Last chance...

Today is the last chance to see this work at Brenda Taylor gallery in Chelsea.



And coming close to the last chance to buy passes for this awesome event.
I speak Saturday morning and am showing work at the public event Saturday night.
Hope to see some friendly faces.

So needless to say things are hectic and busy. So this will most likely be my last post until Monday. I look forward to sharing how the awesomeness went.

Have a great weekend!!

Remembrance.

Today I am driving to Northampton to see a good friends, Lyndsey Baldwin, MFA Thesis show. I cannot wait to see it simply as an artist - but am so excited to see it as a friend. LB struggled initially in Grad school, as I did, to figure out what she wanted to make work about and how she wanted to make it.

But in the end it seems she has made a truly lovely project.

Run Stitch Remembrance is a project which documents LB's days in graduate school by embroidering, with her own hair, the silhouettes from Polaroids that she took of her face each day in the studio.
The piece has become a meditative reflection on time, practice, and memory.
She specifically began working in this way to honor and spend time with the memories of her grandmother who died while Lyndsey was away at graduate school.

I am very excited and proud to see the work and cannot wait what to see what she embarks on next.

Just in case you are in Northampton or Amherst, Ma.
Here are the details for the gallery.

Mapping of the mind.

I have mentioned this amazing artist here before but upon the news that I completely missed out on her most recent exhibition her in NY, closing Friday, I just had to post about her again. Read my article on Jessica Rankin including a link to a great studio visit with her.

Love...

I finally got around to taking a picture of the work that was hung at the yoga studio that I teach at.
When L asked me to hang a piece I was delighted and struggled to pick the right one- then it took some re-hanging to find the right place in the studio.
But it looks right at home at the altar and fits in perfect with the space.

It is especially fitting with the studio's name Prema meaning Divine Love.

I rarely get to see my work in homes and spaces outside of the gallery and my studio- so it is very nice to see the work interact with a breathing living space outside of the art world.
I wish collectors emailed you picture of the work once hung. It is such a different experience seeing work in homes.

You can see it in person if you stop by for class.

What do you think of Love...

spring lovelies...

Today just wanting some simple and sweet inspiration and finding it in the lovely artworks, handmade items, and world of Geoff and Anabela of Field Guided.
I especially love the sweet embroideries done on vintage linens. The same character doing different things.


I also am loving the idea of drawing on paper doilies...



and found paper lovelies...


and a most fabulous ribbon. If I won an award this prize would surely make my day.


So no huge conceptual thread or statement. Field guided seems to just find inspiration in lovely sweet things. And that is just what I want today simple, lovely, and sweet.

taking time...

I meant to post this photograph yesterday...But with my rush, rush too much to do attitude I forgot. Which is ironic since my photographs are all about stopping to slow down and notice the beauty of the everyday around us.

Sadly, I cannot really slow down this week because in preparation for the Summit of Awesome, both speaking, showing, and traveling, along with a lot of show deadlines this week, and my work needing to be done., and my very good friends thesis show this Thursday...I am truly busy.

But what I can do while I am rushing around and being busy is- Be present.
Be present is the chaos that is my life.
Br present in the love I have for C and family.
Be present in the strength and health of my body.
So as I prepare to rush of this morning, I am taking a deep breath and attempting to remember to Be present in this.

kindred spirit...

The kindred spirit of an artist Eloise de Hauteclocque reached out this weekend after seeing my work on Etsy, ironically my very fabulous friend LB had just forwarded me her website a few days earlier. So needless to say there is a thread that connects us.
Eloise embroiders text and language about relationship, love, and intimacy on vintage clothing. Her conceptual intention is strikingly similar to mine which touched us both very deeply.



She states:

The exhibition Ensemble ("together" in English) speaks of togetherness from an intimate point of view, with ourselves as well as with another, to the global. I use second hand clothing to communicate our humanity and for its historical interest - the fact that it already contains energy from the previous wearer before it meets mine. I have embroidered text onto the clothing, as a way of perhaps making the abstract (thoughts, fantasies, dreams) more concrete and tangible. Like marking the skin with a tattoo, these texts adorn the clothing (our second skins) with our private thoughts, desires, wishes and bring them into the public realm.

