Art and Fashion preview

I have been busy working on completely new things recently here is a tiny look at some of it.

A little phone pic preview of some of my more recent embroidery artwork

maliamillais playtime pinafore in maroon

sleeveless pastel rainbow blouse

Will happiness find me?

I had an art exhibition back in February!! And I was really happy with how it all turned out. The work was kind of inspired by Chris Krauss' book 'I love Dick' and I am feeling too lazy to go into depth about it, but it was kind of about revealing and owning the personal aspects of our lives and the things we normally keep hidden. I embroidered secrets, or gossipy type facts about people with glow in the dark thread and then displayed them all on this big frame in a black room, with lights strung up behind the embroideries that flashed on and off. I really enjoyed the aspect of being in a small black room as part of an art exhibition as sometimes it can be weird going to an exhibition especially if you are by yourself and have no one to talk to, or you can feel 'on show' how you are viewing the art etc. Anyway I like the fact that being in a dark room took away this aspect of being watched and made the experience more relaxing (definitely for me as the artist being there). The fact that the sculpture was kind of maze like meant that when the lights flashed off you would be kind of trapped in there so as not to trip over the art work in the dark, this meant that you were forced to spend longer with the work than usual. Because the light flashing on made the room quite bright, it would take a while for the embroidered glow in the dark words to be visible to your enlarged retinas when the light flashed off and the sentences would slowly grow on you after several sequences of the light flashing on and off. Everything came together at the last second exactly how I wanted it to. But because of the nature of the work the images don't really convey the sense of it very accurately.

I worked sewing the embroidered sentences onto the frame til about 5am then had to be at work at 9am.  Lovely Dan learned to sew so that he could help me for a few hours in the middle of the night, and a few of my other super lovely friends came in to help too. Adele wrote an amazing catalogue essay for me and did the floor sheet. The switch to make the lights switch on and off at an interval of 10 seconds had to be custom made and was only finished on the day of the opening as the previous arrangement I had stopped working a few days earlier. It was all fairly hectic and a pretty big relief when it was over, still I was glad to make something which for once I did not cringe over (apart from the personal secrets revealed).

My friend Ben took the photos above and some pretty good photos from the night too, but there are a bunch up already here.

Malia Millais is making stuff

I haven't posted here in a long time, but I have access to the internet again! So here goes...

I've been busy working on creating art and fashion design instead of viewing it recently and have set up a little online etsy shop in the last few weeks under the name Malia Millais

I've been sewing forever and recently have become completely obsessed with it. And as what I made became more exactly what I wanted to wear I realised that I was no longer interested in shopping for clothes, because I'd rather wear things that I was completely happy with, that I knew there would be no chance of anyone else wearing and that I knew were produced in an environment where the person making them was not working in bad conditions (my loungeroom is pretty darn comfy). So I decided as well as making for myself, to set up a little shop on etsy and offer my clothes to everyone.
Here's the link.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaliaMillais xx

Luxembourg

something is

i pretty much love everything posted on this blog something is something else

Happiness

I finally put up this lovely sculpture I bought from Amy Joy too many weeks ago. I'm quite happy with this one tiny section of my house now, it makes me happy just seeing this one spot of harmony and colour in my super messy, unorganised house. It looked even nicer with cupcakes on the cake platter. I also finally found a laminex table and chairs today! Only $85 at the church garage sale, I can't believe how easy it all ended up being, now just to take a photo of it when it's not covered in things...

I'm joining the circus

New H by Hudson shoes arrived from Coggles today! I'm trying to get excited about winter by buying sensible wintery shoes... Or maybe I'll just run away and join the circus.

computer glitch

Our computer programme at work stopped working yesterday. I got to go home early! It is amazing being home in the daytime during the week. Yesterday I made yoghurt! (unsuccessful) and today I baked cupcakes and plan to finish writing for the exhibition grant application, due in about 4 days!

wintertime

I am a little busy at the moment trying to get artwork together for an exhibition I am having with two other lovely girls in July. I was feeling the allure of winter when I started this work in the middle of summer in my un-airconditioned apartment. Now that the days are getting coolish and the show is mid-winter I may have to change my direction a little...

City living

So I have moved house in the last two weeks. It is exciting living somewhere cute and old where everything (almost) actually works. This left me with an obsession for online shopping for vintage furniture. I am currently trying to overcome the hurdle of finding a nice comfortable couch that is not leather and preferably not new... Unfortunately anything I find is already sold. I recently discovered the site 'svpply' via really gorgeous blog freckle farm, dangerous territory... I need this chair!