traveling studio...

We are in for a blistering week of heat here in Brooklyn and that means my studio will be an oven as we are flooded with sunlight all day. So I may be doing my work at home or on a blanket in the park perhaps. But I am consistently making progress on the above piece and am really loving the composition.
I like how since the figures are large but the linen is narrow that the bodies are cropped very interestingly. I might have to play more with this more in the future. It has been great to work on these red thread pieces as they have had so much more simplicity than the sleepers pieces but they are also making me excited and invigorated to get back to working on those pieces and all of their 3 dimension...

and I have an exciting new text project in the work I just have to find the right linens to create them on.

I want to get at least one more red thread work done, in addition to finishing the above work, for the exhibit in August and have a few other pieces to work on for that show. Time is of the essence for sure.

summertime

Not fiber but I love these paintings by Nina Nolte too much to not mention them here.


I mean do they make you think of summer of what?

I want to be cool enough to wear a turban.

Her use of color, flat areas, and composition is awesome and in reality they would kind of make awesome quilted works.

See much more here.

as oasis.

I spent all day yesterday settling back into home. Getting caught up, unpacked, and much more. And it feels good to be home, while I was away I was thinking about all the things that I miss out on by having a NYC lifestyle but as soon as I saw the skyline off in the distance I was flooded with happiness towards all the things that I get from living a NYC life.
It has been lovely here the last few days and T and I have been soaking in Brooklyn life.

I always love that often when I go somewhere I totally enjoy myself and my experience but more often then not it also confirms that the life that I have chosen is the right one- leaving me even happier to be where I am.


BetterFarm was an oasis of grass, bird song, space, and wonderful community and I am so grateful of the experience I had there and even more grateful to know their door is always open to me and creative folks. I hope to grace their barn and the supper table again.
But here too in my little life in Brooklyn I have my oasis of my family, my friends. my studio, and my bed. So I guess you can make an oasis anywhere.

Playing with Fiber.

Last chance to sign up for my class that begins this Wednesday at the Textile Art Center.

Playing with Fiber
Wed 6:30-9:30PM, June 8 - June 29

Celebrate fiber and all of its wonderful facets through this 4-session class where instead of focusing on an end product we focus on how taking risks and giving ourselves the freedom to "just play" opens up possibilities in our creative practice.

Each week we will focus on something a little different including:

-Needle point stitches and learning about how far we can push them or how we can combine them to make unique and fun textures or apply them to unexpected objects- these textures can become a signature look or a canvas to build with. - Applique and how we can use found fabrics and objects to create dimensional collages through the most basic technique of attachment. Learn to take risks and do the unexpected. And how we can make anything work with fiber. - Yarn and its many uses through crochet and knitting sculpturally - Liquid- Play with painting fiber, watering it down, using stains like coffee and tea and combining this with other techniques to create truly layered pieces of art. Allow the natural tendency of the fabric to bleed to be a gift instead of a burden. This class is all about having fun, pushing technique, and letting yourself think outside of the box. Students are strongly encouraged to bring materials to class such as found object, found fabrics, text, small items, buttons, whatever inspire you!

Register here or

For more info or to sign up contact the center at info@textileartscenter or (718) 369- 0222.


My class decorative stitches also begins this weekend.

the stain is beautiful

Artist friend Orly Cogan recently mentioned the artist Kate Kretz in a recent correspondance and I am so glad she did. Her work is gorgeous and simple but packs a powerful gut punch of emotion. Just my style.

Detail of pillowcase piece.

Many of her works are done with human hair, a feat of patience I just cannot imagine.

images from Art World Truths series.

Her work seems to conceptually vary quite a bit from being about the art world and its commodification, the body, motherhood, the voice, our everyday landscape and more. But something that ties all the work together is its fierce honesty and the fact that it seems incredibly personal.


This is her statement...

One of the functions of art is to strip us bare, reminding us of the fragility common to every human being across continents and centuries. Often, I will meet someone, and the visible weight of his or her life becomes almost unbearable to me, it rips me open. The objects that I make are an attempt to articulate this feeling.

