fashionRIP: " Wallingford Center

Monday, September 12, 2011

Cat crochets

Donna Lough:

Bastet, Egyptian Cat Goddess

Avery Milieu: milliner extraordinaire

djb: quilt

Edith Faste: paper, glass, wire ( reuse and slump)

djb: Altered book

Page Day: illustrations in ink

djb: fabric paper, ink markers, beads

Avery at sign detail

Avery Milieu: hats on show,
reblocked, vintage findings and hand dyed plumes

Gretchen:prints and sumi cats (Page D's)

djb: subculture Joe and the fabricators, u mattered!
early temp placing of stitch-istrations

Gretchen: mono prints

8 women on a sustainable mission co-op art show at the Kerf International gallery in the Wallingford Center
A fashionRIP Project act of evolution!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

New Show Times

Vintage wire and tin can, handmade frame with hand and machine embroidery and beads on velvet . I am reminding myself to walk in the world with love rather than fear.

"Species on the Verge and other arts w/POV" now opens Sept 1 (Art Walk 9/7) and will run through the October Art Walk (10/9) closing 10/9. The gallery will be open Tuesday - Sunday from 3-8 pm, though special events may have different hours..

The former gallery space was leased out from under the curator (part of rent agreement) and a newer bigger, more beautiful space has opened up down the hall. (Kerf international Gallery in the Wallingford Center) This was a blessing.

Last week was trauma/drama as a brick flew through the window from dusty, noisy demolition next door, vacuum died in clean up process and my back was wrenched hoisting the dead vac into the trunk to take it to a repair shop. I was stressed and in pain more than inspired and in joy, yet felt that "the show must go on."

Now my heart is back in it, i can finish some important new pieces, more guest artists are showing up, i can enjoy my son, his lady and my granddaughter's visit, yes -the universe came through for me, us, again.

Cool!

Why it Matters

What's the matter with more and more fashion choices?

It sounds good; we love to be able to pick the perfect outfit. You wear it once or twice and then ....what was the real cost here?

Your time to shop and the money spent, not so much ....go a little deeper and consider the fiber source, the dyes and chemicals used, the health toll on the workers, the energy to run the machines, the transporting carbons...and now it just takes up closet space. But so what? It's been going on for-almost-ever and you didn't make the rules.

In fact we are told this is what a "healthy" economy looks like.

You will recycle it after all, give it to charity or your sister. This is more transportation and more release of those greenhouse gases. We are using a lot of our personal energy and the resources of this planet to make, use and dump "trash" Some rags, remnants and tawdry bits will molder for eons in landfills, as nature's microbial actions are hampered by our normalized, everyday toxic lifestyles.

This goes beyond dumps as the breakdown cycle that nourishes the life of this planet has been sorely challenged by GMO crops, fertilizers, pesticides, antimicrobials..RIGHT!!. All the "living better through chemistry" propaganda after WWI and II- AKA how to sell your "garbage," is our legacy. Well no more, not on my (our) watch, we are seeing things quite differently.

As we now carry 298 toxins in our bods that weren't there in the 1930s the toxic residues of normal are haunting us more and more. Ironic, no? Advanced is merely a word.

Go to the So Whats the Point blog in February for the numbers.

fashionRIP posts are copr at time of posting thank you

Extinctions ...So What?

Life evolves, some species survive some don't. We like to allude to Darwin's "natural selection" or Herbert Spencer's "survival of the fittest" because we are so good at reproducing and taking over this planet and justifying that side of our natures. The fact that we are wiping out the food chain by destroying habitat, fouling air and water and generally behaving like arrogant, tinkering idiots, is called business as usual. .....Well I and others are no longer buying that "sell."

We are wising up to the idea that we too, are dependent on these resources. We too, are physically an organic species and we really don't know what little extinction will be the start of the chain reaction that collapses the structure that we too, are dependent on.

Is this the price we are willing to pay for a pair of plastic shoes?

I say no, that despite the focus on the physical, we are more. We are heart and soul, mind, body, spirit. We are born of stars and we can and will leap over this world view based in old, untrue beliefs led by a science of isolation and religions of patriarchal, hierarchical constructs (your basic dominating Dad- with self reflective rights to rule). It is time to come together and heal. To transition into our fuller expectations and open the new possibilities. We are born with genius...let us help each other get to where we all can shine.