Many Thanks to Robbie Cheadle for featuring Queen Isabella on her arts blog on Latinos USA!
I wish you all the best New Year!
Please leave any comments on Robbie’s blog!
Tag: Gown
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Merry Solstice – To all who celebrate anything this time of year, have a good one!
Thank you to Robbie Cheadle and Latinos USA for featuring Flora Blanca this Holiday Season!
While we are celebrating the Holidays, pop over to Gigi’s for an Art Gowns’ Fashion Show of all original designs, created especially for CHICKMAS at The Coop!
The Sad Café II
Featuring poetry by Holly Rene Hunter
& Allegorical Drawings by Resa
There is music. The cafe is filled with revellers. Their drunken laughter is loud, but the seasons slip away, and they need something to remember.
A year has passed, and I still light my candles for the window and hope fades like summer into fall.
The mirror has no mercy, a reminder of all that has passed through these hands. There is no holding back the past or what lies ahead.
The night deepens as we raise our glasses to the seasons of honey and fire and the aching memory of lovers slipped away.
Snakes and Metaphors
suspended
At the top of the stairs the hours pass hurriedly, lovers flee the break of dawn. Subdued seduction , silhouettes in flickering candlelight.
In black tie and silk gowns, the bourgeoisie sip cognac , exhale circlets of smoke from cigarillos into the softly whirring blades of a bamboo fan.
The walls are thin and the wood floor is bare. Music drifts upward, slips under my door, “La Vie En Rose”, the sighs of desperate lovers , their bodies pressed against one another.
At my mirror I braid silver thread through my hair. Should the Frenchman return I am wearing the dress he likes. Last night he signaled with a stone at my window .
He has taught me how to say I love you and other endearing terms in his tongue.
At the hollow of my throat I dab a bit of the perfume he bought for me in Berlin. I’m not sure that is true but I like the scent.
He wants me to follow him but he is not my kind. The weak can not survive love that is bound to die nor can they forgive.
All Poetry © Holly Rene Hunter – Visit House of Heart to read more of her fabulous poetry!
All drawings © Resa McConaghy
Thank You!
Holly for contributing your luscious poems to this collaboration & to Gigi for being the hallway model (where the music notation is actually the first 5 bars to La Vie en Rose).
One Door leads to the Other
The Invitation?
It was a nothing, no where, no how day. No one seemed to know who sent the invitation?
Up for adventure and treasure, Genevieve donned her favourite party dress. Arriving at the address on the back of the invite, she found herself in beautiful garden that lead to a porch with 2 cats on it.
She stood in front of the door on the left, and wondered if it was the right one to knock on? This One, or the Other?
Using the knocker, she rapped on the left door, the one she was standing in front of.
The door opened, she walked in and suddenly began to feel herself fade.
South Africa
A few seconds passed, and Genevieve began to feel herself recover.
But where was she, and why was she in new gown?
A beautiful woman in another fabulous gown informed Genevieve she was at a wedding, in South Africa. It was very special, and being held at….
She was gifted turquoise-blue glass beads made from left over bits of glass.
It was a wonderful party and she danced what seemed forever under the blue celebration sky. Then someone took her hand.
They said “come, come see”, and they walked through the door of the outside room.
Whereupon Genevieve found herself in blackness.
Tokyo, Japan
As darkness yielded to light, she found herself wearing an elegant kimono with obi.
It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was in …
Suddenly the giant creature came to life. Like a gargantuan thin, wiry Godzilla it began to attack, sending people fleeing out of the door.
Genevieve began fleeing, then espied a massive red net, just outside the door.
She grabbed the net, and deftly threw it over the spider.
After finishing off the spider with a few martial arts moves, she began feeling cold. She became so cold, she began turning blue.
El Palazzo dei Pinguini
Genevieve was in a blue frozen land at the bottom of the earth.
She walked with 2 Pinguini through a door and into an ice manor.
She adored the Pinguini. She held them and hugged them and kissed them.
The Pinguini gave her an icy blue velvet gown, a boa made of snow and diamonds made of ice. Genevieve was made Principessa del Pinguini.
Principessa del Pinguini.
She never felt so warm.
Through frozen tears, she told the Pinguini she could not live with them forever. She asked them if they could help her get home?
Sad as they were, the Pinguini told her to look up into the sun!
As she looked up, she felt a ray of sun capture her.
Treasures
Next thing Genevieve knew, she was back on the porch, by the garden. Her treasures surrounded her: Ice diamonds, a snow boa, glass beads and an obi.
She had gone in One Door and come out of the Other Door. Genevieve was back where she had started. In the end, One door led to the Other.
The snow boa and Ice diamonds began to melt, yet she was happier than she had ever been.
It was evident that things were ephemeral, and that the only lasting treasures were inside her memories; inside her mind and heart.
A Thank You Rose to Dan Antion!
