and to all a good night....

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Merry Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa, Festive Diwali,

Happy Boxing day, Happy New Year, (you get the picture) &

Peace On Earth!!!!!

work in progress - kntting a uterus

I started this blog as a place for artist’s interaction - a way to create a community for support and critique; however i don't feel like that i have been using it as so. Something about only putting on 'a good face' - only finished projects. So here is a work in progress ~ a piece that i am truly excited about and wanted to share.

For the past month I have been knitting a uterus – a womb wrap. I started with a few stitches and I have been adding on stitches and different yarns to create this uterus-like shape. I have been searching out all kinds of yarn ~ different reds and varied textures – trying to capture a sense of the inner lining. I have made a few different uteri out of wire – but this time I wanted to create something soft. I want to curl up and be protected – to go back to the womb.

I happen to have my womb wrap when i was visiting a friend who was feeling quite frazzled and sad so I wrapped her up - knitting needles and all. She said it felt very soft and comforting but i realized that i wanted it to be bigger - more encompassing - so i am knitting more. I plan to make it two sided as well as extend the ends like the fallopian tubes. At the ends there will be something to represent the ovaries – pompoms or tassels??
This is a project that I am thoroughly enjoying and one that can merge my worlds a bit – artist and mother. With all the holiday festivities and school vacations this is a piece that I can bring with me where ever I go, although it is getting a little unruly.

Lastly my uterus getting too long for my 36’ circular needles – does anyone have a suggestion of how to accommodate some many stitches because with the fallopian tubes I am not sure how to continue. Thanks & peace

Spilt oats ....

Ok - you not supposed to cry over spilt milk but what do you do with spilt oats??? Well as I was cleaning up the oats they were too malleable and so I had to put them into a dress form & then a heart ~- an image that has entered my consciences big time lately.... kind of like the dress image ~what does that mean???

& then this AM the light was so beautiful from the serious amount of snow that was dumped on us .. & our red bath mat just radiated ~ and I saw a luscious, passionate red heart…..

the heart again???

It is interesting - I am thinking more about internal organs~ the heart, the uterus!!!, the brain, intestines, …. Oh where will this go??? stay tuned ... i know i am!!!

peace & happy winter solistice!

clementine ~day 1

After one day the dress is coming along wonderfully!!!

peace!

Oh my darling Clementine ~

This is something that I have wanted to do FOREVER – sew orange rinds!! Today I took the Clementine rinds from my girls' lunch and brought them to the studio and VOILA!!! I patched the different pieces together adding buttons on the straps using needle & thread. Now I have placed it in the window so that the rinds will dry – I am very curious to see how it will dry out. As I was sewing the pieces were starting to dry already. I have dried rinds in my studio before and they get very tough so if the dress survives it could be very awe-inspiring and strong. I will try to document the process. Peace ~

Our deepest fear.... & insomnia

This weekend I had a conversation with a friend that challenged me! Noting how i tend to distrust the positive and blindly accept the negative. The question of confidence and honesty was raised which then lead to my most true expression of myself in my work. This conversation has made a tossed salad of my brain and has introduced me a new level of insomnia.
So as i knocked all this around in my head, I remembered a quote by Marianne Williamson that I included on my poetry dress. I feel it is time to reread and reabsorb the essence of these words. I also feel these are good words to share!! peace ~

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

by Marianne Williamson

the fermentation of an idea ~ 2 years

Today I installed a dress in the

windows of Studio one80 in downtown Natick. They have started a tradition of holiday windows and i was lucky enough to be ask to do a window. It was a quick turn around so I wasn't able to take a picture of the dress before it was in the window - so the photos are not great - but when the dress comes out I will have a better shot.

The cool thing about this dress is how it fell in place ~ I was asked late Wed. evening. Immediately i remembered a dress that i had sketched 2 years ago - one dealing with the surreal~ness of the consumerism and festivities of the holiday month while men and women were fighting & dying in Iraq. This dress has an evergreen skirt with dog tags as ornaments and the bodice is a wrapped ace bandage. It was wonderful to execute this dress after it was in one of my sketch books for 2 years!! So keep the faith in those ideas yet realized and know that their time will come. peace

drum roll please....introducing the Small Art Showcase

I have the honor of being included in the Small Art Showcase ~ a web site which is a collection of fine artists who are making their work accessible and affordable to art lovers and collectors. Each artist is showing a selection of their work which is priced between $25. - $500. I am offering my 2009 Dress Project calendar which I just finished designing :-). The 2009 calendar will feature the Eggshell dress, Flower Power& the glass slipper to name a few. Along with the calendar, you can find my book about the beginning of the Dress Project as well as some woodcut prints and photographs.

But besides my wares you can see a collection of many wonderful artists’ work. Artists like Jeanne Williamson, Catherine Carter, Catherine Evans, Deborah Putnoi & Adria Arch - to name a few. So look around and enjoy!!! Peace

flower power ( from the calendar)

thinking out of the box

In conjunction with the shows at the ArtSpace and at Dana Hall I lead a 'workshop' which was called 'thinking out of the box', during which I brought in a plethora of the odd yet interesting materials that I use in my work. Below is some of the work that was created by some creative folks….. really exciting stuff!!!

from ArtSpace, Maynard ~

from Dana Hall ~

boo!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

And here are some show infor. and updates....

photos from the DanaHall opening can be found on the Dana Hall website - take a look if you want. It was fun because many people added strands of beads to my flower power dress.

Also the Long Journey show is up and open at the ArtSpace Gallery in Maynard, MA. The reception is Nov. 8th, 4-6. I will also be leading a workshop that following Sat.

This is a group show of six artists who have been working in a series ~ Catherine Carter, Catherine Evans, Jennifer Maestre, Ruth Rosner, Jeanne Williamson & me :-) . It is a wonderful collection, curated by Catherine Evans. Hope you can come by and check it out. Peace.

