grace duVal

so it’s been an insane few weeks since I’ve posted, so let’s see what I can review in a semi-quick process…

Firstly, I’ve now got Jim with me, who’s flown in from England a month before camp (where he’s also a teacher) to hang out with me and my crazy life. It’s been absolutely amazing to have him here, as he’s such a free, easygoing spirit who’s always up for a good time, which has come in handy considering the insane amount of stuff we’ve been doing!

A few days after Jim arrived it was graduation weekend, so we spent the whole time in Richmond with my grandma, uncle, parents, and my best friend Amy who drove in from Boston for the weekend. We spent the entire weekend trekking to THREE separate graduations (art, honors, and entire university) and intermittently celebrating by going out to lunch at the Robin’s Inn Restaurant in the Fan and visiting Kay Adams up at Anthill Antiques, where mom bought me a beautiful locket as a graduation present. 

Jim and I have spent the past week at my apartment in Richmond, him hanging out and slowly working on my car while I’ve been going to a three-week intensive summer school class. Long story short, VCU completely screwed up and is making me take one more sculpture studio class, so I’ve had to do summer school. As much as I hate the idea and the inconvenience, I have to say the class has been really lovely. I love my teacher, who I’ve had before, and there are only two other students in the entire class, so it’s really intimate and really chill. We get to spend all of class time hanging out and working away on our projects, which I really enjoy. Plus I only have two more weeks left, which I can surely manage to suffer through.

Friday night was my other best friend, Melanie’s, last night in Richmond, so Jim and I went over to a massive party at her apartment. It was lots of fun, and I got to see practically everyone I’d ever met in Richmond, but underneath it all it was really heartbreaking to know that was the last night I would [quite possibly] ever be living in the same place as Melanie. It was really surreal and bittersweet to say goodbye to her at the end of the night.

Now Jim and I are back in Natural Bridge Station, where we’ve spent the weekend hanging out and enjoying the muggy hot Virginia weather of Memorial Day weekend. Saturday we took our inflatable kayak down to the river where he got to toodle around and paddle upstream for a while. Annoyingly, one of our dogs Daisy decided that would be the perfect opportunity to go on an upstream adventure along the bank, so she ran off and disappeared.

Well, this is mom’s most prized possession, so of course we had to strike out and find her. She got in the kayak and took off upstream while dad got the canoe that he, Jim, our black lab Eddie and I all haphazardly piled into and set off upriver. Luckily we managed to find her quite quickly, but by this point mom was way upriver around the bend, so we had to trek onwards to find her. Still, it was a beautiful day and great weather to go out in the canoe, even if we were piled in with two dogs that were nearly capsizing the boat while I was sat in muddy water!

That evening we got cleaned up and went over to the Shybunkos, who are close family friends and work partners with mom. We had a big cookout and sat on their deck looking at the spectacular views while we spent the evening chatting away.

Yesterday mom and I went to town and saw the Halestone dance recital and then we all went over to the Sally and Dave’s, our dearest family friends, for dinner. Roger and Jeannie and Norb and Katherine, a bunch of my parent’s old friends, were in for the weekend to have a big celebration of all the awesome things that are happening in everyone’s lives. For example, mom just had her book signed to a publishing company, Katherine was just awarded teacher of the year, I just graduated from college, Sally and Norb just had birthdays and Mrs. H had just survived a horrible bout of appendicitis. We spent the whole evening sitting around the table out on the porch, talking and laughing and joking and celebrating the start of summer.

Of course this decended into slight madness, as somehow it was explained that if you tie two pieces of string to an oven grate, wrap the string around your fingers and then stick your fingers in your ears and bang against the grate it creates an incredible sound. Well, Sally immediately went and got a grate to find out if this was true, and very soon the whole dinner party was up with their fingers in their ears, banging the oven grate against things. It was a very classy way to introduce the whole extended family to Jim, who didn’t seem to blink twice but instead joined right in. He seems to fit in just perfectly around all of us bizarre people and parts of the world.

After dinner and our one-man-oven-grate-band we discovered that there was an insane firefly display going on outside. We turned out the lights in the whole house and all went out on the lower deck, where there were millions of fireflies surrounding us. It was one of the most beautiful light displays I’ve ever witnessed, with millions of flickering little lights filling the entire mountain scape in front of us. You really can’t beat a summer evening in the mountains of Rockbridge County.

