a museum visit

visit to the DeCordova Museum....Julianne Swarz was there taking pictures of her work, which was so intricate and wonderful and needed today. Whispers, crickets, affirmations, and humor.

Julianne Swartz piece from "How Deep is Your...."

There Are No Pictures

great horoscope for a recycle reuse artist!!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "The Star-Spangled Banner" is America's
national anthem. It features the lyrics of a patriotic poem written by
Francis Scott Key. But the melody itself is entirely lifted from a bawdy old
song that celebrates Bacchus, the ancient god of wine and ecstatic
dancing. I love it when things are repurposed as dramatically as that. Do
you? The coming weeks will be prime time to repurpose stuff with
creative abandon. Make the past useful for the future, Taurus. Turn good
old ideas into fantastic new ones. Don't just recycle; transform.

next up, winter......

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  from headlikeanorange on tumblr.......winter intensive?
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commemorate

these are all the pieces for the commemorate video

I learned something new! To get stuff to transfer to cloth simmer for an hour and a half, then leave overnight.....

fabric from oak tree simmerings.....

a video to watch

http://vimeo.com/53265289yup, I made a video with my "commemoration" piece.

Commemoration

Just finished filming/making the commemorative piece I've been thinking about...a celebration of the people who touch the lives of children, and give hope and light bits to what otherwise, for many, is actually a dark time...childhood.

How would "we" otherwise survive? Rather than dig up a sad past, I wanted to celebrate this person that survived. .....
and so I baked a cake, a fancy cake, with lots of butter and decorations and sparkling sugar. Celebrate, people!

The Wind and the Rain

today, Sunday, was a day of getting ready for Frankenstorm...what will it mean? No one knows, but there's a lot of scary news happening...alarm alarm alarm!!
in light of the impending storm, I've shrouded some trees at the edge of the property with curtain fabric and clothesline...what will it mean? no one knows, but we'll see at the end of a few days time.

aaaaaaand a little video of wind and leaves....from an ipad. crazy.

Happy Birthday Robert Rauschenberg!

“I also like seeing people using materials that one is not accustomed to seeing in art, because I think that has a particular value. New materials have fresh associations, physical properties and qualities that have built into them the possibility of forcing you or helping you do something else. I think it’s more difficult to constantly be experimental with paint.”

—

Image of Robert Rauschenberg's 1988 photogravure, Soviet/American Array III, published by Universal Limited Art Editions (Bay Shore, New York) and courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

Robert Rauschenberg was born today in 1925. This wonderful quote is from an audio recording from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

commemoration....

com·mem·o·ra·tion  (k-mm-rshn)

n.

1. The act of honoring the memory of or serving as a memorial to someone or something.

2. Something that honors or preserves the memory of another.

 

so, I'm working now on a commemorative piece, which originally began as a mirror cover that depicted an honoring of the women who touched me, or "saw" me, in my growing up years and touched my life in a small but long lasting way...aunts who taught me to cook, sewed clothes for my dolls,  untangled the knot in the back of my hair, had me come stay for a weekend or so and just paid attention to me. Now, what's happened is that it's become a commemoration; I'm sewing a whole "kitchen's worth" of items, recycled white fabric, ecru thread, all by hand, and will use the pieces while I  bake a beautiful cake (white, with swiss meringue buttercream) for my daughters...I even found a small wooden cabinet with drawers that will hold the pieces...and video? I'm thinking of people who "see" in a very powerful way...they don't take over the child's life, nor fix anything, they just give a moment of attention that offers a glimpse of light in a child's confused life. It's more than kindness. Does anyone else have pieces of their life that were touched by these powerfully loving and giving types of people? Do you think they realize the impact that they have had?

babushka

potholder

beginnings of the cabinet...1.99 at thrift store!

got a scholarship!

hey, I got a scholarship!!!! whoot!!!things are definitely looking up!!!

mirror covers...

As I’m kind of isolated out here in the Berkshires, I thought I might share these images of a mirror cover that I just completed…but wanted to add some contextual information, so here’s a brief read, then images.

For this piece I  worked  with recycled fabric and found materials; my interest in mirror covers was incited during our summer intensive when we visited a textile collection . Upon researching the idea of mirror covers, I found that mirror covers are used to:

·       Cover a mirror during mourning so that the mourners do not focus upon themselves (vanity) but on the dead; they are tasked to consider the essential of the deceased rather than the surface (i.e. NOT what kind of car they drove)

·       Cover a mirror at sundown for fear that the DEVIL might be seen after dark(my favorite..who’s looking in the mirror?)

·       Cover a mirror during mourning so that the spirit does not travel through the mirror to a netherworld but goes the way that spirits should…

I'm going to explain a bit about the work, as the images do not translate well...this work is pieced from men's dress shirts and waterford dinner napkins and white handkerchiefs. I used ecru cotton embroidery thread for stitching and decoration.
I was watching bits of the RNC (?) and just started thinking about policy makers, politicians, administrators, and other persons in power, and this piece happened as I considered “power”. I’ve read some studies, including one which asks “Can Power Corrupt?”( answer, yes, but morally sound people tend to continue to be morally sound when in power)and the white shirt study in which people are asked to watch a video, and count the number of times a person in a white shirt is passed the ball..during the video a gorilla suited woman comes out, bangs on her chest, and walks out..and a high percentage of the viewers do not see the gorilla (about half.. to see the video go to Smithsonian.com/gorilla)  This phenomenon is called “inattentional blindness”. I’m also a big fan of This American Life and the podcasts on educational policy and the banking industry.
 I apologize for the quality of the images, but mirrors are difficult to photograph, and at night even more so. The small mirror to the right reads:

white collar darning stitch web of lies snow job feather stitch what goes around comes around cover up roll up your sleeves

gather chain stitch buttoned down patch things up all buttoned up shirt tails would you see the gorilla? labels darning stitch

mine everyone you meet is your mirror blanket stitch buttonhole the mirror does nothing it simply reflects easy work and a

white collar herringbone stitch keeping up appearances mine its all smoke and mirrors be the mirror who reflects it

Studio Visit from a favorite professor

 Katarina is in the house!

what time is it?!!!!

looking at paintings, finally

meeting the young'uns

in the preschool classroom, there's color everywhere!!

dog love

trails in the Berkshires.....

fall colors.....

public art...sculpture garden....

new workses.....

detail, pieced work mirror cover..."mine"

one side of the mirror cover! men's white dress shirts, dinner napkins, hankies, and boxers

my map of my summer brain....isn't that a lovely curtain, too?

Home Home Home Studio!

Welcome to the workspace la michele....with thanks to ikea and pratt and lambert zephyr pink....