Catherine Alice Michaelis – Party Dress | Trial by Fire
Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College’s 112th Annual Exhibition
Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women
Catherine Alice Michaelis, Party Dress, May Day Press: 2004, double-sided accordion structure; letterpress printed, Japanese papers, dress trim, machine stitching; housed in a silver paper wrapper with a silver ribbon closure, the title is sewn to the front of the wrapper, book: 3 ¾ x 7 x ⅜ in.; wrapper: 3 ⅝ x 7 ½ x ½ in. Courtesy of Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Cynthia Sears Collection
“Party Dress was inspired from an old box of photos of my parents from when they were younger, flashier, and enthralling to their young daughter. The photographs brought back to me the sounds and textures of my mother’s party dresses. I use to play in my mother’s closet where hemlines tickled my face and her scents wove a spell around me. I imagined an exotic life in my mother’s high-heeled shoes. The text of Party Dress evokes my mother’s pre-party ritual.
Party Dress is an accordion book of dresses, mimicking my mother’s closet. The dresses are cut from Japanese papers (the papers vary in each book). My mother’s most fascinating clothes were those my father brought back from Southeast Asia and the South Pacific when he was in the Air Force. The paper doll tabs are there because my early dolls were paper, and I associate them with the time of my father’s absence.
The intent of Party Dress is to honor my mother’s beauty, her exquisite sewing skills, and a childhood that still remains mysterious and enchanted.” ~ Catherine Alice Michaelis
Catherine Alice Michaelis, Trial by Fire, May Day Press: 2019, eight round potholders laid in a round metal cooking pot with handle and lid; materials: ruined cooking pot, vintage kitchen linens, cotton embroidery thread, & linoleum prints; designed, printed, and stitched by the artist, pot: 6 ⅝ x 5 ¼ in., handle: 5 in.; pot holders each 6 x ⅜ in., with ¾ in. loop, Courtesy of Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Cynthia Sears Collection
“Trial by Fire was inspired by the pots I’ve ruined on the stove through forgetfulness, and my constant hot flashes. Wanting to redeem the pots (and myself) I turned them into housing for potholders stitched with my trials of peri-menopause, the supposed culprit for my forgetfulness. Stitching is intimate, allowing me to be more vulnerable than writing for editions printed via letterpress. In this way, I can believe my story is private, shared just between myself and one other. The title, Trial by Fire, comes from the history of burning ‘witches’. Set them aflame. If they burn, they’re a witch.” ~ Catherine Alice Michaelis
BIOGRAPHY
Catherine Alice Michaelis has been exploring what an artist book can be for over 30 years. She works with antique printing presses, moveable type, and any printable medium she finds, including: paper, fabric, film, magnets, and veneer to summon a dialog with Nature. When she isn’t printing, she’s sewing unique works on fabrics that more intimately explore gender, ageism, and memory loss. Catherine pushes her creative practice through writing, videopoetry, direct animation, and direct dyeing from plants.
Collaborating and participating in community is part of Catherine’s practice. She works with scientists, writers, visual artists, and musicians to make edition print work. She’s responded to crowd sourced calls for participation, been invited by printing institutions to participate in collective works, and organized invitational print sets like Stack the Deck: 18 Artists Mark the Cards for Women’s Health & Healing. Catherine has curated national and international artist book shows in the Pacific Northwest and created programming around them, most recently at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Bringing other artists forward and building community is something she believes in and does.