relating with thread

  

Artist Irene Tetaz who I discovered through her convo with me on etsy. I love her use of negative space, rough stitching, and dirty linens

talking and mugs

I had my artsts talk for mys how last week and it was really nice. I was so happy with thte turn out in this nasty weather and the fact that no one I know was really coming. We had a great crowd and it was so nice to talk about my story that led to this work.

AS I was formulating my talk and thinkgin about what I might say. I came up with a thought and I did indeed say ot at the talk but what struck me is that in a way it is so much the root of what my work is about.

paraphrased ...

"...when you pick up the same toy for the thousandth time, washed the same dish 500 times. But what about when you wash you favorite mug, how is the experience different when you wash this mug instead of any other mug. That's where it happens the story of the everyday. That is what my work is about."

You have until Saturday to see the show.

space

Loving this work by David Muth.

kerchunk, and breath.

I mentioned a few posts back that I have been taking photographs. But I really need to talk about it more. This blog has been just as much about my creative process as about other art and my creative process is in a unusual place of flux. 

I did my artist talk this past week and it is always interesting talking about your work at different points within it. Sometimes you speak with utter confidence totally understanding where you are and where you are going, other times you feel disconnected and bored with it, and then there is the moment where you are in flux. This time it was really beautiful to talk about my work while I am in flux a place of unknown.

Anyway I am getting sidetracked. I had the impulse about 2 weeks ago to get my camera out. I literally have not shot with my hasselblad in probably 5 years now. I was nervous; Can I still work it? Do I remember how to load the film? Can I properly use my handheld meter?  I sat on my bed hands shaking, scared that I had forgotten the touch of my first medium, my true artistic love.

I did remember how to load the film. I found my meter and did know how to use it. I set up my shot, looking down through the ground glass. My heart was pounding... god how gorgeous the square format was, how compelling shallow depth of field makes our world, seeing the light, the color, the emotion of the shot.

Then click, kerchunk, the heavy large shutter opened and closed. I nearly cried. The sound of me, the sound of seeing, the sound of communicating what you see. 

I realize now that by replicating my work in thread I made it more then ordinary, my "banal" subjects and moments were immediately elevated. But maybe sometimes they do not need that elevation. They just need to be seen.

I knew I wanted to be a photographer my freshman year in high school after the first darkroom class I ever took. I knew I wanted to really BE an artist when I lost my artistic voice for awhile and found it again. Working with fiber really allowed me to believe that I was an artist, to possess that word "artist" to build my confidence in my subject matter, my story, etc.  It has led me back to here with the same eyes but a different mind. And I cannot wait to see what happens.

(the top image is a quick image taken with my phone, similar composition of a negative I shot. But it was shocking to see what a difference I got with the control of my lens, aperture, depth of field, square format etc... I cannot wait to see the negative and eventual print. Though it will be a longtime coming as the process is a longtime coming.  It should not have been shocking but when you let your tools gather dust you can forget what they do.)

Artist Talk this Thursday

 

 

Come hear me talk at the Uforge Gallery this Thursday at 7pm.

Get all the details here.

"marker"

some more sewing on skin. but this project I, without a doubt, love.  Spanish artist David Cata has an ongoing series called under the skin.  In this project he sews portraits of loved ones onto his hand documenting it through photography and video.

The idea behind the project is that these are the people that have "marked" him and are "interwoven" into his life.  The reverence and honoring of others is quite potetic and lovely. He also included his "unsewn" hand in the work so you can see the lack of volence in his act and instead the VERY careful attention.

 a variation on the project.

All of his work is lovely and all about the connections we have to others. His paintings and sculptures are no less wonderful then this project.

However his website is SOOOOO slow and might drive you mad.

engh

So this week has been a weird one in the studio. Monday I pulled out those drawings out of nowhere but since then have felt uninspired. I am not feeling bad about it as I officially gave myself February off from pressure. But it always makes me nervous when I am feeling "engh" in the studio.

I am actually really wanting to do some text work but struggling with what that means. I want words and language but do not necessarily have anything to say. Perplexing.

I also need to apply to all kinds of things but feel a little like what is the point? I show my work, its great and then we just go on a great big repeat. I feel like I want to take a risk or do something unexpected but also wonder what the hell that means.

anyway that's the scoop today. 
I am really hoping to feel a little more enthused soon.

holy warm and hopefully wonderful

I have spent all my weekend and now all my money so I can take a little trip all BY MYSELF. I am not sure how this happened but I have a vacation week that I need to use and I am dying from the terribly cold and snowy winter here in New England. C did not want or have the vaca days to go anywhere and walla...

I am going to Miami, Fl for 3 nights 4 days all by myself, no kid, no job, no husband. Just me. I am kind of freaking out. I have not done something like this in AGES or maybe never as yoga things are not all by yourself. I am ecstatic and nervous.

But I already have a plan. Sleep in, sip coffee, eat fruit, do yoga, drive to beach, sit and walk on beach, eat dinner somewhere lovely and local, drive home, read, sleep, repeat, repeat. WOW.

