Tracy Austin was interviewed by Mark Kilfoil on CHSR's (97.9FM) program "The Lunchbox," on July 13th, 2018.
MK: Nice to meet you Tracy. TA: Nice to meet you too! MK: You’re in the casemates this week, and I think you described them as a wind tunnel, trying to get a bit of extra air moving down here; looks like the temperatures are going to work on your side. What are you up to this week? TA: This week I am working with the Fredericton Arts Alliance to create a textile fashion piece. I do them in miniature scale because I want them to be more easily displayed as pieces you can keep in your house, a conversation piece, or a general art piece, and I am making a miniature dress that is going to be in response to the theme of the river. MK: Okay, so a lot to start with here. You’re working on miniature dresses. Now, you described it as textile, I get the impression that there’s more than just a simple dress pattern going on here. TA: Yeah, I’m traditionally trained in fashion, but I also am working with textile design in the way that, instead of just having a basic pattern dress, I’m doing things to the textiles on top of it, I’m layering them, and doing different techniques to them to get more depth to the pieces. MK: Okay, now you’re working in miniature, is that normally the size you work in? TA: It is. I am trained in full size garments, but the miniature mistress at heart just couldn't pass up the plan to work small and really get my idea out there. And I just thought, when I was doing them as a student, I had all these dresses and no idea where to put them. Well, if they were small, it would fix that issue, and I could display more of them. So that’s why I’m working in this miniature size now. MK: So it was really very practical? TA: Yeah it was, it was also a little self-indulgent because I do like to work small, but it is practical in the way that, if I were to make some of these dresses in full size, we’re talking about eight foot by eight foot spaces that they would take if I were to scale them up, so when they’re smaller, they’re a little easier to display in places and cart around and things like that. MK: So you also mentioned this bit because of personal indulgence. What is it about working small that fascinates you? TA: I really have no idea. I’m a really impatient person when it comes to getting my creativity out, and I think it’s because I can get so much work done on a smaller scale so quickly. While it still takes a lot of time and work and skill, I’m not sitting here doing sixteen metre hems or something like that. Although, when you move yourself to a smaller scale, you’re also working with other challenges and trying to work at getting a machine around itty bitty tiny places. MK: See that’s what came to mind to me at first, when I think of small, I think having very delicate movements, having to magnify everything so I can see everything. Is that the kind of stuff you’re dealing with? TA: Absolutely. It’s definitely a challenge; I’ve had to rethink how certain patterns go together, because if I’m looking at the arm hole or sleeve or something like that has about a foot and half for me to work with. On a doll, I’ve got about the size of a loonie. So I’ve got think about different ways to get things put together that lets me get my machine in there. MK: One errant slip, and you’ve got, well, maybe not a large piece to replace, but. So what scale is this? Is there a particular scale? TA: It’s in between a third and a quarter scale. It’s more of a third if you’re looking at the height of them. MK: Is there a standard scale or model that you’re working with? TA: Not really. It originally was based on a doll that was based on the age that I was working with, that was a third scale. My issue with my dolls was that people had so many questions about the dolls and their shoes, that sometimes they would forget about my clothing, so I just removed all of that and instead I’m working with just the clothing now. MK: So describe what your style is, if there’s an overall style that you go for. TA: I definitely go dark. I’m a contemporary artist so I like to speak with my pieces a bit, I don’t want them to just be “Oh, it’s a pretty dress.” It is a pretty dress, but it has a bit more to it. Currently working on a thing called “Display Of Power,” where I’m trying to display through clothing that if people are trying to display a certain persona forward, then it always comes at a cost. Because they always say that fashion always comes with a price or it’s never going to be just easy to portray something unless you wanna sacrifice a part of yourself. MK: Wow! Okay so what are some of the examples of stuff you’ve worked on in a series? TA: One of my main ones I did for the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design’s faculty exhibition this past fall, I did a piece called “Aurec,” and I actually have her here in front of me if anyone wants to come down and see her, she is here. But she is a giant bell skirt on a hoop made of tiny, tiny little petals, and she’s got a jacket. But the thing about her is that she’s made to be this beautiful piece