Spring 2008 Artist Announced!

I am delighted to announce the muse for the next VAGADU collection. San Francisco's own Kara Maria. More details to be found out about her at her site: www.karamaria.com.

First, I was drawn to Kara's work through her unabashed use of bright colors, bold shapes and abstract themes.
But slowly, I realized that her style of pop-graphics, cluttered scapes and cheery and cheery tones had put me in trance, and I was actually finding some heavier political messages. Don't let the Rainbow Bright palette fool you, Kara is exploring intense elements of our society where war, oil, destruction of our planet and porn are fed to us through a glossy filter of mainstream media.

Her art shocks and disturbs and for a moment I thought I might not be able to work with such dark energies. From Rex the king of Zen, to Kara is a leap in the opposite direction. While I want to be true to her work, my own differences of artistic expression is to extract the positive aspects of her art that appeal to me, that I would want worn around my body. For instance, I love the way she manipulates paint, from watery spreads, to drips, dots, splotches, gloppy smears to faint markings. I also enjoy certain reoccurring shapes, the birds, planes, and the Islamic inspired tiles that grace many of her works.

The dancers and performers I believe will have a lot more space to explore Kara's angst and juxtaposition of guns, and oil tanks, of naked women and women in burqas.

On another positive note, the Kara Maria collection is also going to be the first time that the whole process will be visually documented. It helps that she and the whole production crew isn't 1,000 miles away so as each element of the show gets put together, the clothes, the dance, the music, the stage--we will be there documenting the process.

Except for the food. Chef Efrain Cuevas will still be bringing us his delicious treats, but he will send us video via Chicago as he prepares for the big day.

(More information on the next show is forthcoming. Save the date of May 3rd!)