Despite having not liked my uniforms in school, I’ve always wished I had one as an adult. I think it is incredibly powerful for someone to wear the same thing all the time. It really welds to their identity and makes them seem more centered and confident.
Many artists have done uniform projects, notably Andrea Zittel’s “A-Z Six Month Seasonal Uniforms”. I am really enjoying following Sheena Matheiken’s Uniform Project as well. Her uniform is actually pretty great. Not only is it cute and flattering, Matheiken really uses the dress as a canvas to her creative accessorizing.
so many ways! –Matheiken’s Uniform Project
I myself am currently undergoing a huge closet weeding. I would say I’ve given away, or consigned about 50-60% of my clothes since January and am still working on it. The ultimate goal is to have continuity and modularity in my wardrobe. In addition, I am trying to focus on quality over quantity. For example, one truly warm cashmere sweater that matches everything over 5 sort-of warm sweaters I bought on sale that I don’t even like that much because the colors are too difficult. Colors are so problematic that I don’t really feel like dealing with it anymore. I am trying to stick to whites, grays and blacks in my slacks, dresses and tops with maybe one or two punchy tops to break it up. My accessories are still fun. I pride myself on a great sock and brooch collection and a fondness for orange.
One of my most popular entries is my “Critique on the Handmade Movement” post. I posted that entry over a year ago and I still get comments on it. Naturally I read them. I read all of the internet’s blog comments.
A recent article on Slate.com by Sara Mosle brings up some other points that I had neglected in my original post. Bizarre feminist vitriol aside, (I find accusing women of being “bad feminists” to be sort of unproductive. Bad feminists exist but much like invoking Godwin’s law, it just weakens your stance overall to use it.) she made some excellent points. Namely that the pricing structure really ruins everything:
If anything, Etsy exerts a downward pressure on prices. At the local craft fair, an artist could charge a premium for homemade goods, because the buyer had few options. But Etsy puts the artist in Brooklyn in direct competition with the artist in Dubuque, or London. This forces each one to offer ever more attractive deals. Most artists can’t drastically increase volume (the usual answer to slim margins), because the items are supposed to be one-of-a-kind, not mass-produced, in keeping with the site’s whole ethos.
One of the secret reasons I love Etsy is that I know I am sometimes getting an absolute steal for a really lovely handmade item. Like seriously criminal. Its also one of the reasons I decided not to have a shop of my own. There was no way I could get away with charging what I thought my time and expertise was truly worth. Etsy’s pricing essentially competes with manufacturing pricing. That’s insane! Its basically telling artists that your 10 hours of work is worth maybe the 5 minutes it took to manufacture this t-shirt and sell it at the GAP.
Well the actual truth is that if you were smart, your handmade item would just be a sample or a prototype, and you’d get that shirt manufactured so you don’t have to make 20 billion owl t-shirts. As this NYTimes article mentions, there is such thing as handmade burnout. And suddenly when you realize that YOU are the machine, hey actual machines don’t sound so bad.
I’ve just discovered that my favorite Internet time and $$$ sink, Etsy, has a nice series of work in progress videos of some of their sellers. I like how some of the videos have the same relaxing qualities of the How Its Made series on the discovery channel. I also like gawking at people’s workspaces and tools.
A couple of my favorites:
Filed under: Artists, Design & Visuals, creative process, fandom, movies, review
I’ve just come back from watiching a screening of Zidane at the MFA. In a nutshell: 17 cameras all lovin’ Zidane during one game from start to finish. I am too tired to write this out coherently so here are some bulleted thoughts:
· Zidane looks to be on the verge of tears pretty much the entire time. He smiles exactly twice throughout the entire film. Not to give away any spoilers or anything but he is on a winning team.
· I wish all games were shot this way. I had already pre-forgiven myself in case I fell asleep during the screening but I was pretty much riveted the entire time. The action was so vivid. I loved watching Zidane sweat copiously all over the field and pull up his knee socks. I also like that I had a better close-up of players who got injured. The drama of injured players is a minor side interest of mine.
· No silly announcers. I know certain announcers become famous in their own right but after seeing it this way with all the raw crowd and ball sounds I really prefer it. Who cares what some dude has to say. OK, granted there was also some audio by Mogwai. I still like it better!
· Occasionally the film would have some text of things Zidane has said about The Game. I really liked when he said something along the lines that at time he feels the game is scripted and he just shows up. I do not think he meant that it was rigged, so much as something a bit more spiritual perhaps. I am regretting that I did not write this down at the time. He also mentions that there has only been one time where he knew he would make a goal.
I really enjoyed watching this, and may try to catch it again. Highly recommended for sports fans and cynics alike!
I typically don’t really enjoy learning for learning’s sake. Which doesn’t mean I don’t like to learn. I in fact, love it. But I like to have a reason to do so. Which is why I never paid attention during math class. My instincts were right. I did not need that crap at 16. However I find myself interested in taking a few math classes these days because the skills would be valuable for me right now. To those High School math teachers with your gloating “I told you so’s” No you didn’t. I doubt that I would have retained anything during the last ten years or so. There is a time and place for everything and the time for three-dimensional geometry is actually closer to now than it was when I was in school. Unless I needed to calculate the angles between a boy and me, there was no need for me know this stuff. I think I would be able to learn math now more than ever. I have the desire and the actual need.
My artwork often drives my learning process. I have learned quite a few things simply because I needed to know how to do it. Machine shop skills, basic electronics, and sewing would be such examples. And now I find I really, really must learn to knit. Because of this:
Seriously adorable. The little blue button eyes for the owls are calling out to me. Back in college I did try joining a knitting group and learned to knit one, pearl one but had no real project goals so my learning never progressed beyond a very long, likely unfinished, acrylic (yech) scarf. But now I really must have this sweater. The sweet part is that the designer has the pattern up for free online here. I am also uh, “between jobs” So ostensibly I can devote time to learning to knit the damn thing. Despite my usual DIY approach to learning, I think I need to be mentored through this sweater because I really have no idea what I am doing. I need knitting friends.