As a grande finale to the evening Jim was incredible enough to agree to do a fire poi show for everyone. Nobody at the gathering had ever witnessed a fire performance, so it was great to be able to let Jim show off one of his many talents to an audience in awe. Jim thought ahead and brought a set of fire poi, and we just happened to have spare kerosene sitting around so we were all set for the show! Everyone sat on the upper deck while Jim performed down in the yard and as soon as he started you could hear them go silent with shock and awe.

They were completely entranced through the entire show, gasping periodically and making occasional remarks of wonderment, but mainly just watching slack-jawed. Jim, of course, is very well versed in the art of fire poi and pulled off an incredible show. Everyone was so grateful and shocked when he finished, and they kept thanking him and interrogtaing him about the entire process and the art of poi. It was great fun to watch Jim do something he’s so comfortable and talented with, as well as to see the reactions of people who have never seen such a sight as fire performance.

And now it’s morning and we’re sitting on the couch in the kitchen listening to Cajun music while mom cooks a big breakfast casserole. Today’s probably going to be another lazy day down on the river followed by a big meal and party over at the Biddle’s. Then Jim and I trek back to Richmond for another week of work [at least on my part] and more Virginia heat. Not a bad life, eh?

Graduation!
dancing with momma:

Honors medal!

Jim made a new version of the oven grate by using a pot lid… and Roger decided to help

Yesterday my two camp friends, May and Zoe, and I went to the Steampunk Worlds Fair somewhere in the middle of New Jersey. May has a side business making fairy wings, so she goes to fairy conventions and Renaissance Fairs and all sorts of stuff like that where people get to dress up in crazy outfits and run around. May and Zoe have been doing this for years, and I’ve recently been inducted into the events, which are super fun. Steampunk is a genre that slightly overlaps with the fairy world, and we were interested to find out what it was all about (plus we just wanted to get really dressed up for no reason) so we decided to go to this Steampunk Fair!

We all made our outfits before the Fair and spent the whole morning getting ready. Then we piled into the car and spent a very loooooong trip trying to get over the George Washington Bridge. We spent the whole time swapping stories and Zoe told us some insane tales from trips that she’s taken around the world. The whole time all I could think about was how lucky I was to have both of them as my friends. I haven’t even known them a year and already I feel like we’ve been friends for years. We instantly hit it off and I always feel so comfortable with them. We always have an amazing time, whether it’s getting dressed up in crazy costumes or just sitting on the couch talking about nothing. I am so lucky to have friends like this.

Once we got to the fair all mayhem ensued. There was an endless parade of costumes, and every step you would see some incredible, elaborate design that no other person could replicate. It was visually stunning to walk through the crowds and just take in the various looks and designs. Out front of the hotel was a big brass band that was playing incredible music. It turned out that throughout the entire event they would parade through and around the hotel and out into the back gardens. They were SO good and I couldn’t help but dance along with them!

In all honesty, most of the event was just us three wandering around. There were supposed to be events and workshops happening the whole time, but this was the fair’s first year and so it was incredibly disorganized. So instead we spent the majority of the time just walking around taking in the scene. Apparently we were quite a spectacle at the fair, because we couldn’t walk five paces without getting stopped for photographs. Seriously, it was impossible to maneuver around the place because we would get stopped in doorways and hallways and booths repeatedly to have our pictures taken. I think it’s because we were wearing bright colors, which does not exist in the Steampunk color pallet. They primarily wear browns and blacks, but we were Steampunk fairies (May even made us all one-of-a-kind wings!) and people were completely entranced by it.

Overall the event was really fantastic for people watching and getting great clothing designs, but soon enough we were bored and decided to trek back to Dobbs Ferry. By the time we got back we were STARVING so we ordered chinese food and May, Zoe and I finished off the evening by sitting on the couch in our pajamas eating chinese food. Not a bad way to end the day.

Today is May’s birthday, and we’ve all spent the morning on the couch watching Formula 1 racing at Monte Carlo (Geoff’s desire, not May’s…) but now Geoff is making a huge breakfast of waffles for us. Later today May and a bunch of us are going letterboxing and then going for pizza! Should be a great day! Tomorrow I head over to Princeton to see my close friend Isia, and then Tuesday I head back down the coast to pick up Jim from the airport, and then back to Natural Bridge Station! ahhh, my life never stops moving and it’s great!

