Journal love.

Just found, by me, it has been found by many others before.

1000 journals a truly awesome project started by "someguy."

He  orchestrated 1000 journals with hand made covers to go out into the world, 

all over the world, and invited those who found them to do an entry.

As a result an amazing idea, a cool sounding book, an upcoming documentary, and 1000 journals that invite collaborative creative thinking.

What more could we want in art?

The links page looks great too, I am going to check it out when I have more time.

Craft selling out? or true art?

So once again I was avoiding my thesis...

and found an interesting article questioning the commodification of craft recently.  

And I thought it was relevant so I wanted to share.  

It is crazy how many blogs, etc, are almost only about shopping for crafts and such.

Here is the article by Jean Railla the founder of Get Crafty.   It is super short so read it!

and another super great article Handmade and Proud by Jamie Passaro.  Not so short but really great.

Early Bird Yoga!!

I am very excited to announce that I will begin teaching an early Monday yoga class at Mala Yoga in Brooklyn.  As many of you know, I am an avid yogi and have been teaching for over 8 years.  I have taken a bit of a hiatus because of graduate school and am so excited to get back to it.  

Mala yoga is an intimate and lovely yoga studio in Carroll Gardens.  They have wonderful energy and owners and best of all there students would love my challenging and vigorous classes.

The class starts on the 11th and is from 7-8:15/30. 

If you are around please stop by.

I will update as I get more classes.

Namaste

Hometown Love.

I am so excited because these pillows were just finished for me.  I found Leslie Janson through one of the many blogs that I read daily and I loved her pillows.  

She made these 2 custom for me.  She has a collection of the states so maybe she will have yours too. 

I was born and raised in Ohio and proud of it, and have always wanted something in my home to honor that...but finding something hometown proud that is also cute, harder than it sounds.

...And I lived in Massachusetts for 5+years and will maybe go back someday, they are so eco-conscious it is hard to live anywhere else!!  So now my house is proud of all my previous home states.  

I am sure New York will give me something special while I am here.

Embroidery Mother.

I was lucky enough to hear artist and historian Lou Cabeen speak about her work and the history of embroidery earlier this year.  She is a fascinating and incredibly intelligent artist, writer, and teacher. She actually has written and done a lot of research on the role of embroidery historically and on its relationship to feminism.

Her work is really beautiful and these images do it no justice, as she often does white on white embroidery.  The 3 doily images, the top one Ambition and the bottomSanctuary, and detail, are from a series she did in which she appropriated embroideries done by her grandmother and made them her own through adding embroidered text and installation.  

She is such an amazing artist so I though she was a good person to feature today, as I needed some inspiration and she surely provides it.

I can't believe

School is beginning back this week, agh, I have been in denial and have reached the point that I can no longer deny.  

I am not actually going back to Mass. until Thursday but...now I am in planning mode and such.

I need to face my syllabi and first class lecture.

I am in a show on campus next week and I am curating a show at the end of February. Agh.

But as much as I am going "agh!" I am also looking forward to having a little more going on and moving forward with my thesis. 

 I can always count on my chair give me a little push.

Anyway... here's to all my "to do lists"that I am not doing!

Sometimes you just want to scream!!!!!!

So scream, scream, scream!!!!

The above screaming infant is by graphic artist Erik Drooker, he really knows how to show a temper tantrum.

Ok, I am going to go have one now.

 

Medical Masterpieces

I recently found artist Laura Splan online.  Her work is pretty amazing.  Most of it has to do with domestic craft or space but the content has to do with medical stuff, such as procedures, the way a virus looks, anatomy,  etc.  Who knew medicine could be so beautiful.  

Her work is really worth the look and quite fascinating too.  Apparently her family is in the medical profession so she's got access to some cool stuff.  

But her art is the coolest.

Got all my hairs cut!

I forgot to give a shout out to Amy, my fabulous hairdresser and friend.  She just cut my hair this week and it looks amazing, I love it.  She gave me just enough edge to be a little bit fierce!  

She owns the amazingly adorable and swanky Fringe salon.  If you are ever in NYC and need a great haircut stop in.  Not only do they do a great job, but it is owned by a fabulous woman, and the vintage decor is super cute.

Thanks Amy. 

Her husband, John, also happens to be a very unique artist and is part of freestyle arts, a very cool program all about bringing art to the people.  Their online projects page is hours of fun.

Vote for me...

Please.  So I am a "finalist" in an online show, Relics and Remembrances, and the 3 people with the most votes get to participate in a 3 woman show in NYC for women's history month.  The show and finalist info can be found at Reflect-Arts.  I would love your vote as it would be awesome to be in the show and represent women.   The above image, On the Edge,  is the one that I submitted, you may recognize it as it also got into a show at Woman Made Gallery, which I already posted about. 

As usual you always have one image that does really well, strange.

To vote you just send an email to  vote@reflect-arts.com with my name Joetta Maue in the subject line.  I appreciate your vote.

I figured I would share the above image so you had something new to look at. Not the best photo... but a piece I finished last month. Embroidery inspired by a photograph. I am working on one similar from the photograph at the top.

ICP Surprise.

So I went to the Institute of Photography yesterday to see the show Archive Fever, it was great, but very political and I have to admit I just do not enjoy political art as much.  

But to my surprise the other exhibition was fabulous,  The Collections of Barbara Bloom.  I had never heard of Barbara Bloom, who is referred to as BB throughout the show, but I knew she was someone I needed to know now.  Her work was very interesting and very varied, I most preferred her series The Reign of Narcissism, in which she puts her face on many things, including a real cameo and at the bottom of porcelain cups.  Really interesting and worth researching.  I was able to get a fair amount of inspiration towards ideas on display/presentation from both shows!

many fabulous friends.

