show and costume ball at the John Walden Art Center. Tonight we have a variety of materials to show
to you. We have ethnic costume, we have stage and Halloween costume, we have vintage pieces, and we
have wearable art and craft pieces. The things that you'll see tonight represent contributors from throughout
the region, and there's an immense amount of talent represented. I'd like to invite you all to stay
after the show for our costume ball. And I see that many of you have arrived in costume and that's great
fun. So without further ado, let's get started. The first piece tonight was created and is worn by Donna
Jo Brizendine. Donna Jo is a weaver and textile artist who with her husband owns the Breezy Manor shop
in Mooresville, Indiana.
This piece is hand woven and hand dyed. It's raw silk and cotton. It's a three-piece ensemble.
The next piece is a vintage ensemble. It comes from a material plane in Bloomington. It's an example
of combining elements from several different periods into one unique ensemble. The gown is rayon satin
with a rhinestone buckle and it dates from about 1935. The hat dates from 1965, 30 years later. It's
rayon tapeta.
Valerie carries a wrist bag of gold lorax that dates from the mid-1940s. The next ensemble we have
by Charlotte. It's created by Suzanne Halverson. The tunic is hand-woven rayon chenille. The color is
called iris, and Suzanne has woven it with jewel-tone accents. It has a V neckline, three-quarter length
sleeves, pockets, and padded shoulders. The scarf, which Suzanne calls autumn pearl, is also hand-dyed
chenille. It's overdyed from its original bright yellow color,
and it's woven in a shadow weave with rayon black ribbon. The hat is pieced together from chenille fabrics
and was designed by Bloomington designer and seamstress Lynn Michaelon. Suzanne Halverson has been weaving
for 21 years. She maintains a studio in downtown Bloomington, sells through the By Hand Gallery. She's
also the gallery director here at the John Waldron Center, as well as being the gift shop manager,
She is the co-founder and creator of tonight's show. Next, you'll see various interpretations of the
word jacket. Kate is modeling a piece by Anna Brown of Brown County. This Anna Brown calls the Santa
Fe Jacket.
Both of the pieces that Anna Brown is showing tonight are strip pieced and quilted together. The Santa
Fe jacket employs what Anna Brown refers to as the seminal patchwork technique. Phyllis is wearing the
fortune teller coat. Again, it's cotton broad cloth with a strip piece method.
Anna Brown is an artist and clothing designer. Her work combines traditional techniques with contemporary
styles. She finds the actual creation of her clothing to be the most satisfying part of the process
and feels that in the end, her clothes speak for themselves. The next jacket is modeled by Rebecca and
was created by Jonna Asher of Nashville. It's a ready-made sport coat
with applied acrylic and textile paints. A companion piece to this is the musical or keyboard jacket.
Again, a ready-made sport coat with applied paints. Ms. Asher started painting on jackets just this
year. She's found them to be immensely popular, and she has a number of different motifs that she has
available.
We have two pieces by Charlene Marsh of Nashville. The first is hand-dyed cotton velveteen and china
silk. The haphazard quilting stitches that you see are intentional. And this piece is reversible. The
next piece by Charlene Marsh is a reversible cotton
jacket. The pattern was created by a discharge or bleach out dye process, a sort of tie dye in reverse,
and additional highlights were added by stitching through the fabric during the tying and bleaching
out process. Charlene Marsh has been studying various aspects of fashion and textile arts for a number
of years, and she now makes tapestries, one of which is currently in the gallery downstairs.
This piece is modeled by David Ebbinghaus. It was created for David by Marilyn Ebbinghaus. It's a hand-woven
linen tunic, created with an e-cut dye process. It's hand-dyed and hand-woven. Marilyn is a weaver here
in Bloomington, and she's best known for her tapestry work. This piece was created for David.
Next, Donna Jo Brizendine again models one of her own creations. This jacket is a modified waffle weave.
And it's shot through with Lurex yarns. You can see a bit of the sparkle in there. It's lined with a fleece.
