A lil' needlepoint house popped up on my desk to live with all the other important things that have found themselves here. I never thought I would needlepoint but I found myself in a store where they had the coolest designs (and ladies). They got me set up with some canvas and needles and -- uh, oh -- it's way addictive! Just what I need, anooother hobby :)

LOVE SIGNS closes

Y'ALL, the Carrack show in Durham was a-mazzing! It exceeded my expectations and renewed my confidence in this whole crazy idea of making a career as an artist. We are so lucky to have a zero-commission art space in our town. That's right, we got to keep all the profit from sales -- that's virtually unheard of! And for a place like Durham that's great, because people aren't shelling out big bucks for art and we can price more affordably, knowing that we don't have to share :)

So I'm gonna do my best to provide a virtual tour of the space. It was not easy to photograph, and my long shots all turned out terrible -- due to the strong light coming from the windows.

 This was taken on the last day when we set up a fabulous bloody mary bar and chilled. Megan is stressing over her to-do list behind the desk and Mack is striking a pose. She is the third leg in our best friend trifecta, and we couldn't have put on the show without her help. It was so great to be in our hometown because it meant we had lots of friends and family around to lend a hand -- and we needed it!

There are two long walls that make up the majority of the gallery, one in brick and one in plaster. I loved the character of this wall as a backdrop to our pieces. It was especially crucial for the off-white lace banners. Otherwise, we would've had to paint a backdrop to enable them to show up.

The "Aloof"s intermingled with Megan's Bleach series -- a sequential set of digital prints taken of dioramas she made from some original watercolor paintings. Does that make sense? They're so cool because you read them as paintings but feel the perspective she created, so you're not totally sure what you're looking at..and that's always fun.

Some people expressed that they would've rather seen all my work together on one wall and all Megan's on another. I disagreed with them and told them to get bent!

I'm thrilled to say that all my toothbrushes sold! Coincidentally, all to people who live in LA, so they're cross-continental now. I'm happy that others will enjoy them as much as I have.

Here we reach the end of the brick wall, bookended by another crochet banner.

Ah, the geodesic dome. Full of unfulfilled ideas Megan and I had for a collaborative installation. Sometimes you are just ready to stop and be okay with where you're at, especially with the temptation of sleep. Turned out to be a fun place to socialize during the reception so I considered it a success! It was meant to play off my ideas of domesticity and the home and Megan's caves...

Melting Skull didn't totally fit with the theme of the show but had to put him in there somewhere. He got his own wall that was a bit indented out from the rest.

 Other side of the room.

 Love these two next to each other. Hammered/Enamored and Mind & Space.

 Mind & Space II and Full-On Meltdown

Hidden Places (blue) with a collage of some of my smaller pieces. I showed 4 Tiny Houses and they all sold. I think I hit on a good idea with those.

Hidden Places (pink) with Eons, Hand In Hand and the handshake rug. A lovely collage of purples.

That's a wrap! My only negative was that the Carrack cycles their shows out every 2 weeks. That means lots more people get a chance to show each year but lots of "dang! I missed it" from folks. It goes quick!

My grandfather's laughter at this piece, once he figured out what it meant, was one of the highlights of the art show opening last Friday. Typically, those who don't already know what it means, tend not to appreciate its humor so I was totally entertained by his little-boy reaction.
We might even have gotten a little closer because of it :)

Defining Success

My thinking of late seems to be maintaining a consistent theme: success. What does it mean to me and ... is it important?

A while back I made my frustrations apparent through a mostly negative blog post about, what I perceived to be, failed opportunities. Since then, I've been doing some soul-searching on where I'm going, what I really want, and I'm finding that I have a lot of preconceived notions on what "success" means. 

         For example, I thought that having people write about your work, buy your art, or even having lots of comments on your blog meant that you were successful. When you break that down, it means that I'm relying on justification from others to prove my worth. When I think about it, that doesn't seem to make sense. Only doing things for the approval of others? 

It reminds me of watching Project Runway (before I realized how much I couldn't stand that show) and how the designers that tended to fail were the ones who listened to the judges' advice maybe a little too much and changed their idea too frequently, to the point where it wasn't even their idea anymore. And then failing in the same ways, my senior year of college because of the same issues. That's why you hear so many people say 

trust your gut 

and

be true to yourself/your vision/your idea

...

so why am I not considering such sage advice when it comes to defining success?

Yesterday, I was watching a documentary on fashion designer, Marc Jacobs, and was so utterly struck by a comment the narrator made. It was talking about an earlier fashion show he did (if you know about his career, it was the grunge collection he did for Perry Ellis), he said, and I quote: 

"It was a critical success 

but a commercial failure."

What? So you're saying ... one of his most iconic lines, a show that I was taught in fashion school, the one that created a shift in the way modern women of the 90's dressed ... was a failure? I had to laugh at the dichotomy within this sentence. That's another point I've been coming back to this week       ..............       equating success with money.

I don't want money to have such a hold on me that it becomes the platform in which I make all my career decisions! Alas, I know too well that our society is built upon it but dammit! I don't want it to wholly dictate this part of my life; a career that I am attempting to build in the name of creative fulfillment!

So, I'm working on a new way to define success in my own career, in my own life, in my own heart.

My success is not determined by how many hours in a day I spend "working", or what kind of press I get for an art show, or how many people visited my website in the last month, or what OTHER PEOPLE are doing in their lives. 

From now on, I'm defining success by how excited I get to come up with an idea and see it through to execution, by the connections I make through my work, the observations I learn about myself that help me grow, my ability to keep a clean kitchen, exercising and eating healthy on a daily basis, staying positive and being a source of support for the ones I love.

My career is not my life, but it's a part of it, and I think I will be a whole lot more happy if I base my success on my own terms.

:)

A quick snap of the art show as it was being installed in Durham last Monday. More photos coming soon of the completed space!

The second reincarnation of LOVE SIGNS is going up next week! Instead of last year, when Megan and I put up ever piece of art we had, we now have the luxury of picking and choosing from our fuller bodies of work. We're really excited not only to show in our hometown, but also to be at The Carrack - a phenomenal non-profit, community-funded art gallery where they are very open-minded in encouraging all types of creativity in the art world. Not to mention 100% of the money from sales goes straight to the artists! That means we can price our work more affordably because we don't have a middle man taking a commission. This is really an amazing resource from the local artist community.

It will only be up for 2 weeks so come out and see it when you can! We have some amazing events planned and we hope you will come celebrate with us!

Turtle Love in Appliqué

 The progress on my latest quilt commission has been minimally featured on this blog, so I'm giving it some attention now! But then I really need to get off the computer and get back to binding this guy. Guess what? Another t-shirt quilt! Surprise, surprise. It's nothing new that I wish for quilt projects that don't involve t-shirts but, dammit, it's just such a good way to clean out the closet and save all that clothing that we just can't get rid of. 

This quilt is of a more somber note -- it is a memorial quilt for a boy named Alex, who died too young from bone cancer. We are preserving all his clothing in this quilt, to live on the bed in his former room and be a comforting source of warmth for the family he left behind. I feel honored to be able to create a project like this for his loved ones. 

First thing first, I wanted it to be as happy as possible and be something that an 11-year old boy would find fun. I was so tickled when I found out that Alex loved turtles because turtles have always been my favorite animal. The one request that his mother had, was that she wanted a pouch somewhere on the quilt that she could put his blankie in. That triggered the idea for a big turtle in the middle with a zippered shell that she could use. I started by sketching my turtle on craft paper. When I finally was happy with that design, I took to the mind-bending task of breaking down sections into separate appliqué pieces and figuring out the order of how everything would be sewn.

 Starting with the shell, I cut a piece of fabric the full size and then broke down my kraft paper pattern into each shell segment, using them as cutting templates. Here I recruited the help of some fabric spray adhesive (I love fabric spray adhesive) to place each chunk. It helped that some pieces overlapped each other so that I had wiggle room for adjustments and knew that each edge would get well-secured.

