Houston - The Projects

Hi!

It has been way too long since we have posted on here. Moving back to Texas has been even more of a challenge than we thought. We moved into our apartment on a Wednesday, and the follow Monday I started Fashion Design classes. It has been on hectic rush ever since with commuting, errands for the apartment and the classes, working on one of my many projects, visiting friends, seeing family, and more. We still haven;t worked out a great schedule yet to manage everything and still sleep and eat regularly, but hopefully we will soon. As for me and my classes, they are a surprise! A pleasant one in some ways as they are much more challenging and thought provoking than I thought they would be. Some are a waste of time, but I think that is required for any degree/school you attend. = )

The classes I really like this semester are Textiles, Art for Fashion, and Apparel Construction - all of which have on-going and time consuming projects. I just finished my first "little" project which required that I design a dress form from paper mache. We were then required to pick a prominent artist or designer and portray their philosophy or heart behind a certain piece of art they have created. I chose an early piece of Georgia O'Keeffe's art. The pictures are below. My inspiration for the base came from the way she chose things from her natural environment to paint, so I chose a piece of concrete with rebar sticking out as that is from my natural environment. I then have tulle coming from the base, out through the heart from inside of the form. This is to symbolise the intuition and soul she saw behind objects in nature (as well allude to her home at Ghost Ranch). The color shooting out from inside the form echoes the colors and forms of one of her early water colors of the prairie. I have also included Stieglitz, the man who first displayed her works in New York and later became her husband and lover. I have him behind the tulle as I have also included the Imagest poem In a Station of the Metro on the body of the dress form. I included that poetry, music, and other artists greatly influenced O'Keeffe, especially as she joined the inner circle around Stieglitz in New York. Imagest poetry was being written at the same time O'Keeffe started her career and shares a lot of the same qualities that she projects in her painting - get rid of any unnecessary fluff, get to the point, leave an image in the audience's eye, and then let them interpret the image for themselves. It is much more challenging and time-consuming than I ever imagined, but I am enjoying it as well.

We'll keep you updated on how the rest of this month goes!