Accenting fantasies and fun, this series celebrates femininity. It allegorically emulates clothing’s impact upon the wearer thru marrying bed jackets with sweets poised upon them. To wear silk is a pleasurable, satisfying experience that has the power to generate feelings of beauty and empowerment. Not only that, painting upon silk’s smooth texture and eating confections are equally lush. The bed jacket is a feminine souvenir from a time of decadent glamour and elegance. The cake with feminine attire mixture evokes reflection upon self-image and there is a suggested harmonious, lighthearted welcoming embrace of self-esteem, temptation, and sensuality. With these paintings, Rust says she set out to find joy. This was accomplished by careful consideration of materials and process. Metaphorically the work presents sugar upon something sweet to reveal something even sweeter. The experience, on our way to becoming (as we embrace our bodies), gets even better.

 

Why Bed Jackets ?

Rust says that many of her memories are made of feminine objects and clothing, like bed jackets and compacts; set aside from her grandmother. The artist is compelled to use these materials in her work, as they are evocative reminders of family and life lessons. One of Rust's most favored garments, as a child, was a blush colored bed jacket. Simultaneously, it instilled a sense of maturity, elegance, with a bit of security yet riskiness too. These sophisticated souvenirs, of a time of luxurious glamour, provide a backdrop of low-relief grounds for paint application. Each perhaps metaphorically acts as a theatrical platform, stages made from garments. Aiming to be commemorative, installations and series in the body of work speak to the evolution of femininity and the way individuals wrestle to live within what is socially accepted as feminine.