Wearable Art

When I was a portrait painter I was aware of how exclusive this art form of painting portraits was; usually commissioned by a family, of a family member and therefore not really available for viewing to others. When I turned to sculpting I wanted to create something that still retained that completely personal touch but was able to be appreciated by a much larger audience. Although I do create some stand alone sculptures, they still are something only appreciated in a home or office. So my solution was to incorporate sculpting into wearable art.

"Wearable art, also know as Artwear or "art to wear", refers to individually designed pieces of (usually) hand-made clothing or jewelry created as fine or expressive art. While the making of any article of clothing or other wearable object typically involves aesthetic considerations, the term wearable art implies that the work is intended to be accepted as a serious and unique artistic creation or statement. Pieces may be sold and/ or exhibited." ( wikipedia also see wikipedia art jewelry ).

I watch the Bravo series Project Runway and have noticed the use of wearable art not only in some of the fashion clothing designs, but also in the fashion accessories worn on the runway. I happen to love animals and thought how well some animal sculptural jewelry would work with some of the designs I saw. 

While researching some Wearable Art collections online I came across the astonishing fact that this is not a new concept (is anything?) and that many famous artists have created wearable art, usually in jewelry but sometimes collaborating with top designers like Chanel. I think that although I wasn't aware of this fact I still knew that this was a known concept, I mean, really, who can see the Art Deco period of design and not know that much of the work there was artist inspired?  And I guess we can take that one step further back and see that perhaps the first jewelry designs were created as art for adornment, and I know that during the Victorian period there were pendants with the eye of a secret person painted on lovely pendants. 

I was particularly excited to see that Salvador Dali had created Wearable Art jewelry! I don't know how this slipped under my radar, I've loved his paintings since I was a child. 

Anyways, this all opened my eyes to the exciting possibilities of (for me) a new art form. Once I had enough work to qualify as collections I joined 1000 Markets to open my own store and not only did I become part of a thriving artisan community, I also got to see some wonderfully talented artist design pieces of Wearable Art, not only in jewelry but exciting textile and woven creations too. 

This is such an exciting time for me...I have a forward path in my artwork that truly gets my creative juices running each morning and I am constantly inspired by the work of others. I truly look forward to the day that I go out to a mall or special event somewhere and have to stop strangers walking by to comment on the fabulous piece of art they are wearing...as someone who could spend forever in art galleries and museums, I just can't imagine the sensory pleasure of seeing a parade of art walk by in every day life...how cool would that be? 

Sue
http://www.1000markets.com/shops/ninedragons