Friday, May 6, 2011

Anja Čuhalev [50]

Anja Čuhalev
Kranj, Slovenia
http://anja-cuhalev.blogspot.com/
http://www.myartspace.com/artistInfo.do?populatinglist=home&subscriberid=avfmelbxsa36vpp1

Unfortunately Ms. Čuhalev was unable to make the runway show (she thought it was later in May). She writes here about the work she was planning to create for and present at the show:

"I am a Fine artist and I mostly work with sculptural pieces. With this design I used different fashion, art and historical eras as inspiration. I enjoy working with interesting materials and images which is reflected in my piece."

Theme: General

Bio:

I was born in Slovenia where I finished an art high school. While in school I managed to publish 3 illustrations - 2 of which are children books. The big bronze sculpture visible in my gallery was also made in that period of time and is now situated in Oslo. I also worked as a paper delivery girl, cast maker in a bronze shop, room cleaner in a hotel, etc. Now I am studying Fine art in Liverpool UK. Here I was working as a personal assistant to a local artist.

A sample of her work:

Elena Sanders [ 49]

Elena Sanders
Boston, MA, USA
http://elenasanders.com

Images of her work shown on this online blog only with the kind permission of the artist.

Bio:

Elena Sanders, lead draper at The Boston Conservatory, is a costumer, clothing engineer, and steampunk designer who was one of 5 featured designers at Boston Fashion Week 2009 and was voted one of "25 Most Stylish Bostonians of 2009" by the Boston Globe. More information and photographs of her designs and costumes may be found on her website: http://elenasanders.com.

Photo: Sarah Gordon/Blast Staff

Photo: Sarah Gordon/Blast Staff

Photo: Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff

Stephanie Skier [48]

Stephanie Skier
Cambridge, MA, USA

ephemeral dynamic fiberoptic fiber arts, with cables as connective tissue and as cyborg second skin

Theme: Cyberart

Bio:

Stephanie Skier is a Cambridge-based performance artist, writer, and historian. A Harvard graduate and former Fulbright Fellow, she is currently on leave from a PhD program in history in order to make art.



photo: Justin Moore



photo: Justin Moore



photo: Justin Moore



photo: Bob Raymond



photo: Hans Wendland



photo: ichifoto



photo: Shil Sengupta

Ellen Shea [47]

Ellen Shea
Somerville, MA, USA
http://sustainablesartorial.blogspot.com/

"Little Red Re-Design". The skirt is made from 1800 red rubber bands. The top is made from a broken umbrella. The idea is to take normal objects, especially ones that are broken or ready to be thrown away, and give them new life by transforming them into something interesting and unexpected.

Theme: General

Bio:

A Boston native, Ellen Shea recently completed a Certificate in Fashion Design from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She thoroughly enjoys designing and making her own clothing, costumes, and other crafts. Recently her interests have been focused on the future of eco-friendly and sustainable fashion. You can follow her research and personal experiences in eco-fashion on her blog:
http://sustainablesartorial.blogspot.com/




photo: Justin Moore


photo: Justin Moore


photo: Bob Raymond



photo: ichifoto



photo: ichifoto

Jennifer Hicks [46]

Jennifer Hicks
Boston, MA, USA
http://www.jenniferhicks.org/

Steam Punk Bug

The originally design was inspired by my friend Troy Kidwells band Fluttr Effect. Her debut was at the Middle East club a few years ago dancing with the band on stage. Now the bug has it's own life roaming the dark crevices in the city looking for a place to land.

Theme: Cyberart

Bio:

Jennifer Hicks M.F.A., R.Y.T, director of CHIMERAlab Dance Theatre, is a performer, choreographer, teacher and visual artist. She received her MFA from Naropa University in Contemporary Performance, her BFA from Tufts University and Degree in Fine Arts from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. She has been a guest artist at Naropa University in the MFA Contemporary Performance Department for several years and North Western University in Louisiana, among other institutions. Jennifer has won several prestigious awards for her work including The Traveling Scholars Award from The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Franklin Furnace for an installation/performance about medicine called “Training For Uncertainty”. She is a member of the performance collective in Boston called Mobius and an original founding member of the former performance collective called Pan 9, also based in Boston.

As a dancer, Jennifer studied ballet, modern and jazz since childhood but began her interest in Butoh back in the mid 1980's. She began to study Butoh seriously in the early 1990’s at the San Francisco Butoh Festival. Her main performance influences are Tatsumi Hijikata, KATSURA Kan, Maureen Fleming, Wendell Beavers, Barbara Dilley, puppet work, early cartoons, nature and silent films. She has been dancing in KASTURA Kans International Dance Company since 1999 and has her own company based in Boston. She has been teaching movement, creating original theatre and performing for over 25 years. Ms. Hicks is a certified Shintaido Instructor, and a Registered Yoga Teacher with The National Yoga Alliance.

