An Art Workshop to Remember Our Love Ones and The Ones We Admire

This is the mini Altar I made! Photo by Mia Roman.

© 2013. Angely Martinez. All Rights Reserved.

This year's life and career explorations have allowed me to do things that I never thought I would do. However, I miss doing visually artistic work.  So the minute I heard about the Adult Mini Altar Workshop with Mia Roman, which took place on November 2nd, 2013, I could not wait to go and see what I would end up creating.

The Workshop was part of  the "Día de Los Muertos: El Barrio" presented by Viajero Borish at the Julia De Burgos Cultural Center.  This art installation's mission is to bring the community together to honor the love ones that are no longer in this world by adding objects to the altar.  This is the third workshop I attended with Mia Roman,  who is a fantastic artist, Frida Kahlo fan, and very proud of her Latin American roots.

When I first got to the workshop, which ironically was at the same building I went to high school years ago, I did not know exactly how I would decorate my box. I started with glittering a white plastic flower, then drawing wavy lines, and then adding more things.  It was a colorful journey of transforming a plain white box into a fun, complicated, and overly crazy piece that I never thought I would do.

At some point, it was as if all my creative thoughts exploded in the class.  At some point, I could not stop adding more and more objects, and transforming those small objects into something else.  I added more and more until I could not add anymore. Everything combined, turned the small white box into a beautiful altar. 

Everyone created beautiful boxes, some of them of their grandmothers and others of family members.  It was a collective environment in which everyone brought their own identity into what they did.  I had never done an art class about El Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Once again, I stepped out of my comfort zone.

To find out more information about Art by Mia Roman, you can check her website, and to purchase her work, you can check her Etsy Shop.

To find out more information on "Día De Los Muertos: El Barrio," check out Dia De Los Muertos Collective. This art installation/ exhibition will be opened until November 15th at the Julia De Burgos Cultural Center, 1680 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY.

Check out more photos below of the workshop! You can also check my Pinterest Board as well. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Until Next Time. A+F by AM.

All photos by Mia Roman

Artistic Minds: McQueen - Part 2

A few weeks ago, I released the first part of my Artistic Minds series in which I talked about Frida Kahlo's life and work (read here).  This week, I want to continued the series with the second part, about the late designer Alexander McQueen and his great contributions to the fashion world, and in turn, the art world, through his creations.

Alexander McQueen

Source: chinabambi.wordpress.com

Lee Alexander McQueen was born in London, UK on March 17th, 1969.  He came from a "working class family" and had five siblings.  His mother was a "social science" teacher while his father was a taxi driver. When he was 16 years old, he left school and worked in tailor shops in the Mayfair district in London. Deciding to pursue his career and love for clothes, he went on to work with Angels and Bermans, who are "theatrical costume designers."  From these early years, he earned great skills in making "perfectly tailored clothing." All the great works that he did there became a great influence later on in his own collections. 

After coming back to London from Milan, he went to study at the Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design, and in 1992 earned his M.A. in fashion design.  Isabella Blow, who would later on become a closed friend of his, purchased his entire collection that was inspired by "Jack The Ripper" as part of his last project upon completion of his degree.  A few years later, he ended up working for Givenchy and created his own business, the House of Alexander McQueen.  McQueen won the "British Designer of the Year Award" 4 times in his career (3 of those while at Givenchy), and in 2003 the CFDA honored him with the "International Designer of the Year" award.  

He is known for creating well elaborate clothes and for producing highly theatrical runway shows. His last show before his unexpected death, Plato's Atlantis, became one of his most recognized fashion shows. He passed away in 2010 (ruled as a suicide), shortly after his mother's death.  

In 2011, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York City hosted the exhibit Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in honor of his work. This exhibit became of of the most successful exhibitions by the museum to date.  His house is now under the direction of Sarah Burton. (For more info: biography.com)

"For me, what I do is an artistic expression which is channeled through me. Fashion is just the medium." --Alexander McQueen

Early Embrace of Technology

"Robot Paint Dress" is an iconic piece from the Spring/Summer  RTW 1999 Collection. This was the closing part of the show in which the two machines spray painted the dress while the model rotated "on a turntable."

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnA3XR5apQg

Fall/Winter 2009 Collection
This collection was full of reds, black, whites and a million prints.  The models usually featured black or red lipstick that went beyond the lips.  It was a very dark but romantic collection at the same time.  Hats seem to come from recycled materials as seen below.
source: http://in-so-mnia.blogspot.com

Fall/Winter 2009
Recyclable hat
Source: http://chichappens.wordpress.com


"I never look at other people's work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions."

--Alexander McQueen

Fall/Winter 2009
"Crow Dress"
Although the idea of this dress is very dark, there's seems to be something so romantic about the silhouette of this dress.  This piece was featured in the "Romantic Gothic" section of Savage Beauty.
Source: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011)

Fall/Winter 2008-2009
This is a wedding dress.  It was also featured on Savage Beauty book and the exhibition at the MET.
It is just simply beautiful.
Source: www.weddinginspirasi.com

This is probably one of my favorite McQueen's pieces.  The fact that the dress gives the illusion is put together just by flowers is extraordinary and demonstrates all the effort that went into his work.

Source: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011)

"I want people to be afraid of the women I dress."
--Alexander McQueen

McQueen's pieces represented very dark and intimidating clothing that transforms women

 into very powerful figures, as seen above.

