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.

fingers crossed

I had my interview with WorkingClassStudio this morning. It went well, the team showed us around the space, which is this awesome studio inside a bridge - its crazy, and then the 12 of us interviewees showed examples and talked about our work. After I spoke about my work Sari, the director, said she had heard that I worked with bird bones. I was shocked she knew about that! It must have been obvious that I got really excited because Devin, the project manager, said that my eyes just lit up haha. Its always fun to shock people a little bit. Everyone is usually grossed out by it but they are always intrigued.


And this was my {I belong at WorkingClassStudio} interview outfit. A new Free People top from Terra Cotta, knickers from anthropologie and my fave greyish purple flats from Aldo (I wanted to buy more pairs but I cant find them online). I really hope to get this internship because It would definitely help my work and open up some doors. I'll hear something by Monday or Tuesday.

I feel stuck in the middle about a lot of stuff right now, like, wanting to make less of an impact on the environment and wanting to buy new clothes. gah! seriously though, Im slowly making changes to reduce waste and harmful effects on the environment.

So far, I have been driving less and riding my bike more. I only drive if its far away (out of the immediate downtown area), Im buying a lot of groceries, or its raining. I actually love riding my bike. It is a completely freeing feeling. Im not a slave to finding a parking spot or being stuck in traffic. Plus Im getting a great workout, the cruiser only has one speed and thats med-low so Ive really got to work if I want to go fast.

I am also trying to shop locally. I have been incorporating more groceries from Brighter Day and Polks Market, but we still occasionally make trips to Fresh Market and Kroger. Hopefully I will phase that out completely soon. We are signing up for a recycling program in Savannah because taking everything through the ghetto in the car is not something I want to continue doing. Also, and I wont go into too much detail, I have stopped using tampons and instead use the Diva Cup. Read the info on the site, its interesting.

More and more I am incorporating new things into my lifestyle so that I can make a small difference in this world. No Impact Man is my inspiration. I dont think I will every be able to take it as far as he is, but Im trying to figure out what works for me and try to achieve a good balance. My next step I think is to create a compost.

Later today my friend Cori is coming over so that we can give each other moral support when I clean off my bird bones and she cleans out her cow intestines. hahahah wow. this must sound very strange! Cori and I have a rough aesthetic I guess. But Im excited that we are working on similar things. I'll post photos later. For now Im off to get some spices for a dye experiment so have a wonderful day!

a few peeks

Rusted Linen
Hand felted wool

Just a few peeks. Now Im off to work, have a great day!