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.

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).

Brooklyn in Stop Motion

One of my favorite parts of being an artist are impromptu collaborations. Friends and strangers become part of my work by sharing their stories, which I record and transform into 2- and 3-dimensional embroideries. I sometimes even make stop motion animations using the audio recordings (which I edit).

Stop motion is new to me; I read an online tutorial to get the basic concept. And I now make these pieces which to me have a handmade feel. They're not clean and overly produced and edited; they're more about finding another way to share narrative in the digital age.

The piece below, An Old New York You Don't Really See, is narrated by my friend, Sherri Kronfeld, a native New Yorker and current Brooklynite. She is particularly gifted at capturing 1908s NYC through the eyes and impressions of a child. I wish my own memories retained the feelings of being a kid.

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.

Selfie and @YrImaginaryDog, hanging out at IMC Lab and Gallery in NYC

The opening for Reach Out and Touch Me was fun. It was one of the coldest nights of the year. Nevertheless, many friends showed up, surprising me.

Above is my soft sculpture "family," Selfie, @YrImaginaryDog and her iPhone watching a stop motion video of me embroidering Selfie's and @YrImaginaryDog's tweets on Selfie. 

The exhibit is up through March 18th at IMC Lab, 56 W 22nd Street near 6th Ave in NYC. Get in touch if you'd like to visit!

In the meantime, stay tuned for news of my BAC-sponsored Native/Immigrant City project. As for me, I'm off to art fairs today. I can't wait for Spring Break!

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

I only like him when...

I'm ovulating.

Crustacean support group

"Maybe I have to have a soft shell, be a soft shell crab so that I don't get smashed. But then I'll just end up in someone's sandwich." Crustacean Support Group.

Text by a friend for @EmbroideryPoems, BAC-sponsored project. 2013. 

Embroidery and watercolor on silk. 3"x3.75".

Paint Stains...

Sometimes, a piece just isn't finished. I updated this over the course of 18 hours, starting last night and ending just a few moments ago...

Mosquito from @lisakimlisakim

Thanks to Lisa Kim, friend, curator, and Director of Cultural Affairs, Two Trees Management (Dumbo, Brooklyn) for sending me this haiku.

Creative Voice, text by Sandy Denarski

Thanks to Sandy Denarski for writing the text for this piece. Of course, you're probably thinking that the piece could refer to me...

Creamsicle by @EmbroideryPoems

"Orange Brooklyn - Running under a creamsicle-colored sky."
2013. Embroidery and watercolor on fabric.
Text by @EmbroideryPoems. 

Echoes, poem by @Rachellah

"Echoes." Embroidery on fabric. 2013. Poem by @Rachellah,
aka Rachel Udell. Embroidery by Iviva Olenick

Get Out of My Dreams

Text by poet @melissabroder

"get out of my dreams and into my fear"

Dad knows best, part 1

Thanks, Dad for this tweet-length poem.

Funny HaHa

Courtney J. Wendroff, the Brooklyn Arts Council's Visual Arts Director, is curating a show on "seriously funny" humor, and has decided to include my work. With that in mind, I've stitched up some wry post-its. Here is a preview of some of my favorites.

"Funny Ha Ha" will open on March 1st. More details to follow.

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!