Norman Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With” depicting Ruby Bridges – the first black child to attend an all white elementary school in the South. Image from the website of the Norman Rockwell Museum.
Art has been used for centuries to point to the world we deeply desire and to the worlds we deeply don’t.
People often equate art with beauty and beauty in its variety of forms often moves us towards justice.
Beauty is universal. At any given moment in your life you have access to a form of beauty. It could be the love of a family member, a stunning sunset, a color, a meal, a painting, a speech, any small thing you observe during the course of your day. It is this exact universality of beauty that moves us to recognize justice should also be universal. Society should have equal access to justice in the same way we all have equal access to beauty. Beyond its universality, the experience of beauty alone causes a “radical decentering”. This de-centering allows humans to no longer see themselves as the focus of their surroundings and allows them to begin to see the inequalities around them.
This piece is an homage to the Civil Rights Movement, based on the “I am a Man” march that took place on South Main. Marcel Lovelace modernizes history with bright colors and a graffiti-style.
Part of creating a more just society is visualizing a more just society. This can take the form of seeing things you no longer want to be a part of your society as well as seeing the things you do. In this way visual representation is pivotal to establishing a more just society. As humans we naturally emulate, desire to reproduce, and partake in the beauty we see around us. What better way for us to learn how a person should be treated or esteemed, than by seeing it in action? We use representational justice to achieve societal justice.
A pivotal part of our society’s work for human equality in the United States has been the use of images. Art and images help us to respect the full spectrum of human life. Indeed, art often puts to us the choice to keep a limited view of humanity or embrace a more expanded version. America’s progress requires images, requires art, because of the way it conjures our imagination about what a society could be.
Holding hands during Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights’ Rally in 1963
“The endeavor to to affirm the dignity of human life cannot be waged without pictures, without representational justice.” -Sarah Lewis
Resources:
Lewis, S. E. (2016, Summer). Vision and Justice. Aperture, 223, pp.11-14
Scarry, E. (1999). On Beauty and Being Just. Harvard University Press.
If you’re gonna be at the park for a few days or are a SOCAL local then I highly recommend checking out TRADER SAM’s. It is on the Disneyland Hotel grounds and is accessible without a park ticket. It’s a great place to escape the heat in the AC and grab an adult beverage. It’s still chock full of Disney vibes. It’s tiki themed and there are some pretty fun shenanigans the bartenders get up to for each beverage ordered.
2. Take the Monorail In
Depending on which side of Downtown Disney you are entering from, the monorail is a great way to to beat the crowds and save yourself a few steps. It will shuttle you right to Tomorrow Land. If you ride it in in the AM, it sets you up perfectly to grab your hard copy of the FASTPASS for Space Mountain. It’s also a fun way to orient yourself to the park and surrounding properties.
3. The Beast’s Library
This hidden gem is a must see for Beauty and the Beast fans and people looking for an air conditioned break. This tucked away spot is found in The California Adventure park in the back of the Sorcerer’s Workshop at the Disney Animation Building in Hollywood Land. You can find out what character you are from the film and watch the Beast and rose change in the interactive display.
4. Single Rider
Having been to the parks multiple times solo, single rider is a must know, but it can also be a great hack in groups as well. Indiana Jones, IncrediCoaster, Cars, Matterhorn, and many others offer it. Often times you may still wind up sitting with a friend too!
5. Carthay Circle Lounge
I’m going to round this list out with another air conditioned place to get adult beverages because we are still in the last throws of summer heat here in SoCAL. This spot is a great way to get some Disney history about the Snow White premiere and to kill a little time feel 1930s classic.
Hope you enjoyed the tips and recommendations! If you wind up using any of them, tag me on Instagram @mainstreetmarahute !
Ashley Renee, the creative visionary behind Reed & Rye talks inspiration, creating a wedding with forever in mind, and her favorite bloom.
Ashley Renee of Reed & Rye Photo by Andre Argaez
Fresh beginnings from fresh blooms…
Ashley Renee launched her company in the Summer of 2019. Her Californian roots go deep. She was raised in Visalia and moved to San Diego in 2017 for a Dental Hygienist position. She met her husband after moving to San Diego from Visalia. During the planning of her 2019 wedding she realized she could channel her natural creativity into a career providing florals and event styling, all while tapping into her Californian roots. Reed & Rye’s Instagram feed exudes Californian beauty and boho vibes. It showcases the diversity of her creativity as a floral artist.
Reed & Rye’s Instagram Feed
Ashley has always been a creative at heart, as a kid she made jewelry and was president of the art club in high school and even took drawing classes in college. Art has always been a huge part or her life and frequently colors the ways she sees things. When her natural creativity was introduced to wedding planning she gravitated towards the floral and event design aspects of it the most strongly. It was the “shapes, colors, and textures” that drew her to floral design.
Ashley has a keen artistic eye and a distinct style. She’s most inspired by “warm tones, the variety of complex textures, and just the ability of a dried flower or foliage to live on past it’s typical life span for years to come!” It was this love of creating something that could last which led her in a slightly new direction.
