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I am so happy to be a semi-finalist in the Bombay Artisan Series! Voting is open from today through 11/7/19. You can vote once a day for the entire voting period. Please help me secure a spot at SCOPE Miami in December...the top two artists will be there. Please vote for me here. Measuring Spoons is my official entry.
So one reason this summer got away from me is that I have been spending a lot of time at the Rochester Art Center. I was asked to coordinate "Locavore: Southeastern MN Juried Exhibition" and "Homegrown: 2' x 2'" for this September. These are two separate exhibitions for regional artists. Today is the last day for submissions for the Juried Exhibition, so things are really going to gear up for that quite quickly. This is the first year in a very long while that RAC has sponsored something like this, so I am anticipating some growing pains, but I have been excited to see the submissions that are coming in.
I am also coordinating "Homegrown: 2' x 2'" which I can only think to call a "take and make" exhibition. A group of artist volunteers ripped a bunch of masonite to 2x2' panels and added cleats and spacers to the backs. We cut 200. Artists can pick up panels at RAC, create their work on the panel and return it to us for inclusion in the exhibition. I have been taking panels local community centers and regional art centers for their members to work on. I think approximately 125 have been picked up. I got myself one (I am not applying to the Juried Exhibition though...) and it is surprisingly big. I just gessoed it yesterday and need to sand before I draw. I hope to start it shortly. Drop off for both the accepted juried work and panels is 9/14/17...and then I will need help repainting areas of the galleries and hanging the exhibition. Luckily I have a great group for that.
I am happy that RAC has been able to offer some help with photographing work and resizing digital images to make the submission process easier. I hope to schedule MNArtists.org to come to RAC and offer a workshop on creating a profile on their site, as well as other workshops about writing an artist statement and how to start taking your own digital images. I think this opportunity will be a great way include more of the community in what the RAC does. I hope you will come out to see the results at the reception on 9/22/17!
I never mean to let this much time pass between entries, but where did the summer go? It seems like I spent all summer applying to things, and now I am starting to hear back. I sent off my proposal to the MAEP program, and after talking with the program administrator, I think I am getting closer. I've got some adjustments to make for the 10/31 deadline, and I think I am hopeful. I've been rejected for a Juried Exhibition that looked like a good opportunity, and two academic residencies...and I am still waiting on a lot. I did have my SEMAC grant proposal accepted for support of new work I intend to exhibit next summer! $5000! I am so thrilled. My friend MaryBeth also got one for $2500! We both just got our paperwork in and should receive a check on 9/1/17. I am actually going to get paid to make work....a large piece I posted planning pictures of earlier this summer. I can't wait.
And it turns out if you just keep applying to stuff, the rejections start to sting way less.
I just found out last week that I have a Drawing 1 class at RCTC, so I have been in planning mode for a couple of days. Luckily, Drawing is one of my favorite things to teach, and I can do it without much trouble, so I am not worried about prep.
And finally, my son is about two weeks off of his own school starting. Fifth grade. He will be walking himself home in the afternoons as I won't be home. Missing out on the walk makes me a little sad; that was one of my favorite parts of the day. And about the only time he tells me anything of significance. I guess I should be getting used to that.
Have been happening this week. This is my sons first full week off of school for the summer, and of course, I have got us overbooked. There is tennis in the morning before it gets too hot, about an hour for lunch and then off to a birding camp on the other side of town at Quarry Hill Nature Center. This has been the first summer in a couple of years where my son has wanted to participate in one of the nature camps, and it has been really fun to see him excited about catching a tagging birds. I have been bringing my laptop with me to both tennis and birding camp, and I'm getting a lot done....two exhibition proposals for Minnesota art centers, a residency proposal for new work at Wesleyan College in the fall, and a SEMAC established artist grant for four person exhibition I will be in at Rochester Community and Technical College in June, 2018. So much hustle. I think the more you do the better you get at it all...I think my writing is improving. All of these word and character count requirements really force you to get to the point. So this has been my view when I get too hot being outdoors...
I have written a couple of these proposals for this large piece I really want to make:
I want to make all of these smallish, but varied in size, breast like shapes. All the shapes will be made with the same painted sewing patten paper I have been exploring in my two-dimensional works. The shapes will be formed with darts, gathers and sewn seams, and maybe even include some boning (like a corset). Some will be open and you get glimpses of the innards....some will be closed shapes and marred with massed stitches. The value around all of these shapes will be black #1 eyelets (from hook and eye sets) individually stitched together to make this sort of curtain of texture. I love the idea that when you are far away from it, it will just read as a value, but the closer you get, the more the texture and material are revealed. And did I mention that I want this to be about 6-8 feet tall and 10 feet wide. ALL THOSE STITCHED EYELETS. I am terrified and thrilled at the prospect of making this piece. I figured I would need 20 GG (great Gross) of eyelets; A great gross is 1,728. Maybe I have lost my mind, but here is hoping I get a grant to get it made.
went up yesterday. There is some brand new work, work from the fall, and work from way back, but I am happy to see it all together. The install was easy (Thanks, Lisa!) and the space is fabulous. My reception is June 29 from 5-6:30 pm and the exhibition closes on July 7. I am not going to make it back up before the reception, but our plan is to stay overnight, get good documentation and maybe play at the Science Museum in St. Paul before getting Thai food and heading home.
Embroidered pattern paper
Beaded vintage handkerchiefs
All new animal dolls
Some more friends...
Still more....
So happy to have the Kangaroo standing again. And the sloth is on his tippy toes. The air was not keeping up, so Lisa promised to light all the work today. I am so relieved to have it up!
Is almost complete, except yes, for the tail. This guy has really long legs...and real cat whiskers for his own. I had another rabbit with upright ears that I sold a few years ago, but this guy has a whole different vibe.
I keep thinking I should pink up his nose a bit. Maybe later.
are all done! Except for tails and all the little bits of touch up I still need to do...so, really, not done, but I am getting close. I have to install my exhibition on June 4, and I think I can see the end. This little donkey showed up in an earlier post, but has got limbs now. This happens to be my mom's favorite (she has two donkeys of her own.)
And then this deer is one of my favorites. I have had the body in my work closet for at least a year, waiting for a time to get finished. I also am making her a little mirrored vanity and stool...she needs a place to do her makeup.
Friends.
I feel like I am making progress. I don't know if it is fast enough...I am installing my exhibition "Pulling Stitches" at Hutchinson Center for the Arts on June 4. This is the third of nine figures whose got his limbs attached...and all of the tails are still pretty raw. But I am getting there.
