If Time Is Money, Then I'd Spend It All For You...

Experiments post! Yay!

And actually a couple of these I would consider finished pieces, but they are experimental in that they pushed me into using different materials (feathers!)or using materials I'm used to in a different orientation.

The Evolution of Dresses:

Or working with silk & tulle (to make a "presumed dress"), tulle and "feathered" and ironed wax paper, or plastic screen encircling photos of me as a child....

Based on the orange silk experiment, my next venture is this:

A (if all goes according to plan) 6 ft. wide silk drapery (the same orange color. It's so beautiful in the light!) with tulle details and wire armatures inside of it. It should be about 3 or 4 ft tall as well. It's going to take up my whole wall in the studio! I was going to work on it earlier this week (it was my spring break and I had so many plans!!), but for my 24th birthday the cosmos gave me Strep Throat. I went to the doctor on my birthday day and I think they gave me a free antibiotics shot - this is, afterall, the doctor that delivered me 24 years ago on this same day (he always calls me his "little stargazer" because I came into the world looking right up at him!) so I think he's a mite bias!

So, this weekend while doing my job in the studio as lab monitor, I will be working on this big silk project. And it's going to be great.

Yay!

In other smashing news -

In the last couple weeks I have been involved in starting up a National Organization for Women Chapter for Springfield, and a week ago I was honored to be unanimously voted President of said chapter. I hope I can make everyone proud, and keep up with my duties. I've got a spit-fire VP and a lovely 3rd officer working with me (not to mention our beautiful members) and I am excited for what we can do for the rights of women everywhere, especially Missouri women. Lord knows, our state has been a little wishywashy towards ladies the last two decades - let's see what we can do! For news and updates visit the NOW National Website, the MissouriNow website, or our fledgling Springfield Chapter Facebook Group.

If you're interested in joining, donating, helping out - click the contact link and send me an email! Equal Rights For Everyone!

Here's some music for you. This one's for my fella.

PS I'm feeling much better now (on the left, I had 102.6 fever and was on my way to the doctor)! XO.

White Blank Page.

AHHHHHHHHHHH. It's been a month since my last post. I know you all have been holding your breath, well here it is. A NEW POST.

So this last week, I had the pleasure/opportunity/joy of hanging a show at our local airport with two of my best friends; Carl & Ashley. Our professor (former professor for Carl & Ashley since those bums have since graduated) Sharon Harper asked us to hang work alongside hers at the Springfield Airport. You can see the show here (They've put my name as "Katie Platt" but eh I'm just happy to have work hanging there). I also find out this Wednesday if a couple pieces of mine were chosen to be in a show sponsored by the Kansas City Arts Coalition (KCAC), cross your fingers for me!!!

Excuse these photos, they were taken on my phone (we were so busy about hanging the work we all forgot our cameras. We are bums, I know.) - I plan to go back to the airport with a photographer friend sometime soon.....

Carl & Ashley were sweethearts and helped me (the novice) hang my work on the walls. They are super great. And their work is badass. Pictures don't do this show justice. Go see the show if you're near our airport anytime soon!!!

Jam for Your Week:




Ok, a post to follow soon with some more of my experiments and even some new work! I am currently preparing to make a fabric piece that will measure (if all goes according to plan) about 6 ft wide on the wall. Eek!!
XO.

You Left Some Stars In My Belly.

Hey all you crazy Star-crossed lovers!

Here are some artistic experiments I have created recently:

Plaster-Filled Black Velvet Dress. I am currently painting black house paint over the plaster spilled spots in the center. I think I might use this one for my Senior Show next semester...

I am going to lay it just like this in the show. It will just be more polished. I love that it looks like a dead mound of flesh in a fancy dress [click to enlarge].


Paper Dresses Galore!!


....office supply paper too.
Waitress checks, "Admit One" tickets, and carbon receipt paper....

I want to give the waitress check dress a large victorian bustle in the back - playing a little bit with the idea of "women in servitude." I've left it alone the last week thought because I was getting frustrated sewing the paper. Frustration while sewing delicate things is no good, it usually leads to tearing, slicing, and dicing. So I put it away for awhile so it'd be safe from The Monster (Me!).

From Dresses to Organic Paper Shapes:

Using ironed wax paper, old book pages, and sketchbook paper....

My printmaking professor just gave me a Bill O'Reilly book to use in these experiments. I must admit it will feel nice to tear the "bold fresh guy" a new one.

I'm really liking the concept of repetition right now. And cutting/sewing. Well, we all know how I feel about sewing already. It's my first love - after being silly of course!

