Ceil’s Artist Statement

"For all of my childhood years, I drew paper dolls and created their clothng. Before I knew what a Fashion Designer was, I knew that I loved clothes, loved drawing/designing them.

I attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan as an art student. The curriculum closest to Fashion Design, at the time, was Fashion Illustration. We studied the body and learned to render clothing, learning about fabrics, textures, and styles. We studied art history and of course, fashion history.

After school, I worked at a Detroit shoe store creating shoe ads (for very little renumeration). Circumstances and finances intervened in the idealistic art world, and so I began my "working life."

I have worked since age 14, and continue today, full time, in the business world (not the art world).

Marriage, children, and life did not allow time, energy, or interest in artwork, and so my gift lay dormant for over 20 years.

My husband, partner, and mentor died in 1994. My oldest son was engaged to be married in 1995, and his future wife had difficulty finding a dress to fill her dreams. A seamstress in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan asked the question, which would prove to be the key to reawakening my artistic drive. She suggested that my son's fiance bring sketches of her dress, and she would create it. I produced that drawing and have not stopped drawing, painting, or creating since then.

In 1999, I had the opportunity to move to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Shortly after moving, I met the costumer of the Grand Rapids Ballet. We met at a costume workshop. She is a wonderful seamstress. She has interesting and innovative ideas for costumes. The Artistic Director of the ballet knows (in his mind) what he wishes the dancers to wear and how he wants them to look. However, the costumer does not draw, and the director really needs to "see" her designs before approving them. At the time that we met, she had been look for someone who could render her designs.

In the following years, our relationship has changed, and today, when I work with her on designs for new shows, my drawings are used by the seamstresses as guides to the final costumes.