The Butterfly

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly. Anonymous

Mixed Media artwork by Ingrid Mida, 2009

Taking Time to Reflect

But if you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you create yourself.
Carl Jung

I rarely have trouble expressing myself. Words usually spill out of my head faster than I can type or talk, but lately I've been craving quiet. Perhaps it is blog-fatigue, but the muse has left me.

I'll be taking a break from blogging for a few weeks - to rest and refresh my spirit. I hope to come back in two weeks full of passion and inspiration. Until then, my loyal friends and readers, adieu.

Desire

Just around the corner in every woman's mind - is a lovely dress, a wonderful suit, or entire costume which will make an enchanting new creature of her!
Wilhela Cushman

I want to be this enchanting creature from the cover of the Fall 2009 Holt Renfrew catalogue! Ooh la la! Just imagine wearing head to toe Alexander MacQueen....

Book Review: The Glassblower of Murano

I've been taking lounging about lately trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer and one of my favourite summer indulgences is reading historical fiction. I love to be transported to another place and time as I was in the novel The Glassblower of Murano.

In this fictional tale, Leonora Manin leaves her disasterous marriage in London behind to start over in the city of Venice as a glassblower. Leonora secures a job based on the fact that she is a descendant of Corradino Manin, a renowned glassblower of the 17th century. At that time in history, Venetian mirrors were more precious than gold and the secrets of their craft were jealously guarded by the murderous Council of Ten. Corradino risks all to achieve his freedom and sells his methods to Louis XIV to create the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. The two stories are interwoven to create a tale as enchanting as the city of Venice itself.

I've only been to Venice once, many years ago, and yet, this book made me feel like I'd recently visited the famed city. I was drawn into this well-crafted tale of intrigue and felt compelled to keep reading to find out what happened to Corradino and his descendants. As an artist, I appreciated the precise descriptions of glass-blowing, which sounds like both a difficult and dangerous art. The characters were well-rounded and the story believable. Almost as interesting were the after-notes including the author's own story of how she came to write this novel. If you didn't have the vacation that you hoped for this summer, pick up this book and you will feel like you've been to Venice.

Title: The Glassblower of Murano
Author: Marina Fiorato
Publisher: Beautiful Books Limited (UK) 2008
Category: Fiction
Price: US$13.95, Canada $17.95 (paperback)
Number of Pages: 348

More Schiaparelli!!!!

I just found out that the Art Gallery of Ontario has decided to extend the run of the Surreal Things show until September 13th, which means that there are a few more weeks to get my fill of Schiaparelli and all things surreal.

The more I read about Elsa Schiaparelli, the more intrigued I am. Not only did she incorporate new developments in technology like the zipper into her designs, she used art as her muse and created garments that have an element of wit and whimsy. This is something I greatly admire!

In the September 2009 issue of Harper's Bazaar, there is an article called "Schiaparelli: The Shocking Truth" by David Vincent. While I did not discover any shocking truths about this talented designer, I did learn a few curious facts including:
- Actress Marisa Berenson is the granddaughter of Schiaparelli
- The Schiaparelli brand was purchased by Diego Della Valle and will be relaunched in 2011 at the earliest.
- Aviator Amelia Earhart wore head to toe Schiaparelli.
If you are enchanted by Schiaparelli, you might want to pick up a copy of Harper's Bazaar and read more.

Schiaparelli and Surreal Things

If you are like me and swoon when you hear the name Schiaparelli, you must find you way to Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario and see the Surreal Things show before August 30, 2009.

This exhibition, which was curated by Ghislaine Wood of the Victoria and Albert Museum, surveys the contribution of surrealists to fashion, design, photography, advertising, architecture, and theatre.

From the moment I walked into the gallery and took in the display of the fantastical ballet costumes designed for Les Ballet Russes by Giorgio de Chirico in 1929, I was grinning from ear to ear. Why had no one mentioned that fashion, costumes and jewelery were an integral part of this world class exhibit? I'm sorry that I did not go sooner.