that portrays confidence and elegance, but she’s wearing a dress that she couldn’t walk in. She’s wearing a coat that doesn’t have any sleeves or any warmth, and she’s coerced and singed into this thing that really doesn’t give her any freedom, so there is a cost that comes with that element and with that power. MK: Forget walking, how do you sit down in something like that? TA: Yeah, you’re not gonna be sitting, no. MK: Does it just having a rigid framing for a resting place? TA: Yeah, you have to balance it pretty precariously. MK: So for this piece, I’d say it’s about a foot and a half tall, very small-centre body structure, very intricate work on the back of it. So are we looking at just simply string or is it something more that’s holding together? TA: It’s a base wool coat, but to put all the details in that, I use different lace appliques that I deconstruct and then reconstruct in new designs. Since they don’t really make my scale of appliques, I have to come up with creative ways of how to do them. I have made my own appliques before with braided and embroidered string and things like that, but this is some extra appliqued beading, studs, things like that that all come together to create this piece. MK: These little gold pieces here, they’re studs? I didn’t know studs came that small, that’s like a millimetre. TA: Yeah, they’re really, really tiny. MK: So how long would a piece like that take to work on? Obviously there’s a conceptions phase for something like this. So what was the first inspiration for this? TA: I started looking at a lot of historical garments and what they meant at that point, and the original large dresses and corsets were for that point, that women weren’t expected to do much while wearing them, but they were expected to hold themselves to a certain standard of dress. So I wanted to take that and mix it with my really dark, kind of gothic style, but I also wanted to modernize it, and I’ve been doing a lot of botanical work, so I kind of merged all my things together to get this new piece, especially since the gallery was called “Persona,” so it was sort of taking all the things that I’m interested in and merging them into my concept of <indistinct> power. MK: Okay, so you got the concept, do you start with sketches? TA: Absolutely. Every fashion design, regardless of its full scale or anything like that, we go through a set of scales before we get to our final piece, and that is our conceptualizing, which is where we pull images and history and things like that, which is what I explained, and then we start sketching, and we sketch a lot; you dont’ want to sketch once, you want to sketch thirty to fifty things and then start going “okay, what are the best parts of all these things?” and hopefully they end up with the piece that you’re looking for. And then after that we do a thing called a “mock-up.” I think I have one here, it’s made out of just really plan cotton called muslin, where I test my pattern that I’m working on to make sure everything’s going to work before I move into my silk or my hand-dye. MK: Right, the more expensive pieces, the better to work with. TA: Exactly, you do it with the cottons first. And then of course the pattern that came before the mock-up was hand-drafted by me as well so there’s no miniature patterns for me to find, I hand-made them all. MK: So putting it all together, is the construction phase the most difficult and time-consuming as well? TA: The most time consuming actually is the one where you’re doing your mock-up and you’re testing out your new techniques. Because if you go “oh, I never made this before, let’s see if it works,” you don’t just want to dive in and see what happens, you have to do all these tests before you get there. So when you’re testing out your pattern, you’re testing out your materials and things like that, that’s the most time consuming. Because once you lead up to that and do all this work, after that you just have to make it. I say “just,” it still takes quite a bit of time, but that lead-up is probably two-thirds of the process and the third is making the piece at the end. MK: Can you put a number to this? We talked about this process taking quite a while and a lot of dedication? TA: Yeah, it’s probably between 60 to 80 hours for this piece; it’s pretty intense. MK: Now are you using the same techniques to make the small clothing you would to make the large clothing? TA: I am, thank you for asking. A lot of people think “oh, it’s okay if it’s small clothes, they’re doll clothes.” I’m like “oh, you don’t understand, I’m taking traditional corseting techniques, traditional tanning techniques, and I’m applying that to this miniature scale. MK: I’ve worked a bit in some miniature work and I’ve seen some wonderful constructions, but part of what you’re doing with a lot of those is they’re cheating all over the place, and you’re not. Can you even get stitches? The stitches can’t scale down, can they? TA: They can’t, no. That’s another issue too; stitches can’t scale down but neither can the fabric. So you have to think about what fabrics you’re using. When I say I have a wool