Malissa in her dress

...maybe we'll have a full body image sometime, but here's sweet Malissa in her dress made for a wedding she attended in Hawaii!

What is contemporary art and do we know it when we see it?

What does it mean to us to go see art?
Do we know what we intend to do?
Do we think about receiving the work and looking into the work?
Are we willing to be confused and affected by mystery?
Can we expose ourselves to the indefinable sensations art can induce?


The popular art show at museums across the nation is one that is just that, popular. Holland Cotter, in the New York Times article, Top of the Wish List: No More Blockbusters, points us toward smaller, manageable, more accessible exhibitions. In this scenario, the art may be more visible as the viewer may not have to bring his mind past the grandiose idea of being in the same room with a celebrity.

food and dresses

These days, clothes and food have really taken center stage. I wonder when I'll be drawing again? Soon I hope.
This past week, I've been making pasta. I've been cooking in our tangine (Thanks Lara and Grant, I love it.), and of course, designing and making dresses. This purple and turquoise, corduroy jumper is for my lovely friend Ruby Elizabeth Sutherlin-Sovern. Happy Birthday to Ruby! She's Seven. This is her new dress from Hol Sum. How fun to deviate from the formal and grown-up needs for clothing. I love these singing bird pockets for keeping keepsakes.

we climbed, we conquered.

A few weeks ago, we walked to the top of Mt. Quandary. Here we are at 14,265 feet above sea level. This guy was also up there.

formulate

Fitting the form... a sort of architecture for the body. I've finished a few dresses in the past 2 weeks. One more in the works, preceded by a test dress... Altogether that's 5 dresses in a month. Not bad. I don't have photos of the wearers wearing these dresses as I don't expect them to do a photoshoot on their own time, but eventually, we'll have photos with these beautiful ladies.
In this picture, I'm wearing Malissa's dress because we happen to be the same size.

I do finally have the pictures of Kali in her dress (see last month's posting). She's a charm! We'll be starting sewing lessons this week! Anyone else want to learn to sew? Let me know.



Yesterday, a quick, stretchy, tube dress made in the morning in efforts to be comfortable all afternoon car-shopping. Done!

Conjured

Migration
40 needle felted birds
wool, alpaca, lama fibers
approx. 2 x 4 x 2 inches in dimension
2008-2009

click on images for larger view.

This installation of Migration at the Red Squared Gallery in Spring Green, WI is the first formal installation of the work. Passing through an invisible plane in space, the birds are simultaneously indicative of the immediate and gradual processes of change. Their color changes in one slice through space. The process of needle felting is hours of almost unnoticeable transformation. They are representative of the duality of change, always immediate and always gradual.

Thanks to Michael Desbarres and Ryan Hewson for creating the gallery, Red^2 and connecting the community of Spring Green to the community of contemporary artists and designers at Taliesin. Thanks also to Emil Crystal for his work in bringing this show together and organizing artists. If you are in South Wisconsin during this month of August, please consider visiting the gallery and the show.

conjure

This time next week, I'll be in Spring Green, Wisconsin setting up a show at my friends' gallery, Red Squared. Michael Desbarres and Ryan Hewson, recent graduates of Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, refitted an old auto parts store that covers 5000+ sf on two levels. They've organized a series of shows relating to art & architecture, the next of which is entitled CONJURE and will feature the artists who have come to Taliesin over many years.

My work on display includes MIGRATION, a collection of needle felted birds (seen on this blog over the past year). Indicative of invisible change, MIGRATION is conceptually and symbolically the slow process of change that is, however, immediate. The time spent in slowly felting the fiber using a single barbed needle is in line with meditation. Meditation is simultaneously an effort to cultivate stillness and a basis for progress and growth.

Also included is BREATHING ROOM, layers upon layers of translucent white paint and the transcribed syllables of the breath, are again a result of meditation – breathing and meditative mark making. The focus upon one’s breath, the sound and sensation of it, is a simple meditation technique here made visually apparent. The end product is a created atmosphere of stillness and the simple knowing of one’s living by breathing.