New little superhero animals...

I have been wanting to make some little animals that aren’t as time consuming or as fussy as my animal dolls. And I have RISDCraft coming up, so I finally decided to make a little time this last week! Here are three new characters: Super Mouse, Super Cat, Super Bird. They were fun as hell to make. I used the same materials as my other dolls: air dry clay, sewing pattern paper, cotton thread, acrylic paint. I would like to bust out 3 more before the show in October…hopefully I can pull it off! After that, these will go in my online marketplace, soon to go live!

Each is about four inches tall and stands up. The mask can be on or off. And yes, the cat’s mask has cat whiskers!

Just finished a new mixed media artwork...

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.

in between things....

I am kind of in between things right now. My website is getting updated and I have a shop going up. I have done a little research on art fairs and I am going to visit the Uptown Art Fair in Minneapolis and the Art Fair on the Square in Madison this summer. I am also going to hit Renegade Craft fair in Chicago in September. I believe there is a way to sell my work. There just has to be. So I am putting in the research this summer before RISDCraft 2019, as I already know I have a spot there.

And I just took possession of keys to a new studio that I will be sharing with photographer Sophia Chai! I’ve got big plans for big things. The only drawback is there is not a toilet. There is a gas station three blocks away. I was thinking though, we could each have our own bucket, and then a guest bucket. We would be all set.

Professional practices workshop with Sharon Louden....

I signed up for Creative Capital emails a while back, and that is how I found out about the ISCP Lenore Tawney Fibers residency that I just applied for. But I also found out about an online professional practices workshop with artist Sharon Louden, and we are going into the third meeting of four tonight! I has been really informative. I really enjoyed her book Living and Sustaining a Creative Life that I read a couple of years ago on a residency. She has got her shit together. A lot of it is practice, organization and gratitude. And the nitty gritty details of business…like I know I need to collect emails and make a mailing list. But she is also having us identify 10 professional goals we have for ourselves. Here are some of mine:

…write a frankenstuffie book proposal

…submit a proposal to San Jose Institute of Art

…apply for a grant with the Chenven Foundation

…send a proposal to Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

…exhibit with my talented friend, Marybeth Magyar

…and reach out to about five different galleries, just to start a conversation

There is so much yet to do.

Would you be interested in a book about the making of this guy?

Rejections and moving on...

Found out last week that I did not get accepted for the MAEP exhibition this next round. Didn’t hit me as hard as I expected it would. But how can you realistically be heartbroken when only one in seventy artists get it every four months? I did however get to reuse my video for another proposal at the CUE foundation. And then again for the McKnight Mid Career Fellowship, so it was well worth the time doing. Now I just need to learn to do it myself.

I am currently getting an application ready for the ISCP Lenore G. Tawney Fiber residency in NYC. Lenore Tawney was somehow an artist I discovered when I realized Apparel Design was not a good fit for me and I was maybe more interested in mixed media than printmaking. She and Lesley Dill really showed me I could make the work I wanted to make. I had never seen anyone make work in this way before.

Lenore Tawney, “Wandering Between Worlds”

Lenore Tawney, “Bird Boy”

Lenore Tawney, “Seed Puzzle on Three Levels”

Application is due 4/15, but I think I might have it submitted tonite! Fingers crossed!

Spring is here in Minnesota...

and I am feeling lucky. The sun is shining. Birds are singing. The grass is peaking through. Just that can change my attitude so much. I feel like professional changes and growth is around the corner. I am thinking about the resources I need to gather in order to make this shift and the ways in which it is going to make me really uncomfortable to change. But I need to. I want to draw more. Drawing is so joyful. I made this one in January and was so thankful that a dear friend wanted to take it home.

Let it be a spring of more drawing.

Doll-Making at Arrowmont...

I am so thrilled to be teaching a doll-making workshop at Arrowmont this November for week. The Doll as Storyteller 11/3 - 11/9/19. Would love to have you there!

Morris Graves Museum of Art Exhibition

So happy to have had Nicole Jean Hill photograph my exhibit at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Humboldt county last week. I got images just in time to apply for a mid-career fellowship. I didn’t install the work for this exhibition, and was a little uncertain about the configuration of the “Spread” masses on the wall. When I last installed this piece, there was no space between shapes and far less of the guts spilling out from them, but I have come around. I still want to make ten times the amount there currently are for an installation. I want them oozing off the wall!

And here is one of the new dolls. It was funny to see it up with some of the original ones and how the color palette has changed. I just love this measuring tape.

Still waiting to here on one of my proposals, and that will probably determine what I decide to focus on this next year. Four more days. Fingers crossed.