Sharon Etgar Thread Drawings

I'm so looking forward to see this show of Sharon Etgar's work at Davis & Langdale in New York.

The Tel Aviv artist makes what looks like very spontaneous drawings with thread on ledger pages.

As she explains, “(they are) for me… like a diary of feelings and moods translated to colors. Like dancing with the hands.... moments when shape or color create an expression of my feelings, memories or thoughts, are better than most of things... I know that these threads in their colors and drawings are for me exactly like words… my thoughts and secrets will stay there… the back sides of many of them are very important to me. Sometimes more than the front, more than the conscious side..... The conversation between the two sides is how I feel inside.”

Each work here shows the front and the back. To me, they look a bit like landscapes (maps of her mind?) and I can't help  thinking of how meditative it must be to make them. I absolutely love them..

Etgar also makes beautiful collages and drawings which you can see on her website there.

The thread drawings will be exhibited from March 26 til April 20. 

Glimpses of my studio

Huge thanks to Justine from Designskool  for taking the time to visit me in my South End studio last week, and then writing a beautiful post.  Her natural talent for photography is making the space look fabulous - not that it isn't, but it always feels a bit more cluttered :). Here are a few pictures from her blog but be sure to visit it here for more gorgeous shots, as well as her other always beautiful posts.

"Process Goes Public" and the beginning of a new body of work

From December through January, I was invited to participate in an exhibition at the Mills Gallery with 8 other artists from my studio building. The show was a bit unusual as it meant to show the creative process of each artist instead of finished work. I was reluctant to participate at first; I thought that one can be in a rather vulnerable place when creating and to put yourself on the public square at that time could be a bit scary and inhibiting. On the other hand, Debra Olin, who curated the show, convinced me that I would enjoy an empty space, away from my leather work and I welcomed the opportunity to dedicate time to work on something new. Had I not committed to the show, I would have started designing a spring collection of bags, so it felt like a treat to move into a brand new space, empty of anything but what I chose to bring down to work on. 

Here are some pics of what happened during that month..

 

I started from these soft sculptures I made a couple of years back, thinking it would be cool to make some big ones that would transform the space. For some reason, I felt compelled to weave so I made yarn out of used t-shirts.

 

It quickly became obvious that it would take time to finish even one.. luckily, some of the BCA interns were keen to help out. Here, Helen started building the second piece while I kept weaving on the first one.

As time went, I was weaving tighter and tighter (when do you stop???), and it took a life of its own. 

The second one is much wider and might not be totally finished yet, but I like all the empty space, maybe in reaction to the first one that is woven so tight:

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Et voila.. I like the shadows they projected on the wall - a life of their own too. 

I'm now looking forward to make a few more, see where they go.. Stay tuned!

 

Wolfgang Laib pollen installation at Moma

I got to see that beautiful installation of "Pollen from Hazelnut" by Wolfgang Laib at Moma last week. The piece is quite powerful in both its simplicity and boldness. Even more compelling is Laib's meditative process of slowly collecting pollen, storing it in small jars and then sifting it out, as slowly as he collected it, in a very ritualistic fashion :

Read the nice article on ArtInfo here or you can  find more info on the Moma website there.
At the MOMA until March 11, 2013.

A new year, and a great video of Ann Hamilton Event of Thread installation

It's been so long since I've last posted here, but it is one of my resolutions for this year to start blogging again, at least a couple times a month. I've been pinning a lot, but there is something numbing about the mass of images you find on Pinterest and I feel that I need to take the time to isolate what truly inspires me, and that is what this blog was supposed to be about. So here I am again.. And now that I've put it out there, there is no going back :)
You might have already seen this video of Ann Hamilton's installation at the Armory in NY last month, but it's so beautiful it's still worth posting.

You can read Hamilton's beautifully done statement here.