Visit Dan at the Annual Doors 2025 Challenge! OR Check out his fab blog in general!
Teagan, thank you for your doors and the inspiration they fostered!
Thank you Robbie for your fab doors from your travels, and the ingenuity they delivered.
Quote by Jim Morrison
Helen Martins Owl house & Mori Art Gallery sentences are hot links.
All outfits are one-of a kind designs hand-made by Resa.
Except Doors images, all photos are © Resa McConaghy.
Of note: Opening party dress is made from a batik silk scarf made by my m-i-l, Yuki (RIP)
Kimono fabric is from a 100 year old piece made from pineapple strands – A gift from Diana (Myths of the Mirror)
Victorian Sonnet
Inspiration came in 2 boxes from Diana – Myths of the Mirror
Linens & laces inherited from great grandmother & grandmother to mother then her, became all mine; an Art Gown to share.
Her beauty holds memories of Victorian times, and the bright light of many tomorrows.
Victorian Sonnet is dedicated to Diana, her great grandmother Emilie, her grandmother Truly (Caroline), and and her mother Tineke (Dutch nickname for Anna Martine).
Sonnets from the Art Gowns
Structure
Iambic pentameter – 5 feet to a line – 4 lines to a verse – 3 verses & a couplet
Rhyme scheme – ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG
Third verse volta
I
Dear Diana your lace and your linen
Great grand mother, grandma, mother then you
Woven treasure fair sent passed on to begin
Romance dance a dress white and blue.
Lace held, fabric draped inspiration gold
Creation libation confusion strewn
All threads gay with gathers theirs to unfold
Ancestry, a love light shimmering through!
Yet should something arise break then the spell
To find magic's construct tattered and torn
Ere rendered fore tendered tossed into the swell
Became fragments merely blithely left lorn.
Our memory painted lingers in mind,
Inherited Victoriana's time.
© Resa
The Making Of
When the fabrics arrived, I threw the lot on top of Lilac Fan Dance. There was also a fabulous mosquito net with cotton top.
When the time came to begin, there was so much lace and linens, I needed to spread them all out.
All laces and fabrics were hand washed, and tested for tensile strength.
A bertha collar was formed from a bed jacket’s trim and lined with mosquito net.
An underskirt was cut from the cotton top of the netting.
Mosquito netting was added to the underskirt to make it full length. Lace cut from the lace tablecloth was sewn on top of the netting.
A blue linen jacquard tablecloth was formed into a corset shaped top with straps into a plunging back.
My friend Kat gifted me a new Judy, so I transferred the gown to her. She also sent massive yardage of new, but cut into, winter white synthetic curtain sheer, found for a pittance at the good will.
After washing, the sheer was cut into a 3 tiered overskirt, and trimmed with the lace yardages. The sheer makes a solid backing that fortifies the antique laces.
Two side tails were draped in bias from the sheer, then trimmed with edges cut from the lace tablecloth.
A third centre tail was draped from the mosquito netting on bias. This tail was trimmed with the last of the lace yardages. It was then filled in with geometrically placed doilies, table covers and bits of cut up lace edgings.
A bussel was formed from blue serviettes that matched the bodice’s tablecloth, and eyelet lace trim from the second bed jacket.
Vintage hand covered buttons adorn the bodice.
Voilà! Victorian Sonnet
She’s so beautiful, I went overboard taking pics.
OUTTAKES
Serendipity
November, 2023 – The 2 boxes arrived, from Diana. Lilac Fan Dance was still in the making. I knew Diana was mid book. In May, 2024 Victorian Sonnet was begun. 6+ months later, the gown and Diana’s book – Tale of the Seasons’ Weaver – were finished, more or less at the same time.
Release – January 2, 2025
Available exclusively on AMAZON – Worldwide
How is an art gown like a good book?
You hate it to end!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Ronnie Spector
Holly has featured my drawing of Ronnie Spector with a fab bio she has written.
THANK YOU HOLLY!
The Ronettes perform “Be My Baby” at the 2007 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
Gown-In & Love-Up
Dahlings, we are loving it up in Miami, Tim’s Magic Tree Sanctuary and around the world. I’m one radiating Ms. R., reporting from Ocean Drive, as I present Art Gowns for peace and love.
It’s an all out love fest, with special guest star Boogapony Holly, who will pony on down in roller skates. It’s a go-go like you’ve never seen! And now, from her special stage of TMTS* black bamboo, let’s all get down with MC, Art Director and palazzo pantonista , Rebecca Budd!
Thank you Rene!
As beautiful as the bougainvillea she poses by, AGM Marina wears a strapless, fishtail gown made from a pink-tone ecru velvet & recycled Ribbons for Peace.
P PINK
E EMERALD
A AQUA
C CLAIRVOYANT
E ECRU
Boogapony relays her message of love ,with movement, as she glides through the bougainvilleas.
Let’s hear it for Boogapony!
