when the white stuff falls.

When this happens outside... I do this... (see below.)








For the second time this winter season it has snowed here in Richmond, Virginia. This is an unusual occurrence, considering that in the nine years I have lived here this has happened twice before. I do not particularly like snow, I can live with it, but most of the time find that it gets in my way and makes me feel claustrophobic. While it may be pretty... I do not like being trapped. So when it began coming down the other day I started to think about what project I would work on to keep busy and keep my mind off the snow. I wanted a project that would show me progress quickly, as opposed to the ones I usually encounter that take months and endless hours to finish. So I began making a baby quilt for one of my best friends that is due to have a baby in a few months. I loved working with the size of a baby quilt, so manageable and quick to make, especially when you use a basic pattern. I used a bundle of 2 1/2 inch, 1930's flour sack reproduction strips, and began sewing the strips then cutting then making squares. I got the whole top finished in a day. I must admit that as much as I love working on projects that are very "process oriented" sometimes it feels really great to pop something out quickly, that requires little thought. Just being able to make and keep going without considering why or how... To make something utilitarian can be relaxing at times. I am sure though that this quick, utilitarian project will be followed by a time consuming, mind boggling, embroidery... Because it is already in the works of course.

away and back

Happy New Year to all! I know we are now 11 days into this year, and I have done a horrible job of keeping up with my posts... However its a new, clean slate and I have plans to make, post, and write more on here again. I took a trip to my home country of Portugal for the holidays. It was interesting being in there over the holidays, normally when I visit it is warm and sunny... Not this time, it was grey, foggy, rainy, and cold for 10 days. However, all of the fields, mountains and plants were really green from the wet climate. It was gorgeous to see the oranges and lemons on trees and persimmons and olives too.
I am from a town close to the city of Castelo Branco, which has its own embroidery techniques and patterns. I visited one of the local shops while i was there that sells thread, fabric, yarn and anything inbtween that has to do with textiles, and went crazy for all the different threads and colors. I am drawing out some new pieces I want to make that incorporate the traditional embroidery patterns and some of my own ideas... girls and guns and such. A play on traditional women's work that is in my culture and modern ideals. Hope everyone is having a good start to the year.

horizons.

There are two things that are inevitable in life. The first is change. The second time. My obsession with time, and the passing of it, has been apparent for the past couple of years. However for the first time in a long time, I feel as though I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I celebrated 26 a couple of weeks ago, and looking around the table at dinner, I saw that I am surrounded by amazing people that inspire and encourage me on a daily basis. While time doesn't stop, sometimes there are moments that are so precious that we continue to feel them years after they happen. Those are the moments that motivate me when it comes to making.





Sometimes projects don't go the way that we want them to. I have been working on another embroidery for a while, but got very frustrated with it last week. (Note to self... embroidering thread to look like skin=headace). Anyhow, I decided to pull out these masks again. I am working on finishing them for a holiday gift to a close friend. This started out as an outline that I was going to fill in. However I have decided to leave the outline as part of the finished piece and work on the masks and other details to fill in. I am also limiting my pallete with this piece, to emphasize the shapes and mystery of the masks. I am hoping to be done with this one by the end of the week.

changes

The leaves are turning every shade of red, orange, yellow, and anything in between, and for the first time in years I do not miss school. Usually this time of year gives me a longing to be back in college making all the time. While I miss the making part of it all, I do not want to be back in school this time around. Instead I feel as though I am exactly where I am supposed to be for the first time in a long time.
The image above is a quilt that I began, it is made out of remnants that I have saved from other projects for the past few years. Originally I had no use for this quilt it was just a "crazy" quilt that I was playing with to keep my hands occupied. However with the news of a new baby on the way, a best-friend, NOT my own! I think it might have a life in a new nursury. I have self nominated myself to help decorate the room, which I can't stop being excited over. There will be a dash of vintage charm and more books than the baby will know what to do with for a couple of years.
Between all the changes that have taken place in my life in the past few weeks, the change of the leaves and another year marker approaching, it feels great to be exactly where I am supposed to be. Surrounded by great people, new ideas, and intersting times. With all of this I am going to jump back on the blog wagon, and keep up with this better. I had to work some things out in my brain without making it public. However the time has come to get back to making, posting and life.

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.”-Albert Einstein

The summer has come and gone, and I have been dormant on this blog. However my studio has been alive. I have been working on a new quilt, that is made from fragments I have collected for about 5 years. I have also been embroidering a very detailed small piece that goes with a series I began years ago. I promise to post some photos soon. Life seems to be busy and getting busier. However moments shared with good company will always help feed the soul of an artist.

comfort.

As this time of the year approaches, I always think about the days I spent in college making. It was my one and only job for almost four years. To make and be creative. At the time I knew it was a once in a lifetime experience, but I never appreciated how incredible that time was. When your life revolves around the ideas that come and experimenting with them until you find one that is worth carrying out. As I was becoming an adult, I was also exploring every possible medium at my fingertips that interested me in the least bit. Somewhere in my sophomore year I came up with a weaving technique that described the way I have felt my whole life, in a visual way. I spent hours and days ripping fabric and found materials, sewing it into "yarn" and weaving it. It got to a point where everyone started looking at rectangles with "tails" as a person. The pieces told stories with the materials that composed them. I became comfortable with the method and the appearance. The titles added the bits of sarcasm and gave the works a point of view. Then one day my life got turned upside down, and I put my emotions behind me, and finished the last piece that I ever made on a floor loom.
I have spent the past 4 years, dealing with demons. Making, but always feeling like something was missing in the work. So I began to think, and I remembered something that a professor once told me in a critique. "Once you are comfortable with what you are making, it is time to move on to something else."
The more I thought about this the more it made sense. Art, after all is just a series of problems and solutions. Once you know the solutions to the "problem" at hand you begin to repeat yourself. It is time to more on. So all summer I have been spending time doing things I may not have done in the past, trying to broaden my horizons. I have spent time outdoors, even took up tennis (I am no good, but none the less... tried.) I have had dinner parties, cooked more than the past 3 years. Gone for walks played in the sand and the river, and done absolutely nothing but think for an hour here and there (a hard thing for me). In this time the ideas began to come. I layed out things in a sketchbook, made some drawings, collaged images... Finally something new, that is not just a thing to pass the time away, came to mind. Something that has depth and concepts behind it.
As an artist my greatest fear is being the one hit wonder that never makes anything again. So here I am in the most public of all places, declaring that I am going to carry out my new idea. I am not going to share it because, well... the Internet is a scary place to leak a new idea. I will post photos as a record of the process, because the process is as important as the work for this piece. Thank you to anyone that reads this for being patient with me, I know that some of the things being made and talked about have lacked something... I am hoping that from now on it gets more interesting, for us both.

summer

I have been avoiding everything indoors this summer. There have been nights of wine and smore's, amazing company, quiet talks, and days of the james river, swimming, tennis (I am not good at all! but fun none the less), and just being. Its been a few years since I have spent this much time outside "frolicking" which means that not a lot of blogging is happening. However some making has been I am almost done with the mask embroidery and have begun some other projects. This summer break was well needed, the past few years of school... work... making... school... work... making have taken a toll on me. Without realizing it I was exhausted and spent. Meanwhile I am going to enjoy the summer, hopefully take some pictures of artwork to post, and have another glass of wine. Hope all is well.