It’s All Happening

Holy cow! It’s less than two weeks until the first opening of Home is Where the Needle Marks, my curatorial debut! The time, she is flying!!  This is what all the stitching and hustle has been leading to of late.

In conjunction with Pop tART gallery, I have put together a fab show, Home is Where the Needle Marks.  It’s  a fantastic group of stitched artwork on the theme of “home.”  In fact, so much wonderful work was submitted that we decided to split the show into two shows, in two spaces, with two openings!  The first is Saturday June 9th, and the second Saturday June 16th.

Doing It All Again

We’re doing more stitching tomorrow evening at Pop tART gallery!  Making small swatches to be bombed in a few weeks in a large-ish installation.  If you’re in the LA area and can knit or crochet, or just want to be a part of a big, fun, stitchy project, come out!!

Stitch-in!! 6-9pm, Wed, May 23 at Pop tART Gallery – 3023 W. 6th St. Los Angeles, CA 90020 – that’s west 6th Street at Virgil.

Hope to see you there (we have candy)!

Keep calm and cast on!

Saturday Was the Bomb!

What fun Saturday afternoon was!  A group of us sat around and knitted and crocheted in preparation for Yarn Bombing outside my upcoming art shows! We had a ton of yarn, a lot of candy, and a craxy amount of laughter. T’was brilliant!

Sarah, Mary, Paula, and her mom stitchy action!

Put the Needle on the Record

The amazing Kristy Kizzee, also known as Bombastitch, has created something fantastic and is giving it away!!! A fabulous pattern to make an xstitch tribute to MCA.  Stitching and BBoys? I can hardly contain myself!

You know I’m stitching this up as soon as I get a chance; one for me, one for MJ, one for T…  Go check her shiz out, she’ll hook you up!

Bombs Away!

Here we go! This weekend is the first of the Yarn Bombing events leading up to the openings of Home is Where the Needle Marks, the two part show I’m curating in June!  So much fun, so much work!

bull by olek

Lion Brand has donated 200 skeins of yarn and giant needles and hooks for us to work with.  And I have different sized needles and random yarn around… So, if you knit, or crochet, or just like big public art projects and want to learn a bit, please come join us, this Saturday, May 19th, to begin stitching bits to later be installed around (sub)Urban Home and Pop tART Gallery!

Details: Saturday May 19 from 2-5pm at Pop tART Gallery, 3023 W. 6th St. Los Angeles, CA 90020.

And we’ll be doing it again Wed eve, May 23 5-8pm, and Saturday June 2 from 2-5.

Please join us.  Invite your friends.  Bring your favorite needles.  Bring your joy!  Hope to see you stitching soon!

Opening Recap

Last weekend was wonderful!  I had my opening at The Hive, my aunt came to town, two pieces sold in pre-sale, and many people that I just adore came down to say hi and show support.  Really, it’s a bit of a blur.  I remember saying hello to people, hugging them, then saying good bye to them and that I wish I’d had more time to chat.  I spent a lot of time watching people interact with my work, which just slays me.   People walk up look, double take, giggle, call their friends over, giggle.. it gives me great joy.

Here’s a few photos:

lookers!

Press!!

Big thanks to Daniel Rolnick and LA Weekly’s blog!! I’m kinda super excited by this post!

These Cookie Crumbs Make Me Scratch!

I must have posted these pieces when I made them in 2009, but they were the very first things I sold and the first show I was in.  I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, not only did I get to make art for a professional show, but it was a tribute to my beloved Beasties.  And when I met Yauch at the Farmer’s Market I said, “I made the needlepoint of you guys!”  He pretended to know what I was talking about.  Sigh.

So here they are again, in tribute to Yauch, and also as a shout out of continued love and support for Mike D and Adam H, my tribute to the boys: “They’re Crafted,” and “Tom Carvel Approved.”

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?

So much has already been said about MCA, all I can do is add my love and appreciation for all the music and joy he helped bring to my life, and for all that he was.  He is and will be so, so missed.

Installation!

Yesterday’s installation went well.  It was a whole new experience for me, and a bit overwhelming to begin, but by the time I left the gallery I felt pretty good.  I got all the work hung, and half of my sign made. Couldn’t believe it, but I noticed a piece of lint under the glass, inside the frame of one of the pieces.  How annoying!  But I’m so glad I saw it yesterday rather than on Saturday night! Had it fixed on the way home yesterday.

making the sign

Flesh and Fiber

And away we go…

I can’t believe it’s really here – how the hell did it get to be May? – but it is.  At long last I am so very excited, proud, and happy to invite you all to the opening of my first featured art show!  I have a whole wall to myself down at The Hive Gallery, starting this Saturday eve, May 5th.  The Hive is big and very fun, with half a dozen shows up each month, giving different artists individual walls to fill.  There is usually a group show in the center of the space and the night of the opening they have bands, performers, booze… all the right ingredients for a great time!

Concept to Collaboration

What a jerk I am.  I do all sorts of cool things that I mean to share, and then I get so busy, and time goes by and I wonder if it’s even relevant any longer, but to hell with that!

Last Tues, April 17, I was so honored to participate in Jenny Hart‘s Concept to Collaboration at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, a fabulous and fun art work. It’s a large piece orchestrated by Jenny, but created by many hands.  The event was part of the Fowler’s end of year party for their students.

When the students entered the room they were directed to a box full of words and a box full of writing styles (eg: all caps or backwards) and picked one from each.  They then wrote that word in that style on a piece of linen, to be stitched.  There were “stable stitchers,” myself and others Jenny had invited to participate (though I debated how stable  some of us are), and room for students to join in and stitch as well.  The words will be assembled to form a piece of undisclosed prose, and will be unveiled at the Fowler on the evening of May 31st.

Aside from being excited to participate in such a great art event, I had a blast!! Stitchy friends from up and down the coast were in attendance and a fab, giggly time was had by all.  It was so lovely to be in a room full of happy, stitching people, sharing in a communal act of creation.