Email nikimade@gmail.com to purchase original works.
fiber art
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.
So it has been over a year since my last blog post…and a pandemic, online teaching, an election and two exhibitions. The last post the acceptance or my (how many?) proposal for the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. There was so much in between, but that is where I am starting now. From that day on I put my head down and got to work. It was the most fulfilling creative endeavor of my career. I am just so thankful for all of it. By the end, I could hardly get around my own studio, and I had moved two figures into another friends studio when I ran out of room. We needed a 26’ truck to deliver the work and it had to spend a week in the deep freeze after arriving at Mia; felt can have larvae and it had to be frozen before going into the museum proper. Then I had the best help for two weeks of install. We got it finished right as Governor Walz shut down entertainment and hospitality venues for Covid. But it opened this last Thursday, and I am thrilled that people are getting a chance to see it! I will post more about the making, installation and exhibition in the coming weeks!
Title text and door way into second gallery space…
Supine, Sway and Lumber
Twine, Sway, Supine, Lumber and Settle
Trunk and Nourish
That I am so excited about! I can already see making a dozen at least. This started out as a square, about 12x12 inches. It was going to be flat to the wall, but the square was just wrong as well as the 2-dimensionality of the felt with the little polyp like things coming off. So I cut a chunk out of the felt as a dart, sewed the seam together and had a bit of a curve. And then I did it some more. And then I cut the corners off. It hit an ugly duckling stage where I was sure I had overworked it, so I just let it hang out on the wall. I then decided to add more felt and really push the depth more. It is about 15x20 inches and maybe 6 inches deep. I’m still not sure if it is a wall ore pedestal piece, but it doesn’t have to go anywhere yet, and I can see what it does with the new ones I will make. It hits the creepy cool mark that I love so much.
The hooks are almost like marching ants. I enjoyed watching the Amazon series Hanna while I stitched. I think I will start Killing Eve Season 1 with my next piece.
again, with the embroideries. I just love this work by Michelle Kingdom. The images are so painterly, textured and detailed. I dearly want one for my own. Her little dreamscapes are full of mystery. You can see her work on her website, she is one of Designsponge.com 18 embroidery artists to watch on instagram, and she has been featured on thisiscolossal.com.
"Some imagined future" by Michelle Kingdom.
"What is done cannot be undone" by Michelle Kingdom
"Life will divide us" by Michelle Kingdom
"Duties of gossamer" by Michelle Kingdom
the most amazing exhibition at the Minnesota Textile Center. "Woman Troubles" are a series of embroidered images on dyed silk that are unbelievably lovely. And they are images of used maxi pads...worn, bloody, squished maxi pads. Jess machine embroiders patterns of rich color, soft texture and wonderfully individual images that made me rethink what I see as beauty in relation to my own body. Unfortunately, she does not yet have these images on her website, so I am including some from a different body of work titled "Look and Learn, Little Girl" that are just as beautiful.
