Black Dress Revisited

Our friend, Eric, stayed with us for a day last week and I took the opportunity to show him some of the sights (Myopic and Reckless) and talk his ear off. Seriously, I don't think the poor man got a word in. Among the many topics I touched upon in my unending monologue was my black dress project, something of which he was unaware and which he found intriguing as a writing project and I didn't get around to explaining how it evolved from a writing project into photography. So, this, coupled with my having stumbled upon some mushrooms up at the lake a couple weeks ago, has led me to tossing some lovely clothes against twigs and dried leaves once more. I am starting to worry this project will never end because, as you know, I always have stuff to say about clothing and my collection of black dresses keeps growing. While I am not sure it is a bad thing if this project goes on forever, I realize that, at some point, I will run out of closet space (I know it sounds ridiculous, but I really don't know how many black dresses I own, but I can tell you that it is more than when I last touched this project). It struck me, as I was taking pictures over the weekend, that this project is a great metaphor for my life and how it has been changed by the demands of motherhood, how I am no nature girl, yet Julian demands we spend abundant amounts of time outdoors, how I am forced to steal small blocks of time to create art while Julian plays nearby, how I have all these black dresses which I never have an opportunity to wear anymore (even the somewhat casual ones are more work than jeans and a t-shirt), and how hard it is for all of us to integrate the person you think you are with the world in which you live.

So, without further ado, I invite you to follow the resurrected black dress project here.