Research:
Sterling Ruby’s paintings-
Ruby was born on an American military base in Germany in 1972, then moved to Baltimore Maryland and then to a rural town in Pennsylvania and grew up in an agrarian culture. Ruby attended The Pennsylvania School of Art and Design then received his BFA from SAIC. He then attended the MFA program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Ruby’s work ranges from large scale abstract paintings, collage, sculpture, video, and public works. He has collaborated with Raf Simons with his signature bleached fabric designs and designed the interiors of the Calvin Klein New York showrooms after Simons move to the brand. In the Spring of 2019 Ruby announced the launch of his ready-to-wear collection S.R.STUDIO.LA.CA which debuted in June.
His work is shown in the Guggenheim, SF MOMA, NY MOMA, the Whitney, Moderna Museet Stockholm, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, and Tate Modern Londen and more.
Ruby lives and works in Los Angelos and his studio is located in Vernon.
“Sterling Ruby… has cited a diverse range of sources and influences including aberrant psychologies (particularly schizophrenia and paranoia), urban gangs and graffiti, hip-hop culture, craft, punk, masculinity, violence, public art, prisons, globalization, American domination and decline, waste and consumption. In opposition to the minimalist artistic tradition and influenced by the ubiquity of urban graffiti, the artist’s works often appear scratched, defaced, camouflaged, dirty, or splattered… Ruby’s work examines the psychological space where individual expression confronts social constraint.[1][2]“
“Sterling Ruby.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Dec. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Ruby.
Elsa Schiaparelli portrait-
Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) was an Italian fashion designer whose designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. She was a prominent figure in fashion during the 2 world wars but did not conform to the war changes.
Paul Poiret was her mentor and though she had no technical training in pattern making and clothing construction she would drape fabric over on her body like Poiret’s garments made by manipulating and draping.
In Paris Schiaparelli began making her own clothes and started her business. She launched a collection of knitwear in 1927 featuring sweaters with embroidered surrealist trompe l’oeil images that were featured in Vogue. She also created a “pour le sport” collection including bathing suits, ski-wear, and linen dresses and added evening wear to her collections in 1931.
Some of her notable designs included the wrap dress, appearing in 1930, which she took inspiration from aprons. It was originally intended as beachwear but became so popular that it was then made into streetwear. 40 years later her work would be famously revisited by DVF in 1970.
Schiaparelli is also credited with creating clothes with the first visible zippers, unusual buttons, and her divided skirt (a forerunner to shorts) worn by tennis player Lili de Alvarez at Wimbledon.
Schiaparelli also experimented with textiles to resembles textures like tree bark, created novelty prints like newspaper printed fabric, and crumpled rayon 50 years before Issey Miyake produced similar pleated and crinkled pieces.
One of her famous designs includes the Lobster Dress featuring a large lobster painted by Dali, the Tears Dress, and the Shoe Hat.
Her couture business closed in 1951 and the design house closed later in 1954. The house had been nominated for a return by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture and presented its first show in 2014 and is sold exclusively at a by-appointment boutique in Paris.
Process:
Final Photo:
Artist Statement:
For this project, I dressed up as designer Elsa Schiaparelli and “painted” my portrait in the style of artist Sterling Ruby. I was familiar with these two people before from the documentary Dior and I where Sterling Ruby gave his paintings into textile prints for Raf Simons and had known Schiaparelli through her famous lobster dress collaboration with Salvador Dali. Both artists and designers I admired and wanted to dive deeper to find out about their style and who they were.
From my research, I was interested to learn that Ruby grew up with a humble American background much like a student like me had but is now a successful internationally acclaimed artist. It gives me hope as famous artists seem so out of touch like folktales but Ruby is an example of the American dream. On the other hand, Schiaparelli grew up with money and leisure but it was still cool to learn about her trompe d’oeil sweaters, wrap dresses, and pant skirts that paved the way of fashion today.
In many of Schiaparelli’s portraits, she is elegantly portrayed with a soft smile and confident yet wandering glance of the eye. To dress up, I curled my hair, tied my silk pillowcase into a turban, exaggerated my eyebrows to be longer, carefully drew on eyeliner, and wore a black kimono. For the poses, I imitated her sideways glance and posed my hand like in one of her portraits. I experimented with draping sheer fabric over the lens for a dreamy effect but then realized that my face wouldn’t be clear enough after the double exposure effects in Photoshop so I retook photos without the fabric.
Being a Photoshop heavy project, I wanted to still add a touch of hand craftsmanship so I painted five mini paintings inspired by Sterling Ruby. I noticed that he often had different rectangles added into his painting so I thought I could add these in also. Using Acrylic I experimented on cardboard, mixing, spreading the paint. It was very candid but so much fun. I loved the dry brush and contrast between the colors.
Adding all the elements together, I layered one of Ruby’s paintings, my portrait, then my five mini paintings together, being aware of the composition. I felt like something was missing to capture the spirit of Schiaparelli so I then posterized a photo of a lobster that fitted perfectly in the cusp of my hand.
I didn’t intend my mini paintings to change so much from their original state but I felt like manipulating them was necessary in order for the portrait to be cohesive. Also what doesn’t get shown in the final product is how awkward it was to capture the photo. Plus, my turban wouldn’t stay on so I kept had to readjust it! But in conclusion, dressing up was something fun that I don’t get to do every day and I’m happy with how all the colors and textures came together that alluded to Ruby’s colorful, messy, abstract style.
