beautiful lines...

I just got reminded of the amazing artist Joan Linder recently.
And oh how beautiful her work is. Most of her drawings are done with ball point ink pen which gives them a lovely quality, especially since she chooses to stay monochromatically within each piece.
Most the drawings are quite large scale and so the texture and flaws of the ink really come out, which just enhances the beauty of her images and lines. This series, Trees, is my favorite.




From her new series Mother.
Hopefully her next show at my favorite gallery, Mixed Greens, shows some.
The simplicity of the everyday tools of the mother.


Trussed, which I did see in person, is amazing in how she uses the negative space of the implied human form.

and some other works...

studio and stuff.

what's going on in my studio you ask?
Well the exciting news is that I just sold 2 pieces, they are being custom made but inspired by the sentiments piece.

I love making custom work as I get to be inspired by others stories a bit more. Not only is it exciting that I sold them but they are being made as a gift for someone who seems like an amazing lady and the women who purchased them saw my work months ago and it stuck with her.
To me as an artist, when someone is still moved by your work well after they have seen it you just know that you are on the right path.

Otherwise, I definitely have to do a sit down and send out applications for shows again. Such tedious work... but the only way to get out there as an emerging artist. So I am trying to find the carve out the time to do this.


My work is going great. I have started 2 new pieces and am getting toward the home stretch of 2 others. So slowly but surely things are getting worked on. Maybe some will even be finished soon. (the above piece is probably about 50% more finished and I am almost ready for the appliqued part)

The show in New Orleans also got listed in about 3 papers. So that is always great.

What's happening with you?

So ready

I am so ready for the weekend.
I don't know about you but this week has been a crazy roller coaster.
A weekend full of getting caught up on the chores around the house, sleeping in, and glasses of wine.
So ready.

Exciting evening...

I have some exciting evening plans, just joking but hopefully it will be informative.
I am heading over to informational session about the ReGrant and the NYFA Artist Fellowships.
So essentially I am trying to get some money for my art!!!
Hopefully they are ok.
Uh, hum I mean exciting.

the beauty of the banal.

Photographer Ed Paneer, who I became aware of through here,
has a way with banality.
And I love beautiful banality in an image.




He approaches the super banal of detritus and urban suburbia
with a flair for mystery.



Yet I do think his website and therefore, I am assuming his work, could benefit from some major editing.
His bodies of work seem to lack a cohesion and often the quality of the images are inconsistent.
Perhaps a side affect of the digital camera. shoot, shoot, shoot.


Still an interesting artist with the banal and the simple. My 2 favorite subjects in photography.

my day has been...

so crazy.
I had so much going on I barely had time to breathe.
For example I literally changed my clothes 4 times, in 4 different bathrooms of Manhattan.


so pardon my lac of energy for posting.
See ya tomorrow.

desperately seeking

simplicity.

my funny friend:

today I link to:
my friend Mollie
who is appearing tonight at Caroline's in NYC so you all should go.
I mean you can fly up easy.
She actually appears at Caroline's somewhat regularly and is great, in a unabashed self deprecating way.

So come laugh, play, drink, laugh again.


and you can check out her playful and great drawings at her very well developed website
or her hilarious blog.
Laugh it makes us live longer!

Seeing an iconic symbol of feminism.

This weekend I went to the Brooklyn Museum, a undervalued NY museum.
And I finally saw the huge and permanent installation of Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party.
and...
well, it was amazing.

It was so big, and the gallery built for it was gorgeous.
and...
oh! the embroidery techniques on the panels were so unique, amazing, different, 3-dimensional, and so inspiring.


I have been meaning to teach myself more diverse embroidery and stitching techniques.
And now I pretty much have to- as these were just stunning.
The 3-dimensionality made ideas explode in my head.



I did not expect to enjoy it so much, after all the image is so ingrained in most any contemporary artist's head but...

it was so amazing to think of all the women with such skill and such amazing hands making this important piece, it was definitely worth it!

subtley inspired:

The special exhibition was artist Ghada Amer, Love Has no End and it inspired- but the inspiration was more subtle:
The inspiration found did not blow me away, but I feel like it seeped into me and is still spreading its wings.

Amer's work texturally and visually is very beautiful and seductive...she does her "paintings" with what she calls "thread drips."


And the signature thread drips really make the work have a stunning visual technique.
Yet, I still have mixed feelings about her concept.
I understand what she is trying to do with the re-appropriation of the pornographic image but am not sure if I totally buy it.


In my opinion her concept works best when she puts the pornographic images with images of over-sexualized Disney cartoon characters, such as Belle from Beauty and the Beast or Ariel...
For me this works more successfully as a critique. (thought the above image was far from my favorite of that series)


I was less familiar with her work that uses text but I found it very interesting...
like I said not blown away but the show definitely had me coming up with new ideas and techniques as I saw how she creates/designs her work.

The above work titled Barbie loves Ken/ Ken loves Barbie was one of my favorites. With the simple repetition of those 2 phrases on these 2 life size forms... I heard something more.

Amer's work is described:

Viewing Amer's hand-embroidered paintings, with their delicate traceries of stray threads, involves a visual shift, as what appears to be a mass of abstract lines gradually comes into focus as highly erotic figures, displayed in a repetitive pattern. The work refuses to bow to the puritanical elements of both Western and Islamic culture, and what could be called €œinstitutionalized feminism," with its own persistent myth of feminine virtue.

What do you think of her work? Concept? Statement?