fluid

I'm dreaming about water again. Slick calm pools, unwavering, beckoning me to disturb their surfaces. I'm too taken by their beauty to dare to touch. And the next minute I'm swimming with friends and brief loves I haven't seen since a tropical time that seems ages ago.

Underwater. I'm breathing. The water is like a thick cool breeze, invisible, but there and felt going over and past me. I'm warm, it's quiet, I feel bliss. There are no thoughts, no voice reminding me to appreciate that this is a wonderful time, just a feeling that I'm so happy. I'm not thinking of where I am, what I'm doing, or what I'm wearing. Just me in the water.

And then I staged daydreams to the soundtrack of snow and rain hitting the window of the train taking me home. A fascination of the day: droplets.

And then I feel in love with Twice, and the clever way they make water in the shadow puppet video, and the amazing sound of Yukimi Nagano, who sang with Koop (another of my favorites, thanks to Charles). Mmmm... dreamy, I float in this.

I'm dreaming of water again. What's that supposed to mean?

mail art

 

Three things I love: journals, boxes, and letters. They often hold secrets and surprises. 

Art clash is organizing a mail art project. To participate, you send your name and address via snail mail to 4535 Larchwood Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19143 by March 14, and they will send you the names and addresses of 4 other participants. I sent off a letter to them today (in a handmade envelope cut from a menu, of course). So excited.

I also sent a nipple off to Free-for-all-mail-call.  I found a posting about this on craigslist. You send something, they will send you something back.  Fun stuff.

artsy folk

For the first time in my life, I love being in Philadelphia. On top of being close to my friends and family, there are great real communities of crafters and artists collaborating and helping each other work towards common goals.

On the crafty front, I've joined the Philadelphia Etsy Team. I'm looking forward to spring so we can do a few fairs together. I'll probably leave with more work from other people than profits from selling my own work. If I had all the tea in China...

I'm updating my link bar to include some of the shops and sites of the etsy team members. I love Mattson's paintings. They are are so adorable and funny. They make me smile and I love how he turns anything, from mustard to a teacup, into a character. There are a bunch of jewelers in the group who make great stuff and I'm going to do a bit of an exclusive in the next week or so with Amber Zaraza (fabulous name!), the creator of phea jean. She makes funky fabulous hats and bags.

In the world of fine art, I've been going to more galleries and museums and having more arty discussions. My two new favorite artists to spent time with are Katharine Loxley and Corey Armpriester. Katharine and I have big plans for the future, BIG PLANS. We have a lot of things in common (drinking, obsessions with certain body parts, interests in interactive art and community art projects, and we often have to deal with crazy artists), so we have lots to talk about. And she color coordinates her outfits really well. And she does collage work, some where doves are fucking. Love her!
Corey does great photo work and he's quite an inspiration. He's the older brother I wish I had. Corey's doing a great piece on the Patriot Act. He's wrapping people's heads in the flag and then taking pictures while they leave "a trail" of some sort--either making a phone call, sending a text message, on the internet, etc. He's having some difficultly finding people to sit for his project, which I'm actually quite surprised by, so if you're up for it, send me a message and I'll put you in touch with him. You get a print of your portrait. Love him!

So, things are going well in my universe--it's filled with cultural events, creative meetings, and days filled with making art.

Saturday night we had a benefit at the gallery to help Foyer of Philadelphia raise funds to get their organization started. FOP's mission is to facilitate LGBTQ young adults transition from foster care and/or homelessness to self-sufficiency and independence. My favorite piece in the gallery at the moment sold to a Frenchman named Pascal. Ah well, you can't keep them all.

Today I started working with a group of very cool people on a short film project, and my fiber pieces are coming along nicely. I'm so in love with this new body of work I want to make, it's all I can think about. I can't sleep, I don't want to go out sometimes, eating takes too much time away from being able to use my hands to make things. Next I just need the right venue (a gallery/institution/event or two, or three) to show the work at. Some funding would be nice too.

Here's an update on my big red experiment. I'm going to make the center beaded part light up when you poke it. Most of it is hand sewn. The beading took forever. I still need to sew the back and stuff it. I'm not sure it's flashy enough yet. This is about a week of work--about 5 movies, 3 episodes of Project Runway, and a couple long train rides. For the first one, I'm pretty pleased with it. I haven't sewn anything in years and I'm teaching myself a lot along the way. Stay posted to see what happened when I cut up a couple of pairs of jeans and found my glue gun.

