What I drew today.

Sometimes I draw to express feelings but mainly I draw to remember. When you think of a song you like you write it down. Why wouldn't I do the same with fashion looks that come across my visual path. Here is one I saw today that I liked. Printed tank with a sweater and jean shorts along with a purse.

Been a while.

 Well its been a while  since I've posted and that is because I have been very very busy. School has kept me working on projects. I was in my first fashion show and that was pretty hectic and stressful but my girls looked fabulous in my designs. It was a really great experience to participate in the show. Here are a few of the photos.

CHICAGO!!!! PART THREE

 Another part of chicago was where I had to sketch anything I wanted to . What I did through out was mainly just try to see the outline of the design or try to record a memory of what stood out to me.

  This one is more of the art I saw in chicago things that really struck me as unforgettable.

As you can see some are architecture mini sketches while others seem to be the some artwork mini sketches. Through out the sketches provide me a reminder of how our memory can do this same process in our brains. 

This a mixture of art work and architectural mini sketches here I just wanted to remember  the direction of line and how your eyes follow it throughout the piece.

Well this concludes the school portion of the assignment in the next blog I will write about my time and experience with my family in Chicago.

CHICAGO!!!! PART TWO

And I'm back now the art museum was so big I didn't even get a chance to see all of it. We were required to find ten artist and do research on them so here are my ten.
1.Robert Mangold.
2. CHARLES RAY
3. PHILIP GUSTON
4. Richard Tuttle
5. Lee Bontecou
6. MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTC
7. Alighiero C. Boetti
8. Ed Paschke
9. Felix Gonsalez Torres
10. Ana Mendieta

Charles Ray is a Los Angeles based sculptor that is known for his strange enigmatic sculptures that draw the viewer's perceptual judgement into question. I couldn't find his own website but this one takes you to a site where they show several of his works. http://www.regenprojects.com/artists/charles-ray/ I chose to photograph one of his big works in the museum and present those in this blog you can visit the site posted to see more of his work.

 Now a little about this piece. His most work-intensive to date is the ten-year re-creation in Japanese cypress (Hinoki) of a fallen and rotting tree he had found in a meadow. With Hinoki (2007, Art Institute of Chicago), Ray had a mold made of a large rotting tree he found in California. He then hired a team of Japanese woodcarvers in Osaka to essentially re-carve the tree in Hinoki, a different wood than that of the original tree. In a forthcoming interview, Ray made it clear that the purpose of the piece was not to photorealistically carve an exact replica of the tree. He was so intrigued by this tree that he wanted to show what has happened to this fallen tree that he came across. He can be quoted “The tree had that beautiful interior that fallen logs have,” he says. “It happens when bugs eat out the hard wood, so you have this hollow thing. All I knew was that I wanted to carve that, I wanted them to have a sense of that interior [of the log] because it’s in there, even if normally it couldn’t be seen. So that was really important. And then I became involved with the outside as well…It mattered to me that somebody had looked at it, and I wanted to make it matter to you.”

 This was incredible yet so simple I was astonished that he could have so much passion for this project which he needed since it took ten years to complete.

The detail is so strong and the hollowness is amazing. The Guard told us that it is transported in big pieces.

 Philip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School, which included many of the Abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning. In the late 1960s Guston helped to lead a transition from Abstract expressionism to Neo-expressionism in painting, abandoning the so-called "pure abstraction" of abstract expressionism in favor of more cartoonish renderings of various personal symbols and objects. This is another artist that really stood out to me his work caught my eyes and I got a mixture of feelings and it was pretty cool.  This is something cool I found about him 
http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=2419

This picture stood out to me because at first I thought it was cute but then I realized what was really going on and it was brutal. Still this piece is interesting simple with a big story. Good narrative. 


Michelangelo Pistolettc was born in italy in 1933. His early work was an inquiry into self-portraiture character. In the two-year period 1961-1962 made the first Mirror Paintings, which directly include the viewer and real time in the work, and open up perspective, reversing the Renaissance perspective that had been closed by the twentieth-century avant-gardes. He was at the front of the forefront of the Arte Povera movement that emerged in Italy during the 1960s. Artist that associated with this group broke with traditional art practices in favor of using everyday materials and unconventional processes. 

 These just amazed me it was so elegant it almost felt so real. An alternate reality perhaps.

While at the museum I took some more photos that were really interesting so here are the few of the many. 

Untitled, 1960 Lee Bontecou steel, canvas, and copper wire. This has lovely movement its also very geometrical at points which make the piece more interesting. 

This was another untitled piece of gold beaded strings. Very simple yet very elegant. It was by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. 

This was also very interesting it was done in blue ball point pen. Pretty neat and time consuming I bet. This one was done by Alighiero e Boetti. Its blue ballpoint pen over graphite on white wove paper. 

The last three were just so eye popping because the colors were extremely vibrant. Such a nice piece to look at. These were done by Ed Paschke and they are very unique. 


