Brooklyn Love Exchange a la the BKBuzz

My many thanks to Shannon Geis of The BK Buzz for creating a podcast about my recent exhibit and Brooklyn Arts Council-funded project, The Brooklyn Love Exchange. Visit this link to look and listen.

Aerial View, Cloud City: FiberGraf and the Brooklyn Love Exchange at Muriel Guepin Gallery

Today is the last day to see The Brooklyn Love Exchange and FiberGraf at Muriel Guepin Gallery.

The piece shown here, "Aerial View: Cloud City," involves multiple steps and processes. My FiberGraf collaborator, Jon Baker, and I each worked on it for several months. I started by painting the fabric a medium blue-purple using permanent fabric paint. I deliberately left some of the fabric bare. Jon began drawing on it with fabric markers, and kept going...In between his drawing sessions, I added in French knots, which are denser in some areas than others. I started with embroidery thread that matched the medium dark purple in the background. Later, as I ran out of thread, I started to use my fabric paint to dye grey and light greyish-green thread to match some of the lighter and darker areas of the ground.

We are planning more pieces of this nature, where we mix media and techniques, and work simultaneously and alternately on the same piece.

My final Brooklyn Love Exchange piece

An homage to some friends in Sunset Park. This is how they met.

Williamsburg hug by way of Greenpoint and Brooklyn Heights

I call this piece "Williamsburg hug." I know the couple, and they're lovely, and still very happy together. It was a pleasure working on this piece.

Brooklyn Heights love -- the latest from the Brooklyn Love Exchange

I'm quite fond of my latest piece for The Brooklyn Love Exchange:

"He told me that when he met me for the first time, he thought, "In another life, this is the type of woman I should marry."

This couple IS now happily married.

If you're in the New York area, I'm previewing my work from The Brooklyn Love Exchange at the Dumbo Arts Festival, taking place tonight, Friday 9/23 from 6-9, as well as tomorrow and Sunday. I will be on site Saturday and Sunday from 1-4pm at 81 Front Street.

Drop by to see my work and to participate in my improvised embroidery process: I will interview guests and add your stories to my Brooklyn love map, and begin creating new pieces for The Brooklyn Love Exchange. I can't wait to see you there!

At long last, love in Fulton Park

The piece pictured is excerpted from a lovely story about finding love while riding the NYC trains. Who hasn't noticed the cute man or woman on the platform or across a crowded train? In this story, a relationship formed from a subway spotting. Here is the original text:

It was an auspicious Saturday. The MTA had passengers transferring between local and express train lines because of repairs. Once in Brooklyn, I was relieved to finally be en route home. Then, the conductor played the last trick. The train was skipping a few stops, including my destination. I had to walk down a few flights of stairs to board another train. As the next train came to a stop, a striking man would notice me wearing a yellow halter dress. “Beautiful,” he thought. I took a seat in a separate car, unaware of his interest. Peering into the window, I saw the same man that had observe me a few minutes prior. At our destination, we exited onto the platform at the same time. Similar to a screenplay and cliché as it may seem, we saw each other at the same time. It’s one of those moments when other people move in a slow blur. “I’m going to love this man,” I thought. We slowly walked up the stairs, but our distance from each other was a few feet. I would frequently turn around to meet his intense stare. He’ll later joke with friends and family about his initial thoughts of me, “Hold on, baby… I’m coming.” Once outside, he gently tapped my shoulder to politely say, “Excuse me…” We walked through a park to talk about life. Then, he placed a right hand to his chest to say, “My heart… you’re different… my heart feels warm.”

One of the first dinners I made for him was Butternut Squash Ravioli with Shrimp and Ginger Sauce. I remembered this dish, because he said shrimp was a favorite. As we continue to date, he occasionally says, “…I’m enjoying the process of us coming together.” It’s been two years since that auspicious Saturday afternoon. He warms my heart, too.

He Cleared a Forest

Last Friday night, I was out with some girlfriends at a bar in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Of the three of us, two (including me) are single and searching. One of us is dating someone who seems just right for her. In the context of talking about her previous boyfriends, including the one she moved to New York for, I said to her, "He (her current boyfriend) cleared a forest to get to you."

