Tobie Giddio

“Geisha” and “Paloma” are now available as limited addition giclee prints via The Fashion Illustration Gallery. Nice site to roam around as well.
figprints.com

“Supreme Trees” seems to be getting around these days.
Featured here in Four Season’s Magazine as well as in
Jonathan Adler stores.

The Glenn Gould Foundation features “Vita”.
Such an honor.
Link

Artists Statement, First draft:

Two very distinct elements are at play here: fine art and fashion. There is an understanding between the two that they coexist simultaneously and equally. In constant service to the other they join in a quest to express extraordinary beauty.

The forms and impressions of fashion feed into my internal library of shapes and lines. I am soothed by the symmetry of curves that reflect the body of a woman. I rely on the strength and stability of sharp edges, as if cut from cloth itself to support the structure. In my world, fashion has as much to do with clothes as it does with an internal language of form and line. It is an expression from the inside out.

Going inside to find your imagery is a fine art principle. It is a process of deconstructing and abstracting elements from the outer world. What makes a work successful is that moment when there is resolve. You know that what you have in front of you, you have not seen before. And yet it has come through you as the summation of every exquisite thing you have seen, experienced and loved.

We are in a moment where art and fashion are in a lot of communication with each other, though I am sensing a lot of self-consciousness. I see much of the fashion community running to the galleries to find what is right under their noses. They’re searching for art that gives their brand just the right amount of credibility, giving themselves just the right amount of distance from fashion. There is a palpable distaste for a work of art that actually contains fashion. The “It’s too fashion for art, too art for fashion.” mentality no longer holds any resonance for me.

I am seeing here a somewhat dysfunctional love affair with fashion and art that’s been going on too long. I am interested in a real marriage of the two. Transformation and evolution thrive where there is unity. Judgments and perceived limitations of the other have to be dropped. Neither can be any more relevant than the other. I like the notion that the exact meeting point is the most worthwhile and powerful pursuit. It is where something genuinely new is created.
It is a time when beauty must be exalted and vulgarity rejected. Imagery intended to shock or to be provocative simply reveals desperation at this point. It’s time to put the Andy Warhol playbook away for a while. There is a place for everything of course but in this somewhat dark period in our world where there is an abundance of frivolous imagery I feel compelled to make work that references the part of us that is the most regal, beautiful and life affirming.

We are all sensitive beings whether we are aware of this or not. Imagery is equally as important as conservation and sustainable living are to our wellbeing and survival. We cannot be sustained or even satiated by images primarily intended to sell us something or to create envy or gluttony.
An authentic work of art can serve as both a timeless valuable object or as an image used to consciously sell the beautiful or even the not so beautiful things we make. Here our perception and experience of luxury is deepened and expanded.

I’m thinking it’s the other side of or even the next step from where Warhol was coming from in his approach to the merging of art and the commercial worlds. I feel that at this point everyone can appreciate a sophisticated and skilled work of art. Everything has been moving towards this. Picasso knew this, which is why he brought his brilliant abstractions to such a massive audience. We’ve had time to digest and assimilate what modern art brought to us. Deeply personal work resonates universally. It has the power to magnetize others to it mostly because it is communicating from an inherent common ground. We really don’t have to dumb it down anymore. Everyone gets it on one level or another. There’s nothing corny about raising the vibration of our environment, whether it’s in a gallery, someone’s living room, on a computer screen, or a department store window.

This work is a concentrated potion of beauty and power intended to achieve as much mutual benefit as possible on as many levels as possible.

I’m seeing things. I’m seeing the Light in and around everything and everybody. I’m thinking it has to be all about this right now, seeing the Light in “what is”. The world is changing at a speed that baffles me though the Mind’s Eye is now in charge. The Mind’s Eye can only see the highest, and is all that we need to create and heal and transform.

Monochromatic eye color explorations, via The Mind’s Eye.

For some time I have been contemplating what it’s going to take for the fashion industry to utilize fashion drawing in the present. Fashion in general tends to like to think of it as a quaint late great thing of the past.

There are shows in museums and galleries, several books, usually presenting groups of artists, some from the past, some alive and making work today. It’s all become a little too precious for me. This glass box that has been designated for what it is I do is just not a fit and it is my life’s work to break through and hopefully create for myself and others opportunities that allow for a much more expanded arena in which to work.

So this brings me to the latest Dior show. John Galliano presented for his SS 2011 couture collection an absolutely stunning homage to the Rene’ Gruau.

This collection said DRAW ME like nothing else. What a brilliant opportunity to totally immerse myself in all that was great about this period in a truly modern and bold way. In the studio I’ve been freezing and screen grabbing images from the show, printing out references, preparing to start a series that would answer the questions that have been rolling around in my head:

“How can we include and revere the past in a way that truly serves the present moment?

“What makes a fashion drawing relevant, useful, and new now?”

