start of the new year right!

With Yoga and me!!!

I am so excited to announce that I will be starting some community yoga classes in DUMBO next week. The awesome Shawn from Rabbit Hole Studios is helping me by allowing us to to use his perfect and wonderful, space for yoga, TWICE a week.
So all you New Yorkers, and I know there are a lot of you out there, please come by build community, build breathe, and build strength.

Details:
Open Level Vinyasa classes
Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30-7:45 pm
Suggested Donation $10, pay what you can.
RabbitHole Studios
33 Washington Street
DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY
The door is underneath the stairs.

and if you do not live in NY but you know people that do please pass the word along, a community only thrives from the people within it.

And yes that is me up there being supported by my sister!

PLEASE NOTE MORNING CLASSES HAVE BEEN ADDED.
GET ALL UPDATED YOGA CLASS INFO AT OUR BLOG COMMUNITY YOGI!

family.

This is one of my most recent works...I made it for my grandmother.
The drawing is based on a photograph from her wedding day from over 60 years ago...
She did indeed wear a navy dress with a big corsage and my grandfather was dark and handsome.
I am very pleased with the work and perhaps will do a little series based on family images...what do you think?
I had many more pictures of the work that were much better and details too...but arghh my iPhoto ate them somehow? So until I go back to Ohio and Grandma's house this is all I can share.

Was there a special gift, close to your heart, that you made or received this year?

Speaking of my art look at the company I keep on this post, not bad.
and a blurb about a recent show here.

home, sweet. home.

It is so good to be back. Unpacked except for the laundry.
The holidays are so lovely with all the family, food, fun and laughter.
But soooo lovely when they are behind you and some normalcy returns.
I am excited to get back into my life, studio, and better eating habits.

With New Years around the corner of the night I contemplate this past year, and
I must say it has not been an easy one... a lot of challenges and struggles but some very major accomplishments too.
I am excited and ready to welcome this new year in yet...I know this past year was one of growth and acceptance and therefore a very good one indeed, even if it often did not feel that way.

So please have a very wonderful, kiss filled, champagne bubbled, laughing new years eve and invite this new years in with a joy filled open heart.
I know that is what I am hoping to do.

happy christmas.

I finally got to the computer to wish you all a very happy and joy filled Christmas.
I hope it was one for you... we had a nice mellow one and got a long beautiful walk in the mountains in and an awesome massage from my sis.
Hoping for another mountain walk before we head to Ohio for some Grandma visiting.

So I look forward to catching up with you, art, and inspiration soon.


And check out the awesome cookies my mom, sister in law, and I made.
Admit it you are impressed!

sorry...

been busy with the holiday's and travel and fun.
Hope all are well and enjoying your holiday's too.

Cannot wait to show you the awesome cookies we made... we might have just won the martha stewart award.

haven.

Our home is my haven... now all orderly and clean for our house watching guests...the leftovers are being eaten, the toilet scrubbed...
I hope they love our little space as much as we do.

Good bye.

We have clean sheets and a made bed...
a quiet ending to this project that is so close to my heart.

Keep posted for next years daily documentation.

clementines and oranges are so delicious

warm winter light...

snuggled safe at home.

very tired.

I am very tired. More tired then I want to be at 30.
Much more confused than I thought I'd be.
And a tinney, tiny bit lost.

So ... I am giving my self a little bit of a brain break.
I have many artists and things in line to feature here but feel like I have not
been giving good energy toward doing the posts.
Mainly because I want a break from looking at work and seeing amazing things...
I kind of just need to be alone in my head for a little bit.
So until the new year I am taking a little bit of a blog break.
But no worries I am still planning on posting daily.

But to take the pressure and time commitment off I am just going to share a daily photo until next year.
So I can stay inside my head and still share with you.

So I hope you enjoy the abbreviated posts and I will be back in full force next year.

Contemporary before it was cool to be contemporary.

So I had mentioned that there was the awesome exhibit of William Eggleston's work at the Whitney and I finally went last week and my experience was interesting.


