She’s Talking About US!
I’ve got nothing but love for Anne-Marie Ezeard. She’s the popular blog-mistress of the utterly wonderful 10 ROOMS and an expert color consultant and home design professional. We met through our blogs and Anne-Marie has been so wonderfully supportive. Today she was gracious enough to take time away from sharing her exquisite imagery and delightful musings to post about guess who? Us! FASHION+ART! She’s talking us up, showcasing a few of our pieces and encouraging her readers to check us out. And they’re responding! WOW! I’m bursting with gratitude and eternally thankful. Anne-Marie—you’re the BEST!
Today, from our Digital Collection, we feature RED GLOVES.
When was the last time you wore an exciting pair of gloves as a part of your ensemble? Especially a pair as elegant as these, elbow length and a popping shade of red? Not your style? That’s okay. This print will look just as exciting hanging in your dressing area at home (as Anne-Marie suggests) or perhaps in your office at work, gearing you up to take the world by storm. Or at the very least, your pain-in-the-butt-know-it-all supervisor. When you’ve got your Red Gloves on, there’s just no getting in YOUR way!
Click the link to enter the Gallery: FASHION+ART
FASHION+ART is Open for Business!
Nothing Short of FAB-ulous
Okay, okay. I did say that the online art gallery would be up by now. I made the claim two months ago. But here’s the deal—and some of you may already know this—CREATING AN E-COMMERCE WEBSITE IS NO EASY TASK.
Online shoppers have high expectations. Of course you do. Why shouldn’t you? A site has to run as smooth as molasses, doesn’t it? When you click on a link, it should go where you want it to go, isn’t that right? Absolutely! So we’re in the trenches now. We’re talking to PAYPAL, connecting all the dots, making sure that your shopping experience with us flows from start to finish without a hitch. And of course, looking nothing short of FAB-ulous every step of the way. The perfectionist in me won’t let it go before we reach that point. Even if it means extending the deadline and eating just a wee bit of crow. I’ll take that crow with a nice bottle of Chianti, thank you, before disappointing our customers.
In the meantime, here’s a peek at the sites’ new background. I won’t set any dates this time but trust us, we’re moving as swiftly as possible to present the FASHION + ART Online Gallery to you with all of the elegance and ease-of-use that you deserve. Nothing but our best for you, my sweet. Nothing but our very best.
How Easy is it for YOU to Blow 250.00?
1. Satin evening shoes you’ll wear once a year, if you’re lucky.
2. Food and cocktails to host a casual dinner party with a few friends.
3. One hair salon visit that may include a mani and pedi but NOT an eyebrow waxing.
4. Good seats at a live concert plus a souvenir book, hat, t-shirt and cd.
5. A spontaneous trip to the mall with your shopaholic best friend.
250.00. Easy to blow on momentary pleasures and a few fond memories. But here’s the question…will any of these things bring you years of joy and happiness? Can you pass it down as an heirloom, from your children to your children’s children and beyond? Does it capture your attention, stroke your ego and light your fire each and every time you look at it? Can you move it from room to room, house to house, office to office, anywhere and everywhere you go?
It’s important today to spend your money wisely, on things that matter. Art matters. And the piece that speaks to you personally, that captures your heart and tickles your fashionable fancy, well, that’s the piece that matters most of all, don’t you think?
Get ready for FASHION + ART…it’s coming…
Do They ‘Get’ You?
One of my goals with FASHION + ART is to provide a backdrop for understanding. I want your guests, your visitors, your workmates and your clients to understand you, to get you, really get you, without explanation. Upon entering your space, whether it’s your home or your place of business, your office, your cubicle, your salon, your shop or your shoppe, when they see works from FASHION + ART on your walls, well Darling, your guests can’t help but gain a crystal clear understanding of just who you are. And by the way, just who are you? In case you’re not quite sure, let me tell you…
You’re a person who appreciates fashion, first and foremost. With an undeniable eye for beauty, you live for exquisite detail. You possess great style, comfortable and self-assured, that overflows with attitude and panache. That’s who YOU are. I know you, Doll. And whether you’re quietly chic or on the cutting edge, your love for art and all things fashion is clearly apparent. Our works are all of that—your true essence—matted and framed, to love and share with anyone who enters your world. Our goal at FASHION + ART is to help you represent that world well, and make it unforgettable.
It’s Vectorific!
I spent last week doing loads of Marketing and PR for the F + A Gallery, connecting with what appears to be some of the most influential bloggers in fashion, style and home decor both here in the States and across the pond. And if they aren’t, they certainly should be. These sites are gorgeous! Stunningly beautiful imagery. Sophisticated. Tasteful. Clever. Funny. Of course I bopped around adding my two cents here and there because that’s just me. I love the interaction. But the biggest thrill is when the blogger/designer from a site I admire responds by clicking onto F + A, sees samples here of the art that will soon be available for purchase and actually leaves a comment expressing their excitement and eagerness to see more. I’m a grinning fool, ear-to-ear, blinding them in North Carolina. Portland. The Netherlands even. I’m telling you, when comments come in from far away places, from those who possess such marvelous taste and know the good stuff when they see it, well…it certainly blows MY skirt up.