It’s been a crazy few days in my world! I’ve been busy running all over the east coast finishing up the end of the semester, and now I’ve finally finished and I’m getting time to relax. It started on Thursday when I drove up to New York to Brooklyn to see one of my sculpture teachers. I’d been really sick on the eve of our last crit and my teacher, George, was kind enough to say that if I happened to be in Brooklyn the week before grades were due we could have a crit then. Well, I just so happened to be coming up to New York to visit my close camp friends, the Burnetts, who live in a suburb of Manhattan, so it was super easy to stop and see her on the way out to Dobbs Ferry.

I was incredibly intimidated because I’ve never driven in Manhattan before, and I know how insane the traffic is. But I drove right into the heart of the city and managed to not crash the car or die, so that’s always a plus! In fact I had a lot of fun maneuvering and weaving through the traffic trying to figure out the best way through. I got to Williamsburg, Brooklyn just fine and met George in her studio. It’s a big converted warehouse right on Grand Street in the heart of everything, and it’s amazing. She gave me a tour of the place, showing how she’d converted it over the ten years she’s lived there. I always love to see artist’s work space, as it says so much about how they work and think.

I had a marvelous time with George. After she showed me around we chatted for over two hours, discussing all sorts of things. I’ve never gotten to really have a one-on-one conversation with her as a person instead of a teacher, and it turns out that we get on really well. We’ve got a very similar spirit and attitude about art and making and collaboration, and about life in general. She absolutely loved the clothing collection that Anne and I produced, which is the the first time I’ve had a sculpture person be interested in the clothing that I make.

Around ten we realized that I needed to head out to get to Dobbs Ferry, so we said goodbye and I trekked back through the mayhem that is Manhattan driving and out to the Burnett’s house. May and Geoff are actually my bosses at camp—Geoff is one of the heads of the camp, and May is the head of Fine Arts, but over the course of the year they’ve become very close friends of mine. May and I went to FaerieCon in November, and this time I’ve come up to stay with them because we’re going to the Steampunk Worlds Fair. I’m crashing on their floor for the weekend and playing with their two-year-old daughter Evie, who is a total riot. She’ll talk your ear off with endless chatter that you can never understand and then run around dancing. We often break down into hysterical laughter because of the things she says and does.

Yesterday I spent the whole afternoon lazing around the house while May and Geoff were at work. I walked into the town, which is very quaint but still cute. Once they got home from work we all went out to the local diner, where they go every Friday night. Evie knows the waiter by name and immediately asked for chocolate milk. After dinner May and I spent the rest of the night working on our costumes for the event today, staying up till two in the morning! Today May, Zoe and I are going to the Steampunk Worlds Fair. I’ve never been to anything like this, so I’m excited to see all of the crazy things that people wear! I’m going to take lots of pictures to capture all of the insanity!

I have to say it makes me so happy to be here. May and Geoff are like a second family to me, and we get on so well. It’s so natural to be around them and I always have a wonderful time with them. Plus Evie’s constant antics always put a smile on my face. Camp has given me so many phenomenal things, but the best are the close friendships that I’ve made with some of the most amazing people in the world. My meeting with George was the finale of my college career, and I can’t think of a better way to end college than having a lovely conversation with a teacher I greatly enjoy, and then spending the weekend with some of the best people in the world.

Life is pretty good, huh?

0100
one a.m. at the Rob Roy Bed and Breakfast:
crunch of driveway gravel takes me back
to five years old and sitting at the drive-in
watching a movie with the same name,
scared that the border collies would be killed—
only instead I am not at a drive-in,
and there are no dogs.

our land rover creeps into the
quiet parking lot,
dew on the pavement
chilled by settling midnight air,
the car leaving space only wide enough
for the tips of my fingernails to
slide between the grooves
of cement and the carbon fiber
door frame.

0200
your breathing calms me
as I drift in the haze of half sleep
listening to the murky factory air
seep in through the open windows,
polyester curtains breathing
with the pump of turbines.
the sound of dump trucks
at three in the morning is
just as loud in any country.

