Elizabeth J. Smith Art

Our Save-The-Dates!

2010-10-19T12:04:00.001-04:00

So, I just sent these to print. I'm really excited to have this crossed off the to-do list. I also enjoyed embroidering the piece for them. I know it's just a little simple postcard, and most folks will probably throw it away once our invites come in (and they will most likely toss those invites away once they glean all necessary information), but I still like to try to do something unique to us. Plus, now Brendan and I have a token of this particular and special time in our lives to hang in our home. So, as a devout textile artist and designer, and as a couple who loves to bike ride, and who generally enjoys the simple things in life, we felt this was what represented us best. And while I embroidered everything, Brendan definitely had a hand in choosing layout, background, color choices and font treatment. And like so many things about our lives and our wedding planning, it's truly a joint effort. :)

Now to wait for them to come back from our printers, organize addresses, get postage and distribute them.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2010-10-01T11:56:00.000-04:00

Hello!
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is also the month that Philadelphia will be hosting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3Day Walk, a 60 mile walk that I am working towards participating in (October 15th-17th). I only qualify to walk if I reach the minimum fundrasing goal of $2300. Currently I am 70% of the way there! I know that raising $2300 per participant sounds crazy steep, but it takes a lot of money to build meaningful results: clinical research, outreach & community development, and education regarding facts about the disease, methods of detection, and options for those who have been diagnosed.

It's very likely that all of us have had someone we love affected by this disease or eventually will. Latest stats say one in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. While this sounds like a terrifying statistic, there is good news: due to large amounts of money going towards research and development, the chances of a woman's survival from breast cancer is pretty good! The 5 year survival rate of women diagnosed with breast cancer is 89%! Additionally, if the cancer is found early, before it has spread to other parts of the body and remains confined to the breast, the 5-year survival rate is 98%!! But these stats won't remain so positive if we don't continue to fight.

This is why I'm asking each of you to donate $25 to my fund, though anything is more than welcomed! I'm aware of these tumultuous economic times (I've been laid off TWICE in the last year and am still currently looking for a stable job) but I started this journey and I would be completely thrilled if I were able to finish it! I won't get there without your generosity. Please go to: www.the3day.org/goto/BSmith523 to donate. All donations are tax-deductible.
Thank you so much. :)

PS - if you have friends or family that you think might be interested in donating towards the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer fund, please tell them that I am walking and suggest they donate to me. I would truly appreciate it. Thank you!

Yellow Shoes, How I Love Thee

2010-09-28T10:35:00.002-04:00

So, I bought a wedding dress the other week. It's pretty simple, really a bridesmaid dress made in an off-white, so it's short (to the knee). I'm excited by it. But I'm more excited about finding killer yellow shoes to go with it!

Here's what I've found that I like so far: (ranging in price from about $100 to almost $400, which is crazy expensive, I know...)

Wedding Vortex

2010-09-27T08:57:00.000-04:00

So, I've been in the bell jar. No wait, the wedding jar....cake? dress? ....VORTEX. Yes, vortex, wedding vortex. Swirling yards of fabrics in all various whites, flowers, photographers, musicians, decisions, etc.

And it can get daunting. However, there are some things I've learned:

1. Sometimes making decisions can be difficult. Once you go in one direction, all those other directions you were entertaining in your head are shut down. You might worry about all your stockpiled "what if?"s.
THROW THOSE OUT. Once you've made your decision, feel a sense of well-earned confidence and don't look back. There's about a million more decisions coming up, so you don't want to keep stockpiles of "what if?"s in your head. That's precious mental room for keeping cool, planning a honeymoon or just maintaining your sense of self through this process.
On that note: there are MILLIONS of wedding blogs and resources out there. It's really fun to look through them, find ideas you like and tailor them to your own affair. But I strongly suggest that after a certain point, like once you've settled on certain decisions (date and venue, overall look or feel of wedding), you take a break (you can go back to looking if you want to after a break, but don't make yourself nuts). By then, you've probably got yourself a laundry list of possible flower arrangements, invitation ideas, favors, decor. Just take a couple weeks off from the wedding porn (and maybe even talking about wedding stuff with your partner) and just chill. This allows some time for all that information you've absorbed to convalesce. You'll then be able to approach your decisions with fresh eyes and a clear brain, thus making decisions a lot simpler.

2. I'm pretty sure that every engaged couple is met with resistance from well-meaning friends and family at least once during the wedding planning process. The key here is to always remember it is well-meaning! They've been to weddings where they thought something was so fun, it's now a "must have" for them. They are just trying to share that sense of fun with you. What they might be forgetting is that this wedding is yours and your partner's, and will be different from any wedding out there, so the "must haves" for one well-meaning friend/family member might be a "not necessary" or "not wanted" in your case. So, stick to your guns on this, and with a gentle firmness, let them know you're not interested. Sometimes being polite and gracious in the face of all this "help" can be daunting, but it's important to keep things cool while standing firm.

3. Just because you and your partner want something a certain way doesn't make you a bridezilla. I've watched a few episodes of that show, and unless you've turned into some sort of psychotic mega-jerk, intent upon terrorizing anyone within your sight-lines (partner, family, friends, wedding planner, etc), then you're probably not a bridezilla. If you are particular about something, it doesn't make you a bridezilla (unless you start psychologically damaging those trying to help you). Always try to maintain your cool and stand firm in your decisions. Remember that this is supposed to be about you and your partner. Doing things your way is going to make this a very happy event for you guys. And come wedding day, your guests aren't going to care about all the things they didn't even know was on the table at one point or another. Weddings are supposed to be full of all the people who love you best, and they're going to love you weather you have a 10 piece band or an iPod playlist. So, don't be afraid to hold onto what you REALLY want for your wedding. Keeping things about you and your partner never makes you a bridezilla.

4. Wedding magazines, on the whole, SUCK. They are full of over-blown outrageous fantasy weddings (most of which I find garish) and not much in the way of real-world practical information and help. The only one I've found that is actually helpful (and now contains my notes and scribbles in it's margins) is Real Simple's 2010 Weddings issue. Online is more information too. The issue costs more (about $14) but that's because it's not choked with advertisements. There's a really helpful time-line in there, broken down month by month so you know that however many months from your date, such and such should be taken care of. There's info on how to keep things on a budget while being stylish, things to think about, questions answered, etc. Also, it's just one issue so you're not over inundated with information. It's been really helpful.

5. The wedding industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. That's per year. It's insane. Weddings have become a fetishized affair. Advertising for weddings has become really clever at making brides feel that they should pull out all the stops and spend loads of money they don't have on a one-day party. This is not to say this day shouldn't cost something and shouldn't be given a special priority in your life. It should. It's so joyous and amazing to promise to love your partner forever and build a life with them! It's beautiful that you want both of your families and all your friends to bear witness to this momentous event! But these sentiments are intangible, so there's nothing to buy or sell for it. The wedding industry works to make you feel that you need to express these intangible feelings through lots of needless and expensive crap or you're somehow NOT expressing your love enough or NOT providing a good time to your family and friends. THIS IS A LIE. Wedding vendors charge thousands of dollars for something because they know they can. But if more people start demanding that they bring their prices down, the landscape of the industry will change. ($2000-$3000 for flowers? Crazy. Especially when farmer's markets or Whole Foods sells gorgeous flowers for $10 or less per large bouquet. Remember that part of what you're paying for is delivery and expertise, but understand that they're only flowers).

The handmade movement is already pushing for industry changes. There are more and more handmade weddings happening, be them either 100% handmade or incorporating certain hand done elements and ideas. This is usually cheaper (the labor costs fall to you and your willing friends and family) and will definitely be unique to your own day. If you're a designer, who says you can't design your own invites and favors? Who says you even need favors? If you're not artsy, there are plenty of easy and simple DIY project instructions to be found online and Etsy is a huge marketplace for crafty and artsy people who are specializing in making wedding items (dresses, decor, invites, favors, etc). A little research can yield great options that are budget-friendly. Additionally, small local businesses that do wedding stuff can be really flexible about staying in your budget. For example, we recently met with Hana & Posy as a possible florist. They are eco-friendly, local and run by two wonderful women who are about 30 or so. They really listened to what we were saying and are keen to stay in that budget. Additionally, when we asked what their professional opinion was regarding flowers for our reception site (they're familiar with our venue), they didn't try to foist extra goods on us. They agreed that our venue doesn't really need much in the way of extra decor and that a little can go a long way. Additionally, our photographer, Melissa Chinici, was the same way - didn't start talking me into extra hours or options, listened to what we want and how long our day is going to be, and agreed that her least expensive package (starting at under 1K!) is plenty for what we want. So, all in all, there are options for a frugal bride. Stylish, professional and fun options.
So just because the wedding budget gods dictated that (insert wedding vendor service) should cost about (insert percentage of wedding budget here) doesn't mean you have to spend that. There are vendors out there, like photographers and florists, who either start with a reasonable package price or are more than willing to work with you on your budget. So mention your budget (even if it's far below that industry sanctioned percentage) and see what they can do.

