The Little Office

A few nights ago Steve apologized for being "a little off". I misheard this, and thought he was apologizing for being a little office, and while I was pretty confused by that statement I figured it would be a great name for the art/work/studio space that we set up in the weird back section of my room. It looks like a disaster in the photo, but that's only because we've been super busy in the last few days. From the left you can see my laptop (open to this page! woah, meta!), my old camera, and some paints. There's a new desk lamp, some spray paint, some transparencies, a big box of pens and markers, a pile of fabric that is transitioning from being a shirt to a skirt (see below), my sewing machine and Kelly's typewriter.

In less than a week, Steve's completed three paintings and has already started a fourth. He's a machine. I knew he was a good artist from the few paintings he'd posted over on the 90's babies blog, and I really like the pen & ink drawings that he does, but being around while he draws and paints all the time has really opened my eyes to how talented he is. Also, he's been using up all the canvases I've been saving up and stashing in my crowded room, so it's win-win. He's making rad art, and my art supplies are finally getting used.

I've been playing around with my sewing machine a lot lately, which has been really nice. I've always really loved fashion (weird, I know. I wear the same clothes every day, and am not at all fashionable) and for a while I toyed with the idea of going to NSCAD for fashion or textiles or something, but it's pretty obvious that post-secondary isn't for me. I took a night course there called "Garment Alteration and Re-design" which, incidentally, is exactly what I do, so I thought it would be an amazing course but it was total bullshit. I'm not wasting my time and money on some lady telling me that I can make existing garments exciting by using random coloured thread to make abstract designs, and I sure as fuck am not about to use fabric paint on anything I make. So now I just hunch over my sewing machine, making up patterns as I go. So far it's been working rather well, actually! I've been making wrap skirts out of used men's dress shirts. Instead of tying at the waist, I used the existing buttons and holes from the shirts to make an adjustable, fastening waist-band. It's kind of hard to explain, so I'm going to try and get someone to model one and then I'll post some pictures.

In the mean time, here are some of the things we've been working on:

More to come!