When old and new love stories collide

Dear blog readers, dear cyberspace, dear digital friends,

Through the kindness of two Brooklyn curators, Katherine Gressel and Kim Maier of the Old Stone House, my work will be included in a show opening this Wednesday evening, "Partners, Parents, Pets: Contemporary Portraiture."

The curators were most interested in my 2011 Brooklyn Arts Council sponsored Brooklyn Love Exchange project. Most of that work was sold, and we're showing a few remaining pieces. I decided to revisit old content—love stories people had emailed me, and I'd liked but was too overwhelmed to embroider. I ended up making two of those and an email collaging memories of an old love with a new, brief love interest. The piece below includes 30 years of memories.

Remembering the past can be wistful and also torturous. I am glad this piece is over. I finished it in time for the exhibit and can move on emotionally from some difficult memories.

If you happen to be in the New York area, please join us this Wednesday, 2/10, 6-9pm at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn at 336 3rd Street.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling, new sculptures in the works

Hand painted, stitched, stiffened, stuffed fabric with hand made glass beads. 2016. Iviva Olenick

Happy New Year and my work as a social contract

For the past three years, I've struggled with how to make work that moves beyond sharing my own and others' personal stories into the realm of culturally-relevant commentary. It is possible that my own thinking and self-contextualization were the only barriers to this. What if I were to think of my work as a social contract, and myself as having a duty or responsibility to represent multiple voices as a way of speaking about contemporary social issues without being didactic or obnoxious?

A new version of my artist statement is underway. I am thinking of making it the home page of my web site. Good idea or ridiculous?!

In Residence, Monday, 10/26 – Sunday, 11/8

Join me at Workshop Gallery Artists Foundation at Brooklyn Workshop Gallery for the 2015 finale to Native/Immigrant City, my exploration of New York natives, immigrants and transplants from other parts of the country through soft sculpture. Since December 2014, I've been collecting stories and memories of moving to and from NYC, surviving rent hikes, questionable roommates and landlords, and falling in love with the City despite all the stress and vowing never to leave.

I translate friends' and strangers' stories into stop motion animations and embroideries on fabric paintings and sculptures. I try to give voice and tactile form to varying cultural points of view. With a Brooklyn Arts Council grant, I've had the opportunity to host some communal storytelling and embroidery events in the past year. Thanks to 61 Local and Brooklyn Workshop Gallery for donating space.

From 10/26–11/8, you can find me at Brooklyn Workshop Gallery. Special hours are:
Monday, 10/26, 12–7pm
Saturday, 10/31, 12–5pm
Sunday, 11/1, 2–5pm
Monday, 11/2, 12–6pm
Tuesday, 11/3, 11am–4pm

Join us on Thursday, 11/5 from 7-9pm for a poetry reading featuring KC Trommer and friends.

For additional hours and dates, contact me to set up a private viewing of the work, or look for updates via Facebook.

An old New York that you don't really see...

I am thrilled to have made major progress on these coordinated pieces. The embroidered painting and doll share the memories and stories of a native New Yorker (Queens born) who now lives in Brooklyn and has seen the borough go through many changes.

As I continue developing Native/Immigrant City, my embroidered study of assimilation versus acculturation in richly textured, socioeconomically challenging Brooklyn, I am excited to find stories like these from natives. I also want to thank the Greater NY Arts Development Fund of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs administered by BAC for partial sponsorship of this project.

Coming up in May, I will be sharing the techniques I use to make the above pieces at Brooklyn Workshop Gallery at 393 Hoyt Street in Brooklyn near 3rd Street (and not too far from Whole Foods). Martine Bisagni, Director of the Gallery, is kindly hosting a Sewing and Embroidery Studio on Thursday May 21 and 28 and June 4th from 1-9pm. I will be on site from 6-9pm on those dates, sharing my techniques and processes and teaching embroidery basics.

Where has March gone?

While warmer weather continues to evade us, I've taken advantage of the climate to work indoors on growing Native/Immigrant City, my homage to New Yorkers born in the City and from other States and countries.

My current piece in process is below. Please get in touch if you happen to be a current or former Brooklyn resident with a story to share about your experience making a home in the borough.

I also want to thank the Brooklyn Arts Council for providing me with some funding to grow and continue this project. More specifically, I have a generous regrant from the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

Finally, stay tuned for announcements of by-donation workshops coming soon to a Brooklyn venue near you...I provide supplies and instruction; you show up with an idea for a soft sculpture. Together, we turn your vision into a physical reality.

Winter cheer - Thursday opening @IMCLabGallery

Dear blog readers,

Yes, it's cold. Yes, I am suffering from season-long sinus congestion. I'm giving up dairy. For real, this time. It's going to be hard. I will miss Greek yogurt more than I can say. I am hoping coconut yogurt (which is basically a sugary custard) will suffice. Who am I kidding? I can't even keep a straight face typing this.

Anyway, enough about me. 

Thanks to IMC Lab & Gallery, the opening for my solo show, the culmination of my Co-Create Residency, is this Thursday. Details below on the invitation co-designed with James Tunick, Residency co-director and technology guru.

I can't wait! If you're in the NYC area, please come by!

Bearded Brooklyn

What do trends in facial hair say about the status quo? Beards are in in Brooklyn. Just in time for winter.