6. HAVE FUN. This is a unique time in your lives. Enjoy it. Don't forget to be a couple, as you were pre-engagement. Don't forget to go on dates, romance each other, and take breaks from wedding planning. Don't forget to work on other things, like your hobbies or projects, or other goals you have as a couple. The wedding is one day. The marriage is hopefully forever.

I join you again, my unemployed brethen.

2010-07-28T23:17:00.000-04:00

Well, after just a mere 2 months back in the employment saddle, I was thrown off. Being laid off once sucked. Being laid off again, in such short order, makes me feel so weary and battle-worn. I know it's not personal, being laid off. It's business, and apparently business is a bit bust right now.
What's so especially difficult is that we'd begun to plan things, to save, to work towards our goals. When I was laid off for nearly a year, that kind of stuff, "future stuff" was put on the back burner. It was entirely about how to budget, to scrape by, to handle the next month or two, and anything beyond the ends of our noses was just too much to consider. Having a job again took a lot of pressure off of us, especially Brendan, which made me feel like the kind of partner I want to be for him. I was able to relax into myself again, and able to feel like a real and productive person, a contributing member of my two-person team, instead of feeling like a total looser.
I am dreading my engagement party in a few weeks now. People will ask how I'm doing, ask about plans, ideas, my life...what will I say? That I'm so stressed out by everything anymore that I barely sleep most nights? That my jaw clicks because I clench it constantly? That I feel powerless in my own life? That I'm afraid of the future or rather, afraid I don't have one?
No, of course not. I will probably be ok by then. I will probably have gotten past some of this and feel able to manage the rest.
I'm probably just feeling sorry for myself. It's not the worst thing in the world. It just really fucking sucks right now.
Excuse me. I'm going to go wallow with my dog now. Her fuzzy belly will heal my broken pride.

One Disaster at a Time

2010-06-17T19:20:00.007-04:00

Pictured here is a 30"x30" wall quilt (there's a built in sleeve for hanging on the back) that myself and the other members of my artist collective, The Midwives Collective & Gallery, stitched to raise money for our chosen charity: Midwives for Haiti. Each block was done by a different member (though Christiana did the two of the cat and dog dreaming and I did two, the middle stylized flower and below that, the fish scales). But anyway, it's wonderful to have various styles and visions come together into one piece. Additionally, this quilt is being raffled off into the beginning of July! All the $$$ from the raffle goes to Midwives for Haiti.

Now, I know that since Haiti was leveled by that terrible earthquake about 5 months ago, other horrific disasters have happened: Guatemala's sinkhole, Earthquake in Chile, Floods and Mudslides in Rio De Janeiro, BP's Gulf Oil Spill and we're only 1/2 way through 2010 (and of course, we're not done digging out of the global recession....). It's a bit overwhelming at times, rendering me completely helpless. But doing something like this quilt, as well as doing my own quest against Breast Cancer, makes me feel a bit like I can do something, that something is in my control to, if not completely fix, at least be a part of the solution and sending out something positive. And, wonderfully enough, you too can be a part of that positivity and purchase raffles for this quilt for CHEEEEEEEEEP (and know that you're helping pregnant women and new mothers have healthy babies).

Thanks!

Last time I slept?

2010-06-10T07:53:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure when was the last time I got a full night's rest. It's been weeks.

THIS IS WHY

*I hope to see everyone tomorrow, Friday, June 11th, to celebrate. :)

Silver Seabright Bantam Cock

2010-05-31T21:27:00.001-04:00

Silver Seabright Bantam Cock - detail
Originally uploaded by Elizabeth J. Smith

I finally finished the 1st in a series I want to do of roosters based off of the book "The Fairest of the Fowl".

Made a logo and such

2010-05-04T21:02:00.007-04:00

This is what I did today (after sending out resumes, setting up three interviews and possibly scoring a job --- BOO-YAH!):

New Post on SquidWhale!

2010-05-03T14:32:00.000-04:00

Hey Friends! My collaborator, Sarah L. Hunt, just posted her very first blog post on our SquidWhale blog.

Check it out!

Thanks!!

SquidWhale is taking over my life.....

2010-05-03T08:32:00.000-04:00

Not that I mind. I mean, I kind of do because I have a back-log of projects, both for my personal work and for SquidWhale, and each day I conjure new projects for both of my creative endeavors. I can see now that my work will never be done. I'm thankful for that though. If I were done with all I wanted to do, I'd be dreadfully bored. Then what? I'd wait around to...I dunno, die? Snoooore.


Sarah has developed these awesome plaid mice. The other pieces are elements from our 4ft. wallpaper design.These images will eventually be printed onto fabrics that will then be used for our product line.

So, I don't have much to show you right now (except the above image), but my partner in crime, Sarah, is going to be updating our shared SquidWhale blog soon with details of our thrifting adventure and where our work is thus far in our first collection. The thrifting was our first one together. She's been thrifting her whole life, and I've known Sarah for, oh, about a decade, and this past weekend was the first time she got me thrifting. I think it helps to have a focus on what you're searching for. It also helps that I'm imbibed with a sense of purpose and determination at building my own business.
Additionally, for the Midwives Members Show in June, all members are doing a quilt block for a small redwork quilt. A couple of us are doing two blocks. This is my second one:

Just a bunch of fish scales.

I'm thinking some of these will be filled in with a satin stitch.

I also have an octopus thing I'm drafting right now for an embroidery project. This project was on hold for a while to work on my dyed silk pieces for my show, LAMINA, which is up at Barefoot Clinic until May 28th. But I'm looking forward to making the octopus. I love doing the research and drawing the imagery and then building that into an embroidery. Sometimes I get frustrated at how time-consuming these things can be, but I remember that it's OK to take my time to do it right, and there will never be enough time to do all that I can think of doing, but it's good that I don't have a lack of ideas to be excited about. And hey, at least I ain't bored. ;)

Please Follow SquidWhale Designs!

2010-04-13T14:42:00.000-04:00

Hello! If you follow my blog, please follow my budding lil' business: SquidWhale Designs! Also, we are on the Facebook and the Twitter. We would love to have you all follow us or fan us or friend us or whatever tech-computer non-word or noun-as-verb lingo is most appropriate.

The Date is Set!

2010-04-11T15:59:00.004-04:00

We just got back from Valley Green Inn and our meeting with Kate, their events coordinator. I can't believe how easy it was to put together our contract for our wedding and reception and how relatively inexpensive this is going to be! While I don't think we'll get to our goal of 10K (after factoring in all the other stuff, like photographer, flowers, invitations, etc), we'll definitely not be over our budget, which is awesome! And Kate is so helpful and easy to work with. Valley Green Inn is a beautiful venue. And it's really wonderful that Wissahickon Park is a place that is meaningful to both Brendan and I.
Right across the dirt road from the Inn is this lovely river, where ducks and geese hang out. There are benches all along it and further up the road a little bit is an area of picnic tables. This will be good for all the kids coming to the wedding. They'll be able to go run around a little and feed the geese when they get restless.
We're really relieved at how simple this was. No crazy hidden costs, and they have great all-inclusive packages. They really are so willing to work with us regarding details and specifics that I don't feel like we're trapped into something we don't want or having to pay for things we're not interested in having. And the setting is so lovely, there's really not much we'll have to do to doll it up.
Oh, and we settled on May 22, 2011! It's the day before my birthday, but that's just coincidence. We were thinking either the 15th or the 22nd. After speaking with our flower people, we decided the later date because that's typically when better blooms are happening. We're trying to do things as seasonally as possible, as well as showcasing local vendors/businesses we like. Our florist is the family we buy bouquets from each year at our farmers market.

The river that runs in front of the Inn.
Geese and ducks like to congregate closer to the bridge.

Another shot of said river.

Mom & Dad!

Brendan & I standing just about where
we'll be exchanging vows.

Follow the path to a cute little
picnic area.

Spring is here!

2010-04-10T11:48:00.002-04:00

It isn't officially Spring until Brendan buys me my first bouquet from Clark Park's farmers market. And so, officially, Spring has sprung in glorious color!

120,000 steps and 2300 dollars

2010-04-06T11:00:00.000-04:00

I'm walking the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3Day, (Oct. 2010) which is 60 miles over 3 days. This translates to roughly 120,000 individual steps I'll be taking just on that weekend. This doesn't include the many, many training walks I have to do leading up to game day. And I've been training hard. But all that training will be for nothing unless I reach the minimum fundraising goal of $2300. That money allows me to walk.

