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.

Jessica Stoller, new artist crush...

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.

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!

"Material Matters" at SeagerGray Gallery...

It was so fun to see this exhibition going up at SeagerGray Gallery the beginning of the month and discovering a new artist: Liz Steketee. She had this amazing photograph and embroidery piece in multiple hoops that just stopped my heart.

Mixed media; 2018

Circles, detail

Circles, detail

And then on her website, I found these!

Wonder Woman, Mixed media

I do love a red thread.

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.