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Channel: Robin Barcus Slonina ARTWORK "States of Dress"
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Casino Chips!

March 1, 2007, 3:45 am
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Here I am drilling holes in over 1000 casino chips in preparation to link them together. I am working on the floor of a room in my friend Kent's house, which he has generously donated to me to use as my studio. Thanks Kent!!

Here are the chips once they are linked. At this point I am using a garment tagging gun to hold them together, for it's ease of execution and "invisible" linkage, but I will see if the results are strong enough once the dress starts to take shape...
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Stardust implodes!

March 15, 2007, 11:18 am
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I have to say, I love Las Vegas! Where else could I go to a Barrack Obama rally one day, and a Nicky Hilton wardrobe unveiling the next? Another bonus: imploding buildings!!! Here I am with my man Jim, who gets geeked out at all things explosive. We camped out on the roof of the Wynn Casino parking garage for three hours to get a prime spot to film the historic Stardust Casino implode -after 48 years on the Las Vegas strip. It was an amazing spectacle, with 5 minutes of fireworks culminating in a pyrotechnic countdown, with flares spelling out "10, 9, 8..." on the full height of the building. We then watched the crowd on the strip run from the dust cloud, until it rolled towards us, covering our car and sending us sprinting inside. We had to wait another 3 hours for the Star"dust" to clear, so we ran around inside the Wynn until 6AM with some of the awesome, fun cast of "Spamalot", the new Monty Python musical at the Wynn. Viva Las Vegas! (click on image to enlarge)
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Spamalot!!!

April 9, 2007, 11:13 pm
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Spamalot comes to Vegas, fresh from its run on Broadway. It is showing in the sister theater to Le Reve at the Wynn, which meant we were lucky enough to be invited to the premiere opening bash. It was a really fun chance to support our new friends in the cast (pictured above with buddies Ed, Tony and Ashley). Plus, I got to meet and hang out with Robin Williams, one of my big faves, as well as meet Steve Martin, and the whole Monty Python gang, including another big fave John Cleese!

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Article 21

July 19, 2007, 12:31 am
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Luckily for me, Wendy DesChene was the visiting artist to the NYMRCC while I was in town. She was an enormous help to me during the installation of the "State of Dress" exhibition.
Please check out her amazing artwork at http://www.wendydeschene.com
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"Collecting Kisses"

July 19, 2007, 12:35 am
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Also on display is the new work, "Collecting Kisses". This is an interactive installation of three dress paintings on which viewers are encouraged to leave their lipstick kiss prints. Many ladies and a couple men took me up on it during the opening, and I hope the art continues to collect kisses during the run of the show.
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"Leaf Dress" paintings

July 19, 2007, 12:40 am
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In addition to the "State of Dress" exhibit in the main gallery, the front of the cultural center held some of the two-dimensional work I also created while an artist in residence in Maine. While on break from creating "Pinecone Dress", I collected plant life around the island and preserved it on canvas to create these "Leaf Dress" paintings.

Here is a close-up from the large "Leaf Dress" painting, with blackberry leaves preserved in their red fall color.
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Pinecone Dress survives the journey...

July 19, 2007, 12:51 am
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"Pinecone Dress' was shipped here for the exhibit, from the MacNamara Foundation Arts Residency in Maine where it was created. This is the first time an actual "dress" has been displayed in addition to photographs of the work. The tough nature of pine cones made this possible. I was amazed when we opened the crate at how well they had weathered the long journey.
Here is my friend Hope lending a hand touching up the dress with the back-up pine cones I mailed with the dress from Maine.
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"State of Dress" Exhibit!

July 19, 2007, 12:52 am
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The July / August exhibition of "State of Dress" at the New York Mills Cultural Center in Minnesota marks the first one-woman showing of this series. On display were 40" X 60" photographic prints on canvas of all the "Dress" sculptures so far...





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The Cathedral of Junk, Austin, TX

August 1, 2007, 10:16 am
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Something amazing has been growing in Austin, hidden in the backyard of a small, nondescript South Austin home. It is the Cathedral of Junk! Refuse is lovingly attached together into rooms, towers and walkways to climb and play in.
Vince is the creative genius behind the cathedral.


My Austinite friend Thor climbing one of four towers....

The view from the top!
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Bat Bridge, Austin TX

August 1, 2007, 10:31 am
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The Mexican Freetail Bat is the mascot of Austin, after the city accidentally built a perfect bat habitat along the bat's migration route from Mexico. The city considered them pests at first and tried to get rid of them, but Austin citizens fought to save the bats and now "bat bridge" is a big tourist attraction. 1.5 million bats summer in the long thin recesses under Congress street bridge, rearing their babies before heading back to Mexico. At sunset they swoop out in a massive group to fly east up the river feeding on 20,000 pounds of bugs a night!