That was fantastic and so is Gigi. AGM Gigi tied on BP’s extra pair of skates, tore a strip out of her strapless skin-tight turquoise gown and rolled on down to Wynwood Walls,
… where she models next to a tiger painted by Faith47 in 2014.
In a simple breath-pink slip-style gown with baby blue godets, AGM Holly showcases a breathtaking boa of roses designed by TMTS’s own Dr, Huey.
What’s a Love-Up without some fringe? AGM Dale shows in a red gown with heart shaped décolletage and asymmetric plunging v-bodice with fringe at its point. Watch out! With bougainvillea hearts, she’s going to “take you higher”!
Now, for an important message from Ms. R.!
Dahlings, there was a slight glitch trying to get AGM Shey over to Miami. DracGoth made yet another attempt to morph Shey into SheyGoth, and transport her to Otherworld.
While suspended in black between worlds, Tim's Roses of Love surrounded her. They gently guided her to Princess Blue Holly's Tangle-Heart. AGM Shey passed through the Heart in darkness, and surfaced by her golden tree in the light
Thank you Rene!
Wow, seems Shey’s tree sent her to Miami with some enchanted roses. As the roses change colour, so do the roses on her boho, sheer voile angel gown. This is Flower Power at its finest!
And now, from the Florida Room of her ocean view home: with the sand, ocean, sky and sea birds behind her and surrounded by one of Tim’s roses in many spellbound colours here’s RR with a parting message!
Dahlings, Sweet Dreams until Art Gowns & friends returns with another extravaganza! Until then, remember to Love-Up everyday, everywhere!
Here’s a FAB send-off featuring Boogapony skating a go-go through Ocean Drive! Check out those crazy high jumps
Art Gowns drawings & storyline © Resa McConaghy
Music selections – Holly Rene Hunter
Ms. R & Boogapony Holly © Resa McConaghy & Holly Rene Hunter – since 2019
Loved Like Roses © Holly Rene Hunter
THANK YOU BIG TIME TO
The AGM’s. Visit them on their blogs!
Dale – A Dalectable Life, Marina – Art Towards a Happy Day, Holly – House of Heart, Shey – Smexy Historical Romance, Gigi – Rethinking Life
Visit Rebecca Budd at Chasing Art
Lilac Fan Dance
A storm of uneasy was roiling within me.
All of the AGMs had a dedicated Art Gown, except Dale.
The only way to quell the turmoil was to whip up a gown. I figured four, five months tops.
Seven months later, Lilac Fan Dance was dreaming out of the Art Gowns atelier window.
The ruffly lace tail had become a total diva during its construction. What figured to be done in 3-4 hours took 3-4 weeks.
It was the same time consuming issues I’d encountered making the fans for Diane Lane in “The Big Town”.
It began with an 80’s floral print fabric draped on Judy. Surrounded with acetates, a sheer and lace harvested from “Atlantis Mermaid Love-In”, inspiration struck .
The harvested lace was not enough to fulfill my idea, so old lace curtain scraps were painted with acrylics inherited from my F-i-L. The dates on the tubes were from the 1990’s.
Once dry the paint was heat set, the lace cut into creative shapes and randomly gathered. The 3d lace pieces were strewn behind the gown, and it was evident backing yardage was required.
A strip of white curtain sheer left over from Belle Grâce was blotch painted with the remainder of the purple paint.
TA DA! Lilac Fan Dance – dedicated to Dale – A Dalectable Life
Suddenly, the day became dark and filled with the peal of Thunder.
Memories flooded in and I could see…
Diane Lane waiting on my front porch. She’d come to check out her fans.
Romanticized by the idea of the Burlesque circuit, Lilac Fan Dance built a fan out of peach blossoms from Dale’s peach tree on Tim’s magic tree sanctuary.
Unable to dance due to that she had wheels instead of legs, no arms of her own and no head,
…. she borrowed some of Mae West’s jokes and did a stand-up.
Happy with her time as an entertainer, but tired of life on the road, Lilac Fan Dance returned home.
“Positive thoughts generate positive feelings and attract positive life experiences. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” -Mae West
OUTTAKES
Lilac Fan Dance © Resa McConaghy – 2024
Peach Blossom pics © Timothy Price from Off Center Not Even
Charlotte Hoather Wears Midnight Nightingale in Performance
I could not be more thrilled.
Reuniting With Old Friends: A Night to Remember with the Poynton Male Voice Choir
I’m whirling around with GLEE! Pop over and read about Charlotte’s night with the “Poynton Male Voice Choir”
Charlotte Models Midnight Nightingale: Part II
Soprano Charlotte Hoather models “Midnight Nightingale” & Interviews Me: Part II
Still thrilled with how terrific “Midnight Nightingale” fits Charlotte, I’m now on Venus with how beautiful she looks in it.
Click on the reblog box or the photo of Charlotte to visit the post, read the interview and enjoy the shots.
Art Gowns 
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