So here is a shout out to to my fabulous friends who have openings this week.  

The gorgeous above images are by Ian Umlauf.  He is showing at Rabbithole Studio Gallery in Dumbo, Brooklyn, with Tim Lynch and Frank Lentini.  Their opening is Friday from 6-8.  The show is up until February 17. 

Generally these are super fun openings and I am super excited to see all 3 of their work because I have not seen it before, except some of Frank's colorfully fabulous paintings.
And this truly gorgeous drawing is by friend Sara Pedigo, a truly talented artist.  I am lucky enough to own some of her original works.  Sara has a show "Post," opening and artist talk at Hudson Valley Community College Gallery.  Her talk is this afternoon and her opening this evening.   Her drawings are truly worth the visit so stop by if you are in that area.

my head is a mess!

I need artist Susan Benarcik, to clean my head and my house up and make a mess look this beautiful.  Seriously, her art work, which I found on the fabulous blog Modern Craft, is gorgeous!!!!

... and seriously my head is a mess.  

I have become addicted to my blog and others in a unadulterated avoidance of my apartment and my thesis.   

Things I need to do intstead of blog all day:

clean my house

clean my clothes

write a syllabi

write a thesis paper

do a thesis

tryout for a yoga class teaching position.

Lets see how many I get done, anyone wagering bets?

My new fave blog!

So I just found this amazing blog Nest Decorating through Decor 8, who featured Tamor's house. Her house, seen above,  is amazing but I really love her blog.  She does not update everyday but when she does its great.

My friend, artist and professor Dave Cahill also just started a blog, featuring his sketches at Team Cahill.  

and my lovely friend Liz at CarbonCopy.

Enjoy

My studio.

So yesterday I shared all the great art of others that I saw last week.

But I was finally in  my studio back in Mass. this weekend and was able to take pics of what I am doing myself.

I am still working away here in NYC, but no room to spread out, at all.

So I hope you like what you see.

This is an image of the collection of handkerchiefs I am working on.  I will have 30-50, hand embroidered hankies.  The text is expressions of my identity, fears, and questions. I have a lot done, I am not sure how many.

Not something that I made. But a female member of my family made it for me and my sister as children. I think I am going to include it in my show. My work currently is a lot about my inner conflicts. The artist self and the domestic self. This sure seems like 2 selves to me.
Close-up of a 8-10 ft knit scarf thing.  The text reads language about another body in contact with the makers.  I plan on making a group of these but only time will tell.  So just a bit of what I am working on. 

I start back to school next week, so much more time in my actual studio, allowing more photo opps.

my brain exploding....

Chelsea daily...

So I made it to Chelsea last week, and I have to say there was a lot of good stuff to see this month.

Made up for all the crap last month.  Here are some of my favorite shows and pieces from them.  

If you are in NYC I recommend checking it out, because as always art is much better in person.

The Sum of all Parts at Cheim and Read was great.
I got a bit of Louise Bourgeois.
But I most enjoyed the above image of Adam Fuss
and I always love me some text work, Jack Pierson (top image).



Robert Warner and Mac Premo at Pavel Zoubok Gallery.
These artists make some truly beautiful and fascinating collage/assemblage pieces.
The photos online, really do not do them justice...they were also pretty darn affordable for you budding collectors out there.



and Catherine Lee's Mark Paintings at Galerie Lelong.
These need to be seen in person because they have the beauty and subtlety of an Agnes Martin, which is nothing without seeing it in person. So take the trip to check these out.

Really exciting artist.

I just found this artist Kelly Sherman.
Her work is conceptually so awesome.
I truly love what she is doing, you have to read about the work to truly get the sentiments, so take some time to check it out.
It's worth it!

The first image is from her project Wish list, where she showed wish lists she found online.

The 2nd image is from her project Wish Wall, a public mural piece, in which people wrote wishes on a brick wall and painted over their wish.

fun stuff found

So much fun stuff found...enjoy.


Three potato four.

Perch Design.



IGE Design.

Commune with nature.

So I am back in massachusetts for the weekend.

The world is covered with a lovely blanket of snow, something we have not seen in nyc.

And it is so damn pretty here, trees, open space, and snow, snow, snow.

It is nice for a visit.

I do this post at the best bookstore, the Bookmill,  and cafe, lady killegrew,  directly next to a waterfall.

Nice change of pace.

So since it is so much about the landscape here I thought I would share this artist Alastair Heseltine.

His work is definitly about communing with nature.

Samson Projects...

My friend Kim Hennessy has curated a show at the Boston Gallery Samson Projects.

It is viewing tonight at 7pm.  And do that I say this...I know artists Justin Kemp and Susan Jahoda, and Elizabeth Unterman.

so if you are nearby check it out.

opening today

So today at the fabulous ICP, their show Archive Fever; uses of the document in contemporary photography is opening.  I am super excited to see it, though I can't this weekend.  But if you are in NYC check it out.  And I will be sure to let you know how it is.

These images are by artists Tacita Dean and Fazal Sheikh

Super excited

So tonight I am going to a lecture with my friend Marcie at the Museum of Art and Design to hear the fascinating artist Elaine Reichek speak.  I am super excited because I love her older work.  She use to combine/samplers together and make some pretty amazing embroidary pieces so...I look forward to hearing her talk about her work.

I am also excited because when I was checking out the links on another site, I ended up finding

this link to artist Maira Kalman's work.  I love her work which is at the Museum of Art and Design right now in their show Pricked: Extreme Embroidary.  Maira's was my favorite piece.

Here is some other work of hers: