brought to you by a mama artist moment...

I have one of those silly mom/artist moments that truly sort of made my week/month and so on... so why not share. 2 things to know....

1. My son is a super creative kid that loves art and drawing.

2. I am obsessed with Sally Mann and am reading her new biography Hold Still.

So when T came in this Sunday morning to tell me that "there was a mommy daddy book on the black chair."  I say "thats mama's book"  T says " I was looking at it"  I say "ok. you can look at it that's fine. Just be careful with it."

Go back to sleep for an hour.

Wake-up.  "what ya doing?"

t: Mama I am drawing this little girl. I like this picture

And I look. He is drawing Virginia from the image in the book.

me: Oh that's Virginia and on the other page that's an image of Emmett. Those are the kiddos of the photographer.

t: Why are they naked?

me: They live on a big farm in the middle of Virginia.  They have a big area to swim and a cliff that overlooks it. No one is around for a long time. If we had a place like that you and me would be swimming naked too.  

t: Ok.

Proceeds to draw the farm, water and cliff.
Then draws Emmett.

My mama artist heart was exploding with love, pride and artistic joy.

first post...

That comment I made yesterday made me curious so here is the very first post I ever wrote...going on 8 years ago.  I am simultaneously embarrassed and envious of how un-self-conscious it is... Also kind of amazed by the similarities between the studio walls then and now and so recognize the voice of that artist that I was.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

ok, so i am finally doing it. Starting a blog.
everybody has been telling me to do it. So here goes.

I am all alone this week. No Hubby ( aka C).
And I left my phone in nyc so I cannot even call him or my mom for company.
Lame.

I would think it would be easier to be by myself for 5 days.
Let me tell you it sucks.
I cannot wait to be done with my thesis so I am in the city full time and say goodbye to this lonely little
apartment with no furniture in massachusetts for good.

So here is the lowdown. I am an artist, I am in my last year of graduate school.
I live 3 days a week where I go to school in Massachusetts and live the rest of the time in Brooklyn with my husband, he is a cutie, and the most adorable fabulous 3 cats in the world, and a fish. I would rather be in Brooklyn pretty much all the time but alas I must finish what I started.

These are some images of my studio earlier this week.
But it is already old news. I have rearranged everything and will have to update.
I am trying to figure out how to group stuff so....I rearrange always.

movement

 I remember when I use to write here everyday. I remember how wonderful that was. 


As maybe some of you have noticed it has been very quiet here. I have written a few times about the struggle of what this blog is to me right now or needs to be and my attempt towards understanding that and how it needs to change.

I considered "officially" closing the blog as I have seen so many people do over the last year. But that just seemed wrong. Then I questioned what is it? This blog? It started as an experiment and in reality an online sort of diary.  A confessional writing exercise that made sense with my art practice.  Then it became a "journal" more about critical writing, thoughts and work of talented fiber artists...I began to be afraid or timid about sharing my own personal journey- how was it to live up to all of this amazing art and amazing artists that I was writing about? It became more about them and less about me.

It opened up doors and provided opportunities.

Then my life changed... so much.

Child born, life moved and uprooted, full time job came back, marriage struggled....

As my statement says   "the autobiographical drives the work and is necessary for it to exist" so as my life dramatically shifted into the realm of a working mother with a broken relationship my work and needs as an artist shifted.  My time and energy was splintered, my art work struggling. The last thing I wanted to do was look at talented artists and write about them. So then what was the purpose of this place. Everyone came here to read about these other artists? And why did that cripple me so much?

In these last few weeks I have really yearned for this place again.  This dialogue which in reality is mostly with myself. This blog has always been for me, my personal journey, for me to archive artists, for me to make community, for me to share my work, my practice, my thoughts. When I started it literally no one except my mom was reading it and I still got up everyday and wrote. Makes me want to revise those first weeks of blogging...

I have no idea what this blog is anymore, but I do know it still has breath in it. So maybe what to expect:

I will be honest I am still not very interested in writing about other artists. Just revisiting the ones that constantly inspire me; Sally Mann, Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Annette Messeger, etc.

I am mostly not doing fiber right now and it feels really good.

I am drawing with pencil, shooting with a digital camera, and have no idea where I am going but know that I am moving.

And movement feels good.