And I want to walk. Badly. I really, really want to walk. I feel very strongly about this. The 3Day is the single largest demonstration one can do to raise awareness about (and funds for) breast cancer and applicable treatments and research. I like being healthy and like the training for this, but I know there will come a time when I may not be so healthy. I have people in my life who've been affected specifically by breast cancer. I want to do something big and important and lasting for them and for those that have been lost, which is why I'm cultivating blisters on my feet and going to sleep sore several nights a week. It's why I'm saving up for a new pair of really great supportive sneakers, and why I'm binding and icing my crappy trick right ankle. It's why I'm setting aside many hours each week to walk, when I could be sitting around and relaxing or doing almost anything else. This is why I'll be trekking through heat, rain, chilly early mornings, on mud, on concrete, on dirt paths and pebbly roadsides. But getting to the 3Day is not an individual act by me. It's going to take a community of supporters to bring me to that finish line on Sunday, October 17th.

And that's where you, the donor come in. I know everyone has at least one woman in their lives whom they absolutely love and adore. If you love that woman, choose to donate to my fund so I can walk for them and for you. I've had people donate $100, and I've had people donate $5, and every single dollar counts. I'm so thankful to all that have been generous to me and I hope more people set aside even a little bit to donate to me. Help me spread the word. If you've donated, let your friends and family know. Let them know they can donate to my fund as well. Donating is the easy part. CLICK HERE and support me as I prepare for those extremely important 120,000 steps this October.

Thanks!!

Solo Show Reception: LAMINA

2010-04-05T08:27:00.002-04:00

Lamina 3
Originally uploaded by Elizabeth J. Smith

Some photos from my opening for LAMINA @ Barefoot off on Girard Ave. This photo was taken by my friend Kelly Burkhardt. Thanks Kelly! For more photos from this reception CLICK HERE.

Thanks!

That was not my life...

2010-04-03T18:12:00.003-04:00

....It was just a weird detour.

Yesterday I finished a several week stint temping for a corporate place out in the burbs. I was waking up at 5am and getting home by about 7pm each day. It was torture because I had no time to make anything or work in my gallery. I'm never going to live in the burbs again. It was fine for my childhood, when I didn't know better and my life was just going to school anyway, but it is a soul-suck now. I was working at a place that encouraged me to "slow down" and "check my email" and "relax on the internet" because I was too efficient. This from the bosses. I don't get it. But I don't have to because it's over.

Now I can get back to the business at hand. My friend, Helen Maurene Cooper, just had her show open at my gallery, The Midwives Collective & Gallery. I'm so proud of her. I love her work. I loved curating her work together. We conducted an artist talk/Q&A today, and I thought it went really well. I didn't sound stupid. Christiana gave me the nicest compliment, saying I sounded like I was on NPR's Fresh Air. I only wish. But it was the greatest possible thing I could have heard post-Q&A. And Maurene is so smart, so inspirational, I'm just thrilled that I was able to produce this show and today's event with her. Things weren't as well attended as I'd have liked, but there were forces working against us, namely: (1) We were competing directly with First Friday, which we never do (we do Second Friday openings), (2) it was a holiday weekend and folks were out of the city visiting family for Easter, (3) apparently the Phillies played last night. So, while not as well attended, I'm still proud. I'm thankful too, to be getting back to my real life.

Next up Sarah and I have a lot of work to do for our June show and the subsequent launch of SquidWhale Designs. I'm very excited about this. I am so intent upon making this a success. I've decided I'm not going to go to grad school but use the things I'm doing now, like Midwives and SquidWhale, to make a life. I don't want to teach and that's all that would be available to me on the other side of a MFA. I'd rather be in the community, doing and making. I don't need a piece of paper to validate my life. I've got so many skills and tools that I can use, so I'm going to do that. It will be difficult, but it will also be extremely rewarding. I cannot wait!

shhhh.......!

2010-03-23T14:27:00.000-04:00

SQUIDWHALE IS COMING!

Redwork embroidery quilt block - Finished!

2010-03-17T06:47:00.003-04:00

Finished off my redwork quilt block last night! It's fun to see my design done in embroidery. Next up I'll be making hand-painted wallpaper with it and a few other designs.

Redwork Embroidery Quilt Project

2010-03-15T10:40:00.006-04:00

For the Midwives Collective's upcoming members' show (June 2010), in addition to our own personal works, we're doing a collaborative group project: a redwork embroidery quilt. Each of us is going to produce a single block. Then my mom and her friend are going to piece the quilt together and finish it off for us (Thanks Mom!). The pictured red fabrics are the other fabrics that are going to be used in our collaborative quilt.
This quilt will either be auctioned or raffled off during our show. 100% of the proceeds will go to benefit Midwives For Haiti.
The design I'm using for my own block is taken from an original repeated design Sarah and I are producing for our collaborative installation for the Midwives members' show. My current designs are based on the stylized florals of Richard Hoffman.

Visions of Things to Come

2010-03-09T17:26:00.010-05:00

Once both Lamina (my solo show) and Bedazzzzled (Maurene's solo show at the Midwives Gallery) open, Sarah and I have much to concern ourselves with. June is the annual Midwives Collective Members show, and this year's theme is "red", whatever that may mean to the artist. Sarah and I are working collaboratively on this project. Last night we had a great meeting where we agreed on some key points and ideas, scheduled a few weeks' worth of workshop days, and set goals for the coming weeks. This is going to be good.

MARCH 26th is SOLO SHOW - LAMINA

2010-03-09T09:04:00.005-05:00

Ok, so it's really happening. It was a bit touch and go when we were figuring out dates and such but it's on for March/April. There's an opening reception on March 26th, which I'm hoping will be decently attended. Must thank fellow artist Darla Jackson for approaching me and setting this all up. :)
The deets:
Barefoot Doctor Community Acupuncture Clinic
618 E. Girard Ave Fishtown, PA 19125

March 13 - April 30,2010
RECEPTION: Friday, March 26th, 6-9pm

This is a detail of one of my new pieces for this show.

Back of postcard with info (click it for much bigger view)

Wedding Inspiration

2010-03-06T11:58:00.021-05:00

Our venue is the Valley Green Inn in Wissahickon Park. We're planning things for May 2011, when everything will be lush and green.

Some inspiration and possible purchases or DIY projects. All photos link back to where I originally found them.

I like bunting flags. I made a bunch of Christmas ones for myself and a friend this past year. They're so easy to make, to personalize and effortlessly adds color and interest to a setting. They're also super cheap to produce!

This is a photo of a particular favorite bouquet that Brendan bought me last Summer from our farmer's market flower people, Triple Tree Flowers. They're going to be our florist. We're planning a trip to their flower farm for this May.

Petal paper cones for post-ceremony celebration. These are super easy to make too and can be personalized with any kind of paper and ribbon or whatever details. I've seen ones where folks take their "wedding logo", print them onto cardstock, cut them and tape or glue the logos to the cones, making them super personalized and thematically cohesive. I like the idea of having folks throw petals instead of rice or something. I wouldn't mind getting petals in my hair, but I'd definitely not want bread crumbs or rice or something like that getting on me.

I'm excited about these rustic wood cake stands. Even if I find a felled tree and slice off a few logs and level them, it'd be perfect. The first photo links to DIY directions. So simple and stylish, while super cheap to make.

I found this invite online. It was kind of serendipitous because a few weeks before I found it I thought that the perfect invite for our wedding would be something based off of a planter's wheel (these wheels have the months of the year on the outer ring and the window shows the corresponding plants that should be planted when). Since Brendan and I are avid gardeners, this sort of design is in keeping with who we are. I also really like faux bois and woodsy things (obviously) and when I saw this invite, I thought to myself how it was like this couple (who has their own design company) was looking inside my brain! They did a beautiful job and I have reverse-engineered this invite for myself, after asking them permission that I could basically rip-off their idea. They were super nice about it and flattered that I thought the design was so wonderful. Click on the image to see their design website and more about their one-off wedding invites. So perfect!

This is an album made by this Etsy artist who lives in Latvia. I've contacted her about making a larger format album for our own wedding & honeymoon photos. What a beautiful keepsake this will make! And of course, in keeping with the wood grain & nature theme.

Argyle w/ Poppy

2010-03-05T14:30:00.001-05:00

Argyle w/ Poppy
Originally uploaded by Elizabeth J. Smith

Ok, did a quick overlay of a poppy that I'm painting in with gouache. The repeat is far larger than my 11"x14" sketchbook. Will have to continue design into true repeat onto other sheets of paper. But this is just one idea for a floral overlay that I have.

A Floral and An Argyle

2010-03-05T10:52:00.003-05:00

The photos below aren't the best but it's some progress. For our MWC members show (theme is RED, be it the color itself and/or some emotional/psychological meaning of the color, or even the absence of it), Sarah and I are going to collaborate. We've tried to collaborate before, and haven't quite gotten there, but this feels different. We both have a long-standing fascination with the Turkey Red patterns popular in Europe in the 1890's as well as the redwork embroidery that was popular at about the same time (the red embroidery floss was dyed with the colorfast Turkey Red). For our collaboration, we're planning some sort of installation that celebrates this particular red and the patterns on patterns of the fabrics that were popular in the fashion of the time, possibly doing wallpapers. We worked once before on a wallpaper installation together, for Sarah's solo show "The Hesitation Waltz", where she designed a donkey wallpaper. I taught her the basics in repeat structures, helped her transfer her pattern onto the paper and helped install things. It was a good experience.

