Finally I found a uses for lipstick...

Today ~ I finally tried working with lipstick!!! First I drew a dress on an old window. The lipstick went on very smooth and I could also clean up the dress shape by wiping off the lipstick. The exciting discovery was the shadow that the lipstick casted on the wall (see the above photo).

Then I tried the lipstick on paper. Below is the result ~
'Retro Red & Blossom'

Tomorrow I will see how they dry and how to deal with them. But I am very excited about my discovery of how I like to use lipstick and I am excited about working with more colors. peace!

REUSED, REPURPOSED, REINVENTED

Two of my pieces that got accepted in an exciting show at the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery... all the info is below. The theme of the show - recycling, reusing - is one that is important to me as an artist, mother and citizen of this planet. It has been an element of my work for a long time - going back to when I had a business making jewelry out of bottle caps ~

S.C.R.A.P.s ~ Seriously Creative Recycled Art Projects!!!

Bunker Hill Community College
Art Gallery Presents

REUSED
REPURPOSED
REINVENTED

Works in various media that address this theme are assembled in this exhibit by: Jessica Burko Bobby Busnack Ian Churchill Rebecca Davidson Catherine Evans Virginia Fitzgerald Melissa Hanes Mark Hartshorn Anne Kirchheimer Peter Madden Charles Mathis Veronica Morgan Marianne Ramos Ken Reker A.E. Ryan David Sholl Ed Tekeian Ann Torke Martin Ulman Michael Ulman Molly Van Nice

An exhibit that explores the art of recycling
September 29 through November 8, 2008
Artists’ Reception
Thursday, October 2, 2008, 6:00 – 8:00pm
Gallery Talk
Thursday, October 16, 2008, 1:00 – 2:30pm

250 New Rutherford Avenue • Boston, Massachusetts
617-228-2093 • 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.
We are located at the Community College stop on the MBTA Orange Line.


For more information contact:
Ms. Laura L. Montgomery, M.F.A.
Director,
BHCC Art Gallery
Adjunct Professor, Visual and Media Arts Department
Bunker Hill Community College
Office of the President
250 New Rutherford Avenue
Boston, MA 02129
617-228-2093
lmontgomery@bhcc.mass.edu
artgallery@bhcc.mass.edu
Visit our Gallery Web page at: www.bhcc.mass.edu

"Art has continuously broadened our horizons, increasing our awareness and our tolerance of the world as it is".

back to the beach....

As summer was ending and the hustle~bustle of the school year was upon me I had to escape to the ocean one last time. So my family and I headed to the beautiful Duxbury beach for a relaxing day in the sun – or so I thought.

When my youngest wanted to beach~comb I was eager to join her & we started off in search of ‘bird’ stones. But no sooner had I started to scan the beach helping her in her quest, than I experienced the burning desire to make a dress. So as my daughter was off in one pile finding the perfect rock to be a bird, I was off in another pile finding the perfect rocks to create my dress. It was a much needed project – back where the Dress Project started ~ on the beach, feeling the same authentic impulses and desires that I had on Wells Beach in Maine over two years ago. It was a validating feeling – there is something about the dress form which touches a deep place in me. I love to figure out what material will make the dress. At Duxbury I was first attracted to the different shades of green rocks. Then I love to see how the form takes shape, what special object will be over the belly or over the heart.

I am entering the third year of working with the dress form & I see myself expanding the idea…I see the dress more as a vessel, a container, a receptacle. Just this week I dreamt that the dress is a doorway!! A doorway to where I wonder??? I am excited about the journey that lays ahead of me and curious about where the work will go. But I was so happy to be back on the beach, working with my old faithful dress form again on a beautiful late summer day!! Peace~

if the shoe fits????

In many fairytales shoes represent a vehicle of escapism. One of the best known fairytale where this is true is Cinderella. Even though many cultures and countries have different versions of this story, the most famous one is from France, and the ‘vehicle of escapism’ is a glass slipper. In fact, Cinderella does not actually escape her life of servitude via the glass slipper; she is rescued from her life. Once Cinderella slides her small foot into the petite glass slipper Prince Charming recognizes her as his true love and they live happily ever after!!!
The idea of the glass slipper has always bothered me. Of course it would be beautiful but how would it feel – definitely no give. But then I wonder about the different forms of torture to which many women subject their feet – be it for beauty, conformity, style. I always wonder, in action movies how the woman was supposed to out run the bad guys in their 4 inch high heels.
Don’t get me wrong – shoes are lovely and they can be so fun. And who didn’t root for Carrie Bradshaw when she coveted another pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes? But how is it to have women always negotiating in these ‘escape vehicles’…be it high heels, pinched toes or a wrong size? In a world where woman are striving to be equal shouldn’t they have equal footing too?? And what about the glass slipper – what many little girls dream of having the glass slipper presented to them someday by their prince charming???

This glass slipper is on display at the Morse Institute in Natick. It is part of the Shoe Project which is in conjunction with the Natick Open Studios (Oct. 4-5). This shoe is made out of broken glass and even though it is pretty to look at I don’t think I would put my foot in there.