Artistic Control

In case you haven't noticed, I've added a couple of fashion sites to my sidebar. This one has become my focus lately and may be singlehandedly keeping me from going over the edge. When I'm feeling that I have an extreme lack of control over my life, (haven't you noticed?) especially my self and my emotions, it helps to focus. Go micro. Not unlike photographing flowers, it is a reprieve from thinking, or at least from over-thinking that is continually shooting out tentacles and forming connections with my inadequacies. Exhausting.

I find fashion complicated and interesting and smart. Of course there are ethical issues involved. It serves to set certain people (the rich) apart and it is a class marker. But fashion is also art. Stimulating, arresting, subtle and attentive to detail, it demands visual intelligence. And anyone can do it.

Fashion is an artistic presentation and we are all artists. The design of our surroundings, including our bodies and how we cover them, reveals our priorities and imaginative capabilities. Why shouldn't our world be full of visual interest and creative ideas? Anti-intellectualism and anti-art sentiment pervades large portions of our country. Dumbing ourselves down, we have sacrificed quality and beauty in favor of cheap uniformity.

Fashion represents control. Artistic control of ones' own body. How cool is that?