This is actually my first attempted argyle. I can't believe I've never designed one before. I am planning to layer on some sort of floral pattern over the argyle structure.

This is a simple "checkerboard" repeat with abstracted florals in a medallion setting. Not sure if I'm going to keep the grid or not, but will try different variations for fun.

WIPs - Beetle Paisley & Other Florals

2010-03-01T08:16:00.002-05:00

Spent most of last night painting and drawing. Current beetle paisley done in "Turkey Red" color scheme popular in 1890's Europe:

And currently I'm working out other possible florals to use with this color scheme:

I have a self-imposed deadline for these and some more designs by this Sunday for a possible collaborative project for a June show. And thankfully I can design these things pretty fast (thanks to my college Print Design prof Michael Olszewski). The above florals are influenced by 18th-century designer Richard Hofmann's decorative florals.

WIP - Beetle Paisley

2010-02-27T23:38:00.004-05:00

This is a project I started a while ago that I set aside to do stitching and embroidery work. I'm kind of needing a break from stitching and am returning to my roots, making designs meant for wallpapers and fabrics. Currently I'm gearing up to play a lot with Turkey Red patterns popular in the 1890's.

Fueling the Fundraising Fire

2010-02-27T13:40:00.002-05:00

Today I received my first 3Day donation from a total stranger (a friend of a friend who'd seen I was doing this walk via Facebook). I thanked her for deciding to support me out of everyone else and she shared her story:
Her mother had recently passed away due to cancer (breast and others). She herself has put together a cancer non-profit that holds a major fundraising/awareness event each year.
And I cried when I read her email. It wasn't a long email, it was simply and matter-a-factly stated, but I cried anyway. I couldn't help thinking of my own mother and my sisters.
So this has just fueled me further. Once I've raise my bare minimum of $2300, I'm going to up my goal to $3000. If I get there, my goal will just keep rising until my walk weekend in October. It's really all any of us can do, to feel a sense of control and contribution; to at least know we're doing something to create something positive out of negative things.

Broke through $100 yesterday!

2010-02-26T07:11:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I broke through the $100 mark with the fundraising for my 3Day walk! I'm very excited about this. Now, at $140, I'm hoping I'll reach $200+ in the next week. According to the 3Day fundraising handbook, stats show that walkers who raise $500 in the beginning of their campaign are much more likely to succeed in raising the full $2300 (or more!) for the walk. So far, the fundraising has been totally via Facebook and I'm hoping that of the 200+ friends I asked on there that each of them (or most of them) will donate even a bit, like $10-$20, because then I'd be SO CLOSE to my personal goal!

SPONSOR ME! I'm doing something BIG for this: walking SIXTY MILES! So, if you can't walk 60 miles, or don't want to, but care as I do about continued research about breast cancer, about finding better and better treatments for this disease, and about saving lives, then donate! Larger donations can be paid out over a 4-month payment plan. Anything is more than welcomed. Your donations make you heroes! Thank you!!

You Are My Avatar

2010-02-25T18:59:00.001-05:00

You Are My Avatar
Originally uploaded by Elizabeth J. Smith

Done stitching this a few days ago. I had started to fill in one of the people, but it looked stupid, so I cut that stitching out. I like the simple line of the silhouettes. Now to find a frame for it.

60 Miles to a Cure

2010-02-24T12:26:00.003-05:00

Ok, so once upon a time I'd attempted to walk the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3Day. Unfortunately I had had a bike accident a couple months before the walk and hurt my knee (it still smarts a little to this day. siiiigh) and had been taken to the hospital to get fixed up (Ricardo, thank you forever for being a true friend always). Anyway, I ended up not walking.

This has always bummed me out. I love to walk. I love doing good. I love being socially conscious and responsible. I like doing things with a sense of purpose, a sense of a "greater good", and this 3day walk is a legacy. Plus, I hate cancer, all kinds, but particularly breast cancer. I'm afraid of breast cancer. I've had people around me affected greatly by it, by either having it themselves or loosing loved ones to it. However, I'm hopeful of the medical strides over the past decades that have worked to bring breast cancer research and treatments further than ever before. 1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, which sounds terrible. But just a few years ago it used to be 1 in 7 women. I'm banking that in a few short years it'll be 1 in 9, 1 in 10 and so on until it's barely a whisper or maybe not even there at all. In the meantime, I can do my part, but that doesn't happen without a lot of help from others.

The walk is 60 miles long, 20 miles a day. I've never walked that far before, and I am pretty sure it's difficult. I've walked 18 miles in one day before, and can easily walk across town and back (about 10 miles) without difficulty. I'm pretty sure that 3 full days of constant walking is going to be a challenge, but I find the fundraising to be the bigger challenge. In order to qualify for the walk, I have to raise $2300 by game day, Oct. 15th-17th, 2010. So I need donations. I'm aiming to get my first donation this week, maybe even today. Starting, they say, is always the hardest part. This is true, I've found, for almost anything. But once something starts, it sort of carries itself along under it's own momentum. I'm hoping to get this giant ball rolling. If you donate, thank you so much! If you spread the word that I'm walking, thank you doubly so!

Ocean of Inspiration

2010-02-23T21:01:00.003-05:00

Music for some of these is a bit dubious (like from Titanic) but it's the visuals that really get me going.

Personal Hero: Patrick Blanc

2010-02-23T09:15:00.012-05:00

I love Patrick Blanc. My heart beats a little faster when I look at the amazing living installations he's done up the sides of buildings and in other unlikely spaces. There's a sense of magic and adventure to what he's created, as well as a feeling of nature "reclaiming" space. Patrick Blanc himself is weird and wild, dyeing his hair green and wearing green, as if he too is trying to become a plant in his huge living murals. I think he's fearless and I admire this.

He's such an inspiration that Brendan and I have decided that should our next place have an appropriate space, we want to build our own vertical garden to enjoy year-round when our outside garden sleeps during the winter. We found a great blog by a guy in NYC who built a greenwall in his home with his wife. The whole blog has helpful information in it, answering questions, making material lists, etc. DIY GREENWALLS.

Dear Spring

2010-02-22T14:44:00.004-05:00

Dear Spring,
You can't get here fast enough. I'm sick of snow everywhere and short days. I miss my tulips and daffodils. (Picture below is from our 2009 garden).

Engagement Photo Session

2010-02-19T07:47:00.007-05:00

One of the things that Brendan and I want to do is engagement photos. We plan on using these for our "save the dates" and such, and just for our own fun so that we have something to remember this particular and unique time in our lives. And in doing the research, there are some things we've definitely decided against:

1. balloons
2. being in a field or a tree
3. having photos that look like shots from a catalog
4. soft-focus light

Some things we want to focus on:

1. something creative with a sense of whimsy
2. comedy and humor (we like to think of ourselves as funny folks. Brendan in particular gets my sides splitting many times a day).
3. bright, cheery and colorful
4. handmade

All this thinking was spurred by a post on The Inspired Bride.
I think sitting down and deciding certain likes/dislikes was really helpful in our brainstorming session last night. And our idea evolved quickly to something we're both enthusiastic about. We'll be using my co-op gallery space to build a small set based off of a poem. And thankfully I have a hefty amount of large pieces of foamboard left over from previous projects that will finally get used!

Some clues:
1. proscenium arch
2. a boat
3. stars and a moon

Can't wait to get these done and share them!

The Naming of Things

2010-02-18T14:39:00.003-05:00

Yaaaargh...sometimes, I hate naming my artwork. Sometimes I'm lucky and a title pops into my brain while I'm making the piece or shortly after, but some pieces are just too....mysterious for me to title. Thing is, I think naming things "Untitled" is a total cop-out and I really try to avoid it as much as possible. I always appreciate when someone titles their work, even if I think the title is stupid or pretentious. I appreciate their effort. Times like this though, I wish I could title things like classical composers did like a personal favorite piece of music of mine "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565, 2nd Movement, Orchestral Arrangement" (which I first saw when I was a little kid from Fantasia, shown below). Unfortunately from that title one has no idea what that would sound like or the feelings that it could possibly evoke.

Anyway, here's my latest unnamed piece, sans the full installation solution. But you get the idea:

When life gives you snow, make a snow whale!

2010-02-11T16:34:00.016-05:00

After all that snow finished falling, there wasn't much to do except play! (click on the photos to see them much bigger!)

So Sarah and I decided to build a snow whale in my backyard.

Here we are cutting the perimeter of the beast, and pressing in the sides to start shaping it.

The whale's face and it's tail.

It's taking shape! Looking like a whale!

All done. Sarah's fiance Brian came over to survey our work while Brendan snapped photos.

Niiiiiiiiiice!

Yet another snow day in Philly

2010-02-10T20:08:00.014-05:00

Ahhh.....another snowed-in day in Philly. It's been snowing for many hours now, and is supposed to snow for a further several hours. Already schools and businesses are closed for tomorrow. It's a wintery, slushy mess out there, best enjoyed from cozy indoors or simply to play in for sledding and snowmen. Today my besties Christiana and Sarah came over for crafting, movies and making homemade pretzels. Mmmmm....!

