N:AperTURE, The Interdisciplinary, and Yeses.

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Hello, friends. I love Mondays. I love Mondays because they're the one day each week that I can spend in my studio from beginning to end. The one day I've carved out in my life to focus on my art in whatever shape and form it might be taking. Don't get me wrong, I love my day job. I feel grateful for smart, creative colleagues, and for working in an arts organization with a gallery, theater, and concert series. But I love Mondays even more! I love the ritual that comes with having one day a week to focus on my art. And how that inspires pockets of time throughout the week to see projects through from Monday to Monday.

So, today is Monday and this morning I drove into San Francisco early to set-up in a cafe and write this darn exhibition proposal that I've been pushing around for a couple of weeks now. It's only a "darn" exhibition proposal because I had to push through the block of writing it and get to the other side of having written it. It's only "darn" because I'm thrilled by it and very enlivened by it and also very challenged by it. So, today I finally have a finished draft. Hooray! And I will escort my little package of writing, work samples, and sketches into the gallery office this week. Oh, heart!

Also, I installed the N:AperTURE show into a new space this afternoon. The Nature/ Aperture show is hanging in the lobby at Theater Artaud in San Francisco for a dance performance this weekend. It's funny to me that this is the second time I've hung that show in a performance space with a gallery in the lobby. It makes me giggle a bit--I always seem to find that "between" space to dwell with my work. I supposed I'm happiest there, in some ways. At the intersections of literary and visual art, or at the intersections of visual art and performance, or at the intersections of craft-making and artmaking. Yes, I like it there very much.

And yet, I want to keep pushing each art-part closer and closer towards the other. To keep stretching myself to cross boundaries and tolerate questions and discomforts and all sorts of "But what kind of art is this, really?" until it just is what it is. Period! Until one technique, or thought, or question fuses itself completely with another and they create a new loving home. Until I can firmly say, "Yes, this is poetry but it looks like fiction. Yes, this is a fine art installation but it looks like a dressmaking shop. Yes, this is a photograph but it looks like graphic design. Yes, this is a gallery exhibition but we are standing in the lobby of a theater." In other words, I'm aiming for that moment of, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Photos & Pockets of Time

one: And Berry Burst.

two: Let's Stay Here.

three: To Reach with Me.

four: Like Stars.

five: Like Star, Close Enough to Touch.

six: Metal like Feather like Wing. (Do you see the airplane?)

Hello friends! I spent some time altering these photos and wanted to share them with you. As you know, my life has taken a bit of a detour as my wedding is a mere 2 months away and I've also been invited to submit an exhibition proposal to a curator in San Francisco. (Such sweet news on both fronts, but certainly also distracting to a daily practice of artmaking. But, eek!)

This means my creative time is suddenly forced to be uber efficient and temporarily doesn't allow for the dreamy inspiration I like best--the kind that can wind in and out throughout the week and allows for art-making at its own irreverent pace. However, this too shall pass. For now, I'm indulging in all sorts of wedding designs from invitations to cupcakes to handmade tablecloths (Thanks Mom!) and also very heady and excited about just how to pitch The Dresses/Objects Project to a local gallery. So exciting, indeed.

However, I am still finding pint-sized pockets of time for photographs and poems because these things sustain me. They seem to tether me to the earth in very simple everyday ways when the big projects and deadlines and life happenings want to sweep me away. It's a little trick I learned when I was just a teenager --tiny bits of artwork spread throughout the week. It might just be a page worth of a new poem in my journal on my nightstand, a new design book tucked next to my favorite lamp in the living room, a camera on the kitchen counter with a half-used roll film, or a favorite art blog that serves as my homepage each time I start up my computer. It's these little things that keep me connected to my art parts when life gets busy and big.

I know many of you, like me, also manage day jobs in offices or schools or studios and night jobs where your creative ways can wander. You might even make a living off your artwork but spend half your day filling orders and managing emails and only half your day creating and making. Or maybe you spend 40 hours a week in a creative office of sorts but you tuck the art-making time into the after hours in a home studio. And then you add girlfriends, boyfriends, lovers, husbands, or wives and possibly even elderly parents or little ones of your own. And then you add in dinner and laundry and pets and maybe gardening or your favorite TV show and you have a very packed week, indeed!

But it's this multitasking that inspires me. It's the commitment to the creativity despite everything else. It's the determination and discipline to create the work and refine the work and share the work amidst our busy lives that I think holds a special dose of magic. It's that little voice inside the art-part that says, "I refuse to go away" that just fills me with encouragement and simple delight.

And so, today I share a few photos that pushed their way to the surface last week. I think it was about midnight when I started editing them which inevitably lead to me skipping my morning walk to catch another hour of precious sleep. Well... we make sacrifices, we make amends, we make adjustments, we make art--because what else can we do, really? Happy day, dear friends, I hope you are full and well and certainly inspired.

Three Things for Thinking.

One: Searching for wedding ceremony sites in Golden Gate Park.

Two: California poppies dot a hillside.

Three: Poppy bud in the foreground, one orange blossom in the back.

Four: My bike & my boy & his map, wedding site hunting on our bicycles.

Five: Hello, there tidy living room. (A sneak peek at spring cleaning.)

Six: My new favorite book, Apartment Therapy does it again.

Seven: Inspiration abounds. I think this is sfgirlbybay, no?

