Casino Chip Bikini Auctioned for Benefit

On October 23, 2008 the Las Vegas First Friday Arts Festival celebrated its Sixth Year! As a big supporter of this monthly Vegas arts happening, I donated my "Casino Chip Bikini" to the First Friday benefit art auction. Lovely Vegas model Stacy Lee also donated her time to model the bikini for bidders. The event took place at the Newport Loft building downtown. Here Stacy is pictured on the beautiful rooftop deck there.

And here she is again, posing with local art star Jerry Misko, who also donated one of his fab Neon Paintings to the benefit.

The artist and model!

...And lovely art patron Kellee Antalek won the bikini in the live auction!

And here is Kellee a few months later, modeling her new art acquisition!

Photos by John Rettie glamourphotos.com

States of Dress - NEVADA

"Casino Chip Dress"

was photographed on the Eldorado dry lake bed in Boulder, NV.
It is the Nevada dress for the ongoing "States of Dress" series

"Casino Chip Dress" is made of over 2000 casino chips,
each with 6 drill holes joined by clear zip ties.

At the photo shoot on the Eldorado dry lake bed...

Special Thanks
to Kent Thomson for providing studio space to create this dress,
Todd VonBaastians of Atomic Todd Gallery for his generosity and support,
The Gambler's General Store for partial donation of materials,
Benoit Beaufils for his tireless enthusiasm & assistance,
Ross Gibson, Jim Slonina, Tarra Scarff, my Mom & all the other volunteers
for their help & friendship.

This photo was taken by the great Dave Proctor (www.daplv.com)
with hair and makeup by Keely Zelanka.

Finished Dollar Store Dresses!

Here are the finished dresses from the 99¢ Only Dress Shop Exhibit
at Atomic Todd Gallery in Las Vegas:

Special Thanks to Todd VonBastiaans of Atomic Todd, to all my volunteers
(see full list in post below),
and thanks to 99¢ Only Stores for their support with this project.

Gallery Views:

"Feather Duster Dress"
made of feather dusters, sponge scrubbies and shoelaces

"Sponge Dress"
made of sponges, hot glue & velcro
(front)

(back)

"Blue Sponge Dress"
made of sponges, hot glue, shower curtain & shoelaces

"Silver Sponge Shorts & Vest"
made of sponges, hot glue & shoelaces

"Sponge Bikini"
made of sponges, hot glue & shoelaces

"Casino Chip Bikini"
made of casino chips, zip ties & shoelaces

"Easter Egg Dress"
made of plastic easter eggs connected with a price tagging gun

"Playing Card Dress"
made of playing cards & packing tape

"Beach Ball Dress"
made of beach balls & staples

"Whiffle Ball Wedding Gown"
made of whiffle balls and shower scrubbies (whole & unraveled)

"Casino Chip Dress"
made of casino chips & zip ties

First "States of Dress" short film!

This is my 100th post on my States of Dress blog!

To celebrate, I am announcing the launch of my very first States of Dress mini-film, "Wyoming". It is the first in a series of shorts about the ongoing project. It shows how I made "Willow Creek Dress", a floating dress of woven willow on Lower Piney Creek, at the Jentel Artist Residency Program in Banner, WY.

To view, please click on the link below. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/user/STATESOFDRESS

Gallery Show at Atomic Todd, Las Vegas NV

"99¢ Only Dress Shop"

April 30- May 24 at the Las Vegas art gallery:

Atomic Todd: 1221 Main Street, Las Vegas, NV

"Sponge Dress" by Robin Barcus Slonina
Photo by Eric Guideng, Hair & Makeup by Krystle Randall

Continuing my exploration of environmental dress making, I am turning to local dollar stores in the urban environment of downtown Las Vegas. I will be creating a "dress shop" entirely out of items purchased at various 99¢ Only stores. I will be working in my "artistic sweat shop" during the run of the exhibit, making dresses out of items like sponges, whiffle balls and easter eggs. This show will be completely interactive and open to the public. I invite everyone to come visit, try on the artwork, or even help create it!

Please click on the links below to read two articles from local papers about the show:

The Las Vegas Sun / Review Journal
"Sort-of-Wearable Art on the Cheap
By Kristen Peterson

The Las Vegas Weekly
"The Sponge Dress, and Other Delights; Pop Art Goes to the Bargain Bin"
by Greg Thilmont

Here are some pictures from Opening Night!
the artist

Gallery owner Todd VonBastianns

Art slaves Ross & Benoit (above) and Tarra (below)

Gallery views


playing with the art...


Sarah getting into ART!

THIS ARTWORK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE HELP OF MY AMAZING VOLUNTEERS!
Your dedication to this silliness really touched my heart.
THANK YOU:
Barb Barcus
Benoit Beaufils
Heather Eggerding
Barbara Ellis
Tara Ellis
Ross Gibson
Amos Glick
Laura Herbert
Jessica Holker
Marah Kaprowski
Stacy Lee
Luke Littell
Nick Mays
Bryan McCarthy
Carolina Moraes
Brett Palmer
Lucy Pascoe
Dave Proctor
Stephanie
Lakeisha Sable
Tarra Scarff
Andy Schmitz
Danny Sidlow
Jim Slonina
Kent Thomson
Todd VonBastiaans

FOR MORE EXHIBIT PICTURES, click here to VISIT MYSPACE