love Harriet!!!!

dress# 32

This page is based around the letter that I got from my youngest daughter, Harriet, while I was at VSC!! She wrote out the address and it is the sweetest thing is the WORLD!!

 Both my girls were very patient when I was at VSC ~ it was hard for them I was gone for 2 weeks.  As my oldest pointed out, 2 weeks is a LONG time for a twelve year old!! :)

wild sweet me

dress# 31

as I mentioned before - I drank A LOT of tea!! 

The dress is made out of the paper from a teabag & I particularly like how it is still attached 

to the tea bag tag!

peace

'studies'

dress#30

more sketching to figure out what animal, position that I want to include in my painting.

peace

riding the rapids

dress #29

 The next few daily dress pages come from working on my large wall painting that I undertook during my stay at VSC.  this page came from sketching the rapids of the Gihon River that runs thru the VSC.  I was planning to include them in my painting so I sketched them a few times & figured I would sketch them in my Daily Dress journal.  The dress is from a tea bag ( I drank a lot of tea, which u will see more evidence of later) and the frog on the tea wrapper gave me the idea of populating the rapids with wildlife, especially since I had seen some mink scampering along the frozen banks. peace

 

color may vary due to lighting conditions , sheen and surface

dress #28

the work i was doing at VSC used A LOT of red!!! I had taken many paint samples to decide which red was the one to use.

this page shows what state my studio was in :).

To create this page I rubbed my book on the floor where there was much red pastel dust. this created a wonderful surface but also ripped the page so there is an extensive collage on the back.

The woman's face came from packaging that I found in the trash at the house where I was staying ~ couldn't pass up the color or the face. But the really interesting story about this piece of trash was that it came from a hair piece that one of my housemates, Elizabeth Hall, had used in a performances months ago, and the packaging had been traveling around in her car until she decided to clean out her car @ VSC, where I found it and have used it in my art!!! serendipitous, yes?!?!

All at Sea

dress #27

At least once a month I feel pretty out of sort, thanks to hormones, and this month was no different, in fact it compounded my insecurities that I had when i first got to VSC, oh yeah! This page is made from the myriad of different packaging that I came across on this day. I was surprized to see how the page was looking like a raging sea ~ but realized that was so appropo!! I only wish that i had attached the dress at even a greater angle

(maybe I was not as lost at sea as I felt)

As the pages got more elaborate the back side of the pages became interesting.....

Hob Nob

dress #26

now that i was at the Vermont Studio Center i was able to put a bit more time and energy into each 'day,' and i think this piece shows it. for this page I painted it with gesso, collaged pieces of material from my studio and then embroidered on it. The dress is made out of the label for the Typar, the material I used for my wall painting. The 'hob nob' cap came from a gift bottle of wine given to me by Lisa Barthelson for my stay at VSC. Since VSC it has become my wine of empowerment, a symbol of my independence & my artistic pursuits. It is also a good wine. Thank you Lisa!!

indoor use only

dress #25

this page comes from the many new materials that i was using @ VSC. The dress is out of the typar material that i was using for my wall painting ~ it was hard to keep it folded so I used staples. I also used staples to attached the dress to the page ~ using the metal to create a pattern. the other labels comes from vine charcoal, a sponge paint roller for priming my typar, some yarn and other fun stuff!

for more indulgence...

dress #24

It was cold up in Vermont in March!! So I drank a goodly amount of Hot Cocoa. This was also the day I set up my carbon foot print dress (click here for blog entry) outside my studio - hence the blue tape.

arrival

dress #23

This was the day that I arrived at Vermont Studio Center ~ yahoo!!!

This is the envelope in which I got my keys and the wrapper from the yummy tea that I drank a lot of during my residency ~ Wild Sweet Orange!

This page is interactive - the key can go in & out of the envelope!!

There is also a plastic cover that came from the protective sheet for my itouch with an arrow pointing up at the dress saying' align here' :)

head games

dress #22

this page really represents 2 days ~ the Saturday that I prepared for my residency at the Vermont Studio Center & the Sunday that I arrived. The page was inspired by the packaging from a photo memory card that I bought for the trip!! I thought it was a perfect showcase for a dress.

I also wanted to play with the transparency

of the packaging ~ so I used a different pen for the drawing under the plastic than on the rest of the page. Since I was working on this one at VSC I was able to put more time into it ~ so a sewed around the packaging with beads ~ also put a few beads in with the dress, reminiscent of those small toys where you need to roll the balls into the holes.

