For artist Ruth Waddy, every medium is a fair game, like the old bicycle tubes she uses to create durable and fun masterpieces like corsets, dresses, hair clips, and earrings. She carefully cuts and sews intricate patterns out of these tattered, recycled tubes that look like a cross between a spider's intentional webbing and those Tex-biquitous celebratory Mexican picados and banderitas. This is to say nothing of her gift for designing feminist performance-art apparel. Imagine: A figure stands in an art museum while yards worth of recycled brown fabric braids are slowly added over the course of two days. Or: a dress made entirely of fresh red cabbage. As a child, Ruth desired to be both a fashion designer and a sanitation worker, and we think she's found a happy synthesis. Look for her at First Thursdays and Austin Fashion Week.
