Are blogs obsolete?

Has Instagram surpassed blogging? I've come to prefer its ease of use and immediacy. Twitter, too, enables quick sharing of ideas, mostly stream of consciousness commentary, which feeds my embroideries and artist statements, hyperbolic though my comments may be. How to transfer followers from one platform to another?

To check in with me more regularly and give me access to your visual diaries, let's follow each other on Instagram.

For now, here are some more images of figures I'm profiling in Native/Immigrant City, an ongoing conversation with Brooklynites and New Yorkers (natives, transplants, immigrants) about surviving/thriving amidst breakneck speed gentrification and crushing daily demands. Currently receiving support through a Greater NY Arts Development Fund grant from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs administered by BAC (Brooklyn Arts Council).

I used to

use this forum to pour out concerns I wasn't sharing IRL ("in real life") contexts. Now Twitter is more of my home.

Is blogging obsolete? Have Twitter and Instagram replaced longer-form writing? (what) Do we read? How long is the average #AttentionSpan? Is #reading #obsolete? What does that mean for poetry and journalism? Are talk show hosts better received than news anchors?

Thank you, Mr. X Stitch

Embroidery and needle craft blogger, Mr. X Stitch very generously and unexpectedly reviewed my art this past week. Thank you, Mr. X Stitch, for a write-up, which you can find here.

Thanks, Andrew Thornton and Lark Crafts

I was very happy to learn this morning that I am mentioned in a blog post/interview about Andrew Thornton conducted by Lark Crafts. Thanks to the publisher, Ray Hemachandra, Team Lead, Lark Jewelry & Beading, Lark Crafts / Sterling Publishing Inc., for letting me know.

And many thanks to Andrew for including my name amongst those who have inspired him.

To read the post, click here.

To find out more about Andrew, visit his blog.

Strange world of blogging

Just a quick post to say that I am pleased to have found a mention of my blog and artwork in Philadelphia's Citypaper blog. Here's the link:

ttp://citypaper.net/blogs/criticalmass/2010/03/23/8738/

Citypaper picked up on me after the Philadelphia-based clothing company, Free People, mentioned wereisobesotted in their blog.

How did these internet elves find me?

However they found me, I must thank them for the publicity. 

Unexpected and lovely review of my work

Many thanks to Gunny Scarfo for posting a review of my artwork on the Me Lifestyle blog. He found my work on Etsy, and we talked briefly this week. 

You can check it out here: http://www.themelifestyle.com/blog

Artist Talk Thursday night at Shop Art

For those of you in the New York area, I am giving a gallery talk this Thursday night at Shop Art Gallery in Brooklyn. My work is on exhibit there in a 4-person show, "Visual Vernacular," through November 29th. The gallerist, Muriel Guepin, kindly invited me to talk about the process and inspiration behind my work.

My brief talk will be followed by Q and A, so get your questions ready! I like a challenge.

Thursday, 11/19, 7-8pm at Shop Art.

51 Bergen Street, F/G train to Bergen Street station.

Refreshments will be served.

Perfectly Disheveled

I don't love everything I make. There are pieces I complete and hide in a drawer because something about them just doesn't satisfy me. 

I recently sat down with Muriel Guepin, curator of Shop Art Gallery, to select work for a show I'm in opening this Saturday. Before meeting her, I went through my "archives," and found the piece above, "Perfectly Disheveled." I made it in the summer of 2007. It is a true story, and while the text is kind of sweet, I was never happy with the drawing. I had sketched him out on paper first, and he was so much more dynamic before I stitched him. What I got right were his proportions, his lankiness, and the way he looked hidden inside his clothes.

Please, if you're in the New York area, join me for the opening of Visual Vernacular this coming Saturday, October 3, 6-9pm at Shop Art Gallery: 51 Bergen Street near Smith. F/G train to Bergen is the closest form of public transport. This piece is just one of more than 20 that will be exhibited.

I thought this might be the start of our artistic commingling...

"Thursday night one month later, he strode into the bar with a manila envelope. Inside was my sketch. I thought this might be the start of our artistic commingling..."

Here is the sequel to "He disappeared into a whiskey night."

Thanks to Phil for his sketch. (By the way, this is the print of the sketch, not the actual sketch.)

This piece is important to me because it allowed me to embellish on an actual event without being as confessional and personal as some of my other pieces. I consider it a bit more playful. It is very difficult emotionally to share the level of detail I have displayed through my work. The process of recording and recreating sensitive, intimate events has been cathartic, but has also embroiled me in the originating emotional experience.

When I began "Were I So Besotted," I imagined creating a caricature of myself, where I would embellish actual events. I am still surprised by how open the work became. I think the "truth," or my truth, is simply more compelling and relatable than any stories I could create.

In this piece here, I created a version of myself that does not quite look like me. I feel a sense of freedom in having done that.

The Embroidered Art Journal -- My September class at Pratt

Well, the artist talk at the Center for Book Arts last week was fabulous. I was in wonderful company, and was impressed by the other artists' work, and their public speaking skills. I really felt as if it were a communal experience: there were common threads among our work. One of the audience members wrote a lovely review on her blog. You can check it out here. 

My next adventure will be teaching at Pratt this fall in the Center for Continuing and Professional Studies on West 14th Street in Manhattan. I encourage you to sign up! Unfortunately, the Pratt web site is down until August 18th, so if you'd like to register, call 212-647-7199. Here are the details:

The Embroidered Art Journal: Embroidery as Narration and Illustration

This introductory workshop on embroidery and artist books will begin with making a sampler of 12 embroidery stitches and learning some basics about how to work with different fibers and fabrics. Your instructor will work with you to develop concepts for an artist book that incorporates embroidery and other media. Emphasis will be on the creative process, and the application and use of new skills and materials. In addition to experimenting with embroidery, you will be asked to record information in visual and/or textual form during and in between each class. You can do this in any way you choose: by keeping a conventional sketchbook or diary; writing a blog; taking photographs; making paintings or sculptures; even recording notes in your iPhone or through emails or text messages. The goals of this course are to become comfortable with embroidery and fabric; practice engagement with your daily visual and social environment; develop a project from initial concept to artistic execution; and participate in a group environment where new artwork and ideas are created and shared.

Topics include: 

A vocabulary of embroidery stitches; the basics of fabrics and fiber materials; 

conventional and unconventional materials in embroidery;

transferring images and text onto fabric;

drawing and writing with embroidery;

text as a primary artistic medium; 

an introduction to book arts, including blogs.

Prerequisite: No previous experience with embroidery, sewing, or book arts needed.

• Section 1: W 6:30–9:30 PM

5 sessions Sept 2-30

Iviva Olenick

• Section 2: Su 9:30 AM–12:30 PM

5 Sessions Nov 15–Dec 20

Iviva Olenick

PMDA 104 1.5 C.E.U.s $195

Were I So Besotted, installation view

This is an installation shot of some of the pages in Were I So Besotted. Details on individual pages to come in subsequent posts.