Where has the time gone? It's been a very busy few months and yet, I feel like I haven't been doing a whole lot. I have to say, the best thing about living by oneself is that you can throw your clothes everywhere, let the sink pile up with dishes and clean - when you get to it. The downside is that your clothes are everywhere, the dishes need to be done and you SOOOOOO need to clean. And you're the only one around to do it. What have I been doing since my last post months ago?
It's been a really great Fall. I received my first major award for the artwork I've been producing - a Pollock-Krasner grant!! Whereas the award itself is not a great sum of money (trust it, I am very happy with their generosity!), it's really more about the prestige. I am also very proud of the fact that I received this honor while in the little ol' town of Omaha. It also came at a really great time for me. I would still be striving and pushing my work out into the big, bad art world regardless, but receive something like this really makes me feel that all my efforts for the past 8 years have been validated - the cookie-ing off the interstate into a ditch during the winter after doing a lecture in Minnesota, hauling my work from venue to venue because I couldn't afford to ship it, the miles accumulated on my poor little blue car, the luke-warm reviews, being ignored by gallerists or curators, having to hang my own work in a "professional" space.....you get the idea. This makes me want to go after other awards and well, just keep going.
I don't have any solo exhibitions lined up. It's getting time that I get back on that horse and start the hunt. I need to make some new work, though. I have, but it's been a bit all over the place in regards to my materials. I'm still using the female form as my vehicle of expression. I don't see that changing any time soon. I made a few half doll figurines out of oven bake clay. They came out a bit awkward, but they were a lot of fun to make. I brought them to be critiqued by a small group of people at Arthaus 11 - a fantastic venue created by my friend Stuart Chittenden. The premise was to have a time for intimate discourse led by an artist. The group size is 11 individuals and it's a fist RSVP served situation. So, I had some people who didn't know me giving me feedback on my dolls. It was great! Anyway, I put the dolls aside for a spell. I'm now working on a latch hook rug.
There are artists out there that have pushed this craftsy hobby and used it to make some very cool and interesting contemporary art. I bought a kit from artist Whitney Lee. We had work in a show together years ago in Kansas City. Her Soft Porn series (latch hooked images of porn stars) is dynamite! Not to be naive, I did a little hunting around to see what other artists were latch hooking it up. I found the work of artist Rob Conger and this naughty website dirtypillowz.com (A latch hook pillow depicting a leather 3-way anyone?). It's very important to see what other people are making and my work is definitely in line with the discourse of sexy, naughty, kitsch. My rug is depicting three hip hop hotties. I found the image on line a while ago when I was looking for images to use as a source for some large scale paintings. I love the image which is a color photograph of three oiled up, smoking hot video vixens. The one in the center has the most RIDICULOUS stomach! There is something about the pose that makes me see them more like goddesses then vixens. I looked to see who shot the photo, but alas haven't had luck. I tried to paint the image, but it just wasn't working out. Who knew that latch hooking the image would be the perfect solution? I grey-scaled the image and then pixilated the image via Photobucket. I then uploaded the file on Blockposter.com and printed it out to the size of 50" x 50". From there, it was off to the fabric mart to pick out my yarn and away we go! Yeah - I forgot just how long it takes to latchhook a rug. I've been working on it for over a month! The end is in sight, though, and I am really excited. Some distortions occurred because I couldn't find yarn for all the values and some weird elongation happned, but for an experiment in seeing if I could make it and it look good - I'm quite pleased! I"m going to have it in a group show being organized by Birdhouse Interiors. The exhibition is called Home and looks like quite the to do. Here's a link explaining the what it's all about:
http://home.birdhouseinteriors.com/
I'm looking forward to it. This project has required a lot of alone time. A LOT of alone time. I haven't spent time like this with one project in a while. It's nice and it's isolating. I like how I have been obsessed with getting it finished, but when it's done, I'll be taking a nice break from that kind of activity. Or will I.....?