THUMBS WAY UP!

Also we found a butterfly fluttering in my house. We put him on our rosemary bush that's currently residing in our in-house growing station. He's got a lil' heart on his wing!

WIP - You are my Avatar

2010-02-10T10:54:00.001-05:00

WIP - You are my Avatar
Originally uploaded by Elizabeth J. Smith

Started this late last night. Can't wait to get it done. Perhaps for Valentine's Day?

sweet relief

2010-01-26T13:49:00.002-05:00

I thought my piece, "Our Shared Secrets", was lost in delivery coming back from that show I was in in Georgia. BUUUUT lo! It's been found. Now just have to rent a car to pick it up. Bummer.

Update: It's ON for March's show and new direction in upcoming work.

2010-01-19T09:35:00.013-05:00

So, wedding planning and the holidays kind of took over my brain for the last several weeks. I'm finally getting my head back on straight and in that, pushing a bunch of energy into some new pieces and finishing out old ones.

Behold: close to 2 solid hours of ironing. My most prized art tool is the iron, followed closely by the sewing machine. Without them, nothing would ever get done.

Firstly, I got this show coming up in March, which is a good impetus for me to finish out some of my more ethereal cell-related pieces:

French knots (personal favorite) and tiny stitches.

Secondly, I got this sweet book called "Queer Pulp" that discusses the "golden age" of the paperback book during the 50's and 60's. During this time a lot of books were published, some of the most popular (not just among homosexuals) were ones with gay or lesbian themes. Remember, this was the era when Kinsey's findings on human sexuality totally rocked our country (and helped lead to the "free love" era of the 60's and continues to shape our perceptions of sexuality and sexual orientation today). So, publishing houses were looking for a cheap cash cow and found it in the paperback and particularly with writers that had some more sensational themes within their texts, like a forbidden love affair. And mainstream readers (aka - straight people) often felt safe reading these books because publishing houses insisted that the homosexual love affairs end tragically (thereby reinforcing the lesson that homosexuality was bad, but you the reader could safely read about it all you wanted). Anyway, these double-standards from the past (as well as the double-standards today regarding the queer population in our country) really fascinate me. I'm engaged to get married, and I'm ecstatic that I get to be with Brendan for the rest of my life and benefit from this partnership, but when I think about the "what ifs?", like if I'd found my partner in another woman or if we were two gay men or what and if our eternal bond was recognized only in a few states and everything about our lives was conditional upon how others judged our union, I'd be heartbroken.

I wonder what this illustration is trying to say???

Where the magic happens.

Also, the linens I got were off of Ebay, already worked on (like those great yellow, green and purple flowers in the photo above), probably by someone's grandma. They're from the same time period as these paperbacks were coming out and I like the combination of the domestic "women's work" of the household linens (hankies, table runners, pillow cases, a couple of aprons) and reproducing in embroidery these book cover illustrations.

"Helen" was already sewn onto this piece by the previous owner. It's incredibly tight and delicate stitching, which I'm painstakingly trying to replicate in the line work I'm doing of the illustration from "Jesse, Man of the Streets". Whoever stitched "Helen" was a master. Picture can't capture just how mind-blowing the stitching is.

Jesse and Helen meet.

Anyway, the objective is to let the previous embroidery work help dictate how the book illustrations will be rendered, thereby harmoniously synthesizing these two past worlds into something new and (hopefully) poignant or at least interesting. I know I'm interested but I could be the only one. Meh, that's good enough for me. :)

2010-01-15T16:00:00.004-05:00

So, might have a solo show at the Barefoot Doctor Community Acupuncture Clinic in North Philly come Feb/March, thanks to Darla Jackson, who's recently started curating shows there. Click here for pics from the first one she put together.

Which reminds me: I have to finish a couple new pieces for this. eep!

Stitched

2009-12-20T21:08:00.002-05:00

Our Shared Secrets
Originally uploaded by Elizabeth J. Smith

Currently have work up at Desotorow Gallery in GA in a show called "Stitched".
It's the piece called "Our Shared Secrets".

Midwives Holiday Party 2009

2009-12-18T09:35:00.003-05:00

I really love my art collective, The Midwives Collective & Gallery. Sometimes I get frustrated or a bit overworked, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons. And this is very evident in our annual holiday party! This year's was especially fun because we have a few new members (and new potential members) who came and participated in our present exchange, told stories and enjoyed a delicious dinner together. It was beautiful! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but I have photos of my Secret Santa gift to Christiana! I was SO PUMPED to give this to her because we both LOOOOVE Dexter and have been watching the episodes together. She's a wonderful Dexter viewing partner because she gets so caught up in the drama and spends the hour gripping a pillow to her and yelling things like "OH MY GOD!" next to me on the couch. And this season has been AMAAAAAZING with the Trinity Killer. Man. Blowing my mind! I forgot what an awesome bad guy John Lithgow can be.
Anyway, for her gift, I embroidered and framed a little piece of Dexter (though we refer to it as Sexter because Michael C. Hall is so hot!).
So, check it out:

A BUSY December

2009-12-08T08:32:00.006-05:00

Man, I always forget how November/December gets booked solid EVERY YEAR no matter my efforts. Or because of them. Either way, I'm busy, which is good (and sometimes stressful).
So, coming up this month is a show that I'm pretty jazzed about:

It's been a co-production between my artist group, The Midwives Collective & Gallery, and Off The Wall Gallery of Dirty Frank's Bar. I like the idea of our alternative co-op space and an arty bar teaming up for a show. Perhaps more cross-over teamwork like this would be good for the city as a whole?
I'm also excited about doing a specifically textiles/fibers show because this past year Moore College of Art & Design (my alma mater) decided to drop Textiles as a major, and from my understanding, relegate it specifically to part of Fine Arts. I have a problem with this. I chose Textiles because (A) when we had to choose majors I had no interest in the other majors offered and no idea what Textiles was so I thought "hey, why not?"(plus I thought it weird that choosing a major in art school was required. I had figured that it'd be more like my experience in high school, where we got to learn about all different mediums without hindrance) and (B) upon joining into Textiles, I found that it was the most flexible of the majors I could have ever hoped for. Yes, you can go into a fine arts direction, but you can also go way into the industry of it. With that, you can focus on Fashion vs. Interiors. Or you can do both. Or you can be crafty, or you can take craft and transcend it's usual crafty stereotypes and synthesize Fine Art, Fashion, Interiors, whatever. You can employ sculptural or photo techniques, book techniques, installation. Basically, I found a department that was open and flexible with where you wanted your work to go, but also taught you lots of skills for making your vision a reality. It's a shame to me that the Texiles major (Moore's first major too) is being dropped.
But what I really like about our co-production of "The Whole 9 Yards" show with Off The Wall Gallery is that we on the panel decided to approach "textiles/fibers" from a more open viewpoint, rather than only putting "textiles/fibers" artists in the show. Granted, a lot of the work falls into that category, but we strove to show the breath of textiles and fibers, so that the viewer could see how they were experiencing textiles and fibers in their lives. There's photographs, sculptures, tapestries and other kinds of woven pieces, video, both hand-painted and digital print design, paintings, embroidery, etc. And most of the talent in the show is local, which makes me happy. I think more of a spotlight should be shone on local talent.

Another thing we're doing is an embroidery workshop on Sunday, Dec. 13th:

Later this month is my Midwives Holiday Party, which is exciting! I made my Secret Santa a really fun gift this year (at least it was really fun for me to make) and can't wait for her to open it! Plus, it's always nice to spend some time with the Collective just goofing off and playing, since there's so much business involved with running a space in our spare time.

Also, I got into a show at Desotorow Gallery ("Stitched") in Savannah, GA. It's the first time I ever applied for a show (whyyyyyy did I wait this long!?!) and got in! This bodes well and has totally boosted my confidence. My New Year's Resolution: Apply for more shows, and try to score 5-10 per year. That'd be amazing. That and get a job (helloooo economy! I heard rumor you're improving...).

Oh yeah, and Christmas this year is at our little apartment. I'm excited, but also a bit stressed. But it's good. Should be a relaxed and fun day with the family.

And after the holidays, our roll-out for our "Re-cognition" show (part of the mammoth Philagrafika international festival) begins. I have a ton of images to go through and start working for the printed materials as well as website stuff. Phew!

Hardanger update

2009-10-29T12:47:00.007-04:00

So, I've not gotten as far as I'd like on my hardanger embroidery project. Stuff with my collective has been taking some precedence with our upcoming shows:

EL VIAJE:the journey

CALL FOR ENTRIES: The Whole 9 Yards

I'm a juror for this show!

Anyway, here's an update on what I've gotten so far:

There's a lot of planning and pulling of threads happening on other parts of the fabric in prep for adding in decorative stitches and structures. More when that actually happens!

