New Stuff

This week I started working on new ideas. I completed one and added pictures here, but the other is in a weird stage in the process and just looks like a bunch of gesso'ed birch panels. So I am going to be sharing more on that piece next week. My experimentation has come down to adding paint, sculpture, and craft. I figure these are all things I like to do and they all work to convey the meaning I want so why not smash them all together. The only constraints I really have at this point are my physical ailments that slow me down so I am sticking to non-installation art for the time to save my sanity. The project below is the first thing I consider heading in a "solid" direction. It still alludes to the military ribbon, women and their involvement in the military, and restraint without being too forward...I think. Anyway, here are some pictures.

 Ok, so it's a belt that I crocheted from a belt pattern. I decorated it with flashy beads and sequins in the color and order of a National Defense Ribbon and secured it through the "belt buckle" opening. The belt buckle is an orchid...with a vagina as the center and opening. At the bottom of the belt is a good conduct ribbon that when fastened around the waist goes through the orchid to rest nicely over the vagina. I don't know how I want to display this yet. Maybe on a bust (need to figure out where to get one of those)? I think it loses a lot by just hanging. It really needs to be clasped to give the whole affect. Below are close ups of the closure and orchid...

This picture didn't turn out so well. The orchid has some yellow to it and there is more detail.

The other piece will be a floor piece with text elements, craft, found objects, paint, and sculpey. I'm really excited about moving forward with the piece, and I hope to have a lot more to show of it next week. In the meantime, I finished my necklace memorial boxes and here are a few shots of those: