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Hi Folks,
It’s been quiet on the painting front since returning home from my residency, but I’ve been busy in other areas of life. Honest.
Go visit multicraftual.wordpress.com if you are interested in crafting and want to watch my friend Liby and I in a new video podcast. We yammer on about crafting, we sing songs and put knitted garments on her cat pancake etc. Pancake is a star. The podcast is worth watching just for his expressions.
Crafting podcasts (and there are many: dramatic knits, stockinette zombies, 90% Knitting, the knit girllls, whatcha swatchin, yarnivore, craftstash, to name just a few) are most often watched while engaged in knitting or crocheting yourself. As I recently explained to my mother, it is not meant to be captivating in the same way a tv show or movie is… rather, it is like sitting down with friends to knit and gab together. That is the best I can explain it.
In other news, the Brit (husband) and I are gearing up for a move into a new home July 1st. Same town. Portales. It means “porches” in Spanish. We like it.
The move means less time in the future with the neighborhood cat Butters. Since I got back from residency, Butters has been visiting me every morning for pats and scritches. His meow is a scratchy pathetic sound like something from a dying animal. But he is nevertheless quite talkative and affectionate. I will miss him (and frequently walk through our old neighborhood just to visit him).
Butters, mi amigo
on the porch
I wanted to share with you a picture of some of the pillows I sewed to look like books for the library cart.
book pillows
Along with the pillows I made a silkscreen in the same manner I’ve discussed before on the blog. The design was inspired by a page from a book in the elsewhere library that I have re-located to live on the cart and be read by kids visiting the museum.
making the silkscreen
finished screen
I printed the design on some of the book pillows as either pages or covers.
"everything is different" book (pillow) cover
While I was at it I also printed a tote-bag:
tote bag for sale (profits to elsewhere) at elsewhere collaborative shop
Below are some close-ups of the puppets I made as part of my library cart. I asked the staff at elsewhere if they were an animal, what would it be and then made an animal-puppet version of them. The results were: a badger, a duck, a turtle, a mouse, an owl and a one-eyed brontosaurus:
hand puppets in the puppet theatre nook
badger
duck
turtle
mouse
owl
one-eyed brontosaurus
Here is the sewing workshop at elsewhere, where I spent a lot of time. Can you find me in the picture?
where's waldo in the sewing workshop?
This is the newly painted cart with my sewn puppet-theatre curtains:
Puppet theatre!
and here are the puppets I made sitting on the newly-sewn bench cushion. We have a mouse, a duck, a turtle, an owl, a badger and a one-eyed brontosaurus – in that order.
hand puppets in the theatre
Here are some pictures from my first week at elsewhere: my artist talk and project proposal – in that order.
Artist talk
Artist talk
proposing my project with parrot friend
Today I re-covered the cushion for the cart bench. The cart has already been re-painted and the new removable cushion cover now matches my new scheme (which you will see soon).
This is the lovely sunny room I was working in:
Working on the cushion
And this was my view most of the day:
sewing machine love
Thank you to Lauren for all her help measuring and scheming.
Hi folks!
This past week at Elsewhere whizzed by! My project is a re-invention of the library cart! This little nook on wheels is a part of a “traveling menagerie” (see here). But its home is in the ceiling-high living library of elsewhere. It has a puppet theatre, shelves for books and a bench with cushions for lounging. A seriously day-dream gem of a spot!
Here are some pictures of the cart before I began my work:
Front of cart with puppet theatre
Back of cart with bench and bookshelves
So, I’m imagining Elsewhere as an indoor park, which it really is in so many ways. I’m drawing upon my past as a park guide, interpreter and naturalist and drawing upon the wild aspects in elsewhere to make this space sing.
My first step was to strip it of the miscellaneous fabric and pictures that were haphazardly fastened to it, fill its nicks with putty and sand it down with help from the building curator, tool-wielding diva extraordinaire Jen.
Power sander!
This is where I have to take a moment to tell you I’m wearing an inside-out Bruce Springsteen t-shirt that I bought at his recent concert in Greensboro. That’s right folks. I saw the boss in concert and my life is now complete. (Mother, my shirt is inside out on purpose, to protect it from getting paint on it of course.)
Meanwhile I’m collecting books and items from elsewhere’s collection for display and contextualization on my cart.
It’s been a great week and I’m happy to say It only got better when I came to use the internet at the Green Bean coffee shop. Here I discovered they have bear claw pastries – quite a favorite treat of mine from Saturdays at the farmers’ Market growing up.
Mmmm. bear claw.
Have a happy Monday everyone!
I’ve begun my five week artist residency at Elsewhere in Greensboro, NC!
Front Door sign at Elsewhere
The day after I arrived was March Fourteenth (3.14) and so it was Pi day and we were served pies. Tables were appropriately decorated with paper mache pies.
Everyone signs up to be in charge of a dinner in pairs or threes. Following pi night, myself and two others prepared a traditional polish meal complete with poppy-seed cake and miniature polish flags to garnish the pierogis.
A typical kitchen scene at elsewhere:
Kitchen Commons
Other things you will see around elsewhere…
a heart made of shoes on the ceiling:
an evening public talk held at the storefront with the windows open to the fresh night air so passers-by can listen in, (check out current elsewhere events calendar here)
Stephanie gives her welcome talk at Elsewhere storefront
setting up for a storefront talk at elsewhere
Jordan having a moment with a plush toy:
communing with seals
the elsewhere bike surrey:
the elsewhere 6 seater bike surrey
elsewherians in the bike surrey:
a lot of fun!
Stay tuned for more explorations and discoveries at elsewhere, as well as progress updates on my project.
Today’s art attack was inspired by reading the beginning chapter of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell – author of Swamplandia.
Here is an excerpt:
“…with mosquito-blackened sills; a tin roof that hums with the memory of rain. I love it here. Whenever the wind gusts in off the river, the sky rains leaves and feathers. During mating season, the bedroom window rattles with the ardor of birds.
Now the thunder makes the window glass ripple like wax paper. Summer rain is still the most comforting sound that I know… In the distance, an alligator bellows…”
In the studio
Deep in the Forest, mixed media, 10 x 11"
This is an animation I did a few years back with audio I created today. Enjoy!