The God'dress' of the Harvest

Now that all my october shows are installed I can take a breathe (phew) and play Mom for awhile ~ which at this time of the year means carving pumpkins!!! The past few years I have carved a dress in a pumpkin - but this year I felt like taking a year off (call it dress overdose) ... I was just going to help my girls carve theirs. But like so many times the dress would not be ignored! As my girls and I were pulling the guts from their pumpkins I noticed a difference ~ each girl's pumpkin's inners had a different consistency and color! So I started playing with the goo and this is what I got!!

For a call to art from the Brickbottom Art Association that I am working on I have been deep into Greek Mythology, so when I was thinking of a name for this dress - Persephone came to mind. Besides being Hades' wife she is the goddess of the harvest and the embodiment of the Earth's fertility. It seemed an appropriate name for a dress made of pumpkin guts and many seeds. So here is Persephone's frock. Happy carving & peace

the Dress Project @ Dana Hall

Here is a quick tour of the show at Dana Hall. enjoy!

the story of Treacherous ( with video too)

Here is a video of one of the newer dresses that is exhibited in the Dana Hall show. This dress has been in the works for over a year. The first version was made of just skewers and masking tape and it was very strong,however ... I got greedy and wanted to have the bottom spread out. By doing that I screwed with the physics of the dress and the entire structure collapsed. When I was trying to reconstruct it a friend and fellow artist, David Lang, told me how to make really strong joints using wire, crazy glue and baking soda. So I wired each joint, did my little magic with the crazy glue and baking soda and then for the aesthetics I have wrapped all the joints with masking tape. The people climbing on it are also made out of masking tape.

With naming my pieces I try to stay pretty generic as to let the audience create their own experience about the piece. So this dress is Skewer Dress. However ever since its first creation it has been referred to as treacherous – because it is!!! If you get too close to the dress it will jump out and snag you!!

For the Dana show I have displayed the dress on a piece of broken mirror which is hovering above the ground. All adding to the illusion. peace!!

the Dress Project @ Dana Hall

the show is installed and ready for the opening tomorrow.

With a good night sleep the artist may be ready for the opening as well. :-)


come by and you can add a strand of beads to the Flower Power dress!!

here is the show information~
The Dana Art Gallery is proud to present
Virginia Fitzgerald: The Dress Project
October 20 th-November 21 th, 2008
OPENING RECEPTION
Tuesday, October 21st, 5:00-7:30 pm
Gallery information: (781) 235-3010 or gallery@danahall.org
Dana Art Gallery, Dana Hall School 45 Dana Road, Wellesley MA 02482

peace!

the glory of fall!!!

New England is famous for its spectacular fall colors and this fall has been amazingly beautiful! So even though this month has been a bit of a crazy for me I had to stop and make a dress.

It started as I was running some errands in downtown Natick and I came across these stunning red maple leaves with these distinct yellow veins. I couldn’t pass them up! So I gathered them up to make a red dress. I asked my oldest to help me collect some more red leaves and she became enamored with these striking yellow leaves. To compliment the palette I added the spectacular red leaves of the burning bush. As the dress emerged it felt like a flirty party dress so I kept it strapless.


In creating this dress, I realized one of the delights of the Dress Project for me is having a vehicle with which I can highlight different details of everyday life that maybe overlooked. I can draw attention to the beauty of the fall foliage or the exquisiteness of VCR tape or the elegance of broken eggshells. Some of these details will be on display at the show at the Dana Hall School, Wellesley. The opening of that show is this Tuesday, Oct. 21st, 5:00-7:30. More details below or on Dana Hall's web page. Peace!

Hello October!!!!!

October is a FULL month for me -

hope you can come by one of these events!!!

peace!!!

October 20 ~ November 21, 2008
Dana Art Gallery
presents

VIRGINIA FITZGERALD
THE DRESS PROJECT
Artist’s Reception
Tuesday, October 21st , 5:00-7:30 pm
Dana Hall School
Gallery hours : Wed and Friday: 9:00 am to 2:00 pm Closed Weekends & School holidays.

Dana Hall School . 45 Dana Road, Wellesley MA 02482

Galleryinformation:( gallery@danahall.org) (781) 235-3010

October 29 ~ November 21, 2008
ArtSpace presents
LONG JOURNEY into a Series

Catherine Carter, Catherine Evans, Virginia Fitzgerald,
Jennifer Maestre, Ruth Rosner & Jeanne Williamson
Reception ~ Sat. Nov. 8th, 4:00 - 6:00pm
ArtSpace ~
63 Summer St.
Maynard, MA. 01754
Hours: Wed.-Sat: 11-3pm

Natick Artists Open Studios
October 4 & 5, 2008 . noon-5 pm
I’ll be in my studio:3 Pond St. Natick, MA, across from Bakery on the Common

Reception @ Gallery 55, Natick Friday Oct. 3rd ~ 7:30-10pm 55 Main St. Natick, MA

Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery

Presents

REUSED . REPURPOSED . REINVENTED

An exhibit that explores the art of recycling

September 29 ~ November 8, 2008

Artists’ Reception Thurs., October 2, 2008, 6:00 – 8:00pm

Gallery Talk Thurs., October 16, 2008, 1:00 – 2:30pm 250

New Rutherford Avenue • Boston, Massachusetts617-228-2093 • www.bhcc.mass.edu Gallery Hours:M/W/F: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., T/Th: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Sa: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., S: closed The Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery is free and open to the public.for more information : 617-228-2093artgallery@bhcc.mass.edu Gallery Web page atVisit: http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/
more info. ~
email me~ dressproject@virginiafitzgerald.com