(un)easily (Re)produced

This is the beginning of my first dress... which is composed of Black and White Photographic paper... it was important for me that the the photographic process was used... but more important that this mode of reproduction was manipulated in a way to showcase the hand made mark of the artist (which was done using developer and a paintbrush)... Im in interested in keeping the integrity of the artist... in that everything (the sewing and images) are all handmade .. with out a camera and without a sewing machine 

Wall of Skecthes

Sweet sketches, drawings, and predominately explorations with pastels, charcoal, water, and ink. Plus some sweet Baileys (creamy and beige), Bootsy Collins, old gregg and a funky ball of tits from outer space compliments of Kerri

Two Year Old Chemicals (hopefully will) WORK!!!!!!!!

Saturday! The first day of the first weekend and it proved to be the busiest day/ most productive day yet! After acquiring some unopened chemicals from a fellow Artist I decided that though they were two years old... and UNOPENED... they would have a better chance at working then the half empty chemicals that were previously in the lab... So after mixing... setting up... getting locked out of the lab (silly me forgot my keys)... getting back in... and doing lots of printing... the Developer, Stop, and Fix All appear to be working!!! ... though the ultimate test for these prints being archival will be if they do not turn purple by tomorrow!!!!

The Number 6... Algorithms... Life

In my mad pursuit of sketching, I realized that one of my "dress designs" was compartmentalized... and it was in 6 sections... It was so splendid to draw a connection of that unconscious employment of 6 compartments to Carbon whose atomic number is indeed 6!!! 

Carbon is the basis and backbone to ALL organic life... How great it was to think about a garment for life representing and talking about life... 

This unintentional discovery made me think back to what I had mentioned before concerning numbers... perhaps numbers ($$ amounts) could have some academic/intellectual resonance out side of a value scale... or maybe .... (for fashion) What if every price for something had to be a number that came from some sort of algorithm... or its numerology had to have some basis in whatever the garment was trying to communicate about the individual... or perhaps ... (for Art) the construction of it was based around an algorithm... 

And then it hit me.... tHE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE!!!! ... i have become mildly obsessed with this beautiful spiral  (perhaps robert smithson was too!) and sequence of number (And Mario Merz as well!!! )... So i started to write it out ... but without numbers....

I

I

II

III

IIIII

IIIIIIII

etc...

hmmm                    ......                                  ......

...looks kind of like a figure wearing a voluminous dress

 (lucky for me dresses/skirts with a lot of volume are 'in style' this spring/summer)

ontology, history: hand-crafted

I have always been interested in Ontology - what is real and what constitutes a reality and if it is someones' and not anothers' then in a sense it is contrived, so is it truly real; what it means to have existence, and the state of being etc. 

History ... Completely contrived... based on events and mostly from the white man's perspective... 

So, for those like myself, that are studying, memorizing, and regurgitating some sort of history (art for me) well then they are just perpetuating a facade, a contrived past existence or state of being. For example when i have a conversation with someone i am taking in (consciously and unconsciously) certain details while the other individual is doing the same. let just say, we both write down our individual accounts, which would ultimately be our reality of the situation. Totally different, they will be. So which is real, well can something be real if it is refuted? Well in science it is, if you can prove a hypothesis wrong then your assumption is invalid. 

Acceptance... our society accepts these truths as each and everyones reality...  i say, question your answers... or theirs

So.. to get to the point of this all, In looking at a timeline of fashion and comparing it to my previous knowledge of art history.. on first inspection i was interested in how 'styles/trends' are demarcated by numbers... years.. but mostly numbers.. the 50s 60s etc. and with art it is those avant garde -isms, words, letters etc. 

Interestingly so... Fashion... an industry powered by commerce and consumerism ($$).. knows nothing but the universal number system... 

Art... i believe should maintain a certain level of integrity... yet as we get closer to this day and age i see those -isms dying down and and art being referred to its decade... have we moved from the age of concept, ideaology, and MOSTLY communication! (bc as visully artists I use my art to talk to others/ communicate/ and instill ideas and thoughts in the viewer).. how can one communicate a feeling emotion or idea through numbers? (im sure there is a way.. .numerology.. but for all intents and purposes I am going to be looking at numbers with in the universal knowledge of each).... 

So as i previously stated in another entry, what i think interests me the most, is this idea of the 'hand-made' or 'hand-crafted'... and not only are the products (art works and clothing) hand made but the history is as well... hand crafted by the writers of the cannon -they chose what to include and to exclude... (maybe, in a duchampian way of thinking, historians are artists as well, they made the final decision, and because they chose to include or exclude it gives them full artistic rights over that history) ...

Both industries are shaped by the people in them... if we have ex stock-brokers (no names mentioned... : cough: koons) creating art then their interest will lie in the numbers... and it will be carried over... clearly.... 

So perhaps im really interested in the idea of 'hand-crafted' 'hand-contrived' all encompassing... and for me the only way to say that ... is to do it!!!! I can't keep telling you... so ... im an artist.... I will SHOW you!

Language...!!!

Emerging Thought Process:

 Language (semiotics?) has also been extremely important in regards to my search, i found it interesting how the word 'trend' is only used in the 'art world' when it comes to the market (changes in buying/ selling/ as a comodity) where as style has been reserved for the aesthetics (movement/avant garde / established way of making a mark)... trend in the art aesthetics seems to be tabooo; interestingly so trend is used for the changing 'looks' (hot new items/latest garb and accesories/ patterns, colors,cuts etc) used freely and coinciding with established styles in fashion.

Haute Couture Meets Fine Art

Currently I am in Delaware working on research. The concept is loosely based around conflating the art and fashion industries in an attempt to collapse medium specificity within an artistic practice. 

My first step has been researching what entails haute couture fashion and the latest trends/styles in fashion for spring/summer 2008. In the process I have also been referencing a how to draw for fashion book, in which have done several practice sketches of the 9 headed.

croquis

I have also been in a mad pursuit of obtaining keys for a working space. In which i spent a bulk of last night trying to clean up the printmaking darkroom, as well as discovering that the chemicals in that space were last used in 2006!!! I am a bit unsure as to whether I want to open and/or use them!!!