I give birth to the tactile as I am swallowed by the virtual. I obsess over craft as our world becomes disposable. I wield emotion in its messiness because it's uncool. I work until my hands shake, because the world does not care.

I am banging my head against the wall, but the stain is beautiful.

WOW.

I really love her use of language.

Detail of drawing.

Her work is diverse from painting, drawing, to thread and worth seeing more of. Check it out here and here.

sun dried...

I have so enjoyed my time here at the Better Farm and am happy with the amount of work that I gotten done, though I would have loved to have gotten more done of course. But I finished a red work, a text work, got a new red work well on its way, and 4 new drawings done.


And... I swam, I boat rid, I saw baby birds, heard coyotes, met amazing people, took time to be with my son, saw incredible scenery and one of my favorite things... dried my laundry in the sun.

The process and idea of drying laundry in the sun is simply wonderful. I feel like in a strange way it is much like embroidery, slow, quiet, contemplative, and connects to so many women and lives of the past.


I loved seeing my clothes drying with t's and it would have been a complete family portrait if C's clothes were up there with us. Seeing their colors and textures flutter in the wind. T at my feet as I slowly hung each item one at a time, breathing in the air. Then gathering them up in a pile warm and clean. Simple things like this is what I miss out on in NYC. Simple things like this can be so lovely.

Check out my interview with Play artist Daniaelle Simonsen over at Mr. X Stitch.
Read it here.

productive

Yesterday ended up being surprisingly productive. I made progress on the current red work I am working on,


met 2 new arrivals at the farm, made a communal dinner (with a little help from some folks) then headed out to the barn and got some new drawings done.

an image with 2 drawings of C and T overlapping. I am feeling good about this one.

The large wall and darkness is great. I am trying to get as many done as I can to take home with me. I have a new project in mind and wish that I had printed out those images so I could do those drawings now too - as they are big.

This is a large table cloth that I am doing multiple scenes from t's birth on. It is really about touch. In all of the drawings C is touching me in a very loving, supportive, and intimate way. It is a bit of an experiment in having little vignettes on the same piece of linen but I feel like for this piece it will work. I may end up adding more of the "aqua" work to connect the vignettes to the decorative work to. It will be interesting to see it evolve.

center image

my favorite drawing.

I am realizing how much I will miss this simple life. If C was here I could seriously stay all summer. No pressure, no hub bub. Long term I would get bored but it does remind me how I need to end up somewhere with a little more earth.
And I am totally surprised at how ok it has been to live communally. I thought it would be a struggle for me but it is pretty good.

oh the light here is inspiring the photographer in me.

In all truth Massachusetts- you are calling me home... if only it were as simple as saying that.
But being here does remind me of how easily out of balance NYC can make you and how for the long term of my life I am not so sure that is what I want.

yesterday....

I finished a text piece....


and started a new piece.

And today I will sit on the porch as long as the babe naps and stitch, stitch, stitch away.
And I am feeling having my solo show done for late July is actually going to happen now.
Woo.

Some Good Art Happenings...

Sweet & Savory opens tonight: 6 - 8 pm

at Pavel Zoubok Gallery.
533 West 23 rd Street. Between 10th and 11th Ave.



The press release states:

SWEET & SAVORY brings together a diverse group of works that examine our complicated and multi-layered relationship to food. Using a broad range of materials, each of these artists points to our cultural obsessions with food as: aesthetic object, social signifier, a vehicle of memory, or an icon of comfort and indulgence.

and



Alisha Mccurdy has a new solo exhibit also opening this week:


Wednesday, June 1st will mark the opening of a solo exhibition of new work by Alisha Mccurdy, in the seams, curated by Stony Brook MFA alumna, Kristine Granger, at Oasis Gallery, in Marquette, Michigan.
An opening reception will take place Friday June 3rd, 7-9p and an artist talk on Sunday June 5th, beginning at 3pm. The show runs through July 2nd.

Go see some art.