Join me on Saturday, April 30th from 3-4:30p for a walkthrough of Nothing Goes to Waste, the current exhibition at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, alongside other artists from the show.
This gathering is bittersweet as it may be our public chance to wish curator Kathryn Hall well as she leaves her post for new projects in New York. Kathryn was the curatorial fellow when I arrived to the Center for a residency at the end of 2012 and assumed the role of curator shortly thereafter. In other words, I have never known the organization without her—it is truly the end of an era. While I didn’t anticipate it at the time, the photo she snapped of me a few months ago wearing my vectran sleeve almost looks like a hand waving goodbye!
Event link.
THE FELT STORE SPONSORSHIP
I’m happy to announce that The Felt Store has supplied a stash of remnant pieces of their wool blend craft felt for use in a new body of work. These pieces will further my work to date making abstract organic forms using stuffed and folded fabric elements, with the usual dose of surprises along the way, no doubt. With a working title of Every Last Drop, the project continues my commitment to utilizing scrap materials in my creative process and also refers to the many drips, bubbles, and ripples of this series.
It’s such a gift to be able to use this extended season of Covid to experiment with multiples at home on my own timeline. I’m reminded that last summer I strained to keep up with the prompts I had created for myself for participating in the 100 Day Project. Over the project timeline, a creator is supposed to brainstorm and iterate daily on a theme for over three months. This could be as simple as draw a cat or as complex or conceptual as one’s own imagination. While it is a powerful way to push through blocks and those nagging questions of whether something is ‘good’ and just keep going, it was difficult for me to share pieces on social media that I didn’t love, which is simply inevitable over that period of time.
That said, it was also during this period that Guide Stars rushed into being, a body of work that I’m quite proud of, so I’m convinced of the value of the effort while at the same time wish there was a way to hold one’s self accountable without having to publicly post so many duds. This summer I’ll enjoy going at my own pace and presenting images of my work when I’m satisfied with them. Without the other experience, however, it’s likely that I wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate the beauty in this kind of slowing down. Despite the challenges brought on this year, I hold huge gratitude for the endless opportunities to reflect, create, and grow.
WHEN TRADER JOE'S IMITATES ART
I had a strange feeling wash over me in the grocery the other evening when I noticed an uncanny similarity in what I was spending a painstaking amount of time doing in the studio to a teaser item in the checkout line.
Earlier that day I had dragged out my collection of blob-like felt spheres and had begun work anew, yet after seeing the $4.99 handmade trivet boasting 100 handmade felted wool balls per piece, I’m having a tricky time motivating myself to resume, even though the prototype necklace was a huge hit with a friend’s five-month old.
What makes it even worse is I’d scoffed at the cheesiness of the nearby wine bottle planter succulent garden (Who’d buy that! ) just before my gaze fell on the trivets. If anything, the .49 cent balls look better than what I’ve done after untold hours of steady sewing, though to my credit—no one will ever think to use them on a hot pot of pasta sauce.
