Style Imitating Art: “Race for the Moon” by Susan Musgrove

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of MeadowTree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was chosen by Salazar. You can read why she picked this work here.

The Artwork

“Race for the Moon” by Susan Musgrove

About the Artist: Susan Musgrove

Susan Musgrove is an Australian textile artist and quilter with absolutely no internet presence whatsoever. However, her daughter Betty Musgrove, also an Australian textile artist, makes some references to her mother’s work and how it inspired her own in this 2021 interview.

I just spent some time scrolling through Betty’s website and if you click through her exhibitions, you will find photos of her mother as well as textile arts from the family archives. Her Mother Yarns exhibition features textile works by her mother and her Told by My Family exhibition shares family photographs and stories (some really hilarious ones) as told by her mother and other family members.

Other than that, I can find virtually no references to Susan Musgrove or her textile arts except for a few quilting blog posts that talk about the quilt which is the subject of this week’s SIA post.

About the Art: “Race for the Moon”

“Race for the Moon” is a quilt by Sue Musgrove which was completed over a period of about 5 years and is made from cotton, ramie, silk, and organza. The artist used techniques including hand painting, silk screen and lino printing, stenciling, machine embroidery, hand beading, appliqué, and quilting to create the image of baby turtles making their way into the ocean under the moonlight. It was the centerpiece for Susan Musgrove’s first solo exhibition in late 2006 and was later selected for exhibition at the Japan Quilt Grand Prix in 2008. You can see some of the extraordinary details up close in this quilt show blog post.

Resources/References:

• More Quilt Show
• BETTY MUSGROVE IS AN ARTIST PREDOMINANTLY WORKING WITH TEXTILES
• Betty Musgrove

About My Outfit

I was immediately struck by the beautiful color palette on this quilt. The dominating dark teals and light tans combined with black and white accents really spoke to me and my wardrobe. At first, I had in mind to style this teal maxi dress because the color is a bit closer to the green shades on the quilt. But then I remembered this dark blue maxi dress with a mermaid scale print and thought the scaly pattern would be better suited to represent the fish swimming around in the sea. I have the same dress in Cloud Dancer and Deep Black and have been wearing them on repeat all summer long.

I layered on a thrifted sleeveless lace duster in a sandy shade of tan to pull in the colors of the beach and add a bit of texture to my outfit. I accessorized with a tan belt and my very old and very comfortable jute ankle boots by Bedstu (one of my favorite ever shoe brands). A black hat with a white band tops off my outfit, paying homage to the bright white moon glowing against the dark night sky.

Since I have nothing with turtles on it, I wore two delicate gold moon necklaces so that my jewelry had some connection to the art. The ribbon scarf was an afterthought. It had caught onto my clothes when I was exiting my closet room as if it were begging me to wear it. I took the hint and put it on and very much liked it with this outfit. In fact, I very much liked this whole outfit, which kind of surprised me because I did not love it in the mirror.

This is probably one of my blander SIA outfits, but I like its simplicity and inconspicuous little details. Also, it suits my bohemian soul just perfectly, don’t you think?

I do hope you enjoyed my interpretation and feel inspired to play along! Be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of the artwork as well as Terri’s take on it. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, be sure to email your photos to her by Tuesday, August 1, 2023, by 10:00 p.m. EST. I am excited to see what you all style! 

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Joining with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Dress and Belt-Torrid / Duster-Thrifted (LulaRoe) / Boots-Bedstu / Bag- Burlington Coat Factory / Hat-Wona Trading / Necklaces-Happiness Boutique / Scarf and Earrings-Old