more fun with food

Here is the Northeast we were hit with another snowstorm ~ meaning another snow day!! So as the girls and I fended off cabin fever i spied a rotting potato & voila ...

i love the reflection in this shot

nothing was safe....

can anyone guess what this heart is made out of????

peace

Because what is better than a party & Valentines

VALENTINES

BY ARTISTS

party & sale

at Kalliroscope
on Sunday, February 1st, 2009
from 2–5 in the afternoon.

music and light refreshments
264 Main Street, Groton, Massachusetts
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: info@artval.org

Come see and purchase a wide variety of artist-made Valentines.
prices $4 - 200,most under $30

This event benefits the Artist’s Valentine—fundraising for
artists, by artists. Artists from New England and beyond have made
Valentines and are offering them for sale. Proceeds from the annual
Valentine sale are used to fund a juried grant competition for artists. Artists
who have participated in The Artist’s Valentine, are eligible to apply for
money to further their art, for example to do a special project, or to purchase
materials. The awards are juried, this year by painter Ben Aronson.
Since its inception in 1996, The Artist’s Valentine has given away
over $40, 000 in grants.

peace

Yahooooooooooooooooooo!!!

These past few days i have been on pins & needles and i realized this morning that it is pure anticipation for this BIG day ~ the beginning of a new era!!! So in honor of this historical moment … an Obama dress ~ made after scrounging the house for blue markers that work, and between making lunches and getting girls on the bus. Yeah life! Peace to all!!

Who does she think she is??

Saturday I watched the documentary “Who does she think she is ” directed by Pamela Tanner Boll ~ a movie that explores the relationship of mothering and women artists. I believe I went to this movie looking for some answers to how to balance this mothering/artist act. As I watched I was riveted to my seat. But when the movie ended and I started to digest it I started getting agitated. I realized that it had feed some of my critics. As time has past I have wondered if instead of being an empowering movie it is a cautionary tale.

I knew a lot of the background of women artists and their plight. I have studied many women artists ~ their letters, diaries and works. I have seen Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party (awesome), studied the supporting material and read many of her writings as well as working through her autobiographies. I am know the Guerilla Girls’ work and the different Women’s Artists’ movement. So I knew the back-story (although I did learn that the version of my art history text, History of Art by H.W.Janson, didn’t have any women artists represented in its hundreds of examples of art. I knew there had not been a lot but I just assumed that either Mary Cassatt or Georgia O’Keefe had made the cut.)

The stories of the featured women artists I found interesting as I find the stories of any creative person. But I was hoping to find the key to how to be the artist I need and want to be and be a mom and wife too. Ok I went hoping for the Holy Grail, but I came out with stories of talented women who followed their passion, have kids but many didn’t have their spouse. And the artist, Janis Mars Wunderlich who did have 5 kids, a successful art career and was still married just feed my critic, making wonder what I doing wrong – she has FIVE kids!!! Well insecurity is something I am working on. But watching the movie I so connected to these women and they reinforced one of my fears – can one follow one’s passion can keep the family/ kids and husband? I guess I am looking for the movie “She can have it all”!!

Would I recommend this movie?? Yes – anything that makes me think and push myself creatively I am all for. In fact looking at Wunderlich’s work made me realize that I do NOT put my true feeling out in my work ~ I am too afraid of hurting people’s feelings. So this movie had made me aware of how I am still influenced by more fear than I had realized ~ more personal work to do!!! It was also exciting to be in an auditorium full of mostly women – many knitting – and being part of a communal experience and struggle. I also realized that I am not going to get an answer to my struggle from anyone or anything – each of us are traveling on our own path, my life is not going to be like anyone else’s. Funny how obvious this thought is but it is a lesson that I need to keep learning over and over again.

Peace

the Dress Project @ Holliston High School

For this month I am the artist-in-residence at Holliston High School. I am honored to be able to install the Dress Project in their gallery, Studio 370. I am always happily reminded about all the benefits to installing a show. I am always learning something new about the work and usually discovering a new way to view a piece. Also it has been a great way to start the new year ~ I have never been called COOL so much in my life :) always a nice sentiment! I am really happy with the way the collection works in the space ~ Here is a video of the show.

peace

It is official....

I am obsessed...