I was blown away to stand in front of the bird cage and wooden mannequin from Schiaparelli's Paris storefront as well as twelve of her couture designs, including the infamous Skeleton Dress which features padded quilting to emphasize the ribs and spine. I almost fainted when I noticed the delicate sketches by Salvador Dali for his collaboration with Schiaparelli for the Skeleton Dress and the Dress with Drawers.

Other highlights in the exhibition included the Horst photo called Girl with Mainbocher Corset (1939), and the Man Ray photo called Model in a Dominguez Wheelbarrow (1937) where the model wears a Vionnet evening gown.

There was no doubt in my mind after seeing this exhibition that the surrealists were well acquainted with glamour and fashion. I bought the book Surreal Things (cover shown below) and intend to read it carefully before going back for another look-see. There is also a video clip on the ago website with an introduction by the curator.

Join me if you can. You won't be disappointed! By the way, this exhibition originated at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2007 before travelling to the Museum Boijmans Van Reuningen in Rotterdam and the Guggenheim Museum in Bibao in 2008. Toronto is its final stop!


Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario
1-877-225-4246 or 416-979-6648

Three Square Feet of Art

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art. (Wilde)
Mixed media 12x12.
Copyright of Ingrid Mida 2009 (SOLD)


The truly fashionable are beyond fashion. (Beaton)
Mixed Media 12x12
copyright of Ingrid Mida, 2009


Carelessness in dressing is moral suicide. (Balzac)
Mixed Media 12x12
Copyright of Ingrid Mida, 2009 (SOLD)


In an effort to make something more than just three pretty pictures for the Square Foot Show at AWOL Gallery, I incorporated a witty quote about fashionable dress into my fashion plates. I had no idea that embroidering letters would be so time-consuming and so painstaking. (I ripped out stitches over and over and I still was not able to achieve the level of perfection that I had hoped for.) Nevertheless, I am pleased with the result as the quotes add a level of intellectual whimsy to the work. What do you think?

Square Foot Show at AWOL Gallery
101A Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Saturday, August 15 - September 6, 2009
416-535-5637

The Square Foot Show

One of Toronto's hottest art show opens in a week and I'm scrambling to have my submission of three artworks ready for tomorrow's deadline!!! (This is one of the reasons I've not been posting much lately).

All artworks in the show are 12"x12" and are priced at $200. The walls of the gallery are jam packed from floor to ceiling with art including drawings, paintings, mixed media, and photography. It is an art lovers paradise! Many of the artists typically sell their work for more making it a bargain to boot!

Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 15th when the gallery opens to the public. The show will be on until September 6th.

AWOL Gallery
100A Ossington Avenue, Second Floor
(1 block north of Queen Street West on the west side of Ossington)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out

Blossom Sleeve Bolero and Balloon Dress, Spring/summer 2005 by Isabel Toledo
Photo by Irving Solero

Half Moon Blossom into a Cornflower, Fall/Winter 1998 by Isabel Toledo
Photo by Irving Solero

The Fashion Institute of Technology is currently featuring a retrospective of the work of fashion designer Isabel Toledo (June 17-September 26, 2009). Curated by Valerie Steele, this exhibition called Fashion from the Inside Out includes 70 iconic looks from the mid 1980s to the present, including Michelle Obama's Inauguration Day Outfit.

Cuban-born designer Isabel Toledo works closely with her husband fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo and does not herself sketch. She says she is "not a fashion designer, but rather a seamstress" and construction and draping are the starting point in her designs. "I really love the technique of sewing more than anything else...the seamstress is the one who knows fashion from the inside! That's the art form really, not fashion design, but the technique of how it's done!"

The exhibition is organized into 7 sections including:
Organic Geometry
Shadow
Suspension
Liquid Architecture
Shape
Manipulated Surfaces
Origami

Admission is free to FIT but if you cannot make it to NYC, there is a comprehensive on-line exhibition.

Fashion Institute of Technology
Seventh Avenue at 27 Street
New York 1001

Book Review: History of Beauty

There is no singular definition of beauty. Through history, the concept of what is considered beautiful has evolved and that changing ideal has been documented by artists, poets and authors. In my quest to understand the concept of beauty, I read the book "History of Beauty" by Umberto Eco.