0500
fog sticks to the steering wheel
as we navigate towards the rolling tides,
the hurling water
smacking against steel walls
thick enough to cradle and mangle,
welcoming our car within the bowels
of the ship’s crusty innards.

the floor rolls beneath us
on the deck of the ferry
as the newscaster reports
on the danger of chinese lanterns
released into the sky.
tradition looks like smoke signals—
not fireworks, hazard lights.

tugboats run aground
and emergency vehicles
dispatched while thousands
of tiny families stare upwards
at the glittering spectacles.

I must have watched that story on repeat,
every twenty minutes
another lantern warning.
people only watch TV
for thirty second stints
these days.

0400
morning cinnamon rolls
that I hastily picked at with my fingers,
stale rolls from the landlord’s freezer
unwrapped, ice crystals
still mingling with the glaze.

0300
you were confused when I returned,
and as I slipped back into bed
there was a question in
your muffled voice,
mingled with a mental fog
that you hadn’t left.
I had spent the vague hours of the morning
alone, letting my thighs squeak
against the sticky pleather
of the downstairs sofa
instead.

and one of my favorite people in the world, Jim ATV, comes over from England to stay with me for a month before we go up to camp! to say I am a little bit excited is a gross understatement!!! I CAN’T WAAAIIIIITTTTTT!

Over the past few years I have been lucky enough to meet Liza Deck, one of the resident modern choreographers at Roanoke Ballet Theater in Roanoke, VA. I was introduced to her through my mom, who takes classes and choreographs in Roanoke at RBT. Ever since meeting, Liza and I have hit it off wonderfully. We quickly realized a similarity of spirit and aesthetic, and began collaborating on costume designs to be integrated into her dances. I have previously worked with her on these costumes, and readily accepted the chance to work with her again! I love our style of collaboration because Liza simply sends me her inspiration and a box full of fabric and then lets me go to town!

I have to say I think her costumes allow me to have to most fun of anything that I make because there are no limits or expectations, I can just go wild! It’s also really great because, since I was a dancer, I understand how costumes move and need to function in a dance piece. This was a really fun project even though I was in the middle of doing ten things at once! I hope all of the dancers like them!

I live on the railroad tracks in Natural Bridge Station, and there’s been lots of construction happening recently. They’re working on putting all of the power lines underground so they’re putting in entirely new equipment and ripping out all of the old equipment. One of the pieces to go was a huge, old metal shed that’s been sitting next to our property since long before I was born. It was supposed to be thrown away once it was ripped from the foundation, but my ingenious mother managed to blag a deal with the railroad guys so instead they agreed to move it to our property!

Today they came in with a tractor trailer and a crane to move it, and let me tell yo, it was one insane process! I’m so glad I was there to document it, as I couldn’t have possibly fathomed the idea if I hadn’t seen it myself!

Photos from the photo shoot at Anne’s parent’s house. All photos courtesy of Cameron Lewis.

with the beautiful girls who made the show possible!

These are photos from the actual fashion show at Can Can Brassiere in Carytown. All photos courtesy of Cameron Lewis.

it needs to be stated that Miley Cyrus, whom I love, has stolen my design. I am both honored and sincerely pissed off.

why must I always be so ahead of the times?

I [ever so slightly] updated and re-designed my website. Some might not even notice the change, but sometimes it’s the subtle things that make the difference. I, myself, am quite pleased with the transformation.

It has been a long few weeks here at the Douglas and DuVal camp. Well, it’s been a long few months. Anne and I have been working furiously on our clothing line since November, and I am SO proud to say that it’s finally done, and it’s absolutely wonderful. I had no idea how much time and energy it would take, but I am so happy that we did it.

The day of the show was super crazy but lots of fun. We were at the salon at eight (ok, I lied, ANNE was at the salon at eight, I was there at nine because I was up till three fixing dresses and she was awesome to let me sleep in for an hour) and we spent the whole morning twiddling our thumbs because the salon was SO SLOW and rude. We were there till noon and eventually left without some of the makeup done because we had to be at our photo shoot on time and the girls are perfectly competent of doing their own makeup.

So at noon we relocated to Anne’s dad’s house over on Park Avenue in the Fan. It’s this big, beautiful old house with great furniture that’s perfect for photographs. They were so kind to lend us their house, and we completely took it over, moving clothing racks and steamers into the living room so I could press the clothing, while the girls taped the bottoms of all the shoes we were using (which Pink Boutique so kindly loaned us for the show). The whole house turned in to a massive, moving, breathing work machine.

