The Other Art Fair Weekend

What a weekend.

Huge thanks to everyone who made it over to the fair! It was so lovely to meet and talk to new and old friends. My voice needs a few days to recover!

The venue was insane. The first day I got lost on a number of occasions, it was just a massive, magical maze of art everywhere.

very necessary.

I ended up running out of postcards on the final day, which was a bit of a bummer but also exciting to know 250 people were interested in what I make!

It was just so good to bring all the new work out into the light of day and really talk to people about it. Sometimes in my studio I feel like I’m just shouting into a void, so being able to have a conversation about the choices in the pieces was invaluable. Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by. I will be taking a few days off here to recover from the party, but will be back with more art soon.

New Work; Collage on Wood

I have been thinking about these pieces for weeks. Making sketches, writing about why I need to make them, imagining them coming to life, practicing with the saber saw…. and I finally got the time to start on the project.

These pieces are small combination of hard and soft processes. Of strength and delicacy, of force and restraint. The brush stroke is cut from the canvas, outlined on wood, cut from the wood and layered with additional pieces of painted canvas. It’s the meeting point of things I can control and things I cannot.

The process is both scary (hello power tools) and joyful. Watching forms come to life when cut from the canvas and take on a new meaning when applied to the wood is such an excitement that as soon as I finish one, I can’t help myself from starting another. I’m hoping to finish a small set of these for The Other Art Fair in a few weeks - would love to have people hold and feel their little existences.

Scroll down to see the process <3

/ cutting out the brush stroke /

/ first cut outs are applied to the piece /

/ painting the sides /

/ making more /

/ the hole in the middle was hard /

/ laying out the pieces /

/ ta da /

The Other Art Fair; Sneak Peek at the Work

Popping in here with a few little sneak peeks into the work in progress (+ basic prep) for The Other Art Fair - Chicago Edition.

I am really, really excited to share these new pieces.

The preparations for the show are proceeding on schedule; I’ve got my red dot stickers, acrylic placards for info, new postcards (see above!), chairs are arriving next week… I’m in pretty good shape I think.

And I ordered a new faux leather jacket for the show too. I left my old one on a plane back from Berlin - never to be seen again unfortunately.

I’m feeling prepared - but mostly just so, so excited to get these new pieces on display and get to finally talk about them.

The next sneak peek/update should involve the work with the saber saw… keep your eyes peeled!

Material Experiments - show closing recap

All good things must come to an end.

And as such, Material Experiments came down this week.

I signed on to do this show back in October, and decided within the first few days I would use this opportunity to share some of the new mixed-media pieces I’ve been working on with the community. All experimental, adventures in layering and paint viscosity, examinations of brushstroke and texture. It was a little frightening for me personally as it was a bit of a departure from my previous work - but I strongly believe in following my creative impulses - therein lies the basis of my work.

So thank you, thank you to everyone who came out to see the show, attended my talk for the opening, purchased work or just sent good vibes from afar. It was a fantastic 3 months and I am just so overwhelmed with gratefulness for all the people that have supported me and my work.

Special thanks to my studio assistant for popping over while I was out of town to mark pieces sold too.

AND! Humongous thanks to the whole team at Cahoots for the help in making this show happen. It was so amazing to have my work in the space.

Little Nonsense Scrap Notes

Birdhouses. How many layers here? Quietness. Stillness. Where is that sound? Dangling a carrot. Chasing a carrot? This looks like mud. I love mud.

It sounds like nonsense. Most of the time it is nonsense. But out of the nonsense comes a deeper understanding of what I’m doing and the words to use to describe it to others.  These are extracts from the note-scraps I keep next to my pieces as I work.

I keep these note-scraps next to pieces as I work on them; I put a little paint down, think of a concept, scribble it out. Put a little more paint down, see a figure emerge from the swirling pool, name her and write it down. Layer cut pieces of paper and see a canyon - write that down.

Little scribbly clues for later.

What results is a running ‘stream of consciousness’ that serve as titles, as notes for me to refer to when describing the piece, as a marker of time. They become an invaluable addendum to the finished piece.

I do these on scrap to keep them immediate, truthful and non-precious. If I feel like I need to censor what I write to keep it organized, or legible to someone else I’m not able to get the dialogue I need to find the name of the piece or get at the inner bits of the idea I’m digging into.

Once the piece is finished, a description is written and the title fits - these little scraps head to the second drawer of my flat file. I pull them out from time to time to see if any new inspiration strikes, or if there’s an idea I wrote down that I haven’t explored yet - but for the most part their job is done.