Building A Wardrobe

One of the pieces I am working on for my show, Pop Culture Palimpsest, is Wardrobe Malfunction.  I am bringing new life to an old (and slightly damaged) canvas called Fandango.

Wardrobe Malfunction is going to require a large and elaborate headdress.  Here is the sketch on which I'm basing the headdress.  I made the drawing several years ago in one of my sketchbooks.  I assumed it would someday would be a doodle that would go into a painting.  I hadn't considered at the time that I might construct it instead.

But construct it I shall...

Test fitting the pieces I know I want to keep.

Test driving other ideas.

One section nearly complete.

I would also like to point out that through the generous support of the Quad City Arts Dollar$ Project Grant program (provided by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Hubbell-Waterman Foundation and John Deere) program, I am able to bring in two of my former MetroArts apprentices to work in my studio helping to bring to fruition this piece along with another piece we are working on (Processionalization: Power Lunch With The Tasaday) that I will be featuring in several upcoming posts.  Here they were looking quasi-serious last summer during MetroArts.

Here they are again looking not-so-serious.

...and here they are being my helpful helpers.

Some might say it's like help, but different.  Actually, they have been phenomenal assistance in moving the project forward.  Like the work they completed today.

We've been hammering away on this headdress for several weeks now.  Here is a panoramic shot of my studio after a work session.

At the point this next image was taken, the girls had spent 50 hours working on the headdress.  I have spent more than 50 hours -bringing our grand total over 100+ fabricating this one component.  And it's still not finished.

That's enough for this post.  Next time we check in with Wardrobe Malfunction, we'll finish the headdress, and maybe attach it to the canvas.  Maybe...