first week back

As one of my assignments this quarter, I am to maintain a daily practice. For me, this means a small drawing of my bird bones on an index card. I made a little book to hold the drawings using organza that I dyed with a potato dextrin resist and layered it over dark brown linen. I did a few test samples and tried to sew areas of the organza to the linen so it would lie flat and have texture but it didnt look right, so I decided just to sew the edges. I think it still looks strange because no matter how hard I tried, the organza will not lie flat on the linen.

There are three panels. The center panel has 2 flaps to hold the index cards in place.

See where it puckers? Its slightly annoying, but I love the crackle effect that the potato dextrin created.

I had some pics of knitted works in progress but somehow I lost them when I went to cut and paste and I am at work so I dont have the files. I'll be back later with them though, promise.

My internship at Working Class Studio started yesterday and it was a great first day. My bosses are awesome, they are very supportive, encouraging and hilarious. For our first assignment we had to create 3 tshirt designs for SCAD. Some were really great. I think my favorite was an illustration of a student showing her work to her parents and it said something like, "Rule #124: They will not understand, but they still love you." So true. Another one of this artists designs was a guy and a girl at their easels, the guy is looking over at the girl with a heart above his head but the girl is ignoring him and it said, "rule #58: There is no time for love in art school." Very cute. We also did an intro to screenprinting session which was awesome. I have screen printed using drawing fluid and screen filler but never photo emulsion so the process was really interesting to learn. I'll be back to show you what I made.

This first week of school has already been crazy so Im not sure how relaxing my weekend will be but I have a friend visiting from Florida so Im sure we'll get into something fun. Have a great weekend everyone!

im back!

Hello!

I know Ive been MIA for a while, but these things happen during finals and breaks in between quarters at SCAD. But I am back now and have a very messy place to start cleaning so I will leave you with some pics from the end of the quarter and my trip home to VA.

These are from my marsh installation series.







Sawyer helped!


My brother Matt and I at his graduation party. He just graduated from Univ. of Tennessee with a degree in engineering.

My brothers and sister and Maddy.

I always have good intentions of taking lots of photos when Im home but for some reason it never happens! I had so much fun with my family and friends and its never enough time to do everything or see everyone.

I have work in progress pics to take so I will be back soon to post those.

I'd like to take a second to say goodbye to my trusty '93 Jeep Cherokee. It blew the head gasket and over heated and is not worth the price to fix it, so thank you my trusty tank, you've gotten me through many moves and minor accidents, and Im sad to say goodbye.

a few things

The sticks after about a day. They are beginning to lock up but some pieces have gotten loose. Ive taken some short videos of the installation and will figure out how to upload that (any suggestions?). I think movement is very important in the work. Individually they take on a life of their own while still remaining a collective whole.

My four little birds have almost been completely cleaned off. Some stains seem to have transferred to the linen and Im sure the bugs have eaten holes under the birds. I havent decided how long I will leave these out, but it'll be a while longer.

Im still trying to figure out what to do with my buzzard bird bones. I want to document each one then incorporate them with felt or rusted fabric. I am thinking of treating the bones as specimens on display.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

sticks

Just wanted to show this installation real quick. I wrapped wool roving around sticks and hung them outside so that they will felt up. The sticks are hung to resemble an abstracted spinal cord. By placing them outside I am letting the felting/disintegrating happen naturally so the weather becomes the process.

happy mothers day!

My moms name is Margot. She has 4 children, age 25 (me), 21 (Matt) and 12 (Teresa and Bill). The only reason I am an artist and got through my undergrad degree is because of her. She gave me constant reassurance and encouragement when I felt insecure. She is totally unselfish and always puts others first. We live too far away from eachother, but Im hoping to convince her to move to Savannah (you know you want to mom!). I admire her strength and optimism and hope that I will be as patient and loving with my children (whenever that may be) as she is with hers.

