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Cathy Daley Honored The Feminine Power Through Fashion

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No artist has immortalized the little black dress quite like Canadian artist Cathy Daley.

The artist’s artworks are on view at Newzones gallery in Calgary, showcasing the artist’s renowned black pastel drawings on vellum and honoring the artist’s recent passing on March 2.

From high heels to tutus, flowing dresses and long, black gowns, Daley was a master of the female gaze, capturing high fashion in its most elegant form—and for the fashion crowd, it’s as if the work is partly reminiscent of silhouettes from VOGUE editorials from the 1950s, is reminiscent of graceful stills of from Breakfast At Tiffany’s, and even calls to mind the black and white fashion photographs of Irving Penn from the 1930s.

All of her drawings had one similar quality: she knew when to stop. Each drawing is carefully balanced, never overdone. Her artworks were simple, clean, smudged but unique, and a favorite among interior designers who placed her pieces in high-end homes across Toronto and beyond.

Among Daley’s most notable artworks, they include a sculpture called “Little Black Dress,” a 17-foot high cloth gown, and “Soft Stiletto,” an oversized vinyl shoe with stiletto heel, collapsed.

“Both of these pieces evolved from drawings, as did The Little Black Dress, a video animation I produced from hundreds of drawings of black dresses morphing into a variety of forms, which references early 1950s style cartoons,” wrote the artist on her website.

As the artist once said of her work: “It’s a record of what took place. It feels more alive that way, with the evidence of process. I work at a drawing and then rework it. The large drawings I do on the floor so I can move around. It’s a very physical process, being immersed in the work.”

According to the gallery, Daley passed away peacefully on March 2. Helen Zenith, director of Newzones, wanted to honor the artist and her memory with an exhibition of Daley’s drawings.

Zenith recalls her first first visit to Daley’s studio in Toronto, over 30 years ago.

“A small perky redhead invites me in and as I do a swift glance around the room, I note the stacks are filled with rolls of vellum. Stapled to every inch of wall, leaning plywood, and boards on the floor are drawings made with black oil sticks, graphite.”

She recalls the “energy which resembled a sea of black dresses swaying all over,” in Daley’s drawings. “After this first experience with Cathy and her work, I knew I wanted to exhibit this extraordinary artist, and fast forward almost three decades later, Newzones and Cathy Daley together had an incredibly rich journey,” she said.

Newzones gallery director Tamar Zenith (Helen Zenith’s daughter) recalls Daley’s artworks “sexy, sassy, energy-driven drawings.”

Though she traveled the globe with Daley’s drawings at art fairs for almost 30 years, things came to a bittersweet closure when Daley fell ill.

“At the beginning of December, while Cathy was in the hospital, we had a difficult conversation about postponing her exhibit, which was to open March 5,” said Zenith.

“Her goal was to get back home and into the studio.”

The watercolors and digital drawings on Daley’s Instagram account “are from a long stay in the hospital for most of November, December, and part of January,” said Zenith.

“Cathy was generous always donating her work to raise money for causes she embraced. She was humble, shy and quiet, but her power and strength were expressed in her drawing. Her art practice was her life and her life was art. She never missed a day in her studio. She worked until the end, despite her failing health.”

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