PAPER
DRESSES
This project was inspired by Wanda Petronski, the main character in "The Hundred Dresses" by Eleanor Estes, a poor and friendless Polish-American girl, who claims to own 100 dresses. Her effort to divert her peers' attention away from the single blue tattered dress she wears to school every day through drawing each fictitious dress wins her first place in the drawing contest and the awe of her classmates. The drawn dresses in this project are also like Wanda's--though their real counterparts are not necessarily within reach, each garment is inherited.
BALLOONS
When the string flows free and loose, as though an afterthought, a balloon is very ethereal, something celestial to look at. Heavenly and symbolic in this way, it seems to float where it pleases and represents a dream-like state. Yet, the route's uncertainty can change the destination, sometimes making it humorous or ironic.
When balloons are tied to something very concrete, palpable and weighted down by earthly dimensions, their embodiment becomes more tangible. Perhaps they represent an old goal or act as a distraction. Maybe they take the form of a seemingly innocent bystander or help reiterate a jovial mood.
In telling a story through a drawing, this subject's transformation becomes an amusing resource. Working with a brown background also gives way for color to pronounce itself as a critical part of the narrative. Collaboratively, I am intrigued by what curious course of events a balloon can find itself in, and am attempting to explore that notion here.