Maltese Falcon

This handsome fella has recently learned how to sew (gifted teacher, at your service) and he has become quite adept at sewing masks already!  

We joined forces on this "Maltese Falcon" Wrestler's costume.  Fancy!

This is the other man in my life, scored at the flag store. (?)  

He will make mask making (and decorating!!!) so much easier.

More Reassurances

(more reassurances)

A little finder's keeper's art, for anyone who may need it.

you're not alone.

It's not your fault.

Wrestlemania

My first attempt at a Luchador mask

So, my fella has become involved in a retro wrestling league called Victory Commonwealth Wrestling, and he asked me if I would parlay my love of textiles, costumes, and general gaudiness into helping out with some of the costumes for the wrestlers.  I was all "did somebody say RETRO?"

We had a basic luchador mask for copying:

And then we basically went crazy making them.  They are made almost entirely of recycled clothing from Value Village.  There was a little bit of trial and error getting the pattern and templates right, but I am pretty pleased with what we ended up with.

The embellishment possibilities are endless.  

I am so pleased to add these masks to my repertoire!

Brides

Don't get me wrong, I love weddings, but...

I have, since my early twenties, been fascinated by the "Bride Culture" that has been growing in North America in the last 30 years or so.  The amazing lengths that women go to for the strange cultural ritual that A WEDDING has become is nothing short of staggering.  A good party is a good party, and I have no problem with that, but the marketing in Bridal magazines convinces women that opulence and obscure etiquette are required and expected, in the name of tradition, while they are just trying to sell you more crap.  (ps, most of these "traditions" were conceived during my lifetime.  Even engagement rings only go back about 60 years)

I often use women's magazines as resource material for my girly universe aesthetic, but I have realized that Bridal magazines and Bride culture are a universe of their own.  These little works are a study of the values of the Bride universe, a Pantheon of Goddesses, to represent the hyper-femininity, virginity, fertility, youth, fragility and helplessness (rescue me, my prince!) that is depicted and fetishized in Bridal magazines.

That, and I like to paint pretty dresses.

More Brides to come!

The Last of the Porno Portraits

I began a series of portraits of ladies from porn a few months ago (view here)

and I recently sold one to someone who also commissioned me to paint a matching one of his girlfriend as a gift for her.  For boob-related privacy issues, I will not post hers here, but  I was inspired to finish my little group of Mammary Deities.

Sassy Little Craft Show 2012

The Sassy Little Crafts Show

As usual; cozy, pretty, and full of great vendors!

We even managed some decent crowds despite the blizzard outside.

A visitor at my table: co-teacher and artsy co-llaborator Stuie!

Gingerbread Me!

We read several different versions of the fairy tale "The Gingerbread Boy" to work on doing some text to text connections/comparisons (sorry - teacher talk) so I used this old trick to make some Gingerbread dolls with the kids faces on them.  Gingerbread is perfect around the holidays because it can be festive without alienating anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas religiously (which is a good portion of my class).  We can also carry on the theme to decorate Gingerbread cookies, which is a perfect last-day-of-school-before-the-holidays activitiy.

I pre-cut the bodies from donated white t-shirt fabric, and in small groups (3/4 kids) I showed the children how to put gel medium on the heads and stick a photocopy of their face on, ink side down.  Convincing the children to glue their faces on ink-down was not easy.  They were like "Ms. R's gone crazy."

As the gel medium dries, it sucks the ink off the paper from the photocopy.

When it is completely dry (like, the next day) the kids used warm water to wet and gently rub away the paper from the photocopy.  The ink of the copied image (their face) is left behind in the gel medium.

Watered down acrylic paint to colour the fabric.

Permanent markers for details, and a whip around on Ms. Rowley's sewing machine.  We stuffed them with the foam from our rest-time mats that had gotten damaged or ripped.  Gingerbread me!