“How to communicate in a way that pierces through the layers of resistance or dismissive attitudes around fashion drawing?”

“Really, what does this look like?” “How to present it?”

And then comes the “I love Hitler” thing. Really John Galliano? You love Hitler? You have to love Hitler now? When I’m in the middle of a project referencing your latest work? The whole thing is just insane and sad. I love John Galliano. Yes love. I’ve been inspired by him from the day he dumped water on the heads of the models he sent down the runway and blew everyone’s minds for his graduate show at St. Martins. But that’s the thing about being an illustrator, you get to love the great creators from a far. There is not much that we do that requires our actual physical presence, so it’s rare that we actually meet anyone in the fashion business unless you really want to. For me it’s all just a platform for me to take off from, a reference point to expand upon from the comfort of a grounded and secure place. Thank God my friends are all artists and yogis and for my little family, and for the Internet.

Anyway, so here I am with all my inspiration in the midst of this “scandal”. Do I abort and go and find another platform to jump off of? In general I’m a very -“don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, take what you like and leave the rest” kind of person. I realize that many of my teachers/heroes have been deeply flawed human beings. Was Picasso a great guy? How many times have I watched “Annie Hall”? What would drive McQueen to end it all in his closet? Is Galliano inadvertently killing himself too? It sure feels like it.

It always comes back to the Truth. Inspiration is Inspiration. It does not “belong” to us, it is a force and this force is a mystery. Through “who” and when it is revealed is all beyond our doing and control. It can come through a healthy being as much as a sick one. So with this understanding I can work with the energy, the beauty that has been given. I can decipher what is pure spirit and what is not. As the energy of this collection pours through me it is obvious that “it” is not “the guy who loves Hitler” shifting the color, creating the shape, refining the line. It is not even “me” making the drawings. Inspiration and beauty and love are pure, impossible to be distorted even by the most twisted and distorted personalities.

I’m going to continue my work inspired by this Dior collection because I am passionate about beauty and art and about how precious it is. It is worth my time and my life to exalt it no matter through what or whom it comes to me through. I will keep you posted how this is going but in the meantime here is a drawing from 2007 inspired by John Galliano for Dior. “Origami Dress”. I thought it was the most incredible thing.

It’s been a week of packing up and archiving work from 2010, preparing the space for a new direction. “The wall” is empty and all the surfaces are clean and cleared.
The Containment series had all to do with going inside, closing in. Much like a deep and long forward bend that nourishes and restores the nervous system. I leave this direction for now with an offshoot from this series, The Containment Girls. It’s time to move to higher and lighter ground.

For generations on my mother’s side my grandmother and her mother and so on made a yearly pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Oropa outside Biella in northern Italy. My grandmother and mother would take us there as children. It is a spectacularly beautiful place and we recently brought my daughter Praise there.

Making this drawing brings me into complete resolution with my Italian Catholic heritage. Patriarchy being a fundamental perspective of the church and my culture never really resonated with me. I was born a feminist so much of my life has been about reconciling with what I am made from and who I am ultimately. I realize that my work is at its core an expression of the divine feminine.

The Black Madonna is a very mysterious and powerful symbol. She represents the female counterpart to Jesus, the Magdalene in some interpretations.

A modern perspective of the Madonna in general is that Mary was in fact purified, became enlightened herself in the carrying of Jesus, an enlightened being, as opposed to the church’s interpretation of an “immaculate conception”.

My Madonna is shattering the archetypes of the past. Her child possibly even a girl. The baby is in a sling as you’d see most mothers these days making their way around the city.

For some time I have gone back to working in charcoal. I wanted to create drawings that were “complete” as a work on paper. I think I may be done with this series though since I can’t stand dealing with the soot that goes everywhere no matter what.. Maybe I’ll pick it up again in the summer when I can work outside in the country. We’ll see..

Anyway, so what has been coming up for a while for me is the contemplation of “Containment”. There are times when our energy is strong and is seeking expression, we feel compelled to connect, move forward, upwards and onwards regardless of circumstance.

What I am finding interesting at the moment is working with this energy with a sense of mastering it. Honing it in, disciplining and directing it’s flow. I am interested in the containment and the concealing of ones power. What is the purpose of containing or concealing anything? For me there is pleasure and liberation in the building and preserving of energy for the ideal time. For when art or love or anything can ultimately flourish. It is obvious when the outer world is in complete harmony and resonance with a specific expression. Giving and receiving are in balance.

There is total support. This is what mastery is all about. Not a drop of energy is wasted. I am conserving and nurturing the best of the best for the best, yet I have no idea what that really is. I just know I’ll recognize it.

These vessels are containers of power, of strength in reserve. They are built from a series of lines and shapes until they have reached capacity or completion. The many drawings beneath never to be exposed. The intention is for the power within to be felt, sensed. Kind of like a bomb or a vase or a woman, however you want to look at them.

link: ashadedviewonfashion.com