Jan 02 2010
dreams and studio day
Thanks to a supportive and encouraging family, I rode to the studio today, my pack stuffed with supplies. I began a papier mache doll that I keep dreaming about. It was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend at lunch last week. My friend is into fairy tales and story telling, and when she said that one way to look at fairy tales is to see all the characters as pieces of yourself battling it out in some kind of internal struggle, I was a little stunned. And later amazed. Probably all of you knew that already, but I somehow missed that.
Today I began to construct my new doll. I built the armature of her limbs out of wire and wrapped it in cheesecloth and a flour, water, salt mix. I have no idea what it will turn out like, but I love the gauzy quality, the fibers falling out everywhere and that you can see the internal structure. Her body and head I made with the old schoolgirl’s balloon covered in drippy shreds of newspaper. I’m not sure how exactly I’ll construct her, but she will have articulated limbs, hands, and feet. She’s moving a bit more into the puppetry realm.
I’ve been dreaming about puppets, miniature puppet theatres, and performances (something waaaay out of my comfort zone, considering I take ages to feel really comfortable around new people, I can’t imagine wanting to perform).
I am working on this custom tea cozy for our dear friends that will eventually be a trade since one of the friends is an incredible artist. It’s almost complete, though I want to do some more embroidery and other embellishments. Even though I’ve been working on it since last summer, and have completely ripped it apart and reworked it, I’m really happy with it so far. I’m thinking tire swing.
I’ve tried to not be as distracted by the computer this past year (although fb still sucks me in) I’m trying to make my computer time useful and related to art. One way I’m doing this is to read art blogs instead of surfing around. So inspiring! One thing I love is seeing people’s textile work with all the threads hanging out, serger stitches, ripped edges, raw edges, stitches with character, emotion and depth rather than that perfect, neat, preciseness of crafting. That traditional stitching is something I deeply admire and yet feel really uninspired by it. Perhaps it’s because no matter how hard I try, I am never able to do those neat little perfect stitches, but I just love to see how people fuck with it. Here’s my first attempt at playing around with stitching and my new free motion darning needle:
