day one

day one
My name is Jo Nasvik and The Missoula Dress Project is a one-month performance art piece as part of my BFA thesis. As an artist I am interested in the intersection of street art, performance art, and drawing. During the month of February I have committed to wearing this wedding gown daily and will be sewing and pinning onto the dress the evidence of my consumption. Such as coffee cups, wrappers, plastic bags, paper scraps, aluminum cans.....and so on. It is important to me that my art has cultural meaning, so I chose a wedding dress to indicate the excessive "marriage" between consumers and industry.


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

March 7
 It has been a week since the dress project. No, I do not miss it. I have been feeling so liberated. How lucky am I to decide what I want to wear every morning? Hah....but I know now that it really does not matter what I choose to wear, it matters what I choose to do. I have been super busy trying to catch up on everything else and am now getting ready to go find a job, one that pays money....so i can continue making art and living in this beautiful city. I have learned a lot from this project and it has helped me see the world a bit differently. I hope it has made an impact on you as well. Thank you all for your support, I just cant say it enough. If you are in Missoula and would like to check out our senior thesis show it will be at the Gallery of Visual Arts and the UC Gallery at the University of Montana, April 26-May 11th. Opening reception is on the 26th from 5-7. HAPPY MARCH!!!

Thursday, March 1, 2012







The End
 There are things that I am finally allowing myself to realize now that I am done with this piece. Such as....I have been unable to relate to anyone else for the entire month...everyone else has been unable to relate to me. This idea, project, and myself, became one and everything else seemed pretty far away. That being said, I want to apologize to those that I love, for being absent as a friend, daughter, sister, granddaughter, aunt, niece, cousin, and babysitter. Having spent nearly thirty days in this performance, I would hope that energy and commitment has been paid off. I am now granting myself time to get caught up with the rest of us. I may not throw away much, but I will not be sewing it on to myself......for at least a week. HAH! but seriously....I've been as loud as I can and now I need to just sit back and listen....what a weird month.