I can’t stop making valentines for the Artists’ Valentine!! Luckily the due date is upon us so I may stop. It has been so fun to explore and create these little treasures & I love working with words and quotes ~

'There is no remedy to love but to love more.' Thoreau

'There is only one happiness in life, to love and to be loved.' George Sand

The fabric hearts are a real passion for me, as well as many who have seen them. When I ask my eldest why she liked them so, she said because of their homemade-ness and I believe she hit the nail on the head. I love the fraying edges and the randomness of the patches. I also LOVE the sewing and embroidery. This reminded me of a piece that I made in college. It is about 4x6 and completely rendered in embroidery floss – using the floss like paint. It has always been a favorite of mine. I can see myself continuing working with this path…
peace

A Reprieve for the Glass Slipper!!

Happy to report that the Glass Slipper was accepted in the Members Juried Exhibition l at the Concord Art Association. The Opening Reception is this Thursday, January 15, 6-8pm. Hope you can come by ~ peace!

"If I know what love is, it is because of you."

This year I am participating in the Artist's Valentine ~ 'a fundraiser for artists by artists'. Artists from all different media make Valentines which are sold at a party at Kalliroscope Gallery in Groton, Mass. The money raised from the Valentines' sales is used to provide grants to the artists who submitted Valentines. It has been so fun to make these Valentines ~ no pressure, just create. The above images are of one of my Valentines that I am submitting(submissions are due January 19, 2009). It is a little pillow with the Herman Hesse quote - "If I know what love is, it is because of you." I love the sentiment of that quote. I used an iron-on transfer to put the quote on a patch of printed fabric then sewed that patch and many others onto a heart. The back is similar however the main patch has "to & from" so that the sender can put on their name. I have also embellished the heart with buttons and beads. I am so enjoying this sewing thing. Besides this valentine I have started a 'dress' of small sewn 'doll' forms which I plan to use in the skirt of the 'dress'. Of course, this plan means sewing many, many of these dolls, so the dress maybe completed in 2010. more about that dress in a later post!! Peace!

update on the womb wrap

During the holidays and the school vacation i didn't get to my studio that much; however i did knit, and knit, and knit, on my uterus. I had to get another set of 36" long circular needles to be able to get a sense of how it looked. I also struggled with whether to make it only single sided or double sided - like a pocket of sorts. I knew I wanted it to have a significant weight so after I got the ‘fallopian tubes' as long as I wanted I started to cast off stitches. So instead of being done I am really only halfway done.

In the below picture you can get a sense of the size. When I had it spread out to photograph my 10 year old crawled on top of it and curled up ~ this is the response I am striving for.

I hope to be able to exhibit it on a wall - hanging from a set of open hands that are offering it to the veiwer. And i want the viewer to wrap themselves up in it. we will see... peace

back to the printing press

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I was a printmaker. In college I concentrated on printmaking, especially relief printmaking. When I graduated from college I quickly learned that printing presses were not readily available so I didn’t print for a looooooooooong time. But I was getting eager to print – especially to carve. Seeing Louise Bourgeois’ Personages make my palms itch. I want to try wood carving but until then it was easier to start with carving wood plates. So I signed up for a class called Big Woodcuts at the De Cordova Museum, taught by Jennifer Hughes. It was a great class & so satisfying to be back in the print studio. It was interesting how much has changed since I was last there – much more environment and heath conscious – no more turpentine which I remember basically bathing in. But the inks still smell the same & that smell touches a deep place in me!!! Jenny encouraged the class to make plates as big as 2 feet by 4 feet ~ what fun. I started small then made my big woodcut. (drum roll please)

Not only is it big ( the above print is roughly 24"x48") but I had a fellow artist and woodworker, Carl Staley, cut the plate into 32 different pieces which I inked up separately. It takes awhile to print one of these prints so I only made a few before the class ended. But the possibilities are endless ~ using different colors, different color themes, piecing the dress together differently and I even printed on fabric which got my brain whirling in a whole other direction. I hope to get access to a printing press again & soon ~ not to lose the momentum!!! Craving is very meditative and to run your plate through the press is a lot like Christmas ~

the anticipation to see how it printed.
So hopefully I will be posting more 'puzzle' dresses

in the near future.

peace

What is it with Clementine rinds??

Clementine rinds just seem to inspire & inspire & inspire me,

who knew?!

peace