I've always liked to be a bit different, not to conform with the norm. While everyone was wearing the latest fashions and trying to get hold of that 'must have' pair of shoes I was hunting around charity shops and buying fabric from the local market to make my own designs. I remember the excitement of that great find whilst rummaging through the rails of the charity shop, I once found an amazing, long black dress with a large zig zagged hem, and below the hem a black fringed trim, I just had to have it! The sleeves however were very long and a bit worn so I bought some black lace and asked Mum if she could make some new sleeves, she did. and it was beautiful...I loved that dress!
I loved doing my own thing and carving out my own individual identity, I was discovering me and the person that I was always meant to be.
I was happy to travel down my own path and not be just like everyone else, i was evolving.
Music played a massive part in my life back then and still does today. I loved the Alternative 80's, the dark side of the music scene and followed bands such as Bauhaus, The Cure, Soft Cell and The Cult. i loved watching The Tube and would record it each week on the massive VHS recorder under the television.
Then on a Friday night we would go to Clouds Alternative nights, a nightclub in Preston, and would be in my own little world dancing all night to my favourite music and the musicians and bands that shaped me. The 1980's really were the best times!
I realise now that my artistic voice hasn't been rushed, I have been searching for it and carving it out for many years now, if fact we do this all of our lives. From those early days of designing my own clothes for Mum to create on her Singer sewing machine, to the style of music I was listening to and the influences that I loved and followed and also in the fantastic people that I met along the way, many who I am still friends with today. It was there in the hand painted decor of my teenage bedroom and the books I was reading, it was with me at school when everyone wore a navy blue jumper and i wore a grey fluffy one, it really has always been there, evolving and growing with me for a lifetime.
Thanks for reading My Artistic Voice Blog,
Sending lots of Stardust love,
Christine x
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