I might just become an all new person.

(that is where I am staying on a river with manatees, working fruit farm with chickens and a potbelly pig, surrounded bu a nature preserve. Holy Shit!)

artist's malaise

words from Paul Dorell shared with me by a fellow artist:

...I mean look at what you’re up against: when you’re unknown, no one wants your work; for years you’ll struggle to emerge from the amateur level, then even after you become a master, society will be largely indifferent to whatever you create; you’ll have to surmount enormous odds to make even a modest income from your art; you can’t walk away from it because it won’t let you; you have to create, even if it kills you; and the whole time you’re trying to present this gift of wonder to the world, the world doesn’t hear you because it, for the most part, doesn’t speak that language.

Who wouldn’t be depressed? But take heart.

Consider how fortunate you are to have your vision, and to be able to act on it, when many people  don’t even know the deeper meaning of vision. That is nothing to be depressed about. That is cause for celebration.

image found we heart it.

hooky?

  

my studio day earlier this week I was dazed and confused but it ended up resulting in 3 drawings for new pieces that I am super excited about!!!

So today I really just want to play hooky and laze around doing nothing. Ignoring my intentions to get resumes and applications out. And maybe that is exactly what I will do.  But I really hope that I have some perfect creative moments somewhere in there too.

"stem cells of chinese landscapes"

a one minute clip of artist Liu Dan speaking about his love and interest in rocks. (the artist who did the dictionary piece that I discussed in an early post.)

ink art

One of the shows that I had wanted to write about from my trip to the city last month was Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China at the Met. I generally never go to the Met and when I lived in NYC literally only went when I had guests in town. But since it was only like 5 degrees the entire time I was in NYC walking around Chelsea was just NOT an option so after I visited the Guggenheim I decided to walk around the MET (they are only a block from one another so less walking in the cold sounded like a very good idea.)

Printing on Water, Song Dong

I am so glad that circumstance pushed this to occur because as a result I ended up seeing Ink Art. The curator of this exhibit did an exceptional job showcasing contemporary artists working from or in homage to this ancient Chinese art form. In general the show had exciting interesting work all with a very contemporary voice but simultaneously deeply rooted in tradition.  

The entire exhibit is wonderful but 2 pieces just blew me away. One being a large scale hyper detailed water color painting of a family Dictionary by Liu Dan. 

 

The detail, labor and skill of this piece was nothing short of phenomenal. A seemingly insignificant object but actually a book of language and its meaning- therefore a profound statement on the power of language and perhaps the desire to be free with it.

The other work was a work that I am confident many people walk by with little attention paid,  0669 by Li Huesheng, it made me want to cry.  The artist was a much more traditional ink painter for many years and is renowned in his native country but made an abrupt change to abstraction about 15 years ago. This piece consisted of 4 very long hanging scrolls with hand drawn grids. The scrolls were of a pretty normal width but hung from ceiling to floor in the gallery. They were simply put a hand drawn very tight grid.

But in reality so much more - they were the recording of ones breaths, thoughts, meditations and life. They are incredibly beautiful as you see both the devotion and dedication to the labor of the project and the technique while simultaneously seeing the waiver of ones hand, the movement of the human being behind the work. I literally looked at them for like a half hour and had to tear myself away The experience of these drawings cannot be relayed in words or images but only via the experience of standing in front of them and looking. They were nothing short of great art. 

The show is up for another few months. Go see it.

You can see all the works in the show on the Mets website. 

plants hung.

more pictures then you need but here ya go...

  

 

 

 

 

 

intervention and color

I am totally in love with the work by Emma Blackburn that Mr. X stitch recently posted about. Her use of old worn out cloth, thick embroidered text and dye and color all equals beautiful and poetic work.

Here work is generally some time of "intervention" with museum collections.

I have been really thinking about exploring dying some of my work but it is such a scary move but this work makes me want to take the risk, the color in her work is amazing.

Read the Mr. X post here.

all the plants need water opening.

 

 

the work.

 

 

the crowd.

 

 

the artist.

empty studio

So now I am in that funny place. What to do now. My work is all finished. Essentially I have nothing in process (not quite but pretty much,) my studio is cleaned, my show is hung and I am in a big now what?

I do have a drawing idea to start on and have a potential piece to stitch but am not yet convinced that I want to do it.  I was very happy with how the work plants hung turned out. The white on white looked really beautiful so I know it is a direction I want to go in but I am just not sure exactly how and what is next.

I did shoot my first roll of film in almost 3 years last week. Terrifying and exhilarating to hear the sound of my 120 shutter go ca chunk. But who knows if the negatives will be interesting in even the slightest.

Openings and shows are so strange. We are so exhilarated and stressed before them, the opening happens which is always a totally wonderful event but also always totally anti-climactic  and then we come back to our empty studios wondering what the hell is next? Artist such a strange thing to be.