life to accommodate this desire, or does one even have a choice?!? I am believing more and more that I don't have a choice ~ if I am not creating I implode. So, voila ~ artistic existential angst. More on the issue, but now pillows beckon, haven't seen them for around 18 hours. peace

announcing....yet, another obsession

Now how to begin.....

I was given a moleskin notebook for a project called The Sketchbook Project (more about that project later, but for now.... ) I became quite enamored with my moleskin notebook with the kraft paper cover and when I finished that book I wanted more!! & ever since beginning The Dress Project I have toyed with the idea of a daily dress. Also during this time my studio time has become shorter because I am spending many of the daylight hours in a classroom, so there has been some pent~up dress creativity. So I got myself another moleskin notebook and suddenly the pieces fell together.... introducing the Daily Dress Project or journal.

For this journal I create a page from some detritus that comes to me during the course of the day ~ a receipt, a paper bag, packing material, whatever catches my fancy; that is be the starting point. Then I build the page around that element and eventually I add an origami dress. Sometime the dress is large, sometimes small; one time the dress isn't even there, you get the idea.

This project has become a wonderful addiction as well as an exhilarating experience. To the left is a photo of a new notebook - a plain paper, 5.25 X 8.25 inch, 80 page Moleskin Cahier Sketchbook. Below you see images of what my Daily Dress Journal looks like NOW ~ I need a rubber-band to keep it closed!!! I am truly smitten ~ everyday a new puzzle to work out, a new challenge, a new opportunity to create. On these pages I am experimenting with different media and new techniques. And of course there is the nostalgic side of this ~ each journal page encapsulates a moment in my life, a diary of images.

As this journal is almost done, and I am playing with some ideas about how to continue. But as I ponder how to go forward with this project, I realized that I wanted to share this 'idee fixe', so voila the Daily Dress Project blog!

Yes, I know.... another blog?!?! but after much thought it only seemed appropriate ~ the daily dress project needed its own space where each day will have its own spotlight! not squeezed in between shows announcements and creatures and larger dresses.

To begin I have posted 6 dresses on the site, and a little story about that day's collage, if need be. I am going to try and keep the text to a minimum, have it be more about the image. So I hope you have a moment to go share in my latest all~consuming passion & I'd love to hear what you think!!

that address again ~ www.dailydressproject.blogspot.com

& peace