Each One: The Button Project – detail
Sitting in the brilliant sun, lap top in my lap (how ironic) in the waiting area of a windshield replacement shop – I am feeling grateful for small measures. I am glad that I wore a t-shirt today – it’s hot here. Life offers multiple opportunities for gratitude – and I’ll certainly step into this simple gesture right now.There are a many of other things I am grateful for as well – and that’s where this blog post will go.1. “Each One: The Button Project: a 9/11 Memorial” has been invited for exhibit at the September 11th Memorial and Museum in New York City! The curator Jan Ramirez reached out to me this winter – and the piece will travel to NYC for exhibit from March until September. I’ll post more information when the details are settled. Thanks to the City of Portsmouth NH (who owns the piece) for graciously loaning the work to the 9/11 Museum.2. “Well Used, Well Loved” my current and on-going community art project is in a winter phase – meaning I am germinating ideas and closure – even though there appears to be not much happening on the surface. Check out the blog link to learn more about this long term community art project that focuses on age, beauty, attachment and impermanence.
Detail of new art with Shifu embroidery
3. Pecha Kucha is a local presentation of 10 area creatives who each get 20 slides for 20 seconds each image. I will be a presenter this week – February 23rd. 7:30 at 3S ArtSpace My topic is “Across the Divide: community art in turbulent times”. It’s free, it’s local and it’s creative. Hope to see you there!4. New art – Last month I was an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson VT. For an entire month I had the space, time and opportunity to focus on my work. In preparation, I spent time last fall weaving works that I hoped to complete with embroidery and other details during my time at VSC. I was able to complete two large works as well as 5 smaller pieces. I hope to have these news works up in my gallery soon.
Shifu paper prior to cutting and spinning
5. The process of making thread from paper – Shifu - continues to fascinate and motivate my work. The act of writing or drawing on kozo paper – then carefully cutting it into strips and spinning it into thread has held magic for me for over a decade. Most of my current works employ this thread – so each piece has some hidden text or image embedded into the cloth. This technique is also an easy way for me to include the thoughts, images and words of others into my work. And this work is portable – when I travel for the next month I will be taking my drop spindle and papers to spin.
Drop spindle and papers for spinning