weigh me down.

The work of Claudia Mastrobuono. She combines clay and thread to make minimal works that comment on weight and space and therefore so much more.

See more here.

happening.

some linens I have been loving.

As I have mentioned life has taken me mentally out of the studio a lot this month. In truth though it has been frustrating in regards to my productivity it has been a great thing. I have been thinking a lot about my work and where I want to take it as these 2 shows come together and some of the work comes to an end. I cannot wait for them to be finished and done and for me to have a little space from that work.

this linen has been a favorite and I finally know what it will become, now I just need ink for my printer so I can get an image to work from.

I am really interested in pursuing the black on white thread drawings, but perhaps of objects instead of people. And am trying to come up with what is next for my text work. I really loved doing the love letters and would like to come up with some other project that is a reproduction of already existing text. I am just really struggling with what that text would be.

for another commission.

I feel both exhausted and excited about the place I am with my work.

simple shapes

As I was on etsy shopping for a gift I fell upon the work Kim Hoffman Granstrom. Normally I do not know if her simple approach to nature inspired work would appeal to me. I was initially drawn to her fiber works.


I love the organic mounds and shapes she makes with her satin stitch and the combination of imaginative with illustrative.


I feel like the simplicity of her technique is really working for me. I want some simplicity at the moment. Her work would make nice children's book illustrations.


I actually was very into these prints/paintings of silhouettes. I am trying to come up with an idea for a museum project that I am doing with museum guests. The museum has an extensive collection of textiles and a lot of wall paper. I was thinking of doing some sort of applique project inspired by the shapes in the wallpapers. These silhouettes helped me clarify this idea and vision in a nice way. I meet with the museum this week and hope they like the idea.

See more of Kim's work here.
And see some REALLY inspiring wall paper based art here.

asleep on the couch...

Finished and shipped off to an exhibit. Excited about the cut out bottom, simplicity of composition and that it is done.
Now to the next one....

nonsensical and rational realities...

I am so drawn to the work of Jennifer Pettus and am so thankful to now know about it. She submitted to my past call but just did not fit into the end result of the show but I seriously look forward to working with her in the future.




She makes work that seems to me highly personal but also quite ambiguous. She blends the recognizable with the abstract in a very unique and interesting way. Treating fiber like skin at times.



The textures and combination of materiality in her work is impressive and inspiring. The scale of the works is relatively large which makes me want to see them and really investigate them even more.



She says this about her work:

My work celebrates the coexistence of nonsensical and rational realities hidden in the structure of everyday life. I believe our bodies provide us with both a personal and universal experience of the everyday. I imagine the human body as a membrane that defines a shifting surface of exchange between internal mechanics and external embellishment. By absorbing and secreting its surroundings, it is constantly improvising but never solidifying. Therefore, the body and all its disruptive and dispersive capabilities becomes a site for unraveling relationships of power interwoven through gender, language, sexuality, and etiquette. I choose materials and methods that echo this fluid improvisation, suggesting a function and a form that is never fully disclosed: stains on bed sheets become a topographical map; hair becomes text or a balloon becomes a precious gem... And by combining disparate but familiar elements, I portray the messiness of impropriety, the incoherence of compulsion, and the transience of beauty.

See more of her work including some lovely early work here.

slow...

things have been slow in my studio lately. my schedule has been crazy as I adjust to some new things and additionally continue to pursue other things. As well as try to tie up all the commitments that I already have made. I am so happy for all the opportunities but am also looking forward to my solo shows being done so I can work with less pressure.

I have finally come up with the last piece for my show in June in Brooklyn and am excited about this piece. Now I just have to get it and one in process piece done. Its possible. I hope.


Otherwise my mind has been shifting a lot towards my work and I want to explore and experiment with some new things but with these shows I cannot. I have to make all my studio time go to finishing the works for these shows.


and because my personal life has been a little wacko as of late my productivity has been significantly lower. I am feeling a shift in this and am so thankful for that. So fingers crossed time will open up before me and I can use it to its best.

drawing in space

Installations by Caroline Latham-Stiefel

She says this about her work:

The idea of piecing-together disparate elements strongly informs my work. I have been making sculptural installations made of such incongruous materials as plastic shopping bags, felt, pipe cleaners, straight pins, and plastic electrical boxes since 2001. My work involves both the slow, plodding movement of patching pieces of cloth and plastic to linear structures made of pipe cleaners, as well as quicker, more gestural actions that connect all of the parts into systems, making large suspended sculptures.

The installations are drawings-in-space that cover, divide, encircle, and fill the spaces in which they are situated. Monumental in scale and intensely colored and textured, the work aims to physically affect the body of the viewer. These installations take various forms: parasitic-like growths that cover interior architectural elements and outdoors structures; hanging tent forms that immerse the viewer; suspended walls that curve and divide spaces; excessive, organic masses that transform rooms into caves.

