You're my patch of grass...

More experiments with sculptural embroidery: "you're my patch of grass in an arid field." We've had so much precipitation this winter, it's hard to think of anything in New York being arid, but I think you know what I mean.

Pyramid Scheme

I'm loving experimenting with sculptural embroidery. Here is a new piece, small in scale, about 3" high x 5.5" wide and deep. Cut fabric with embroidery on painted fabric.

"your heart is a pyramid scheme"

Paint, paper, cut-outs, stitching

I'm in a place where memory meets current transformations. What better way to process this than through art?

Textile paint (which is basically acrylic) on paper with cut out and chain stitch. The chain stitch is supposed to represent the net we created...

It wasn't love at first sight in Prospect Heights

Prospect Heights love story as told by a friend now living with her husband and two kids in Flatbush, Brooklyn. When she and her husband met, she lived in Prospect Heights with a roommate (who is a good friend of mine).

"I remember the first time he cooked for me. It was maybe our third date, and I felt taken care of, like I was home.

He cooked spaghetti with an instant Japanese sauce pack, which was funny for two reasons:

1) the flavor was gorgonzola, which I don't like, and

2) I didn't know it at the time, but he's a great cook without having to lean on mixes, so I'm not sure why he used one then.

Maybe he wasn't trying hard to impress. He's cooked me countless meals since then, but that was the first time I thought he might be a keeper.

My idea of romance

I hope this one gets a few laughs, although, I really do feel this way.

Antique fabric and what I'm dreaming of

I love when my artwork helps bring new friends into my life. Paula Overbay, a fellow artist I met at the recent Affordable Art Fair in New York City passed on to me a wonderful piece of antique, Irish fabric. The piece at left is how I am using this delicate lace.

This piece, when finished, will hold a collection of my aphorisms or "post-it notes;" my small-scale comments on fabric. I think of it as a text quilt.

So far, the piece says:

"I'm mourning the relationship we never had, and thinking

of the ways I would have loved you."

"I don't want to be the girl

you call for homework.

I want to be the girl you

go out with Friday night."

Somehow, as a single 34-yr-old woman, dating still reminds me of how I felt in high school.

 

Always I return to you.

Piece at left:
"Always I return to you." 2009. 4.75" wide X 8.5" high. Embroidery on fabric.

"Loving you is like running uphill—there is construction on the side of the road, the streets are out of order, yet I move forward. Always I return to you."

In my hair, I say "hold onto me or let me go. Darling, hold onto me."

Please see the previous post, April 15, "Generation 'Maybe, I don't know.' Hold Onto Me Tightly, or Let Me Go (piece in progress).

In finishing this piece, I realize it is a love poem for running, and also for someone I'm close to right now.