studio visits...

I forgot to mention the lovely studio visit that I had last Friday with artist Jodi Colella. In moving, by far the hardest part is the loss of my community. I had found a great like-minded community of artists that were ambitious in their careers and inspiring and supportive of mine. Yes, I still have this community in many ways but I miss going to readings and art openings often to support friends and mingle with creative folks. But going to things such as this alone with a kiddo on your hip sucks and makes me miss my life in BK. But meeting artists like Jodi make me have hope. Jodi reached out to me I think via facebook after seeing through mutual friends that I was here.


She came to my studio a few weeks ago and made a few really confirming and even clarifying comments. But even better just talked art with me - which is something I am hungry for.




Visiting her super nice and spacious studio was wonderful. She has a lot going on right now in her career (including being a recent recipient of an arts council grant!) and much like me had a lot going on in her studio from really beautiful and sophisticated sculptures that she calls marrow. (which I have to say the photos to just do not do justice to her work they are so much more successful and interesting to see in person.)


To a large and wacky needle felt piece for a show with the best title ever gooey, gobby, gummy,
T loved this sculpture and could not keep his hands off of it. (with permission by the artist of course.)


Some of her most exciting work is very much in process, but she is creating large Irish crochet floating sculptures for a special event at Brandeis University. Her test sculptures are very body scaled but the final pieces will be much larger. I think this piece will be a great work as the floating pieces in the bright pop-y colors against the murky darkness of the water where it will be installed is exciting.

Jodi is an ambitious and smart artist which makes me happy and hopeful for the community of folks that I will find here. See more of Jodi's work here and follow her studio practice here.

anybody else around these parts want to trade studio visits?

artist salon...

If you are in the Boston area mark your calanders I will be speaking next week as part of an artist salon.

March 2012 Salon Series: Fiber

Event Date:

Wednesday, March 28 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
at

Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville, MA

Fiber, curated by Alexis Kochka, will explore how artists use craft materials and techniques, such as felting and stitching, to create dynamic work.

Come see and hear how two artists are fusing time honored practices with contemporary art making. Sculptor, Jessie Vogel, incorporates shadow and storytelling into her soft sculptures. Joetta Maue uses stitching to draw narrative portraits onto fabric.

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"scar and grace"

I was doing some research on artist communities, blogs, and studio buildings yesterday and fell across a lovely series of photographs by photographer and writer Emily Hiestand.


She couples this series taken of masts wrapped in canvas with a quote from some of her writing:

Certainly by middle age, one knows that ours is a paradoxical universe, that all times, all lands, all selves are an alloy of scar and grace, that blight may turn to beauty and beauty to blight, like mischievous changelings teasing the stolid.

– "Watershed,” Emily Hiestand

I love this relationship as the images show the wear and tear of the sails much like our bodies. skins, and minds show the paths we have gone down. I was drawn to the series initially as it made me think of bodies wrapped in sheets, something that I obviously love as a visual and metaphorical experience. I would not say that I am overly drawn to her other work as it seems more obvious and less transcending as an experience a viewer. For me it lacks the same sophistication that this series has.


One other series, of oyster shells, is an inviting visual experience. She macro's in on the incredible smooth white hues of the inner shell and the rough brown lines of the outer shells to make a landscape. The perfect opposites and tension that exist in this one simple object is celebrated by her lense.


Generally I do not like macro photos, aka super zoomed in, but for Emily this is her best work where she walks the line of making her subject almost unrecognizable and gets lost in the objects beauty and story. The magic is she does not go all the way, she pulls out just enough for us to place it in a specific world making me smell the salt and feel the breeze.

See more of her work here.

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acceptance.

I had a really great afternoon in the studio yesterday. T was at the baby trade... normally he is not in the afternoon. But it felt great to have my afternoon energy in the studio.

I had music from my high school era playing loud, aka violent femmes, and got working. I had some breakthroughs on projects I am working on...


and made good progress towards getting my 40 years sleepers piece closer to finished. As I was working on this piece I was also having to figure things out as I was working as far as construction. For a moment I doubted myself thinking how if anyone saw how I put things together they would laugh and then I thought that is ridiculous I am an artist...there is no "right" way. I remember when I worked at a gallery and how wonderfully awesome and hilarious it was to see artists handle and package their work compared to registrars and art handlers. And how at the Blue Chip gallery I worked at when pieces had hand prints on the back of the canvas or obvious marks to the process left over by the artists generally the value jumped up as they were more special and unique.


I recently sold this piece and was worried about shipping it as it has no structure and the structure happens as it gets hung, I worried about this for the collector. But... if it had structure the essence of the piece once hung would be totally different. So I just accepted this as part of the quality of my work that people like and are drawn too. If they wanted structured, framed, and rigid work they would not be collecting mine.

...always learning to accept who you are as a person and artist. It was nice to have a moment of total acceptance in my studio yesterday.

Also read this great review on one of the most interesting shows at fiber philly here.
and first hand accounts of being a mama and artist here. (thanks Jen for sending my way.)

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round-up...

image from Andrea Donnelly's solo show at the Philadelphia Artists Alliance.

Read my round-up review of Fiber Philly at Mr. X Stitch. It more specifically talks about some shows that I liked. Read all it here.

photo run....

I have so many photos to share from fiber philly and so little time... that I am doing a random overflow post today. I will credit the images I can. You will have to find your own links. 2 more thorough reviews to come....



ok this might be dorky but these are fabric plants at the Philadelphia anthropologie. They were mixed with real plants and I loved them as much as a lot of the art I saw.

Andrea Donnelly above and images of A Sense of Place at the Philadelphia Arts Alliance below.

Kellijane work exhibited in a shop but looked great. Fun to see this way almost like walking through a collectors home....

Work from the excellent show Optical Fibers at space 1026 below.

a snuck shot at the Fabric Workshop:

Some work from B Square Gallery:



more at Crane Arts:

at Moore College of Art and Design

Wexler Gallery:



Snyderman-Works:


Sarah Wondrack a solo show in the gallery district not part of the event but should have been:


Ok... there is that. Be inspired.