MOTHER | DAUGHTER

When I started Artfully Awear six years ago, I had recently lost my mother to cancer.  Her creativity was my biggest inspiration, and dressing up like artwork became a means of recording her influence in my life; a project that helped me to channel my grief into colorful expression.

Yesterday, I received an email from Rina Flatau, a follower I've never met, who wanted to share some photos of her daughter Abby and her friend that were inspired by Artfully Awear.  In the photos, Abby is dressed beautifully in vintage dresses matching the artwork in their local museum, perfectly encapsulating the message of AA: to either be a work of art or dress like one.  When I saw the photos inspired by my six-year project, I realized that Artfully Awear has come full circle: from my mother teaching me about creative expression, to my endeavor to keep that inspiration alive through my blog, to this poignant record of another mother-daughter collaboration that exquisitely captures the brilliance of dressing like a work of art.

I'm eternally grateful to my mother for nurturing my creativity and teaching me about inspiration through art, and I couldn't be more fulfilled to know that her masterpiece lives on not only in me, but now also in others.

Thank you to Rina Flatau for sharing these photos and for her daughter Abby Flatau for modeling.

Photos by Rina Flatau at the Everson Museum of Art.  Artwork by Morris Louis, William T. Williams, Helen Frankenthaler, and Robert Motherwell.

ART BASEL RECAP: It Was All Yellow

I'm just coming down from the art high of my first visit to Art Basel in Switzerland.  The largest and most well-known art fair in the world happens in the tiny town of Basel, on the German and French border each June.  According to FitBit, I spent 7 hours walking through 7 miles of art in one day.  There was such a wide range of artwork, and so much to see, that I'm sure my expression resembled the above photo more often than I'd like to admit.  A theme throughout was the color yellow, and there are just a few of my favorites, above, with links below.

SOTO | Imi Knoebel | Matt Connors | Keith Haring

Dress: H&M

Necklace: Kayellepea

Shoes: Kenzo

Photos by John Peter William Sealy.

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).

RECAP: Favorite Colors of 2013

What a year it's been for Artfully Awear!  In a mood of reflection, I've decided to recap some of my favorite moments of the year.  In April, I launched a project with Pantone, in which I created artwork-inspired outfits centered around their forecasted palette of fashion colors.  My favorites were as follows:

1.  Green Glow

I used the work of Tauba Auerbach and a gorgeous Oscar de la Renta dress to draw correlations with the bright, springy green hue.  Coincidentally, my favorite dress of the year is my favorite color of the year!  View my original post here.

2.  Grenadine

With this hot, bright color, I was inspired by Jason Martin's paintings.  See the post here.

3.  Emerald

Pantone's Color of the Year was also one of my favorites, and it is found in the work of Helen Frankenthaler.  View more photos here.

4.  Magenta Purple

A rich, warm purple is showcased by a Nicole Miller gown and Morris Louis Color Field paintings.  See my post here.

Thank you for a great year!  

INSPIRATION: The Modern Woman.

I love this so much; all I want to do is wear an Op Art coat and stand near a Helen Frankenthaler painting.

From The New York Times' The Lively Morgue:

June 26, 1963: Reviving the American Indian art of painting on furs, the Fifth Avenue fur designer Jacques Kaplancommissioned five American artists to paint on his collection to be worn by “the modern woman.” Within two hours, the first coat — painted by Anuszkiewcz, with a geometric arrangement of black dots on white calfskin — was sold to Mrs. Harcourt Amory. Each design came as a complete surprise to Mr. Kaplan, as he allowed the artists “absolute freedom to do whatever they wanted.”

Photo: Mayer Liebowitz, The New York Times 

INSPIRATION: A Tribute to Rothko.

I love these beautifully simplified photographs by Eddy de Azevedo.

As a tribute to Mark Rothko, photographer Azevedo has captured everyday Color Field occurrences, and I've found these stacks of clothing particularly compelling.

See more images here.

View my Rothko post here.