This monumental tome seeks to answer the questions: What is beauty? What is art? What is taste and fashion? Umberto Eco explores the changing concept of beauty in Western civilization from the ancient Greeks to the present time through extracts from literature, poetry and philosophy as well as paintings, sculptures and photographs.

The seventeen chapters documenting the history of beauty include:
1. The Aesthetic Ideal in Ancient Greece
2. Apollonian and Dionysiac
3. Beauty as Proportion and Harmony
4. Light and Color in the Middle Ages
5. The Beauty of Monsters
6. From the Pastourelle to the Donna Angelicata
7. Magic Beauty between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
8. Ladies and Heroes
9. From Grace to Disquieting Beauty
10. Reason and Beauty
11. The Sublime
12. Romantic Beauty
13. The Religion of Beauty
14. The New Object
15. The Beauty of Machines
16. From Abstract Forms to the Depths of Material
17. The Beauty and the Media

One of the most fascinating parts of the book are the comparative tables which visually illustrate and summarize how the concept of beauty has evolved through art over time. For example on the comparative table for "Clothed Venus", the ideal woman is presented from the seventh century BC in the form of a sculpture called Auxerre Kore (Musee de Louvre) and moves through each century to 1960 with Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita. Included on this table are some of my favourite artworks such as:
Raphael's La Donna Velata (1514, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti)
Francois Bouchers Madame de Pompadour (1756, Alte Pinakothek Museum)
Egon Schieles Seated Woman with Brent Knee, (1917, Narodni Galerie)

Other comparative tables include: Nude Venus, Nude Adonis, Clothed Adonis, Face and Hair of Venus, Face and Hair of Adonis, Madonna, Jesus, Kings, and Queens.

One of the most surprising things that I gleened from reading this book is that ugliness is a requirement for beauty. It is in fact the contrast between the two that allows us to recognize beauty. "William of Auvergne said that variety increases the Beauty of the universe, and thus even the things that strike us as unpleasant are necessary to the universal order, including monsters." (page 148)

This is a scholarly book that presents a comprehensive analysis of the ideals of beauty as presented through art and literature. Richly illustrated and written in elegant prose, it should be read by every serious student of art and fashion.


"A beautiful thing is something that would make us happy if it were ours, but remains beautiful even if it belongs to someone else." (page 10)

Title: History of Beauty
Edited by: Umberto Eco
Translated by: Alastair McEwen
Publisher: Rizzoli, New York (2004)
Category: Non-fiction, art
Number of Pages: 438

1966

Details of orange paper dress ensemble from 1966, copyright Ingrid Mida 2009
Mixed media (Paper, ribbon, thread)


Details from blue paper dress ensemble from 1966 copyright Ingrid Mida 2009
Mixed media (Paper, ribbon, thread)

Unlike the prevailing view in the contemporary art world, I believe that art does not need to be provocative or ugly to have meaning. Earlier this spring, I created an artwork (for a prestigious competition) in which I wrestled with my soul over whether or not I could produce shocking and ugly work. After many sleepless nights, beauty won out. I knew then that I would not be one of the chosen. I've tried to make peace with that and decided to share selections from that submission.

This is my artist statement from the work which is called "1966".

Our choice of clothing conveys unspoken messages about our self-image and our place in society. My artwork, which uses paper as a medium to represent the ephemeral nature of fashion trends, examines the meaning inherent in women's clothing.

With the birth of the feminist movement in the 1960s, women began to question their traditional roles as wives and mothers. Fashion mirrored the social and cultural upheaval of that decade and women were freed from the constraints of highly structured clothing.

In 1966, the year that the phrase "women's liberation" first appeared in print, the disposable paper dress was created as a marketing tool. These cheap and sexy dresses were an instant hit and symbolic of the new levels of liberty women were achieving in the workplace and at home. Bikinis, representative of new sexual freedoms, often came in ensembles with matching dress, hat, and shoes, and were sometimes even worn as bridal wear.