 Then I powered through some intensive satin stitch work on my home machine. This was great fun because of the small scale. My biggest problem with quilting is how large everything gets, and wrangling foot after foot of fabric through the machine can get tiresome. Not to mention, I only have so much space in my studio. So it was nice to get to work on something little :)

 All the other pieces were treated in a similar manner, with the exception of the bottom of the shell, where the zipper went. Can you see it? I would've loved to hand-turn the body of the turtle with a traditional, invisible appliqué stitch, but time wouldn't allow for that. And it was pretty nice to get this whole project done within 2 days, especially since I've hardly any experience with appliqué, I kinda surprised myself with my ability to put this together! I used yarn french knots for the pupils and a sliver of Ariel's hair (from a Little Mermaid bedsheet) for the mouth. I'm totally thrilled with the results and feel like I achieved exactly the look I was going for.

Here I am, getting the quilt quilted on a long-arm quilting machine. And as soon as I finish the binding, I will get full shots of the completed quilt up in this blog! Can't wait to share this with Alex's family and all of you!

Trials & Errors

Today I find myself reflecting on a week's work of disappointments and misdirected energy. Yesterday I gave my second ever attempt at setting up a booth and putting my shit on the table. Nomad, a women's eco-clothing boutique started by Gaia Conceptions in Greensboro, had a grand opening festival in their new parking lot and invited me to set up a booth. I normally would never consider such an offer but I really like Andrea, the owner, and I really like her business model and this amazing resource she is bringing to the community -- and it was FREE. I figured "why not?" I've been working on small-scale pieces and had art prints and postcards lying around the house.... I could fill a table.

And I did fill a table -- filled a whole 10' x 10' chunk of asphalt! I did rather enjoy a bit of decorating and was pleasantly surprised by my mother-in-law's fun tent that I unfurled for the first time on site.

Throughout the 7-hours I was there behind that table, I gave out less than a dozen business cards and sold a whopping 7 postcards...ok, ok, I knew I wasn't going to sell much, and I saw it as more of a 'getting-out-in-the-public' sorta opportunity, but it still felt disappointing realizing that

1) this was not an appropriate venue for my work and 2) I just wasted a whole day focusing my energy in the wrong direction. I STILL really enjoyed being there, I mean it was a waste strictly from a business p-o-v. As Adam drove us away after helping me pack up, he stated that he "knew that wasn't going to be the right outlet for me". I suppressed the instinctual...

...but what really bugged me was that this was the second time in one week that Adam was saying this to me. Wanna hear more? Ok, I tell you :)

I applied for a spot as a member in the prestigious Piedmont Craftsmen Guild, based in Winston-Salem, NC. Not a huge undertaking but you pay a fee and submit photos of your work with descriptions of your techniques and materials. If you make it past that first part, then you go on to exhibit your work at their huge fair in November. I was looking to find any new venue to show my work so I entered. I didn't get in - not too bummed at this point - but then I asked for feedback and got a healthy dose of criticism. Lemme tell you, that shit is HARD TO SWALLOW! Once again, I talked to Adam about it all and he gave me the same 'I knew all along it wasn't gonna work' comment. 

How is it other people are privy to what's best for me and I'm learning this all in hindsight?

I've always been in the "at least I tried" party but now I'm wondering if I'm not being discerning enough out the gate. My fucking problem is that I just can't seem to wrap my head around where I lie. Am I with the crafters or the artists? The week's failures have got me thinking that I'm not in the craft category anymore, I guess I need to start convincing the art ya-yas out there that knitting is a viable art form...wish me luck.

+++++ ON A POSITIVE NOTE +++++

Skram Furniture, my occasional employer, asked if they could take "Ain't That Some Shit!" up to NYC with them to show in their ICFF booth! I've been following the #icff hashtag on Instagram to see the photos people are taking of it.

International Contemporary Furniture Fair is a huge, awesome, annual event stuffed with the most amazing, latest design work from all over the world. THIS IS A BIG DEAL FOR ME! I mean, New York City is the mothership for all artists, people live there that understand....and are willing to pay for art. Also, it's hung above a gorgeous new credenza that my boo berry Adam worked on; we've been calling it the Rorschach piece.The show goes from May 17th-20th. 

