Making a
Splash Wearable art arrives in the East Bay BY Lou Fancher
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walls, counters, doors and any other surface or domestic space found in rooms or backyards. Above all, supreme flexibility allows wearable art to fit the occasion for which it is worn. Notable wearableart possibilities popped into visibility during recent visits to physical and online museum stores at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the Oakland Museum of California, and during a centerpiece interview with Bay Area photographer, author and designer Josie Iselin. The wearable oceanic art arrives in a line of sublime scarves, courtesy of Iselin, whose commitment to welldesigned illustrated books that combine art and science springs forth also in shower curtains and a prototype for neckties currently in development. As a
EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021
photographer and author, Iselin works in her studio, Loving Blind Productions, to produce the fine-art, limited-edition prints and award-winning books that include her newest book, The Curious World of Seaweed (Heyday Books, 2019). Curious World features 16 narratives and images of iconic West Coast seaweeds and kelps. Her artwork, mostly consisting of large-scale prints, is displayed in galleries, museums and public spaces. Iselin has a bachelor’s in visual and environmental studies from Harvard and a master’s in fine arts from San Francisco State University, and teaches at SFSU’s School of Design. In a conversation about wearable art, and the scarves specifically, Iselin says, “I straddle so many worlds that I simplify it, and I think of myself primarily as a designer. People come
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOSIE ISELIN
mong the many rewards and luxurious pleasures of investing and dressing in wearable art is the possibility of draping the ocean around one’s neck—while simultaneously protecting its invaluable ecosystem and tiny treasures. Or literally, metaphorically and perhaps politically, lighting up a social gathering with an illuminated handbag that advocates, in its message, equal pay for all. Alternatively, an outfit might— without shouting rage, but by means of powerful words and imagery— establish unequivocal support for social justice, nonprofit arts organizations, preservation of our natural world and the protection of wildlife. In extended forms, wearable art brought into homes will “dress” and invigorate tables, beds,