ARTFULLY AWEAR + PANTONE: Emerald.

After a brief hiatus, I'm back with my latest Artfully Awear + Pantone post, featuring the Color of the Year: Emerald.

Emerald has always been one of my personal favorite colors, and is surprisingly flattering with almost any skin tone. The hue is also well represented in the work of Helen Frankenthaler.

Her oversized canvases, though seemingly abstract, were often inspired by landscapes, such as her most famous work, Mountains and Sea, which measures 7 feet by 10 feet.

One of the few female artists recognized alongside the group of second generation Abstract Expressionists, Frankenthaler (1928-2011) was a Color Field painter.

The thin veils of paint that make up her paintings are reminiscent of watercolors, even though they are actually oils. Her "soak stain" method of thinning oil paint and applying to unprimed canvas was adopted by other artists including Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.

Two of my favorite posts of all time are inspired by Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.

Color Field painting was different from Abstract Expressionism in its denial of emotional or mythical themes.

"You have to know how to use the accident, how to recognise it, how to control it, and ways to eliminate it so that the whole surface looks felt and born all at once". --Helen Frankenthaler

Dress: Nicole Miller Artelier (full length version here for $100!)

Shoes: Calvin Klein

Necklace: Anthropologie Chasca

[Photos by @kay_elle_pea; images from stylesight.com, newcriterion.com, justalittlegreen.tumblr.com, and accidental-brilliance.com.]

ARTFULLY AWEAR + PANTONE: Magenta Purple.

I'd like to present Magenta Purple, the first color in my Artfully Awear + Pantone series.

When I discovered this gown, featuring Magenta Purple at the yoke and gradually changing gradient, I could not overlook its relationship to the Color Field paintings of Morris Louis.

Louis (1912-1962) lived and worked for most of his career in Washington, DC, becoming central to the Washington Color Movement along with Kenneth Noland and others.

Louis is best known for his gorgeous unprimed canvases featuring specially formulated Magna Paint.

Two important series make up his artistic oeuvre, the Unfurleds and the Veil paintings, pictured here.  View my previous Morris Louis post here, from 2011.

In addition to the beautiful tissue-like quality of the layers of paint on Louis' umprimed surfaces, I've always been drawn to his use of color, and the way they interact on the canvas by overlapping and becoming more or less sheer.

Dress: Nicole Miller Evening Ombre Strapless Gown (on sale!)

Shoes: Badgley Mischka Ginnie

Beaded handbag: Vintage, thrifted

Necklace: So Good Jewelry in SoHo

Thank you to Pantone for sponsoring this post!

Photos by @kay_elle_pea

Images from phillipscollection.org, dfwarts2010.files.wordpress.com, faculty.etsu.edu, and guggenheim.org

MORRIS LOUIS

When I came across this dress earlier this season, I immediately recognized its affinity to Color Field painting.

Morris Louis (1912-1962) was the key proponent of the Washington Color School movement, a branch of mid-century Abstract Expressionism.

After experiencing the work of Helen Frankenthaler in New York, Louis embarked on his own exploration of color field painting in Washington, DC.

Louis, along with Kenneth Noland and others, established a school of painting which championed the broad expanse of color achieved by pouring thinned paint onto an unprimed canvas. [View my Noland post here.]

Louis worked with Magna paint, an oil-based acrylic, which was specially developed for him by paintmaker colleagues.

The work of the Washington Color School is characterized by all-over composition, and broad fields of transparent, dripped, organically-spreading paint.

The group of works shown here cover all or most of the canvas, in contrast with his well-known Unfurleds, which simplified what it meant for a painting to be complete.

The color veils of Louis's work speak to the underlying spirituality of painting as a process, and remove the hand of the painter from act of painting.

I'm wearing a silk dress by Presley Skye, vintage leather boots, and self-made earrings.

[Louis images from picasaweb.google.com, abstract-art.com, kimmco.typepad.com, and nycmagnet.wordpress.com, respectively.]