It's up there now and it's for sale so 

WISH ME LUCK!

"BORED" and Alone

Got some new knittings to share this week. 

Find them painfully befitting since I've been holed up in my house, desperate for conversation, a little variety, or at least somewhere or someway to be active. As much as I love knitting, when you find yourself on the couch with the needles for hours at a time everyday, your body starts telling you that you're not meant to sit on your legs for this long.

Went to a great exhibit at the Greenhill Center in Greensboro and was blown away by Noé Katz, particularly his sculptures.

I thought this one was especially fitting of the state-of-mind I've been in lately.

Found the back of this piece inspiring, with the way that the lines sorta echo themselves. So of course I had to explore this idea more...

Flipped the design and knitted it all over again. But this time pulled the tails of my yarn to the front instead of the back. Was unsure if this was going to look good but convinced myself to keep going and just at least see how it would turn out. If it was bad, I at least experimented and it would go into the basket of reject ideas. (It's true, I have experimented so much with color knitting that I have a basketful of failed projects. Hey, maybe one day they will find a new purpose.)

ALSO

...found some more images from the PA show. Realized they're some pieces that have not found their way on this blog yet.

Tastee food spread from zee party! Doesn't little toothbrushes there look great on a stand?? I'm calling that one "Real Intimacy" (8" x 6 ¾") Also you can see the postcards I had printed up with my contact info on the back. No surprise, that at a dollar a pop, they're my bestsellers!

"Real Intimacy #2"

9 ⅜ in x 7 ⅛ in

Love this little guy. The cherry wood frames it beautifully.

"Eons"

16 ⅜ in x 7 in

This was inspired by a letterpress print Megan made with the word "Eons". Since we are showing together in June, we having been finding ways to respond to each other's work, consciously and unconsciously.

"Hand In Hand"