It was cloudy the night we visited the bridge, so they did not make their dramatic flight, but stayed close to home, darting over our heads to feed on mosquitoes.
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I Heart Austin, Texas!!

August 1, 2007, 11:05 am
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I am currently in Austin, TX, working on a mural project for Gatti's Pizza, and managing to get in just a little sight seeing as well...

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Las Vegas Wedding!

October 21, 2007, 8:55 pm
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On September 29, 2007, I participated in a circus-themed extravaganza love-fest of a wedding, and married my love Jim Slonina.



Jim is an actor and currently works as a clown for the Las Vegas spectacle "Le Reve", so we pulled in the circus theme with an air-jumper, popcorn and cotton candy machines, Steve August juggling, and Maria the Snake Babe with an 8-foot boa constrictor. The ceremony began with my friend Marah running down the aisle to stage-whisper to the groom that the minister had a flat tire and she couldn't make it. So while Jim made an embarrassed apology to the crowd, our good friend Claudio Carneiro (an amazing Brazilian clown) stood up from the audience to save the day, doing magic tricks in the aisle and taking over as minister. There was lots of gags mixed in with the true lovey-dovey moments, culminating in an interruption during the "Speak now or forever hold your peace" bit, when Renaldo, an acrobat in a karate costume, ran down a hill and attacked. You can check it out at the photos at the link below:

Jim & Robin's Wedding Pics

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Frontier Implosion, Las Vegas!

November 15, 2007, 5:53 pm
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Gallery Show at Atomic Todd, Las Vegas NV

February 16, 2008, 2:36 am
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"99¢ Only Dress Shop"
April 30- May 24 at the Las Vegas art gallery:
Atomic Todd: 1221 Main Street, Las Vegas, NV

"Sponge Dress" by Robin Barcus Slonina
Photo by Eric Guideng, Hair & Makeup by Krystle Randall

Continuing my exploration of environmental dress making, I am turning to local dollar stores in the urban environment of downtown Las Vegas. I will be creating a "dress shop" entirely out of items purchased at various 99¢ Only stores. I will be working in my "artistic sweat shop" during the run of the exhibit, making dresses out of items like sponges, whiffle balls and easter eggs. This show will be completely interactive and open to the public. I invite everyone to come visit, try on the artwork, or even help create it!

Please click on the links below to read two articles from local papers about the show:

The Las Vegas Sun / Review Journal
"Sort-of-Wearable Art on the Cheap
By Kristen Peterson

The Las Vegas Weekly
"The Sponge Dress, and Other Delights; Pop Art Goes to the Bargain Bin"
by Greg Thilmont


Here are some pictures from Opening Night!
the artist

Gallery owner Todd VonBastianns

Art slaves Ross & Benoit (above) and Tarra (below)

Gallery views


playing with the art...


Sarah getting into ART!

THIS ARTWORK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE HELP OF MY AMAZING VOLUNTEERS!
Your dedication to this silliness really touched my heart.
THANK YOU:
Barb Barcus
Benoit Beaufils
Heather Eggerding
Barbara Ellis
Tara Ellis
Ross Gibson
Amos Glick
Laura Herbert
Jessica Holker
Marah Kaprowski
Stacy Lee
Luke Littell
Nick Mays
Bryan McCarthy
Carolina Moraes
Brett Palmer
Lucy Pascoe
Dave Proctor
Stephanie
Lakeisha Sable
Tarra Scarff
Andy Schmitz
Danny Sidlow
Jim Slonina
Kent Thomson
Todd VonBastiaans

FOR MORE EXHIBIT PICTURES, click here to VISIT MYSPACE
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First "States of Dress" short film!

April 1, 2008, 12:39 am
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This is my 100th post on my States of Dress blog!

To celebrate, I am announcing the launch of my very first States of Dress mini-film, "Wyoming". It is the first in a series of shorts about the ongoing project. It shows how I made "Willow Creek Dress", a floating dress of woven willow on Lower Piney Creek, at the Jentel Artist Residency Program in Banner, WY.

To view, please click on the link below. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/user/STATESOFDRESS

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Finished Dollar Store Dresses!

June 16, 2008, 12:28 am
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Here are the finished dresses from the 99¢ Only Dress Shop Exhibit
at Atomic Todd Gallery in Las Vegas:

Special Thanks to Todd VonBastiaans of Atomic Todd, to all my volunteers
(see full list in post below),
and thanks to 99¢ Only Stores for their support with this project.

