What is Passion?

A couple of years ago, I applied to participate in a community art show. I was turned down, not because the judging panel didn’t think my hats were pretty, they just didn’t think they were art. They kindly suggested that I showcase my wears at a craft show instead. I really saw their point, but I couldn’t help but feel a nasty sting after reading their comment. It wasn’t that they thought I belonged in a craft show. I think just wanted to tell me that I didn’t belong in their art show. I love crafting! So don’t get me wrong about feeling insulted for being identified as a crafter. I have probably attended more craft shows in my life than art shows.

But let me ask this question, at what point does craft become art? What are the rules to art? Is it something entirely different if we wear it as opposed to looking at it from a distance? I have some head pieces that are so impractical that one could only wear it as art. There are textile artists, but why can’t I fall into that category in the art world? I border on being a “wire” artist if you consider all the engineering and designing that goes into wire work. I mean who really makes up the rules? I guess it really depends who you ask. If you asked Christian Siriano, he would probably snap his fingers and tell you that FASHION IS ART HONEY, and it’s FIERCE!

I will stick with my made-up Christian Siriano answer.

As another month slips by ever so quickly, and a new season begins, I get a little pang in my belly dreaming of new designs for the warmer months. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Pandemic won’t come roaring back after Summer, and thus keeping us incarcerated for another round. I don’t think we can take anymore…not much more…anymore. But I know our future is vast different now than our past.

My only salvation is that I live in Texas. We have not been tied down as long as some of the other states. We also don’t have crazy spiking numbers, which is a little ironic given the fact that we also have less vaccinated people in our midst. So I guess we must be doing something right.

Please check out my new shop. I have decided to leave Etsy (maybe permanently). I feel oddly liberated by not having to spread myself out so thin. I miss a few of their nice and useful features, and I am going to see if I can live without them for a while. I don’t have much to sell by way of ready-to-wear, and I will have even less in the future as I focus more on bespoke and art pieces I can style. The photography on my website has taken on a life of its own. Its become an integral part of my final production, and the completion of each project spurs me to begin again.

I grew up dreaming of my one-day life, and what it was like living another person’s life. I used to think it was normal to wonder about others, but maybe all this wonder has a lot to do with how I grew up, and living in a community that was always on the outside looking in.

Creating The Mad Duchess has been a lifelong dream. Having a place to platform my creative process has rescued my mental health during tough times. Each of my pieces are given a name, because each of them exude a personality that developed over time during my “making” process. All my hats have a way of speaking to me, urging me, and sometimes even demanding more of me. This is why I have decided to abandon the idea of seasonality for my hats. I just can’t follow that structure. I create when there’s inspiration. I stop when there is none. This is how my passion flows.