KISMET: I met Dr. Darlene C. Ritz, the Chair of the RMCAD Fashion Design program, right at the beginning of the kick-off for the brand new program.  I happened to be modeling for a photography class and was working outside with the student when Darlene walked by, a vision in black & purple, one of my favorite combos (so Deco!), and I casually told the student he should photograph her for a "fashions shot" and that's how we met.  When I learned who she was, I mentioned that I had not found any recycled materials fashion shows since relocating to Colorado.  It just so happened, there was to be a kick-off fashion show, and she invited me to participate, representing the use of "repurposed materials."

With some guidance and encouragement from Darlene, I put together my first full collection, made from the ample supply of pillowcases and the fitted sheet of a terrible sheet set purchased by my ex.  Unlike my first foray into spray-painting over stencils with actual spray paint and watered-down latex paint (see the prototype for the "Christina" as worn by Christina in the Gallexia mini-collection) I used actual fabric paint to create my night-sky effect.

Kismet is all about meeting the right person at the right time.  I will forever remain grateful for that opportunity (and push!) and for all of the other opportunities that have come from meeting Dr. Darlene C. Ritz.

​We are all made from stardust, we all breath the same air, and we all are ultimately waves and particles existing within the same field.  Connecting with others is all about wavelengths aligning: being at the right place at the right time.  I think one of the most exciting aspects of my experience with showing my repurposed materials fashion, since we relocated to the Denver area in 2013, is that literally everything has stemmed from participating in this very first show, thanks to Darlene, whom I just happened to meet that one day I was modeling outside at RMCAD.  Ever since, opportunities have arisen and I have felt blessed to finally step out and show some of my design work, ranging from this first full collection, and including a five-month museum exhibit, to two fundraiser benefit runway shows.  With many more designs in mind for the acquired materials I currently have, I am bursting over with anticipation of my near return to the studio.  I guess you could say I am completely inspired.


The word "inspired" is lovely and deep, meaning "to contain breath" inspiritos--breath of God.  I am inspired ("jazzed") to return to my work, having dedicated much time to working on this long-over-due website.  It's been a matter of getting the house in order, which is a concept I've thought of often, as it was the one Tenet in Sybil Leek's The Complete Art of Witchcraft that has been retained in mind, the most important starting point--never try to clean up outside messes, until you take care of the one in your own home, first.  Now that things are just about ordered ("entropy needs no maintenance"), I have so many drafts and sketches that are ready to be executed.  The great exhale following the great inhale with all that inspiration.  


Inspiration always comes with gratitude for the process and the product that results, making me often incredulous with my own work, and that is a joyous feeling.  There is this feeling of connection, very deep and unknown in our vocabulary, but felt and experienced by anyone willing to be open, and I am talking about what is that Divine connection that we feel when epiphanies occur, the "aha" moment that everything seems to click, and a new understanding has been achieved (a new synapse connection forged in the brain), or even something has been manifested from following through and fulfilling that inspiration.  For anyone who has ever read The Celestine Prophecy (now a film), it is likely a deep connection was experienced as the text resonated with your own personal insights, and there is a reason for that occurrence, even though some time after, author James Redfield revealed that the story was fiction when originally, he had presented the book as "non-fiction," but it didn't matter, because he still tapped into something that resonated, even if he was pulling from the pool of imagination and not fact; he tapped what Carl Jung refers to as the "Collective Unconscious."   It's safe to say that all spiritual texts (including The Bible, The Koran, The Torah, The Bhagavad-Gita, anything that is spiritual and mystical) are connected to the deep structures that remain unseen, but guiding, and that is why they can become extremely powerful, perhaps even removing us directly from our own personal connection, or at least, attempting to do so, because no matter what has transpired, molecularly speaking, we are all connected in the Field, some would say to the Akashic Field, and for any "Eureka" fans, there's a reason that television series is called "Eureka" and in its first season explores the idea of the "Akashic Records," and I'll point out here that in the very first episode, one of the characters is seen reading Ervin Laszlo's Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything.  Eureka!


For many reasons, to be discussed elsewhere in these pages, I have experienced too many oddities to deny the existence of things unknown.  Just because something is unseen, or unexperienced by the masses, doesn't mean it doesn't exist, as that would be very unsound logic to consider that as humans we can know everything...far from it as in corporeal form, it simply isn't possible, which may sound "out there," but it has to do more with a trade, one that can be seen even in the teaching philosophy of educator James Britton, "We categorize at our peril," but only in the creation of a boundary can something actually find its existence--a human body is for all intents and purposes a boundary of contained energy that is that individual, strange as that may sound, it is another perspective.  Without boundaries, we'd be back to chaos.  However, an open mind must always be maintained in regard to living in an expanding universe with unending knowledge to be considered.  Just, be open to witness, and you will find the Divine in everything.


And then there have been those few periods in my life that were so bad, I found myself actually praying for "Divine Intervention," and on those two occasions, I believe I really did experience Divine Intervention, and I have made three serious personal wishes during those bad times, and all three materialized, but only for the last one can I say that I finally got it right.  Three times, a charm!!!


So, when you wish upon a star...


11th Premise: Be careful of what you wish for, because you just might get it, for better or for worse.

REPURPOSED STARDUST COLLECTION

Fashion in Focus Program Launch Party

​Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design, Lakewood, CO,

August 23, 2014

Fashion Show Coordinator: Dr. Darlene C. Ritz, Chair, Fashion

Photography Coordinator: Randy Brown, Chair, Commercial Photography 

Hair: Falene Wells (Paul Mitchell School)

​Make-up: OP (Osvaldo Perez)

​Runway Photos: Jeremy Mickelsen

THANK YOU for visiting Rêve-Amp'T.
This Site is Work-in-Progress and I will continue to develop it, adding images, missing links, and  sales pages for items that are for sale. So please do check back from time to time and thank you for visiting. New work to be added, as well.  Be well.

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