my words...

I was hoping to do a big post on the wonderful exhibit that I am part of which just opened this weekend at the arts complex. But alas blogger and I are in a fight and I do not have the time to "research" the new interface until this weekend. So I will just do the show posts in bits over the week. I figured why not start with myself. Self-fabricated is a show that was curated by the very talented artists Leslie Schomp and Candice Corby Smith and has been in the work for a number of years now. (I think they invited me when I lived in western mass and then I went to NYC and now am back in Mass. funny.)

The show features 7 artists whom all work with textiles in some way to make work about themselves and their life. The images above are my piece that was a "response" work. The curators asked all the artist to do a piece that was in response to or inspired by a Chinese robe that is part of the museums collection. (I will do an individual post on all of those.)

The work the curators chose to feature of mine was my text based work, over the course of time that the show was in the works my work changed a lot, sold a lot, and therefore there final selection was very different then their original. It was interesting to only show my text based work. It felt nice for that work to get some deserved attention, but I also felt a little like I was only half there as an artist.

They chose to frame the white works with gray paint and a literal frame. The gray matched an interior gallery and felt connected but I still remain unsure about my thoughts towards this. Visually it does help the work come forward and bring the viewer in. But it also formalizes the work in an unfamiliar way but only partially. I almost think that if the work is to be framed then it should be in a vitrine. I normally do not like my work behind glass as it pushed it too much towards archive but both of these specific collections of text works are specific to a moment and that is a moment of the past. Therefore in a sense they are archives. So it gave me a lot to think about for future presentations of the works.

The opening was a wonderful time and opportunity to meet 6 other talented artists it gave me a ton of hope and inspiration for building my community here and finding folks I connect with as an artist.

I look forward to sharing all the wonderful artists and their work with you. Go see the show too!