Friday, October 31, 2008

The Shelf Life of One's Creative Center.... a great post at Ed Winkleman's today.



Happy Halloween!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

I happened upon Deborah Fisher's blog today and found this post, which pretty much sums up the way I have been feeling lately. I can't wait for this election to be over... I really can't handle the anxiety.

Husband: Hey sweetie.... did you get the heart stuffed?
Kate: Well, not quite yet. But look how cool these little veins look embroidered over the other parts!
Husband: That does look cool. You really can't help yourself, can you? (kiss)
Kate: I guess not.
(Husband leaves the room. Comes back a few minutes later with a stapled 3 page printed list)
Husband: Here's the list of 167 things we need to do to the house before we put it on the market.
Kate: ...... so maybe when I am done with the heart, I can cross a few things off the list...
Husband: ... or twenty.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The folks at The Schmidt Gallery were kind enough to send installation shots of my most recently completed work in the Political Circus exhibition at Florida Atlantic University. The exhibition has been extended through Nov 15th.

Labels:

Embroidery Over, Assembly Begun....
Yesterday was completely incapacitated from morning till night with one of the worst migraines I have ever had. Got up early this morning and finished the embroidery. I ordered a bunch of 8 x 10 glossies from IPrintFromHome.com, and will spend the rest of today assembling the heart piece. Will post in-progress shots tonight or tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Monday, October 27, 2008

Busy, busy.....Off to Greensboro to Fed Ex hair embroideries to the Van Gijn Museum, Dordrecht, Netherlands. Upon my return, will finish vein embroidery. Need to get it done and photographed in order to send out newletters of current shows with link to slide show of new work to be placed on Flickr.

Also planning a brief trip to NYC mid-Nov to see some shows, pick up hand-me-down Peanut paraphernalia from my siblings, and have a meeting with the curator at The Drawing Center (yippee!). This requires getting prints made of the drawings that are currently out circulating, putting together a portfolio of drawings (LOTS of de-framing), and perhaps even driving north of The City to pick up the hair embroideries that will be released from a show up there two days before my Drawing Center appointment.

Just received word that Political circus at FAU will be extended though the 15th of November.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Guardian's list of 1,000 artworks to see before you die....

Friday, October 24, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Woke at 4:30 a.m. to take a road trip to an encaustic workshop today..... 3 hours each way.... long day. Embroidered veins for a few hours, now curled up w/a good book: "Addiction to Perfection: The Still Unravished Bride", by Marion Woodman. Hearing her speak a few years back was the closest thing to a religious experience I have ever had. Trying to read things on the nightstand that are NOT (at least not directly) art-related.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008


So Close......

Thought that I was ready to stuff the heart, but then yesterday I discovered that I could satin stitch the veins and they would look even better (compare the red veins and the blue one on the left to the blue ones on the right). This will add a day or two to my schedule.....

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

I have spent the last 3 days working on this tiny piece, less than 2" in each direction, trying to achieve some degree of verisimilitude and depth. I was remembering a catalog essay where Nora Heimann wrote that my paintings seemed "wrought" rather than painted. This tiny piece certainly feels like it was wrought. It hurts my fingers just to look at the back, though I do like the tortured quality of it.
Towards the end of the piece, putting the needle through became increasingly difficult, and I broke two needles in the past two days. You can also tell by looking at the back that I am not a real fibers person, because it is so messy. If you are a "real" embroiderer, the back of your piece is supposed to look just like the front! There is something about the clunky, overworked embroidery aesthetic that appeals to me... something that I have seen in folk art, where there is a kind of obsessive embroidery-on-top-of-embroidery thing.

Will be attaching this piece this afternoon, and fussing over the heart details before I stuff the heart and attach it. I think that I need to do something fast after this piece.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

In the "I Wish I Would Have Thought of That" category........
Still another layer or two to go on this piece....

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Hearts & Peanuts

Can't wait to see Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York! Oh, how can I wait another two weeks? Spent all of yesterday at Duke for several Peanut appointments: Here is the 14 week ultrasound:

He looks like Linus Van Pelt from the side. In between appointments, worked on heart parts:

It is always odd to embroider in public in these parts, because there are so many quilters/needleworkers here, and there is always some woman who asks me what I am working on, assuming that it is a piece for a quilt or another similarly "homey" project, and then she inevitably gets a weird look on her face when I reveal that I am embroidering sperm, or an artery, for a piece that will hang on a wall in a frame.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Monday, October 13, 2008



After my return from Richmond, was put on bed rest again, at least until this Friday. Then my main older computer blew up (more accurately, I blew it up). Very frustrating. I am spending my imposed time on the couch finishing up the 3D embroidering for my heart piece... in-progress shots later today.

I need to get going on hiring some assistants, but I need some time being vertical to prep things for them to work on. In the meantime, I will start working on some computer stuff that I have been meaning to do... inventory, archives, and mailing lists that could be set up for data entry input by helpers later.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Friday, October 10, 2008

Opening Tomorrow

It should be a great show... if you know anyone in the area, tell them to see it!

(click to enlarge)

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Back from VCU..... my talk and grad crits went really well. I was sad leaving.... I really miss working with students, especially good students! If I won the lottery, I would go back to grad school at VCU, maybe get a sculpture (or even a fibers) degree... I am so excited to get back into the studio after being there. I always get such fantastic ideas when I am driving back home on art trips.
Came home to some great news... been invited to be in a 3 person show in January at the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art!

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Spent most of the weekend getting ready for my visiting artist gig at Virginia Commonwealth University Wednesday. Hoping to head into Richmond on Tuesday and see some art before my lecture and crits on Weds.
Wow.... didn't know it was this bad.... hoping that the rest of the mainstream media picks up on this article in Rolling Stone: "Make-Believe Maverick" by Tim Dickinson.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Having dreams about flying.... think I might have to wait for the leaves to change and go for a biplane ride....

Yesterday was an art day.....went to Greensboro & Winston Salem with friends to look at art all day. Usually I am bored by looking at prints, but loved the Kiki Smith prints at the Weatherspoon....luscious, visceral. I am also usually bored by quilts, but I thought that the quilts of Dorothy Caldwell at SECCA were incredible... some of the most beautiful drawings I have ever seen. Finally, also at SECCA, were large scale photos by Dutch artist Erwin Olaf. I just finished reading Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity, but I have to say, many of these works left me cold with their commercial smell and slickness. They could (and some actually have been) printed on the pages of an edgy magazine to sell the designer clothes pictured in the image. They possess the over produced "look it's art! no, it's advertising!... it's whatever you want it to be!" quality of David LaChapelle's work, with a different sensibility. There were two exceptions for me: First, the amazing "Blacks" series was a perfect combination of that sexy photo-back-mounted-to-plexi thing combined with the lo-tech technique of painting everything in the picture plane black before photographing it. His films were also amazing... palpable repression, almost unbearable... fabulous.