hopeful...

I finished this over the weekend, it happened very suddenly. I was working slowly, quietly, and then all of a sudden I looked down and I was done. It still needs washed, ironed, and properly photographed but it is done.
I am happy with it.
As I said before I started this quite a while ago maybe in the spring... then I got distracted by my solo show this summer, then I felt ambiguous about some color choices and the work in general...but with my upcoming solo show it felt like it would really fit in and so done.

The thing about the upcoming show is that I want it to be about the moment in a relationship where you feel disconnected - like 2 ships passing or maybe even 2 ships violently crashing- but I also want it to allude to how you get through it, that you can get through it, that reconnection can occur. So along with some of the heavier emotional pieces I also want pieces that have hope and love in them. This piece felt like it could be one of those?

I have decided to no longer sell my larger works on etsy. I just feel that at this point in my career it is no longer an appropriate venue for that work. I have come to this decision grudgingly as I have sold a few larger works this way which is awesome for me as an artist and the state of my checking account. But I know this is the best decision for my career.
So if you have had your eye on one, I will leave the works up until the end of the week. You can get 15 % off if you message me.

I will continue to sell the small text based works this way and you can always contact me about purchasing other works.

woven, dangling piles

The artwork of Canadian artist Libby Hague. She considers her work print installations. I consider it lovely.


She has no one statment on her website but you can explore each installation if you choose. Her website is frustrating to navigate and I so wish you could expand the images to see them better. But it gives you a taste of her extending installations made of mostly paper.


I like the tension between whimsical and happy to decaying and fragile.



See more here.

permission to sit.

I did not actually get that much stitching done yesterday but I did get reminded that sometimes it is ok to just sit and do nothing.
I fiddled in my studio for an hour or so and then I just sat there. I remember when I was in graduate school and before T doing a lot of that, just sitting. Actually a moment of just sitting led me to make my first image based embroidery. With the luxury of being in my studio full time I had plenty of time to just sit and look, peruse my books, flip through old notebooks, or just gaze out the window. Now because each day the hours in my studio are so precious I feel like I always must be working, stitching, active at my work. But sometimes exactly what you need is to NOT be active to just be with your work, in your space. Sit.


The above are my newest piece to get started. The images are smaller than life size, maybe the male is 3.5-4 ft in height here. Both figures are on the same linen but with significant negative space between them. They will be stitched in black and grays. Not sure if a pop of color or something will be added. I LOVE his feet and legs, maybe because it is such a regular posture of my always reading husband. But in some ways I want to do a large piece of just that. Hopefully I will start stitching on it soon.

recharge

I think I need a day of simply stitching. With so many projects and all the effort I have been putting towards meeting people and creating community here, and the fact that I had my nose in my book all weekend and got nothing done. I feel an itch to just stitch NOTHING else.

Let go of my brain, the various pressures of things, the list of applications and research, applications to teach, the questions floating around... Instead jump into my work.

I have so much more to say, but not the energy. So instead I will re charge with a hoop in my lap.

I forgot to post this Friday so if you missed it read my interview with Rebecca Ringquist here over at the Mr.

lay your head...

fiber?
Nope it is the amazing work of stone carver Sebastian Martorana-hand carved marble.
I saw this pillow and was just struck. There has always been something about the soft becoming hard that moves me in my soul. This object looks so pliable and yet is rigid and weighs so much. so banal yet is made of something so permanent and in way archaic. The everyday raised up.

The pillow itself is a powerful object one of comfort and safety but also can be a weapon and represent a sense of suffocation.


Sebastian's work is beautifully done and has me completely intrigued. To me one of the most interesting and unexpected marble works I have seen. Taking such a glorified and historical medium and choosing to make such banal everyday objects, yet then raising these everyday objects to the level of glorified.


A press release from NYU announcing his work in a recent exhibition described it as:

un-commissioned memorials to the artist’s experiences, loves, and phobias, and celebrates the vagaries of daily existence.

They also described his work as pop art, which I disagree with. To me he is not using images from popular culture but from his own daily life and to me pop art always had some sort of irony or statement against high art that was completely removed from the personal. To me his work is very personal and therefore moving.
See more here.

hair pull.

oh my I am at a moment of wanting to pull my hair out.

I have taken on 2 projects that are totally out of my comfort zone and I am sort of freaking. I, of course, as an artist, designer, writer always want to be pushing myself in new directions and challenges. But with so many new things at the same time and the need to make my own work for my exhibits I am also a little freakin.'

With new things it is always a matter of will I do a good job? Will the way I think about and approach things be what the person who asked me to do it want? Will this work represent me as an artist in the best light? Am I covering myself business wise? So many unknown questions which is part of why it is wonderful and part of why my hands keep creeping up by my hair (just joking.)

Anyway, positive vibes, positive vibes.

crossing but not meeting

My paths crossed but did not overlap with artist Lisa Foti but it did bring my eye to her work. Lisa was recently in Boston but is now in NYC, the reverse of me.


She taught at one of the locations that I am working with so I trickled to her website in my research.


Her embroideries are simple and good. I tend to like work like this a more direct drawing with thread instead of fancy stitches and layered ground.


Her portraits have a sense of joy to their style that I enjoy.


But I also LOVE the white on white "body" works. Of course I like white on white period.


Her work still feels a little young but her technique and eye skilled, so I have a feeling that NY will be good for her and will be a place where her work grows. She also makes really gorgeous textiles.


Another one to watch. See more here.

See my post in Missouri based artist Jacque Davis here