IRAQ show is up at UPENN

2009-10-29T12:23:00.007-04:00

The IRAQ show is open at UPENN Museum of Anthropology and Archeology now! This is the show that us folks in the conservation lab worked really hard putting together (mostly Lynn, Nina and Julie). Pics below show Queen Puabi's complicated gold headdress on the show form, before the form was upholstered. The blue paper represents 25+ feet of gold ribbon (made from real solid gold) that would wrap around Queen Puabi's major hair. We're not sure if she and other ancient Iraqis wore wigs or if this was their real hair, but either way, it's huge and impressive.

Dr. Lynn Grant dressing Queen Puabi.

Check out the details of the show here.

And details about Queen Puabi as well as a photo series showing her upholstered form being installed in the gallery along with her diadem and her cape of beads, go here.
(scroll down for the photos).

I worked in particular on upholstering her hair/helmet. This took longer than expected, plus I'd never upholstered anything before, let alone an irregular shaped form with a bunch of curves. But I'm pretty confident that I can upholster almost anything now. It was a good, challenging experience. And luckily I've got some skills already with a needle and thread!

Holy Freeness!

2009-10-16T17:53:00.004-04:00

I can't believe that until very recently I didn't know about all the great free goodies out there! Seriously! I've been downloading awesome free fonts and free Photoshop brushes and such for a couple weeks now and it's awesome. I've gotten all these fun new crafty ideas cooking in my head and am PSYCHED that I can do new cool things with the graphics stuff I do for my artist collective, the Midwives Collective & Gallery.

Ok, so for fun, let me share some stuff with you:

1. BOTANICAL FUN! also, you can google "botanical photoshop brushes" or whatever to find other great freebies.

2. FREE FLOURISH!

3. AWESOME FOSSILS!

There's tons more for every occasion and style. I'm just into natural history stuff in particular. :)

Research and Inspriation: Eklutna Cemetery and Alaska's Totem Poles

2009-10-02T17:15:00.015-04:00

Aside from working on the hardanger embroidery pieces (I started a second much smaller one as well), I'm cooking up a paper quilt project with my friend and fellow artist, Sarah L. Hunt. We were inspired by this lovely paper quilt by the Pin Pals. They also do many adorable and finely crafted items of which we're big fans.
Sarah and I are also avid fans of quilting. My mother's a quilter and I'm lucky enough to have two quilts she's made me (and I fully expect I'll be getting more as the years go by. Hells, I plan on having kids just so I can score extra cute kid themed quilts for them). Sarah collects antique quilts and quilt blocks. So between us, we've got a pretty good understanding of quilts and their history and the many avenues quilters have taken the quilt format.
And so, Sarah and I are developing our paper quilt idea. It'll most likely be a tripdic, each panel being 2x3 or there abouts.

Anyway, we're drawing inspiration from several sources, but the ones I'm concentrating on deal with my first life memories in Alaska. That's where I was born, in Anchorage, and spent the first 5 years of my life there. Though I've not been back since, it has stayed with me. And so I periodically come back to it, to a cemetery in particular, in my artwork. I'm looking forward exploring the imagery from Alaska in this latest project.

So, let me introduce you to Eklutna Cemetery:

Hello!

Spirit houses.

Eklutna Cemetery is located about 30 miles north of Anchorage. I went there when I was very little, with my mom. I remember running around the houses, and it must have been spring because it was chilly and I had my windbreaker on. But it was sunny. And there were dragonflies flying to and from the spines of these spirit houses. At the time, I thought these were dog houses without doors. Some of the houses do in fact have doors, but a lot of them don't.

Anyway, I didn't really know what that memory was all about until years later when I was looking through an old family photo album and I saw some pictures of these same spirit houses. I was shocked. I didn't really think it was real. I just thought it was something I misinterpreted as a small child that sort of stayed with me, popping up in dreams or what have you. So, after asking my mom about the photos, she told me where the houses were.

The original church. It's now in ruins and a newer church is used for services.

Now, the other part of what I'm interested in are the totems. Back in college I'd done a series of print designs based off of the story of the Thunderbird and Great Whale, of which I have no photos (I know, stupid. ALWAYS document work!). But fast forward a few years later and we get these shadowboxes I made for a show:

They're the Eklutna Grave Series. The blue and red one is called "Eagle River" and the yellow, red and white one is "King Salmon". If you look at the tale-tail hump on the salmon's back, you can see a bird's head. I believe that was Raven. The "Eagle River" one is a relief map of the area of Eklutna. I chose these two subjects because at the time of my project there was this on-going land dispute between the native people and a railroad company. The railroad's possession of the land and their practices along Eagle River and into Eklutna was decimating the salmon population for the local people. These are supposed to be graves housing the spirits of these people's land and food, and by default, their theology and way of life, ergo the use of white for the land and salmon (no, not because it's Alaska and snowy up there. yeesh!).

So, I'm on the Eklutna train again, looking up and researching spirit houses. And now check out some awesome totem poles I'll be mining for imagery as well:

Circle of friends.

We're much bigger in real life.

I don't know a great deal about Alaska's totems but I'm looking forward to learning more. So far I'm just collecting images and seeking out particular animals that interest me. From there I'll be identifying them and reading the native stories that they're featured in to see who's story might fit in with what I'm aiming for.

Rare Books tour @ Phila Free Library/SCIENCE in the basement of the Upenn Museum

2009-09-30T17:00:00.028-04:00

Yesterday Sarah and I went to the Free Library to take a tour of the Rare Books section, particularly to view their German/PA Dutch Fraktur. They had recently had a symposium on this amazing stuff (sadly we missed it) and everything was still on display. Sarah and I share a great love for PA Dutch art - hex signs, crafts, fraktur - and this tour was part of some research for a collaborative project we're cooking up. So, here's some examples of the fraktur on display. Excuse the fuzziness; there was no flash allowed.

This collection of fraktur is the PA Dutch populations take on their "old world" illuminated texts. Everyone did this. The small books were typically done by children. They were given a blank book and had to fill it with their lessons. Fraktur was the immigrants way of bringing the "old country" into the "new world". It must have been a source of comfort to them in a strange new place.

The image on the bottom is a particular favorite. It was done by a child but whoever he/she was, they were an extremely skilled draftsman.

We also saw many other awesome things. Our guide took us through a very abbreviated history of books and paper (starting at Egyptian papyrus and ending with books as we know them today). We also saw the Elkins' library, which was completely moved and reinstalled in the Philadelphia Free Library, right down to the wood posts holding the floor boards together. Wowzaa. Upon entering this spacious library, I instantly felt at home. Yes, this is the home I want: rich heavy wood, open spaces, cozy warm lights, and plenty of quirky details.

Our guide talking to a couple other folks on our tour. And in the picture on the bottom, you can't see it that well, but the writing desk on the right of that photo is the very desk that Charles Dickens wrote at.

Elkins was a collector of Americana, and all those framed pictures are prints with hand coloring dating from the early days of our country. Two of them were made by Paul Revere (yes, that one. The red coats are coming!).

Sarah posing by the fire place. Also, the model boats around the library are known as "fantasy" boats. They aren't modeled after any boat in particular, but were a hobby of Elkins. I like the idea of fantasy or imaginary boats. Might try to develop a project or series around that.

Elkins liked weird lamps. These are made from tobacco jars. He had others that were large metal tea barrels. I'm a big fan of these lamps too.

This is the grave stone of Charles Dickens' daughters' pet bird, Dick. He was the "Best of Birds".

Now, let me tell you about today! Today, during my on-going internship at Upenn's Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, I got to do some science. I learned today how to make "B72" which, according to my fearless leader, Dr. Lynn Grant, is extremely imperative to know. Apparently when she travels to other countries to work on archeology projects, one of the first things she learns in the local language is "B72".
Anyway, basically is Acetone mixed with a plastic.....D...something....I'll have to ask Nina again (she's a contract conservationist at the lab). BUT, I mixed some today. First you decide the proportions of Acetone to D? and then measure out your plastic on a scale. I was making a 5% solution, which would mean 95% Acetone. So, I measured out my materials, and learned the fine art of mixing. You don't just plop your junk into the Acetone. What you do is you put your plastic pellets into a little cheesecloth satchel you rig to the top of your glass jar. You want your satchel to just slightly dip into the surface of your Acetone. Suspended thus, you can actually see the plastic break down and "rain" into the Acetone. Then you wait about an hour for this to mix together. After you've gotten your B72, you do whatever it is you wanted to do with it.

In my case, I wanted to see if I couldn't preserve some dried flowers. See, I love dried flowers, but they are so delicate. And I want to do some projects with dried flowers, but the only solutions I could think of to preserve them and make them stronger was stuff like resin or something. This usually results in a look I'm not too fond of, which is sort of blobby and very shiny. I've seen plenty of jewelry made of resin preserved flower blossoms, and while it's pretty, it's not quite reaching the level of craftsmanship that would convince me of laying my money down. The flowers look more like "flower shapes" or their encased in a cube of resin that, while it allows the flower to look more like real flowers, you loose the tactile wonder of holding a delicate flower in your hand. So, Nina suggested the B72, which means SCIENCE TIME.