coat, it took me a long time to find a wool that was delicate enough for me to work with this scale, because most wools are just too bulky to work with for this scale. MK: And it wouldn’t fold properly or cut properly? TA: Exactly, it would just be really bulky and really awkward looking. I went to Nova Scotia and I found this little hand-made shop where she was selling her home-made, hand-dyed wools, it was just beautiful. I wish I could remember the name, but she had them and I was able to buy her samplers, but it was the only way for me to find a delicate enough but high-quality wool for me to work with. MK: So even finding materials is another one of the research and challenges. TA: Yes, it definitely is. MK: Can you find buttons or poles or any of these things or are you manufacturing a lot of these things? TA: A lot of times I have to be creative, like the studs and beads and things like that. I’ve had to go and find companies that are specializing in these products that do make them in smaller scales because they’re not just a vendor, they’re the manufacturer. MK: So you must be using tweezers or something at that point. TA: No, well, kind of. I have really long nails, and people always laugh like “how do you do this tiny work with these long nails?” Well, they kind of work as my little tools as well, so I can flip the little buttons and things. But it’s just a lot of practice working in that scale. MK: How much practice? How long have you been up to this? TA: I’ve been up to this for about a decade. MK: Did your clothing and stuff just get smaller as the years went on? TA: I graduated from NBCCD in 2007, and by 2008 I was already working miniature. MK: So you didn’t do that while you were studying? TA: I didn’t, no. I did all the traditional, full-sized garments because I had talked myself into not doing miniature and said “let’s go do theatre, let’s go do a corset business,” and then I was just like “oh, maybe I’ll try miniature, I’m so self-indulgent with it.” So I said I’d just try it, and now here we are, and I very rarely make full-sized garments now. I can make little ones, and a lot more of them. Not just more of them, but if I do full-size, it’s going to take a lot more time just because of the amount of scale there is to work with, versus I can move into three different designs by that point and just keep my creativity going and keep moving forward with things. MK: It sounds like one of the essential steps along the way is finding something new, something you haven’t worked with before, is that true? TA: Absolutely! And that’s where I’ve moved my business away from working with dolls, because I was always limited by what the market would want, and I said “okay, I can’t be doing this, I need to challenge myself, I need to do more, and I want to use new techniques, and I want to create new techniques, and I just want to go bigger, bigger but smaller.” I wanted to challenge myself with some techniques and more time-consuming things and more intricate things, and to do that, I have to work more on a gallery style, sculpture-based thing. So I am now calling my works “textile sculptures.” MK: I was gonna say, because there’s an element of sculpture here, more in some ways than clothing-making, but obviously you put them together. TA: Yeah, and I’ve always looked at fashion as textiles and textiles as fashion, it really goes back-and-forth. There are elements of textiles and other things of course, but you can’t have one without the other when it comes to fashion-based work, and I think I’m keeping my fashion base, but I’m working more and more into developing more textile-based projects because, as I said earlier, I can’t go find these textiles, I have to create them. So it creates a new challenge, and as I’m doing that, I find out one thing and I think of six other projects, so I just keep making new, different ideas with my ongoing research. MK: So you had the question “can you make this as a big scale,” has someone gone further and said “I’d like to commission you to make this a larger scale, like a ware.” TA: Yeah, a couple times. Usually it’s for galas or costume events or things like that. Most of the time, though, I usually make a full-sized piece every year, and it’s usually like “if I’m going to make it, maybe I’ll make one for me.” But yeah, I have done a few of them over the years. MK: Have you ever modelled with yourself and your miniature self? TA: Funny you ask that, I did! Since I also work with NBCCD, and in fashion department there’s a show every year, and since I am an alumni of the program as well as staff, I have participated in it, had my own segment before, and one year I did do myself and the doll wearing the same thing. Just to show people that they are conceptually the same pieces, I just have to make them at different scales with different techniques, but you do end up with the same project in the end. MK: Right, I kind of hope that gnomes exist in the world, right? You’ve got the perfect size scale for gnomes. So the theme for a lot of the project this year is water. How is this influencing your ideas? TA: Well, while