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DRESS MAKING 2025 / Crone - Mother - Daughter
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CHERI A ELLIS copyright 2024 / All Rights Reserved
Dedicated to my Mother / Susan Charlotte Lutz Ellis 1940 -2024
BEYOND THE VEIL / a symposium of veiled imagery conveying a message about the innate connection between what is seen and known, and what is unseen and unknown. Beyond the veil of illusion, the idea of finding alignment in our true selves by listening to the wisdoms of what the inner world, behind, beyond the veil, speaks of.
CURVED HORNS / ANTLERS / symbolic of the intuition cultivated in the gut biome, the second brain. The relationship of the balance and health within the gut biome that connects to the vagus nerve that runs up into the 3rd eye pineal gland. Clarity. Over coming fears increases perception intuition. Butterflies flying within our bellies to inform us, to guide us.
CRONE - MOTHER - DAUGHTER / the intrinsic relationship between this trinity of divine feminine connection. A tri-union that shares a gut biome of similar flora and fauna. Gardens planted by our mother ancestors, tended to by each generation, to hand down to each daughter legacies of wisdoms along with unresolved trauma.
MY MOTHER / with the passing of my Mother in the year of 2024, I took back my dress making. Like so many things I do, the choice was made by an inner prompting, an inner beckoning. My love and appreciation for the art of dresses, came from my mother, and from her mother. She taught me how to sew, beginning with hand-sewn doll dresses and onto my own dresses and flannel shirts for my father.
Memories of choosing dresses with my mother, seem to be the ones that I have remembered, and hold dear to my heart. The indicator of my passion later on in life, was cultivated in a shared creativity that spoke of profound self expression and the ability to give voice to it. My mother, like all of our mothers, with "burning tongue syndrome' . Knowing so much within themselves, but confined to a world that does not let them speak, does not let them heal and resolve. Dresses, the crowning feminine expression, revealing the females' own inner beauty and how it looks to her. My dresses were bought with frugality, they were always my choice, and they all seemed to reflect a type of character that I was developing.
Now a doll maker as well, my childhood was spent in a very expansive and magical world with my dolls. Different than the creepiness of dolls that diminish the feminine, my doll experiences were seeped in shared insights and wisdoms that could not be seen and valued in an outer world. The dolls could embody my early 'witchy' qualities of feeling what I truly felt, and created an outlet of expression between themselves. It was my mother who would take me to the tiny little fabric store in the West Seattle junction to buy little quarter yards of calicos and seersucker prints.
Imagery above : here artwork has been printed onto fabric and sewn into garments.The repeat patterns were digitally printed onto yardage, while the single designs were silkscreened onto polished muslins and pieced into the garments. The "Beyond the Veil" trilogy of imagery was created by photographing the dresses and body parts (see image on far left, click onto it), then merging them 'collage like' (tying everything together) onto back rounds created from the design illustrations. Moths of 'transmutation' were taken from paintings with symbols being created in black and white, pen and ink, then digitally colored. Imagery taken from "Mycelium Portal" , "Plant - Bee Medicine", "Moth Transmutation", "Victory / Six of Wands", "The Orphic Egg Bee"
AUTO IMMUNE DISORDERS / originate in the gut, with 80% of them being women who have them. Autoimmunity is reaching epidemic levels. Imbalances in the gut bacteria can trigger autoimmune responses in the body.
The micro biome and its newly referenced name being the 'second brain', is fast becoming a fascinating scientific confirmation for our ancestral folklore depicting the need to 'listen to your gut". The understanding of a trillion gut bacteria butterflies fluttering around in chaos when a person is feeling trapped by heavy triggering emotion. To be able to listen to that, and heed its message, can be the answer to mental health ... to happiness.
These terrains of flora and fauna we inherit from our mothers, plant lives that can recreate the lives of our ancestors within their descendants, seem to shed light upon the idea of healing the gut and changing the stories.
Prescription medications, antibiotics, wipe out the gut biome. They destroy the immense power the gut plant life has in working harmoniously to keep the body strong and healthy. Treating the symptoms with meds, we miss out on the 'tending of our own inner garden' , the life lessons that require reflection, self awareness and actions of intention. Self care. Self love.
