projects > miniature clothing project

At this point, I have miniaturized over 440 keepsake garments.
I have miniaturized girl scout uniforms, work uniforms, prom dresses,
pajamas, wedding gowns, winter coats, t-shirts, lingerie,
grandfather's pajamas, grandmother's house dresses, aunt's sweaters,
evening wear, cardigans, flack jackets baby clothing, men's suits,
doggie coats, jumpsuits, and even military uniforms.

This work is very powerful and tends to be, at time, quite emotional.
Upon seeing this work, some people will laugh and cry at the same
time, this being a unique human response. This is one of the most
unique bodies of work I have had the pleasure to work with. It is
certainly abut building community and experiential in the best sense
of the word.


About Coffelt's Miniatures:

Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery, Cork County Ireland
His miniature commissions are among the most powerful art works I have
come across.
In them, Jon takes items of a client's clothing and reproduces these
in miniature and then sets them alongside
other items of miniaturised clothes. Collectively, they become a memory of
ourselves and/or those around us. -Haydn Shaughnessy
.
"House and Garden: Twists on Domesticity" (Andy Warhol Foundation Grant)
curator, Anne Arrasmith Space One Eleven, Birmingham, AL ...Foreword
for Catalog-David Moos
Coffelt's miniature clothes - each garment a portrait of a distinct
individual - merges the feminine,
domestic chore of sewing with the act of painting. Instead of
relyingupon his customary paintbrush
and wooden panels, Coffelt is creating surrogate paintings with these
patterned garments.
This painterly emphasis, stressing the color, texture, weave and gloss
of his chosen fabrics,
is what separates Coffelt's undertaking from the painstaking labors of
a miniaturist such as Charles LeDray.
Coffelt produces clothes as intimate homages to acquaintances, and
friends.- David Moos, chief curator at AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario), Toronto CN
.
"The Longest Winter" Florida Atlantic University curator, Gean Moreno
critic, Damarys Ocana Boca Raton, FL
Coffelt sews, and if the story that he made his Clothing series while
bedridden is to be believed, he fits into Moreno's idea snugly.
The miniature items -- among them a flowered party dress, a shift, a
fringed cowboy jacket, striped pajamas --
are the kind of obsessive, fetishistic work that, once discovered in
some serial killer's home, addles the neighbors' evening news sound
bites
that though ''he was nice and mostly kept to himself,'' they knew all
the time that there was something weird about him.
-Damarys Ocana Miami Herald
.
"Tiny Treasures" Nancy Raabe for Birmingham News, Birmingham Alabama
The latter, a series of immaculately hand sewn miniature garments,
will be on viewstarting Friday at Space One Eleven,
2409 Second Avenue North, "House and Garden: Twists on Domesticity.
"Perfectly finished inside and out -- except for buttonholes, which
proved impossible on the tiny scale that became his world -- each
article took him about
eight to 10 hours to complete.
They're entirely sewn by and, although Coffelt does admittaking
advantage of preexisting features, such as hems, when appropriate.
"Doing these
by hand is a commentary on our society," Coffelt noted. "Just about
everything canbe made by a machine, I chose the hard way to do this."
-Nancy Raabe
.
"Familiar Reality: A Celebration of Alabama Art" curator, Georgine
Clarke, Alabama State Council for the Arts, Montgomery, AL
Although at first glance the casual observer may assume these garments
are skillfully sewn doll clothing, they are not. The artist refers to
them as
"relics", "soft sculpture", or "memory clothes." Each article
originated as a vision Coffelt had of
a particular person. This installation might be viewed as a type of quilt,
a collage of treasured fabrics and memories. Each object provides
thoughts about the significance and
symbolism of garments as they represent the people who wear them.
-Georgine Clarke


www.ammoarts.com New Orleans, LA

2009 "Featured Artist with "Miniatures", FiberArts Magazine
http://www.fiberarts.com/back_issues/Jan-Feb-2009/memory-clothing.asp

2009 "Communion," Susan Hensel Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
http://susanhenselgallery.blogspot.com

2008 "Inside/Out," curated by Herb Williams for Rymer Art Gallery,
www.therymergallery.com Nashville, TN

2008 " MEND: love, life, loss," curator Mark Sloan, Halsey Institute
of Contemporary Art, Charleston SC
(catalogue)http://www.halsey.cofc.edu/exhibitions/2008/05_Mend_coffelt.php
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A54925

2007 "Miniatures" curated by Marcia Wood, Marcia Wood Gallery Atlanta, GA

2007 "Contexture: FabricFashionFantasy," curator Clayton Colvin, Space
301, Mobile AL

2002 "The Longest Winter" curated by Gene Moreno for Florida Atlantic
University, Schmidt Center

Gallery, Boca Raton FL (catalogue forward by Gean Moreno)
www.fau.edu/galleries/longestwinter.php

2001 "Realism and Everyday Life: A Survey," curator Georgine Clark,
Alabama State Council on the Arts, Montgomery AL Clark Familiar
Reality.pdf (application/pdf) 57K

2000 "House and Garden: Twists on Domesticity," Space One Eleven
curated by Anne Arrasmith (Warhol Foundation Grant) Birmingham, AL
(catalogue foreword by David Moos) House and Garden.pdf (application/pdf) 30K