A newly finished knitting -- this piece triggered the title for the art show I recently installed in PA. Unfortunately, I ran out of black yarn halfway through and, when I discovered that the yarn was back-ordered for another month, I was forced to set it aside. 

~~~~~~~    See, for me the hard part is designing an image and the fun part is knitting it. So there's rarely a time that I have more than one project cast onto needles. Usually I get that knit addiction (knitters know what I mean! Like when you're so obsessed with seeing the fabric develop that it becomes 1am, then 2am, then, dammit! Ann you're gonna hafta put..the..knitting..down!)

THEN the art show came and went without the opportunity to get this finished and included. When I found the yarn was back-ordered for ANOTHER month, I decided to go to my local yarn shop and find a suitable replacement. I was about halfway through at the time. I came to the resolution that I would knit a few rows in the new black yarn and, if it proved distinctly different enough, I would rip the whole project out and start over with only the new yarn. But LUCKY ME, it proved indiscernible and I whipped out the rest in 2 days.

In hind sight, I think this only would be possible to do with black yarn. Any other color would've been too hard to match. Not to mention, black yarn absorbs light like crazy, making it hard to knit with but great for hiding mistakes!

~

What do y'all think of this piece? I started out with the phone, a symbol of everyday communication (I'd love to do a great, old rotary phone with coiled cords but since no one uses those anymore, I had to go with a phone that reflected current life, current connections). I then added the toilet paper, another small shared item of domestic living. Do we have anymore toilet paper? Will you pick some up on your way home? When the two came together I found the whole idea of the image changing. What was originally supposed to be reflections on companionship turned to a more solitary feeling for me. Now when I look at this, I think of my last job and hiding in the bathroom for extended periods of time, to try and get a break, and, of course, bringing my phone since the boss wouldn't approve of email checking on the clock.

What does this image make you think of? How does it make you feel? Do you think I'm crazy? Is it funny? I believe that only 50% of the meaning in an art piece comes from the artist, the rest comes from the viewers and the way others interpret them. How do you interpret this?

Trip to Harrisburg, PA

Hello! I find myself with less to say and more to show today. Adam and I just came back from a weekend in Harrisburg, PA, visiting dear friends and installing the newest batch of art to come out of the studio. I'm so excited about this new work - I stumbled upon some new lower-cost ideas in an attempt to make art in all kinds of price ranges. The image above is part of that new series. I had some small, antique frames (I'm talking 3"x 4" small) lying around and discovered that the knitted house I was playing with fit perfectly inside them. With that idea, I took off designing more house variations to fit within each unique frame. The gratification was instantaneous since I didn't have to rely on Adam to help me build the frames. And, since the frames were cheap and the knitting small, I can put a lower price on them. They're for sale at $70 each.

Adam, working on frames for the larger pieces, in his new shop out behind the house (aka the old 2-car garage). We realized that for the first 3 knittings I ever did, it took us like 6 months to make the frames. On the second go-round, there were 5 knitted pieces that probably took about a month or two. This time, we had 7 pieces and got those babies framed up in 4 days! We both had more confidence with what we were doing - I was able to help a lot more, doing all the sanding and lacquering - and having the shop set-up made everything faster and easier.

Support for the frame getting set in with a brad nailer on the back. This is what attaches the plywood holding the knitting to the frame. We had so much fun spending our nights together in the shop; working on the frames, listening to bad radio and enjoying each other's company.

Now for some art up in Stash's space! Here you can see "Tig Ol' Bitties" hanging above the changing room. We tacked a yardage of fabric to a bit of old trim and then pinned the crochet to the fabric. I really need to find a permanent way to show these large-scale crochets. I just don't want to do anything that takes away from the fabric essence of them. This mounting was definitely hacked. There's gotta be a better way to show these!! 

I thought I didn't get a picture of the appetizer table with one of the toothbrush knittings on it but I'm glad to see it got caught in the corner of this pic. We had a little opening while I was there but the big one will be on Third in the Burg, Harrisburg's monthly art walk. 

"Dead Dead Dead"

Collaboration with Oliver Hibert

29 in x 24 ½ in

This one's not for sale as it is part of a swell trade between Oliver and myself. But I gotta show it off for a bit before it goes to live in Arizona.

+

Handshake Rug

7 ft x 3 ft 4 in

This monster is priced at a whopping $6,000 hehe lots and lots of work went into that one! All the yarn is hand-dyed; a great time spent outside experimenting.

More tiny houses. So happy with these guys!

"Hammered/Enamored"

19 in x 17 ¼ in

$675

The walnut frame on this one really turned out beautiful.

"Real Intimacy (#3)"

16 in x 12 ½ in

$200

"Your House Wife"

17 ⅜ in x 20 in

$675

An oldie but a goodie! Loved the way it looked resting over the mantle of the old storefront's original fireplace.

Also while we were there, Wayne White was an Artist In Residence at York College in the neighboring town. He has been a big inspiration for me in the pursuit of my art career. I mean, come on!, he uses text in his art and is a southern man with a beard. Thumbs UP in my book :)

A couple of my favorite pieces on display from his 13-year retrospective. So fun to finally get to see some of his work in person. We actually saw him in person at the opening of his installation but didn't get up the courage to say hey. I regret that decision now. I guess sometimes I get afraid to meet those people I have looked up to from afar. Sometimes when the bubble of celebritism gets popped and you find yourself in front of a regular person (potentially great, potentially not so great), the disillusionment of reality can be a bit to much to handle. It's like going to see a band you really love play live, and they suck, and it ultimately makes you lose interest in their music. I guess I feared breaking that bubble I had created around who I think Wayne Wayne is. Or maybe I just really didn't want to be another swarming weirdo in the crowd that was circling him.

I don't know. I guess regret is a pretty stupid emotion so how bout I just move on.

Basking in the glow of another show hung. I loved the way all the art looked with the vintage surroundings. I don't really think of my art as retro but the textiles do give off a certain throw-back vibe.

Can't wait to get these finished pieces officially photographed and up on the website to share with all of you! I would love to hear any comments of what y'all think about the new work!