A few days ago, the first edition of a brand new event concept opened its door in SL: it´s FashionArt! This amazing idea was promoted and coordinated by the talented team of
iNOVARE Magazine, with one of my best SL buddies managing the whole:
Astralia Resident.
She has been so lovely to keep me updated on everything while I had not much spare connection and traveling around, and always ready to explain stuff that wasn´t clear at first. All that, filled with laughts and comments about what´s currently going on in our lives. Thank you, Astralia, for your support not only as a designer but as a person I can always count on and talk to.
On the other hand, there is a very important mention to my friend and superb designer
Kiddo Oh. I mentioned her often, as she helped me taking care of some private stuff, helped with managing my store when I got hospitalized a long while ago and keeps answering my texts and messages with a smile all the time. Without her, I would probably given up on a lot of stuff awhile ago.
Last but not least, a big thank you to
Dylan Shelter, who took this picture in no time after the booked photographer somehow forgot to make the picture before the date due. Thank you for saving me with your talent and patience.
The two portraited outfits are my entries for the
FashionArt event. You can find them in the
retail area inworld: it´s a ultra cool designed sim with little shops owned by the partecipating designers.
The project is about creating something inspired by two real life artists: Andy Warhol and Frida Kahlo. I think Frida Kahlo is being pretty popular in the few past years, I have heard so much about her recently! Andy Warhol is, on the other hand, somehow underestimated. I think everyone knows about his POPstar portraits and his Tomato Soups, but not all know about his work in the Silver Factory and his job as a shoe and ADV designer.
I took the time to visit a few NY´s museums and the big Museum of Fine Arts in Philadelphia to have the chance of seeing in person a few of Frida´s works. I didnßt want to portrait her as a charachter wearing the great stuff she was wearing, I wanted to concentrate on her painting tecniques and the subjects of her paintings.
So I ended up choosing something that got my attention, and reproduced it on a fine sewed cloth.
The painting I chose is NATURALEZA MUERTA CON LORO. Still Life with Parrot.
I got impressed by the amount of watermelon in her still lives. Which is something not uncommon for a Mexican artist, but you know, I am used to Caravaggio´s and in general to the European apple, pear, orange, grapes... maybe a carafe of water...
So this is it: watermelon, oranges and a parrot! Printed on a casual suit that can accompany you in different events of your SL dayly life.
.:KosmO:. Naturaleza Muerta con Loro (women esemble)
And now let´s talk about Andy Warhol. I have to say, I just knew about him all the stuff that an Art student should know. Which is a bit more than average, but still not a complete overview.
I visited the Andy Warhol´s Museum in Pittsburg right before starting to work on the project. And I let Andy´s work directly inspire me. I firstly had an idea about using his bottled line in making patterns for a piece of cloth but then moved on another funny idea.
The outfit I created is an hommage to The Factory and to the funny project of the Silver Clouds. The Factory is a place he used to hang out with his friends (actors, artists, directors, painters...) and to create some art. It´s the place he recorded his Screen Tests and every single piece of furniture was painted in silver.
Silver Clouds is an installation that also uses the color silver. It was made for the first time during the period of activity at The (Silver) Factory. It consists of a number of ballons in the shape of pillow, filled with helio and placed in a room with some hidden fans. The pillows will levitate around the room making a suggestive picture of floating reflecting silver objects. The name clouds was decided by Andy while discussing whit a collaborator and friend of his.
The installation of Silver Clouds is active (I would say, we can call it a remake, since other people built it up in there) in the Pittsburg Museum, so if you get a chance... go and check it out!
The style of the clothing I made, is a paired pants&top, that reminds the wool jackets that Andy sometimes was wearing.
.:KosmO:. Silver Clouds (men esemble)
I hope you all enjoy the feelings I had making these pieces and that my long explanations of why I chose what made you closer to the two inspiring artists as it did make myself closer to them.
Do not forget to check out the entries of my fellow designers and read the wonderfully made iNOVARE Magazine newest issue!