See more of her work including her drawings here.

Fingers crossed!!!

This is a plea to help fund a wonderful and beautiful catalogue for an upcoming exhibit which features my work. This exhibit is going to be a wonderful celebration of autobiographically inspired work. Please consider contributing a small amount to make it happen. Read more....

Self/Fabricated is an exhibition of seven contemporary artists–– Ilona Anderson, David Curcio, Wylie Garcia, Jan Johnson, Joetta Maue, Leslie Schomp, and Candice Smith Corby, whose work plays upon autobiography through the use of cloth and stitching methods as surface, medium, and reference point. In addition to painting, drawing, and printmaking, the artists incorporate a range of needlework techniques such as beading, embroidery, sewing, quilting, and stitching methods. Besides being a contributing artist, I am one of the co-curators, along with Leslie Schomp. This exhibition will be held at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA from September 23, 2012 through January 13, 2013.

It is my aim to produce a professionally printed full color catalog to accompany the exhibition. There will be 1000 catalogs printed by the high-end art catalog publisher OSP Catalogs. Your funding will provide for the up-front costs of the catalog’s design work, printing, and shipping costs; as well as a limited edition print of our exhibition poster. Any funds beyond my minimum goal will allow us to pursue future venues for the exhibition.

Our catalog will be a work of art in itself and will include several components. It will provide an introductory curators’ statement, an art historical essay, biographical information and visual examples of each artist’s work, and commentaries on each artist by two contemporary curators. The art historical essay, written by Amanda Luyster, Lecturer at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, highlights a secondary project in which a new work was made by each artist in response to a chosen artifact from the Art Complex Museum’s collection, an elaborate handmade embroidered Chinese Summer Jacket dating from 1900. Each artist’s commentary is written by Beth Kantrowitz and Kathleen O’Hara, and focuses on the phenomenon of using vintage fabrics and referencing stitching methods within a contemporary art context. The cover will be a facsimile of a hand-embroidered and painted samplar of the exhibition title, Self/Fabricated, created by Leslie Schomp and myself. The exhibition poster will feature the same image.

This exhibition catalog will be a testament to the journey of our exhibition’s conception to its actual fruition. The concept began several years ago as a conversation of shared and loved common interests between two friends. Instead of waiting for someone else, we decided to be proactive and curate our own show, which became richer with each added artist. With your support, our labor of love can be made permanent and allow the viewer to take the exhibition home with them.

We are grateful for your support and hope that our perks reflect our appreciation!

PLEASE CONSIDER donating a little money to making this catalogue happen.

Click here.

home sweet...

oh my awesome, work by artist Kay Healey.


Love the banality of the objects, the hand me down aesthetic of the furniture.


I obviously love the fabric works and they gets me super excited...


but the juxtaposition of the graffiti with the "home" object is also so interesting.


From her statement:

"Through my art I investigate themes of transience and the search for stability in an ever-changing world. I am by nature a nostalgic person and am very interested in how an object as mundane as a plastic salad spinner can embody vivid memories of people, events, and periods of someone’s life."


See more here.

in the studio...

absence of home.

I am loving the potential in the work by Brenna K. Murphy. She stitches onto photographs and also creates installations.


I want to see the photograph works (above works) on a very large scale....


And want everything to become an installation.


Her work is quiet and potent work about home, the desire for home, the absence of home, the idea of home, and the temporal and fragile nature of it all.



She says this:

My work explores the possibility that the body can be a surrogate Home for those that don’t have one as is traditionally defined in our culture, while also acknowledging the temporality of both the body and our collective cultural notion of Home.

By the way, her stitches & most of her installations are made with hair.

See more here.

the dark side of curating...

Luke O'Halloran

This is indeed the part I hate about curating, rejection letters. Being an artist that has received more then my fair share of them it breaks my heart to send them out. To add to the heartbreak I know so many people either in person or via this here blog that I often feel like it is saying no to a friend. But as I curate I try to do it blind without any awareness to who the person is and just judge by the work.

Jennifer Pettus

For this specific show I really had to consider the relatively small space, the role of the venue as a place to sell work being more important then the concept, and wanting to show unique works. I am having to say no to a number of works that I really loved but due to size, subject matter, or other very similar works I had to make the choice to edit those works out. Sucks.

Sarah Touslee

But with all that said I am also SO excited about the work that I did select and really look forward to figuring out how I am going to make it all work together in such a small space. hmmm I am imagining salon style installation. I also think that the window display will turn out super cool.

Looking forward to seeing it all done.