HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DALE CHIHULY!

"I never met a color I didn't like." 

With statements like that, of course I'm a fan of Dale Chihuly's work.  Today, on his 75th birthday, I'm revisiting my photos from last month's trip to Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle.

Chihuly is such a prolific artist and craftsman, and walking through CGG was like wandering through the mind of Chihuly himself - from things he collected (like Pendleton blankets) to hundreds of blown-glass beauties, to a magnificent greenhouse (another of his infatuations).  The experience truly made me appreciate his work in a new way.

Here's hoping that Chihuly will continue to be as prolific and will keep pushing the boundaries of what can be done with glass through his 75th year and beyond.

Happy birthday, Dale!

Photos by myself and William Sealy.

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.

DARK MATTER

dark matter noun ASTRONOMY 1.     (in some cosmological theories) nonluminous material that is postulated to exist in space and that could take any of several forms including weakly interacting particles ( cold dark matter ) or high-energy randomly moving particles created soon after the Big Bang ( hot dark matter ).

Dark Matter is the name of an exhibition of the work of Sarah Cain, which opens at Galerie Lelong in Chelsea today.  It also classifies her work in general: blurring the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and installation and including found objects as well as myriad methods of markmaking.

I really connected to this idea when I was creating my dress inspired by Cain’s work.  Inherent in the wearing of clothing inspired by art is the blurring of boundaries – is the clothing art?  Is the art clothing?  Part of the viewer’s experience with Cain’s installations is the feeling of becoming a part of the work, and that is exactly what I’m trying to achieve when I create a garment.  Cain’s 2,500 square foot floor painting gives you the chance to be one with the art.

Dark Matter is on view at Galerie Lelong (528 West 26^th Street in NYC) until October 15^th.

Photos by Danielle Wu (@Danie_Wu).

PORTUGAL

I returned last week from a vacation in Portugal, and I couldn’t get enough of the colorful azulejos that adorn the architecture throughout the country.  From the outside of a residential building in Lisbon to the interior of a tiny chapel in the Algarve, the colorful painted tiles and their geometric patterns were my favorite part of Portugal.

Some of my other favorites, below:

Museum: Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon

Shop: Kozii, Tavira

Dinner: ATravessa, Lisbon

Church: Church of São Lourenço, Almancil

Souvenir: Tinned sardines and Castelbel soaps

Photos by William Sealy.

FRIENDS OF ARTFULLY AWEAR

Photo by @melimelonia, taken @FaenaArt

@alexgoffey with Cy Twombly at the Broad

@alexgoffey at the opening of MONA in Hobart, Australia

The one, the only @jeffrigram

One of my absolute favorite things in the world is receiving #artfullyawear photos from the community.

Here are a few recent additions to my collection, from friends far and wide.

Thank you for making my day!

CARRIE SCHMITT x ARTFULLY AWEAR

Is this not the most adorable art studio you've ever seen?!

One of the best parts of sharing your creative journey with the Internet is the inspirational people you find along the way.  When Carrie Schmitt messaged me on Instagram a few weeks ago, I immediately felt an affinity with her work and her mantra to "Surround yourself with beauty".  An artist and author who lives on a mossy hill just outside of Seattle, Carrie's love for art and color transcends every aspect of her life, even her yoga practice.  Going against everything they tell you about meeting people on the Internet, we decided to meet IRL while I was visiting Seattle over the weekend.

Carrie picked me up in the city and we drove out through many, many pine trees to her studio on a farm, which was the most picturesque location I could ever imagine.  She was working on two large-scale paintings (a new format for her), and I brought along my own canvas (a white romper) so we could create together.

Carrie walked me through her process of making a painting, including her approach and her favorite colors and brands of paints (she includes Prussian Blue in every painting!).  Happily chatting away, she painted the large canvases while I painted my garment, using her style and influence to capture the vibrancy of her works.

The more we talked and painted, the more I realized how much we had in common.  Even though we had extremely different life paths, we connected spiritually through our love for color and expressive artwork.

After my outfit was complete, we snapped some photos with her amazing paintings!

Thank you, Carrie, for such a unique and inspirational experience.  I can't wait to see you back on the West Coast very soon!

Photos by myself and Carrie Schmitt.

Romper from the Gap - purchased in store for $4.97!

 Shoes from J. Crew

REPRESENTATION MATTERS

"Without a doubt, if all black children were daily growing up in environments where they learned the importance of art and saw artists that were black, our collective black experience of art would be transformed." --bell hooks

I recently read an essay by bell hooks called "Art Is For Everybody"* which addresses the problem of black identification with art - why, in her words, "black folks have tended to see art as completely unimportant in the struggle for survival."  Shortly after reading the essay, I came across this photo in my Facebook newsfeed.  Never before have I seen one image which more embodies the importance of black representation in art.  My friend's daughter Elizabeth clearly saw something of herself in Mickalene Thomas' Three Graces: Les Trois Femmes Noires at the North Carolina Museum of Art, and this, folks, is how we solve the problem of black identification with the art establishment.

Cultural institutions, take note: representation matters.

Photo by Catherine Allison of her daughter Elizabeth (shared with her permission).

*I haven't been able to find the essay online, but you can read it in the book Drawing Us In: How We Experience Visual Art.