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December 13, 2004
Wearing my artistic side on my sleeve
So I have a few new hobbies. Is this due to my recent surplus of time?
Nonetheless, in addition to knitting I've taken to painting. Specifically I like painting t-shirts.
The only reason that I can offer for my love of painting shirts is that I do enjoy creating clothing and that I like art that is wearable more than I like art that hangs on a wall or sits on a coffee table. This is useful art, speaking art, and evidently it's just the kind of art that I love : )
I brainstorm ideas for clothing all of the time. Slicing up jeans, chopping sweaters, threading ribbon, ripping t-shirts, piecing foreign clothing chunks together for something entirely new. (I often get bored with my wardrobe, if no one guessed.) I write all my ideas, and try to sketch them the best I can translate from my multi-tasking, worry-warrior mind, into a notebook that is quickly becoming my personal fashion journal. New things all of the time... (and I'm really flabbergasted when I think of something--and never speak of it!--and it shows up on Cosmo or Elle a week or so later... *argh*) maybe I wish I had a minor in fashion design?
Anyway, I started raw with a plain white t-shirt and I used a paper stencil that I cut out from a particularly creative day. I only own red, yellow, blue, white, and black fabric paint because anything else seems entirely superfluous (unless I become interested in fluorescents or metallic tones... we'll see). My collection of brushes is growing in number, and I don't just use brushes anymore, either... clothespins, toothpicks, foil, a comb, an eraser... So my first t-shirt creation is a mere mock-up of angel wings, complete with pastel colors and custom designed patterns of stars on the front because I thought it looked bare.
And my second design? Well, I have a thing for art... always have. I have a blossoming collection of books on Monet, VanGogh, Manet, Rousseau--mostly French artists, probably because that's what I have been exposed to for many years. It was a difficult decision, but I chose to replicate Monet's "Waterlillies" (this an actual piece from the large-scale "Grande Decorations," also known as "Nympheas" (water lilies en Francais), with each canvas 14 feet in length. That is said to be the culminating piece of Monet's career, which he worked on till his death in 1926 [Monet and Modernism]).
Well, I started it last Wednesday and finished it on Friday... hardly a decade of work like Monet, but mine is much smaller scale. And I can wear it! Maybe when I get access to a digital camera again I'll post a picture. (*ahem* Amanda, could I have mine back s'il vous plait? : )
Posted by KarissaKilgore at December 13, 2004 10:18 PM
Comments
Karissa, you never cease to amaze me... Just when I discover a hidden talent of yours (knitting), another one pops up (painting). You'll have to show me the painting when it's done (I love Impressionism).
Posted by: Evan at December 15, 2004 9:22 PM
Oh, it's done, Evan. I wore it on Monday :-) And maybe when I get bold enough, I'll try something of VanGogh's--his brushstrokes are a bit more complicated and longer, meaning that they're tougher to duplicate... but I'll be up to the challenge!
Posted by: Karissa at December 16, 2004 9:34 AM