A YEAR OF THREES
2023—A Year of Threes! At least with my goals for paintings, shoes, and floats!
I did the math. Next year’s Muses parade is February 8th. We are each allowed 30 shoes to bring on our float. Starting in April I need to complete three shoes a month to be done by January 2024. So, once a month I will Visqueen all my paintings and spend a few days chipping away at glittering my shoes. In addition to that, I need to draw three floats a month between April and December to make sure I stay on track. And last, but far from least—I have a goal to finish three paintings a month throughout the rest of 2023. I completed 47 paintings in 2022, so I think I can still meet or come close to may goal, but 2023 is the first year in a few that I do not have a scheduled show. That said, I still need to use this time to replenish inventory to the galleries …and experiment a little!
What is all this float and shoe business you ask? Well, I ride in a parade for Mardi Gras with a group called Krewe of Muses. There are approximately 1130 riders—all women, who—aside from throwing plenty of other gifts to the crowd—throw handmade up cycled shoes.
Read more about the shoes here
Read more about the parade here
I can’t show you any floats in progress because our parade them stays secret until we ride, but I can share what is currently on my easel as well as my first batch of shoes. This first batch is a pair of flip-flops turned bananas and a high heel turned into a Delftware pitcher.
To make the typography for the shoe a lot of us use this technique. You take a ziplock bag (thick and clear) and trace over a printed font with fabric paint. Then you sprinkle glitter over the wet paint (This is also the same technique used to make those Muses Chiquita banana stickers above). Once it’s dry, you carefully remove the letters from the bag and place onto the shoe. The letters stick quite nicely even without glue, but a light spritz of gloss spray seals the glitter and the letters.
Is it strange to combine glitter, floats and oil paintings? Maybe. But they all have a place in my life and keep my brain stretching in different ways. All three let me use typography in different ways. All three let me play with color and composition. And all three make me very, very happy to share.
