The Art of a Woman

A few photos from the publicity stunt at Oasis Gallery in Harrisonburg Virginia:  Some of them are cell phone photos of really bad quality.  I should have more soon and will share when I can.

That's me.  My phrase was "She is... Changing with the Seasons."  I was wearing some quilter's batting to look like snow, a handful of tulips and mask style makeup that went from purple to blue to turquoise around my eyes.  Those photos came from my husband's cell phone.

The following three photos taken by Frank Doherty. 

Ashley with her lovely lashes and peacock feathers in her hair.  She and her friend were "birds of a feather"

Laura, "She is... as unique as a snowflake!"

This is Barbara, "She is... mysterious."  She's also really good at creating cool poses!

The following two photographs from Charles Garratt, photographer for the project. 

Jill, Ashley and Juliette

Three frames with three live models in the display window. 

Ashley, Juliette and Barbara

Ginger Ferrel did such a great job creating the "set" for us in the window!

These final photographs also from Frank Doherty.

This is the only shot I have so far of all four frames, this shows the whole display window and some of folks who came to watch from the sidewalk.  The gallery is on a corner with a stoplight, and so we had a captive audience each time the light turned red! 

This was all of us lined up before the first performance in the window.  This is us, a range of heights, sizes and ages.  Youngest 14, oldest 54 and all points in between.  You can see two of the tags that we used to explain the facet of being female that we were representing.  Most of the clothing are pieces I had dyed. 

I think this photo was taken of the group of us before the second show.  The photographer was standing on the stairs in the gallery.  This was a publicity stunt for the opening of a show called "Celebrating Womanhood."

I also have an art quilt on display in the show for the next two months.  It's titled "Feed the Glow" and I'll never forget how much creating this quilt enveloped me in the creative process.  For a few hours in a row I was able to shut out the big bad world and find a place that was creative and wonderful and very much my own.  I think this piece will always have a special place in my heart for that reason.  I've never created anything like it before or since. 

So here's to woman and our many facets, and here's to the creative process!

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Hangin up my Shoes!

I'm Exhibits Chair at a local gallery and we planned an exhibit of wearable art for Jan/Feb. This is what the area looked like for Christmas, that's my glazed glass in front on the pedestals.

And after a little rearranging, it's now an exhibit all kinds of things that one can wear. Somehow hanging those hand made shoes on the wall just got me tickled.

I've never hung shoes on the wall in a gallery before. I liked it. I'll do it again. I might even have to hang shoes on the wall in my home. I would do that. I really like where my shoes are now though.

It was a productive day, I moved things around and tweaked the displays until I had things looking good. I enjoy this kind of work, and it gets me out of the studio for a while here and there. There will be a monthly shift at our Co-op gallery now, so each month one of the two featured artist displays in the gallery changes. Sometimes it involves a fairly drastic change to the displays, sometimes it's no big deal. In retail, change is good.

I've got the itch to open a gallery of my own again. Of all the things I've ever done professionally, I loved that gig best of all. I'm giving it some thought. There are lots of details to sort out in this crazy life of mine right now, that one is on the list.

Here's to all of you who enjoy merchandising and display,
or buying art...
or sorting out details...
or hanging shoes on the wall...

Grace and Peace,
-Carmen Rose

Some thoughts on Inspiration and Creativity

I spent some time at Oasis today, it’s a local co-op gallery and I’m the Exhibit Chair. For the next two months we’ll be featuring a changing display of wearable art. And so I was there creating displays today. First order of business was removing the artwork in the gallery that belongs to artists who were only with us for the holidays.
Then I uncovered the area where our featured artist display goes and found room for the work of the four artists whose work had been there. (The photo shows the display that I dismantled, that's my glass in the photo.)  It’s a puzzle to create the displays in a gallery, many of those pieces could go in any number of locations. How to make them feel organized and yet organic to the clientele? That’s the challenge and the fun of it.

