Raised on Gem and the Holograms, John Hughes' Pretty in Pink, and Sassy Magazine, I have had a keen interest in fashion since I was little. At age 8, I began sketching fashion illustrations from a visual timeline of historic costume in the 1954 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia that we had on our living room bookshelf. When I was 14, I pulled from that same bookshelf a copy of Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, dusted off the Kenmore sewing machine in the basement, and taught myself to sew. Since graduating from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2002, I've worked primarily as a costume designer, designing and building costumes for performers of all types in and around the Boston area, from theater to performance art to burlesque.
But my real interest is fashion as an art in its own right. I use fashion to push the boundaries between the private and the public, the introvert and the extrovert, to express an inner landscape of my own invention. My work is like a Dada arm-wrestling match between Tim Burton and Judy Jetson. And yet, if you passed me on the street, you'd never know it. I'm an undercover eccentric, a mistress of disguises. I've never even had my ears pierced.
As an artist, I am very sensitive to color, and have apparently lived most of my life unaware of my own synesthesia, or how it influences my work. For me, triangles are green and the number nine is an inky blue. I often have a hard time trying to explain to clerks at the hardware store why I can't find the particular paint color I came to buy. But I have nearly color-perfect memory, and can often match obscure colors without a swatch. It's my superpower, and it infiltrates my work often.
I have a particular love for the circus, the Victorian era, and all things Japanese.
There are rumors that I also paint, make masks, puppets and soft sculpture from time to time, but those are mostly unconfirmed reports from unreliable sources.
But my real interest is fashion as an art in its own right. I use fashion to push the boundaries between the private and the public, the introvert and the extrovert, to express an inner landscape of my own invention. My work is like a Dada arm-wrestling match between Tim Burton and Judy Jetson. And yet, if you passed me on the street, you'd never know it. I'm an undercover eccentric, a mistress of disguises. I've never even had my ears pierced.
As an artist, I am very sensitive to color, and have apparently lived most of my life unaware of my own synesthesia, or how it influences my work. For me, triangles are green and the number nine is an inky blue. I often have a hard time trying to explain to clerks at the hardware store why I can't find the particular paint color I came to buy. But I have nearly color-perfect memory, and can often match obscure colors without a swatch. It's my superpower, and it infiltrates my work often.
I have a particular love for the circus, the Victorian era, and all things Japanese.
There are rumors that I also paint, make masks, puppets and soft sculpture from time to time, but those are mostly unconfirmed reports from unreliable sources.