This piece was created using Adobe Illustrator. A stubborn traditionalist, I vowed to never ever abandon my drawing table for the lure of a computer program but who could resist the crisp lines of vector graphics? Certainly not me. I was a goner from day one and there will be a collection of digital art included in the gallery. I think you’re going to have as much fun selecting from this group as I had putting it together.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
There’s just nothing like the promise of a brand new year and I can feel it in my gut. 2011 is going to be OUTRAGEOUS!
I got a big kick last week out of an email from Jeanne Radysh-Oury, my former fashion illustration instructor. It’s been many, many years since we last spoke to one another but the tremendous capabilities of the internet allowed me, in spite of misspelling her first name and the addition of a new last name, to actually find her. Isn’t that amazing? The internet is FAB-ulous!
I made certain that she was on the mailing list for the announcement of FASHION + ART. After all, if it wasn’t for her there probably wouldn’t be a FASHION + ART and who knows what I’d be doing with myself today. But her response last week, with kudos, encouragement, and the promise to continue watching my work online means so much to me. It also makes me just a wee bit nervous. But it’s cool. She’ll be tickled to know that I’ve kept my Pencils. And framed them.
In the meantime, hubby and I are slaving away on the gallery website. But I’ve got to warn you—there’s been a few changes. Of course they’re all for the better and I’m certain you will be very happy with the results so please stay tuned. This month, January, will see the launch of FASHION + ART so help me…
Gifting Your Fashionista
Did you purchase yet another boring, humdrum Christmas gift this year, knowing in your heart that if only you could find that one unique and rare piece, arriving beautifully framed and ready for hanging, you’d come out looking like a hero and smelling like the proverbial rose?
Well rest assured. Next year you will NOT have that problem.
With our gallery of more than 40 illustrations, your only problem will be deciding which piece to select! It’s just what you’ve been looking for. A gift of art that speaks to the sophisticated soul of your very own fashionista and shows that you really, really get them. And what, my friend, is a better gift than that??? Your search is finally over. You can relax.
—Our special wish for all of you is a wonderful holiday week and a safe and joyous New Year! From Edwina and Phillip of FASHION + ART
One Mat, Two Mat, Grey Mat, Blue Mat
Since starting this new gallery adventure and blogging about it, I’ve made several new cyber friends, both art lovers and fellow artists alike. Yesterday in my in-box, I received a link from one of my new friends to a video featuring a wonderful interview with Helen Breger, a 90-plus year old fashion illustrator— legendary—from way back when. A lot of her beautiful artwork is showcased, pen and inks mostly, and she talks about the glory days of fashion illustration when all of the department stores featured exquisite work on a daily basis in their newspaper advertising and each one had their own rock star artist. Using photography was almost unheard of back then and I remember so well how, as students, we dissected these masters, Kenneth Paul Block, Antonio Lopez, George Stavrinos, Michaele Vollbracht, like the fine art kids studied Da Vinci, Van Gogh and Pollock.
In the meantime, I’ve been tossing and turning, trying to select the final matboard color for the FASHION + ART collections. There’s going to be one color only, throughout the entire gallery, but should it be a straight-up cool grey or a cool grey kissed with just a tinge of blue? A touch. The very last stop before slipping into lavender—
These decisions are never easy for a Libra artist to make 🙂
But is it Art?
Andy Warhol created art out of a can of soup. It hangs as a series in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Roy Lichtenstein took a panel from a comic book, blew it up and created his style using the dot pattern from the screen print as a focal point. It worked. He hangs right next to Andy.
Fashion art and commercial art, as graphic design was once called, is usually created to sell something. A fashion designers’ latest creation or Andy’s can of soup. It was churned out fast, often weekly, in time for Sunday’s newspaper (deadline was 6 pm on Wednesday) and after it’s run, shoved into files like any other requisition form. Getting no respect. But now, and maybe it’s because fashion art really is a ‘lost’ art, something has moved it out of the commercial, making it worthy of slipping into a frame to hang on a wall. Is it the medium used? Charcoal and watercolors? Or the subject matter? Beautiful women in dramatic poses and flowing gowns? Maybe the style? As tightly rendered as a photograph or loose as an abstract painting? Just what is that special ‘something’ that jumps the boundaries of commercial art and makes a piece worthy of framing? Maybe adding an overhead spotlight if you really dig it?
I believe that’s determined by you. By us. It’s art simply if you say it is. If we say it is. In my mind, fashion art IS art. I was convinced over blah-blah years ago when I tore the illustrations of Kenneth Paul Block and Steven Stipleman from the Vogue and Butterick pattern books and taped them to the wall of my little bedroom back in Chicago. My young and impressionable mind was made up then. Fashion art IS art. And I hope when you see our gallery offerings you’ll feel the same way, too.
Fashion + Art discuss... 