This work called "1966" celebrates a pivotal year in our recent history in which there was a convergence of the women's movement with fashion.

Exhibition Review: Judy Chicago in Thread

Although Judy Chicago cannot sew and does not know how to do needlework, she has made a career out of art created by women volunteers using traditional forms of handwork such as embroidery, tapestry, quilting and cross-stitching. Perhaps best known for her landmark project The Dinner Party (1979) in which she presented a table set for dinner with an imaginary guest list of famous women from history, Chicago established feminist iconography as a subject worthy of a professional art practice.

What if Women Ruled the World: Judy Chicago in Thread opened at the Textile Museum of Canada on February 11, 2009 and continues until September 7th. Curated by Allyson Mitchell and co-produced with the Art Gallery of Calgary, the stated intent of the show is to offer a retrospective of Judy Chcago's textile-based art from 1971 to today. The question posed by the thematic title of the show is supplemented by two other questions: "Would God be Female? and "Would there be equal parenting?"

The exhibition is organized around Chicago's projects including The Birth Project (1985), The Holocaust Project (1993) and The Resolution Project (2000). As well, there is one work from 1971 and a mixed media piece from 2000 called Find it in Your Heart.

To see a Judy Chicago textile piece up close is a lesson in innovation in mixed media. Unimaginable combinations of paint, embroidery, applique, quilting, macrame, crochet, beading, printing, cross stitching, and needlepoint all come together in a swirl of vibrant colour and energy. Although the effect is anything but subtle, the considerable hours of work that went in to the creation of such intricate handwork is evident.

My favourite piece called Earth Birth is an image of "bringing forth light, a visual representation of early creation myths that posit a female deity as a source of all existence." This air-brush painting and quilting on fabric by Jacquelyn Moore Alexander and Judy Chicago from 1983 has a muted palette of black, silver and blue. The elegant refinement of this piece is unique compared to the other works in the exhibition and undoubtedly that is why it has singular appeal for me. I prefer subtlety of message and an elegance of line and colour which are not tenets of Chicago's work.

Other highlights of the exhibition include two videos about Chicago and her cadre of volunteers. To hear an artist speak about their work adds to the depth of understanding one has about their art. In this case, since there are sometimes hundreds of volunteers involved in a Judy Chicago project, these unheralded women were finally given a voice.

In Resolution: A Stitch in Time, directed and edited by Kate Amend and Johanna Demetrakas (2000), Judy Chicago and the women volunteers explain the collaborative process on The Resolution Project. According to Chicago, she wanted to create life-affirming images based on proverbs that state basic human values since "proverbs are the way different generations pass on their wisdom". Many of the volunteers expressed joy and a sense of community in working to complete Chicago's artistic vision. As well, some treasured the sense of purpose that it gave them "to work on something bigger than themselves" and "to have their work displayed in a museum".

In a video about The Birth Project directed by Vivian Kleinnam Productions (1985), Chicago said that there are very few birth images in the history of art and she wanted to reclaim history for women. She used the birth process "as a metaphor for creation in the largest sense". There were 150 volunteers who used a variety of needlework techniques to create 84 pieces related to all aspects of birth of which nine of those pieces are displayed.

Twenty artworks are exhibited in the retrospective of Judy Chicago's work at the Textile Museum. The singular element that does not fit with the curator's intent is the 1971 photograph called The Red Flag in which a woman removes a bloody tampon from her vagina. To me, this photograph is representative of art that a strident feminist produces for shock value alone. This ugly and disturbing photograph is not textile art and has no place in the show even though it is represetative of Chicago's early explorations in feminist iconography. The extensive range of the textile-based artwork that is on display at the Textile Museum is proof that Judy Chicago is capable of expressing meaningful and positive messages through her art. Without this photograph, the answers to the questions "What if Women Ruled the World?" and "Would God be Female?" would have been self-evident. Instead, I left the exhibition uncertain of what I wanted the answer to be.

When Women Rule the World
February 11 - September 7, 2009
Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Avene (St. Patrick subway)
Toronto, Ontario
416-599-5321