lovely

I am loving this work... I am feeling a desire to make some drawings of tears in fabric and wholes and this simple drawing work is totally inspiring me.

 

Work by Sandra Allen 

 

See more here.

studio day..

cannot wait to get here in about an hour....

Oh, I hope it is a good studio day.

new colleague...more voice work.

I also did feel totally proud to be accepted into the Kingston Gallery when I saw the work of the other artist also accepted. I am just going to say WOWZA...

Her name is Christina Pitsch and I really love her new work, her palate and her materiality.

attempting to re-find my sharing voice and a backyard

So as you all know I use to share a lot of other artists work here and I have really struggled with that element of the blog in the last year or so.  Mainly I just do not want to write about other work right now.  Maybe because I am at such a state of flux an unknown in my work I need to preserve those thoughts and words or maybe its just because my time is so precious in my studio.  But I have realized that I am still looking and being inspired by other artists all the time.  And I can post them without writing about them so... I am going to attempt to do this more.  So...

Here is work from one of the other members of the Kingston Gallery, Mary Lang, It is older work but due to its style and subject matter you can see why I am enjoying it right now.  It is from the series called True stories in the back yard and next month you can see her new work at the Gallery. I will miss the opening as I will be giving a talk that weekend on Cape Cod but I will definitely not miss seeing the work.

a new stage in this artists life.

I am very excited, overwhelmed and delighted to say that I have been accepted into a prestigious collective gallery here in Boston, the Kingston Gallery. It has been around for something like 25 years and is a gallery in which it is artist run and owned.  I will be totally honest I do not really know what I think about this as a model.  But I do know that when I gallery hop I really admire the work they show, they have a beautiful space in one of the major gallery areas of Boston and they have a community of smart artists. 

I had thought about applying before and had not. I had thought about applying this year and was unsure and then I was chatting with my studio mate and it came up. I thought ya know I really should do it. Then I saw that THAT day was the deadline so I spent the rest of my day getting all the application materials together and then much to my unprepared shock I found out I was accepted just a few short weeks later. So...

I feel really good about it, Still processing it but due to the fact that they have monthly meetings and exhibits I feel like the very best thing will be that I find a community of talented and DRIVEN artists to share my thoughts, work and passion with.  I really hope that this is indeed what I get.  Not to mention a solo show or 2 at a beautiful gallery in my community.  So... I thought it was time to share this good news with all of you.

Just one of the many crazy things going on in my overbooked crazy life.

a place I need to be more and am heading to now...

teach. demo, email, write, get organized, repeat...

Where have I been? I ask that of myself too- but I have been busy with lots of good things.
I taught a full class Sunday and did a demo on mostly cyanotype with fabric yesterday. Both of which I felt really good about.

Got an email about a potential show, a potential talk and a gallery like thing. I also had to get all the promo stuff done for Squam Workshops since I  am teaching a new class in the Spring and then ya know life.

The demo yesterday went great and I was pretty nervous about it as the layout and environment was not an ideal situation for cyanotype but considering all tha-t the examples all turned out pretty good.  I keep trying to figure out how to start to work these 2 practices together, cyano and stitch, for a real series in my studio and have yet to come up with a solid conceptually developed idea...

but this made me want it even more The space of the Concord Art Association was really lovely and I look forward to teaching a workshop there later this month.  You can sign up for it still here.

 

The Sunday class was great but generally my classes at the Eliot School are - they simply pull in incredible students and are a pleasure to work with. I have an actual cyanotype and stitch workshop with them in November (it might be full but I think there are a few slots left)  so go sign up for that too.

But the lesson from having my picture taken twice without warning this week is that I need to comb my freakin hair better, ACK... I mean I am truly the frazzled art girl but that hair is crazy!

other little things

 

I finally got my drawings and paper work into the new studio and therefore was able to make some progress on my hand cut mended piece. It is trucking along and not all that far from being finished- but yet still farther then I'd like.

 

a speaking linen, she says " I am being smothered by your expectations."

"and my own."

It is so good to have a studio again and I have to build my 8 hour day energy back up! 

recently in the studio

 

I have made good progress on this piece and after washing some of the drawing away had an awesome thought....

 

 

These little ballerinas are original to the linen. I recently renamed the toy series "boy" as it is truly about a son as opposed to a child...and this linen was found for me by my dad... It seemed right to make this work more overtly about gender and the expectations that exist in how we deal with and "train" our children....

So I am going to add more ballerinas.   They will be piled up in the dump truck bed and perhaps piled up near the bulldozer. I feel excited about this addition and think it gives the work a bit more depth.

  

  

But I have to finish the initial stitch first and then I will add them. So stitch, stitch, stitch we go.

Look who's awesome class got a shout out here.