My next piece/experiment involves a fancy dress bottom with a garbage bag stretched across for a top and then vice versa. I want to try to be subtly creepy (as with most of my work) with it.
Here's the sketchbook version [Right Side]:





Here's some tones for your lobes:


I am currently in love with Antony Hegarty from Antony & The Johnsons. As a transgendered person, he is completely androgynous in both voice and appearance. You can't be sure whether you are witnessing a person singing or some angelic event taking place.
Of course, that's not him in the above video, but here he is in a dress rehearsal for Marina Abramovic's newest performance "The Life & Death Of Marina Abramovic" at a festival in Manchester. [I do not own nor did I make this video, You can view that person's youtube channel here. I appreciate them putting the performance online though. I wish I could have been there to see it!]


I am off to make more organic paper objects and dresses. This is why it takes me forever to post things, but at least you will know that I deliver the goods when I do!

Oh and did I mention that my hair is blue right now? Because it is. It's blue. Yes. Yay. Hooray.
XO.

I Am My Mother's Only One/It's Enough...

Ok I know, I know it's been ages. But if you only knew the adventures/busy bee times I have been having! New Semester! Yay. Second-to-last, if I might nervously add.

I hope everyone's holidays were great! Mine were so lazy. I needed it. A little R&R craft-makin and movie watching with the mamabird.

So here's a summary of my work last semester [at least the work I consider finished and viewable]:

the 150 lb plaster sculpture. I loaded that bastard home all by my lonesome. I am a beast!! And just to help you imagine the size of the large sculpture, the smaller plaster piece underneath it is about a basketball and a half.





This is only the work from 2 of my classes last semester. We could compile every single piece I did, but let's face it - these are the best pieces; the ones I like the most and some of them will be in my show next semester. Mostly the last three.

This semester I am taking Sculpture II (Again! Yay!), Painting III (Again! Yay! And I'm actually painting again....bwhhattt!?), 399 Individual Instruction, and Printmaking II. I am totally learning how to screenprint and I'm really excited about it.

My newest challenge will be making new "clothes" pieces out of materials other than fabric. So far, I have the idea of using dried house paint (peeled and sewn together), polyurethane, latex, glaze, ticket stubs, waitress paper pads, etc. If I wanted to be cliche, I would make a dress out of tampons, but I just don't know if I feel cliche right now. Maybe old bike tire rubber? So many options. Basically, the challenge is to start developing an idea of why I'm using the materials I'm using. Before I was using fabric because I liked it, it was around, and it was free. Now I need to make the sculptures/forms go past just what they look like and also make sense to the entire piece by what they are made from. If you're feeling baffled by the explanation, don't worry Me Too. Bottom line: it's time to start experimenting again. Last time I experimented it was with flour and water, pantyhose, newspaper, cardboard, zippers, and anything with lots of fibers I could get my hands on.

I want my work to feel like how this song makes me feel. I've been posting this video on everything (Ashley & Andy, you guys created a Los Campesinos! Monster), but it's just so great. Honest and Dark. That's how I want to kick it this semester.

I just bought a can of paint, color called "country white." It made me think of cotillions and debutantes and all that stupid shit fancy mothers think their fancy daughters should do. All the more reason to make something offensive out of it.

Alright current semester. Let's do this.



XO.

2012

Ok. I know it's been fuckin' forever, but I decided to take the month of December off. I have been hanging around my house, watching weird films, sewing, teaching myself to knit, and crocheting. Sketching every day. It has been beautiful and I needed it. I worked really hard last semester, and in my next post I will reflect all the completed work I made. I have much to tell you: I raised my GPA, I finished the 150 lb sculpture, I fiddled with more clothes&wire sculptures.....it will be soon I promise!!

Anyways, every year for the New Year, I always predict how the new year's months will be by using my "iTunes DJ" to mix songs at random. So here is 2012 according to my iTunes [the songs are in order with the months.]:

This playlist is completely random, I did not mess with its integrity - I just pressed "Shuffle"

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

2012 is going to make 2011 look like a bitch!!

The first 3 things I did after midnight last night were:

1. Smell a bottle of mulling spices (I was drunk on mulled wine made by Andy & Ashley)

2. Dancing around the room with the wine- makers (See Above) to old Kylie Minogue videos via YouTube

3. Talking to Carl & Kathleen on the phone (while still dancing to Ms. Minogue)

We finished the night off by watching Freaks & Geeks. Yes, it's going to be a good year.

My resolutions include: trusting my art instincts more, pumping up the confidence, finish watching the top 50 most disturbing movies of all-time (my resolution from last year, 27 down 23 to go!), learn to play the bass, and sew 'til my heart's content.

So, Happy New Year Friends!! I love you all, even if you smell.

XO.

PS Check the new link at the top called "Sweet Yarn Anarchy" to see my etsy shop - crocheted hats all the time!!