perks.

Last week I got to enjoy one of the perks of working in fashion. As Dennita says, all the administration and desk work is important, but all the socializing and networking is important too. Making connections and building relationships open doors. So last week I got to meet designer Lisa Perry who has two dresses in our exhibition. She came to the museum with her mother to tour our exhibit with Dennita and I tagged along. The next day she invited Dennita to a meet and greet and luncheon at Barney's to celebrate her spring line. I didn't get to go to the luncheon, but Dennita took me to the meet and greet. Lisa remembered me and we kissed cheeks - you know, like fancy people do. Then Dennita went to the luncheon and I browsed Barney's and laughed at the price tags before moving on to the rest of the mall. (Side note: Even if you are wearing your very nicest dress, you will feel dressed in rags in Barney's. It can't be helped. But it's a beautiful store.)

Here's a photo of Lisa Perry with some of her designs I stole from her website. She's delightful.

After the luncheon we took the director of Lisa's label back to the museum to see the exhibit - which Lisa had spoken of so highly that Jane just HAD to see it - before she caught her flight to their next meet and greet tour location. Exciting story: Remember Black Cloud? The butterflies I talked about a while ago? That is part of an incredible exhibit of Contemporary Latin American that you have to walk past on the way to the fashion gallery, and you really can't miss the butterflies. They are breathtaking. When we took Lisa through she asked about the butterflies and Dennita didn't know what to say. Since I had worked on it I knew some of the cool facts and piped up to let her know what it was. When we took Jane through the next day, Dennita said just said, "I don't know much about it, but Keri can tell you about this work." So I told Jane everything I knew. Look at me. Giving tours to important people. Felt pretty good.

In other news, here's a photo of the gang from the opening two weeks ago. Can we say... One of these things is not like the others? It's fine. And I have to say, it's not just my apparel and hairstyle that doesn't seem to belong... We had a professional photographer at the event snapping pics. I went through them all and these group photos are the only ones I am in. Everyone else is either the subject of or in the background of at least half a dozen other photos. Where was I? It's laughable. Really. The funny thing is, I think that the curator and I are actually really similar. This internship is so great.

Miranda, Casey, Dennita, Yours Truly

I got to go home to visit Utah this weekend which was an absolute delight. But I will save all of those details for a different post. Meanwhile, Arizona is heating up, which I quite enjoy so far, and I have to say, there is truly nothing better than picking lemons straight off the tree for fresh-squeezed lemonade.

digital print fashion.

This week we opened our new show, Digital Print Fashion. If anyone lives near or is passing by the Phoenix area any time from now until July, you HAVE to come see it. If you know anything or can appreciate anything about color, design, fabric, fashion, or even a single name in fashion, you can appreciate it. It's beautiful. Anyway, here is a brief summary of a very, very busy and stressful week.

Edited text, hunted down photos, took objects for a photoshoot, collaborated with graphic designer, and set up layout in the gallery for the preparators to complete the timeline for the wall of the gallery. Exhibit A:

Timeline of major printing processes throughout history - my pet project for this exhibit. It made me feel pretty important.

Close up sample of the copper plate printing process - text, process image, and sample of a printed textile from our collection. these gloves are divine.

Built up and dressed mannequins, handling all sorts of gorgeous dresses by Alexander McQueen, Basso and Brooke, Mary Katrantzou,  Rodarte, Monique Lhuillier, the dress Carrie Underwood wore for the Country Music Awards and more. FYI, I saw a price tag on one of these dresses for $11,220. Normal. Also, you should understand the beauty of handling designer fabrics and inspecting the construction of designer garments. To. Die. For. One of our Rodarte's? One of four. In the world. And I touched it.

The aforementioned Monique Lhuillier from the Spring 2013 RTW collection. If it doesn't amaze you in the picture, you should see it in person. It's divine. Also, I'm too lazy to hunt down more pictures, but you should definitely Google Mary Katrantzou's 2010 and 2011 collections. She's genius. Obsessed.

Mounted this astounding piece of fabric to be hung in the gallery. This shows an example of a print engineered and printed specifically for a garment by Jeremy Scott. This is one of our few pieces that was printed in the US (most high-end printing is still done in London or Italy) by a firm called First2Print. The director of first to print, Dani Locostra, flew out for our opening. I got to meet with her and put together her powerpoint presentation.

This took me all day to mount. I was so proud. Scroll down to check out the dress that comes from this pattern.

Helped with installation of mannequins and placards, including all sorts of last minute touch-ups.

During install. Genie lift.

