PMOF LLC: Continuing Education for the Working Artist, The Home for Wayward Print Girls and Boys
Wayward Boutique collection is the creation of artist/printmaker Shelley Thorstensen
By way of explanation, during the summer when I was twelve I had a love affair with fashion design. I was in an acting class at the Music Fair in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a theater-in-the-round tent. I quickly gravitated to the artisans backstage, befriending the seamstresses that traveled with the players. While my parents thought I was taking acting classes, I was, in fact, just hanging out with them. I knew how to sew - both my Sicilian and Norwegian grandmothers had taught me. It was my Norwegian grandmother's trade. She had jumped ship in Brooklyn from a Norwegian Merchant Marine vessel with my father and uncle in tow when they were nine months and four-years-old respectively. As such, she was the seamstress at a Greenpoint hotel for many years.
Furthermore, my Sicilian grandmother upon arriving as a five-year-old orphan in New York promptly began sewing buttons on clothing in sweat shops in the Garment District. As a side gig she made and sold clothing for cats on Mott Street. Obviously, I figured I was a natural with the skill and chutzpa passed on from my grandmothers. When the troupe was ready to pull up stakes and travel to the next location I was ready to go with them. They offered me a job, even going so far as to ask my mother.
Wild hysteria ensued. I guess they had no idea how old I was. As a result, I put away the childish infatuation with fashion design and returned to my original goal that I had set as a seven-year-old…to become a printmaker. (Although years later, fresh out of college and out of my parents’ control, I did spend a wayward six months drawing portraits on the East Coast carnival circuit).
Now at Printmakers Open Forum's Wayward Boutique, I am able to scratch that fashion itch, so to speak, zip into this new bag, all without straying far from my first love of printmaking. I've selected twelve of my original screenprints, etchings, lithographs and linocuts to be produced on material goods: scarves, tote bags, backpacks, duffel bags, weekender bags, drawstring bags, zip pouches, throw pillows, shoes, leggings, journals, sun dresses, miniskirts, and chiffon tank tops. At last, my worlds collide.
I invite you to explore the Wayward Boutique 2019 Collection.
Mahalo and Viva la Dolce Vita!
Shelley Thorstensen
About Wayward Boutique pdf
Proceeds from Wayward Boutique go to offset expenses for #PrintCamp, a hybrid residency/workshop for experience printmakers
directed by Shelley Thorstensen at Printmakers Open Forum LLC
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