The title comes from the head games that I was experiencing while packing and arriving at VSC ~ here I had an amazing opportunity, but I was leaving my family (one child with strep) and I was exhausted so I was battling some serious self doubt ~ but with help from good friends,

I slayed those demons and stayed!!

strep, fever, can't sleep ~ crazy

dress#21

this daily dress comes from the day that the middle school nurse called me at work to tell me that my daughter was in the office with a fever, swollen glands and a nasty red throat and I should get her a throat culture ASAP. So I ran to get her between teaching my classes and got her in to see the doctor, to find out that she indeed had strep throat. Then that night I sat up with her for most of the night as her fever shot up to around 102. Oh, and did I mention that I was supposed to leave for the Vermont Studio Center in two days .... just a wee bit crazy?!?!?

lose your blues

dress #20

this day was inspired by the musical 'foot loose' at Dana Hall. The dress is from the program and I drew the back ground during the show. I wanted to do something different for the background ~ I felt like I hadn't used pencil much in this book. What i didn't realize, as I was drawing, that I was drawing dress forms among my pencil lines!!

you need to feed them

dress #19

This page took a little while to complete. I wanted to use this amazingly pink, shiny cookie packaging, but like many of the wrappers that I have used in this book, no glue would hold the wrapper on the paper, so I sewed it in. Ran the wrapper and the book thru my sewing machine.

This was the day that i realized that bringing in snacks made my 11:35 class run much more smoothly. This class was a large class and we were having some issues, but I recognized that these girls were hungry; their class was right before lunch. So for most of the rest of the year I always had a little something to tie them over.

half pint

dress #18

this page came from my last performance at the 'insatiable' show at the Kniznick Gallery @ Brandeis University. My performances turned into such a beautiful experience as people would come and learn how to crochet and talk with me and add different materials to my piece.

This day was a half day for my girls so they took a 'mental health' day and came and helped me so the page is filled with yarn wrappers and water bottle labels. I also created a netting with embroidery floss over

the entire page ~ and the strands hang out the bottom!!

'c'est una robe'

dress #17

a nod to Magritte and the Surrealists. the dress is made out of a coffee filter that was printed with a linocut. One of my students is using these filters to make a full-sized wearable dress :)

"edify me!"

dress #16

I love this page for many reasons ~ 1. crossword puzzles (i love crossword puzzles) 2. my name :) in the puzzle, 3. the wine top ~ which came from a bottle of wine that a friend brought to my opening @ Fountain Street Fine Art, which was on this day & 4. i REALLY went wild with the sewing on this page!!!

I called it 'edify me' because at this point in my life I am so hungry for growth ~ artistically, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually!!

But this easily could have been called 'let's dance!!'

ed·i·fy/ˈedəˌfī/

Verb: Instruct or improve (someone) morally or intellectually.

walked on

dress #15

this was the day that I laid down my first carbon footprint dress. So I mimicked the process with masking tape and scuffed it up - see detail,

there is a worn hole. The dress came from a page of a dictionary that had been ripped out but not used for another project - amazing on this page was the definition for Saturday!!! I love how this stuff just falls into place!

this page

also has an interesting transparency aspect.

i like art because.....

dress #14

this drew was made out of a square of b/w paper found in the trash and a collage of strips of phrases from the questionaire that I asked my students to fill out when I took over the class. I asked what they like about art, what their favorite sketchbook assignment was, among other questions ~ I love the last line 'fill page w/ doodles :)' ~ a personal favorite of mine. (see rt.)

Lastly I felt the fortune cookie fortune was appropiate ~ ' the world is always ready to receive talent with open arms.' A thought always good to keep in mind!!

happy birthday Lisa!

dress #13

made from an excusal form from the health center, for a Lisa, written by a Lisa, on my student, Lisa's birthday. The kite and butterflies are made from scraps found in the art studio :)

panicked, starved & exhausted...

dress #12

this day was the day I delivered and installed the work for Upon Further Consideration at the South Shore Art Center ( click here to see photos of the opening and show). It was in the middle of an intense and demanding week, and there was a lot of work to set-up. So in the morning before going south I went to Michael's to get those last minute supplies & bought almost everything that I might/could need - this is the panic.

Then, as the case when I am work crazed, lunch went missing so I lived

off a cereal bar and cup of tea until we were done installing, and had time for some real food - this is the starved.

And the exhausted just goes without saying.

This page has been in progress for many moons ~ I knew what I wanted to do just needed the time. To create the backdrop for the dress I hand-copied the Michael's receipt ~ inspired by the work of artists whose works comment on our consumerism, such as Kate Bingaman Burt and Danica Phelps. Both of these artist's work inspires me. Then I photo~copied the wrapper from the cereal bar onto a more translucent paper to represent how I felt like a shell of a human being by the end of the day! Now all I need to do is find that receipt so I can return some of the stuff that I overbought in my panic :).