Donna Jo's jackets or ensembles is unique. She uses natural fibers, natural yarns, and she hand weaves
all of her pieces and hand dyes many of them.
vintage ensembles. First we have Corinne. She's wearing an ensemble put together by Eileen Rice of Jasmine
in Bloomington. She wears a machine-made Irish crochet lace blouse. It's cotton and it dates from about
1900. It's embellished with glass pearls and velvet trims.
The skirt is wool broadcloth and dates from about 1915. The next piece is modeled by Valerie Peters.
Valerie wears an ensemble again, a combination of a number of different periods. The coat is silk velvet,
dates from about 1940.
Underneath the coat, Valerie wears a polyester rayon velvet dress. And that dates from the 1970s. Karen
Sherrington and Andrea Honst have accessorized this ensemble with three pieces from the 1950s,
a velvet hat, a chrome basket bag, and a rhinestone necklace.
jasmine. It consists of a pannais velvet cape, worn over a 1950s nylon chiffon dress. Phyllis carries
a handbag, a contemporary piece that was created by Paula Worley of Bloomington. Paula began making
purses for her own use and is now the owner of Reliquary Bags, a full-time artistic pursuit for which
she creates unique and luxurious bags for all uses and occasions. Drawn to lush fabrics and inspired
by the endless shapes and colors of flowers, Ms. Worley uses rich materials from many sources and employs
a variety of needlework techniques.
By the way, Paula Morley's bags are available in the gift shop here. The next piece is worn by Frances.
This piece is one of our ethnic examples tonight. This comes from Ghana. It was tailored for Sophie
Sieber of Bloomington when she lived in Ghana in the mid-1960s. It's a native cotton, native African cotton
And the pattern is created by a resist dye technique. It was tailored to the styles that were popular
in Ghana during the mid-1960s. Those styles are an adaptation of traditional Ghanaian dress combined
with the missionary's desires for covering people when they got there in the mid-19th century. So actually,
the blouse is the missionary influence. And the skirt, there would be one other piece
with this if it was a traditional, and that would be a shawl or wrap piece. So the skirt and the shawl
are traditional Ghanaian wear, the blouse is missionary influence. Next we have Sharon King. And, oh
I'm sorry. We have Charlotte, sorry. Charlotte is wearing
a Bedouin dress. Said to be a Bedouin wedding dress. It's made of various cotton woven fabrics with
silver beads and coins. Along with her, David Ebbinghaus wears a piece of his own creation. It's titled
Shaman Robe and Headpiece. This is a performance art and ritual piece.
And it consists of a cotton robe embellished with shells and human hair, and a headpiece of bent sticks,
shells, and a turtle shell. Mr. Ebbinghaus is a well-known Bloomington artist who does not limit himself
to traditional media. His recent exhibit, Labyrinths and Oracles, was here in the John Maldonard Center.
I also like to note that the camel coat
which is the coat constructed of Camel Cigarette packages that's hanging out just outside of the room
here as a creation of Mr. Ebbinghaus's
modeling a piece of her own creation. The surface design is a batik process, completely designed and
executed by Rudy. She's well on her way to being a textile artist.
Ghanaian piece. This one is similar to the other one that you saw just a few minutes ago. Slightly different
blouse style. Again, the blouse is the missionary influence. This piece is constructed with European
cotton, a European cotton dimash that was imported to Ghana and then tailored in the traditional Ghanaian
style. When we say traditional Ghanaian style,
Remember that that was going on for about 100 years before this piece, the missionary influence had
been going on for about 100 years before this piece was created. Each of the three pieces in the Ghanaian
ensemble, the blouse, skirt, and wrap consist of exactly three yards of fabric.
This piece is modeled by Phyllis. It was created by Elizabeth Elmer, a senior in fine arts at IU. It's
cotton-broad cloth, constructed through the strip-piece method. This kimono-style jacket was inspired
by African kinte cloth. And Miss Elmer says of this piece that,
of the finished piece realize the simplicity of its construction. Next we have Rebecca Roberts modeling
a piece of her own creation. The dress is polyester charmeuse, rayon chiffon wire, and it's been hand-dyed
and hand-painted.
Ms. Roberts graduated from IU with a bachelor's degree in fashion design through the individualized
major program. And this particular piece was part of her senior project, her designer's line. Ms. Roberts
describes the leaf dress in its nature influence as Eve gone baby doll. Next we have two pieces.
