hot off the press

these pieces i took down last week from the show at anthropologie. they are all hand embroideries on paper, encased in a vintage, hardback book.

astoundingly beautiful...

these breathtaking images are the wonderful workings of mark mawson. more of his work may be found here. i adore the delicate and fluid weight of the jellyfish, simultaneously shrinking and expanding. beautiful.

mother and daughters...

new embroidery on paper. my sister was blowing out my birthday candles. i was crying.

heat wave...

the heat is predicted to reach 98 degrees today in seattle. all the blinds are down in our apartment, the window is open and the fan is on high. thank goodness humidity is a thing of unpleasant memories from the ohio river valley. off to the library for air conditioning and solitude.

in progress...

new work experimenting with light, cut outs and string.

stunning...

these works by abigail doan are stunningly quiet and beautiful. she is in the viewing program at the drawing center in new york city. more of her work can be found here and here.

disparate trajectories...

i find these works by artist amelia bauer extremely compelling. more can be found here. in these pieces, she's using traditional, decorative arts such as needle point and lace to depict explosive scenes from hollywood films. i am most drawn to the metaphor created through the juxtaposition of violent cinematic scenes, painstakingly depicted in needlepoint onto pillows.
this show is opening at the cairo gallery in seattle thursday, july 23.

sandhounds...

a day at the beach...

fathers...

rose's birthday...

my internet has been down all day, for unknown reasons, and just as it dropped off the map, it has re-found its path and started working again for no apparent reason.
even though it prevented me from posting earlier, it allowed me to complete this new embroidery.
i love and hate the game of control and chance we play with technology.

blowing out the candles...

i just completed this embroidery last night. it is part of a new series of embroideries on paper drawn directly from my family photographs.
in this series of work, i am investigating the interchangeability of spaces and common acts, such as a birthday celebration. these acts and celebrations are so personal and important to us on the individual level, yet are so common and repeatable on the larger, human scale. i am fascinated by this relationship, and i am attempting to create work taken directly from a photographic moment in time which no longer exists. the moments are personal and nostalgic to me, yet relatable to a broader audience.

forgotten...

daily routines become an integral part of our lives; so much that sometimes, we take them for granted. when i left for college in 2001, my grandmother, rose, and i began corresponding through letter writing. i have stacks and piles of letters, postcards and envelopes, from her, containing all of my various addresses since leaving home.
when my grandmother died in october of 2006, i was left with incredible feelings of loss and emptiness. the cease of our letter correspondence affected me more than i could have imagined, eventually inspiring this project. i hand made envelopes, and sent them to her final address. they were empty vessels, allowing the continuation of daily practice, acting as stand-ins for our familiar correspondence.
the envelopes all eventually made it back to me, newly decorated with various foreign marks made by postal workers and machines. i find these marks to be one of the most beautiful and compelling aspects of the work, as their hasty, sharp nature, juxtaposed on the delicate surface of the handmade envelopes, acts as a metaphor for life and our role as individuals.
the envelopes are emblematic of everyday elements of control and chance.

sunday afternoons...

june.

space...

i adore the work of robyn love. more can be found here.
the way she both creates spaces, and the way she simply and beautifully changes spaces and objects with knitting and other things. the tradition and feelings of warmth from the act of knitting, as well as those of protection add symbolism and nostalgia to "ordinary" objects. i also enjoy the way she memorializes memorials.

sun lover...

more daydreams...

hand made mobile.
pink and yellow (tea and beet stained) swallows, cut from envelopes, given flight with thread and a found branch, wrapped in string.

new work...

this is some new installation work, and photographs of part of the process.

what's inside...

sweet home...

this seemed much more appropriate than a jumbled hook or jewelry box.
hand stained swallows that were hand cut from envelopes and given flight with string.