Surface of My Skin

"Secrets rise to the surface of my skin."

Skin as a personal map or history, which shares hints about the past.

This is a re-work of an old piece that lost meaning for me. I like the ambiguity in this version, the crossed through, original text alongside the new version.

I recently fell while running (which doesn't happen often) during a heat wave in New York. I've been watching the cuts on both palms heal, and thinking how amazing it is that our bodies know how to heal. Other than bandaids and cleaning the cuts, I've left my skin to repair itself.

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.

Brooklyn neighborhoods I have traversed, lived in, and loved

This is the second piece in my Brooklyn series:

"Brooklyn neighborhoods I've traversed, lived in, and loved."

It includes places where I run or ran in high school, places I've lived, places where I've shown my art, places with legendary appeal (Bed Stuy "do or die"), and places I've merely passed through. 

I truly love Brooklyn.

Mapping my run on the snowy banks

Much to my disappointment, I have not been able to run outside for the past two days. The first snow of the season left the streets slushy, icy, and wet, with huge banks of snow on the corners. I actually ran on the treadmill, which is a poor substitute for an outdoor run.

To honor my love of running while the sun rises, I posted this map yesterday morning on the Boerum Hill bulletin board. As you can tell, it was not yet light out. 

I was disappointed to discover that my two previous maps had been removed. Where did they go? Who took them?

I need to find a more permanent space for my maps. I am working on reaching out to arts organizations that help artists produce public projects. I applied for a slot to talk to some of the administrators of Creative Time, a NYC-based non-profit that produces public art projects. The next one-on-one artist counseling sessions are being held at PS1 in January. I have no idea what my chances are of being picked for a meeting, but I am excited about the possibility.

Mapping My Run, Hoyt Street and Atlantic

I noticed yesterday that the map I attached to the bulletin board on the corner of Hoyt Street and Atlantic Avenue has remained. Yay!

I have decided to continue to post my maps, one on top of one another, so that I will create a public diary of my runs. 

I will probably collect the maps within a few months, and bind them into a book, which I may try to exhibit. 

If you live in the neighborhood, keep an eye out for this bulletin board!

Hoyt Street and Atlantic Avenue

This map is on a bulletin board on the corner of Hoyt Street and Atlantic Avenue. 

Before posting it, I got into a conversation with a neighbor, who was prying old staples off the bulletin boards.

I described my project to him, and as a former runner, he seemed sympathetic. He also told me that an artist is planning to plant corn on a patch of land in the neighborhood. The corn is a native strain. That should be interesting to keep an eye out for.

Left Behind on My Run, installment 2, Bergen-Court Sts

I decided to approach my "Left Behind on My Run" project from a slightly different angle. I am now selecting and searching for publicly-accessible bulletin boards along my running route. 

The picture at left is a map I placed at the intersection of Bergen and Court Streets. I wonder how long it will live in this space, and if it will generate interest?

Mapping my runs

Since initiating "Left Behind on My Run," I have realized how much I enjoy hand-stitching a map. I get to re-experience the run, and to share it with others.

After installing the first round, I was happy to see that my pieces lived on for nearly a week.

They were taken down, probably not by pedestrians, but by the Department of Sanitation. I called 311 to try to find out if I could obtain a permit to post art publicly without the risk of a fine or having it taken down.

Neither the person I spoke with at the hotline, nor the internet research I did led me to the precise information I want.

The Department of Transportation has three programs to which non-profits can apply with an artist to do a specific project. This is not quite what I'm looking for.

What I really want is to be able to post my maps and emotional quips on the streets of the neighborhoods I traverse regularly. These streets and my runs are as much a part of my emotional landscape as the dates I've been on. When I run, all of these parts of my life seem to collide.

In the meantime, I plan to keep making maps, which I will assemble into a book. I have discovered that I really enjoy stitching on plastic. I like the semi-transparent quality, and the versatility and surprising strength of the material.