A Sacred Request For The Women Of Juarez

A couple of months ago, my online homegirl, the fabulous Monica Magness of Girl Gone Thread Wild, put out a unique request. She asked that all of us who are interested, to please create a dress and send it to Stampington & Company. Why you ask? Because she wanted to call on the art community to bring attention to a much neglected tragedy that has been going on in Juarez, Mex. since 1993. (at least that is when it was first documented)

To date, over 500 women from the border town have been sexually tortured and murdered. Yes, over 500. It is a an ongoing nightmare that has been given next to nothing as far as awareness and/or a solution. There are so many theories about what is going on, but for now, not much has been investigated.

Here is a link I found that has a great article about our abducted sisters.

In the past, I have been involved with a few charities and fundraisers to this much worthy cause, and when I read Monica's post, I just knew I had to take part in this project. I had a couple of ideas about what I wanted to do, but as soon as I tried to put my thoughts down, I went blank. It wasn't till last week, that an idea finally hit me. Once I got my sketch down, there was no stopping me! I was on fire. I couldn't stop. I stayed up till 3:00 am a couple of night tweaking at this dress. It started building momentum, and finally it took on a life of it's own.

Finally, today, I added the finishing touches! Here she is, ready to send off to Stampington. I am not sure if it is their "style", but I let the emotions of of these women guide me to the end result. I feel this creation is more of a Shrine than a dress. Either way, I am extremely proud of this piece.

The dress is aprox. 12 inches in length, and the corset is made of lots of beads, charms, santos, milagros and skulls. The skirt is made from painted canvas.

I used a lot of bone calaveras to represent the lost women, and I also incorporated Milagros to represent the miracles we are going to need to stop this insanity. There are also saints and crosses to represent the faith I have in finding justice for these women. Here is a close up.



I painted a simple black wooden cross to serve as a hanger for the dress. I kept it plain, as not to compete with the dress as well to mimic the simple plain crosses that you will find in the desert graves and make shift shrines along the highways in Mexico.

Here is another, rather large, view


I invite you all to join this challenge. I believe Monica is requesting that you turn in your submissions on July 1st. She wants Stampington to be "bombarded" with dresses and awareness. You can get more details at her blog.

Go hug someone for me.

Yoli