Created by the models, this is Emily Purcell and Paul Kane. Paul's piece is a fool's costume. It consists
of cotton boutique, ready-to-wear garments, and applied paint.
Mr. Kane graduated from IU's master's program in painting in 1991. He's been painting on clothes for
several years, and each piece evolves through use and renewal as his ideas develop. He's inspired by
the fool, a key figure in tarot imagery. And if you notice the knee pads or the knee paint on this costume,
they were inspired by architectural elements known as grotesques.
vest was created with mixed fiber fabric pieces sewn over recut ready-made garment, then stitched. And
over top of that, she's applied ink drawing. Emily is currently a junior in art history at IU.
This is among her influences in her clothing pieces, quilts, Japanese art, and rock music. Emily has
another piece out in the flashlight gallery here this evening.
Next we have Sharon King. Sharon is modeling a gown constructed of rayon moray file with lace and other
trims. This gown is inspired by 19th century fashions and combines aspects of several 19th century period
styles. Ms. King has been a teacher.
and a painter, and in addition to creating and collecting stage and ethnic costume, she runs the King
Gallery and Studio in Gosport, Indiana. The kimono hanging on the wall just outside the door here is
from Miss King's collection. Miss King says of the piece that she's wearing, and I quote, I know in
another life I wore this gown and danced the night away. It is designed to catch the candlelight's flicker
and hopefully my true love's eyes. Chris Sharon is Susan, and Susan is wearing a Tudor-style gown created
by Emma Linda Perez. The gown is constructed of acetate satin, with lurex and acetate fabric, faux pearls
and beads, painting,
and other applied techniques. Miss Perez creates costumes and ensembles from existing materials and
employing historical references. This piece incorporates aspects of late 16th century English, Spanish,
and Italian dress and uses modern materials and construction techniques.
Then we have a costume piece and an ethnic piece together. Carol wears a piece from the collection of
Emma Linda Perez. This is a Mediterranean dancer's costume, actually a combination of Mediterranean
cultural costume elements, many of which are adapted from historical and or traditional garments. This
particular ensemble is constructed of contemporary fabrics
and uses contemporary techniques. Rebecca wears another piece of her own creation. She calls this the
Harlequin Tutu. It's acetate satin nylon tulle with beading and applique.
currently working at the Indiana Repertory Theater in Indianapolis. This piece was created for a costume
class at the Musical Arts Center here in Bloomington. It's a dance costume that was created for the
character in the ballet, Harlequinade. The next two pieces
are both creations of Gloria Fisher, Gloria and her husband Robert, model King Neptune, and School of
Fish. These pieces are mixed media. They contain lorax, acetate, tinsel, nylon fiber, plastic gems,
glitter, feathers, wires, sequins, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Ms. Fisher studied printmaking and
painting in India, I'm sorry, in Indiana and Italy.
and has exhibited throughout the United States, Spain, and Brazil. Her pieces currently grace collections
across the United States. Including children's Halloween costume, Ms. Fisher has been designing costume
for 25 years.
She says that the older she gets, the more bizarre her costumes become. But she delights in the fun
and fantasy of her creations. Finally tonight, we have Emily Stewart. She's showing us Mother's Dress.
This piece is created from cotton, crayon, and acetate, satin, and twill. The skirt is 10 feet in diameter,
excluding the ruffle.
She teaches postural patterning, is an independent choreographer, and, in her spare time, is
the undergraduate academic advisor for the School of Fine Arts. Mother's Dress, Laid to Rest, was a
solo dance created by Ms. Stewart. It's intended to
expressed the loss of our childhood fantasy worlds of dress up, make believe, and let's pretend. In
this costume, a young girl parades in a much too big dress belonging to her mother. Throughout the dance,
the skirt is manipulated into 15, or into various configurations, depicting aspects of the child's fantasy.
to invite all the models to come out and let you get a look at their pieces one more time. And I would
like to invite the artists who are not modeling their own pieces to come up and stand next to the model
so everybody can get an idea.
They did a wonderful job. I'd like to thank all of the artists and the people whose hard work contributed
I hope you'll all stay and have a drink and enjoy the ball. We have a good band here tonight and I think
we're gonna have a lot of fun. Thank you very much for coming.