not wanting to be home.

My "day in the studio" yesterday did not go as planned- because I never got in the studio. Now that I have t- I treasure and look desperately forward to my few hours a week alone in the studio. So when I got to my studio yesterday morning and realized I was locked out (due to a complicated and not interesting story) I was so dismayed.

laying it out.

But with nothing I could do I headed back home and tried to use my few hours to the best. Luckily I have a project at home that I was able to work on. But I cannot describe how good it feels to be in my studio with my NPR playing and the stillness around me. It truly is my little world and the reality is I need to get there more. I am still getting a ton of work done at home but taking the time and space to work in my world is essential.

ironing it on.

The reality is I could go and work at night more. And am thinking maybe I need to. I will miss wasting my brain away on the Real Housewives of NYC but in the end will be a happier person and a better mama and wife.

after it is all cut out and trimmed. Almost done.. Now i just need to find my sewing machine pedal.

This weekend I am in the crunch of finishing everything up for my show. I am hoping to get everything shipped by Monday so that I do not need to pay extra for expedited shipping. But we will see.

a mess with "redemptive power."

I would say this is not my normal aesthetic but one of my friends/students mentioned Agathe Snow after yoga this morning and...

her jumbled, anti-aesthetic, mess of work fits my mood perfect. I feel quite "jumbled, anti-everything, and a total mess" right now myself.


But Agathe's work is so much more then that. She grew up with the hedonistic boys’ club of influential downtown artists and was married to Dash Snow for 9 years. And their influence on her work is evident but she is such her own artist as well. Coming from this genre of art as a female and having a unique and optimistic voice as well as a great sense of color.


She creates mixed media works and often builds community events around them. Such as a dance party amongst her sculptures. Somehow the aesthetic of the work with the communal and playful approach creates a wonderful contrast of embracing the good and bad of life.


The press release of her recent solo show at the Berlin Guggenheim states:

Agathe Snow's work balances visions of apocalypse, rebellion, and social breakdown with an earnest belief in the redemptive power of human ingenuity and community. Her performances and sprawling, multimedia installations expand outwards from intricately imagined narrative frameworks and are frequently activated by the direct participation of the viewer. Snow's longstanding interest in the complex strands that bind people to places has inspired her...work


I love this: redemptive power of human ingenuity and community


I know very little about her work but today I would love to be amongst these strange objects, which represent her past loves, walking amongst them, dancing among them, feeling at home amongst their mess.

"the intimate and the excessive"

I have known of Jean Shin's work for a long time now but in re-visiting her newest work at her website I became totally inspired.


I love, love, love how she uses found everyday objects and through collection, installation, and manipulation uses these objects to comment on our relationships with each other, class, space, and the domestic.


Her fabric works are amazing and she manages to make large scale public works, which I love.

Her biography states:

Jean Shin is nationally recognized for her monumental installations that transform everyday objects into elegant expressions of identity and community. For each project, she amasses vast collections of a particular object—prescription pill bottles, sports trophies, sweaters—which are often sourced through donations from individuals in a participating community. These intimate objects then become the materials for her conceptually rich sculptures, videos and site-specific installations. Distinguished by her meticulous, labor-intensive process, and her engagement of community, Shin’s arresting installations reflect individuals’ personal lives as well as collective issues that we face as a society.

I also enjoy how though she uses a lot of materials and her work varies a ton it manages to always feel simple. In a good way.

and in her statement she say this:

Taken together, the objects appear homogeneous and monumental. Upon closer inspection however, their individuality and variety emerges. The focus of my installations shifts continually between the identity of the individual and that of the group, the single unit and the larger whole, the intimate and the excessive. My elaborate process mirrors these dualities, as objects of mass production and consumerism are transformed by hand and through intense physical labor.

I am inspired. See more.

I like...

this work by Josh Faught.


His collage of fabric, crochet, weaving, and other stuff is scrumptious and his palette is gorgeous.

Like a painting spilling of the wall into my world of tactility and memory and place.

See more.

install?

a peek into the small installation for my upcoming solo show.

This will be the 3rd solo show that I do not install myself. And I am a little nervous. I of course totally trust the 2 gallery owners of the space. But since I have never seen the space in person and am showing all new work it is hard to know how it will all look together.
I am in a way not too particular and embrace interpretations of my work but I also am very attached to the emotions in my work and want that to be felt and often installation can really help in this.

So my fingers are crossed that it will turn out well. I am very excited about it and quite sad that I will not be able to see it myself.

forced labor

a totally different body of work made be curious to look up the work of artist Liliana Porter but when I came to her clever, humorous, and poignant series Forced Labor I totally forgot about the other work and was completely consumed by this


This series uses found figures and materials to comment on labor, the human condition, and, though she does not state it, in my opinion loneliness.

Something I find interesting in the work is that often the figures are dressed in office wear or "nice" clothing but are in the act of a "forced" or "blue collar" labor. Especially the female figures. I find this juxtaposition interesting.

All of the works are placed on a simple white shelf with the figure miniaturized by the large pile of their labor.

This contrast is powerful. As well as the contrast of the "mess" of the material with the minimalism of the display choices.


I of course loved the ones where she uses fabrics and such but the series is extensive and goes into a vast amount of materials. See more here along with a ton of other work.

the mess.

my studio and what is happening there.

I am loving this quote by ms. LB

I come from a family of repairers. The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn't get mad. She weaves and repairs it. LB

hipster's in thread.

I just saw the work of Daniel Kornrumpf. Awesome.


His style and technique of embroidery remind me very much of the work of Cayce Zavaglia but his choice of portrait subject and placement of the figure is quite different and a bit more young feeling.


It is obvious through his work that he too comes from a painting background and his paintings are gorgeous and a little more expressive in his use of the hand then his embroidery.


I find it interesting in how he actually keeps the embroidery quite small on a large linen, which is a definite trend in the current world of drawing.

color pencil.

And his uber hipster subject matter amuses me.

See more here.

the balance

Jenna Park from Sweet Fine Day with her daughters.

Have you seen this amazing series of interviews on Cup of Jo. It is a series that talks to active and mostly self-employed mothers on how they manage motherhood and their careers. It is a wonderful inspiring and comforting series. The mama's range in their level of financial support, childcare, and hectic-ness so for me was amazing and refreshing to read.

Just to know others are doing it and managing.

It makes me want to do a series of interviews with artist mama's specifically about the balance of their art career and their mama-hood. These mom's are creative folks but not so much studio artists and I think seeing a similar series would be great. I know I would love it.