Here, in this body of creative work, I wanted to illustrate the connection of the inner world of our intuition and soulful selves, as the divine feminine with an abundant garden upon her head. The curving expansive horns indications of her ability to utilize the great wisdoms of her true internal self, using it to navigate through the challenges of life. When these garden rituals are in order, we can apply the cycles of nature to almost everything we do in our lives, and this is where and how the dreams are created, ones that our true to us.
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Imagery above :1. Dresses were created with a very simple design. No zipper, no buttons, elastic in the back, 4 yards of ties to be creative with. Pockets yes! The bodice is silkscreened with the original art, and sewn into a 'dress up / dress down' garment. 2. Slowly but surely the artwork is being formatted into an oracle deck. These are some of the first samples to test design concepts 3. "PLANT medicine / Portal of Sanctity / Gazelle" Dress made from organic cotton sateen printed with the "Plant Bee Medicine" artwork ( see 'Plant Bee Medicine 2024' link) Backing the dress image is the artwork VICTORY / VI of WANDS, original created with black and white / pen and ink. Symbols hand drawn / designed. Body parts / self portrait, see link upper left. Moths from a painting called "Bee Sisters" (10 years in the painting, still not done). 4. Dress silkscreened with "MOTH Transmutation" artwork ( see "Transmutation ART 2023" link above left) Image created the same as the one next to it. These 2 images are the pairing to the veiled imagery above. Representing the "seen and known", with the "unseen and unknown"
"Mycelium Network" illustration / pen and ink drawing re-colored digitally
ACE of WANDS / tarot / pen and ink drawing re-colored digitally
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Page being worked on!
Imagery above : "Nuit Rasa" named after the star goddess Nuit, Queen of Heaven. representing the sky and the heavens. Encompassing all creation, she is the great mother of the sky. The doll is created from canvas silkscreened with the "MOTH Transmutation" artwork (see the link "Transmutation Art 2023" for the full body image of the moth artwork on the doll) Dress created from fabric printed with the artwork from the "Owl Bee" (see the link "Illustration 2022" for the "Owl Bee" design). The dress embellished with hand sewn beaded pieces, while the sleeves carry the 'wing' art of the owl bee design. Hand painted face with braided felt hair. The image created by mirroring the left side of the original photograph. Red print back round created from a black and white / pen and ink illustration of the VI of WANDS / VICTORY tarot card.
MERGING ARTWORK DIGITALLY / Most of the imagery created is purposed specifically for silkscreening, yardage fabric designs (repeat patterning) and for a line of card and stickers. The card line is now moving into an oracle deck which merges all of the mediums into message telling illustrations. The artwork is used for personal exploration, self-reflection, and spiritual practices. With the digital process, designs can be cut out and moved onto other design work. Back rounds created with repeat patterns, topped with images from paintings and drawings. Whilst the digital process can indicate missing a vital step in the creative process in some cases, here it is taking very timely detailed pieces of hand created artwork and allowing them to create expansive creative collages.
EXAMPLE /
With the imagery here, fabric printed with the artwork has been made into a dress, photographed, and put into an image that is surrounded by artwork and symbols taken from other pieces of artwork. The rabbit image is created by using the painted rabbit head (below) The limbs of the figures are self portraits (click onto left imagery. Hands and feet were painted white, while legs and arms were covered with textured leggings. 'Flora and horned' headdresses are photographs of still life flower combinations. The body of work still very much embracing the use of 'mirroring' to convey a deep message of internal balancing.
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Imagery above : top left "II of WANDS (tarot) originally created in pen and ink, digitally re-colored. The same image used for the back round of the second image here. "Spirt of Abundance and Good Fortune" created with "MOTH Transmutation" dress with "Mycelium Portal" crop top (process explained above), rabbit head from painting in lower right. Painted moths taken from the "Bee Sisters" (unfinished) at left (click onto it). MOTH image backed with a zoom-in of "Mycelium Portal" with hand drawn symbols (infuse your own meaning) Lower right "Octo Healer" ,"Hemp Bee" , "Ayahuasca and Bee", "Rabbit Head" paintings.
