These oil paintings were created in response to gouache paintings of empty clothing that I did in the early 1990’s.  A visiting Irish artist made me look again at these earlier works of bathing suits, pants, bras and dresses, and again they caught my imagination.  Also, about the same time, I revisited this line of imagery and thought while preparing digital images for a 20-year survey show of my work that is to be held in 2010 at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph.

These events led me to search through long-unopened drawers and old boxes, where I found grandmothers’ and daughters’ slips folded lovingly once, but then forgotten, “slipped out of use.”  

For the paintings that followed, for this show, I claim many of the definitions of slip:

a woman’s loose-fitting dress or undergarment
a slope leading into water
a minor or careless mistake

slide unintentionally for a short distance, typically losing one’s balance
accidentally slide or move out of position
go or move quietly or quickly, without attracting notice
fail to grip or make proper contact with a surface
pass or change to a lower, worse, or different condition
a creamy texture of clay & pigment that is used to decorate earthenware

slip away
slip in
slip out
slip something in
full slip
slip leash

slip between cup and lip

(Ruddock, 2009)