Wednesday, December 29, 2010

What is wearable art?

As someone who has always made things, whether paintings or objects, art for me is in the details. When I remember that "every part, and every part between the part is whole," I realize that anything created with complete focus is art. Usually for me that focus comes in the form of a limitation. By this I mean something in the work's materials or construction takes on the status of a requirement; everything in the creation of the piece must be a result of conforming to this requirement. This coat, commissioned by a member of the Klahoose First Nation here on Cortes Island, became more than performance regalia, it transformed into wearable art.

The coat is made from three smoke tanned deer skins, embellished with hawk and one eagle feather, plus tuffs of mountain goat hair. As I began working on the basic construction, I understood to use no knots. This became the focus that transformed the coat into wearable art, into a medicine coat whose art could protect the wearer from any negative projections. Tangling, heavy energy--such as envy or jealousy--can stick to knots because these stop the flow of the vibrations constantly moving around and through us. From the moment I realized this limitation, the coat became a mysterious puzzle: How to fasten the skins, and also the ornaments to the skins, without knots? I discovered the Solomon Bar knot, a decorative square that isn't really a knot, because if the central cord is pulled through, the entire length just unravels itself. This, combined with a running X stitch and the use of rabbit skin glue created my art-filled focus.

The Journey Oracle cards that I created are a kind of "wearable art." The cards and stories had mysterious spirit world limitations for how they were painted and written, and learning how to read oracle cards for revelation creates protection from the vagaries of time and personal fate.