She is a certified TranceDance International Facilitator studying with Wilbert Alix for over 10 years and assisting him in his workshops in Hawaii, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Texas. “This practice opened up a deep world for me of imagery, self discovery and group dynamics. Working with Wilbert has expanded my teaching practice, making me a better listener, caregiver and a braver human being in performance and in life.” - J. Hicks





photo: Justin Moore



photo: Bob Raymond



photo: Hans Wendland



photo: Hans Wendland



photo: Kristophe Diaz



photo: ichifoto




photo: Shil Sengupta

Melissa J. Graff [45]

Melissa J. Graff
Lafayette, NJ, USA
www.MelissaJGraff.com

Melissa J. Graff’s metalwork is created in response to the human form. Her work pushes the boundaries of the role that jewelry has traditionally been understood as ornamentation and adornment, even reconsidering how jewelry is meant to be worn. Notions of fragility play a role in her most recent work that raises questions of practicality.

Theme: General

Crystal Caitlin Chin will be modelling Melissa J. Graff's metalwork on the runway.

Update: Sadly, Melissa J. Graff needed to cancel at the last minute.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Liv Chaffee [44]

Liv Chaffee
The John Marshall School
Dorchester MA, USA
www.tightropeboston.blogspot.com

Designers:

Deandre Dewhollis
Jose Pena
Kyshuari Santana-Everet
Rayuana Martin-Milton
Xavier Barrientos


Autobiographical Sneakers

3rd and 4th graders sporting custom sneakers designed as part of the "Walkin' The Tightrope" Project in the John Marshall art room.

Theme: General

Bio:

Liv Chaffee a Boston based found object installation artist turned first year Art Teacher at The John Marshall Elementary. This year Liv created "Walkin' The The Tightrope"- a Visual Art program that explores the connection between the art of sneaker design and the power self-expression with her third, fourth, and fifth grade students. Sneakers have become a catalyst for imagination, ambition, and hard work in her classroom. To learn more information on Walkin' The Tightrope and to find out where her students are now in their Tightrope journey please visit www.tightropeboston.blogspot.com


photo: Sara Skolnick of Time Out Boston Magazine



photo: Sara Skolnick of Time Out Boston Magazine




photo: Sara Skolnick of Time Out Boston Magazine




photo: Justin Moore



photo: Justin Moore



photo: Justin Moore



photo: Justin Moore



photo: Justin Moore



photo: Bob Raymond



photo: Bob Raymond



photo: Bob Raymond



photo: Bob Raymond



photo: Bob Raymond



photo: Bob Raymond



photo: Kristophe Diaz



photo: Hans Wendland



photo: Hans Wendland

Bethany Haeseler [43]

Bethany Haeseler
Portland, Maine, USA
http://art-geek.com/

Bethany Haeseler will be reworking her Fruitloops piece into a fuller garment for the runway show.

Theme: General

Bio:

At first glance, it is hard to recognize what some sculptural components are actually made of. Is this beautiful glass? It certainly looks like it, and it's in a gallery, but if the audience touches it, the stickiness exposes it's true nature. Like glass, the hard candy is fragile, but instead of being a vessel or being a piece of jewelry, it's intended to provide an option to be consumed.

My work explores body adornment, consumable artwork, and desire. Narrative stories influence the works, recreating aspects of past personal experience as a woman affected battles with Anorexia and Bulimia. In my work, I utilize techniques that I practice in creating kiln formed glass to make works with materials that mimic it: hard candy and sugar.

Like glass, the hard candy is fragile, but instead of being a vessel or being a piece of jewelry, it's intended to provide an option to be consumed. To a corset made of hard candy, I add Syrup of Ipecac to the formula, in order to induce vomiting as a way to temper the consumption of the sweets that might otherwise adorn the body as fat.

Through video, attendant to the candy piece, I present an image the experience of consuming beyond the point of satisfaction, in order to satisfy others. I also offered (safe) sweets as gifts to the audience in a performance work, the cravings of the audience are satisfied, while the artist is denied these very pleasures. Since this all comes down to memory, the process and even motion of making the works is as significant as the final product.
The use of performance and the human figure is especially integral to my work. Through performance and body adornment, I am able to express notions that may otherwise be lost or ignored. My body becomes the sculpture. Objects are crafted to accompany and document experiences.

I create artwork because I want to understand the world around me. It is through this process that I can sort through my thoughts and resolve my questions. Whether through material & process or the organization of words in poetry, it is the only way that I know how to view the world.

-Bethany Haeseler

Bethany Haeseler is an emerging artist based in Portland, Maine. Bethany’s work explores disordered eating through a combination of object making, body adornment, and performance.

In 2009, Bethany completed her Master of Fine Arts in Glass from The Ohio State University.




photo: Justin Moore



photo: Justin Moore



photo: Bob Raymond



photo: Hans Wendland



photo: ichifoto



photo: Shil Sengupta