Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Back to the Drawing Board- in a good way!



My old and beloved copy



I was going to burble on about inspiration and education and my heros of the art world. Instead I'm going to just give you two links to two things. 

One is David Jones' Sketching The Portrait in Oils class that I started last week and I have already learned a whole new way of drawing. I thought I was pretty good at it but David is a master, and he's really young. He's teaching this old dog some much needed new tricks (I have got lazy in my drawing approach). I have fallen in love with drawing again after one class. My pencil and sketch diary are my constant companions!

The other is this- and I am VERY excited. The IllustrationMaster Class in Amherst, near Boston. Children's book writer and illustrator and long time buddy, Ruth Paul went this year and I was inordinately jealous. But it's her turn for green eyes now, because I have signed up for 2014 and she's too snowed under with book deadlines to go ( a nice problem to have!). But even more exciting is that the Brian Froud will be there- the illustrator of the first book I bought when I was a design student that impressed me more than anything I'd seen since I was 6 and received RieCramer's 'The Silver Thimble Story Book'. Brian and Wendy are running a special focus on illustration and I'm doing it! I'll be taking my battered and loved old copy of The Land of Froud, my paints and brushes and a sponge; my grey matter.

I love learning and most particularly when it concerns what I love most- creativity. And when I come back from it, I'll share. To 2014- a year of magic :)






Thursday, October 17, 2013

Bizarre Bras and Blogs




Gosh, I feel like I need to revamp my site here- it's a bit old hat and I need to start devoting a whole special section to workshops and public speaking- lordy I love a micrphone! But I like my wee blog as well- so maybe I'll venture into Wordpress and redesign a few things so I can profile fun stuff like the Bizarre Bra workshop we had at The Roxy. I designed a template which my attendees cut out and taped together over bubbles and canapes and then created fabulous wonders with a whole bunch of materials I bought along.

I really love getting together with people, having fun and making things. There is much pleasure to be had from the tactile world- the very act of putting two materials side by side then sewing, glueing, cable tieing or riveting them together is creation. It is fundamental to our very being. No wonder we enjoy it so. It's what people are designed to do :)


 





Monday, October 07, 2013

Post WOW






Well, WOW is over for another year and what a fine season it was! After last year's disappointment of not getting into show (lesson here: don't do something that is 'just a bra', do something that is THE bra), 2013 has turned up great times. Wearable Wonders has gone into reprint,  I did talks at Te Papa to school groups, a presentation to over 300 people at the Designer's Forum, a pre show dinner talk at Shed 5 for 90 corporate guests, a pre show showing of a private WOW commission for Finishing Touch made from their fabulous stationery products, the exhibition of some of my past garments at The Roxy Cinema, a Bizarre Bra workshop there and a charity auction of Vena Immaculata, my 2011 entry- which raised $1000 for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.

So I feel I have been given and given back. And with 'Angel's Trippy Trumpet' getting an honourable mention at the awards, I also received the completely stunning new WOW book. It is a must for anyone considering entering or simply to drool over. You get to see such glorious details- this really is a fabulous book. I'd love to see it and some of the garments at The V&A in London. They would fit right in and stand right out all at the same time.

So what now that this month of wearable art indulgence is over? Well, I was in the studio on Sunday with my $2 shop Barbie doll, spray painting her a particular colour for my 2014 creation... yes, I have been bitten early. I might also do another bra too. And in the meantime I'm working on an idea for Bling My Bra- there are talks of a catwalk and guest entries; I can't enter the competition myself because I'm a judge, but I do have some exciting materials to play with and I need to keep my hands busy, and this is a fabulous event in aid of The Breast Cancer Foundation and this year there will be a groovy band at the exhibition night. Interested? Consider it a prelude to the 2014 WOW Bizarre Bra section. Go on, you know you're busting to have a go!


This post is decicated to Joanne Cunningham, my good buddy and seeker of adventure at Wellington Polytechnic Design School back in the day. She passed away September 22nd 2013 from breast cancer. She was 54 and it was too soon.