Fiber in the 21st century

Another show celebrating fiber in NYC New York Fiber in the 21st Century combines works of emerging artists and celebrated established artists all whom work in fiber and textile techniques. The show is currently open and remains open until late May so plenty of time to check it out.

Some works that are part of the exhibit which intrigue me are:

Gema Alava

Vered Sivan

and of course the work of Andrea Dezso is always a hit.

as is Ruth Marshall.

In general I would say the exhibit is a little conservative looking for my taste but I am always delighted to see exhibits celebrating fiber and all the incredible artists working in it.

Get more details here.

install day...

I am heading into the city today to install some work at my friends super fabulous salon for a month long installation of my work. She is hosting a special NYC event in celebration of International Woman's Day and thought my work would be perfect for the walls. I will take picture of the install to share but am mostly planning on installing my smaller text based works.

Instead of having a separate opening, I am just celebrating with the event next Tuesday:

Fringe Salon and NextAid have partnered up to launch

Beauty and The Beats and to Celebrate International Women's Day!

Come out and Join the stylists of Fringe Salon for a night of dancing and fun in support of global good causes!

......Book an appointment between 6pm and 8pm - Stylists will be donating 100% of the proceeds from haircuts, styling, and Fringe's infamous bang-trims to NextAid in support of its programs in Africa.

After Party from 10pm at Fringe Salon -

feedback.

I had a wonderful studio visit with this fabulous lady yesterday. She gave me so much constructive feedback about the directions that I am going with my work. I really appreciate it when you invite someone into your studio and their willing to be straightforward and honest with you.
I am very excited about some of the ideas she stirred up in my brain and in general feel like I am looking at things with a fresher and more open view point, which will invite in change. To me that is always a good thing for an artist.
In general I am thinking not only about construction but de-construction and how that can add a new layer to my work... either way it has made me excited to be in the studio and I thank her!

Today hopefully, I will get a little work done during a baby nap but am also hoping for some good quality baby time too.

pearls and pins

Artist Angela Ellsworth has been getting a lot of attention for her gorgeous and horrifying Seer Bonnets, including a feature in the current FiberArts Magazine.


Angela works from her Mormon background and ancestry to comment on and critique polygamy, forced communal domesticity, and the idea of sister wives. The work re-examines the experience of pioneer Mormons. The first image includes 9 bonnets nodding to Angela's great, great grandfathers 9 wives.


The detail in her work is amazing as she covers, totally covers the bonnets with pearlized corsage pins, covering the outside with a pearly surface, also reminds me of BB's, and the lining with sharp pins, making them into objects no one wants to wear. Her craftmanship is quite impressive.


Her work also includes performances that look quite intriguing these performances include:
solemn sister wives doing the Electric Slide in pastel prairie dresses, hairdos with frontal poufs, and strap-on braids.


She also creates embroideries on found paper napkins, I love seeing the pattern and embossment on the paper napkin.


You can see videos of her performances and many many more works from her archives at her website here.

fabulous!

A little different then what I normally post about but I love the bright color and general fabulous nature of the work by James Gobel.


His works are collaged, felted, yarned, and bedazzled paintings that celebrate the "bears" of western gay culture.


Music informing his work greatly in the setting for his subjects but also often being the titles of individual works and frequently seen actually in the works themselves, perhaps on a t-shirt the subject wears?


in a write up at his galleries website, by Ken Pratt, this is stated:

...there is something more than celebration going on here. In the construction of the images and the depiction of the characters that fill them, we are somehow invited to take stock. In much the same way that Aubrey Beardsley is both complicit with and critical of the decadent creatures he created, there is something in Gobel's work that asks us to question the incessant drive for fabulousness, gorgeousness and fame (if only on the dance floor) that form the fallout out of the radical gay movements of the 1970's.

See more of his work here.

progress

in the studio for the 3rd day this week, heaven...
having a studio visit today and looking forward to some good feedback on the direction the work is going and how it could grow.
loving the sunshine, though still chilly...

Thread Reviews.

I mentioned the show of Anna Bebetze yesterday but was so intrigued by her work that I need to do a little more research so read my article on her featured over at the TAC Blog here.

a circle of words...

I recently got the images of my work at the recent group exhibit at Taller Boricua Gallery in NY and finally just now got around to posting them.
I was so delighted to be invited to be part of this exhibit at such a wonderful space in NYC and was very sad that I was away for the opening and since it is all the way UP, UP town with a baby I just never made it to see the install.
(for you none new yorkers getting from Brooklyn to way uptown with a baby on the subway would be an utter nightmare and take 1.5 hours one way, so you get my drift.)

But I am so delighted that they sent very good images of both the exhibit and my work. It is always fun to see how curators choose to install my work. I have never hung my work in a circle but am quite intrigued by it. I like how it is both SO structured and finite in shape but yet so organic and infinite. I have a piece that I did about my pregnancy which has 9 round embroideries and I am thinking of installing it this way and seeing what I think... We will see.

Speaking of curators don't forget that I am curating a show for the spring- details here.

under our feet.

