wall paper world.

I was intrigued by the work of Rain Harris because of her installation Americana and how it reminded me of the direction my friend Crystal Gregory's work is headed.

a detail of Crystal's recent installation.

I loved her interpretation of wall paper through rigid materials and the combination of the lace work and the woods themed pattern.


She says this about her work:

My ideas are spurred by an analytical interest in the ironies associated with excess and class, which become interpreted visually through color, pattern and decoration. I freely borrow stylistic embellishments and motifs from the decorative arts and combine incongruous elements to create work that pushes decorative eclecticism to a point of excessive overindulgence. This allows the work to transcend itself, re-compose itself and find a new coherence

I look to the contradictions that reside between the tasteful and the tawdry and I create arguably elegant objects and installations that oscillate between good and bad taste. I ask if an ugly object be in “good taste?” Also, can a beautiful object also be a tasteless object? Frequently, I integrate lowbrow materials into my work to create “refined” work that teeters on the edge of ironic gaudiness. At other times I incorporate jarring color combinations and allow the work to indulge itself and brazenly flaunt it tastelessness.

Rain references wall paper in a few of her works and I always love that. I have used wall paper in some of my older works an have been itching to do it again and Rain's work inspired me to even more.


She also makes some gorgeous porcelain works. I like this piece as it seems to reference a plant nut in this uber feminine way. I am planning on making some fiber plants for the installation of my solo show next spring. I have been "planning" on making house plants for like 4 years now but for this upcoming solo show it finally makes sense so I am going to do it, darn it!!

Any way see more of Rain's lovely work here.

8 months, is over.

Finally I am happy with the piece, 8 months. I know you all are probably totally sick of it but this piece has put me through the ringer. With disasters to indecision and all the stuff in between.
I thought I finished it before I went out of town but as I was reviewing it to apply for an exhibit I realized that it was indeed not.
After showing the images to my mom, who is always SO helpful when I am stuck as she knows me and my brain so well, we decided the red needed to go. (see with red here and half red here.)
I also felt the figure looked washed out so added a light wash of paint....

and I am finally ready to say DONE. What do you think? Did I make the right call?

I have invited to be in a figurative show and am sort of hoping they decide on this piece but there are many for them to pick from so we will see.

the community of the home.

I love this installation by Albanian artist Anila Rubiku. As any one who read my blog knows I love the home as subject. To me it is so rich with meaning and so fraught with tension. So Anila's work is quite perfect for me.


In a press release about this piece it was stated:

These visions make the viewer feel protected, welcome him-her to a safe haven, to the temple of domestic peace. The notion of “home” is the core of the art practice of this Albanian artist who through the art of embroidery evokes the bond with her roots, with those handicraft practices she has been familiar during her adolescence and here used once again with superb mastery and patience. Working on the borderline between art and design which is fast dissipating, these precious domestic objects express the fragility and the poetic feeling conveyed by the most intense personal and collective memories.

She often creates groupings of multiples some of which are hand made by her and personal in nature...

While other works are built by many hands through community. A number of her projects have involved the act of making within the gallery/space as performance and then what has been made is gorgeously and minimally shared after.


I have always wanted to build more community into my work and have never known how but her minimal and very professional displays of the community based work has me totally inspired and my wheels turning. Of course at the moment I should probably turn my wheels off but....


Not to mention that she draws gorgeously and this one of my favorite object in the universe needs to be in my home. Maybe someday.


See more images of her work here.

summer days turning into...

Louise-Adéone Drolling’s “Interior with Young Woman Tracing a Flower."

I spent most of the day in my studio. Which was so perfectly wonderful. The biggest frustration right now is finding the time and energy for my work, as any of you with kids know it can be, shall we say "difficult." I want to be making my work and progressing but equally as much I want to be enjoying and savoring the moment my child is in.

So indeed I treasure my one day alone in the studio for a few hours each week and am glad that it will become 2 hours longer as we settle into fall. But none the less it is not enough. I am always pleasantly surprised by what I can get done in those focused hours but am also never able to be where I want to be.

To me autumn is a time for change as we head out of the lazy days of summer and into the hibernation of winter I always look at it as an opportunity to look at my life and re-evaluate things. Kind of like going back to school was always a form of new beginning.

