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Inspiration
How did I not know about Ben Venom? Have I been living under a rock? He combines punk rock, tattoo and counter-culture notions in amazing quilts made of recycled materials. I so wish I could see one in person! The color and pattern combinations are brilliant and I am so curious about the up close stitching detail. The are also HUGE! Maybe I should make a quilt?!?!?
Fly By Night
I am the Night Rider
Iron Fist
Once Bitten Twice Shy
So I have been procrastinating via the instagram. It is so good for that. And I came to embroidery artist Caycee Zavaglia’s instagram where the most current post was an image of one of her portraits on the cover of Vogue (!) magazine, and one of the later posts were about a rejection she just received. It was so good to be reminded that the artists and careers I aspire to also get rejections. If you are not familiar with her work, she makes these amazing stitched portraits that are just beyond belief. Really gorgeous.
Her website is here. I can’t decide if I love the backsides more or the fronts!
Caycee Zavaglia, Unspoken, 2021
Rejections are no fun. But an art friend and I decided that this year we are in a contest to get the most rejections…and the winner gets treated to nachos! I think I am skunking him already, but he is not letting on.
I have already applied to 25 opportunities since the new year! Rejections should start rolling in any time.
I am so excited to share that my art friend Chris Rackley spent a good portion of the pandemic creating the brilliant piece Haiku House with a grant from Springboard for the Arts. He invited the homeowners in his neighborhood to create house puppets based on his pattern and write a Haiku for the puppets to perform while filming it. He then took all the videos and seamlessly created an animated neighborhood where every house shared its poem! Please take a look at Haiku House Project on Vimeo and share your favorite parts! My favorites are the clouds and clogged toilet haiku. You can see all about his process on instagram…he is a magician with the digital!
So pleased I was finally able to see my studio mate, Sophia Chai’s work in the Jerome Fellowship Exhibition at MCAD this week. I may be biased, but it was a fabulous show. I only ever see small increments of change in the studio and then at the end there are these amazing photographs which play with how we perceive photography. And I love the framing of the photograph with the same color of paint on the wall, it puts us in the space with the original painted wall in a way that is really interesting. Hope you get a chance to see the exhibition! And there will be more images of the other artists work coming soon.
So excited to be included in Create! Magazine, Issue 15, juried by Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia. Such wonderful artists to share a space with!
Lisa Congdon, cover art
I discovered Beth Beverly, a taxidermy artist in the issue! Please visit her interview here, to learn more about her process.
Beth Beverly
Is my new artist crush. I discovered his work on Instagram and for the first time ever, fell in love with panty hose. He makes them do all sorts of wonderful things.
Exhaled, polymid tights and resin
Exhale, detail
Asynchrone symmetrie im umfang von XS bis XXL
Asynchrome Symmetrie Im Umfang Von XS - XXL, Detail
Jesus was’t wearing tights
Jesus wasn’t wearing tights
He inflates tights with balloons and sand, contorts them into evocative shapes and plays with the notion of tights as a gendered material. Have a look at his website, his curiosity about this material is amazing.
One my my favorite instagram discoveries is the Irish artist Threadstories. She crochets these balaclavas and then adorns them, such that they become personalities. Sometimes the gesture changes, sometimes the mask has movement, sometimes nearly the entire model is obscured. She doesn’t have a website that I can find, but you can read more about her work on Hi Fructose or Thisiscolossal.com.
I hope you will follow her. You won’t be disappointed.
I find myself being more interested in ceramic work than I ever thought I would be. I never got clay. It is dirt. But maybe that is why it is so magical for so many artists. I feel really lucky to have discovered the work or artist Jessica Stoller. It totally hits all my sweet spots: it is figurative, addresses lady stuff and includes food.
Untitled (Weave) 2015
Untitled (Tar), 2014
Untitled (Stack), 2013
Gooey, oozing, voluptuous, messy, sweet, grotesque. Good stuff.