The exhibit made me love the eye and skill of Eggleston all the more.
His ability to catch the everyday and the banality within it with such beauty.
And I truly respect the fact that he was doing this in the 70's when no one else was approaching the photographic subject in the same way.


But seeing all his work in person in a gallery space made me not love a lot of contemporary photography as much... It felt like so many young photographers that are celebrated today are pretty much Eggleston dopple-gamers- without the grit.
So much of the imagery reminded me of a number of "trendy" photographers and most all the figurative work looked like they were taken straight out of an editorial spread in a magazine.
To me this means Eggleston was all the more amazing and talented because all of these photographers, stylists, editors, and gallerists flock to work that emulates his... and I realize now how much work does...
But I will admit it kind of annoyed me too... seeing the work of this odd and unique visionary...and if you watch the documentary on him you will realize how odd he truly is... being re-created and turned directly into commodity.


So it was amazing to see and inspiring, even his newest work... but strangely sad to recognize so many of the images even though I had never seen them before.

Holiday hectic.

I love the holidays, the lights, the carols, the craft fairs, the smell of wreaths.
But I really love the parties...we had two this weekend one which involved too much wine and one which involved a white elephant- simply super fun.
And then we have a holiday dinner this week and then rush to go out of town but first wrap the presents and clean the house.
We have some kitty watchers that are staying over so the house cannot be left in "oh shit I am going out of town "mode.

But I still love it...now if only it would freaking snow here in Brooklyn.
What is your favorite thing about the holidays?

I want to the left all the fun out of the bag!!

I went to craftacular this weekend... as I am sure many of you did and what can I say except it was spectacular! And though I found many super fun things I cannot share them with you...
'cause they are all fabulous presents and I do not want to ruin it for the receivers...
but I did get some goodies from here and the very, very cool here.
So since I cannot share what I did get I will share something that I very much wanted...

The above lamp by Kirkiture is so gorgeous and lovely and I so wanted it for my living room...maybe next year.

Have you done all your Christmas shopping?

artistically viewing.

So I was a bit disappointed because I was unable to peak in on the David Hilliard show...not quite installed, so I have an excuse to go back soon.
But I did roam around the galleries for a little bit and saw some interesting stuff...but the highlight was Nathalie Djurberg at Zach Feur.


Honestly not what I would normally spend my time watching but something about Nathalie's stop motion film drew me in...for the entire 20 minutes. The expressiveness of her character and strange charm of her animation was completely compelling...though I still have no idea what it was about.
The press release states:

In I found myself alone, the viewer follows a young ballerina as she makes her way through a gigantic table set for tea. She climbs on cake, attempts to paint a white vase with chocolate sauce and builds a precarious staircase from sugar cubes. As she dances her way through the enormous tea set, wrecking havoc, tension between the young girl and the objects builds. Without someone present to intercede on her behalf, the young ballerina is overpowered by the objects and drowns in candle wax dripping from candelabra.

The abundance and lavishness of the set was gorgeous as well as the unbelievably human emotion from the puppet. Tragic and beautiful all at the same time. It makes me definitely want to see Nathalie's past work:

Strangely the film reminded me of the frightening but beautiful lavishness of these Christmas windows. Fairy tales gone wrong. If you are in NY go see them they are amazing!!.

what are you working on?

I have been working away in the studio...
I recently finished the above work...
Just started the below work-


Trying something different and embroidering backwards so the final piece will actually be the back of the embroidery--- we will see but it is something I have been thinking about for awhile.



And am starting to plug away at this... I still have a very long way to go but will mostly work on this over the holiday.

So what are you working on?

awesome show.

I have always been a fan of David Hilliard as his work is- well its really lovely.
He approaches photography like a storyteller...and I love images that tell me a story and stay with me after I have left them.


So though I am sad my friend cannot come down and go to the opening with me tonight...