Gallery Views:


"Feather Duster Dress"
made of feather dusters, sponge scrubbies and shoelaces

"Sponge Dress"
made of sponges, hot glue & velcro
(front)
(back)


"Blue Sponge Dress"
made of sponges, hot glue, shower curtain & shoelaces

"Silver Sponge Shorts & Vest"
made of sponges, hot glue & shoelaces

"Sponge Bikini"
made of sponges, hot glue & shoelaces

"Casino Chip Bikini"
made of casino chips, zip ties & shoelaces

"Easter Egg Dress"
made of plastic easter eggs connected with a price tagging gun


"Playing Card Dress"
made of playing cards & packing tape

"Beach Ball Dress"
made of beach balls & staples

"Whiffle Ball Wedding Gown"
made of whiffle balls and shower scrubbies (whole & unraveled)





"Casino Chip Dress"
made of casino chips & zip ties
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States of Dress - NEVADA

October 7, 2008, 6:27 pm
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"Casino Chip Dress"
was photographed on the Eldorado dry lake bed in Boulder, NV.
It is the Nevada dress for the ongoing "States of Dress" series



"Casino Chip Dress" is made of over 2000 casino chips,
each with 6 drill holes joined by clear zip ties.

At the photo shoot on the Eldorado dry lake bed...


Special Thanks
to Kent Thomson for providing studio space to create this dress,
Todd VonBaastians of Atomic Todd Gallery for his generosity and support,
The Gambler's General Store for partial donation of materials,
Benoit Beaufils for his tireless enthusiasm & assistance,
Ross Gibson, Jim Slonina, Tarra Scarff, my Mom & all the other volunteers
for their help & friendship.

This photo was taken by the great Dave Proctor (www.daplv.com)
with hair and makeup by Keely Zelanka.
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Casino Chip Bikini Auctioned for Benefit

October 28, 2008, 7:04 pm
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On October 23, 2008 the Las Vegas First Friday Arts Festival celebrated its Sixth Year! As a big supporter of this monthly Vegas arts happening, I donated my "Casino Chip Bikini" to the First Friday benefit art auction. Lovely Vegas model Stacy Lee also donated her time to model the bikini for bidders. The event took place at the Newport Loft building downtown. Here Stacy is pictured on the beautiful rooftop deck there.


And here she is again, posing with local art star Jerry Misko, who also donated one of his fab Neon Paintings to the benefit.

The artist and model!

...And lovely art patron Kellee Antalek won the bikini in the live auction!

And here is Kellee a few months later, modeling her new art acquisition!

Photos by John Rettie glamourphotos.com
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NEW YORK - Garbage Dress Shoot #2 in Manhattan

July 11, 2009, 3:45 pm
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This is the second day of shooting the NY Garbage Dress. We found a location on the Upper East Side of Manhattan where the city keeps garbage trucks parked in a large lot and along the street. Perfect place for a guerrilla photo shoot! The city workers let us shoot for about 20 minutes before we got kicked out...

On my left is Heather Lamb, a wardrobe stylist along to assist. And on my right is Anthony Gatto, juggler and budding film maker who generously offered to film the day for my documentary "States of Dress"



Stephan Landry (right) was the photographer for the day's shoot



Final Garbage Dress shots!

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NEW YORK - Garbage Dress Shoot #1 in Brooklyn NY

July 11, 2009, 4:10 pm
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This is the first day shooting the NY Garbage Dress, in a loading dock with great graffiti near the art studio I rented in Brooklyn from fellow artist Rob Kimmel. The first challenge is getting me up onto the dock in the dress! Here I am being hoisted up with a little help from my friends, volunteers T'ai Jamal Hanna and Jay Loebscher.


I did not attach the train until we got to the shoot location to help with ease of movement.


Volunteering to shoot the NY Garbage Dress is friend and amazingly talented New York photographer Layo Mayoli



Some final loading dock shots


This pigeon behind my head hung out the whole shoot, protecting its nearby nest.


Now we are trying a seated shot, with some styling help from T'ai.


Manning the video camera on the left is volunteer Katrina Stachowski.



Some final seated shots...


...and getting back down!


T'ai making sure everything looks good for some street shots, taking advantage of the beautiful architecture of the next door building.


Layo in action!



Some final street shots.


Thanks so much to my helpers! From left to right: Katrina Stachowski, T'ai Jamal Hanna, Jay Loebscher, and photographer Layo Mayoli
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