So I am looking at my daily routine, my schedule, my priorities, and well- that is what I am doing "looking."
I am hoping to prioritize the impt. things and let go of the not so impt... until then I will just keep making when I can.

pins and thread.

Pretty much all I have to say right now is... umm awesome! This is the work of Debbie Smyth.


Her newest installation is Fly away home and was created for the Stroud International Textile Festival.


I love her playfullness.


Her ability to work from very small scale to large scale is awesome.
Her style of illustration is just my taste narrative but simple, messy but controlled. Like I said "awesome."
Here are some details of the work...


See more here and follow her work on her blog here.

autobiography

Did you see my post about working autobiographically over here.
It was super fun to write actually. Maybe I need to tap into that a little more again.

space.

vintage photo.

sometimes what you really need is a little space.

As you can imagine that is often hard to get living in NYC. I mean the reality is that I live in 650 sq. ft with 2 other humans, 2 large cats, and MANY plants. So space is not familiar to me. In order to get space you really just find it in your head.
So being here in Asheville in my parents spacious home, practically living on their spacious porch, looking out at their tree-filled view has been a much needed exercise of space. In ways I feel like I should be taking advantage of the free baby sitting and get to work but in other ways I just want to soak in the space.
And as any of you who are artists know often space from your work is when things really happen. I did work a little yesterday and it felt great but what felt better was to have some clear thoughts about my work- a vision for an upcoming show, some clarity about a piece that I have struggled with, and an acknowledgment of myself.
So maybe sometimes walking away from our work for brief moment can be the best way to be an artist.

fur and skin.

I have known about the work of Stephanie Metz since we shared the pages of the Fiber Arts Intn'l Catalogue, but most of the work I had seen was of her felted animal sculptures. Though I find these works powerful and her blur(ing of) the line between art and science, natural and unnatural, organic and man-made fascinating. My interest in her work remained on a intellectual level.


However her new series of works titled pelts is an entirely different story. Her appropriation of familiar and nostalgic, often feminine, clothing and morphing them into hair and "fur" is a powerful illustration of the animal nature within us all. It makes us question where does our animal self and are humanity merge and diverge.

She says this about the work:

The ‘Pelt’ sculptures, my newest body of work, reference a jarring truth that struck when I first became a parent. My infant had basic needs and desires that elicited in me physical and emotional responses of astounding intensity. The drive to care for, feed, and protect my young felt deeply personal and yet common throughout the animal kingdom. The messy, uncontrollable, and immensely satisfying elements of being a mother brought home to me that for all my education, tool use, and language, I am essentially a mammal.

One physical hallmark of being a mammal is possessing hair—something humans routinely try to shape, deny, remove, and contain that persists nonetheless. In this work I combine found clothing items that carry their own layers of meaning with hair that intrudes on and reshapes them as a reassertion of the closeted mammal inside. Acknowledging our mammalian roots places humankind back among - not above - other animals.

Her statement shows how this work is so much more personal and for me so much more powerful, and her words are quite honest. I love this new work.


I also am quite attracted to her new series of abstractions- intended to be an extension of her over bred animal series where they represent the warmth and softness desired but without mouth or regular internal organs remain only as an object of aesthetics. I myself want to, in a way, crawl inside of them.


See more of her work here.

time is running out.....

Class is filling up and time is starting to run out....sign up for Autobiographical Embroidery with me at the Brooklyn Textile Arts Center.

Autobiographical Embroidery with Joetta Maue - Glean from daily observation to create a one of a kind personal artwork by creating a visual "diary sampler" of embroidery stitches, incorporating abstraction and pattern or confessional writing and images. The "diary" of stitches will be explored as a daily act and observation. We will discuss the creative use of diaristic writing and daily life documentation, while looking at examples of contemporary fiber artists and learning traditional stitches.

Sign up here. Class runs Monday evenings starting September 11.

Future Heirlooms

Check out my interview with artist Rachel Selekman over at the Mr. Her work is totally gorgeous and unique and the interview is awesome!!

I love doing these interviews as I get to glean from the amazing way other artists use words and that just helps me as an artist speak about my own work.