The Lushness
2013 | 24 x 36 | graphite, colored pencils, and pen on vellum
Loosely a self-portrait, I wanted to add this piece to my series for a few reasons. It challenged me to go into some incredible detail recreating a skirt I hand-painted in reality. Because my day job is clothing design, I’m often drawn to do portraits when there’s a hint of a fashionista in them. This was the first time highlighting an article of clothing I’d spent so much time on. It was even featured in the Utne Reader, because it represented high fashion meeting eco-fabric.
Beyond the fashion, I’ve also been wanting to do more geometry. I’ve heavily used chaos and flow for this series, and while still wanting to convey a sense of abstract expansiveness, I wanted something more geometric, controlled, formulaic. I decided upon a tornado of triangles, and I learned a lot working with them. Once brushing up on my Equilateral, Isosceles, and Scalene options, I did some initial sketching and realized the “rules,” if you will, of their own kind of flow. In my brain, as I worked, I felt like a spider must, connecting one strand at a time, making a web that connects without fail.
The expression on her face captures a blissful moment that comes with a few sips of wine, or a walk in the woods, or a bit of meditation; a quieting of thoughts, acceptance, peace.
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