I still have to make it down to Chelsea and drop of my work here. So I am going to stop by and check out his unique triptychs and diptychs and have a story told to me at the gallery.
He expertly uses technique, light, and a great eye to pull you in and let you get a little lost in his world.

But first I am going to sit down wit some coffee and churn some christmas cards out... aren't they adorable?

Good news...

Though I would love to be sharing the exciting news of me finding the most perfect, wonderful job and getting hired for it....I do not have this news.

But artistically speaking I have some great news.
I found a studio...use your imagination with the pictures.
It is currently being built out now so we cannot move in until March...but it will be worth it.
We will have huge, gi-normous windows...and we are hoping that we will be up high enough to see the harbor...but we definitely can see the elevated train...and at night I love watching it go by.



By we, I mean me and the amazingly talented Spring... we are sharing a larger space which allows us windows, cheaper rent, and company a win, win. Plus it will be great to share a space with someone who is truly talented. I can't wait to show you all the space once we are moved in and have walls.

And I got into another show, yeah! Onward 09 at Project Basho in Philadelphia. It feels great to have work in 3 different shows, in 3 different cities, from 3 different bodies of work... now if only some would sell maybe I would not need that perfect job.

Sorry.

But I am taking a mental health day.

a beautiful eye...

This is now my most favorite Christmas image that I have ever seen... quiet, unknowing, and beautiful...
as many of Jude McConkey's images are. She invites us into her world... which is obviously a special place filled with beauty and wonder...

but also with melancholy and loneliness...


I love this image and it reminds me of a very special image that a very special lady gave me.



I find many of Jude's images very moving and I have no doubt tat you will too. I also really appreciate the honesty in her profile... allowing us a little bit into her artist's mind.

watching.

I have been in a state of watching...not sure what I am looking for.
But since I do not know, I just keep watching.

Hoping this thing will reveal itself.
Hoping for some clarity.

and little by little things do reveal or clarify or get answered.
but the biggest one, the biggest question, in my current moment still goes unanswered.

I have never been a person who does not know what's next, as C says I am a "planner".
And I am.
But I have met a path in the road that is uncertain...
I do not know where it leads, and I do not know which way to go in the forks and turns...
so I try to have faith, I try to let go, and I watch...

hoping.

back to being serious and breathtakingly lovely.

I just recently found the work of Stacy Renee Morrison and her series Mama's house just breaks my heart with its breathtaking beauty, stillness, familiarity, and yearning... see for yourself.
Morrison states:

My past, present, and future are tightly bound within the walls. The rooms, furniture and objects pull me close and sometimes sing sweet songs and at other times sit still and silent in sad solitude.

The pallette is gorgeous in the softness of the colors, light, and contrast.



The simplicity of the compositions are moving and complete.
The above image particularly reminds me of one of my favorite series ever...



Her figurines series is also quite lovely.

I gazed deep into her eyes and discovered she was staring back at me.

cheesey weekend post.

Sorry about my absence Friday but... I drove up to Massachusetts to get our Christmas tree out of storage.
It was a nice visit seeing some friends new art work, going to Micheal's and stocking up on thread and yarn, drinking way to many Winter Warmers, and hanging out.
But once home- I did indeed get the tree up, da, da, da, da,....

Obviously the gorgeous new tree skirt my grandma crochet me is the new favorite spot for the kitties.
So we might not actually be seeing the skirt much. You may notice the fabulous flashing lights necklace Blue has one...he tends to like feeling pretty...

So last night as I was finishing up a new scarf, I realized that it matched his collar and well..whipped him up a new hand made, really soft scarf of his own.

Oh and did I mention it snowed for 2.8 seconds in NY this Saturday night... it was so gorgeous.

So I hope your holiday preparations are going as silly as mine.

unusual for me.

I do not usually post about blogs, but as I was perusing around to find my bit of inspiration I came across this jem and I just could not resist.
As a lover of words and stories and crafts I love the fact that Jude Hill has a way with all of them.


This post especially melted my heart.
Sorry for the shorty but I must rush off today.