ARTIST PROJECT TORONTO

My first model, Jasenya, was a high school student in Toronto who is interested in art and fashion.

Lorna is a UPS delivery associate who enjoys modeling on the side.

This piece, modeled by Lorna, was the last one I painted.  I felt like I could have kept going!

Our Art Collectif x Mike Smalley x Artfully Awear booth!

Ann is the mother of my first model, Jasenya.  She said they like to do creative things together, and have even appeared in music videos!

Jessica is a performance artist who uses her body as her medium.

Here I am with my model, Ann, and Art Collectif founder Erika.

Last weekend, I exhibited my work at an art fair for the first time ever!  In collaboration with Art Collectif and Mike Smalley, I created four one-of-a-kind Artfully Awear garments on live models with a live audience at Artist Project Toronto.  It was truly a test of my abilities.  I've learned that it's one thing to spend time at home making my pieces, and another challenge completely to do it with people watching (and wearing the garments!) at the same time.

I have to admit that I've had a difficult start to 2018, creatively.  Around the beginning of the year, I entered a weird creative depression - I didn't want to make anything or feel inspired to try anything new with my work.  I've gone through creative ups and downs before, but this one seemed more significant; I wondered if I'd reached the end of Artfully Awear.

My friend Erika Floysvik, founder of Art Collectif and Toronto native, had spoken to me about partnering with her company Art Collectif to highlight one of their artists through an Artfully Awear demonstration during Artist Project Toronto.  I'd agreed to do it, but in all honesty, I was really worried about it when the time came.  Since I hadn't created anything in a while, I didn't feel like I'd be able to deliver my best work on the project.  However, I'd agreed to do it, so I prepped the garments and flew to Toronto, nervous about the way they would turn out.

Everyone in Toronto and at the fair was so kind and welcoming!  I immediately let go of some of my nerves when I realized that I was among friends.  I almost immediately got to work meeting my first model, Jasenya, and painting my first garment.  With each successive work, I felt more confident and thought the result was better.  By the fourth piece, I felt like I could go on forever!

My favorite part of the whole experience was meeting the models that Sharalee, Erika's assistant, had sourced for me.  I'd requested that each one be diverse - whether in physical characteristics or background, and she found some very special women!  I loved being able to highlight them on my Instagram, and especially enjoyed working with Jasenya and Ann, a mother daughter pair.

That aspect of the project opened a whole new form of what I do - using wearable art to empower women.  I've already experienced what this project has done for my own creativity and confidence, and now it's time for me to share that feeling with others.

Thank you to Mike Smalley, the lovely artist whose work inspired all of these new pieces, and to Art Collectif for being a wonderful partner on this project!

I'm looking forward to my next visit to Toronto, and to discovering new ways to bring the empowering message of Artfully Awear to others.

CARMEN HERRERA @ THE WHITNEY

"I began a lifelong process of purification, a process of taking away what isn't essential." --Carmen Herrera

Carmen Herrera is a Cuban American artist, and her work is the focus of an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art which opens today in New York City.  When I began investigating her work, I found that there is a lot to learn from the 101-year-old artist, who was a pioneer of Geometric Abstraction.  She has said that her "quest is for the simplest of pictorial resolutions", which struck me as a valuable way to approach art as well as life.

I made a dress inspired by her painting Green and Orange from 1958.  It was surprisingly refreshing to work on something so direct, and it was fun to mix colors to emulate Herrera's palette.

Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight opens to the public today, and is on view until January 2, 2017.

Photos by Sarah Meller.

STUDIO STYLE

Every time I visit Miljan Suknovic's studio in TriBeCa, there's something new and wonderful to behold. 

I stopped by on my way home last night and he had been experimenting by masking some of his larger canvases with shapes which made them seem like portals into a colorful universe.

Blouse: Uniqlo

Pants: Thrifted (by a Danish designer, Auffe)

Shoes: Banana Republic 

Photos by Miljan Suknovic.

POLLOCK KRASNER HOUSE

After an enjoyable afternoon impersonating Pollock on the roof of my building, I was ready to make the trek to East Hampton to the Pollock Krasner House & Study Center. 

I’d been wanting to visit the historic place for at least ten years (probably as long as I’d known that it exists and is open to the public), so it was quite a treat to pile into a car with three of my friends and hit the road on a lovely autumn morning.  After about a 2.5 hour drive from Brooklyn, we pulled up to a wooden-shingled farmhouse in an absolutely beautiful setting with a view of the river and marshes.

After a warm reception from our very knowledgeable and hilarious tour guide, Myrna, we were welcomed into the barn, which had served as Jackson Pollock’s studio, and then Lee Krasner’s after his death.  After removing our shoes and donning foam slippers, we entered the space, which was filled with light, photographs, and ephemera from both of the artists’ careers.  It was truly overwhelming to walk through the space where Pollock had created such masterpieces as Autumn Rhythm.  The most poignant part of the experience was looking down on the paint drips and splatters, records of Pollock’s action painting practice and still completely intact.  You could even see outlines of specific paintings if you looked closely. 