The text in this piece reads: "My man cleared a forest to get to me."

Back stitch for the text, French knots for the leaves, watercolor wax pastels for the trees.

Part of the Brooklyn Love Exchange, this couple met in Cobble Hill.

Here is my latest piece for the Brooklyn Love Exchange, "The 12th Annual Love Hangover."

A friend from my neighborhood, Boerum Hill, has been producing the Love Hangover in Brooklyn for quite some time. This paean to love is an annual musical event co-occuring in several cities. The Brooklyn installment has been in Gowanus for the past couple of years.

The text for this piece is taken from last year's (2010's) invitation:
The 12th annual Love Hangover
is only a week away
You still have time to fall in love
and break up
just in time to be soothed, vindicated or mocked
by your favorite musicians
singing duets of love
the happy kind, the sad kind, the mean, weird or mad kind
It's one more round around the heart
February 15th, what the day after brings.

To create the patterning in the background, I laid a doily down on top of the fabric and sprayed fabric paint on top. Trying to give voice to other people's tales of love has helped me expand my vocabulary and working methods. I'm enjoying incorporating new techniques into my work.

I had hoped to give the text in this piece a somewhat old-fashioned visual feel. I liked the idea of lace, but didn't want the piece to be too feminine, or the lace too literal.

Sheepshead Bay subway "stalker"

This is my latest piece for the Brooklyn Love Exchange, which I summarized from her unfortunate tale of a subway flirtation gone awry. The man/boy didn't truly stalk her; he simply showed poor taste in his communication and body language.

Coney Island, where dreams come true

I love the mix of textures in this piece, which recounts the story of two psychotherapists falling in love. It says:

"From the first, I was inspired by who he was.

We spoke about everything and it was amazing how much we had in common.

He picked me up in Coney Island for our first date. We walked down the boardwalk, road the Cyclone together, and played arcade games.

Today, we're married with two kids and we still love Coney Island, the place where dreams come true."

"He had my heart in his mouth..."

"The whole relationship, he had my heart in his mouth. I handed myself over completely."

My friend in south Park Slope recollected her first love while we sat at a Bergen Street bar a few months ago. I've had this image in my head for months, and finally had an opportunity to realize it in embroidery.

Brooklyn is "that" girl...

"Brooklyn is that girl you can't decide if you should propose to or never speak to again."

Ahhh, the Brooklyn Love Exchange. A clever friend of mine posted this on Facebook, and I gained permission to add it to my portrait of Brooklyn Love.

New Zealand love story - So happy so happy so.

"Beschert Taxi," the latest from the Brooklyn Love Exchange

As told by a friend in Carroll Gardens:

"We dropped him off on Court Street, and as the taxi continued south to Carroll Gardens, the driver asked me why the two separate stops when he was so clearly my fellow.

'That's something he's decided he doesn't want to be,' I said. She responded with disbelief.

'You two have a deeply spiritual connection, one of the deepest I've ever sensed. You're tangled in a complex karma and will push and pull against each other until you figure it out. You two are destined to be together.'"

Sunset Park - Greenpoint, So Sleepy!

Here is an image from my Brooklyn Love Exchange project, where I share love stories from besotted (or not quite so besotted) Brooklynites.

The exchange described took place between a Sunset Park and a Fort Greene resident.

Love between friends is no small love.

The Brooklyn Love Exchange

I am super excited to announce that I have been awarded a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). Technically, this support comes from the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and is administered by BAC. In any event, I am grateful to both organizations for choosing to honor my artistic vision.

And I am asking for your participation in my project.

Through The Brooklyn Love Exchange, I plan to map love in the borough of Brooklyn. I am collecting stories from current and even former Brooklynites about your romantic encounters and relationships in the borough. Come one, come all! Pick up that iphone or ipad or sit down at your laptop and shoot me an email with your fondest Brooklyn love memories. If your story resonates with me, I will turn it into an embroidery like the piece above, and in the style of the work you have come to know.

Want your love story immortalized? You can post comments to this post, or email me at brooklynlovexchange@gmail.com. To track the progress of this project, you can visit my new blog dedicated to The Brooklyn Love Exchange.