The Paper Doll Fashion Show Continues

Oprah Winfrey is an eternal inspiration, so this cashmere knit dress is in her honor. (Plus: ankle-strap pumps, box purse, silver bangle, turquoise earrings and multi-strand seed-bead bracelet)

This paper doll fashion show, which has taken over my daily art project lately, was a completely unexpected development. I'm far from a fashionista. I'm uncomfortable in heels, don't wear makeup or strapless anything. I live in sweatpants. Hell, I had a mastectomy and I don't even wear a fake boob! Also, I have a major problem with "fast fashion" - the overproduction of cheap clothing, the waste and pollution and exploitation generated. But I get it—clothes can be fun, empowering, beautiful, inspiring. I guess this is my answer to all that. All the creativity, none of the practical implications.

Celebrating Women

My Daily Art collection has become a paper fashion show — here's today's addition.
Daily updates on my Facebook album and Instagram feed.

In childhood I got the message that the hair thickening on my brothers' legs was fine, while mine was disgusting, an embarrassment, something I needed to make sure no one saw. Shaving, putting on makeup, wearing "dressy" (aka uncomfortable) shoes and constrictive clothing, was not a pleasure for me, but a punishment, an insidious, subtle message that I was not okay as is.

But at the same time, I read the beauty magazines and longed to feel pretty, to feel worthy of all of the pretty things...

Whether it shows on us or not, we women feel pressure every day over our appearance, a sense that we need to be attractive in order to be worthy of attention. Some women go to great effort to meet this challenge, but for me, this effort feels humiliating. I hate for it to show that I am in any way "trying" to look good.

I remember coming downstairs one morning at about 14 years old in the slightly tight t-shirt I'd slept in. My father stared and smiled at me like I was something delicious to eat. I felt good and bad in that moment—aware of the power of my developing body to attract male attention, glad that my father was smiling at me, but also uneasy. Instead of getting the loving and respectful attention I so desperately wanted from him, I felt like as if I might be devoured.

I admire women who are unapologetically fierce while conforming to these difficult standards— the hair and makeup and shoes and manicures etc. I admire women who don't feel like they're conforming but do all these things in the name of personal expression, or in celebration of their inherent beauty—regardless of age or body size or curves or lack thereof. I also admire women who, like me, have hair in their armpits and dirt under their nails and holes in their jeans and not a single high heel in their closet. AND I admire women who struggle with the pressure, who try things and try other things and sometimes give up trying altogether, eat too much (or too little), have closets full of clothes they never touch or can't bear to shop. We're all up against brutal, irrational pressure. I celebrate all of us!

Five Things

The creative juices are flowing, and I expect I'll be posting more here soon. In the meantime, here are five things I've made during my long absence from this blog:

1. Spark*Letter, my email love letter to the world. I write one when the ideas are ripe and I have time, which works out to be about four times per year. You can see the spring issue here (and subscribe so you won't miss the next one).

"The Web"

2. Leggings for Society6. I call my line "Happy Legs." I've got four designs so far, and plan to make more.

3. Podcasts— I'm recording one-on-one conversations on Hello Climate Change, as a tool to help me (and hopefully others) think about this overwhelming topic in a less overwhelming way. My goal is a hundred conversations. I'm about a third of the way in, learning and gaining insight every time. (Subscribe on iTunes or wherever you like to get your podcasts.)

4. Kaleidos— Using Quartz Composer, I made a tool that uses my computer's camera, sin waves, ASCII text, and a glitch triggered by sound in the environment to make these kaleidoscopic artworks.

   

5. Photo collections, four ongoing visual journals on Facebook: Walking Shots, Things on Top of Things (AKA Surfaces), Millie, and Sinks.

You are a Gift

5 x 7" blank inside greeting card, comes with "brown bag" Kraft paper envelope.

Express your appreciation!

1 card $2.95 USD12 card set $15.95 USD

I made this card as a personal thank you to all the loved ones who helped me through a challenging year. I also made it for you. If there are people in your life who are due an appreciation, this card was made to help. By a set of 12 for $15.95, or one at a time for $2.95. Shipping is free.

Real Deal Gift Certificates

1 card $2.00 2 cards $4.00 3 cards $6.00 5 cards $10.00 20 card set $25.00

I've been designing these "Real Deal" Gift Certificates and making them on nice ivory card stock with my fabulous new printer. The hope is to inspire gift giving that is more about sharing yourself, creating treasured memories, and deepening relationships than about putting an object in a box.

There are twenty cards so far. I'm having a blast creating them.

You can purchase the entire set for $25. Or pick them individually for $2 each. Shipping is free. Here are a few, more images to come. And yes, I take requests. If you have an idea for a gift certificate card that you'd like to see me produce in full color glory, let me know!

Design for Good

My latest art project is a graphic design project, a logo and t-shirt design project, to be exact. The logo is soft-spoken but the t-shirt is not. Get the full story from this post on my other blog.

Hope Springs Eternal

For almost twenty years, I've held a picture of the life I most desire as an artist and writer, living close to nature's rhythms, the rhythms of daily household life. I imagine a life in which I can devote several hours each day to domestic chores and outdoor reverie, as many hours to setting my inspirations into words and image, with time and energy yet to embrace the considerable challenge of sharing my work with the world.