working for the school, we had a lot of damage done by the river this year. We were out of the building for 3-4 weeks, and it was a lot of dealing with <indistinct> that come with that and seeing a lot of the destruction that happened all over the province and things like that. And I wanted to take that, but I wanted to flip it and look at the silver lining a little bit, just because I think it was a really rough year for a lot of people, so I wanted to bring a little bit of positivity back into it, so I looked back at the river and I thought “well, the city was built on the river. The reason that Fredericton is here is because of the river, and I wanted to look at it from an ecological side of “what does the river do for our natural habitat? So I am working with merging my botanical work in with the concept of the river, and the green is never greener, I guess you could say. So I’m just looking at what it can do for our natural life and how that does help the community as a whole even if it did cause a lot of destruction. MK: So I love this concept and the fact that you’re taking a positive too it and all this, but I’m struggling to figure out how this relates back to textile and the clothing, so have you started that translation yet? TA: Yeah, I’ve actually started already, I will have the dress up hopefully on display by the end of the day. Not finished, but at least for other people to take a look at. I’ve built an understructure to my piece using traditional corsetry techniques so it can hold a lot of weights, and I’m building this piece that incorporates waves in the river and the colours of the river with a whole bunch of different textile techniques using texture-based concepts, where I’m constantly building up different layers to get an overall feeling of this living ecosystem, so I’ve got some plants mixed in there as well the river, and it’s a bit wild, it’s up off the floor because the flood did go a lot further than we expected it to, and she’s not gonna be completely symmetrical, she’s gonna have her waves kind of hitting where she kind of wants to go with. MK: And did you have some conception of this before you came or were you sketching? TA: I was sketching before I came, and actually before I came, I had a more symmetrical, traditional fashion piece, and I got here and I went “no, I think if I wanna work with this rawness and my materials, I’m actually not completely finishing everything, I’m working with raw edges of things as well. And I thought “well, if I wanna do that, my piece needs to be more raw and less symmetrical,” so I did have a design, I just revamped it a little when I got here. MK: Does that change happen often when you go from that? Like when you really get your hands on the material, something feels different? TA: Yeah, all the time. I’ll get halfway through and then go “hmm, no, I don’t think so,” and just completely switch something. Especially now where I am working more with the textile side of things, when I change something, it doesn’t change my pattern. I usually am working on a base of something that I built, drafted and then as I’m adding to it, that’s when I can change things, and that’s where I found a lot of the creativity comes through because I have all the freedom in the world to do what I want, and maybe it looks good on paper, but it doesn’t really work with what I’m doing, especially since the scale is difficult and I never know if it’s going to react the way I think it’s going to, so I’m up for changing things as I go sometimes. MK: This is something I’ve heard and kind of felt a little bit in creative endeavours; it’s great to have all the freedom in the world, but you need some restriction, something to start with. In this case, you’re given the water as a theme. Do you find that with your own work too? Kind of set a rule for yourself or set some goal? TA: I usually do. I have an on-going book that I keep my general themes in order and I try to think of a new yearly project every year, for sure. And each summer is my time when I really let myself play and just try out new techniques and get new things. I usually try to contain myself to a few different lines of work so that I have at least a basis of where I’m going, plus I am working a little bit in sociology and feminism, which is where the piece “Auric” came out, and I’m working on some other “Weight Of Power” pieces that fit with that theme. I’ve always got multiple things going on at once, but yeah, you’ve got to have a bit of guidelines to yourself or sometimes you end up stuck with all of these ideas and not being able to move forward. MK: Right, something to challenge you. TA: Yeah, exactly. MK: Do you think most people will miss the depth of fashion you’re talking about? Sociology type and ecology type and all of these things, and here I am in my t-shirt and shorts completely non-fashionably, but we kind of minimize in many ways the type of fashion we wear. Do you feel like we’ve kind of missed something? TA: Absolutely. I think it’s a part of why I’m working miniature as well, if I work full-scale, it becomes a wearable object, and I think people