I really appreciate her level of collaboration, something I myself have played with and often would like to push more in my work.

I am so moved by our similar sensibilities and have such an affinity toward the loveliness in her work I want to post every single image, fly to Berlin see the work, and then meet her for a cup of tea. How that would be nice.


She also takes very lovely photographs, another thread of connection.

I look forward to knowing her through the threads of the Internet and perhaps someday will have the opportunity to meet her in person.
Her blog and website.

be...

as you are.
I hope she loves it as much as I do.

What do you think?

Awesome things abound!!!!

Tonight a super awesome art show by my even more super awesome friend Ben Pederson.
He creates very fun and very fabulous art. Plus it should also be a great party. Tonight!!!


And the always fabulous, awe inspiring, and very talented work of Emily Barletta will be included in the show Yarn Theory at PS 122 Gallery, Opening tomorrow night from 5-7pm.




And my work, On the edge, again, will be at the very cool event Womens voices, Womens visions on Sunday.

Wow, what a fun, fabulous art filled weekend!

love house.

Wanting simplicity in my inspiration today I found the amazingly lovely, beautiful, and simple series The mistake by the lake by photographer Chris Mottalini.


The Mistake By The Lake, is a photographic project documenting the assorted, hodge podge of school bus stop shelters, built mostly by parents, scattered throughout the Buffalo, New York landscape.

Chris states:

Though these fascinating examples of amateur architecture are created for a specific need, over time that need diminishes and that structure becomes part of their surroundings. These shelters remain as strange, repetitive, reminders of past necessities. These structures are representative of the universal impulse of care, which undercuts the narrative of neglect and abandonment that the mention of Buffalo usually invokes. The heart of the work for me is capturing the material products of human concern and emotion that have, in many cases, fallen into disuse.

I find not only the apparent love and nurture of the parent whom built these buildings powerful but also the apparent love and caring Chris himself has for the oddity and charm of his hometown, Buffalo. Looking through all 40 pictures is quite a powerful experience

I also find his project After you left, they took it apart, very haunting and beautiful.



I find an overwhelming amount of compassion and humanity in Chris' work, which surprise me considering most of his images are quite simple and somewhat stark in composition. But his intentions behind each project shows though with each image and when you take the time to look through the entirety of each series - his intention just becomes more and more beautiful and apparent. I look forward to whatever he does next.

Spring Show...

Please see my piece, touch..., at Brenda Taylor Gallery in Chelsea, NY.
One week only April 23-April 30.

brave...

So I am pretty much done with the commission piece that I have been working on.
It is washed, hung to dry, and ready to starch and iron and then do some last little tweaks and fixes...
I worked my butt off the last 2 weeks to get it done, in an attempt to make up for the fact that I essentially made the wrong piece first. But in the end it is quite a lovely piece and I am excited to have some good pictures after today to share with all of you.

And I am delighted to breath the sigh of relief of being finished as I am desperately trying to get 3 other pieces done by the end of May and need the time and now can actually just simply get started on one of them. So today will be a good and productive long day in the studio...and luckily the sun is shining so it should be quite pleasant too.

Don't Forget...

This weekend of awesomeness is coming up.


There will be the D.C. premier of the documentary Handmade Nation.


I will be speaking on a panel Saturday at 10:30 am.



And I will be showing my work along with some other very talented folks, and eating some awesome cake at the Show of Awesome. More details coming.
Hope to see some of you there!

Open Source.

Check out the fascinating and fabulous work of Ele Carpenter, particularly her project Open Source Embroidery. Read my article at Hello Craft.

Good Space.

Happy Earth day!
In yoga this week I have been asking my students to create an intention of "sukha," meaning "good space," in our world. By opening our hearts, breath, and minds to honor our earth, our neighbors, and all living things- we as a world wide community can create a heavenly space.

At the ending of class I have read a very fabulous quote by Ayn Rand, she says;

Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves-
or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.

So hear is to finding heaven and greatness within out lives and to you having a very lovely earth day.