Fashion Is Art
September 08, 2015
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I came to be involved with Fashion in my early teaching days at Newbury College. I was teaching basic Design classes such as Color Theory and Basic 2D/3D Design. The Dean at the time called me into his office and told me he needed a teacher for Fashion Drawing Classes and Figure Drawing for Fashion Designers. “You can do this,” he said as he kept layering books in my arms, one on top of the other. “Go study up.”
“But, I don’t know anything on this subject” had no meaning to him.
I did go home and study, and I became hooked. I worked with students who were great at making clothes but needed a lot of help understanding the human form. They needed help in understanding different gestural ways to draw and put their own signature on their designs.
I invented my own tools for teaching “croquis “or fashion figures based on measurement. I went on to teach in many college programs courses in Fashion Industry, Figure Drawing for Fashion Students, Men’s Wear, Children’s Wear. Fashion Sketching, and Portfolio Design to name a few.
The great fashion designer, like great artists derive their inspiration from many sources, such as nature, famous art, music, architecture or popular culture. They create wearable art that is for everyday wear or the runway. Our great art museums have caught on to the beauty and power, which is Fashion, by exhibitions that show the parallels of fashion and art.
It is with this knowledge that I have prepared our Fashion Classes at my school. These are not just sewing classes. They are not just Fashion Illustration classes. We seek to instill in our students what it takes to create their unique designs and style. Projects that challenge their conceptual thinking are used, while keeping them focused on becoming as technically proficient in their sewing skills. As Mimi, my Fashion Sewing teacher says, “Do you want Wal-Mart, or Vera Wang!”
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August 19, 2015
Imagine, Be Inspired and Create
Located in Washington Square in Greater Boston’s Brookline community, the House of Colors offers studio fine arts classes, fashion design and a variety of creative and inspiring workshops for adults, kids and teens.
The creative classes we offer are designed to let students recognize their unique vision of the world and to translate that into real art. We are fun, engaging and very insightful offering support and encouragement to anyone who wants to make art.
We teach the discipline, patience and fortitude required to create sound pieces of work based on mastering technique, patience and tapping into our basic human drive to create.
Our art lounge and studio combination offers a place for people to create, muse and engage in meaningful conversation that speaks to the timeless settings of the past like the Salon in Paris and the creative roundtables that have shaped our culture.
We see a need for a place to secure our creativity and express our deeper symbolic yearnings. Our mission is to be one of those places for people of all ages and backgrounds.
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Latest News
Michelle Muhlbaum-Aviksis artwork is on display in the studio gallery until September 5th to raise money for the Printing Press Fundraiser. All money from purchasing her artwork will be donated to the press.
Adult Painting Classes are now being offered at The House of Colors. Our highly individualized way of teaching students is now available to adults.
The House of Colors has expanded. We recently acquired the space next to the studio and fixed it up to be an Art Lounge. This space is available for private events and our regular Saturday Night Art Lounge series.
Watch this recent video of our students
talking about their experience at The House of Colors
Introducing New Instructor Mel Wells
Mel has a background in fine arts in addition to creative consulting and developing software applications for coaching.
She believes in the power of creativity and tapping into our individual muse to make our lives richer and more fun.
Mel will be teaching adult painting classes and giving workshops on creative visualization, art journaling and creative thinking.
Michelle and Mel both attended the School of the Museum of Arts where they met. They are dear friends and have supported and encouraged one another's creative work for almost three decades.
Please feel free to call 617 365 5625 or email Michelle Muhlbaum-Aviksis with any questions.
We are located at 667 Washington Street, Brookline, MA 02446
My Beginnings as an Artist
August 11, 2015
To tell you about The House of Colors is to tell you about my beginnings as an artist. When I was about 9 or 10 years old, I began studying at the Whedon School of Art in Port Washington, New York. Aida and Dan Whedon ran the school. Aida taught drawing and painting, while Dan taught ceramics and sculpture. When Aida was in her sixties she studied printmaking. She taught us kids the intaglio etching technique, which she learned herself. Our studio was one of the cleanest studios I ever worked in. This was her insistence on us respecting our tools and the space we used.
The creative spirit of this husband and wife team stayed with me long after I left them to go to college at Tyler School of Art. They took great pride in this. Little did I know that after years of teaching, I would create a school based on their model.
I have been blessed to have great teachers in my life from a young age.
In addition to the Whedons, I studied under Romas Viesulas, a well-known Printmaker who taught at Tyler. After completing my BFA under Romas’s tutelage, I went on to work for Ruth Leaf as her edition printer and assistant teacher. I soon learned that Ruth and Romas had studied together in New York. Aida had studied printmaking with Ruth Leaf. I met Ruth when I was a teenager and wanted to print during the summer that Aida and Dan were away. Aida convinced Ruth to let me work at her studio, which was just for adults. At the time, I didn’t realize how important these influences would be for my life as an artist. I understand now that we do not create in a vacuum. It is the input of our teachers, peers, other artists who have come before that we are connected to. The most important quality of visual art is to learn how to see.
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