just working....

and stitching.  I love it.  It is my absolute favorite thing to do.  It is not very balanced in my life right now while I am trying to get this panel done.  But hopefully there will be time for other things after this goes up.  I have my helpers...

who are determined to be exactly in the place I need to be.  I have nearly ten feet now.  

I started this brighter pink thread in this one, but I am not loving it.  I have run out of two colors and needed something in a light-mid value.  This is too bright I think.  Now I am off take the orange cat to acupuncture.  LONG STORY.....

mr.xstitch....

I am so happy to be featured on one of my favorite art embroidery sites...mrxstitch.com!  I have found so much exciting contemporary work on this site...it inspires me to keep making.  Please take a look at it and browse the archives.  You won't be disappointed.  And thank you Jamie Chalmers for including me!

4 x 12 feet....

Is the size of a panel I need to make for my installation at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.  I am halfway there.  Today I stitched together my painted sewing pattern paper fused interfacing pieces and finished with about 52x70 inches.  I have another big panel halfway painted, but that will have to wait until after our trip out of town.  Hopefully I can get it done next week.  

I've been googling....

contemporary embroidery again.  Look at these lovely images by Melissa Zexter I recently found.  

She is a photographer who embroiders on her images.  You can see some of her straight photographs on her website.  They are just beautiful.

hands....

found the plasticine in my basement.  Sculpting some hands for this new installation.  Just ordered mold-making materials today.  Hope to start next week.  

I think I really like the marked up surface.  Mostly I just like pushing the clay around.  I have a couple more gestures/hands I would like to finish, and I may start playing with elongated proportions.  

doing and doing....

I have been organizing images, artist statements and proposals in a big push to get some applications out to galleries and calls.  I have just a couple more to finish and then I am ready to start on the next big project:  an installation in a small window space at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.  I am really excited.  I am starting to research mold making and see some alginate in my future....

I just saw...

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.