The Kimono Series
‘Abstract Kimono’, front
‘The Kimono Series’ is a group of 6 hand painted acrylic on vinyl kimono shaped paintings.
The 6 works in this series were painted between 1991-1993, and were shown separately and together in several gallery shows at that time. Each painting was designed to be hung in space, so that one could walk around them. Each kimono was constructed and sewn as a garment, even lined with ripstop nylon, to protect the actual painted side of the vinyl.
I worked from a sewing pattern, one I’d already sewn up in fabric, to create this series. First, each piece was cut out in a clear medium gauge vinyl, which had become my preferred painting surface. I designed stencils and made drawings for many of the pieces, an exception being ‘Abstract Kimono’, which you see featured here. I was moving towards being an abstract painter at this time, and I credit ‘Abstract Kimono’ as being my first abstract painting.
‘Abstract Kimono’ - back
After each pattern piece was painted, I lined each one with black nylon fabric, then sewed the entire piece together. I’d already been working with vinyl for years as a designer, and when I switched to painting, something quite magical happened for me. Suddenly it made sense to work this way - I’d been hesitating to dive in as a painter until this point. ‘The Kimono Series’ helped me take a big step into my art.
At the same time, I was stepping out of designing and producing fashion, which had been my main creative love for many years. I’d longed to focus myself and create a career as an artist, and was quite done with fashion and the fashion world.
I felt lost at the time in how to do this, how to get started as an artist, and then this wild idea showed up - make paintings on vinyl! Between 1991 - 2010, I painted over 1000 paintings on vinyl, using the technique of acrylic paint in reverse on vinyl. Most of those paintings are long gone, purchased by many collectors over the years. There are a few available for sale on this site in my shop.
Currently I am painting again, having taken a ten year hiatus in order to build my psychic business. My new works are abstracts, painted in gouache and mixed media on paper. You can see what’s new on this page.
‘The Kimono Series’ is available for sale in my shop on this website.
