"MilkMade" - Award-Winning Wearable Art Piece 2011

Campbell River Art Gallery, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
July 23rd, 2011 - Wearable Art Show
"MilkMade" by Tara Hope
*Winner of the Audience Choice Award
*Winner of the Best Use of Recycled Material Award

I designed "MilkMade" with 18th century milk maid apparel in mind, hence the corset and full length skirt. The piece is covered with hand-stitched layers of sequins I hand-cut from recycled plastic milk jugs. The headdress is made from vertical strips of the plastic milk jugs and lined with longer, thinner strips. The necklace, bracelets, cuffs, and finger pieces were all made from milk jugs. Faces made from the jugs' handles and spouts run down the length of the skirt at the back and one is on the front of the headdress. This piece took countless hours to complete. It was worth every minute.

I can't thank the Campbell River Art Gallery enough - such a supportive, wonderful enviornment and staff and volunteers.

Bread, Love and Cha Cha Cha is made entirely of recycled materials. The bread bags represent motherhood and comfort, as does the apron, while the cape is evocative of heroism and wings which enable the artist to transport children to and fro and sometimes herself away. The headdress is both regal and comical, a nod to domesticity and to exuberance. Images and words from shopping bags and food packages cover sections of the piece. These words are meant to persuade, to beguile, to amuse, and to warn of grave dangers.

Tara holds her regal head high, spreads her bread bag wings and soars, bolstered by her onion sac sheath and leather mask. She lightens up as her repurposed materials implore, “Please Re-Use or Recycle this bag,” and, “KEEP THIS BAG AWAY FROM BABIES AND CHILDREN.” Protector, consumer, parent – she wears them all as a loose garment. This piece won the Audience Choice Award and Best Use of Recycled Materials Award at the Comox Valley Art Gallery´s 2010 Wearable Art Show & Competition. It also won ten coupons for 40 cents off Wonder Bread products from Wonder Bread Canada. :)

On Saturday, February 19th and Sunday, February 20th, 2011, it will be modelled in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the Port Moody International 2011Wearable Art Awards. This is a big thrill for me, very humbling to be a little fish in such a big pond of high calibre artists. I wonder if I'm the only one who used electrical tape to hold parts of their piece together....

The piece that keeps on giving...

Backstage before a performance at the Campbell River Art Gallery, Summer 2010