After everything was ready girls started changing in to the clothes, most of them just running around in their underwear in the middle of the living room. As awesome as our clothing is, alot of them are really difficult to get into and out of, especially if you’re very, very sweaty, and of course Saturday was the hottest day Richmond had experienced so far. So I spent most of my time helping the models wiggle into and out of their outfits, trying not to mess up their hair and makeup.

Of all the planning I did for the show, the best move I made was to hire Cameron Lewis. He’s a photographer who’s based out of Richmond, and I’ve known about him for years. We know each other through mutual friends, and I’ve always admired his work. He really is phenomenal, and I’ve found myself stalking his flickr page frequently because I love his work so much. For the Douglas and DuVal show I knew that I’d be too stressed and overwhelmed to do the photography myself, so I asked Cameron if he’d mind tagging along to do it, and SO luckily he agreed! After I’d get the models dressed and ready I’d send them out to Cameron, who then did photos with them all over the Shaw’s beautiful house. It was the best feeling in the world to be able to pass them over to Cameron so I could have a second to breathe.

After all of that was done we piled into our cars in the 90 degree heat and headed to Can Can. Once there Anne did a walk-through with the models to show them where to walk, and I talked to Cameron about where to stand for show photos and then explained the setup to our videographer BJ Robinette. Thank god I have such talented friends to help me out! Then we spent the rest of the time making sure everyone was dressed and ready to go! Can Can put up the stairs and set up the bar for the runway and then we were ready to go! We lined up the models in the hallway that lead to the main dining room and then Anne and I went to introduce ourselves to the crowd.

The rest of the show was a blur. As Anne and I stood on the steps welcoming the crowd I was overwhelmed with how full the place was, more people than I could have possibly imagined were crowding every spare inch of room, all attentively listening and readily awaiting our collection. After we finished speaking we stood front row holding hands, the live band struck up their song and the models started their walk. It was beautiful and phenomenal to watch all of our pieces alive and moving on models. One after the other came down the bar, each as beautiful as the next. Anne and I kept squeezing each other’s hand with excitement as they all came. At the end we had a flood of all the models and as they left I could hear the audience roar with excitement. Quite an amazing moment in life.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the back dining room, which we had rented out especially for the event. Can Can served hors d’oeuvres and we all got to mingle with the audience, answering questions and chatting with everyone who had come. The models were wonderful and mingled as well, allowing people to get up close and personal with the garments to see the detail work. I was so surprised at everyone who came, people from my hometown, old high school friends who trekked from all of their different colleges, my entire family and Anne’s as well. I was so moved by everyone who took the time out of their day just to come see our hard work.

We must have hung out for hours in that back dining room, chatting and laughing. Eventually everyone except my family left (typical, my family always closes down the parties, it’s just how we roll) and they kept talking and joking at the tables. Anne and I took that time to return all of the borrowed shoes and to collect everything that we had scattered in our earlier mayhem. Eventually we sat down next to each other at one table and stared off in to space. That’s when I realized just how exhausted we really were. Six months of hard work, finally complete. What an amazing accomplishment.

After everything was done Anne left and my parents and the Biddle/Hutch clan returned with me to my apartment to drop off all of the garments and to hang out for a minute. Then we drove down to Kuba Kuba, a really great local Cuban restaurant, where I got to decompress and tell everyone about the behind-the-scenes events. It’s interesting because in my family (I’ve noticed) that after every major event we have to have a recap of what happened, analyze the pros and cons of the event, decide if it worked or didn’t. We do this with everything from movies we’ve all just seen to big events like this. and this was no exception.

It was great to calmly discuss with my family (Biddle/Hutches included) and recap, though I was so exhausted that I easily could have fallen asleep in my food. These events really do take it out of you, that’s for sure. But no matter what, I am so glad that I did this, and I am so proud and Anne and myself for all of our hard work. It turned out so well, and it was all beautiful. So GOOD JOB US!

Yesterday I had my final Sculpture crit, and now my life has suddenly opened up. I reached the light at the end of the tunnel and now I can breathe. It is incredible and wonderful and I feel so freed. The summer is now upon me, and I am here to greet it with open arms!

all photos taken by Cameron Lewis