So I dunked my flowers in my jar of B72. They will rest there until Monday, hopefully allowing the B72 to saturate into the petals and such of the flowers. On Monday, we'll be making the jar into a vacuum to get any extra bubbles and such that might be trapped between petals, etc. Then the flowers will stay in the vacuumed jar until Wednesday, at which point we'll see which of them survived and to what degree. Whatever looks good will probably become a piece of jewelry (a brooch or necklace or something) for Nina as "thank you!" for her helpfulness and constant entertainment value.

Flowers swimming in B72.

In other news, LOOK AT THIS!

These are crushed skulls from Queen Puabi's burial site in ancient Ur. The top one is some guy with a metal helmet. If you look closely, his helmet looks like it's patterned with reeds. This happened when the reeds fell over his helmet and pressed together. Over time, the metal actually took on the texture of the leaves. The leaves didn't press into the metal. Metal, I'm learning, does many weird things as it degrades over time.
The other skull is either another priestess or a handmaiden of Queen Puabi. She's wearing a whole lot of gold and lapis (the blue beads and details). The burial site of Queen Puabi has something like 70 bodies in it, and the running theory now is that they were bludgeoned to death and buried with the queen. Common thought was that her servants drank poison and then peacefully laid down in her burial chamber. But that changed when the scatter of the bodies was reevaluated. It's thought that if these folks had gone peacefully, they'd be laid out in nice neat rows, looking all peaceful-like. Instead, folks are scatter around the place, probably dying where they fell after their heads were smashed in. YIKES. Queen Puabi didn't wait for her staff to die and join her in the after life. She had them killed and took them with her. Now THAT'S a QUEEN.

Here's Nina working on the handmaiden:

Hi Nina!

Crane Curtain

2009-09-24T17:01:00.006-04:00

So, for a couple years now I've been folding origami cranes, as a somewhat mindless, easy and fun thing to do when I need to take a break from my more serious art-making. Then I started stringing them with beads. Then these strung-up cranes were sort of living on hooks across my fireplace, not really doing much. They looked pretty but they were just this mass color and points. So I finally put these cranes on a dowel rod and hung them on our side window. I really like this solution because while I love having the window and curtains open to let in the breeze, it's rather annoying that the 2nd and 3rd floor apartments have their stairwell right outside. It's weird to have folks running up and down and looking in on me while I'm eating at the table or something. So, now that the cranes are up, things are obscured and perhaps my neighbors won't be as tempted to just casually peer in (it's difficult not to look while climbing the stairs).

Progress. Slow, painstaking, delicate progress.

2009-09-18T08:45:00.007-04:00

I do not think it's any coincidence that hardanger embroidery contains the word "danger". Nope. I delayed this project for a couple months because I was terrified. And I figured that just going in there and starting would somehow assuage this terror. And indeed no, it's not. My fear is like a large and stinky onion, or maybe like an ogre. Or a parfait.

Yuck. I hate that "All-Star" song at the end. But you get the point.

And so I'm discovering that my fear and terror regarding hardanger embroidery has layers upon layers. This is mainly due to the rather unforgiving nature of hardanger embroidery (what with the actual cutting and pulling of threads and creating artful holes in one's fabric). And like any near-debilitating fear, one must face it head-on or it'll take up permanent residence in one's psyche.

So, instead of me working firmly along the outer most edges of this piece, I've dared to dig in further; to about 1.5" in from the edge. Oh, and I've started concretely planning out the huge opening in the middle. So, go me! It's been hours of work, though you may not be able to tell much difference. That's OK. I know it's there and eventually you'll see it too. The open bar running along the bottom of the photo is new.

And hopefully in a week's time, there will be significant changes to this piece.

For fun, here's Ruby, my constant companion and biggest non-human fan:

Whoah, girl. Settle down!

Sea Monsters: Misplaced and Irrational Fears

2009-09-16T10:51:00.017-04:00

Hello all,
it's been a while. During my radio silence I've been chugging away at my internship at the Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, looking for new employment, and teaching myself how to cook. I'm constantly inspired by this website: www.foodgawker.com

In other news, I'm finally ready to embark on my next series. Sometimes I get frustrated at how long it takes for me to start projects, and sometimes I artificially push myself, which only results in a false start. When I finally realize that I should just wait until I'm ready, I remember the sage advice of Mark Twain about "letting the well fill". That's how he'd describe the time between his books, as allowing his well to fill once more. And of course, that takes time.

Curiously enough, my impatience to start the next round of projects lays at odds with the very processes I employ for my projects. I seem to find the most tedious and time-consuming methods for my works and this round will be no different. Sigh...

So, one day I went to the library to look up books on embroidery and stumbled upon one that talks about "hardanger" or "Norwegian Drawn Work" or open embroidery. It's like a weird hybrid between cross stitch and embroidery, with wholly unique results. It's history isn't all that well documented but it was popular during the Renaissance. I've not really seen much recent hardanger work, but the books I found on it relegate it mostly to the "housewife crafty embellishment" realm of fancy napkins and tablecloths. This isn't a bad thing, just amusing to me.

After many, many hours of work over the past few days, I'm only this far.
My hands protest these tiny repetitive stitches.

Which leads me to a recent thought I've been kicking around regarding my own art methods. I never for a moment growing up thought that the artist I would become would be one who swims mostly in "women's work" waters, but here I am. I fancied myself a budding painter or sculptor or printmaker or something less "crafty" in nature. Though I shouldn't be surprised. My home is decorated with many of the crewel work pieces my Nana made throughout her life, ones I remember staring at as a little girl visiting my Pop-pop after my Nana had passed. Nana did a lot of crewel work, a bedspread being her largest and crowning achievement. Pop-pop used to refer to it as her "6¢ per inch" work because of the many hours it took to make and how if the piece was to be sold for a reasonable amount, Nana would have to have paid herself something abysmally small.

Some of Nana's crewel work, including my birth announcement! (center photo, lower left corner).

Aside from Nana's crewel work pieces, my own mother is really into another sort of "women's work" - quilting. And the other side of my art-making, aside from the stitching and embroidery I do, is the dyeing and production of my own fabrics. My mother is a quilter not because she loves the stitching, but rather her adoration of fabrics: their designs and colors and textures has lead her down this path. She compulsively purchases fabrics, especially recently the William Morris reproductions, which she's not done anything with. She'll just take her fat quarters out of storage and fan the William Morris fabrics across a bed and stare at them, delighting in the designs and patterns. And honestly, can you blame her?

And so it seems that my Nana and my mother (Nana is her mother) are key influences in what I love to do nowadays. It's funny too, because I wouldn't have counted either of them among those that influenced my art-making up until very recently. But then again, you never know where life will lead you.

Leading lastly to the project at hand. I'm teaching myself hardanger embroidery to complete a series of "portraits" of "sea monsters". Now there are sea creatures out there that look bizarre and scary but aren't particularly dangerous. Then there are the REAL dangerous creatures out there that can KILL you, but they don't look like much, like, uh....cone shells. No teeth or spines or other sharp parts, no creepy milky eyes and they don't move fast (or much at all it seems), but the venom collected from just one of these things could kill up to 700 people. Insane!

So my portraits will have the hardanger used as a Victorian-inspired ornamental frame. This frame will be layered on top of a second hand-dyed fabric of mine, which will peek out of the many lacy holes and such I put into my hardanger fabric. The 2nd layer will have an embroidered portrait of sea creatures, though I'm grappling with which side of the "danger divide" I'll play with. See, in my research, I found it interesting what we place our fears in. Ask anyone what's the scariest creature in the ocean and they might say something like "Shark!" or "Giant Squid!", whereas they may not even know what a box jelly is (though apparently Will Smith kills himself in that movie "7 Pounds" with a box jelly, so more people have an awareness of these animals now thanks to that unfortunate film). Anyway, box jellies kill more people per year than sharks, stonefish (another rather dangerous sea creature) and crocodiles combined. They are small and delicate creatures and need the brute force of their poison to instantly kill their prey. A to-the-death struggle would kill theses jellies otherwise. So in this, what do you fear more? The shark or the jelly?

I'm misunderstood.

I will kill you.

This leads me to mediate on misplaced and irrational fears. It's irrational to fear a shark unless you're a surfer or diver specifically going into known shark territories. Same with the jellies. But we get into cars everyday, and car accidents kill more people per year than sharks and box jellies combined, many fold. One can apply this to anything from what you eat (poor diet = diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc and yet, tons of us still reach for McDonald's) to current events, political leaders, etc. We lay our fears into certain things, but rarely do we take a step back and assess WHY we fear these things. Are they worth our fear? And perhaps reevaluating where our fears reside and understanding the WHY and HOW we fear might help us realize we're fearing the wrong (or right) things? For while we may fear the shark (a wholly misunderstood animal in my opinion), our expenditure might allow something really worth our fear to go unnoticed for longer than we should allow (say, lead paint on kid toys or the rising number of e. coli outbreaks in our supposedly safe food). Misplaced fears lead to fighting the wrong fights and letting the real dangers take hold.

