Is It Just Me…

… or do other people also see a dinosaur head when they look at a modern sewing machine?

No, I… I don’t smoke.  Why do you ask?

Anyway, I’ve been looking at sewing machines with a different eye this week, and  I’ve always vaguely thought they look like dinosaurs.  But since I’m usually only looking at the needle area of whatever machine I’m using, I haven’t really “backed up” and consciously studied the overall shape in a while.

Today, I drew this random sketch:

RAWR! I’m a Sewasaurus Rex with a tiny top hat!

Can you tell I’ve spent a few days sewing machine shopping?  I think I need to clean up the sketch (maybe add a bow tie) and put it on a t-shirt, hehe.

Art is Messy

This week it occurred to me that all creative things begin with The Mess. To create something beautiful, chaos is apparently required.

You want to paint something? Pull out the drop cloth, newspapers, and old paint clothes or smock.

Decide to cut some wood for a home improvement project? Pull out the vacuum.

Even creating a meal is messy!

I can only imagine how messy a sculptor’s studio would be during a project or how messy an author’s desk can be mid-book. (Oh wait, I don’t have to imagine that – I have a messy desk right in front of me and I’m not an author.)

Lest you get the wrong impression from previous posts that my sewing room is always neat & tidy, here’s The Mess currently loitering on my cutting table:

I have too many ideas trying to become reality right now. I need to spend a couple days of what I consider boring but completely necessary mockup making.

I will spare you the view of the unruly piles in my guest room. And I’ll show you the home improvement project when it is finished and no longer cluttering the den.

Making The Mess is easy. It’s the getting past the messy stage to produce the art that is the challenge!

Real Thing or Soap Prop?

My tiny laundry room has been painted a bright shade of yellow-orange for 9 years, and I’ve never been able to find any wall art I liked with my paint color… until now!

Yesterday during a leisurely shopping trip at Hobby Lobby, I found the perfect art print for my laundry room. It’s a magazine cover from July 1956, and the colors are mostly bright shades of orange and yellow.

Couture Magazine cover July 1956

I love the strapless, ruffled, and striped swimsuit the model is wearing! The fact that it’s a not-so-perfect fit (spandex wasn’t invented until 1959) and that some of the stripe placement is odd makes it all the more charming (no photoshopped perfection) and ironic that it is on the cover of something labeled “couture”.

It’s almost like no one thought about how the stripes would line up at the seams.

I was curious if there were other vintage covers of Couture or perhaps a collection that had been published together in a book (sort of like the books of Fortune Magazine and Vogue cover art), so I asked the search engines of Google, Wikipedia, and Amazon.

Search results were inconclusive.

Aside from a few other art prints, the only real lead I could get by doing an internet search seems to be linked to a fictional character on the television soap opera General Hospital whose made up “profile” includes “Former Fashion Editor for Couture Magazine”.

I’ve never really watched soap operas, but considering that General Hospital is the oldest running American soap opera (it started in 1963), it makes me wonder if Couture Magazine was created for the show and the “covers” could be old art department props.

Or maybe the Couture covers are simply old photos someone has used to create art that looks like vintage magazine covers.

Anyone know if Couture Magazine ever really existed? Or do you think it might be a really elaborate film prop? Could it be that it was just created for generic wall art?

I’m not really sure, but I like my new picture in my laundry room.

UPDATE:  Thanks so much to those in the comments who helped solve the mystery of my artwork!  It’s definitely not vintage (I didn’t think so, but I wasn’t quite sure why!) and it’s all about the sun being on the model as explained by Lizzie on her blog.  Very interesting!