Rodarte Bow-Detailed Belted Tulle Gown (Feat. Smoky Mountain Taffy Logs & Ranch Water) is part of my Good Packaging series where I adorn supermodels in food packaging.

I started this series to make the grocery store, an overwhelming, overstimulating and frustrating experience for me, more enjoyable by turning it into an art store. Food packaging- foils, papers, plastic and boxes- become materials that I can collage.

I then use this trash to illustrate luxury garments, making what is inaccessible to me, accessible. Recycling food packaging becomes a way to talk about how food is packaged, how women package themselves, and why. What are they selling? What is their message? Who are they trying to attract? Who do they attract? Who might they be repelling?

The Designer

Rodarte has been one of my favorite fashion brands for a long time. Their runway shows are moving pieces of art. They are an example of “it girl” fashion, a style that communicates to me personally: “This is for very few women and their particular body types.” It girls can wear anything- Baggy blazers. A sundry of hats. A burlap sack. - and look good.

The supermodels that wear Rodarte’s clothing are tall slender porcelain and ebony dolls. All other woman who dare wear the same clothing look like homeless spinsters.

This is scientific.

The Dress

The dress is a perfect example of Rodarte fashion, not for every body. I steer very clear of wearing frilly dresses, but I admire them. No, I adore them. I especially love them embellished with big silky black bows.

The image I used is from one of their runway shows. There is another version of this dress where the white is hot pink, and that one is a dream, too. And another in yellow that you could eat with a spoon.

Food Packaging

Ranch Water

I love the font, and the simple white on black.

I also like tequila.

Smokies Candy Kitchen Saltwater Taffy

My family vacationed in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, located next to the Smoky Mountains, when I was little, and one of my favorite things was standing outside of the candy shop located in The Village and watching the saltwater taffy being made.

I don’t particularly love taffy- I don’t crave it, but I will eat it- but I love how the white semi-opaque wrappers mute the colors, and I love the box they put them in.

I used one of the boxes in this artwork to hold colored pencils for a very long time, as it is a perfect container for art supplies.

When I decided to make this piece, I made a special trip to buy another box so that I would have enough to work with.

The actual illustration on the box adds another element that I think is wild.

White Lily Flour

Such a perfect design mixing nostalgic and modern aesthetics.

Glitter Paper

In using collage to create a white dress, I wanted to convey all of the different shades and shadows white can make. So I added in gold and silver glitter.

The Composition

I don’t typically crop the women’s faces, but I was thinking of this piece more from a design sense. Also, I think, or assume, that making the woman anonymous gives it a more universal appeal.

I made the frame and painted it. I saturated the background and frame with “sweet” colors to further insinuate,

This Artwork is Candy.

When I learned to drive, I lived in the suburbs and was obsessed with music, so one of my favorite after school activities was shopping for CDs at Best Buy.

Driving around, talking with friends, spacing out during class, lying listlessly on my bedroom floor, I mentally added albums to my shopping list as they came to me.

But once I stepped through those big box store sliding doors and the fluorescent lights hit my melancholy baby face, the list would vanish from my mind. I couldn’t remember what it was that I wanted.

I still enjoyed myself and usually walked out with something. My defaults were: Smashing Pumpkins, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, or a movie soundtrack that moved me.

I’d leave the store and forget to make a list moving forward. I’d do this for a long time, for so many things.

***

When I close my eyes, I often see colors: beautiful color combinations, in abstractions or sometimes as patterns. “These colors are for a future painting,” I think.

But when I step into my studio later, my mind is blank. I have no recollection of the colors.

I still enjoy myself, but often go to my default color schemes: vintage mint greens, red-orange, gold, jet black, Super Mario Brothers Pipe Green, lavender, peachy sky pink.

I love these colors, but there is also a treasure trove hidden in my mind.