The Artworks of Erin Paul

Earlier this summer, The Little Church theater in Holderness NH held a third annual event called Project Greenway. Project Greenway is a local "green" fashion show inspired from the show Project Runway.

The flyer for the event read as follows...
Calling all wannabe fashion designers! Now is your chance to be creative, think outside of the box and help save our planet! Inspired by the reality television show, Project Runway, the Little Church Theater is proud to host Project Greenway, the third annual battle of the green designers on Thursday, July 26 at 7:30pm.

The rules were...
Participants are challenged to create an outfit inspired by the theme, “A Night on the Town” using ONLY items that are recyclable, reusable or repurposed and must also incorporate some part of an egg carton. Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs egg cartons will be available at the Little Church Theater for designers to use. Designers may use old, out of style clothes as long as they are turned into something new and exciting. They are encouraged to use their imagination and try including materials from nature. A single or group of green designers of boys and girls or men and women may create entries. Age categories for both individuals and groups are: youth (ages 11-17), and adults. Designers are responsible for arranging a model for their creation or they may model their own designs. Finally, entries will be judged on creativity, use of materials, color, texture, wear-ability, and how well they reflect the theme. Night on the town

The event was a fundraiser for the Little Church Theater and a portion of the proceeds from this competition will be donated to a local green organization. Project Greenway was sponsored by Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs. Monroe, NH based Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs (www.peteandgerrys.com) produces Certified Humane®, cage-free organic and natural eggs and is committed to sustainable organic farming on small family farms.

I corralled my 15 year old cousin and 17 year family friends daughter to team up and work on an outfit together They are both very fashion forward girls and highly creative. We started out by creating a group pinterst album to bounce idea's off each other when we were not able to all meet in person.

Here is a sketch up that we drew up just for an idea of what we wanted out outfit to look like.

Here are rolled magazine straws that we wove for part of the corset/bodice and of a clutch we made.

Here is Sydney (although she prefers to go by Shannopa...don't ask) cutting paint chips into tear drop shapes. Also this trash bag and tape were used as a base to fit Sydney's body so it was a snug fit.

Here Sydney is wearing the headband in its early stages of being made to see where the flower will sit in relation to her face.

We chose a pink, blue and purple color scheme. Here is the woven magazine bodice applied to the base.

Here are egg crates that weer made into spikes. We also made flowers that we integrated into the dress, head dress and clutch.

Here is Christina applying and styling the paint chips onto the dress

Back view, in progress

The end result of my studio! Creative people are rarely tidy!

The first fitting we did of the almost complete outfit

Adding the shoulders

BACKSTAGE!

This awesome lady from the Common Man Spa and Salon was offering her services for free! Got to love the Gwen Stefani looking hair she did for Sydney!

This lady made her dress out of yoga mats!

These girls! So chic!

WE TAKE THE STAGE!

Here our team was asked a number of questions by the host and judges. We explained what our outfit was made of and how we put it together. The original concept was to do a chic modern version of Daisy from the Great Gatsby. What we came up with could be be described as an avaunt-garde Alexander McQueen, Japanese inspired flower!

SYDNEY WALKS THE CATWALK

the judges giving our outfit a look up close

Here a judge takes a photo of the hand painted egg crate ring made to look like a flower.

WE PLACED 3RD PLACE!!!

I am so proud of my girls! Although it was nice to win a cash prize, what was more rewarding was getting to work with two amazingly talented young ladies. It was a great bonding experience and a great way to get creative. We can not wait to do this again next year!!!

Here are a Neon Lady duo that I painted in March this year. I have always enjoyed painting with very bright eye catching colors but I really wanted to experiment more with neons. These neon women are what were birthed from my brain and I really liked the end result. I'll absolutely be playing with these colors more.

"Other Worldly Sight"

"The Cusp of Renewal"

I really favor "Other Worldly Sight", she was the first one I made. Others seem to have really favored "The Cusp of Renewal". A few friends have asked if it is a self portrait. Apparently they think it looks a lot like me. As flattering as that is, it is not a self portrait.

I decided to make these two paintings into limited edition prints. They are originally 12x12 paintings and I was able to find a way to have they printed on a canvas like photo paper made to be 12x12 on a ready to hang board. That way it would be a print that would feel like you had almost the real thing hanging on your wall. I am only releasing 10 prints of each painting.

They are available HERE