Venturing into new flowering territory…
Wanting to reach more than just Southern California, Ashley recently “ventured into a new territory of flowering. The typical bride spends on average $250 for her wedding bouquet and then it sadly dies.” Ashley opened up an Etsy store selling forever bouquets and arrangements for special occasions. These allow her clients to keep their wedding bouquets forever or gift a forever arrangement. These are made with a mixture of silk and dried florals and are equally stunning to the fresh florals she provides for events. She has “come up with options for brides to purchase bouquets that will last for years to come! Whether it be an all dried bouquet or a silk floral bouquet, they will stay in great shape and will serve as a wonderful memory of their beautiful day.”
Forever bouquet by Reed & Rye . Photo by Hannah Pennell
Ashley’s favorite bloom…
When I asked Ashley what her favorite bloom was she said it was the Brown Lisianthus. I’d never seen this flower before, but fits with her warm boho vibes perfectly. For further inspiration, couples can check out Reed & Rye’s Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Etsy.
Ashley Renee with Brown Lisianthus, her current favorite bloom.
About the Author
Hannah Pennell writes about all that is style and fashion. She enjoys using her writing to shed light on artists and creatives in the San Diego area. She’s a big believer in breakfast, talking philosophy, and all things fashion. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
Highlights from Trisha Biggar’s Star Wars’ costumes. This blog shares details on a few of the costumes from the book Dressing a Galaxy.
As a HUGE Costume Design enthusiast I knew I had to get my hands on Trisha’s Biggar’s book, Dressing a Galaxy.The costumes have forever inspired me and stand out to me as a true standard for what is possible with costume design. Her research, attention to detail, and craftsmanship are extraordinary.
Trisha Biggar pulled from many sources to create the costumes you see in the Star Wars prequels. Biggar was strongly influenced by different cultures and periods, which is reflective in her use of materials. According to her Production Designer on these films, “She is passionate about the history of costumes, and she is always conscious of how her own designs relate to that history.” Click on the photo below or this link for more insight on cultural and historical influences on Biggar’s design.
As with a lot of films a great deal of work went in prior to shooting. The art department began prepping for Episode I three years before they began shooting. Nine months before they began principle photography, Biggar began to work full time. For Episode I she created a facility at a studio with 60 to 100 people. They worked long hours to create the film’s hundreds of costumes. They sourced materials from fabric fairs all over the world and worked directly with manufacturers in China, India, and Hong Kong.
Almost 100 were created for the the Star Wars prequels. A fan favorite of these is Padme Amidala’s wedding dress featured in the scene showing her marriage to Anakin Skywalker on Naboo. This wedding dress was made from an antique Victorian era bedspread. The bedspread was not quite large enough for the predesigned dress, but Biggar and George Lucas loved the lace so much that they altered the previous design.
Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala marry on Naboo.
Padme Amidala veil from wedding ensemble
Utilizing the talents of an embroidery facility in Sydney, they appliqued with a manual satin stitch the available embroidered sections from an antique lace bedspread onto eleven silk tulle pattern sections that would eventually become the wedding ensemble. Since the amount of vintage fabric was limited, Biggar’s team made 300 yards of French-knit braid for Cornely scrollwork, to combine and meld the panels. The finished dress was studded with pearls.
The wedding dress was not the only costume in the film to incorporate vintage pieces and remnants. According to Biggar, “The distinctive qualities of antique textile pieces always appeal to me, and I particularly like being able to resurrect vintage materials and trimmings, revitalizing often delicate bits of embroidery, beadings, or lace from the Victorian era (or earlier) and incorporating them into new garments.”
Close up of the vintage French fabric for Chancellor Valorum’s costume.
Chancellor Valorum
Biggar happened across some rolls of vintage 1930s and ‘40s fabric originating in France. She used these to create several costumes including Chancellor Valorum’s bruise-colored corded silk underrobe (see above) and the sunray-pleated underdress in orange shot silk in Amidala’s Throne Room Costume. The neck of Queen Amidala’s Throne Room Costume was enriched by placing layers of gold glass-bead fringing and Victorian bullion-embroidered lace motifs over the yoke area (below).
Queen Amidala’s Throne Room costume.
Antique items were used in the costumes of Anakin Skywalker as well. Biggar used items from Africa for the creation of his Interior Freighter Disguise costume. It consists of his Jedi trousers and a taupe raw-silk open-weave undershirt. Biggar also used African mud cloth fabric for a double-breasted vest. She completed the look with a dark green cummerbund, and a tan-and-green neck scarf, combined with a woven poncho in an off-white, vintage African fabric.
Interior Freighter Disguise
Interior Freighter Disguise
If you’re anything like me, I’m sure you were nerding out reading that. It’s so neat to see all that fashion from “a galaxy far, far away” has to offer. I hope this motivates you to rewatch the films and check your local library for Trisha Biggar’s book! May the force be with you!
Photos and information for this blog post were taken from:
Biggar, T. (2005). Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Starwars.China: Palace Press International.
Hannah Pennell Communication 