My stepmothers name is Michelle (I cant find any pictures of her right now). She has been in my life since I was 9 or 10 and has always been a great friend to me, ready with advice whenever I need it. She tells the greatest stories, she has this incredible storytelling gift, and is an awesome cook (I still want your recipes!).

I am such a lucky girl to have two incredible women in my life. Happy Mothers Day to all of the mothers out there!

review

My Conditional Review today went great! I got some excellent input and advice and the faculty couldn’t be better. When I was in the Painting department I felt like a dark cloud was over me because I didn’t want to be painting, but thought its what I “should” be doing. I am so appreciative of the Fibers department and it makes me so nerd-ily excited that I wriggle around with delight! Yum!

So here are a few images from the review, and first things first, my outfit! Ha!

A table set up for the review with some of my felt explorations and rusted fabric.

Some work back from my Advanced Painting class. Rusted razor blades, found objects and hair.

Felt, hair and Habu yarn.

Felt, Hair, Habu yarn

Felt, tampons


I have 4 little birds laid out in the yard on linen in the process of decomposing. I am documenting the stages and hopefully some kind of imprint will appear on the fabric.

Ideas were flowing very easily today and I have a bunch of projects planned. Cori and I have also decided to create a piece of work every day for a week with a chosen material. This week is {nails.} We are still working out the details and will eventually come up with a set of rules but we are going to see what happens.

The condo has been such a horrible mess lately that I am making the final push in getting everything in order and clean. I have decided to host an Open House in an attempt to get rid of some stuff that other people might want. This means original artwork, clothing, a cute entertainment armoir thing, a tv, and whatever else I can clear out of here. I want to live more minimally…. Or as much as my lifestyle will allow. So sometime soon I will transform my place into a gallery space and put it all up for sale, with appetizers and cocktails of course.

Please check out No Impact Man’s blog today. He wrote a great post about things we can do to create less of an impact in our daily lives. It is really important to start incorporating things into your lifestyle that will have less of an effect on the environment and No Impact Man has some great suggestions.

I have to go get Chris motivated for our Home Depot trip this evening, I'll be back soon with updates!

im in!

I heard from WorkingClassStudio today and Im officially in! So its settled, instead of traveling and going to the beach this summer I'll be slaving away at WorkingClass and taking another class. The crappy part about the otherwise awesome opportunity this will be is that a) I have to PAY to do this internship because it is counted as a class and, b) if I design something they produce and sell, I dont get credit (or reimbersement) for my work. But the experience is going to be great, I'll get to see a production studio in action and its gonna be fun!

Cori and I had our gross girls day last week and I have pics of the buzzard thats been disinegrating for the past 9 months.





Arent the bones beautiful? It reminds me how fragile life is. I have some smaller birds decomposing right now so I'll update you on those in a few weeks. Ive put some of the smaller ones in a jar on top of linen fabric and rubber banded cheesecloth over the opening to see what happens. Idealy, the imprint of the bird will somehow transfer to the fabric but im not sure how or if its gonna work. Im not sure what Im going to do with all these bird parts yet, but Im going to start by setting up the bones and photographing them.

I am getting super sick with allergies again. Ugh I am so over feeling crappy. I had a major sinus infection in January that lingered through 2 doses of antibiotics and finally, after a lot of bloodwork and doctors visits, I was just starting to feel close to 100% again. There was a day last week that smoke from forest fires in Southern Georgia blew up to Savannah and completely ruined me. I am very resistant to taking medication so Im trying to survive this season by putting local honey in my tea every morning, and 6 times a day drinking 10-15 drops of a homeopathic liquid my chiropractor gave me thats supposed to help. We'll see. Im going to the doctors on Thurs and hopefully I dont have bronchitis or another infection.

I hope you all arent suffering from all the pollen this season. Even though I feel crappy, this is my favorite time of year because the weather is so perfect in Savannah and walks with little Sawyers are so pleasant.