Details: Let's Play What If....

What if shoes were soled with fur?
Then you would walk softly...

What if collars were lined in maps?
Then the world might know your pulse.

What if corset stays were made of feathers instead of bone?

What if quilting was done with glass rods?
What if I stitched fortune cookie fortunes into pocket tops, collars, cuffs?

What if I wore a picture of my love on my sleeve?
What if thread was elastic?
What if clothes were higher than our heads, wider than our shoulders,
longer than our hands....etc.
What if clothes were only for comfort and not for beauty?
What if a shirt told you exactly what I was thinking?
What if pants truly fit?
What if socks were the gaudiest thing I wore?
What if the reason for wearing clothes was to make the most noise?

More to come....

Details: Idea flows

I've begun a canvas by using Golden Matte Medium to essentially laminate linen canvas to my canvas. It was a canvas that had another idea start on it, one that didn't take. That happens a bit. Oh well! It gave me an interesting surface, with some scattered bumps on it.

Now while it's drying, I want to get an idea flow started. I begin with my inspiration, and dump ideas on it. What can I do with this, how far can I push it? What is the nature of the materials--what can they do and what can't they do? Do I want to use materials other than the traditional fabrics to see what will happen? This is a non-judgmental moment. I don't care if it's been done before, I don't care if it's a stupid idea...it's my process and nobody has done my process before in this present time...they are not me, now. Judgment and editing comes later.

Stays, boning--very interesting to me
edgings
lacing
buttonholes
buttons
hooks, loops, eyes
collar
slashing
cording
quilting
pleats, gathers
pockets
applied decorations.
shoes
sheers
leathers
silk
linen
grosgrain
linen thread
silk thread
silver/gold bullion trim
cotton net


good design
colors--all whites? not sure--like contrast too

Hawaiian shirts and other prints excavated
no people
Just details

like museum display?
Like Audubon drawings but clothes not birds?

set limits
materials
colors

not a fabric experiment, but an art experiment.

nothing to wear.

Shapes,
different size canvasses.
most small--it's details!

I love 12x12
I wonder if the wood ones will work best. check cost

Fabric canvasses will allow me to sew.

Sew before it's assembled? or after--depends on detail

Details:
1. back of stays with tabs
2. buttonhole ground -- useless buttonholes and buttons
3. grosgrain ribbon edges--what's inside?
4. lacing (cris-cross)
5. leather vest manikin
6. sheer pleating
7. linen collars.
8. silk roses.
9. straps with hook and eye closures.
10. Shoe buckle on sheer -- sheer shoes. Incongruity
11. sheer stays--sheer bra
12. velvet ruffle

There's a few ideas. More are allowed!

Lynette Hensley, The Flying Redhead

Details: To Begin a Project Series with Witnesses

I think I'll call it Details, at least as a working title. And the first challenge always, is to simply begin. I have this sign on my office/studio wall: There is always now. Simply begin while you still can. I don't know who said it, it might have even been me.

So we begin. I say "we" because I've offered this up to witnesses. The rules of engagement, should you choose to be witnesses, are these: Offer encouragement, support, and positive feedback, or simply be a witness, silently. I will not take in suggestions for what direction to go, or any negative feedback whatsoever. This is not a critique opportunity. There may be a critique opportunity later--we'll see how the project goes. While this is not the only way I create art work, I've found that having witnesses can add some spark to my work--movement and impetus, some accountability, and as long as I can remain within myself for ideas and direction, the learning that I do in the process is quite valuable.

I often start with books. Ideas come from everywhere of course, but books are not fleeting and so can be used as reference material.

I've gathered materials. The ideas that I have now are that I'd like to do a project with fabrics, and details of historical fashion. I was inspired by the book, Historical Fashion in Detail.

Come along with me? I will go at my own speed--I've done this once before, and really enjoyed the process and the result, and learned mucho!

Feel free to comment on the blog posts, and the pictures along the way, within the parameters of being a witness.

Thanks--talk soon!