Again we saw so much stuff it was really great to see the variety in artist everywhere. 

CHICAGO!!!! PART ONE

We had to go to chicago for my class STA 112 and I was particularly excited because I've only ever drove through down town chicago but never really got to experience it. Initially the city can be intimidating but really its just full of working people all trying to make a better life for themselves. We got dropped off at the Chicago Institute of art and then we were let loose on the city to explore. I went with the FDSA (fashion design student association) group to wandering the city for the day until I met up with my cousin later at night. I chose to stay the weekend with my cousin who lives on the outskirts of the city she lives in brookfield. We also went to a place in Pilsen which reminded me of "little mexico" and of course found great food and great times. We also found some galleries in the neighborhoods that were interesting. These artist lived there together it was like a co-op. Truly these artist live and breathed art in a raw form very inspiring I must. However lets get to the pictures and I will explain my day as I go. :)

As a group our first was waiting for the train to take it to wicker park we had an appointment a hat designer named Alma Wieser.

While waiting for the train I looked up and saw some dress forms in the window and I just got a happy feeling. It was very refreshing to see a studio like this right in the heart of downtown.

Even David Hasselhoff decided to make an appearance in the window!! If you can't see it take a closer look. Not sure how I spotted this but this also made me feel awesome!

Hello Wicker Park! Your pandas on the side of the street bring some color to and area where its just an underpass. Being a lover of street art this was just great!

This was the vintage street as some would say as you can see studios galore. Large Windows are great canvas' RIP MJ.

Again more studios up top and business on the bottom typical life of a wicker park resident.

You have to stop and get your picture in somewhere. The print on the window stood out to me would make a nice textile print. I believe this was a liquor store or bar...

And we made it to our first destination. Alma Wiser but she also has a gallery in her studio so stuff behind her isn't her art. This is stuff belongs to a Montgomery Berry Smith. very neat 3d stuff.

A mixture of different mediums and circles.

Lots of detail.

It actually lit up. Interesting Lamp shade with dreads=Awesomeness.

Repeated use of shapes and images.

Now we are finally to Alma Wieser she is a designer that is known for her hats. Her biggest and most known hat was the crab hat. Inspired by Schiaparelli's lobster dress, pictures will be shown later. Alma was very energetic takes ordinary items and manipulate them in order to create something new from old fashion. She also does this with vintage fashion.

Transforms the old with organic shapes and creates a new hat.

She also designs neck pieces, she makes these collages with children's blocks.

Hat headband pieces. Very neat.

More unique line movement.

Last but not least the FAMOUS Crab hat. Simple but genius very interesting piece.

Here is a side view.

I am always a fan of good looking Graffiti especially when it is encouraged on business. Instead of having them vandalize your building tell them you want their best and then you get magic.

This school has a mosaic on the brick which was so beautiful. There were also some pieces of mirrors and the light from the sun just made the picture shine very magically.

The first boutique I stopped in was greenheart it was an eco friendly fair trade store. Visit their website really neat stuff! http://www.greenheartshop.org/

Cow bone earrings amazing.

Notebooks made out of elephant poo! Whoa. all the way from Sri Lanka.

Newspapers and magazines.

Chocolate milk purse. yum.

I must say this bag is very impressive.

Our next meeting with the FDSA group was with Bonnie & Clydes Lifestyle fashion. Visit their website http://www.bonnieandclydes.com/store/ they take really high end fashion off the paris runway and sell it. It is displayed as art in a gallery. This place was very modern and dark it was kind of morbid in the right ways the clothes in the center of the room looked as if they were hanging on meet hooks and the walls where black and art was everywhere. The reason these pieces are so expensive is that they are truly works of art. The employees were very friendly and I appreciated listening to what they had to say.

This was a leather jacket that could be interchangeable it could also turn into a backpack pretty awesome and creative sewing all those different zippers and have them all still work no matter how you put the jacket together is really impressive the construction level of this jack is very strong.

Looks like a runway very cool store.

You will always find a spartan anywhere!!!!

RENEGADE HANDMADE is a unique one-stop shop for DIY goods, featuring the work of over 400 artists! Created as an extension of the Renegade Craft Fair, the store serves as a permanent location for people to buy and sell unique handmade items. You can visit there site to see all of the cool stuff they sell. http://www.renegadehandmade.com/

Everything in the store is hand made or recycled in one way or another. Its really exciting to see your child hood memories become something new so that you will be able

Another part of our trip was to visit some art outside and reflect on it.

The famous bean so many people from all over are here at this moment. Very interesting to see all of the different personalities.

Outdoor stage that really uses line to create visual pathways.

What is a reflection? The bean will show you.

yes thats me.

is she falling?? what is happening.

Makes for very interesting photos very unique.

Well this concludes Part One! As part of my trip we had to go see the CIA and learn about ten different artists please continue on to the next blog.