It's under my right ribcage, under my heart, a place that is tender to always remember.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
July 20, 2011
A friend, also known as my so called art and antiques consultant gave me a challenge this month: make a high collar and a hat. This is what I came up with.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
July 10, 2011
A brief statment for an art show coming up in a year... this is referencing some of my larger works and pieces on chairs etc...
My art started with my fascination of fine textiles and embellished surfaces and began to take on a sculptural and visceral tone when I started to incorporate a traditional quilting technique called trapunto. I began to explore the irregularity between my notions of a traditional composed female veneer and the emotional subsurface of femininity. Around this time I became pregnant with my son and there was something in the combination of a changing physical appearance, psychological unknowns/fears/excitements, and fearing the loss of a sexual identity to motherhood that made me start to make work that appears beautiful-gutsy-bodily-lusty-anxious-comforting-feminine-disjointed. I feel like I try to get to some sort of truth about myself and about being a woman and then when I arrive there, I start to obsess and over obsess which results in the over articulated and manipulated surfaces of my work. My work represents various components of myself while also psychologically mapping my notions of femininity. Some one recently told me that my work reminded them of fascia, the soft tissue that is part of our connective tissue under our skin. I loved this analogy because fascia provides support and protection for most structures with our body: my work is like protective manifestation of what supports me as a mother, wife, woman, artist, human being.
Friday, July 8, 2011
July 8, 2011
Day one in new said dress: cut off poofy sleeves and embroidery around a flour with the initials of my true love.
Questions to be answered:
Do I preplan each dress before I start?
No, but sometimes there is an idea I have been wanting to work with so I will try to experiement a little with a preconceived idea. Usually I deviate from the plan.
No, but sometimes there is an idea I have been wanting to work with so I will try to experiement a little with a preconceived idea. Usually I deviate from the plan.
How do I pick the dresses I start with?
I have a whole rack of dresses hanging in my studio. They all have some meaning for me. Some times I start with one of them, other times I just go with the flow and a couple of days before the month switches I pull a couple of things and make a last minute decision. Some times I construct a garment entirely from nothing... like Cupcake.
Will I wear these dresses again?
Aside from perhaps reshooting some final portraits ( Evangeline and The Struggle and perhaps Medkansla) I don't really see myself wearing any of these dresses again. They document a very specific time and space in my life. They are the history of one month for the year between Nov. 2010 and Nov. 2011. I want them to say what they say and be a record of where I was, who I was, and kind of act like an intersection or pinpoint on a map of my own life.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
July 7, 2011
A new day. I love the start of a new day with a new dress. It feels easy. It feels hopeful. It feels full of potential and possibility.
Last month was like a breather. A small break. A time away from lots of blogging and mostly just full of pictures. I keep getting all kinds of valuable input about how this project might be better, stronger. That's all good and well, but I think I live a very full life. Full of projects and full of time management and full of being busy. Not alot of time for loafing, not alot of time for writing. I realize that my art, the product is more valuable than the process... I want people to see how I get there to the end, any way I can, any way I know how and enjoy the ending but marvel at the process. It is so hard to document my process perhaps because the intensity of the process is so personal.
Sometimes I will be walking down the street thinking that what I am thinking I should blog about. Then I get home and forget. I try to write things down, but then things feel contrived because I inevitable edit my own thoughts when I type them out again.
Medkänsla is a perfect example of how I had alot to say but was unable to find the time to write down some of those thoughts. For example, while working on that dress, I was really trying to honor my Mormor's request that I don't turn it into art. Years ago when she gave me that dress she said "don't cut it up". Maybe she was joking, I don't know, but I thought about that while working on it. I chose to embroider on it instead. This dress was also a bit of a contradiction. It was my Swedish grandmother's Mexican embroidered dress. It kind of embodied both sides of my family. I wanted to think of this dress as a neutral ground for me to explore some symbolism representing both my Mexican and Swedish halves. It wasn't easy, instead it made me think more about my own little immediate family and our journey to find a courage and compassion when confronting our own familial challenges. Valor is another way to say Courage in spanish. Medkänsla means compassion in Swedish. Perhaps this dress should have been called the Swexican.
I was so exhausted yesterday when it was time to take my final portrait. I wanted to capture the exhaustion.. instead I feel like it turned out a little like one of Cindy Sherman's film stills. Which leads me to ask myself, what am I hoping to accomplish with this project. It is soon to be over.. I am 3/4 of the way done... 75%! I must admit it has become easier... I accept the challenge more, but I am also realizing that not every month has to be spectacular. Some months there is a need for the understated. Where will this month take me? This dress is so funny, huge shoulders, weird zipper in the back...
I just took a tour of the High Fashion exhibit at the Shelburne Museum and I am feeling a little inspired. I am starting to perhaps think there is a need for a reprise of Tulle, after all my next show Opening Sept. 23rd, 2011 at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, VT will be called The Tulle Did Her In. There will even be a little blurb about it in ART NEW ENGLAND for the Sept./Oct. issue.
Despite all the pauses, and perhaps even self doubts at time, I feel that my slow but steady production and anticipation of future success has served me well. One moment at a time. One stitch at a time. Ten minutes every day.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
July 6, 2011
Details. Details. Details.
After thinking I had taken the final portraits of this dress, I sat down and sewed for 2 more hours. I guess I feel like I didn't have alot of time with this one..
July 6, 2011
Translating important things from the blackboard in our kitchen to my dress. Things I never want to forget.
Today's Horoscope... July 6, 2011
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): One of the greatest kings of the ancient Persian Sassanid Empire was Shapur II (309-379). Shortly after his father died, he was made king while still in his mother's womb. Since he could not yet wear his crown, officials set it upon his mother's pregnant belly. He ruled from then until the day he died, 70 years later. I'm naming him your patron saint for the second half of 2011, Taurus. My sense is that the seed of some great accomplishment is already germinating within you. It may take a while to be fully born, but I suggest we consecrate its bright future now.
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Wylie Sofia Garcia
July 6, 2011 : 1am or maybe later
Sewing.. Sewing... Sewing... wishing I could do this piece justice..
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Wylie Sofia Garcia
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