Art is Fashion is Art is Fashion is . . .

Summer is upon us, gentle readers, and just when you had hoped to let all your cares float away while tanning on a raft — here I am like a tsunami with my first article of the season! You may think that fashion is just the top layer. It may be a little something to think about while trying not to think about anything really important. To most it is. To most it costs a few dollars and comes sandwiched on glossy pages from a newsstand. Magazines filled with enough fashion and art to propel you away from reality so far that you don’t have to think about any stinking wars or famine in “those other countries.”

Lady Kier knows how to put the groove in her look (and your heart).

Alas, not so, and who better to tell you otherwise than The Artist D? (No one, that’s who.) When one thinks of art and fashion they usually stray to the vapid as I’ve just described. You’ve heard us all at those pool parties. “Girl, just where did you get that bag? Are those real Armani sunglasses? Who does your hair!?” In realty and quite on the contrary to what they may think, the most vapid subject for most (fashion) could possibly be where we find the most significantly valuable information about the real world. Because fashion is art and if art is fashion then fashion means everything, since art means everything. If it weren’t for art we would be like a block of cheese without any unique spots of mold. Simply boring!

The problem with fashion is that it becomes a vapid monster eating the souls of most people it touches. The burning question is and has always been how do we be fashionable without letting fashion rule and blind everyone standing in the way? Will we ever get people to talk about their sunglasses and AIDS in Africa? Will it always be just sunglasses or just AIDS in Africa? Can’t we have both?

Pablo Picasso

In 1937 Pablo Picasso (a fabulous raving Spaniard who was smart enough to spend too much time with Gertrude Stein) painted Guernica, an ode to the bombing of Guernica in the Basque Country. The painting was black and white, full of symbolism attempting to bring massive attention to the bombing. Suffering people, animals and buildings drenched in chaos abounded. As you can imagine the painting traveled globally and roused comment from all sides. As usual art attacked a kind of fashion through art making a fashionable piece of art. Art is fashion is . . .

Fast forward to present day when little known Norwegian artist Nadia Plesner paints Darfurnica. Nadia is so unknown that she doesn’t even have her own Wikipedia entry yet! Darfurnica is the modern day match to Picasso’s Guernica. A similar symbolism, the same size (literally) and perhaps a bigger impact thanks to 21^st Century global sharing via the Internet. Darfurnica features the genocide and tragedy happening in Darfur. It compares it all to the importance of the dramatic tragedy happening in the USA. Tragedies like Paris Hilton’s crisis and the attention brought to Britney Spears shaving her head.

Darfurnica

Nadia’s vision was to paint things to the scale in which they receive the most public attention. Which is why Paris Hilton and Britney Spears make the biggest appearance instead of the suffering children or the gang rape scenes. Amongst all this stands a little famished boy clutching a Louis Vuitton hand bang. This image especially got Nadia the attention of the press. It also got her the attention of Louis Vuitton who then sued her. As of earlier this month she has won that law suit and can continue to share the art of Darfurnica with the world. This time for sure art makes a statement about fashion and becomes fashionable.

We could go on discussing the hundreds of comparisons this painting and art like it brings to the spotlight. We could discuss how one Louis Vuitton bag could pay for education, housing and food for something upwards of a year in some poverty-stricken countries.

We could talk about that, but we won’t because you already know. You already know because you’ve got a brain in your head. If you’ve managed to not know these things then you stopped reading before the first paragraph was up. My audiences tend to weed themselves appropriately rather quickly.

Fashion in art, art is fashionable, fashion is art is fashion is . . . Do you dig? So, how do we go on feeding the monster called Fashion when doing so enables it to steamroll over real problems? How can we throw Louis Vuitton over our arms when we know there’s an impoverished life of a small African inside begging to come out?

A good question that needs to be answered since I would like to think I care about real things while still writing a fashion column.

The Artist D Making Living Art Fashionable

The answer is simple. (All real answers often are with me.) Be the art, not the fashion! The key to not letting fashion swallow you whole is being fashion, not letting fashion be you. How many people do you know who are who they are by putting on a designer label? I see so many people out there whom discuss the fashion of today as if it’s the air they breathe. Likewise we’ve all seen that certain friend start having a panic attack if they find out their Gucci isn’t really Gucci. None of that is important and we’ve confused whose name is on it by how fashionable it is. It’s not the name that makes it more fashionable. It’s the object adding to your persona that makes you fashionable. You’d be just as fashionable if you put a lampshade on your head, because you’ve just made yourself interesting. You’ve just made yourself more you to the world watching you. Whatever makes you interesting! Whatever makes you your own piece of art is what becomes your fashion.

My ex-husband used to whine that he would never shop anywhere but Armani. If his t-shirt wasn’t $49.99 it was not going to last long. As if his t-shirt was sown from some mythical unicorn fibers that held it up better in comparison to my JCPenny t-shirts. Quite hysterically any t-shirts I have left of his have faded and torn, while my cheapies are still going strong. So we can discount quality as the main defense. Sadly in this century everyone is cutting corners and rarely is the more expensive item the better built one. “You get what you pay for” seems to be less and less a good excuse.

While I can tell you how to pick the right clothes and which heels to dig out, that’s just me giving good advice. I’ll never suggest you put yourself in complete debt and live/breath the item you now adorn yourself with. Let’s never get it twisted that there is deep meaning hiding within each stitch of clothing and layer of paint. There is meaning in fashion, but not just because it has an Italian’s name on it. Few people ask the quality of paint I use in my paintings. They’re just happy I made an interesting picture. People should be the same. It’s not who I wear, but what I wear that enhances my personality. We’re a blank canvas and anything added will jazz it up. It doesn’t matter the quality of paint you’re using to do it with. All that matters is you’ve jazzed and everyone knows without a doubt that you’re fabulous!

Tags: art, fashion, featured

Category: Style, Transgender Fun & Entertainment