HAND SEWN MASKS by Kathrine Page

Originated in Berkeley, CA, Flower Power became synonymous with the subcultural hippie movement begun in the 1960s, its psychedelic arts, and the anti-Vietnam War protests. Protestors carried flowers, flags, and posters inscribed with the word LOVE. The art of Milton Glaser and Peter Max propelled the flower power phenomenon with their designs for the Beatles’ films or Bob Dylan’s posters. The 1960s also birthed the remarkably creative “art to wear” movement. Relegated to their studios, textile artists took time-honored techniques of crochet, embroidery, and applique with cottons, woolens, felt, and recycled items to fashion a bold new personal vision related to socio-political issues. Artists liberated from the constraints of social norms to the spirit of the age took inspiration from every corner of their existence and harvested new concepts for expression in their one of a kind wearable works. Music, folklore imagery, modern art, and the environment all embodied the language that offered infinite possibilities for patterns and texture and channeling the aggregate of emotions of the time. This one of a kind wearable work of art contains a motif of felt flowers intersected by vintage polka-dot ribbon in homage to these two movements.

MATERIALS: 100% Cotton, felt, Pellon interfacing, polyester ribbon