AND at the end of the day made an appearance at the opening event and lecture with my fellow intern to pass out some super cool buttons to all of our outstanding patrons and donors who were dressed to the nines for our soiree of drinks and bite-sized pastries to celebrate.

Me and Miranda, Dennita's other intern, at the opening event, handing out buttons and wristbands. The buttons were definitely more popular - my idea. Not bragging. Casey, Dennita's assistant, is in the background.

Shot of the runway - Alexander McQueens in the front of course.

Crowded gallery with people oohing and aahing over our exquisite exhibit. Note the "jukebox" dress by Jeremy Scott, whose pattern I mounted for display on the wall behind.

AND THEN, after five 10-11 hour days on my feet, and an evening in heels, I forced myself to get up at 6:30 this morning to head to the finish line of the Phoenix Marathon to offer my volunteer services. I got stationed away from the action at the "Fun Zone" by all the inflatables to babysit the small children and make sure they didn't hurt each other. Those of you who know me well may sense the irony in this.

But I did get to watch some people cross the finish line and let me just say, if you ever have the chance to go watch the finish line of a marathon or a half, DO IT. It's inspiring. Better yet? Stay an hour or more after the majority of the runners get in. It's even more inspiring. The person who crosses at 7 hours, 12 minutes is every bit as much of a champion as the person who crosses at 2 hours, 35 minutes. And everyone gets cheered on through the home stretch.

Major kudos to my friend Sara Shill who ran her first marathon this morning. Wish we'd gotten a pic together - how did I miss that photo opp? Actually, I only got one lame photo of me behind the finish line after all the action was over. You know, to prove I was there. By the way, it was 80 degrees today. Take that Utah.

Rockin' the pedal pushers. You wish you were me and my sunburned nose.

And now, after a brief summary of my very, very busy and stressful week, I might actually get some sleep. I hope you few readers feel oh so privileged that I put you first. ;) Guess who gets to go home to visit in a week?!

that's not a car lot.

Today I was driving home from the museum a few hours later than usual (it's T minus four days until the exhibit opens and it's all hands on deck) and it was starting to get dark. As I rounded a curve in the Red Mountain Freeway (it's really curvy) I saw a large orange illuminated half-dome in the sky ahead. Fascinated by this floating semi-orb, I thought to myself, THAT is the most eye-catching car lot decoration I've ever seen. Kudos. And I craned my neck more and more to try and see where and what it was. As I rounded yet another curve (I told you, it's very curvy) the semi-orb grew into a full circle. Suddenly I realized, That's not a car lot, that's the moon. Floating there, right in front of me, hanging over the Red Mountain Freeway, this massive, entrancing, rich orange orb. It was unreal. I tried to capture its glory when I arrived home and could safely take a picture, but it doesn't do it justice. FYI - top left: street light. Middle: street light. Lower right: MOON.

In other news, I am newly obsessed with Halston. Look him up. That man knew his way around sequins before sequins were cool.

BOOM. Halston.

And today I sat in on a collections meeting. Free lunch. And fascinating. You never knew how much was involved in a museum donation. You might. If I told you more about the collections meeting. Am I total geek that sitting in on museum meetings makes my day? It's fine.

valentine's weekend.

I sort of overlooked Valentine's Day as any other day of the week. I figured my valentine was coming the next day when Dave came to Mesa to visit me. So I felt pretty special when Dave surprised me by arranging for me to receive roses on Valentine's Day while I was skyping with him.

Of course the real excitement was picking him up at the airport the next day. Naturally I got lost in the middle of the desert on my way to pick him up, but fortunately I had left extra early in all my excitement and made it in time to meet him when he got off his plane. We went to Olive Garden for a late dinner together and finished off our reunion with a movie outdoors...because we can do that here.

At the airport, just after our reunion.

 On Saturday we went to breakfast, and then I got to take Dave to the museum to see what I've been working on. Well, I showed him the museum. The fashion gallery is under construction during the transition from one exhibit to another so, we really only got to peek between some boards. But it was great.

Sunday morning my gracious host was kind enough to take some pictures for us. Then I got to show Dave off at church and prove to everyone that I wasn't lying when I said I was engaged. You know, because someone might totally do that. My fiance exists! Thank goodness.

Bike ride along the canal.

Monday was for bike riding and relaxing. Dave's early flight got delayed to a late flight which meant we got surprised with three hours of extra time together, even if we had to sit in an airport to redeem it. Lucky for us the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport has some fancy couches to sit on. 