Watercolor and embroidery on fabric. 2014 by Iviva Olenick

Embroidery 3D Workshop at 61 Local - join me Monday, 9/15, 10:30-1:30

I am teaching a special brunch time 3D embroidery class on Monday, September 15 from 10:30am - 1:30pm. Join us in the 61 Local mezzanine, 61 Bergen Street, Brooklyn. Among in-class exercises, we will make mini doll houses, like the ones below.

To purchase a spot in the class, $35 for 3 hours of instruction with supplies provided, use the button below:

Shoestring Press

I discovered a lovely new space for art making, taking workshops and meeting Brooklynites: Shoestring Press in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a collective operated by Lane Sell and colleagues.

Ever excited by the idea of collaborating, Lane and I are cooking up a combined screen printing/ soft sculpture workshop in mid September - stay tuned for details! And Lane, interested in embroidery's graphic capabilities, is planning to experiment with collagraph printing using an embroidery as the source image. With printmaking, one must reverse the direction of the source image so that it reads properly, so note that the below embroideries (at least the front side) have been reversed left-right!

Shoestring back and front reversed direction.

Art Opening HiJinks and He Stepped in a Pool of Red Paint

www.IvivaOlenick.com

I've been slowly making organizational and content changes to my web site, www.IvivaOlenick.com. I'm particularly excited about a new series of small, soft sculptures, "Native/Immigrant City." You can check them out here.

  

This tree was planted in front of my apartment as part of the NYC Million Trees project. "Brooklyn Full of Leaves, Treehouses." 2014. Sculpture with fabric, paint, stiffener, embroidery. 

BKlyn/BKram - upcoming Bay Ridge 5th Annual SAW (Storefront Artist Walk)

Saturday, May 17th will be a day of sweating: the Brooklyn Half Marathon will kick off the day, after which I will be at Bikram Yoga Brooklyn Bay Ridge, greeting visitors to the 5th Annual Bay Ridge SAW. Yes, my artwork will be in the window of the bikram yoga studio, which is hot and humid, in case you're wondering. Join me at 2pm Saturday, 5/17 at 8302 5th Avenue near 83rd Street. Even better, come to the artist reception Saturday afternoon from 3-5pm at the Owl's Head Bar - 479 74th Street

BKlyn/BKram. 2014. 3.75" x 6". Embroidery on cut, 

beet-dyed fabric with interfacing. "26 poses, scripted, 

repeated, hot, in a City full of posturing where 

nothing is scripted."

Poets near, far and beloved come together at Weaving Hand

This past Thursday, 12/19, marked the culminating celebration for my @EmbroideryPoems project, and my residency at Weaving Hand studio in Brooklyn. Many thanks to Dad, Tavi Gonzalez and Montana Ray for performing; Cynthia Alberto for hosting me as a resident artist, and the Brooklyn Arts Council for financial and spiritual support. This was fun - let's do it again soon!

Tavi Gonzalez @WeavingHand

Monte Olenick aka #dadknowsbest

Woven Poetry Bridge @WeavingHand

Brooklyn Bench, embracing fall

Opening tomorrow night at Muriel Guepin Gallery - 6:30-8pm. Stop by if you're around - 83 Orchard Street. Good art, wonderful artists, including Nathan Vincent and Kathy Halper...

My newest addition, below - stitched right up until the installation.

Embroidery, watercolor and applique. 2013. 

I only like him when...

I'm ovulating.

Fall Sprawl

When the weather shifts even slightly in New York City, it's apparent immediately in people's fashion choices. The G and L trains are great places to spot people expressing themselves through clothing, as in my below sketch in homage to a woman I observed recently on my way home from Bushwick.

Using my new method of a very leaky watercolor drawing with embroidery on top, I recreated from memory a woman I observed from afar. I was mostly interested in her textured, brightly colored skirt, severe haircut, and heels...

New - Resident Teaching Artist at Brooklyn's Weaving Hand Studio

September has introduced some exciting changes! For one, the day job I'd had for 7 years as a textile designer came to a denouement. While I'm sad, it's opened the door for some unexpected opportunities. I'm now able to get back into hands-on weaving as a Resident Teaching Artist at Weaving Hand studio in Brooklyn. I'm so excited!


This comes at a perfect time, as I'm preparing for a December exhibit at Muriel Guepin Gallery. I feel as though some of my embroideries could use some 3-dimensional accompaniments...and I now have more time and access to the equipment with which to explore my ideas!


And I'm teaching embroidery at Weaving Hand in Brooklyn on two Sundays in September - September 22nd and 29th from 12-4pm. This 4-hour class is a great intro to classic stitches and ways to apply them to make artwork. Check out the workshops here.


In the meantime, here is a sneak peak at part of a larger-scale watercolor + embroidery piece I'm making, "Subverting the Pattern."

More to come soon!

Tiger Tooth from Angela Meyer aka @candylecoque

Thanks to @candylecoque (Angela Meyer) for tweeting
this to me. Embroidery and appliqué on fabric. 2013.

#cantstopthinkingaboutyou

Spring renews.

#cantstopthinkingaboutyou. Embroidery and watercolor.
2013. Text by @EmbroideryPoems. 2.25" x 3.5"