Eight: Ah, inspiration in the details like that "D".

Nine: Amazingly sparse and warm and wonderful, ooh la la.

Three things seem to be occupying most of my mental space this week. (Okay, so most of my mental space outside of the office or social settings or otherwise usually deemed "down time".)

Thing 1: Our wedding! I didn't realize quite the extent of details involved with planning a social gathering for 70 people and having that social gathering be as ceremonial, ritual, or full of tradition as a wedding! But, we are plugging along and making decisions on a daily basis regarding caterers, decorations, attire, invitations and all the other things that come along with wedding planning.

For example, I never thought I'd be so concerned with designing a wedding favor but it's one of the most difficult tasks! We're trying to maintain a DIY and eco-friendly flare with much of our planning but it's the one place I can't seem to come up with a budget-friendly alternative that is both artful and good for the planet. (Do you have any ideas to go artful and green for 70 guests? If it was summertime I'd be canning 70 jars of strawberry jam. Alas!) Otherwise, I'm scouring junk shops for vintage vases, researching bakers and cake-makers, and designing our invitations like a champion! It's fun. And nutty. And tender. And sweet. And maddening. And wonderful too.

Thing 2: The meeting with the curator went great! He was super interested in the project and invited me to submit a full proposal complete with time line, photographs, and sketches showing how I would use the space. (Hooray, dear dress project, hooray!) I'm eager to create a packet of Dresses/ Objects information complete with a plan to involve other crafters, artists, poets, and workshop opportunities into a big future installation.

The coffee meeting went swimmingly, all my pre-meeting nerves were unnecessary and we chatted quite naturally and he showed interest quite quickly and I am ever-grateful for this opportunity to propose my work. Nothing is written in stone, but it was so fantastic to meet such encouraging words. (See previous post for more details.) I'm brainstorming and considering and re-considering and putting my feelers out there to see just how this project might get even bigger than I had imagined. Oh, heart!

Thing 3: I should just officially deem January and February my interior design months. Yes, I found myself, once again, going through all my belongings and whittling down the clutter until there are empty spaces all over the house, ripe with opportunities for redecorating and dreamy interior design options. I'm also completely in love with the Apartment Therapy design book, Apartment Therapy Presents: Real Homes, Real People--a birthday present to myself--and Domino and Elle Decor magazines don't hurt when it comes to eye candy for rethinking one's home. (Not to mention, too many amazing design blogs to list in one post.)

The best advice? "Focus on what you love, shop in your own house, and blend old with new." I love it. I can't say the spring cleaning is entirely self-motivated. It's White Elephant Sale season here in the Bay Area and that is quite some junking inspiration to make space for a little something new. Okay, then, I'm off to work on this gallery proposal. Send me luck!

Coffee with a Curator: The Dresses/ Objects Project

(Prepping for the work sample photo shoot.)

(Dress by Yours Truly.)

(Dress by Marcie Farwell of Zora Jane.)

(Dress by Alison McLennan and Rebecca Overacre.)

(Dress by Kehren Barbour.)

(Dress by Moriah Carlson & Alice Wu of Feral Childe.)

(Dress by Pilar Nadal.)

(Dress by Ambra Sultzbaugh of Ambrella Design.)

(Dress by Vanessa Filley of Moira & Obbie.)

(Dress by Sasha Duerr of Permacouture.)

(The Brady Bunch group shot.)

Thank you for all your sweet notes on the last post about my upcoming wedding-- it's all very exciting and full of creative possibility and romance. Hooray! I've got another big moment coming up this week. I'm meeting with a curator on Thursday afternoon to discuss the Dresses/ Objects Project. As some of you know, this is a project I've been working on for a few years now. It's a multi-phased project and the first phase is complete but I'm now moving on to phases two and three.

In 2007, I letterpress printed poems from Gertrude Stein's book, Tender Buttons, on to recycled fabric. I then sent these fabric prints out to ten female artists across the country and they each turned the prints into one dress/ wearable art garment. (See photos above.) Then, they sent the dresses back to me and I did a work-in-progress showing w/ live performers and poets. It was great fun!

This December, I applied for my first grant for the project in hopes to fund phase two which will be a fashion shoot of models wearing the dresses. (Think: Live models wearing these dresses in front of a custom-built white fabric backdrop hung on a steel frame with the Marin Headlands in the foreground and the Pacific Ocean in the background. Can you see it?) From there, I'll print and frame the photos and be ready for phase three: An installation.

The final phase of the project will include an installation of the dresses, the photos, and also using the text from the poems as a third element in the room. (Imagine the dresses spread throughout the space-- some on dress forms, some draped from the walls, some on the floor, etc.-- and then fashion photos mounted on the walls, and lovely scripted text spilling over the walls, onto the floor, and generally coiling around the room so the room resembles a life-sized book.) This final phase will also include live performers wearing the dresses and scheduled fittings with interested art buyers.

So, I'm meeting w/ a curator on Thursday to discuss the project. Just to chat and connect and better understand if we could work together on the installation. And I'm equal parts nerves and excitement about this meeting. I've worked with curators to create shows, to install shows, and to be part of group shows but I've never worked with a curator on a solo show or on an installation of my own. My goodness, what a big old lovely dream. So, if you believe in magic, send me some good thoughts on Thursday around 2pm California time. Okay then...