Bata Shoe Museum

OMG SHOES!

Toronto is melting

Today's fascination: a mix of mud, puddles, dirty snow, sludge, and icy bits.

I loved the temperature, but my faux-suede boots weren't exactly the right choice to stand up to the massive thaw. Sitting on the subway, grumbling at the mud on my toes, I found myself deeply envious of this woman's funky rubber boots.

I love looking at the way women deal with the weather and create fun fashion solutions. My sister says as a result of coming home with wet pants hems on far too many cold nights she has resorted to wearing skinny jeans--only skinny jeans. Wandering the streets of Toronto, I spotted a lot of great examples of rubber boots expertly combined with leggings and skirts, over pants, or with jeans tucked in. Heels are just completely impractical if you are walking anywhere in this weather.

big red in progress

Good Times in Ottawa

I'm taking a bit of a mini-North American tour. I haven't seen Matthew since St. Petersburg in August 2006, so I spent a few days in Ottawa. I'm happy to report that Matt is the same awesome, funny guy... except now he has a rat tail and kinda scary facial hair. He's getting a kick out of creeping people out.

Regardless of the style he's sporting, it was really nice to just relax and spend some time together. It was super nice to eat things Matt whipped up in the kitchen.

Salmon pasta with rose sauce, zucchini, olives, and dill.

Matt made the best curry carrot ginger soup I've ever had. The basic recipe was something like this:
*1 diced medium onion
* 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
* 4 Tbsp of minced fresh ginger
* 2-3 cloves finely minced garlic
* 1½ c. chopped carrots
* 3 c. vegetable broth
* Matt's crazy special mix of curry, cinnamon, and ???

Heat olive oil over medium heat in the bottom of stockpot. Add onions and cook until soft. Add ginger, garlic, spices, and cook until soft and fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.

Add carrots and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until carrots are exceedingly tender, about 20-30 minutes. Puree the soup in a blender.

Thin with additional broth as needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

It was cold and snowing in Ottawa, so we didn't go ice skating, but we did go to the National Gallery. They have a nice Contemporary Art collection. Two sculptural pieces left an impression on us. I really liked BGL’s The Discourse of Elements. There were secret spaces to explore. Matt totally loved watching The Way Things Go, by Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It's one of my favorites too.



Till next time Mr. Pops Locks & Bagels...

boobies in progress

I've started working on a series of large fiber nipple/breast works. I want them to look like pasties for mother nature.

I started out with a tape form. I used instructions from tapesculpture.org

Step 2. Fabric experiments.

update

Let's see...

1. I opened a shop on etsy. Now you can buy my crafty goods, play with my nipples, and purchase funny things I picked up in Korea. Check it out. I'll do custom stuff too.

2. I'm in Canada. It's so cold, it's oppressive. It's just wrong.

3. I'm working on a lot of good ideas. I haven't ever been so active creatively and motivated to seek out opportunities to show my work. I feel spectacular about this.

4. I'm starting a new (snail/real) mail-based project. Email me if you are interested in participating and I'll send you details.

5. I slacked towards the end of thing-a-day. I couldn't keep up with posting. I made a thing or two a day, but I got lazy with the documentation. Disappointing.

salon

I don't even know where to start.

The presentation I gave at the FPA Salon was SO MUCH FUN! What a fantastic audience. I gave away pieces of koco and met a collections of wonderful creative people. To note a couple, I shared the evening with painter Jenny Kanzler and photographer Corey Armprester.

This was exactly what I needed to make my return to the states feel like a welcome home. I'm inspired to do more storytelling in public, do performances, make things, and start collaborative pieces.

The First Person Arts people were just amazing, totally funky fabulous menches. AND they invited me to come back for an update on the project! So, I'm busy giving pieces away and collecting stories, so if you'd like a piece of koco, holla at me!

I haven't always loved Philly, but it is a city that is kind to artists and I'll have to take advantage of this while I'm around. I'm willing to give it another try, and if this truly is the city that loves you back, I may end up here longer than I planed.