After spending a long time in the studio, we took a tour of the house, which included the couple’s collection of books, records, and even their monogrammed suitcases.  As a fan of AbstractExpressionism, it was so interesting to see the chattels of two of the movement’s greatest members, and further understand and appreciate their relationship, both personally and creatively.

The Pollock Krasner House is closed during the winter, but reopens in the spring by appointment.

Dress: DIY (read here about how I did it)

Leather jacket: DKNY (also worn here, in my Pollock post from New Year's 2011!)

Scarf: Vintage

Tights: Hue

Boots: Zero + Maria Cornejo 'Aura' Bootie

Sunglasses: Alexander McQueen 'Blue Marble'

Photos of me by Micah Bozeman and Emily Hoerdemann and other photos by me.

ACTION PAINTING

Hans Namuth photograph of Jackson Pollock, 1950

Hans Namuth photograph of Jackson Pollock, 1950

Hans Namuth photograph of Jackson Pollock, 1950

It was a stunning fall day; the type of day which makes you feel guilty for doing anything but frolicking outdoors.  I'd been wanting to do an action painting project for a while, and with a visit to the Pollock Krasner House & Study Center upcoming, it was time to make something to wear.  After looking through countless photographs of Jackson Pollock creating his drip paintings (most of them taken by Hans Namuth ca. 1950), I was ready to embark on my own paint-flinging experience.

First, I found a dress at the thrift store in a thick cotton fabric which resembled canvas.  I used an old sheet as a dropcloth, and spent some time mixing acrylic paint to the right consistency.  (Pollock used house paint.)  Then I took everything up to the roof of my building, set up my camera and tripod, and went to work.

I used one of Pollock's most famous paintings, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), as my inspiration, and created multiple layers of black, some white, and a lavender color.  I waited for each color to dry in between layers so they wouldn't mix and become muddy.

Overall, it was an extremely fun project and a great stress reliever!  I left the back of the dress unfinished, because some of the paint bled through and it reminded me of what the back of a painting would really look like.

On a side note, I've had great difficulty finding out how to attribute Namuth's photographs of Pollock.  It seems that many of them are courtesy of the Namuth Estate, and most are copyrighted 1950.

For more information about Pollock's painting process, here is a great article from ArtNews from 1951.

Photos by me; Pollock photos from various sources, all courtesy of the Hans Namuth Estate.

TBT: Morris Louis

I spent last weekend in Washington, DC, and visited the Hirshhorn Museum and the Phillips Collection, which both reminded me of my love for the work of Morris Louis.  The most well known Washington area Abstract Epressionist, Louis' Color Field work has always been very soothing to me.  See my post from 2011 here, wearing one of my favorite dresses (that needs to come back into rotation for spring).

ART TO WEAR: Lichtenstein Brushstroke.

Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstroke, 1965
Screenprint on paper

Pop Art looks out into the world.  It doesn't look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.  --Roy Lichtenstein

Feeling gestural?  I found the perfect frock to show your love of Pop's nod to Abstract Expressionism, Roy Lichtenstein's Brushstroke at the Tate. Pair with boots and a tear in the corner of your eye, and you, too, will look like the thing itself.

Paint Strokes Black Dress, $72 at Pixie Market

EVERYBODYWILLBEDANCINGIFWE'REDOINGITRIGHT

Welcome to the most overwhelmingly colorful site-specific installation, created by Brooklyn-based artists Markus Linnenbrink at Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe in Chelsea.

I could hardly contain my excitement upon entering the room, entirely covered in colorful stripes from floor to ceiling.  Much of Markus' work deals with the way colors pile and spill onto one another, and his epoxy resin pieces are beautifully complex.  The full exhibition, entitled Everybodywillbedancingifwe'redoingitright (love the Daftpunk reference) is on view until October 4. 

Blouse and skirt: Pleats Please Issey Miyake

Shoes: Rachel Comey

Purse: Cynthia Rowley

Photos by Kathy Paciello. 

GRAPE ESCAPE

Last weekend, I trekked to Long Island for my first long-awaited experience of the wine country just outside New York City.  The lushness of the grounds and juiciness of the ripe grapes inspired this outfit, along with the highly saturated work of Marylyn Dintenfass.

"Dintenfass uses luscious colors, repetitive forms, and a gestural intensity that combines Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art." --Meredith Mendelsohn

Dintenfass (b. 1943) is known for her oil paintings and prints featuring sensual, gestural abstractions in "ripe, radiant, saturated hues".  Originally from Brooklyn, Dintenfass made the trek to Long Island just like I did, and I can't help but wonder whether the colors and forms of the wine country inspired her work.

Jacket: Diane von Furstenberg

Dress: Suno

Sunglasses: Suno

Boots: Frye

Dintenfass images from rauschenberggallery.com, artinfo.com, driscollbabcock.com, artslant.com, mutantspace.com.  Photos of me by Meri Feir.