Maturin II

After I collected my degree (it's still rolled up somewhere, I don't know where), came home and started making art, I thought I'd never want to do anything else. It makes my life so fun and meaningful because I get to indulge in whatever obsession of the moment - barricade tape, ships, tattoos, footballs, astronomy, metronomes.

Progressively, it's been getting more meaningful but less fun. I don't know how that happened. The other night I divulged a secret to T.W. - I often make things thinking of the object first, and then insert some kind of 'message' - that's how 'Executive Toy' came about: you see, all I wanted to do was make ceramic balls and paint on them. Yeah, I know. This post is doing myself no favours.

I've been thinking seriously about going to fashion school next year. My unborn label 'Maturin ' has been on my mind constantly in the past couple of months. I don't want to be in the fashion industry. I don't have a passion for that, no passion to 'be on top'. I only want to make clothes and other things that are crafted with a bit of care and integrity. I look at all the stuff that's in these cute new boutiques today and I have no idea where they come from - which factory in China or Indonesia? Cheap fabrics, poor stitching. Clothes you wear for 2 months and throw out after. It's terrible. And then there are the big clothing companies like GAP and TopShop - although they're better designed, they're still not built to last. I'm lucky enough that I can fit my late grandmother's clothes perfectly - they're probably more than half a century old. The colors are as bright as ever, the edge binding shows no signs of fraying, seams and hems are perfectly intact, even the damn buttons refuse to come off!

I think when you make something like that, something beautiful and useful, it defies the ostentatious and gratuitous commercialism that has come to define the fashion industry. I don't want someone to tell me the meaning of value and luxury. That's why Maturin will be a fashion label, NOT a brand. It's just another reason and avenue to do things my way - independent, self-starting and sustainable. I think that buying good things makes you buy less things. My personal wardrobe is pretty small, and unlikely to grow much bigger.

Anyway, these are just the 3am thoughts of an artist who hasn't been using her hands enough the past six months.