I moved lots of stock and gallery furniture, and then it was time to take a look at the exhibit area and begin the new display. I’ll tell ya, I was flummoxed. I had no sense of inspiration whatsoever, as Stuart, my sidekick-for-the-day can attest. I looked through the stock to find something that spoke to me. Most of the work was in colors that are very different from the ones I gravitate toward. But that’s just me, certainly our clientele reflects a wide range of taste and sensibility.

Finally, completely devoid of any feeling of inspiration, I put a scarf and matching purse on the wall. Then I added a few other things. Then the creative juices started to flow. And as I kept adding things, I’d step back and take a look at it, make adjustments and edit. I had all kinds of wearable artwork to chose from, hats, scarves, purses, wraps, shoes, all handmade, all one of a kind. Plus a range of styles, prices and colors. It took a while, but I kept adding items to the display. Each addition would suggest something else and on and on I went until most of the space was full. The original scarf/purse combination didn’t even stay in the display, but it had been enough to get the juices flowing. Funny how that goes sometimes.

Sometimes I think that artists wait on inspiration to get started. What most people mean when they use the word “inspiration” is some sort of emotional altered state. Perhaps a high moment or a lovely bit of angst will do. And as such “inspiration” may not be all that helpful to the process, it may actually cloud a person’s objectivity about their work. And those feelings of being inspired are a little like a cat (ahCHO0oo!! Pardon me!) illusive, unpredictable and maybe a little feisty. If one waits on inspiration, then doing the work of an artist becomes a bit like a freeway. There are on-ramps and off-ramps and a very defined area you can move in.  There are simply LOTS of places you can't get to on a freeway.  It's actually quite confining if you think about it.

Creativity is like a park. You can enter it from anywhere, anytime. And you can wander around in any direction and explore, either on the path or off. One can find things to look at, touch and smell. There are limitless possibilities. All you have to do is take the first step.  As you move those creative juices will begin to flow. You don't have to feel it for it to happen. Some things we take on faith.

Take another step into your creativity today.
Grace,
-Carmen Rose

Display and Dis Play

I’ve recently become Exhibit Chair at a local gallery. I create the displays and make sure the new work has a new home. (It has nothing to do with chairs – lol!) So I started working on the gallery ages ago doing planning but drove up yesterday to begin work on the more serious aspects of the transformation. I couldn’t finish the work yesterday so I had made the drive again today. And this afternoon at around four I finally had to quit because I had somewhere I had to be.

There are some forty artist’s work that I’m fitting into a modestly sized gallery in an old Art Nouveau building. I’ve only got a limited number of linear feet of wall space for wall stuff plus the 3D stuff that needs display fixtures and such. It’s a real juggling act and some people are supportive and (so far only one though when she speaks she says “we”) some are not. So I’m working hard at getting things put together in a way that works, trying to please people and hoping to be successful some of the time. Looks like I’ll need to go back for another day tomorrow because there is much to complete. The scale of the project is a little overwhelming, and so are some of the personalities.

This evening I went off to the theater. I’m one of three makeup artists working behind the scenes on a local production of Annie. We have a cast of 65, and all but one are between the ages of 3 and 20. I’m the one doing the bald cap for Daddy Warbucks and it is an adventure each evening. I’ve pinned more maid’s caps than I care to count as well as repeated makeup and hair changes between scenes. We’re taking people into full wig and makeup, and then back out again – all during the show. Many of them play a variety of roles, some even require aging for one scene and then going back to their youthful look in the next. It’s crazy back stage but it is fun.

This production is far more involved than the last one. I did makeup and hair for The Pajama Game (a cast of 26) and it was very straight forward. Once I finished the cast’s makeup and hair at the beginning, I could stay for the show or go home. Then I still had the evening to get some work done if I chose. In this case I’m working solid from around 4:30 until nearly 11:00. I put Ed into the bald gear, work through all the character changes and then take off the bald cap and clean him up at the end.

Theater and Gallery work are both excellent opportunities to express my creativity, so I'm enjoying it. It did make for a really long day.