Source: listal.com

Photograph by Steven Meisel. Published in Vogue, May 2011.

Editorial Favorite: This macnificient dress is also featured on Savage Beauty
Source: vogue.com


"I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists. I have to force people to look at things." 
--Alexander McQueen

Unforgettable shows:  This dress, made out of "red bugle beads" from the collection Joan (Autumn/Winter 1998-1999) is also another amazing piece from McQueen. The pieces gives the illusion of blood dripping down from the head to the floor, very striking and artistic at the same time.  

Soure: listal.com


Plato's Atlantis: His last collection

Source: blog.metmuseum.org

Source: walkthecatwalk.blogspot.com

Source: lovestiletto.com

Source: eugenehon.blogspot.com

Source: showstudio.com

Plato's Atlantis was McQueen's last collection shown in Fashion Week while he was alive.  The collection mixed the natural with the unnatural.  Butterfly and Snake prints were a big part of this fantastic show as well as 12 in. heels in the form of high heeled ballerina boots and alien-taking-over-your-feet pumps.
The show was an unforgettable piece of art.


"My collections have always been autobiographical, a lot to do with my own sexuality and coming to terms with the person I am - it was like exorcising my ghosts in the collections. They were to do with my childhood, the way I think about life and the way I was brought up to think about life."
 --Alexander McQueen



As a tribute to Alexander McQueen, check out my Pinterest Board "McQueen: The King of Artistic Fashion".

For more on Alexander McQueen, you can check the beautiful book Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011) and VOGUEPEDIA's profile on the brand (here).

Please feel free to leave your comments below. Until next time. A+F by AM.

Now, Let's Talk About Punk: MET's "Punk: Chaos to Couture"

Photo by Michelle Falzarano

Photo by Spencer Platt for Getty Images. 

Source: google.com

Early in May of this year, The Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) celebrated a continued influence in the fashion industry to this day: punk.  When I heard about the exhibit "Punk: Chaos to Couture," an interest to see it sparked on me. And so, I went to see it.

Since the days that Vivienne Westwood brought into the high fashion world the Punk Subculture, punk has been reinterpreted throughout the 80s, 90s, and 00s.  Most pieces featured in the exhibit are from those time periods. "Punk: Chaos to Couture" definitely shows these reinterpretations.  Every single room goes from dark to light, and then the exhibit ends in a very dark room, with a mannequin wearing a Maison Martin Margiela dress (it seems like a half dress by the way), pointing a middle finger to the top, which gives you a sense of, I guess, punk attitude.

Several written pieces are spread around the exhibit. Here's a quote I got from one of the statements:

"The ethos of do-it-yourself  [D.I.Y.] is Punk's Greatest and most enduring influence on 

haute couture and ready-to-wear, and this exhibition examines four expressions of this 

spirit as originally interpreted by punks in the mid-to late 1970s to the present."

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Section: “DIY: Bricolage”

Source: nytimes.com

Vivienne Westwood (of coure), Dolce & Gabbana, Gareth Pugh, Maison Martin Margiela, Comme Des Garçons, Givenchy, Versace, and Alexander McQueen are among the selective few of designers that are part in the exhibit.  In the last room of the exhibit, Commes Des Garçons has eight pieces: four black and four in beige.  The beige pieces are incredibly interesting since they are more artistic than pieces you can actually wear, although I am sure some people would wear them and have done so. These pieces have attached sleeves hanging as details from, let's say, a dress, and lots of details that shows all the hard work that went into creating these masterpieces.

Source: galleristny.com

Gareth Pugh's pieces might be very recent, but his used of "plastic black garbage bags" is amazing.  Every single square piece creates the shape of a dress, making a very distinctive pattern.  It is so well constructed that you cannot even tell at first that it is made out of plastic bags.

Gareth Pugh's dresses made of "plastic garbage bags"

Source: www.msfabulous.com

The piece that I liked the most was Maison Martin Margiela's "Artisanal, Spring/Summer 2006" pearls jacket.  It looks so effortlessly and artistically constructed.  It is such a great interpretation of an actual jacket, and definitely follows the punk aesthetic.  This piece is in what I called "the recyclable materials" section of the exhibit.

Pieces by Maison Martin Margiela, from the Met's exhibit "Punk: Chaos to Couture." Photo © Lindsay Comstock - See more at: http://blog.wppionline.com/2013/05/the-punk-wedding/#sthash.MyDzMFGB.dpuf

Third piece to the right: the Maison Martin Margiela pearls jacket

Source: blog.wppionline.com

Source: rdujour.com

The exhibit ends with a pop-up mini shop where you can buy some punk-inspired souvenirs including postcards, art prints, shirts and black decorative spike pumps designed by Vivienne Westwood, and even Charlotte Olympia's "Punk Clutch", the one designed in collaboration with Tom Binns.

Every mannequin has a big, crazy wig, unifying the whole exhibit and giving it the finishing touches.  Punk for sure!

PUNK: Chaos to Couture will be on view until August 14th, 2013.

For more on this great exhibit, visit metmuseum.org.

Also, check the MET's Pinterest Board, PUNK: Chaos to Couture, right this way.

For now, until next time. A+F by AM.

P.S.: You cannot take photos since it is "an special exhibition," as I was told by museum staff.