Lightning Strike!
A painted denim jacket for a concert
Since November, I have been greatly anticipating going to see Florence + The Machine in Philly. I had two tickets and the date was fast approaching. Life got in the way, the concert was cancelled due to the Flyers making the playoffs and I had to get tickets for the new venue in Atlantic City. I was lucky! I got two new tickets for the show. One thing that makes her fans unique is that they (we?) like to dress up, adorn flower crowns, exchange goodies, etc. but I was empty handed.
The day before the concert, an idea struck me like lightning! I suddenly had the idea to paint a denim jacket to commemorate the concert and her latest album. I painted feverishly from Friday to Saturday and continued making changes in the car while my husband drove us to Atlantic City.
On the jacket, I painted: crying eyes on the front pockets with gold needles through them, the arms feature graphics for some of my favorite songs from the latest album, a third eye on the collar when it’s popped up, and the chest has one of my favorite lyrics “Too Feminine Too Function” from the song, One Of The Greats. I went back and forth on what to feature on the back, but decided to put a bouquet of flowers, a flower for each of her albums, tied with a pink ribbon for another lyric from her album “the one pink ribbon that holds me together”. The top has the album/tour name Everybody Scream. I used paint marker to gently mark the areas with the designs that I wanted, and then painted with acrylic paint in layers. The final touches were done with Posca paint pens.
Florence + the Machine gave an amaaaazing performance. And the denim jacket made it through the pouring rain and the concert!
Coming up: My husband is my favorite person to travel with and in June, we’re taking a fun road trip. In a new post, I’m going to choose and swatch art supplies for my sketching adventures along the way. Stay tuned for that!