Lynette, The Flying Redhead

The Book Borrowers, Exhibited at Bellevue Arts Museum

Call me a snob, I don't care--I love art museums. The curators get to choose the finest, most intriguing work, and they've done it again at the Bellevue Arts Museum. I've been wanting to see this one for a while. As one of the early "Altered Book" artists back in the 90's, this was intriguing to me.

Link to Book Borrowers Page

Larry and I talked it over after seeing the work, and we liked most of, but not all the same things. Something called a book excavation was interesting to me, related to, but a few steps beyond the well known book The Humument by Tom Phillips. It appears that the artist would take a book, (or three copies of the same book in one case), with illustrations, and page through the book, choosing which illustrations to retain and cut out around and feature, in one case, animals. Leaving words that relate to the pictures, the animal pictures are left in situ on the page, and most of the rest of the page is cut away. Page by page the artist goes through the book, excavating out the excess and leaving a sculptural collection of animals. Ah shoot--just go see it!

There were also stacks of books that had been sandblasted into various shapes, cutwork, altered, revised, upended, rolled into log like shapes that looked like a slice from a tree, book covers turned into lace paper, inked, and books that were merely the background for some fascinating machine puppet animal skeletons made from wire and string. Fascinating.

Lynette, the Flying Redhead.

Judy Hill at Bellevue Arts Museum

Judy Hill at the Bellevue Arts Museum

I was charmed by the vulnerability of these figures in glass and raku ceramics. I have no idea how she put these together, but as a person who has studied characters and really appreciates how clothing speaks about a person, this was a collection that awed me. Apparently these figures are autobiographical. For me it would take some time to figure out all that was being said by these rather blank faced, somewhat similarly posed people.

The docent and I had a conversation about it, and she pointed out that there was one male character, a baby, which seemed slightly bigger than the female adults. Interesting to find out that the artist had a male employer that treated her poorly for some time, and that was referenced by the collectors of these works.

Also interesting to note that the whole exhibit is the collection of one couple. Wouldn't it be nice to have such a patron? But more than that, to have someone who understands the work, encourages this expression, and appreciates the autobiography in visual form.

Larry and I went to see another exhibit, the reason we visited the museum, and I came away really glad we went while both were up.

Lynette, the Flying Redhead

Digital Collage -- Queen Elizabeth Smokes!

There was this picture with smoke and bubbles...and I tell ya, Queen Elizabeth just BELONGED there...if you know what I mean.

Digital Collage
By Lynette

Lynette Hensley
IS the Flying Redhead.

The Flying Redhead

I'm not the first Flying Redhead!

She's much braver than I--she actually flies!

Smilin atcha...
Lynette

Word of the Year - Anthropomorphic

What a wierd word to choose! But here it is. Anthropomorphic. Morphing inanimate objects, or non human creatures, into human-like creatures. I thought it might be fun to spend some time this year thinking about how we animate objects or humanize non human creatures. My cat will look at me, and I'll assume I know what she's thinking, when, how can I know??? She's thinking cat thoughts. But if I looked at me like that, this is what I'd be thinking... you know? I mean sometimes it's obvious... I want food, I want out, but then sometimes we'll attibute human emotions to them, and it may not be true at all.

The other thing I like to think about is how to make inanimate objects into characters, but perhaps not like cartoons. I sometimes tend toward the cartoon, and I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but I'd like to try some noncartoony anthropomorphism this year.

Talk to you soon.

Lynette

Artists Connect in Edmonds

I had the privilege, maybe the foresight, a few years ago to make the acquaintance of a small number of artists when a call went out in Edmonds to begin a new group sponsored by the Edmonds Art Festival Foundation. That group has grown from about 15 to over 100 members, and is quite active in the South Snohomish County area, specifically in Edmonds.

It's all about connecting with other artists. Programs include marketing tips, process discussion panels, expert guest speakers, friendly critique, and much more. The group also produces a show 2 times a year at the ArtWorks building, coinciding with the Edmonds ArtWalk.

More info here: Artists Connect

Lynette Hensley--The Flying Redhead herself