Elana Herzog

So I need some R and R for a few hours from 6 am wake-ups. So I instead of writing a post I will share some posts about inspiring shows going on right now in NYC. I hope to stop by to see them FOR SURE so I hope if you can you do too. Coincidentally both about inspired by rugs...


First a post about the Anna Betbeze show.


and oh so excited about this show of Elana Herzog.

sleepy

I am so tired today as I have been subbing morning yoga classes all week and well NEED sleep.

But... I already got 4 solid hours of studio time in today. My studio mate and I began baby trades this week.
I take her son for 4 hours one morning and she takes t for 4 hours on Tuesdays. And it is AWESOME. I got to just sit in my studio and work steadily while listening to my fabulous podcasts (a hard thing to do with T). It was so nice and in reality more then getting work done it just felt good to be alone, truly by myself. A rarity now days as C watches the baby so much for my teaching and professional needs it is hard for me to ask for time to just be. So it is so wonderful knowing that I have that built into my week from here on out.

And I already feel great about the amount of work I got done so everything else today is an extra scoop.

ta da...assemble.

So as I mentioned in the previous post I am wanting to work on some new stuff for an upcoming show and ta da I am delighted to announce that I will be having a Solo Show in August at The Assemble Gallery and Studio in Seattle.

I had contacted them to just introduce myself and my work and lucky me they loved it and invited me to have a solo show. Needless to say I am excited, as always, to have the opportunity to show my work all together. Especially in such a lovely space.

But since I had 3 solo shows last year most of my work has been shown plenty and the new sleepers series is for a 2012 solo show....so I want to make new work.
My thoughts are work all about the home- so instead of it being a portrait of people let it be a portrait of this moment in our life through images of our home.

Pieces I am thinking about are:
a grouping of embroideries of objects in our home, i.e. the fan by our bed, the kitchen sink by the window full of dishes, a baby swing, a pile of laundry...
and then a layered portrait of the literal space of our home, as well as some cool text pieces, and something sculptural has to happen just not sure what. What do you think???

quirky folks...

I am wanting to see light and wonderful things today, due to the cold gray snow outside and the work of Tugba Kop, not sure if that is a very cool name or a "pen"name for the work, is hitting the spot. I think I saw this work first at the Mr. but am not totally sure.

Tugba's portraits are awesome. They are humorous and playful in the character they evoke out of their subject- but made in a way that is quite loving, not making fun just treasuring those quirky qualities people have.



I love how you can see extra threads and such under the muslin base fabric, it adds so much more dimension to the piece..

I especially love her applique technique. Appliqueing a flat color and then embroidering over it. The minimal but strong use of color is right up by alley.


I personally prefer the fabulous portraits but am also being drawn to the works that are "portraits" of domestic objects. I myself am thinking of doing a series of objects for an upcoming exhibit and am inspired by these.


See more of Tugba here.

decisions.

oh lovely...

Painting and encaustic works by Pamela Murphy.


She says:

The people whose lives are recorded in these pictures are strangers, yet they are familiar to all of us. They remind us of ourselves, our families, and our issues on both personal and cultural levels.


See more here.

body language.

Last Thursday I did a studio visit with artist Julia Elsas, meaning I went to her studio and we had a dialogue about her work. And today we had one scheduled for my studio but have decided to reschedule for next week. But I have been meaning to mention her work since then and was just waiting for the right day. Ta da!
Anyway, Julia invited me into her studio as I had seen her work at the Missing/Missed artist talk and she felt some resonance with my comments and questions. I was delighted to see more of her work and talk shop with her, plus she is super nice.

Currently Julia's work is kind of 2 separate bodies of work. One of which seems quite resolved in its direction and one that seems very much still in the phase of experimentation and "figuring it out."

Her monoprints, which are generally created from pressing nylons through the press, have a wonderful balance of abstraction and realism. You know what the objects are but you appreciate the abstract quality they have most. Her more recent ones, not on her website are from the original mono prints which she then cuts out and collages onto a new piece of paper, often having the shapes mirror each other. I especially like these as her use of negative space and the scale of the back piece of paper is in perfect proportions and her palette is fabulous. One suggestion I had was that one of the images be embossed into the paper and one be collaged, I felt that would add a new layer and more depth to the overall visual and conceptual experience.


Her other current body of work is what is on display at the Textile Arts Center, a series of work where she uses a computerized embroidery machine to create works with photograph's of her body, generally repetitions of the same part in process, for instance the mouth speaking. Exploring issues of body language.
To me the best moments in this work is when there is flaw, in the machine, in the sewing, in the construction, the perfection of the computer image and process broken down in some way.

Conceptually she is still figuring how this series is going to and how it needs to manifest. Which to me is one of the most exciting moments in a series. I cannot wait to watch her figure it out.
Julia joined us at the collective meeting so I am hoping that she becomes a member of our community on a regular basis.

Her statement is lovely:

Flirtatious gestures, the body language of longing, and the private moments of anticipation are my subject matter. Using sculpture, drawing, and embroidery, I explore the tensions of desire and voyeurism and the universal mating dance that becomes a game of suspense and ambiguity... The materials I use are highly tactile --- urging, but denying touch.

But based on her other work I have a feeling it will be great. Check out her series of altered books. Awesome.



See more work here.