I dedicate my fantasy-based dessert-inspired collection to my late Nana the fabulous and multifaceted Miss Fern! A theater actor, playwright, oral storytelling traditionalist, seamstress, fashionista, and all-around gifted goddess!
My Nana took a keen interest in my early fashion illustrations that I was obsessed with producing in the third grade during lunch period. She bought me monthly subscriptions to W magazine from the age of 9 years old which continued until a couple of years after I graduated high school!
Through the years she allowed me to cut up her fashion magazines and helped me to collage my favorite designers and their seasonal collections incorporating my designs into the collages, creating mood boards for my themed collections. We used dried leaves, acorns, branches, or whatever we collected during our nature walks on the weekends. She helped my sister; my cousin and I re-imagine our collected treasure from the Earth’s cosmos into art to give to our mothers when she returned us home. She always provided an escape for her daughters by babysitting us three musketeers! I will never forget her buying me my first pair of heels at nine years old. “They were black vintage granny boots in a child’s size with enough height to make me feel like I had arrived. After putting them on, I was hooked, and my shoe closet today is proof indeed that I am my grandmother’s granddaughter! (Not to mention my busted back, feet, and ankles from traipsing all over Europe’s contemptuous cobblestone streets in platforms. All in the name of fashion! I say absolutely and do not regret earning my well-walked bunions! On my last visit with her before dementia took its toll she told me, “Look I can’t leave the house without my lipstick or my earrings,” and I eagerly rushed to help her define her lips applying her prettiest shade of Mac color onto her perfect sweet little ribbon thin mouth that hadn’t seemed to age much well into her seventies. We were heading to the charity shop in downtown Cleveland to buy baby clothes for her to customize for her little Schnauzer puppy. She even took apart her treasured mink stole and sewed an immaculate luxury fur collar for her dog baby lined with chocolate satin and a brown velvet ribbon to boot with matching wee fur booties. And I am certain her sight was poor at that time as well. She was something else!
This collection is also a tribute to my beautiful momma, Marsha the Piscean mermaid, who has been a constant source of inspiration for my creativity through her presence, which has been felt more keenly as I evolve and mature despite her passing on in my young adulthood, she continues to thrive and shine through her brilliant legacy of creative principles she instilled in me, my sister, her students and those fortunate to encounter her brilliance.
My mother adhered to a strict set of creative guidelines and prioritized integrity more than anything else in both her life and art. Her strong philosophy of art and its purpose was meant to go beyond beauty or function but, must ultimately be a means to effectively articulate and breathe life into the ideas of the person gifted with the task of being the conduit or the interpreter of spiritual messages that were meant to inspire hope and bring about positive change for generations to come. These are heavy ideas for even the brightest and deepest minds to process but, she was an incredibly gifted teacher, and her expertise was in working with children and teenagers.
My mother never allowed us to copy references from magazine images or photography. She would ask her students, “What do you want to say?” And “How is reproducing someone else’s images original or creative?”
During my childhood, my mother encouraged my artistic abilities and diverse interests. She was mindful of my sensitive nature and always provided support in a considerate manner.She always asked my sister and me about what we dreamed of and bought us diaries and journals in which to express our ideas. My mom read aloud to my sister and me well into our late teens from young adult novels that our Nana consistently added to the collection of books. We would laugh and cry together sharing our deep empathy for the fictional protagonists.(Sometimes staying up way past our bedtime waking up running late for the city bus to take to school because we would not wait for the next night’s adventures revealed in the next chapters).
Our mom, who typically read medical and psychology textbooks, enjoyed young adult novels just as much as we did. Before I was born, my mother attended the University of Michigan with aspirations of becoming a medical doctor and medical illustrator.
I can remember scouring her bookshelves when I was 10 or 11 looking for something terrifyingly juicy to read from the likes of my Nana’s broad literary collection. Stephen King or John Saul but, I ended up bored after reading her copy of The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance! My mom remained inquisitive until the end, and she was radiantly beautiful. Her mind was even more brilliant, even when languishing. My most impressive memory of her is her dignity in her convictions and how she viewed the world through optimism and a creative lens until the very end, selflessly aiming to prepare my teenage sister and me for a life without her physical presence.
We always had clay around for as long as I can remember my mother sculpted classical figures and busts from clay marble and alabaster stone. I can even remember her digging up the earth in our yard for red clay when she could not afford supplies. She had sometimes encouraged me to eat a little because I was so iron deficient, she was very progressive indeed! I would have to say that I think that I’ve taken after my mom in that I’ve always felt more of an affinity to sculpture and approach most of my creative work from a sculptor’s perspective. In this line, there is a great deal of abstract storytelling in the foreground of the fairy-scape setting. All the props that support the actual fashion pieces exhibit the composition of the environment. The characters and fashion pieces that happen to reside in the fairy scene are just as or more important than the featured wearable art creations. Warning: Imagery may cause cupcake cravings or dizzy daydreams of decapitated doll heads kissing or killing.