Monday, January 9, 2023

Fashion Week Concludes: "perfectly imperfect creations"

glorious perfectly imperfect creations

An Instagram friend messaged me:

"It's thanks to you that I started posting imperfect and quickly taken snapshots and it has brought me a lot of joy.
I wish I could create something more 'epic' but I'm also glad I have been able to create at least something small now and then. I would have never 'dared' to have uploaded such unspectacular things but you have shown me that just showing up at all means a lot and you really don't need perfection to spread joy.
You're my idol in that regard. With all your glorious perfectly imperfect creations.
Thank you for your kind words. I love how you always point out the tiniest details in everything. It motivates me to keep going. "

Wow. Yes, just showing up at all means a lot. I am thrilled if I have in any way demonstrated that. Just slap something together! If I'd waited till I made something spectacular, I'd never have shared anything anywhere--and yet, some spectacular things arose because I was sharing stuff.

And that's why I love the Internet--it makes such sharing possible--not just easy, but possible in otherwise impossible situations. The friend who messaged me, for instance, is bed-bound with a chronic illness--without the Internet she'd be almost entirely isolated.

 Fashion

And here's the last perfectly imperfect creation of Fashion Week. Not that there won't be more remade fashions to come––I still have a bunch of big baby doll clothes (and I haven't sewed up the dress with the sideways bodice)––but the week itself has run its course.

Spike paraded the fifth and final outfit yesterday:

I didn't like the preponderance of brown in the dress, so I wasn't sure I could make a good outfit out of it. I decided to try highlighting the blue--and that worked. I like this ensemble a lot.
The headpiece is a little girl's hairband.
(Everything came from my workplace, of course.)

Yesterday I also made a collage for my 1994 Star Trek calendar,
using a nursery rhyme book Kirsten sent me (thanks, Kirsten!).
"The captain said, 'Quack, quack'" suits the always dignified and ridiculous Kirk.

 
I did not recreate a painting with toys this weekend as I'd said I would, though I had done the preliminaries for Lady with an Ermine. Linda Sue made a fabulous one! OMG, her sprightly brain--it's like a dandelion clock--she spreads inspiration: "Just crumple up some candy foil wrappers!"
Gloriously imperfect perfection.

But I think I may be done with the TRP project. Not sure...
I made nine in a row--nine artists, that is, but twenty-some recreations––maybe that's enough, for now. I'll wait until a painting calls, if one does.