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!!

dresses here, dresses there...

I have been blessed with a summer full of exciting opportunities. First there is Green at the Attleboro Arts Museum!! Then, this weekend I dropped off the 'dress of etiquette' aka Emily at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall Rivers, MA for their show Baggage. ~
JUL 20, 2011 - AUG 20, 2011
RECEPTION: AUG 14, 4 PM

Baggage is what we carry when we travel and what we bring to relationships. Baggage contains our belongings and our emotions. It gets dragged, lugged, carried and shipped from place to place. It can take many shapes and hold many things.

The diverse and dynamic exhibition will include sculpture, painting, drawing, and photography from the following 25 artists:

Aparna Agrawal, Milcah Bassel, Harry Bernard ,Merilee Bowers, Wendy Brusick, Alyana Cabral, Andrea Cabral, Deborah Carlson, Donna Catanzaro, Emily Corbato, Kate Doyle, Virginia Fitzgerald, Fran Forman, Caron Gonthier, Chrystee Governo, Jacqueline Henry, Jennifer Jope, Grace Koshinsky, Michael Kurgansky, Susan Lirakis, Charles McGill, Filipe Miguel, Susan Post, Stephanie Silvi, Hollianne Wood-Garrothers

Lastly, but not leastly, I am doing a collaborative piece with artist Eugene J. Quinn for Barefoot at Rockport, a celebration of art and fashion Thursday July 28th. The event sounds so fantastic ~ On July 28th, Art comes alive in a fashion event on Boston’s north shore. Barefoot at Rockport is a day long celebration of fashion as art, a showcase for independent local and national designers, and boutiques. It’s a day of shopping, wine tasting, a showcase for our artisan food designers, mixologists, stylists, floral designers, it’s a fashion exhibit at one of New England’s most notable art associations, the Rockport Art Association and a fashion extravaganza and exclusive cocktail party all set against the back drop of the jewel of Boston’s north shore, Rockport MA and in one of New England’s premiere performance centers, the Shalin Liu.

And Eugene and I are creating a 'dress' that will be auctioned off, with proceeds going to the Rockport Art Association. This is a very exciting, yet daunting, project. Eugene has given me some of his old canvases and I am incorporating them into a dress. We decided that the old canvases were going to be part of the skirt and he would paint a new painting on the bodice. So I have created a bodice out of plaster which I am going to deliver to the artist today....can't wait to see how this all comes together....

More to come about the Rockport dress and this packed-full event, but right now i need to pack her up and head North.