Process

Because I am usually making/assembling these costumes the night before a show or in the car on the way there, my process is often very immediate. I work intuitively. It is not rare to find me, shredding t-shirts, sewing ribbons, adding feathers, and practicing dance moves to my favorite music (generally involving heavy basslines….) all night long before heading out of town. My bedroom has served as my studio before, and this is what it looks like after an all-nighter of costume making:

I have spent countless hours in the back seats of friends’ festival-bound cars making flashy accoutrements out of old t-shirts from goodwill. I have basically perfected the art of applying face paint and facial gemstones while in a moving vehicle, and I am pretty certain that I now possess over 50 different shades of eye shadow.

A huge part of my process is simply keeping my eyes open. I am always on the lookout for clothing items that could function as part of a costume, or somehow be manipulated into one. Among my favorite places to go “hunting” for materials are the Goodwill on Forest Avenue in Portland, and the Purple Barn, which is in Craryville, NY (only open on weekends….and be prepared for extreme rummaging…it is a densely packed, small space.)

I recently acquired a sewing machine from Goodwill. It has been a great addition to my studio: