fashionRIP

fashionRIP is a multidiscipline, transmedia installation of chapters, an exploration of perceptions and beliefs. It’s a platform that explores ecosystems health, generative economics, social justice, cultural and creative diversity. Starting with recycouture garments, the story became the Project. It is now an evolving experiment, designed to explore meaningful relationship based constructs that put human potential and whole systems health over the abstract ideas of faux "the real world."

Monday, March 28, 2011

Women Artists

Saw "Who Does She Think She Is?" last night, again. And again it hit me in the heart. "I feel like I am in a forest, there are no paths, I have no companions and I hear wolves." (Angela Williams) I have called it being on a tightrope without a net. Some days are about soaring, flying above the crowd but some are about staying mindful of the authentic heart, no matter how many tears are falling no matter how alone and how misunderstood you feel. I (we?) continue to express myself and my vision of life in order to understand and to grow in alignment with the energy of the universe.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Ancient Holidays

the tree masculine

the tree feminine

In honoring the creative evolutionary spirit of nature, i needed an 'altar' or a place to go that made sense to me on multiple levels. I found a pair of trees near my house on the Winter Solstice, that suited this new practice. Since then i have gone back twice. Once, to write an essay on a tree for expository writing (it was an assigned subject, really this stuff can't be made up, synergy is available to us) and on the first day of Spring to reconnect and to shoot the Spring Talismans. With 2012 approaching this feels much more appropriate than the standardized options.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Vernal Equinox

Today is the first day of Spring. I celebrated by taking photos of two of the talismans I am making to go with the Species exhibit. They are fabric, bead, found object and hair pieces (works of art and jewelry pieces that utilized hair was big in Victorian times) that have little pockets for personal notes, prayers or tokens from loved ones.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Chinese Opera Paintings

March 20th, Artist reception and opening night for the Chinese van Gogh -Zhixian Ren. 2-5 at Kerf International Gallery at the Wallingford Center 1815, N 45th St. Seattle.

The show will run through April 25th (Noon to 7pm, Tuesday through Friday and from noon to 6 pm on Saturdays. 21 original paintings of ancient Chinese opera characters will be on display and they are beautiful.

Seeing the art and culture side of China offsets some of the current crass consumer imports that have an unsavory aura. It is good to be reminded of their amazing and rich culture. For the most part I suspect the artists and the people are wonderful....just like here.....

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Transformation 2012

Nice write on the bigger picture, by Pinchbeck

"The new story I propose to you is this: we have reached an evolutionary threshold for humanity - a shift from the physical to the psychic phase of our species' development, from competition to collaboration, from ego to "wego". As we overcome despair and apathy to take responsibility for the fate of the earth, we will shed our narcissism and alienation to become planetary activists, inspired expressions of the Gaian mind. We will never look back."

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Sail

by Awolnation, is brilliant, the first direct lyric address of ADD that i know of, AWOL Nation rips through that curtain. Modern life and the new dis-eases are trying to tell us so very much. But distrations r so insidious- the bits n pieces that build the fractured life actually curtail intimate human communication and promote short attention spans. Why do we need distraction (from both sides -the "er" and the "ee") & bigger, why aren't we bored yet?

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.