Be My Home

"I've scoured the City for someone who feels like home.

Now, you're standing right in front me of, yet you're out of reach. 

Darling, come down from the heights of my imagination and be my home."

Some day, my relationship-related wishes will be more than conjecture and fantasy, and I will have a reasonable semblance of the love I've always dreamed of. The question remains as to whether this will be with someone I already know, or someone I've yet to meet. I can't wait to find out!

Were I So Besotted - embroidered "blog"

In February 2007, I began recording and illustrating episodes from dates with men I met through the internet, through friends, and at parties and art openings. At first, I imagined making a graphic novel with a stylized, hyperbolic version of myself. Eventually, after drawing and writing in a journal, I began to embroider 5" wide by 8.5" high "pages." Each page included illustrations and/or text on fabric. The illustrations were derived from photos of me, or were fictionalized representations of men I encountered.

Now, two years later, I have compiled around two dozen pages in this piece, "Were I So Besotted." Each page contains a discrete anecdote, episode, or theme, and can be viewed on its own. However, I think of the pages as a collective portrait of a period in my life, and my engagement in the contemporary, media-driven method of searching for and finding a mate. Furthermore, I consider the pages to be an embroidered blog--they are intimate and even disarming the way blog posts can be; they are inspired by internet-fueled behavior and socializing; and they grew out of my own process of keeping a journal/diary where I record "private" thoughts through drawings and text.

Here, finally, are some of the pages in "Were I So Besotted" in the context of an actual blog. Additional images from Were I So Besotted can be viewed at: http://IvivaOlenick.neoimages.net.
You can see more of my artwork on Esty:
http://IvivaEmbroiders.etsy.com.

Image at top left: "Play." Embroidery and colored pencil on fabric. 8.5" high X 5" wide. August 2007.