All in all, a wonderful weekend, and definitely the best Valentine's Day happenings ever. I am so grateful I got to spend a whole weekend with my best friend. Only three more weeks until I get to go home to visit him. And only four more months until my best friend becomes my husband. I can't wait.

warm rain.

I made the comment to someone before I left that I wouldn't be bringing my rain boots to Arizona. She responded, "You'd better take them - you'll get there just in time for monsoon season!" which I took to mean when it rains, it pours.

Well, I haven't seen a monsoon yet. But there have been a few chilly days since I got here (comparatively speaking - they would be considered heavenly to those of you back in UT) complete with good, solid rainstorms. They're pretty nice actually - it's a relatively warm rain, after all.

Captured this lovely sight a few weeks ago just out the front door after one such rain storm. I like the contrast of the differing trees in people's yards. I commented to my friend the other day that I still wasn't used to seeing palm trees in everyone's yards. "Why not?" she asks. "...because we don't have in our front yards in Utah." "You don't?!"

In museum news: all hands on deck. It's time to de-install the old exhibit and install the new. The old exhibit has to be cleaned and processed, collections forms are due this week, and not all the pieces have arrived for the new exhibit yet. And did I mention the curator is out of town? It's gonna be great.

this week.

Monday: Speed dating for FHE. How do you support your ward by participating in activities when you really shouldn't be participating in the activities they are hosting? Show up and eat cookies. That's right.

Tuesday: Tough Yoga. Aka aerial pushups, lunges, bicep curls, sit ups... It was awful. And wonderful. So much better than all of those things on the ground. Especially when we did a butterfly stretch hanging upside down. Nbd.

Wednesday: Visited this beautiful building:

Mesa, Arizona Temple at night, after a rainstorm. The reflection is a puddle on the lawn, not a pool.

Thursday: Balance Yoga. I was incredibly surprised at how much easier it was the second time compared to my first balance class last week. Moral of the story? Aerial yoga works! I'm addicted. Seriuously.

Friday: Skype "date" with Dave. Don't judge. Sometimes you do what you can. AND he comes to visit me ONE WEEK from today!

Saturday: Finally got some work helping a single mom clean/organize her home. Exhausting, but effective. Also, my GREAT accomplishment of the day was finding her address, SANS GPS. I'm practically a local. I have a preferred customer card at Bashas' and a Mesa Public Library card and everything. 

In internship news, this week I heard through the grapevine that my supervisor thinks I'm doing a great job, and she doesn't just say that about anybody. I think she's starting to trust my work a little more - my projects are getting more and more exciting. This week she put me in charge of researching and putting together a timeline for the wall of the gallery for the upcoming exhibit. Might sound silly to you, but its actually a big deal, so humor me and be proud. ;)

Also, it was HOT this week. Cheers.

black cloud.

This week I had the opportunity to participate in the installation of a work of art called the "Black Cloud" by Carlos Amorales. It's part of a contemporary Latin American art exhibition opening in the museum next week. The work consists of 30,000 black paper moths and butterflies attached to the walls and ceilings that spread throughout the entrance to the museum to the galleries and swarming in the central gallery. It's fantastic.

This picture is NOT from the Phoenix Art Museum as the installation is still in progress and few photos have been released. But I will tell you, the effect is remarkable, especially in the hall that museum staff refers to as the "Canyon." The museum was built to imitate the land and this particular hall has an extremely high ceiling and the walls undulate in and out. The cloud is simultaneously intimidating and beautiful. It has been fun to watch the progress of the two week installation - I still can't help but stop and marvel. If you get a chance to come to Phoenix before May, take it. And come see this.

I have to admit, I did not get to do any of the work up on scaffolding putting up paper insects because the artist was attending to his work the day I came to volunteer. Instead I was set to the task of prepping each piece for installation. The work has been installed in 8 or 9 other museums, but new moths/butterflies are used for each installation. That meant we had to take every little bug out of the box it was shipped in, unfold it, give it some shape, and attach some poster putty to its nose so it could be hung on the wall. While the work was tedious, I got to chat with some cool people while I was doing it, and I'm glad I can say I was part of the process. At the end I stuck one on the wall anyway - hopefully I can remember which one it is!

In other news, people here still think they are freezing. It's close to 70 degrees each day and everyone is still wearing boots, sweaters, scarves and tights. Meanwhile I'm trying to convince myself not to break into my spring wardrobe while pretending I don't feel like the oddball with my bare legs. It rained a little the other day and someone told me to be careful driving home. This weather things baffles me.

Tip of the day: You can't complain about weeding until you've weeded around a cactus. I wrestled a cactus bush today, and the bush won.