You're my main meal

"I want you to be my main meal. Not just a side dish. Not even dessert.

Many people dream of getting married. I dream about running. Will you be my one and only pair of sneakers?"

Hand stitched on antique lace (see Antique fabric and what I'm dreaming of post).

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.

 

School girl

"I don't want to be the girl you call for homework. I want to be the girl you go out with Friday night."

Embroidery coming soon.

Synapse

I love the word synapse. When I was in my early 20s, I had just started dating a man 9 years older than me whom I'd met when we shared an office at a non-profit. I found my job tedious, but looked forward to seeing him every day. 

Shortly after he and I started dating, he went on an annual beach vacation with his family. Alone again in New York City, I missed him, and, of course, wondered if he had been thinking about me. 

My most salient memory of that week was going to the Whitney Museum to see Robert Rauschenberg's "Synapsis Shuffle," a piece composed of numerous panels that were to be rearranged or shuffled upon each new installation by a different person or group. For some reason, I found it interesting that Martha Stewart was one of the participants in the Whitney Museum installation.

In any event, I have always loved the sound of the word synapse, which means a small gap where neurotransmitters travel. I like to think of a synapse as a space in a relationship where emotions and information are conveyed, shared, and exchanged. 

In the piece above, I removed some of the warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) threads to encourage the fabric to fray, and to create larger "synapses."

Piece above: "Synapse." 2009. Embroidery on distressed linen. 4" X 3.5".

"I want to slip into the synapse of your loosely woven threads."

Update on Social (Virus) Exhibit

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I participated recently in an exhibit at non-profit NurtureArt Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn. What made this exhibit special was the age of the curators. They are high school students in the Juan Morel Campos Secondary School. 

My piece consisted of two small narrative embroidery pieces (at left), and my blog entry. I left a small notebook where viewers could leave comments. Here is my favorite comment:

"I think this work reflects me in the best way possible. I think I should lose the glasses, too."

Same Spool of Thread

We Are from the Same Spool of Thread. 2009. embroidery on fabric. 4.75" X 8.25".

I think this man has an incredibly sweet face, and while he  looks 10 years younger than me, his spirit of openness and availability is what I am looking for in a partner. He also seems like he's in pretty good shape (that is always a bonus in a partner).

The text on his body says:

my smile never fades or tires

we are done with dating doldrums

When you're around, all of my hopes are possible. Birds sing and the sun shines.

Our love is an endless warp-you are the warp and I am the weft.

We are an endless spool of thread.

We are interlaced and interwoven.

We are from the same spool of thread.

Less Interested

"The more he talked, the less interested I became." 2009. embroidery on fabric. 1.5" X 3".

Despite my work on "Were I So Besotted," I have been on a dating hiatus for some months as I crammed out artwork, and worked out the ups and downs of past and a recent entanglements. 

My re-entry into dating these past few weeks was somewhat nostalgic. I remembered that I love the anticipation, the first emails or phone calls or text messages that give me hints into a person I may soon get to know. What I dislike is the frustration of sticking out a date when I know within the first 20 minutes that I will not want to see the person again. Sometimes, I know before I even go on the date that I am not interested, and end up going out of a sense of obligation. 

I sense that there are more engaging moments ahead of me. I can't wait.