Here I am, living on a dead end road in a town that is 40% land preserve, with a garden and a dog and a supportive spouse, and just enough financial stability to say that, while certainly risky, nothing stands in my way but fears and insecurities. Part of my hesitation is about money, part of it is about turning away potential clients (why is it scary to say no?), part of it is that internal ego-crushing critic, chanting who do you think you are? in the unfriendliest tone

But I am soon to turn 40, and I can't let these fears and insecurities call the shots any longer.

When designer Stefan Sagmeister decided to close his studio to give himself a year off for creative explorations, his first bold move was to tell everyone. That way, he reports in his October, 2009 TED talk, The Power of Time Off, he wouldn't be able to chicken out.

This morning at the gym, a friend told me about her beloved assistant of twenty years, who died suddenly this week, just a month shy of retirement.

There are no guarantees.

Yesterday my neighbor and I walked our dogs together, and saw this pond along the way. I believe these patterns exist always in this pond, formed as underground springs push up toward the surface. Thanks to just the right combination of cold and snow, the invisible is revealed.

I was so inspired, I couldn't wait to get home so I could return immediately with my camera.

While shooting, I decided it was time to admit it: I am plotting a special year, beginning with my birthday in early March. I have already begun turning down work. I have my own underground springs, a million and one half-dreamed and partially completed projects that I will no longer push aside. Life is now!

Worry is Creative

.dotstring, collage on bristol paper, 9 x 12", on view at WindhamARTS until April 23rd

I'm going to be on the radio this coming Tuesday, April 14th, on the award-winning Wayne Norman Show on WILI 1400AM, beginning at 7:15 in the morning, until 8:30 or 9. (If you miss it, or if you're not in the area, the audio will be posted later in the day here.)

I am nervous. I didn't pursue this at all. It's overwhelming to note that the splash made by my art show opening last Friday was strong enough to bring about such an opportunity.



Opportunity, according to Miriam Webster, is:
1: a favorable juncture of circumstances
2: a good chance for advancement or progress

The surface opportunity is clear: perhaps an appearance on a popular local radio show will bring a few more fans of my art, maybe a potential design client or two.

But the core opportunity lies smack-dab inside my worry. In the fact that I will be called upon to talk about myself and my work.

This is what scares me. Right now, my thoughts are like furniture fresh off the moving truck, crowded into the center of a room. I know all the pieces, but I haven't arranged them in any coherent order.

I suppose I could spin an elaborate image of myself bumbling and stumbling, trying too hard, flailing, choking. Or I could just feel the fear (yikes!) and apply my creative energy to preparation. Which is exactly what I plan to do.

What a gift a deadline is! Come Tuesday morning, I'll be able to articulate who I am, what I do, what moves me to do the work that I do. I'll know myself better. And knowing myself better is the key to BEING myself better.

So yes, I'm nervous. But I'm also looking forward to it.

A Closer Look

I returned to the gallery on Tuesday to view my own show for the first time, on my own, without rush or worry about the opening. It's over. It was a success. Phew.

What a difference it makes to see one's own work carefully framed and on display, to take in the sheer quantity of work, to feel affirmed by all the red dots on the labels indicating which pieces have sold, to recall how crowded these rooms were just days before, all the compliments I tried so awkwardly to absorb with grace.

It occured to me part way though the evening that when someone gushes, "Thank you" need not be the extent of my response - I can follow with questions, engaging the viewer about what moves them, where the work takes them. What a gift it was to hear their answers.

Suddenly I get it that I'm an artist, that I have been all along. That these works, and my private visual vocabulary, does indeed speak to others, whether art-educated or — even better — not.

Even the labels I made to accompany each piece, a conceptual design project in its own right, were well received. In fact, one friend and colleague suggested I look into showing the labels all on their own. An exciting idea which I plan to pursue.

Today I put in an application for another show in another gallery, another town. I get it now, finally, that this is just the beginning, that these applications will become part of my routine, that I will continue to develop as an artist and a professional, and that the road ahead promises exciting terrain.

As always, dear readers, I will bring you along for the ride.

Countdown

My show at WindhamARTS opens this coming Friday - less than a week away.

The art/inspiration postcards I've designed for my show are back from the printer and they look great (if I do say so myself).

This is a detail from one of them - click image to see full-size:



You can see all three cards in the previous post (here). I'll be putting up a Paypal link just as soon as I can figure out how to do one that functions more like a shopping cart - so you can check off which cards you want, how many, and determine the total due. In the meantime, you can email me directly and I'll send you a personalized Paypal link.

Here's the deal:

There are three cards. The gallery will be selling them for $3 each or 6 for $15. If you order them through this site, I'll have to ask for $2 shipping per order (same shipping no matter how many you order).

As a bonus for those who order soon, I'll throw in a couple of the invitation postcards from the stack I have left over, as long as that stack lasts!

In the Cards

I expect (and hope) there will be people at my show who will be inspired by my art and LifeCraft philosophy, and want to carry away some token of that inspiration, but for whom a three-digit impulse purchase is simply not in the cards. With that in mind, I've just finished designing three 5x7" postcards which I plan to offer at the show for $3 apiece. If all goes according to plan, they should arrive from the printer with several days to spare.

I'll also sell them here. Bear with me for the paypal link, or email me directly if you want some.

(ps. These images will look better if you click on them to see them in a separate window, full-size.)

You Are Invited

The back of the postcard is done. (See the front in the previous post.)



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