And so I'm making these portraits that I definitely delight in and enjoy, but hold for me an important intellectual exercise applicable to any issue or situation: is my reaction (or yours or anyone's) of fear really well placed? Or is my misplaced fear a wonderful opportunity for a real danger to take advantage of?

Fear or folly? Mislaid fear indeed. Nay-sayers should be thankful they can even do this sort of stuff because ACTUAL ruling under Hitler and Stalin would have found folks shot in the street like dogs for less than this depiction.
Oh the folly of misplaced fears....

My internship at the Penn Museum!

2009-07-06T17:34:00.017-04:00

Oh...Hello!

So, for the past couple of weeks, I've been going to the conservation labs at the University of Penn's Anthropology and Archeology Museum for this an internship. I'm getting a good taste of art/artifact conservation under the helpful supervision of Dr. Lynn Grant. Dr. Grant was kind enough to let me into her labs and become a part of her team. Before her, I'd been striking out on all fronts finding an internship or volunteer gig at a museum's or gallery's conservation lab. Turns out most places outsource their conservatory work to a single company in Philadelphia. I had contacted this company but they said I'd be a liability because I'm not formally trained or even all that familiar with conservation. Luckily Dr. Grant understands the "Catch-22" (a great book, by the way. READ IT!) of art conservation and was generous enough to open her doors to someone who's curious about the field and would like to know more before attempting grad school for art conservation. So, I get to hang out in a lab all day on Mondays and Tuesdays.
So, she said I could help out with re-housing textiles owned by the Turkish government. These textiles are about 3000 years old and were in a fire long ago, mostly preserved in ash. These artifacts are from a dig from the 1940s/1950s. Afterwards, they were never properly archived and even the cataloging of them was attempted 3 separate times, never to fruition. Our first task was labeling and cataloging the fragments.

They arrived to us in all manner of small boxes: Kodak film boxes, jewelry boxes, tins, weird little cylinders, boxes for toys and martini sets, etc. They had cotton in them, paper towels, dryer sheets (or something similar)....I suppose they thought they were protecting the artifacts in this junk. In actuality, they probably did more damage then good. Afterwards, we started moving the fragments as CAREFULLY as possible from these various kinds of boxes to their new, archive-safe homes.

This is the other intern on this project, Erica. She's going to UCLA for anthropology, loooooooves animals and has dreams of finding a good and personally satisfying way of saving the world, even a little bit, like with saving primate habitats or going into environmental law. I'm pretty sure she'll reach her goals too. She's smart and enthusiastic.

This is me while I'm carefully placing fragments of ancient textiles into the archival folder. These particular pieces have crystallized and are particularly brittle.

Often the fragments were packaged in jewelry boxes with that layer of cotton. This is detrimental to the artifacts because as the fragments continue to age, the cotton fibers hook onto the delicate fragment fibers. When we would go to pull the weaving away from the cotton, the caught fibers would snap the brittle tapestry bits, snapping and tearing the pieces further. It really didn't matter how careful we were, some stray cotton would still damage the artifacts.

These are fragments of some sort of gauzy fabric being laid into the archival folder. This was before I pulled the layers of the bulkier pieces apart to show the fabric off.

Some of our artifacts were preserved between glass, with electrical tape sealing the edges. This might seem like a good way to preserve these pieces, but they were pressed so hard that often, what looked like a whole structure between glass would actually have long turned to dust when we'd go to extract it.

Even the dust and debris at the bottom of the samples had to be preserved. We'd funnel this stuff into tiny plastic ziploc bags. The dust is typically textile fragments that have long since deteriorated.

Unfortunately, what you can't see is that many of these artifacts have incredible detail. The tapestries are very well crafted with tiny, very regular weaving. It's a real joy to be able to handle these objects and learn about them. I very much appreciate the time and energy that went into producing these textiles and I marvel at how they survived a fire and 3000 years of wear and tear to make it into my hands as I delicately help to preserve them.

Boxes within boxes....

Our lab is this little cluttered room in the conservation area. The metal table that all that junk is piled onto is not just any metel table. It's an autopsy table! Coooooooooool. But there are no real autopsies going on for art conservation (though I had hoped we'd maybe get to see it used for a mummy or something). However, this sort of table is handy for paper preservation (chemical baths, cleaning, etc) since it's got such a great flat working space.

So, that's what I'm currently doing while still looking for a job and making my own artwork. Busy lady for being unemployed!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T15:25:00.010-04:00

Yay! 4th of July! A day of great smells: sunblock, BBQ, fresh air... and best of all the crappy excuse for a drum circle is NOT playing their one and only 7-hour off-rhythm "song" in the park across the street today! Hopefully they're all at the beach with their bongos or whatevers, subjecting new victims to their very own free and unwarranted concert.

In art news: I'm going for the West Collection Prize. In a on-going quest to not only make art regularly, but to - dare I say - accrue personal confidence in said work, I'm looking for appropriate grants, shows, prizes, etc to apply for. This could totally backfire and riddle me with demons after landslides of rejections. Or I could finally grow a pair. And I've been really hoping to earn my balls sooner rather than later.

And now some photos of the work that recently came down from our MERE: Recent Works show:

Cell Mates, 2009, silk & thread

detail of Cell Mates

Potential, 2009, silk and thread

detail of Potential

Our Shared Secrets, 2009, silk and thread, paper and graphite

detail of Our Shared Secrets

Next up, I have several embroidary hoop projects I'm putting together.

Photoshoot!

2009-06-24T09:24:00.007-04:00

Hey all,
been busy lately. Last Friday I participated in my friend's on-going photo project series. Helen Maurene Cooper is an awesome photographer who lives and works in Chicago (though she used to hail from Philly, which is how I was lucky enough to meet her and become her friend).
Her current work (which is not yet up on her website but other great stuff is) deals with issues of hip-hop culture and race relations, gender relations, and black American history. She recently won a fellowship to go to the Underground Railroad sites in Ohio and continue her project in those sites. She composes the figure(s) in front of a backdrop in typically mannerist poses. In a few weeks she'll have sifted through all the shots she took of Sarah Hunt and I and choose her favorites.
It was a real joy to work with Maurene on this project. We discussed having a show of her work in our space in the future and I am really looking forward to bringing this to fruition.

Maurene set up her backdrop in our gallery space.

Maurene and her many cameras. She shot with three different cameras for three different formats.

Sarah in costume.

The set up in our gallery space during our most recent show.

Last night's opening: MERGE:Recent Works

2009-06-13T09:31:00.010-04:00

Hi all! Last night was the opening for our show MERGE:Recent Works. It was great! Lots of folks came out and I sold a piece! Hot dog!
Some pictures below of us in the curatorial stages and then on the wall:

Detail of my piece "Cell Mates"

2009-06-13T09:28:00.002-04:00

The completed piece (as well as the others I've been working on) are up at my co-op gallery space: The Midwives Collective & Gallery. Comes down June 27th so be sure to check it out! The gallery is open on Saturdays, noon to 5pm.

Flowers from Brendan

2009-06-02T19:31:00.007-04:00

I'm lucky enough to have the best boyfriend. Brendan just came back from a walk with our dog Ruby and had these little blossoms for me:

He said they reminded him of me. How thoughtful!

Recently Unemployed

2009-06-02T17:45:00.000-04:00

Recently I was laid off, ergo, I thought starting a blog about my "funemployment" would be a good project. I'm hoping that it acts as an impetus for my art work as well as my larger life goals. We'll see. I'm pretty good at false starts.

However, since my unemployment began (it's been less than a week) my mind's been racing at the possibilities: WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THIS TIME? (aside of course, looking for a job). And while the job part is very important, I can't help but entertain other possible directions and uses for this "temporary retirement" that I've suddenly been granted.

1. artist residency?
2. internship?
3. volunteer?
4. concentrate harder on my artist collective?
5. knock out a few of those prerequisites for grad school?

Well, how's about them all? So, I did some research.
I researched artist residencies, and considering I'd have to pay my own way, that fell off the list. I also already have a studio and am now on a paid vacation so what's the point? I looked into internships at the Fabric Workshop and Museum but if I did the Fall internship, it'd go through December, and God willing I'll have a job well before December.
So, I'm going to concentrate on my collective and gear up for grad school, all the while job searching (helllllooooo Upenn and Drexel!) and getting my artworks up to par as well as SOLD.

So, below are pieces I'm working on for my upcoming group show, MERGE: Recent Works at my co-op gallery in South Philly. They're strewn across my dining table.
They're silk fabric pieces, hand-dyed and patterned, then stitched.

I'm a little amazed that I'm using neon green for any of this work, considering my fears of using any neon colors. But I've happily discovered that anything, in the right proportion, works wonders. Plus I'm getting out of my comfort zone with the colors.