forget that just because we all wear clothes, it doesn’t mean that this other piece isn’t a piece of art. So now that I’ve made them small, I’m trying to get away from the kinds that are just doll clothes, and moving into the sculpture side because these art pieces are no different than a painting, or a metal sculpture, or a marble sculpture. They’re all pieces to be displayed and they all have meaning behind them and why they’re made. Even traditional fashion I’d <indistinct> a corset at $400, that’s crazy! Well that’s what a living wage costs to pay a designer to design, make, and fit a corset for you. If you’re paying less than that, it’s because you’re getting it off the back of a sweatshop somewhere, and we all wear it I’m sure, I mean I wouldn’t say that I don’t want fast fashion as well, but you have to be able to differentiate what is everyday fast fashion clothing and what is a piece of art that is display worthy. It’s like saying the jewellery artists aren’t artists because you can get rings out of those little coin machines in the mall, it’s the same kind of thing. There’s a certain mass-marketed side of fashion that we use for our everyday lives, but there’s also an artistic side of clothing that isn’t always meant to be worn. MK: You use the term “fast fashion,” which is an analog to fast food I’m assuming? TA: Yes, fast fashion is disposable fashion. It is anything that you’re finding at the mall, basically. If you can go in and buy it for five dollars, it’s fast fashion. You’re meant to wear it for a couple seasons and it loses colour or its thread start to go, and you throw it away. Versus if you paid a traditional fashion designer to make something for you or had something hand-made, they’re going to finish the seams differently, they’re going to triple-stitch everything, they’re gonna find you the best fabric that you’re gonna get, and that garment is meant to be kept for two-three decades if taken care of, not thrown out in six months. So that’s where the price difference comes from. If you look at all those shirts you’re gonna buy, you could just buy one, the price is actually cheaper and more affordable if you buy the good garment that’s made with all the proper techniques than fast fashion. MK: It’s been fascinating. You’re here in the casemates and people are wandering in. Have you had any interesting questions or reactions so far? TA: I’ve had a few that I expected, “look at the doll clothes, what do you do with them?” And that’s my favourite question; “what do you do with them?” Well, I’m sitting here with a painter and she’s wonderful, people look at her paintings and go “okay, I’ll display that on a wall” but how is that any different? You’re going to display it, you’re going to look at these pieces and they are meant to be displayed and looked at and conversational pieces, just like anything else. But I’ve also been surprised about the amount of people that will come in and they want to hear my story, and they understand where I’m coming from and what I’m doing and that is just really wonderful. MK: So do you think people are waking up a bit to fashion or to the art of fashion more? TA: I think so, I think as we’re moving forward in the world we’re becoming more conscious of the economics of things like fast fashion and paying people living wages and not taking advantage of sweatshops in other countries and things like that. That people are more responsive to what they’re paying for and where it’s coming from and things like that. So I think we are really moving towards an understanding again. MK: So you work at NBCCD, and now you’re on the other side of the classroom. Do you notice anything different about the way students are approaching the fashion and the textiles than from maybe when you were on the other side. Or is it because they have come to this level that they’re already there. TA: I think they’re learning very quickly what it means to be an artist. Because sometimes they get people or students who come in who are thinking they really like wearing fashion, but maybe they don’t understand quite what goes into creating it and making it. MK: The labour of it? TA: Yeah, and that’s fine and all, everyone who wants to be a fashion model wants to be a fashion designer, right? But I find a lot less of them are surprised nowadays, that they know what they’re coming in for and that just goes to show that people really are understanding the concept now and that’s really great. MK: Well that’s all very cool. Thank you so much for talking with me today and I want to know, is there a place where someone can see some of your work? Do you have any exhibitions coming up or places online that people could look? TA: Yep, you can find me online. I work under two different names; my more everyday clothing for this size is under Steampetal online, but I’m also working under Tracy Austin <indistinct> at the moment, which is on Instagram, and I’ll posting all my new shows and things on both of the accounts. MK: Awesome, thank you very much. TA: Thank you! Listen to the full interview here
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