Jeffrey Campbell and Salem Witch Trials

Happy day! My new Jeffrey Campbell boots arrived in the mail. They are Jeffrey Campbell 'Mattie' ankle boots, and like all Jeffrey Campbells, they are really comfortable. A fashion website that I really like (but never buy from because it's so expensive) was having a sale for select styles of shoes. Some of the styles included... Jeffrey Campbell! Jeffrey Campbell is my favourite shoe designer. The styles are so clunky and weird, and inspired by things that are quite inspiring to me. Along with that, as mentioned, his shoes are among the most comfortable. It would be amazing to be a shoe designer. Shoes are fascinating glimpses into a person's personality, and it would be interesting to be someone who helps decide that.

You can check out Jeffrey Campbell here.

The shoes that I would really like to own are the Jeffrey Campbell Siglins. They're inspired by Wednesday Addams, and they're described as being a love child between the height of a creeper and the shape of a Doc Marten. Good combination, in my opinion.

They also come in a houndstooth design. I'm most fond of the velvet and the patent leather. They're quite something, aren't they? Seriously, Jeffrey Campbell is amazing. I'm a huge fan of my Litas, and my new Mattie boots are going to be a happy contribution to my shoe collection.

In other news, check out my makeup/photo project from today.

It is inspired by the Salem witch trials. I've been really inspired by historical conceptions of witch craft, and how it plays into classical art. It's so fascinating... so violent. I'd like to do more art work surrounding the hysteria surrounding witch craft, ad hysteria in general. And thus, I do make up and photograph pairings that look like this. 

The words etched by insanity

I wrote a bit about this piece for the Fibre Blog at ACAD. You can find it here. I just don't want to re-write things. However, I did want to record some of the thoughts that I've been having in terms of reflecting upon what imagery I've been choosing to embroider. Re-reading some history of old mental asylums, it takes a toll on me. It's horrific, a form of psychological massacre. Social rejection turned into social genocide. I place myself in the time and place where someone would be cast out because of something as small as migraines or anxiety; lobotomized for something like schizophrenia or manic depression. There is such darkness that we gloss over, pretending that it never happened. If we can't pretend, we hide. Swallowing lies. Making scars magically disappear, attempting to silence those who disagree. 

The graffiti on the walls of asylums is thought-provoking, disturbing, repulsing. It's a dream of horror and macabre, not realizing how mad it makes the artist look. It becomes difficult to determine which graffiti was created by the lunatics, and which was created by those who claim to be sane. It blurs the line between sanity and insanity. It makes us question whether or not there is a divide to begin with. Perhaps we are always mad, and there is just a single push that makes us accept the fact that we never knew a reality.

Thrift Store Adventures

Found some neat things at the thrift store! Check out the cool choker I found! (scissors are a separate necklace that I've been wearing). It is metal mesh, with drape-y hanging chains and beads. Struck me as nice and Gothic and Victorian. Pretty nice find for $2.

I found a Wednesday Addams dress (knee length, long sleeves, Peter Pan collar, velvet buttons), a Catpocalypse t-shirt (by which I mean a t-shirt with a skull made of kittens and cats), a book of Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories, and a Charles Dickens-inspired notebook.

I also found a bunch of small trinkets. A large brooch with a 1920s design, I think it might be from the 1920s, as it is painted and is made of an old-feeling plastic; A Frida Kahlo pendant, which is double sided, with two miniature versions of her self-portraits; a vintage locket; metal tips for collars, which attach to fabric with the help of tiny little screws. 

So far, we have found some neat things at the Value Village near our house. Lots of treasures!